I knew we had an audience. Derek, Megan, the bridesmaids, countless friends and family members who had known me all my life. All of them wondering who this man was who was sweeping sensible Laney Fisher off her feet and devouring her whole?
“Wait.”
He pulled back, mouth slightly swollen. “What? What is it?”
I stared at my hand, clutching his lapel like it was a life preserver.
He was looking at me like I was water in the freaking desert. Like he would genuinely perish if he didn’t get another drink.
It was dangerous.
But I liked it.
Ilikedthe way Ronan Black looked at me. Not like I was the girl with the heart condition, the shopkeeper, the good daughter, the one who took care of everything. Like I was the version of myself I’d always wanted to be and never could. Like I was fun and carefree and didn’t have to be so rigid.
“Nothing,” I whispered.
This time, I was the one to kiss him.
14
FIREWORKS
RONAN
She kissed like a woman possessed.
Fuck me. How had I forgotten?
Answer: I hadn’t. In fact, I’d been fantasizing about Laney Fisher’s mouth for going on a week now, wondering if I’d ever get the chance to experience a Michelin-level make-out session ever again or if I was simply ruined for life.
I’d had a plan when I arrived at the wedding. I was going to woo her a little. Be the man she clearly needed on her arm when that fuckface of an ex was around.
And then I was going to ask her to do the same for me. Make her an offer she couldn’t refuse. I was no better than Brendan, about to offer the girl a contract to stay my wife just a little longer.
Then she kissed me, and I couldn’t have cared less about any contracts because I wanted this to be real more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life.
It made sense. We were at a celebration of love and all things primal, after all. Weddings seemed to bring out the sentimental, loving part of people’s personalities. When in Rome, right?
My actual heart was also in on the act, beating like I’d just finished an eight ball of coke. Not that bad, cheap shit, either. Laney was pure Peruvian, the good stuff.
And so, I kept kissing my wife, crowd and setting be damned.
Was this how Laney felt all the time when her ticker messed up?
Fuck.
I needed to stop.
Sheprobably needed me to stop.
But I couldn’t.
Christ, her mouth. I was wrong. She was better than any high.Thiswas ecstasy, pure and true and blissfully unfiltered by drugs or alcohol or any of the other vices I used to distract myself from the world.
I didn’t want to distract myself from anything right now. For the first time, I wanted to be present. I wanted to behere. I wanted to?—
“Ronan.”
