Page 60 of The Marriage

They made a big show about how it was unauthorized access, and it didn’t matter if he was her husband.

Blah fucking blah.

He was ready to shoot up the place if they kept him from her a minute longer—in fact, it did take him showing his gun, on top of Sylvia and another floor manager getting on the phone, to get him through the first set of doors.

He had to see Karine.

He had to tell her everything he knew about her father and hadn’t had the balls so far to come clean about.

One of the women at the front desk was there the day Roman checked her in—she was the one who agreed to show him to Karine’s room herself after the initial uproar.

That solved the problem because he really didn’t want to have to kill anybody tonight. Probably wouldn’t be very conducive to his purpose in being there.

He didn’t ask anything about Karine or if she’d made any progress as the young woman led him through the bottom floor to a rear wing where Karine was housed. He wanted to witness it for himself.

There was a part of him that expected the worst—that nothing had changed and, in fact, had deteriorated. That his parents were right when they warned him of the consequences of admitting Karine to this facility without her consent. That he was destined to have a wife who would hate him forever.

He didn’t expect her to even want to speak to him, but he wanted her to see that he came for her. Just like he promised he would.

The woman showed him to the door, and he knocked before stepping in after she had swiped the badge the security guard had given her earlier to unlock it.

It was the middle of the night, but the light was switched on. Karine wasn’t in bed, but the sheets left spilled half on, and half off the mattress said she had been there. At some point.

He might have panicked had he not noticed the bathroom door was open. There she stood at the sink, staring at herself in the mirror. Angling his body toward her, taking that first step, he hadn’t been ready for the tears he saw falling on her cheeks or how she stared so hatefully at her reflection, disgusted at what she was seeing.

Didn’t she know?

She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

His next breath ached.

In the best way.

“You’re always beautiful, babe. Even when you cry.”

Karine’s gaze darted to where she could see him standing behind her in the mirror. Just as fast, she closed her eyes. Those seconds crawled by. One too many.

“It’s just in my head. This is not real,” she said in a mutter.

That was a knife in his heart.

“It’s not just in your head, Karine,” he replied. “Turn around and look at me.”

She did look at him then, the very moment he opened his mouth and told her to do so. That didn’t make her move, though. She didn’t turn around, only stared at the reflection of him in the mirror.

He went for her, then, grabbing her shoulder to turn her around like he wanted and sliding a finger under her chin. Tipping her head up as he leaned down, he felt her breath kiss his lips while those big, clear eyes of hers watched back.

“I’m sorry,” he said fast, wanting that to be first, “for everything. You really thought I could stay away from you?”

It took her more than a few seconds to register the truth staring back. That he was really there with her. Her mind wasn’t just playing tricks on her like it used to in the past.

Then, she fell into his arms—sank right into him all at once—and he would have been happy to melt and fuse together forever in that moment with her.

Roman weaved his fingers into her silky dark hair, molding himself to her soft supple body.

This was where he belonged. She was his home.

He’d found that in her.