The Promise (Darkest Lies Trilogy Book 2) by Bethany-Kris (fiction book recommendations .txt) 📕

in a bed with her after the deed was done, but he couldn’t seem to move whenever Karine was in one with him.

Would it always feel like this?

Like she was home?

There was no smile playing on her lips as she replied, “I think I am. I didn’t expect to be, you know? I was worried about not seeing you for a while, and ... everything I didn’t know. But I trust you. So, yeah. I think I am.”

Someday, he wanted her to say it without the maybe qualifier—he didn’t want her to think about it at all, just know. For now, though, he’d take what he could get.

She drew circles on his bare arm with her fingertips, and it sent teasing, dancing shocks racing down his spine. Roman hooked a finger under her chin.

“I’ll always come back to you. You didn’t ask me to say it, but I will anyway. As many times as you need to hear it, and maybe someday you can tell me to stop because you won’t need to hear it anymore. You’ll just believe it.”

He wound some strands of her hair around his fingers, enjoying Karine’s sweet murmurings in his ears when she said, “Funny—your mom said the same thing about Avdonin men always coming back. Sharing similar traits.”

Roman laughed darkly, urging on Karine’s softer giggles. “More than I care to admit.”

He could get used to this. Lying naked in bed with her, legs tangled with hers, and nowhere to go, nowhere to be. A lingering scent of sex in the air, soft skin close enough to taste, and sleep creeping in.

Could they have that?

In the future, maybe—could they could spend all day and even longer nights together like this? When he wouldn’t have to worry about the shadows chasing them? Would she want that, too?

All he wanted was to protect her with his body, keep her in that bedroom forever, locked away from the world. But it could all change in a minute, too.

Roman didn’t know what Leonid and Dima’s plan was, but he wasn’t naive enough to assume they’d forgotten about her. Or the fact that she’d been stolen from them—how long until they knew it was him who did it?

Or did they already?

It instantly reminded him of all the things he hadn’t told her yet. About her father, the fire where she had spent all her life, or even how Dima and Leonid were still nowhere to be found.

All bad news.

Roman couldn’t do it, though. He just couldn’t bring himself to change the topic of conversation to what would inevitably ruin a good night for them. One of the only they might have for a while.

So, he told her something that was even more important. The thing he wanted her to know the very most.

“I’m in love with you, Karine. I love you.”

She blinked at him, long lashes fluttering fast like she had to take in the sudden words she clearly hadn’t been expecting to hear. The seconds ticked by. One after another, matching the beats of his crazy heart.

But then she sighed, and shrugged those delicate, creamy shoulders almost casually. “Good, because it would be strange for me to love you and get nothing in return, but I wasn’t sure how I should say it.”

Yeah, him either.

Until he did.

Roman rolled her way, pulling her in for another kiss so he could breathe against her smiling lips, “Babe, you just say it.”

Because that was the easy part.

Even if it had terrified him.

He didn’t see this coming.

EIGHTEEN

For the two weeks that they’d been apart and Karine was without Roman, every morning when she woke up, she felt ... okay. Stronger when she meditated. Better. Clear-headed; willing to face the world.

Just good.

Today was no different, except that she had woken up in Roman’s arms and there was nothing quite like the contentment burrowed deep in her chest when she found he was still asleep as she blinked her eyes open. Strong sunlight filtered in through the thin silk curtains that barely shielded the window, haloing the hard lines of his profile that relaxed just enough in his sleep to make him appear boyish. She stared at him sleeping, watching the slow rising and falling of his chest, his steady breaths assuring that he was nowhere near ready to leave his dreams.

Even if she might want him to.

How could she not, though?

The ache between her thighs, a pleasant reminder that she didn’t mind, was a damn good reason for her to wake him up. Still, she didn’t.

Instead, her mind drifted to the night before, and the words he’d spoken into existence. He made it real.

I love you.

There was no way to stop the smile creeping over her lips as that memory took center stage in her mind. If she were honest, Karine might say she had been in love with Roman—infatuated, really—from almost the moment they met. Every single moment, word, or touch between the two since had simply dragged her deeper into what she thought could only be a fantasy.

Until he made it reality.

Before last night, she didn’t have anyone to confess her feelings about Roman to. No matter how innocent, or confusing, they might have been, there was no one to help her make sense of it all. Masha wouldn’t have approved—Karine knew it without even broaching the subject with her. She was here only for Karine because she would do anything for her. Not because she actually wanted to be here, or even because she trusted Roman or the rest of his family.

That was the one thing Masha had made abundantly clear through her reserved comments on and off. Sometimes, she forgot that Karine wasn’t as checked out as she used to be without a steady supply of medication. It was easy for Masha to think Karine wasn’t always listening.

She listened too much, now. It wasn’t like she had a choice. Regardless, the truth was out there.

Real.

Karine had to keep telling herself that—keep reminding herself that had really happened.

He