Dropping down onto the side of her bed, I curl my arm around her side and pull her down to me. She catches herself against my chest, her soft fingers splaying against my shirt and no doubt feeling the rapid beat of my heart beneath.
Her curious eyes linger on mine as I look up at her. “You okay?” she murmurs so softly that I doubt my brothers can hear her. “Do you need to talk about the baby?”
I shake my head. “As much as it kills me to admit, I think he’s perfectly safe with my father. He won’t physically hurt him, not while he’s still so young. The abuse didn’t start for us until we were able to understand what the fuck was going on.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. He’s a cruel man, but he understands that children are born innocent. He’ll have some poor woman working night and day to care for the baby, only checking in every now and then to ensure that he remembers his face. Then when he’s a few months old, he’ll start to nurture him just enough to make him love, just so when the time comes to destroy him, it’ll hurt that much more.”
Shayne closes her eyes, the reality of my father’s plan for my son darkening a piece of her corrupted soul, but as she opens her eyes again and looks deep into mine, her brows furrow. “That’s not what you’re here to talk about, is it?”
I don’t respond, but I don’t need to. She knows me on a deeper level than I even know myself, and I don’t know how the fuck that happened while I was busy pushing her away, but she gets it. She always has.
My hand falls to Shayne’s on my chest, and I curl my fingers around the soft skin of her wrist, feeling the steady beat of her pulse below and watching the way her eyes widen with understanding. “We don’t have to do this,” she whispers, giving me the out she’s so used to me needing.
My hand curls up around the back of her neck and I pull her down to me, feeling her breath across my lips. “It’s time, Empress.” The softest whisper escapes her lips before she closes the gap and brushes her lips over mine. She kisses me softly, too scared to push for what she really wants, knowing how quickly just a bit of pressure could have me backing right out of her room.
Shayne pulls back and her gorgeous blue eyes meet mine, seeing just how serious I am about this.
“Out,” she demands, her chest rising and falling with rapid movements as she holds my stare.
“Huh?” Levi grunts, his head snapping up to try and steal her gaze away from mine.
Shayne kicks her foot out, connecting with his hip and sending him sprawling back on the bed, and if she’d kicked him any harder, the fucker would have gone flying right onto the floor. “You heard me,” she says, reaching behind her to pinch Marcus under the arm. “That goes for you too. Both of you, out.”
Marcus jumps away from her as he whines. “What, why?”
A grin pulls at my lips. He makes it too easy to mess with him. “Because I’m going to fuck your girl until she forgets who you are,” I taunt him, knowing she’ll never go for the idea of just being mine, especially not now that she’s head over heels in love with my two asshole brothers, though I don’t know if she actually realizes it yet.
Shayne groans and shoves me in the ribs before glancing back over her shoulder to Marcus. “We just need to … talk,” she tells him.
“Right,” he scoffs.
“Go now, Marcus,” she warns him. “Before I tell him how you told me about the time you shot him in the ass when you were kids.”
Betrayal tears through me as I gape at my brother. “We made a pact,” I spit. “Where’s your sense of loyalty?”
Marcus shoves Levi in the back before glancing down at his nonexistent watch. “Oh, shit. Is that the time? We better get going.”
The boys disappear through the door and I don’t miss the way Marcus pulls the door shut behind him, going the extra mile not to click it into place, but in all honesty, an easy escape is probably in both of our best interests, seeing as though the two of us have rarely had a single conversation that didn’t include trying to tear each other’s head off.
Shayne’s soft gaze falls back to mine. I swallow hard as I scoot up on her bed, leaning my back against the headboard so I can meet her eye to eye. Wanting to be right in front of me, she moves over me, straddling my lap before nervously gripping the hem of my shirt and playing with the material between her fingers.
Her gaze drops, and I catch her chin before she can lower it. “Don’t,” I rush out. “Don’t look away from me.”
Her brows furrow and she watches me for a moment, the silence growing louder between us. “Why now?” she whispers.
“You know why,” I tell her. “It’s been there since the very beginning, and I know you feel it too. I can’t deny it anymore, Shayne. I can’t keep pushing you away.”
“I don’t want you to.”
My gaze drops to my arm where the tattoo of her bite stares up at me and a hollowness spreads through my chest. “I’ve put you through the worst kind of hell,” I remind her. “I’ve done terrible things. I’ve denied you over and over again, pushing you away like you mean nothing to me. I’ve hurt you, Shayne. I didn’t trust you when it mattered the most. You should still be pushing me away. You deserve so much better than me.”
“You’re right,” she murmurs, her fingers brushing over the tattoo. “I’ve spent months trying to tell myself that what I feel for you isn’t real. Especially after what happened when Marcus got shot. I wanted to hate you so much, but you just kept showing up for me, you always have. You’ve protected me the only way you knew how, right from the very start. You made it impossible for me to hate you, and I don’t want to keep trying. I want to be with you, Roman. I’m not scared of this.”
My dark gaze bores into her innocent eyes. “You should be.”
Shayne shakes her head and hesitantly brings her hand up before brushing her fingers over the side of my face. I can’t help but lean into her touch, letting it soften something deep inside my chest, something I’ve never quite felt before. “When will you finally realize that denying yourself happiness and love isn’t living at all? Everything has always been taken from you, and I don’t know how he’s done it, but at some point in your life, your father has made you believe that to fall for someone is to be weak, and I don’t believe that for one second. I think being vulnerable and opening yourself up to someone else, to let them in, shows that you’re stronger than he could ever be.”
“You’re making me question everything I’ve ever known, Shayne, and that scares me more than the thought of losing you.”
She shakes her head. “You’re never going to lose me,” she murmurs. “Don’t you see? You’ve had me since day one. I’ve always been yours.”
A grin pulls at my lips as the seriousness in her eyes begins to fade. “I don’t suppose you mean just mine?”
Shayne’s lips twist into a crooked grin that has something fluttering deep inside me, something I’ve never experienced before. Is this what that weird butterfly thing is that chicks are always talking about? “No chance in hell,” she tells me. “Me and your brothers are a package deal. If you want me, then you need to accept that I’m wholeheartedly theirs, just as I am yours.”