Page 66 of Ruthless Reign

He grabbed my hair again and tugged, forcing me to arch as he rutted me into the chair.

“That’s right, you take that Rose cock like the little whore you are,” he said. “My whore. My slut.My wife.Mine. All fucking mine.” The filth went on until I couldn’t stand it.

The dam finally broke inside me, a tumult of ecstasy and nerves sparking into a frenzy. I screamed, my climax yanking me under its tremendous weight. The world stopped spinning. Everything wrong had been set right. My mind went blank and rebooted like a broken computer, and when I finally drew a long, deep inhale, Roman had wrapped his arms around me, holding me up while he jerked and moaned and came deep inside me.

“Can’t you see?” he cooed, tenderly kissing the side of my neck and ear. “This is more than pretend now. It has been for a while. I love you, Julia. Ilove you.”

Those three little words dumped ice water on the whole thing. He’d been building up to it through the entire scene.

Oh God. This is real. He thinks this is real.

And so do I.

He grabbed my left hand and held up my third finger, sliding a beautiful ruby ring over the knuckle. It was encased in diamonds, perfectly gaudy and showy and mesmerizing. I wanted to rip it off and throw it at his head. I wanted to wear it forever and be buried with it at the end of my days.

“Roman,” I said, my voice breaking as my chest cracked open. I couldn’t accept it. I shouldn’twantto accept it. “I’m sorry.”

Whatever response he’d been expecting, that wasn’t it. His arms dropped as he stepped away. His cock slid out of me, leaving a cold, wet mess and a trail of cum down the inside of my thigh. When I turned to step off the throne, he blinked and shook his head, his face ashen, his eyebrows halfway up his forehead.

“You’re sorry?” he said. “For what?”

“I…um…” I swallowed against a painfully parched throat. “I can’t do this.”

He seemed not to know how to process that. “Can’t do what?”

“This.” I gestured to the ring, to him, to the whole thing. “I don’t… I’m not capable…”

I don’t love you.

I tried to say the words, but they tasted like garbage because they weren’t true. I did love him. I knew I did, and I had for a while, and I was a stupid girl who couldn’t accept I might be allowed to have something good and true and amazing. If I said it out loud, if I admitted it to him, he would fall at the hands of my family, and it would kill me. I couldn’t live through that again.

My eyes burned as tears bubbled at the corners, streaming down my cheeks. This time, it wasn’t from gagging on him, but from suffocating under the weight of my own blindness.

“This isn’t supposed to be real,” I snapped as I gathered my dress from the ground and slipped it over my head.

“Julia, wait,” Roman said, trying to stop me. He put his hands on my shoulders, but I shoved him back, swallowing a sob as I grabbed my purse from the floor.

“Julia—” He came toward me again, but I already had my knife in my hand, holding it out to him.

“No,” I shouted.

“Is that supposed to scare me?” Roman looked down at the blade before glancing up at me again, holding his hands out to either side. “I’d get stabbed a million times to get to you, little wife. There’s no running from me now.”

“Is that supposed to scareme?”I scoffed. “Mercutio.”

With that, I turned toward the door and stomped down the hallway, taking the stairs two at a time until I was on the ground floor.

“Hey, Jules,” Hollywood said, pulling the rope aside as I passed. Then, he caught sight of my face and his bright smile dropped. “You all right?”

“Julia, wait!” Roman said, racing after me.

“Leave me alone, Roman.” I reached for my phone and called my brother. He picked up after the second ring, and while I was trying to get a ride out of there, I heard Hollywood wrestling Roman behind me.

“You know the rules, brother,” Hollywood said. “She said leave her alone. Let her be. Or I’ll be forced to get your sister.”

With one last look at my husband, I wiped the tears from my cheeks and stumbled out into the humid August night.

20

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