"That’s all on me.” (Patreon)

Roth shoved her off him and ran into the bathroom. She sat there, stunned, as she listened to him retch. She got to her feet and stood in the doorway as he splashed his face with water and braced himself over the sink. As if he sensed her presence, his eyes opened and fixed on her in the mirror.

“You can’t ever do that again,” he said hoarsely.

Even as he stared at her, he flinched and then shook himself as if trying to get rid of the images in his mind.

“It’s going to haunt me for the rest of my life.”

She didn’t want his guilt. In fact, she wished he would forget the whole thing so everything could go back to normal.

“It wasn’t your fault,” she said.

He stiffened and lifted his head to pin her with that pitch black gaze. “That isn’t what you told Lyle.”

She lifted her chin. “It wasn’t just you,” she qualified. “It was everything—”

“Pushing you away after promising everything would be different this time around, forcing you to attend the Trentham Ball without considering how others would treat you, leaving you alone to deal with attacks from scum like Tucker and Warren.” He straightened and turned to face her. “Saying you didn’t measure up to your sisters, knowing how much that would hurt you… That’s all on me.”

She couldn’t hold his gaze. She bowed her head and looked down at her pearl colored toe nails. “It’s still not your fault.”

“How do you figure that?”

“You were just being honest. So were Tucker and Warren. It’s no one’s fault that I’m too weak to take the truth.”

He moved fast for someone so large. She didn’t realize he’d closed the distance between them until he cupped her chin and lifted her face to meet the black fire in his eyes.

“None of that was true.”

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

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