Page 58 of Cup of Lies

“We need to get you dressed,” I murmur against her lips. “Can you stand?”

She grabs my hand and pulls it down to her stomach. “I have to tell you something.”

“It can’t wait?”

More tears and then words I can hardly understand.

“I’m pregnant. The baby is yours, Caius. We made a baby.”

Romy

Is this a dream?

Another one of the mind tricks that forever plague my thoughts?

His lips, though soft and familiar, kiss me with a fierce desperation that feels new to me. It’s as if I’m more precious than air and he desperately must inhale every part of me.

He finally pulls away from our kiss and stares intensely at me. Caius Crowne isn’t the same man I knew. He’s different. Somehow more of a man. Deeper, more fragile, stronger, more beautiful. I could get lost in his dark, frantic eyes that can’t seem to get enough of inspecting every inch of me.

Caught in this moment with him makes it easy to forget the pain throbbing through every nerve ending in my body. Caius is the eye of a hurricane, calm and serene, but also somehow ferociously powerful and cataclysmic to those around us.

I whimper when he pulls away from me, already missing his touch. His features pinch as if he can physically feel the sharp pain in my chest at the loss of him. He pauses like he might come back to me, but then the cool, apathetic expression I’ve missed slides into place. With purpose, he starts opening drawers, searching for my clothes.

“Put this shirt on, love. I’m going to get something to clean you up with.”

I know he’s referring to the sticky cum smeared on my thighs. Shame coats me like a thick layer of paint, seeping into everypore and crevice. I don’t want the remnants of Seth on me. Only Caius.

The room around me blurs and I realize I’ve gone back to crying. I’m unsure how the tears can keep coming. Haven’t I cried them all out already?

He returns and gently guides me to lie flat on my back. While biting my lip so hard I can taste the metallic flavor of blood, I remain still as he cleans me between my thighs. It’s humiliating but necessary. I want Seth scoured from my flesh.

Once I’m no longer sitting in the leftovers of my abuse, Caius helps me with a comfortable pair of underwear. Then he pulls me to my feet. My knees wobble wildly and I’m forced to hold on to his firm shoulders as he dresses me. To be cared for with such love after the hell I’ve been through is almost too much.

I cling to his chest, unable to stay upright any longer. Luckily, my man is strong and knows what I need. He hooks an arm under my thighs and scoops me up, bridal style.

One day will he carry me like this to our wedding bed?

Another sob escapes me. “I don’t have the ring you got me. They took it.”

He nuzzles my sweaty hair. “I’ll get you another one. One for each finger. Some for your toes.”

For some reason, this makes a highly inappropriate laugh bubble out of me. I sound insane. He chuckles, the sound soft and deep. Since he rarely laughs, it makes him sound insane too.

We can be crazy together.

Caius carries me out of the bedroom I’ve been living in for six months and it’s such a freeing feeling. I don’t want anything from this house other than Kaitlyn.

The only real moments I’ve had were with Kaitlyn. My love for her isn’t something created, manipulated, and forced into my head.

Once outside, the summer heat settles on me like a sticky blanket. Honestly, I don’t care. Anything to be out of that house.

A dog barks from the trees. I crane my neck toward the sound. “Sunshine?”

“Your dog sounds the exact opposite of Sunshine,” Caius grumbles. “More like Thunder. Let’s just hope Nees still has his balls.”

“Nees has Kaitlyn?”

“Yes. She’s safe with him.”

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