The Marriage (Darkest Lies Trilogy Book 3), Bethany-Kris [books for 8th graders txt] 📗

brought them back. He didn’t even recognize me. Barely looked at me. That was the thing, I think. None of us meant anything to him. Women, I mean. We’re not even human, as far as he was concerned.”

Roman’s gaze traveled over the beautiful, naked body of his wife who spoke without remorse about a plan he hadn’t even known existed until it was too late, and already over. All the work he’d put in to protect her, and she was the one who ended up doing the dirty work for them all. He didn’t seem to notice the splats of blood all over her anymore.

“I’m proud of you, Karine,” he murmured.

Scared to death, too.

A little amazed.

Still trying to catch up ...

And proud all the same.

She reached for him, her bandaged hands shaking just a little, but he didn’t know if it was because they hurt, or something else. Her fingers skated lightly over his jaw, and then his lips before she whispered, “I wanted everyone to know what I would do—for the people I love, I wanted them to know, Roman.”

“I’m sure everyone got that message. Loud and clear, babe.”

Including him.

When she sunk under the water, even her bandaged hands, he was undressed and already sinking with her. He held her tight, made every promise he intended to keep while her skin softened from soapy hot water, and she cried.

Only a little.

Just long enough for him to know ...

She’d never have to do this again.

*

Later, when Roman thought Karine was finally asleep in the unfamiliar hotel bed, he made a call to his father, and then decided to watch the lights of the city flicker instead of making his way to the bedroom. He needed a moment.

Just to settle his mind.

It kind of felt like those lights, blinking or too bright.

In nothing but unzipped slacks, Roman polished off three mini bottles of vodka from the wet bar, and made a note to ask for full bottles first thing the next morning. Who knew how long they were going to be here?

Instead of letting his mind wander to that place, he settled on the vision of fucking Karine bent over the footboard of the bed. God, she’d been so wet, hands on her ass to widen herself open for him while he nailed her into the mattress. She liked to be handled just rough enough that she toed the line of losing control, and he understood why.

She craved so many things.

Some that had been taken away.

Some she’d never known.

A lot she wanted back.

He could still smell her on him.

Sex clung to everything.

It also made everything so much better.

Apparently, a good hour of fucking his wife to sleep after not being able to touch her for way too long just wasn’t enough to put Roman’s overactive mind to rest.

Shocker.

“Hey.”

Roman spun on his heel to find Karine leaning in the shadows of the darkened hallway. She smiled, and he grinned back.

“Hey,” he replied.

“The bed is warm, you know.”

Roman nodded. “I know.” Her smile faltered when he told her, “Maxim’s body will be found tomorrow. He even orchestrated the way he wanted to die, by the hand of a friend, but since it’ll likely be on the news in the morning, I better tell you now.”

It took her a moment.

“How?”

He shifted from foot to foot. “My father.”

Karine’s brow knotted a little, the pain flashing in her face as he watched another chapter close in her life. They didn’t always get the answers they wanted or needed.

“He told him to tell you that he did love you.”

“I know he did,” she replied soft and fast. “In his own way. And it must have been so lonely.”

Demyan’s words about Maxim’s fear that his love was something like a cancer eating away at people he didn’t want to hurt ... well, maybe that held some weight.

“You’ll be able to say goodbye, in a way.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Karine dragged in a shaky breath, just the one, and then asked, “Are you going to ask me why I left with my father?”

“I suspect you had your reasons.”

“But you won’t ask?”

“You’ve made it clear, Karine, that you can and want to make your own decisions.”

And he didn’t have to like them.

She wouldn’t always like his, after all.

“I thought I would be free.”

Roman didn’t reply because mostly, he didn’t know what to say to that. Of him—of life? What did she want to be free of? Maybe just didn’t want the answer.

Roman fished the pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of his pocket, sticking a smoke between his lips as Karine said, “And I also wondered what it would be like to be free. I wasn’t sure if you considered our marriage to be a real one. If Dima was dead and the war was over, I thought maybe it would mean the end of our marriage, too. I was scared to say it, but I did believe that.”

Roman lit the smoke, taking in a heavy drag and blowing it out to the ceiling as he eyed her in the shadows. “I married you because I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I understand if you want to be free. That you can see the world as endless possibilities right now, but I’m sure you only see one kind of life with me.”

It pained him to say it, to even give her the chance to walk away from him now. The truth was he didn’t know if she would take it. Maybe she didn’t plan on staying. Maybe committing her to the facility in Nevada was the last straw.

Hell, maybe she didn’t trust him anymore.

He’d deserve that.

Karine shook her head, her fingers curving around the edge of the wall as she leaned further out of the shadows, closer to him. “But I’ll never be free of you, Roman. You are the only man I’ve ever loved. That’s all I ever wanted.”

When her hand stretched out for him to take, he crossed the room to