"I'll stay."

“Your family is safe from me.” His eyes dropped to her mouth. “And your promise?”

“I’ll stay.”

His mouth slammed onto hers with enough force that she reared back. Her hands flailed, clipping the vase, but he wrapped his arm around her and hauled her against him. He ravaged her. She let go of her worries, fears, and uncertainty and let him sweep her away, reveling in the strength that could destroy and protect with equal fervor. When he straightened, she found her legs wrapped around him. 

Panting, they stared at one another. 

“You won’t regret this.” 

His low tone reverberated through her. He gave her another kiss before he unwrapped her legs from his waist and stepped back. 

“What are you doing?” she asked, nonplussed. 

“You’re going back in the bath,” he said before he scooped her up. 

“I’m what?”

“You said you’re sore.”

To her chagrin, she found herself over his shoulder for the third time in twenty-four hours. “So?”

“You’re so tired, you’re trembling. You’re going to have another soak and then go back to bed.”

She hadn’t realized she was shaking, but she’d been through the wringer, so that wasn’t a surprise. “Since when do you care if I’m sore and tired?” She didn't understand why she was complaining. She hated when he used sex to patch up the holes in their relationship, but after hours of negotiation, her body expected a release that would leave her pleasantly comatose, and he wasn’t obliging. What the fuck? 

“It matters, since I got a second chance,” he said as he set her beside the bathtub and turned on the taps. “I’m not going to waste it.”

He undressed her, tugging down her pants and then pulling the hoodie over her head. She stared at him through her hair, unsure how to react to this version of him. 

He caught her watching him and raised his brows. “What?”

“Nothing.”

He cocked his head to the side as he examined her, and then he grinned and stepped into her. He wrapped her against him, sent a hard hand down her spine to her ass and gripped. 

“I’ll eat you out in bed after you’ve soaked. I don’t want you to be so relaxed that you drown.”

He rocked her against his erection before he released her. 

“I have a call to make. I’ll be back before you’re done with your bath.”

She gaped at his back. He aroused her and walked away? What the fuck kind of relationship was this because she wasn’t sure if she wanted it. “I don’t need you to give me an orgasm! I can do that my damn self!”

“Be careful,” he called over his shoulder. 

“Depp!”

He must have remembered what her German curse meant because his laughter echoed back to her. 

**This is a raw draft of Bitter Confessions. Please do not share or distribute.