After rising to my feet, I closed the distance between us. Her eyes went wide as I hooked an arm around her hips and pulled her off-balance so she crashed into my chest.
“See, my day went a little differently,” I started gruffly. “I woke up this morning, after I’d spent the entire night trying to figure out how to get the woman I love to take money from me. She hates me, but I fucking hate the idea that I can’t take care of her.”
“I don’t—” she started to interrupt, but I talked over her.
“I arrived at the police station, where I saw said woman, and I felt my heart beat for the very first time in two fucking years.”
Her mouth fell open, but when I cupped the back of her neck, she slammed it shut.
“Then I found out that some asshole I trusted enough to give my life savings to decided to sell my child to someone else. Yeah, I don’t give a single fuck we used a sperm donor. I also don’t give a damn that that child was in a petri dish when it was sold. That child is ours. Wherever the hell it might be right now.” I paused for a breath, and she wisely remained quiet. “Then, upon hearing this news, you fell into my arms, clinging to me as if we’d never been apart. With that, Lis, my lungs inflated for the first time since I’d found you sitting on the couch with your bags packed around you. I walked out of that police station with you in my arms, shocked and pissed the fuck off, but I felt like someone had finally pressed play on my life again.” I squeezed the back of her neck. “So, yeah, baby, you better believe I’m one hundred percent involved in that.”
“Roman,” she sighed, her stiff body finally starting to relax in my arms.
I kept going. “Then my annoying-ass sister showed up in order to convince you to keep at least some of the money I’d sent so I could get one single night of sleep where I didn’t close my eyes and worry you needed something. I will not fucking apologize for that. That leads me to the part where a man I do not know showed up at your door, trying to steal that new beat in my heart and breath in my lungs, so damn straight I reacted. You aren’t gonna get an apology from me about that, either. For fuck’s sake, I called you my wife. I didn’t beat the piss out of him. And believe me, the thought did cross my mind.”
“Oh God,” she cried, dropping her forehead to my chest. Her hand snaked up between us to rest on my pec.
After kissing the top of her head, I finished with, “So you were right about one thing. I am standing in your bedroom, asking why you are upset, because minus the bullshit going on with the cops, I see not one thing to be upset about. Also, I’m standing in your bedroom, staring at you in that fucking nightgown, and remembering how it looked the last time I took it off you.”
Her head jerked up, her eyes wide and her cheeks sliding through the color spectrum of reds. “Don’t,” she warned, but it came out breathy.
“I won’t,” I assured as I slid my hands up her sides, allowing my thumbs to glide over the side of her breasts as I made my way up to her neck to cup her jaw. “Yet, anyway.”
Her gaze darkened, and her hand at my chest closed, fisting my shirt. “This is crazy,” she whined.
“It always was with us.”
“I can’t do this with you, Roman. Not again.”
“Fine. Don’t. But consider this your warning because…” I paused, turning us so I could back her to the bed. Bending so as not to lose the connection, I gently lowered her to the mattress and declared, “I’m checking back in.”
She shook her head. “This isn’t a hotel. You can’t just check back in.”
I battled the urge to kiss her.
To claim her.
To take back the woman who had always been mine.
Calling up every ounce of self-control I possessed, I released her, pushed off the bed, and headed to the door. After opening it, I shot her a smirk and said, “You’re right. It’s not. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be sleeping on the fucking couch.”
Her chin quivered as she smiled. God, she was scared to fucking death, and it broke me. But I wasn’t letting go. Not again.
“It’s gonna be okay. All of it,” I promised.
A tear fell as she replied in a weak voice, “I’m not sure about that.”
She was wrong. But I wasn’t going to convince her of that right then.
“Try to eat and get some rest, okay?”
She nodded, wiping the wetness away from her cheeks.
I hated leaving her alone when she was struggling, but she needed the space, so begrudgingly, I walked away.
Then I yelled, “Son of a bitch!” when that goddamned man in the mirror scared the shit out of me for the second time.
And it was worth every second of the near heart attack when I heard Elisabeth’s soft giggle from the other side of the door.
“Wake up, baby,” I heard as I felt the hair being swept off my face.
It was him. Therefore, it had to be a dream.
It was a dream I’d had at least a dozen times.
However, once, it had been reality.