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“Sshhhh.” Rafe’s warm breath caresses my cheek and soothes me.
“You’re home.” My voice comes out groggy, and I’m still half asleep, but I manage a smile.
I can’t believe how much I’ve actually missed him.
Rafe’s fingers work the buttons of my shirt all the way down to the bottom, clearing a path of exposed skin for his palm to slide back up through before it reaches my throat.
“Have you been a good girl for me?” he whispers just before his mouth touches my neck. It sends a shiver through my veins.
Something soft and velvety touches my cheek, and I recognize the scent of it straight away. It’s one of the roses from Rafe’s garden, and it makes my tummy flip that he’s taken the time to pick one for me.
I reach over to my nightstand and flick on the light because I want to see him. I’ve missed his face, and when the dim light slowly illuminates the space around us, I see those dark, beautiful eyes, intense and fixed on mine.
He teases me by guiding the petals over my neck, moving the rose down the center of my body, and making my skin tingle in its trail. I’m desperate to feel Rafe’s hands on me in its place.
“I have to tell you something.” I force the words out and hope he won’t be mad at me.
“Speak,” he permits as he nips my earlobe with his teeth and causes me to moan.
“My period came… This morning, I’m sorry.” He stops the rose’s journey just before it reaches the waistline of my panties.
“Do you know why roses have thorns, Riley?” he whispers, ignoring the thing I just told him. I can’t see his face because it’s buried in my neck, and I wish I could gauge how angry he is.
“No, I don’t.” I swallow thickly.
The rose petals feel like the tip of a feather as he glides them back up my body.
“It’s nature’s way of preserving beauty,” he explains, raising his head and watching my reaction as his palm crushes tight around the rose stem. I’ve been pricked by one of the thorns before. I know how painful they can be, and I don’t understand why he would inflict it on himself.
“Precious things should always be protected, Riley.” His voice sounds strained and a little uncontrolled.
I look down between us and notice trickles of blood seeping from his tightly closed fist.
“Rafe, you’re bleeding!” I stare in shock, wondering why he isn’t flinching.
“Sometimes you find rare beauties that are worth the hurt,” he tells me in a calm whisper, and when his dark eyes penetrate mine, I see it… I see the pain that’s embedded so deep inside his soul that I want to take it away for him.
“I’m sorry.” Those seem to be the only words I can speak.
Rafe shakes his head at me.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Riley. Perhaps nature is trying to protect you from me.” He laughs to himself cruelly before placing the rose on the bed beside me. His palm slides up over my stomach, leaving a bloody smear in its trail as it moves to my chest, and he squeezes around my breast. I cry out with a combination of pleasure and pain as his warm sticky blood coats my skin, and I feel myself bruising under his fingertips.
Something dark is radiating from him, and it is so much more intense than anger. This is sadness.
“Sometimes I wonder if I should just let you go,” he admits in a low, deep tone that has me panicking. Why does that thought suddenly put a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach?
“What happened, Rafe?” I ask, wondering how deep this goes. I knew he’d be disappointed, but this feels like so much more than that.
“You hurt me,” he confesses, in a voice so weak that it makes my heart ache.
“What did I do?” I shake my head, trying so hard to understand.
“Nothing. You did nothing, Riley.” His hand continues to knead at my flesh, and his lips skim against my jaw. “Being around you makes me hurt. Not being around you makes me hurt,” he admits. “The sight of you, the thought of losing you. Everything fucking hurts.”
“You must have really missed me, huh?” I try a little sarcasm in an attempt and lighten the mood, but it doesn’t work.
“Promise me you’ll never leave.” His bloody hand travels up to my neck.
