Devoured - Cathryn Fox Page 0,65

I meant.” He takes my hand and when I see love and desire reflecting in his eyes, happiness wells up inside me.

Roman loves me!

Wait, why is he suddenly frowning?

“I’m sorry you lost your job.”

Hurt tightens my heart, and I blink back the tears pounding behind my eyes. Richard’s wife might have been out to get me fired unbeknownst to him, but at least he was good with the kids, and they loved him in return. Their well-being is important to me. “Thank you.”

“Teaching kids English in another country is still your dream job, right?”

“It is. But I don’t see that happening now.”

“Look around.” I glance around at the wide-open space and catch my brother’s eye. He looks on with worry, and my heart thumps. He’s done right by me my whole life, and I love him for it, but I’m a grown-up now who can stand on her own feet, make her own decisions. “This is where your new school is going to be built.”

I falter a little, my pulse leaping in my neck. “What?”

“I bought this land, and it took weeks to get all the permits I needed. I would have come for you sooner, but I wanted to make sure everything was in place.”

I raise my shaky hands to his face. “Roman, I can’t believe you did this.” Then again, maybe I can. He’s been nothing but good to me, going above and beyond to help me out...because he loves me.

Roman loves me.

“I don’t know what to say,” I push out, my voice as shaky as my body.

“Say yes.” He drops to his knees, pulls a box from his back pocket and opens it. Tears flood my eyes and spill when I see his grandmother’s ring. “I love you, Peyton, with all my heart. I want you in my bed and in my life, I want you for the good times and the bad. I want to go on this journey called life with you by my side. I want to be equal partners, and I don’t care about the prenup.”

My head spins, my heart so full it’s ready to burst, but with everything he’s saying to me, everything coming at me so fast, my mind focuses on the last words out of his mouth. “Why don’t you care about the prenup?”

“Because I know you’re nothing like my ex, that you’re the most giving person I know and you don’t care about my name or money. You care about the person behind all those things—you care about me. The prenup is simply a tradition, something that has been in my family for generations. I never even really thought about how it would make you feel. I’m an idiot like that sometimes.”

“You’re not an idiot, Roman, and I didn’t know it was tradition,” I say, my heart pounding so hard, I’m a little light-headed. “When I saw it, I thought...”

“I know what you thought, and I’m sorry. I never meant to do anything that made you feel like that lost girl from your childhood. The one who was afraid she wasn’t enough and would never be enough. I never meant for you to think I wanted you to sign the prenup because I didn’t trust you. I do trust you, Peyton. You’re everything to me and to my family. You’re kind, sweet, giving and so goddamn lovable that when I found the villa empty—” he shakes his head, agony all over his face “—it broke my damn heart. At first, I couldn’t understand it. I thought you were done with me, thought you were discarding me because you didn’t need me to be your husband anymore. I jumped to conclusions because of past hurts, but then I recognized that’s not something you would ever do. I called Cason and realized the prenup brought back past hurts for you, too.”

“It did, and I’m sorry, too, Roman. You’ve been nothing but sweet and helpful, and you showed me I have value, made me feel important.”

He once confessed that helping me was more about me and less about my brother. Everything in his touch and actions told me he cared. After reading the prenup, I didn’t want to believe him anymore, and I expected him to hurt me like everyone else. Self-preservation and a childhood in the system does that to a person. But there was a part of me that always believed him...believed in him. I was just so afraid. But I don’t have to be afraid anymore.

“The prenup... I don’t