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“Tell me about your father,” he says. “Please.”
“You should rest.”
“You telling me something about your past won’t tax my body or mind, Mary. Please.”
I sigh. “It’s not anything terrible. He was there for me—until he died, that is. But he was a rotten husband. He kept a secret apartment—the one I now live in, actually—and had affairs all during their marriage. When my mother found out, they divorced. He wasn’t perfect, but he paid for my college. I had to leave when he passed away because my mother didn’t have the money for my tuition, and his estate got eaten up by debt.”
“Yet he meant something to you, even though he treated your mother so badly.”
“He did. I don’t expect you to understand. I hate what he did to my mother—and part of the reason I was turned off of marriage was because of what he put her through—but he was family, Ronan. I got some of my good qualities from him.”
I stroke his arm gently. “Your parents may not be perfect, but they are your parents. Enjoy them while you have them. However you can.”
He swallows, coughs a bit. “My throat is still sore from the tube they had in it during surgery.”
“Let me get you some water.”
I pour some from the pitcher on his table and bring it to his lips. He takes a few sips.
“You’ve taught me so much, Mary.”
“I have?”
“I should tell you about Keira.”
“Another time, Ronan. You’re exhausted.”
“No.” He breathes in. “I want to. I once told you that the deal with Braden Black wasn’t the only reason I left Scotland. That there was another reason it was a good time to leave the UK. Keira and I were together for five years in an exclusive relationship as Dominant and submissive. Then recently she came to me. She wanted more. More than I could give.”
My heart drops. No. He’s going to tell me he can’t give me a permanent relationship. No family. No children.
I steel myself. I can deal with this. He’s alive, and I’m alive, and I have a lot to be grateful for. I love him, and I will mold myself into what he wants. That’s how much I need him in my life.
“Go on,” I say simply.
“She fell in love with me, but I didn’t return her feelings. You see, Mary, I didn’t know how to love.”
I swallow the lump in my throat. I don’t know what to say.
“So when the opportunity to come here on business arose, the timing was perfect. I took it.”
I nod. I can’t talk. If I try, I might burst into tears.
“But you, my beautiful Mary. You taught me something I wasn’t sure I’d ever learn.”
Warmth surges through me. “What’s that?”
“You taught me how to love.”
I open my mouth, but he gestures with one hand for me to stop.
“Please, let me say this. I have to say it. I’m lucky to be alive, and I can’t wait to say this one moment longer. I’m in love with you, Mary Sandusky. I fell for you, and I fell hard. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t think I could. But I did. And if you don’t return my feelings, I won’t force it. But I’m alive, Mary, and I had to let you know.”
Tears well in the bottoms of my eyes. “Oh my God, Ronan. Do you? Do you truly love me?”
He nods. “I do.”
I lean over him, press my lips against his. “I love you, too, Ronan. I was so afraid… So afraid you wouldn’t want that. I never thought it was what I wanted,. The only other time I let myself love someone—my first Dominant—he broke my heart.”
