The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 98

Chapter 89: Jealous Caleb

Caleb POV

I didn’t sleep.

I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, smelling her perfume on my sheets, feeling the ghost of her touch on my skin, replaying her words over and over.

“It was fun, That’s all it can be.”

Fun. She’d reduced the most intense, soul-destroying experience of my life to fun.

I’d poured everything into making love to her-years of longing, regret, desperate need. I’d worshipped her body, made her scream my name, held her like she was precious. And she’d dismissed it as a casual hookup.

The rage that had been simmering since she’d walked out for her date with Pierce finally boiled over. I got up, pulled on sweats, and went to the gym in the building. If I didn’t hit something, I was going to put my fist through a wall.

I spent hours punishing the heavy bag, imagining Pierce’s face, imagining my own stupidity, imagining every way I’d failed to make Bella understand what she meant to me. By the time the sun rose, I was exhausted and no less angry.

I showered, dressed, and was making coffee when Bella emerged from her room. She looked terrible- puffy eyes, no makeup, wearing yoga pants and a cartoon t-shirts.

She’d been crying. Good. At least I wasn’t suffering alone.

“Morning,” she said quietly, not meeting my eyes.

“Is it?” I poured coffee with more force than necessary. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Caleb, about last night”

“Which part?” I turned to face her. “The part where you went on a date with another man to spite me? Or the part where you came home and fucked me anyway?”

She flinched. “Don’t be crude.”

“Why not? You made it clear it was just physical, just fun.” I took a drink of too-hot coffee, welcomed the burn. “I’m just using the appropriate vocabulary.”

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Bullshit.” I set down my mug hard enough that coffee sloshed over the side. “You meant exactly to hurt me. You came home from that date, saw me waiting, and decided to punish me for caring about you.”

“That’s not what happened.”

“No?” I moved closer and she stepped back. “Then tell me what happened, Bella. Explain how we went from you screaming my name to you calling it meaningless in the span of minutes.”

7-3

Chapter 89 seus Caleb

#wasn’t meaningless.” Her voice was small. “But it can’t mean what you want it to mean.”

“And what do I want it to mean?”

+25 Points

“That we’re together, that we’re trying, that we’re” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I can’t give you that.”

“Why not?” I was right in front of her now close enough to see the tears in her eyes. “Why can’t you try? After last night, after everything we’ve shared, why can’t you at least try?”

“Because I’m terrified!” The words burst out of her. “Because every time I let myself hope, every time I think maybe this could work, I remember what it felt like when you destroyed me. I remember standing in the rain with nothing, pregnant and alone, and I can’t survive that again.

“You won’t have to.” I cupped her face, forcing her to look at me. “I swear to you, Bella, I will never”

“You can’t promise that!” She pulled away. “Nobody can promise that. People change, feelings fade, circumstances shift. You could wake up one day and decide I’m not worth it anymore.”

“That’s never going to happen.”

“You don’t know that.” She moved to the other side of the kitchen island, putting distance between us. “Few years ago, you stood in your office and told me to abort our baby, you looked at me like I was trash. How do I trust that you won’t look at me that way again?”

The accusation stabbed through me. “Because I know what it’s like to lose you now. Because I’ve spent years in hell knowing what I threw away. Because Bella, I would rather die than cause you that kind of pain again.”

“Pretty words.” Her voice was bitter. “But words don’t mean anything when your actions say something else.”

“What actions?” I was getting angry again. “What have I done besides support you, help you, prove that I’ve changed?”

“You manipulated me!” She slammed her hand on the counter. “You used what you heard through my door as leverage. You sat in the dark waiting for me to come home like some possessive stalker. You got jealous when I tried to move on with someone else.”

“Of course I got jealous!” I shouted. “The woman I love went on a date with another man! How was I supposed to react?”

“By respecting my choices!” She was yelling now too. “By accepting that I’m not yours to claim!”

“You are mine.” I came around the island. “You’ve been mine since the day you moved into my house, even when I was too fucked up to see it. And last night, when you came apart in my arms, you were mine then too.”

“Sex doesn’t make me yours.”

“It wasn’t just sex.” I grabbed her shoulders. “And you know it. What we did last night was making love, was years of wanting finally exploding, was us admitting what we both feel.”

“I don’t feel anything for you.” The lie was obvious.

2:3

Chapter 89ious Caleb

+25 Points

“Really?” pulled her against me. “Then why is your heart racing? Why are you breathing like this? Why do you keep looking at my mouth like you want me to kiss you?”

“I don’t”

I kissed her, hard and demanding. She fought it for about two seconds before melting against me, her hands fisting in my shirt, her mouth opening under mine.

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