Page 103 of Bitter Heat

“And?” he prompted when she went quiet.

She covered her mouth as it began to tremble. When he took a step toward her, she held up a hand and stumbled back. “No.”

She couldn’t let him touch her. She was hanging on by a thread as it was. One touch and she would shatter.

“Tell me what he said.”

A tear slid down her cheek, and she wiped it away with her sleeve. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does.”

She flinched as her father’s voice sliced through her.You really are your mother’s daughter.She had always known she was a disappointment, but the things Maximus hurled at her destroyed the alternate reality she had been living in. He laid into her, reviling her. Every word out of his mouth felt like a physical blow, and she stayed in bed for days after. For the first time in her life, she cried in front of him. That didn’t stop him even when she begged him to stop. She apologized, promising she would never do anything like this again, but he wouldn’t listen to her. No apology would be enough to repair what she’d done. What had she been thinking to start an affair with another man when she was engaged to Ford?

A hand slid over her hair. She wrenched away and held both hands up.

“Don’t, Roth,” she whispered.

“What did he say, princess?”

“Don’t call me that,” she said harshly as she covered her face with both hands. “I’m not a princess.”

“You are to me.” He pulled her hands down, and when she tried to turn her face away, he cupped her wet cheeks. “Look at me.”

“No.”

She was shaking as she tried to keep it all in.

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. We shouldn’t have… and you lost your deal.”

“There will be other deals.”

“No, there won’t. You don’t know my dad.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

His calm voice soothed her frazzled nerves. He wiped away her tears with the sleeve of his coat and brushed her hair back from her face.

“Don’t be nice to me,” she said raggedly.

“Why?”

“I don’t deserve it.”

He jerked her chin up, forcing her to look at him. The anger he didn’t allow to leak into his voice was in his eyes. The black pools were swimming with dark emotions.

“Don’t listen to him,” he said.

She gave a weak laugh as more tears slid down her face. “That’s not possible.”

“What do you want, Jasmine?” he asked as his thumb brushed over her bottom lip.

She stepped back as a bolt of heat chased away the guilt and sadness. She touched her lip, which pulsed, begging to be kissed. “What are you talking about?”

“This is about Ford, right?”

She twisted her hands together. “He doesn’t know yet.”

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