you don’t want this to last… you don’t love me. I can leave now and stop being a burden to you and Roman. I can stop hurting everyone, causing more problems.” Her words sting; they rip me apart from the inside out.
“Kitten, do you really think I would have done all of this if I wasn’t in love with you? If I didn’t fucking love you all long?”
“You love me?” Her eyes light up, and she nuzzles into my hand, but I can still see doubt flicker in those blue depths of hers. A part of her doesn’t believe me, believes it might be too good to be true.
“Yes, I love you. I couldn’t admit it before, not to you… or to myself, but that’s because I wanted to think that I was doing this for you. I didn’t want to return the feelings because I was afraid of what it would mean. You’re going nowhere unless I’m by your side.”
She crawls into my lap and melts into my chest, her tiny hands pressing against my muscles, and strangely, I wish we were naked right now, her pretty pussy swallowing my cock.
“I love you, too, more than you could ever know, but I think your brother hates me,” she admits shamefully, as if she has a reason to be shameful over my brother hating her. It’s not her fault he’s a prick.
“Roman hates everybody, and I mean everybody, so don’t take it personally.”
I barely finish speaking when Roman appears back in the doorway.
“Doc said to take this,” he growls, throwing a pill bottle at me.
“What are these?” I ask, grabbing the pill bottle off the bed. There isn’t a label on it, and I know how my brother is. He’s been known to take some shit, shit that fucks with his head, and his mood. The last thing I want is to take something and put Violet in danger.
“Antibiotics.” He rolls his eyes. “Worried I’d give you something else? Swap out some of the pills? Give you something that would make you lose control?”
Violet gasps in my arms as she buries her face into my chest. Roman’s dark gaze roams over her body for a second longer than acceptable, and I find a growl escaping my lips.
She’s mine. All fucking mine. Every single inch of her creamy body belongs to me, as well as her fucking heart.
“I have a fight next week. You should come. Check out what it’s all about. If you’re going to be staying awhile, you might as well get acquainted with the shit that goes down around here.”
I clench my jaw, I thought maybe when he said illegal shit he was slinging drugs, prostitution at best. But of course not. He’s running in the underground fighting circles. Knowing him, he is into the most dangerous ones… the ones where the only way out is death.
“I don’t know if that’s safe for Violet, plus I need to figure out a way to get rid of the bodies over at the rental.”
Roman laughs. “Well, keeping her here at the house isn’t going to be safe either. Everyone comes back here for a gigantic party at the end of the night. And I already sent some men over to dispose of the fuckers’ bodies.” He smiles, and it’s a downright serial killer looking. “Let’s just say no one will ever find them.”
I sigh in relief. Yes, Roman is an asshole, a prick, but when he does shit, he gets it done, never half assing it. He might still hate me, hold a grudge, but he’s not going to leave me in the dark. At the end of the day, we’re family, and family is all that matters in this fucked up world.
“Thank you,” I mumble.
“Don’t mention it, and I do mean it. Don’t mention it. I didn’t do it for you. Like you said, as soon as all is well, we can go back to hating each other like we always have.”
I roll my eyes at his dramatic tone. He leaves the room without another word, and I take the moment of silence to hold Violet’s fragile body tighter to my chest. Everything is going to be fine. She’ll be protected, secure by my side, and no one will hurt her or us.
She’s safe… safe in my arms.
“I love you,” I whisper into her hair, wanting to say the words over and over again, knowing I shouldn’t have waited so long to say them. I’d been guarding my heart