Page 64 of My Rose

Her long eyelashes fluttered and I held my breath, waiting for her breathing to turn rhythmic again, terrified I’d be caught staring at her like she was my entire world. I wasn’t in the position to fall in love and hadn’t considered being able to find what Dean suggested I find for myself. But staring down at her, entranced by her, that belief was beginning to unravel all too quickly. I knew I was obsessed—she hadn’t left my mind since we were children, and that guilty feeling I used to have whenever I thought about her only morphed into something more. Something I didn’t anticipate. Something Ovid’s poetry pointed to as the end-all, and not in a good way. Love was destructive—a form of chaotic warfare, spurring deceit and betrayal in its wake that would ruin you long before you had the time to realize what was happening.

Yet, it couldn’t be stopped.

Itwashappening.

I’d needed to know her every move, thinking it was just for her safety, but now, even if she was safe, I needed to know her whereaboutsandeverything else about her like I needed to breathe because I was obsessed, and now possibly in love, with Rose Fields.

My fingertips breezed over her soft skin, and my other hand instinctively shifted to meet her splayed one as it rested on my chest, twining our fingers like they had belonged together all this time, and I’d just been too blind to see it. I always thought she was beautiful, but now she seemed above that. She was more than anything I could put into words.

I’d been exposed all day long to her, and she hadn’t once asked about the vines along my arms or the reason behind the titan weboth knew plenty about on my back. She wanted to know aboutme. WhoIwas beneath the surface. And I didn’t know how long I’d be able to go before she found out the truth of what I’d done. How ruined I’d made her life before it had a chance to begin. The fact that I had a fucking file on her inside of my dresser drawer and that I’d had her followed and tracked for years wasn’t going to go over well, either. But hiding a piece of Rose's past from her…it didn’t feel right anymore. I couldn’t find a justification to keep her in the dark when all she had done was light up every shadow I’d put in front of her. I knew it would take time, but one day, I’d let her know the truth.

“Briggs?” she whispered in a sleepy voice, and I blinked down at her, noting her eyes were still closed. “Keep reading, please. I love your voice.” My breathing stilled, my chest expanding in a way that damn near hurt. I tried to shift just enough to try to ease the pain, but it swelled more as her fingers tightened on my hand. “I just…really…love,” she stopped talking in her sleep as she nuzzled into me.

Part of me wanted to wake her up, to ask her what she loved, although I knew she was only talking about my voice. I mentally scorned myself as I unlatched my fingers from hers and picked the book back up. I flipped it open to where I’d left off and started reading as my fingers found their spot in her silken hair, hoping she would love me back one day. I’d make her mine in every sense of the word before long.

I continued reading for several more minutes before the weight of her head grew, and her breathing evened out. I let the book fall to my side and reached between us, seeking that sweet warmth betweenher thighs. She moaned lightly as I brought my fingers closer to her center, my breath stilling to keep her unconscious. The moment I cupped her pussy, I couldn’t help but smile. Rose had given me the ability to touch her when I wanted so long as she was mine, and this was when I wanted. I dipped a finger in, barely past her slit, her arousal untainted by her sleeping state, coating my fingers in her. Raising my finger to my lips, I sucked on the digit, my entire being shuddering at the way she tasted.

Like mine.

All mine.

Repositioning my hand over her cunt, I slid two fingers in, pressing on her clit softly with the tips, causing a moan to escape her parted lips. It took everything in me not to praise her while she slept so soundly against me. My face tightened in concentration as I pushed a finger inside her, letting my thumb pick up the ministrations of my two fingers from before.

Her hips swayed, seeking the sweet friction gifted by my hand. “You’re so wet for me again, baby girl,” I whispered against the crown of her head. “Soon, I’ll take you here with my cock like I did your pretty little mouth.” I angled my fingers up to stroke her g-spot, and she curled into me more. My lips hovered above hers, my gaze fixed on her thick eyelashes and subtle curves of her cheeks, the soft line of hair past her temples. There wasn’t a thing about Rose that didn’t utterly fascinate me—captivate me in ways nothing and no one else ever could. “Even asleep, your body knows who owns it. Who will always”—I reached inside her as much as I could, scissoring my fingers open while I pictured my dick swelling insideher—“own it from this day on.” My nose grazed her hair, taking in the citrus and coconut combination. “Fuck, you even smell like mine. And now that I have you, I’m never letting you go again.”

Before long, she was writhing in her sleep, her panting breaths coming in short bursts while her pussy clenched around my fingers. Then, all at once, her legs spasmed, her walls releasing her orgasm that I stroked her through until she had nothing left to give.

I pulled my fingers from her, sucking on one and then taking the other with long glides of my tongue. She stirred against me, resettling on my arm like nothing could wake her from the heavy sleep I’d caused her to fall into. It wasn’t long before I joined her, falling asleep to the sounds of her heart beating between us.

Light poured in through the windows I typically kept closed off with heavy curtains, and as my other eye opened, my breath lodged in my throat.

“Briggs.” My father inclined his head, and I fought the urge to tighten my hold on Rose, who was still sleeping in the same position she’d been in throughout the night. My brows furrowed as I searched through the window from where I stayed on the bed.

I faked a yawn. “Father. Didn’t expect you back so soon.”

“I had the chopper bring me straight from the airport late last night. The roads are clear now, however.” His voice almost sounded parental. Like this was a casual thing we did—him, updating me onthehoworwhywhile he stood in the bedroom I thought was the only mildly safe place in the house.

I’d been wrong.

Nowhere was safe in this house.

Rose’s hand moved across my chest, and when she muttered my name, I glared out the window. My father’s grin was more a sneer as he fixated on the sleeping woman in my arms like he hadn’t noticed her before.

“And who is this lovely girl?” he drawled, his voice a malicious purr that shook me to my core. My insides stiffened while the exterior part of my being knew his games and knew how to play them. I wanted to carry her down to my car and take her far away from here, but it was too late for that. Any added attention would be our end.

“No one.” Those words, saying she was no one, felt completely wrong. Rose’s warm breath rolled across my chest in the same patterns it had throughout the night—she was still asleep. The hair I was so enthralled by was partially shielding her face, and thankfully, I’d covered us both in a blanket that shielded her from the waist down because, no, she was still not wearing pants. As far as my father could tell, she truly was no one.

“No one?” my father questioned as he looked at the book beside me, then at Rose, his gaze lingering too long where my shirt she was wearing puckered, exposing the side of her breast. He grinned, his eyes flaring at the sight. “I see. She looks familiar. Is she from the club?”

“Yep.” My fist curled along my side. I’d been so fucking dumb bringing her inside, thinking I could sneak her in and out. And thenwhat? Would I have kept doing that for as long as this—whatever it was—lasted?My girlfriend? “She means nothing to me. She got stuck here in the storm, so I let her stay in here. That’s all.”

A fucking joke. I was a. Fucking. Joke.

My father’s focus fell on my bookshelves. “So,that’swhy you didn’t fuck the blonde one the other night. When you disobeyed me.” Rose’s fingers moved ever so slowly over the bruise on my side, and I held my breath, hoping she’d stay asleep. “I can have her working tonight instead. We have another meeting, and I need you more present than you were last time. What’s her name?”

“I don’t know her name,” I said, right at the same time Rose turned her head toward my father, her hair still covering the side of her face as she glowered back at him and answered, “My name is Rose.”

Fuck.

---