The Hotel Room: His Broken Vows by Elise Camden

Author:Elise Camden [Camden, Elise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Kate

The room was dark except for the faint glow of the moonlight pressing through the curtains. Soft shadows stretched across the walls, and the only sound was the quiet rhythm of James’s breathing behind her.

Kate lay awake, curled on her side, her body pressed into the familiar shape of his.

His chest was warm against her back, his breath a steady pulse near her neck, and one hand rested low and protective over her stomach, where the slight curve of her growing bump was just beginning to show.

It felt...comforting. Familiar. The way he had always held her during her pregnancies, like he needed to shield her. Like this was where he belonged.

And yet—

The ache in her chest twisted deeper, sharp and relentless.

How can I feel safe in his bed…when he betrayed me?

The memory hit hard, flashing unbidden behind her eyelids.

That hotel room.

The too-bright lights.

The sound of skin against skin, the unbearable reality of it.

James—her James—pumping, thrusting himself into that woman.

He’d taken his ring off. She’d seen his hand on the woman’s hip, bare, no trace of the promise he’d made to her when they were just kids.

The ring he chose to slip off when he chose to betray her.

And yet, here they were now.

In the same bed. His body wrapped around hers. His hand on her stomach where their baby grew, holding her like she was something fragile and precious.

Her throat felt tight, her breath uneven as she stared into the darkness.

She hated him.

And she loved him.

It was the most unbearable contradiction—this pull of anger and grief and longing.

Because despite everything...despite the pain...his presence still made her feel safer than anything else ever had.

How could that be?

How could he break me like that and still be the only person I want when I feel this vulnerable?

The baby slept beneath his palm. Their child. The child created between love and pain, tangled as deeply as the ache in her chest.

She didn’t know how long she lay there, caught between the past and the unbearable weight of the present.

Gently, carefully, she let her fingers trace his—just barely, just enough to find the band on his ring finger.

The ring was there now.

Solid. Real.

A symbol she once trusted without question.

James shifted slightly behind her, his breath catching as her fingers brushed over his.

But he didn’t speak.

He didn’t press.

He just stayed there, holding her.

And Kate couldn’t tell if the tears slipping silently onto the pillow were for the love they still shared—

Or for the love she wasn’t sure she could trust anymore.

══════════════════

The suitcase sat by the front door, zipped and ready to go. Kate hated it. Hated the way it sat there like a symbol of everything wrong between them.

James stood in the kitchen, rinsing out his coffee mug, his movements too calm, too measured. He turned to her, drying his hands on a dish towel, his face carefully neutral.

“I don’t have a choice, Kate,” he said, his voice quiet but firm. “It’s work. It’s one night. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, leaning against the counter.

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