Page 105 of The Marriage

Roman couldn’t help it—he barked out a laugh at that. Here she was, trying to calm his overworked ass. He could get used to that, though.

Karine smiled, then, and Roman forgot about the rest. All his unanswered questions, and that bloody dress and knife. Even the house they currently stood in, the bodies that were apparently rotting somewhere, and the people watching them.

None of it mattered but her.

He moved for her, and she couldn’t even be bothered to come around the desk, instead climbing over top of it to reach him faster. He pulled her off the desk, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Her breasts pressed to his chest, her breaths heavy, as he took her mouth with his for a kiss he was sure would leave her feeling bruised.

She didn’t seem to mind.

Clung to him closer.

In the background, he could hear the woman named Cherie making conversation with his father, wanting to iron out all the details of her business. Maxim had made some specific promises to her, and she expected Demyan was going to keep his end of the bargain.

Roman pulled away from his panting, grinning wife when he heard his father reply, “Let me say hello to my daughter-in-law properly first, then we’ll do business. Family first.”

Karine hadn’t looked away from Roman’s eyes.

Yeah.

Family first.

*

They had a mess to clean.

A big one.

Demyan told Roman he would handle it—gave his son the night to do what he wanted before they’d have to gather for direction. Roman didn’t need to be told twice by his father.

He wasn’t staying there.

Didn’t bother to check on the bodies before he left, or the mingling men ready to take orders from his father the second they stepped out of the office.

Karine remained quiet, happy to disengage from the people as long as Roman was there for her to shrink into. As he led her away from the house and the things that had transpired within it, he realized Karine was still very much who she was, no matter what she did that might seem different.

Roman let her stew in her silence and thoughts as he navigated unknown roads, and the car’s GPS, to get them to a hotel in the city. ID and a credit card with no limit nabbed them a decent penthouse suite for a week, and Roman didn’t even concern himself with the bill.

It was only once he had his wife stripped naked, sitting on the edge of the bathtub filling with hot, bubbly water that she spoke.

“My hands hurt again.”

He passed the bandages a glance. “You were alone with him?”

“I had to be. It was the easiest way to get inside the house. We only had to be in. He trusted Cherie; as long as he didn’t hurt the girls too bad, she brought them back. He didn’t even recognize me. Barely looked at me. That was the thing, I think. None of us meant anything to him. Women, I mean. We’re not even human, as far as he was concerned.”

Roman’s gaze traveled over the beautiful, naked body of his wife who spoke without remorse about a plan he hadn’t even known existed until it was too late, and already over. All the work he’d put in to protect her, and she was the one who ended up doing the dirty work for them all. He didn’t seem to notice the splats of blood all over her anymore.

“I’m proud of you, Karine,” he murmured.

Scared to death, too.

A little amazed.

Still trying to catch up ...

And proud all the same.

She reached for him, her bandaged hands shaking just a little, but he didn’t know if it was because they hurt, or something else. Her fingers skated lightly over his jaw, and then his lips before she whispered, “I wanted everyone to know what I would do—for the people I love, I wanted them to know, Roman.”