Page 161 of Blood Stone

Chapter Thirty-Four

Dawn was just starting to break when Roman came downstairs. He was wearing jeans and nothing else and his hair was wet and slicked back.

He glanced at her face sharply, then around the room. He licked his lips and Kate knew he had already guessed the truth.

“Where is he?” he asked.

She wiped her cheeks. “Gone.” Her voice was strained.

Roman absorbed that for a moment, standing still in the middle of the room, his head down. “Why?” he asked, looking at her once more.

“He thinks you don’t want him in your life. Not deep down where it counts.”

He remained motionless for another endless minute, his gaze drilling into her and through her. Kate knew this was what her own expression must have looked like when she realized that Garrett really was leaving and why.

Finally, Roman stirred and sat on the sofa next to her. He picked up her hand. “You want him back, don’t you?” he asked softly.

“Don’tyou?” she breathed, as more hot tears spilled down her cheeks.

His face shifted. A haunted, hurt expression crossed his eyes, almost too fast for her to catch. “It doesn’t matter—”

“Itdoesmatter, Roman!” She shook his hand, the one that held hers. “Damn it, this is what drove Michael away!”

Roman blinked.

She wiped away her tears again. “Do you love him?”

He swallowed. “You have to understand the culture and the times we moved in, Kate. We weren’t supposed to meet in groups larger than—”

“It’s a simple question and a very simple answer,” she said, lifting her voice to over-ride him. “Do you love him?”

Roman let go of her hand and pushed his fingers through his already damp and slicked-back hair. “It’s complicated.”

“No, it’s not,” she said flatly. “Do. You. Love. Him. Yes or no?”

He stood up with an impatient thrust of his thighs. “You have no idea about most of my history—”

She scrambled to her feet, grabbed his arm and turned him to face her. “Yes or no,” she demanded.

“Stop this.”

“Yes or no!”

“Fuck! Yes!”

“Yes, what?”

“I love him, okay?” Roman threw himself onto the sofa and buried his face in his hands. “I fucking love him.” His voice was muffled.

Kate sat next to him. “What was so hard about saying it?” she asked softly.

He lifted his head to look at her, anger in his eyes. “People I love go away on me. Everyone I’ve ever cared about has died, or been executed or just…gone.”

Kate stared at him in horror as she put it together. “And you love Michael so much, you don’t want the same thing to happen to him.”

Roman sighed and sat back, letting his head fall back on the cushion of the sofa. “It sounds so bloody pathetic when it’s said out loud like that. He’s one of the most powerful vampires and most powerful humans on the planet combined. And I’m so terrified something will happen to him.”

“You drove him away because of it,” Kate finished.