Lethal Queen, a Dark Mafia Marriage Romance by Phoebe Ash

Author:Phoebe Ash [Ash, Phoebe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

DAMIEN

Icurled my hand into a fist, carelessly crushing the blood-red rose petals in my palm before they could fall into the bath. I couldn’t get my hands to stop shaking. Even in a fist, they trembled uncontrollably.

“I don’t need rose petals, Damien,” Vasilisa said softly.

I jumped when her hand settled on my back, comforting me, and hated myself for that reaction when she dropped the touch instantly.

“No,” I said, too loud, too harsh. “You can touch me, Vasya. I’m just—wound tightly.”

I saw empty eyes behind my eyelids with every blink—one set of hollow amber, one of Marshall-black. I was used to seeing those eyes, but now Vasilisa’s had joined them, rich chocolate dullened by death, the gold flecks in her irises no longer glittering.

“And you deserve rose petals,” I added, ignoring the croaking quality of my voice. “So you’ll have them.”

Instead of replacing her hand on my back, Vasilisa wrapped her arms tightly around my waist from behind, resting her head against the space between my shoulder blades. I had to clench my jaw to fight back a devastating surge of emotion. My head dropped forward, a ragged breath punching from my lungs.

I nearly lost her. I nearly lost my wife, too.

“Talk to me,” she whispered. “I hate seeing you like this.”

“I’ll be fine when it settles in that you’re okay,” I replied, swallowing the guilt. I didn’t mean to worry her. That was the last fucking thing she needed after being held captive for twelve hours. “I just need to process everything that happened.”

“Will you get in that bath with me?” she asked after a moment, rubbing her cheek against my back in a way that unspooled some of the knots in my body. The fear didn’t loosen its grip, though. I wasn’t sure it ever would.

“Only if you let me hold you,” I replied a beat too late, finally releasing the petals into the water and wincing at how bruised they were.

“Damien,” she murmured, turning me to face her. “My shield.”

Fuck. My nostrils flared, emotion hitting so severely that I couldn’t begin to parse out its name. My throat hurt, swollen and raw.

“I know you’re shaken—I am, too—but I—” She sighed, her chest heaving, then snared my gaze. “Tonight doesn’t have to be perfect, just because everything went wrong with the reception. That’s not your fault, and there’s nothing to apologise for, nothing to make up to me. I don’t care if there are rose petals or fancy bath bombs—”

“There are fancy bath bombs,” I confirmed in a rasp.

“You taught me that I don’t have to be perfect,” she said, silencing me. “And it—it gave me freedom to be me, to really be myself. So now I’m telling you. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect, Damien. This, you and me, is everything I need.”

“So fuck the rose petals is what you’re saying?” I asked dryly. I loved her so much it was a physical pain.

She kissed me, a single brush of comfort to my bottom lip. “I’m saying get in the bath, Damien.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.