A Brute's Beloved: The Disreputables: Book Three by Felicia Greene

Author:Felicia Greene [Greene, Felicia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-08-22T23:00:00+00:00

So this was how it was to end. Bitter words spoken in the dark, barely a silhouette to address. Winnie closed her eyes, forcing herself to breathe slowly and calmly as Jim approached.

‘Where the fuck do you think you’re going?’ Jim’s voice was raw, harsh, as if it emerged from the night itself.

‘Home.’

‘You’re in no condition to go anywhere. Go back to bed.’

‘You can’t order me.’

‘I damn well can.’

‘I’ll be more specific. If you admitted even a particle of what you felt for me, I’d follow every order you gave me. I’d be so much a part of you that you wouldn’t need to order me.’ Winnie’s voice shook despite her best efforts. ‘But you won’t, and so I don’t have to listen to a single word you say.’

‘Don’t test me.’

‘I am tested every day. Tested by my own body, my circumstances, my hopes. Can you really not bear to be tested by me?’

‘Miss Bloom.’

‘Don’t you dare. Don’t you—you bloody dare.’ The word left Winnie’s lips before she could stop herself; she paused, swallowing down her shame at having blasphemed. ‘Don’t call me by my surname as if we’re strangers. Don’t speak to me in the crudest of terms and then call me Miss Bloom, and don’t order me back to your bed if you have no intention of sharing it with me!’

The words seemed to echo down the silent street. Winnie brought her hand to her mouth, briefly unable to believe that she had said the words aloud.

But she had finally said them. And Jim, motionless, finally looked as if he’d listened.

‘Forgive me, Jim, but I can’t bear it.’ Tears choked Winnie’s voice. She stood silent for a moment, trying desperately to control her breathing. ‘I can bear everything else in the world. Bear suffering, bear death. But I can’t bear loving you alone, that love unanswered.’

She turned away from him. Something broke inside her as she did so, something small but fundamental, and the tears began to pour down her cheeks as if they had been set free.

Five steps, then seven, then ten. Then a gasp, a white-hot shock, as something touched her.

Jim’s hand was on the back of her neck. His grip was rough, heavy, as if he were ready to lift her off of her feet. As if, for the first time, he appreciated just how much of his strength she could bear.

All of him. She could take every single part of him. Winnie smiled, breathless for a good reason for the first time in her life, as Jim pulled her back to face him.

‘You see?’ Her words seemed starlit as they left her lips, filling the space between her and Jim. ‘You can touch me as you wish.’

Jim didn’t answer. His dark eyes were aflame with sentiment, choked feelings that Winnie desperately wished she could fathom. But the growl that left his lips as he covered his mouth with hers, a violent, all-consuming sound, was better than all the words in the world.

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