“Do you know,” Ronan murmured as he reached out to push a stray lock of hair behind my ear, “that every single thought you have writes itself across your face?”
Immediately, I flushed. “I doubt that’s true.”
A heated smile hooked that broad mouth. “Oh, it’s definitely true, Ari. And it’s one of my favorite things about you.”
He slipped an arm around my waist and tugged me closer, allowing his scent—something dark and expensive mixed with sandalwood and fresh paper—to wash over me.
It was making it hard to think.
This whole situation was making my head spin.
“I—wait,” I said just before Ronan’s mouth found mine.
He straightened up. “What’s wrong?”
“I—I don’t know.” It was the truth. “Everything is just moving so fast.”
For some reason, my conversation with Dad came back to me. The heartbreak in his voice when I’d told him I’d gotten married without him. The disillusionment I’d felt when I realized he wasn’t going to fight for me, even when he thought it was best.
The realization that I wanted him to, even if it was just a little.
How could I explain that to Ronan now that I was here?
“I just… I know we’ve been…”
“Talking about everything we want to do to each other for the last two weeks?” Ronan completed.
I rolled my eyes. “You’ve done that. I’ve just?—”
“Listened quietly and helped yourself to an orgasm or ten on the other side of the line,” he finished once more.
My mouth fell open. “You weren’t supposed to know that!”
He bent down and nipped my bottom lip. “Please. Like I don’t know what kinds of sounds you make when you come, baby. First thing I memorized when you finally let me bring them out of you. They’ve been haunting my dreams for fourteen days.”
My cheeks felt like someone had touched them with hot burners. “Ronan…”
“But you need to take it slow?” He started nibbling the side of my neck in a way that was very distracting.
“I—” What was I saying? “I—yes. Yes, I do.”
With a petulant sigh, he stood back up. “But why?”
“Why? Why? Because we’ve spent all of five minutes in each other’s company,” I sputtered. “This morning, I had to tell my father I married a stranger, and now I’m standing in your room that I’m apparently moving into, and I’m telling you, Ronan, I don’t do things like this!”
I pressed a hand to my heart, which was starting to beat in a way I didn’t like. I closed my eyes and sucked in a long breath, then held it for several beats before blowing it out slowly.
“Whoa, baby. It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.” Ronan’s voice had gone from playful to soothing in less than a second, and before I knew it, he was guiding me to the edge of the bed to sit, not play, as he rubbed my shoulders and urged me back to calm.
It was so easy when he touched me like that. When he hummed in that deep voice. It would have been so easy to let him take it further. Wherever he wanted to go.
But I needed time. At least more than a few minutes. “
“I told my dad it was kind of temporary,” I said quietly. “I don’t know why I said it. It just came out. And then you sent me that contract. And now I don’t actually know if I was right after all about what this is.” I gestured between us. “What we are. If anything.”
Or if men like you really do want to be with women like me.
The contract, with all those zeros and terms, had solidified the fact that Ronan Black had clear expectations. Needs, even. And he was willing to pay a lot to have them met.
