Craving My Ruthless Ceo novel Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Connecting With Him

Anna’s POV

“I wasn’t always a CEO,” Roman replied vaguely. “I was a troubled teenager. Got into a lot of fights. Street fights, mostly.”

I moved to his face, reaching up to clean the bruise beneath his eye. He tilted his head slightly, giving me better access.

This close, I could see the faint lines at the corners of his eyes, laugh lines, though I’d rarely seen him truly laugh. Small scars scattered across his face, barely visible unless you were looking for them. Evidence of a past he kept hidden from the world.

I paused, looking at him in surprise. “But I thought you grew up wealthy. The Blackwood family is known all over the city.”

“Money doesn’t stop a kid from being angry,” he interrupted, his jaw tightening slightly.

God, that jaw. Strong and defined, covered in dark stubble that I suddenly wanted to touch. I forced myself to focus on the task at hand, dabbing gently at the bruise blooming beneath his eye.

“Like I said before, my teenage years were complicated. Spent a night in jail once. The list goes on and on.”

I couldn’t hide my shock. “Jail? Really? What did you do?”

He was quiet for a moment, his gaze distant. I moved to clean a small cut near his temple, my fingers brushing against his hairline. His hair was thick and soft, still slightly damp.

“There was this guy,” he said finally. “He was bullying my sister at school. Said some things, did some things.”

His knuckles flexed beneath my other hand, still resting in my palm. “I waited for him after class. Put him in the hospital.”

My hands stilled completely. The pieces were suddenly clicking together. The way he’d charged at Drago without hesitation. The protective fury in his eyes when that man had grabbed me. This was who Roman Blackwood was, a man who protected those he cared about without thinking about himself.

“You have a sister? I didn’t know that.”

“Most people don’t.” His voice was carefully neutral. “I don’t advertise my personal life.”

I resumed my work, cleaning the last of the dried blood from his temple. My fingers traced along his jaw as I worked, feeling the hard muscle beneath warm skin.

“Are you two close?” I asked softly.

“We are now.” His expression softened, and I caught a glimpse of the man beneath the coldness. “She’s the only family I trust.”

I took his other hand, examining the knuckles. They were in worse shape with deeper splits and more swelling. I worked carefully, knowing this must hurt even if he refused to show it.

“What about your other family? Parents? Other siblings?”

His face hardened again, the softness disappearing. “I have a stepbrother. We don’t speak. Haven’t in years.”

“And your parents?”

“My father’s dead.” I could still hear the hurt in his voice though he tried to act unfazed. “Left home early after that. Figured I was better off on my own.”

My heart ached for him. I finished with his hand, then reached up to dab at another small cut on his cheekbone.

“I’m sorry. I know what that’s like.”

His eyes searched my face. “Your father?”

“Yeah.” I nodded, moving to clean a scrape along his jawime

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Chapter 43: Connecting With Him.

My fingers trembled slightly as I worked, hyperaware of the intimacy of touching his face like this. “He died right before I got into college. He was the parent I was closest to. My mom and my sister never seemed to understand me, but my dad did.”

“How so?”

A sad smile crossed my face. “He loved writing. We shared that, reading, writing, and storytelling. He’d read all my early drafts, give me feedback. He never judged me for what I wrote, even when it got, well, steamy.” I laughed softly, remembering.

“My mom and sister bonded over fashion and shopping. I was always the nerdy plain Jane who preferred books to boutiques.”

Roman’s hand came up, catching my wrist gently. His fingers were warm and strong, wrapping completely around my smaller wrist. His thumb found my pulse point, stroking across it in a way that made my heart race faster.

“Nerdy? Yes, I’d admit that.” His dark eyes held mine, intense and sincere. “But there’s nothing remotely plain about you, Anna. You’re brilliant. Talented. You see the world differently than most people, and that makes you extraordinary, not plain. You create entire worlds with words. You make people feel things they’ve never felt before. That’s a gift.”

Heat flooded my cheeks, a blush spreading down my neck and across my chest. No one had ever said anything like that to me before. Not with such certainty, such conviction. My dad had encouraged my writing, but this was different. Roman truly saw me in a way no one else ever had.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

We stayed like that for a moment, the air between us charged.

Then I cleared my throat, trying to break the intensity of the moment before I did something stupid like kiss him.

“What about your mom?” I asked, reaching for a fresh cotton pad. “Is she…”

“She’s probably halfway around the world on vacation with my stepdad.”

I paused, looking at him in surprise. His tone had changed and became harder.

“You have a stepdad?”

He gave me a sardonic smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Why do you look so surprised? It’s normal for people to remarry, isn’t it?”

There was an edge to his voice, a bitterness I hadn’t heard before.

“I just didn’t know,” I stammered.

“Yeah.” He murmured. “My mom remarried after my dad passed. My sister and stepbrother are from my stepdad.”

Understanding dawned. That’s why he’d said his sister was from his mother’s second marriage. That’s why he barely spoke to his stepbrother.

I smiled softly, trying to lighten the suddenly tense atmosphere. “Oh, you have a big family then. Sometimes I wish I had another sibling. Maybe we would have shared something in common and bonded more. It gets lonely being the odd one out.”

Roman’s expression softened slightly, his thumb resuming its gentle stroking on my wrist. “You’re not missing much. Big families come with their own complications. But I understand what you mean about feeling like you don’t fit. That loneliness.”

It felt good to know we shared certain things in common.

Encouraged by his openness, I pressed on. “How about your relationship with your mom? Do you have better luck than I do with mine?”

The change was instantaneous and devastating.

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Chapter 43: Connecting With Him

He stiffened and dropped my wrist. His face closed off.

“Enough of the interrogation, Anna.”

The words were mean, so different from the warmth that had been in his voice moments before.

“I’ve got a lot of work to get to.”

He stood abruptly, towering over me, putting physical distance between us. The intimacy we’d been building shattered instantly.

“Have your shower and come down for breakfast in thirty minutes. Eva will have it ready.”

It wasn’t a suggestion. It was an order.

I nodded without a word, still holding the bloodied cotton pad, still trying to catch up with how fast everything had shifted.

One moment we’d been opening up, trading pieces of ourselves. The next, he’d gone cold, every wall slamming back into place.

I’d crossed a line. Asked about something he never meant to let me near.

Without another word, he walked out of the bedroom and left me alone.

The way he shut me down so completely, told me that question had touched old family trauma. Trauma I had experienced myself, so I recognized it.

C

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