Page 94 of My Rose

Her hands cupped the back of my neck. “You know, we’re probably just as naive as Pyramus and Thisbe were. And Romeo and Juliet. Really any couple that so clearly should not be together.”

We were always supposed to be together.

I scrunched my nose. “I don’t think we are. I’ve had years to try to find anyone who could replace you but always came up short. You’ve always been the only one for me.”

“That’syou,Briggs. What about me, though? What does it say about me that I still love you even after knowing that your father killed my parents, and trapped me in a burning house to die? And I know that violence doesn’t seem to end with him. You beat the crap out of someone and said you’d kill them because they—”

“Theywere going to do terrible things toyou. My father has his motives and they are shockingly no different than most men of his caliber—money and power. Two things that will never drive me.”

“What drives you, then?”

“You. Us. This.” Without warning, my cock found her entrance and I slid in, forcing her down by her hips.

“Briggs,” she said breathlessly before I captured her mouth, sealing my love for her with my lips and tongue, nipping at her bottom lip in between each slow thrust. This time, when she declared her love for me as I brought her to her climax, I didn’t stop her words. I let her cry out how much she loved me as I drove into her, finding my release shortly after in the arms of the woman I planned to spend the rest of my life with, no matter the costs.

Chapter 34

Rose

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.” ? Plato

“What’s your favorite songto sing?”

I arched a brow as I smoothed out the long-sleeved, black velvet dress, the matching black Vans bringing a smile to my face. “I don’t think I have one.”

He rolled his eyes over to me. “That’s a lie, Rose. What do you like?”

I paused, trying to think of what I liked instead of what I’d been told to like for years. It was never hard to think for myself, but somewhere along the way, some of the things I liked became muddled down as I tried to be someone I wasn’t for someone who didn’t care. “I haven’t thought about it in a while, so give me a minute and stop looking at me like that.”

“Like, what?” He smirked, knowing exactly what look he was giving me. One that was making it very hard not to tell him to pull over the other stupidly expensive car he pulled from the garage right then and there like I did the night before. I had to remind myself that appearing freshly fucked wasn’t exactly a good look when introducing your boyfriend to your grandparents. But, after?

I blushed as I looked at the amount of space inside the SUV. I knew one thing I definitely liked a whole lot, and trying to think of music instead of that was hard when Briggs looked so effortlessly devourable in his black pants and black button-down, the sleeves cuffed to show a portrait of Romulus and Remus—the myth of twin brothers who founded Rome—as babies on his forearm.

Those forearms I stared at flexed, the veins rippling above the stacks of muscle I wanted to sink my teeth into. “Keep looking at me like that and we’ll have to stop at our gym after dinner so I can properly fuck you like Iwant to.”

I blushed harder and straightened in my seat. “Fine. I think I like darker songs. Ones that have a deeper meaning to them.”

“Something like what you sang before?” I nodded as he found that same song again, playing it at a low volume. “You kind of sound like her, you know. Personally, I think your voice is better, but I could be biased.”

I giggled. “Definitely biased. I’m no Billie Eilish.”

He took my hand, lacing his fingers with mine. “Good. I prefer you as you are.”

I glanced out the window, unable to focus on the song as the snow outside began to fall, dotting the windshield. “Briggs?”

“Rose, baby?”

I squeezed his hand. “What do you think would happen if you told the police about what your dad did? Do you think they’d do anything?”

His jaw tensed. “No, I don’t think he’d get what he truly deserves. Maybe some media outlets would shame him, but it’s been so many years, and with the kind of lawyers he can buy and the lack of evidence they’d find—”

“How do you know they wouldn’t find enough?”

He narrowed his eyes on the road, though I knew he could see just fine as the sun began to set. “There are people who…handle jobs like that.”

I pulled my hand from his and crossed my arms over my chest. “Explain.”

“Rose,” he groaned. “Let’s talk about this later.”

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