Page 19 of Marked By Him

“Despite of how I look now, we lived like civilized people.”

“Good. Leave your clothes outside the door. I’ll get them clean, then hang them to dry.” I walked into the kitchen, straight to the cabinet that held my whiskey.

“That will take hours.”

“And?” I grabbed a glass, set it on the counter and opened the bottle.

“And I’m not walking around naked for hours.” Her words were punctuated by the sound of her footsteps on the wood floor.

And I’m hard again.

Fucking hell.

I filled my glass, then turned to face her. “I’ll find you something to wear.” I leaned against the counter and took a much-needed drink.

She folded her arms over her chest. “So, is this like, a truce?”

“I will trust you until you give me a reason not to.” I downed the rest of my drink, set the glass in the sink, then nodded toward the staircase.

“Same,” she said as she followed me to the other side of the living room.

I stopped at the bottom step, pinning her with a glare. “But try to fight me again, and you won’t like what happens.”

9

Eve

Neither of ussaid another word as he led me up the stairs and to the bathroom. The muscles in his back strained against his t-shirt as he climbed the steps. The linen pants held snugly against his thick thighs and firm ass. Roman wasn’t just a man. His body rippled with power, every last inch of it.

He’d made no move to hide his erection earlier. He also made no move to do anything about it. He simply stood there, callous and cruel with his eyes licking over my body like fingertips trailing my skin. He’d pinned me with his solid frame and an unforgiving fist in my hair. He’d treated my body as though he owned it. And I’d felt him…there… in my core. I still felt him. My body throbbed with heat as liquid lust flowed through my veins.

He was unpredictable and untamed with his emotions. I wondered what kind of lover that made him, what his touch might feel like.

That was what I thought of when the door clicked closed and I was left alone. That was what I wondered as I undressed and placed my clothes outside the bathroom door. That was what I imagined as my naked body sank into the tub full of warm water.

What kind of person did that make me?

I was drained. Exhausted. Emotionally spent. My body and mind were broken.

That had to be it.

I knew what pleasure felt like. I wasn’t a virgin. I’d given that gift to a guy named Jared in the middle of a field full of Queen’s Lace when I was eighteen years old. Two years later, Jared went hunting with his father and never returned. I hadn’t been with anyone else since. Other men had tried, but I never let anyone get close.

What was the point when everyone you met would eventually die?

Everything in our world was temporary—even this.

He would get rid of me eventually. This wasn’t my home. No matter what hisreasonstold him, I didn’t belong here. I didn’t believe inplans. He’d figure that out and I’d have to go.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy it while you can.

When he’d asked if I knew how to work a bath, I never imagined this. Back in our camp, there was one shower. You got five minutes, tops, before the next person was moving you out of the way for their turn. In the camp before that, we washed off in a stream.

This was paradise compared to what I was used to. Even though the water stung the cuts in my flesh where the thorns and rocks had dug into my skin. The longer I soaked and deeper I sank, the more it soothed my aching bones and muscles. I closed my eyes and dipped all the way in. The water wrapped me in its warmth. My hair floated around me.

I was weightless.

For a moment, everything disappeared. The guilt. The grief. The loneliness. The confusion.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com