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They’d held hands across the table, their fingers entwined on the fine linen cloth shining with candlelight, and he saw her as she might be if they found Elise and brought her home, if he could take care of things for her so she didn’t have to worry somuch.
She would bristle if he said it aloud, would insist she was fine, that she had always been fine, that she was used to taking care of things and perfectly capable of doingso.
So he didn’t. He just watched her instead, vowing silently to give her everything shedeserved.
They crossed one of the bridges stretching across the river, the old-fashioned street lamps casting golden light onto the stone. Julia pulled him to the edge and peered over at the dark waters below before letting her gaze travel to the city, ablaze in lights around thewater.
She sighed. “It’s so beautifulhere.”
The naked pleasure on her face made sense of everything. Everything he’d built at MIS, all the money, the property and other investments Nick had pressed on him over the years. The additional zeros that seemed to appear like magic on his financialstatements.
Ronan didn’t care if he flew Economy class or if he stayed at the Holiday Inn or the Ritz. Up until now the luxuries afforded by MIS had been nothing but a side effect of the business, something else to think about on those occasions when Nick insisted on giving him a financial update or urged him to make a newinvestment.
But now he saw that there was a reason for all of it. That it could serve the highest purpose of giving Julia everything beautiful the world had tooffer.
“I love you.” The words escaped his mouth, a violation of the unspoken rule that had crept into their relationship, the rule that said the words were only spoken in the dark, when they were naked and sweaty in each other’sarms.
She turned toward him, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pressed her mouth to his. He only had a moment to realize she hadn’t said it back before her tongue slipped between his lips. Then he was swept away in the urgency of her exploration, the demand of hisown.
The scent of her shampoo, vanilla and sandalwood, hit him with a rush of desire. He swept her mouth slowly and carefully with his tongue, wanting to savor the taste of her, the feel of her yielding to him in the only way she knewhow.
When they pulled away, his cock was hard and straining forrelease.
Julia’s eyes shone as she looked up at him, her face flushed. “Take mehome.”
For a split second he was confused. What did home mean? Boston? The apartment near the river inFlorence?
Then he realized it wasn’t thatcomplicated.
Wherever she was, that was home. Wherever they were together, that washome.
The thought terrified him. How had she crept into his heart? What if she didn’t feel the sameway?
He took her hand and started across the bridge, his heart pounding in his chest, not wanting to think too hard about theanswers.
12
The apartment wasdark when they returned, the lights from the street barely leaking in through the leaves that sheltered the windows from the streetbelow.
She’d realized on the bridge she was a little drunk, had realized it when Ronan told her he loved her, when the words had almost slipped from her ownmouth.
It shouldn’t matter. She did love him. That was indisputable, and it wasn’t like she hadn’t told him countless timesbefore.
But after the first time, on the beach after they’d come back from Dubai when the words had slipped like honey from her tongue, she’d taken to saying it in the dark, when she was naked, her limbs entangled with Ronan’s, the barrier she’d erected between themlowered.
It was foolish. It didn’t change anything. And yet she couldn’t help feeling that the darkness offered some form of protection against her own feelings, against the pain she would feel if they later realized their relationship had been a product of Elise’s disappearance, like two refugees who turned to each other for comfort in their time ofneed.
Ronan had said it to her on the bridge as if it were nothing atall.
As if it wereeverything.
The words had been on the tip of her own tongue. She’d had to kiss him to keep them inside, had demanded he take her home as the emotion welled inside her like a rising tide, to the safety of the bedroom and the sex that made it easier to hide her feelings behind the physical sensation that overtook her body andmind.
Ronan led her through the darkened apartment to the master bedroom. The room was dominated by a massive canopy bed layered in rich blue silks, cast in shadow in the dim light leaking in from the big windows. The other furniture — wardrobes and bureaus and a small settee and coffee table — were smudges at the periphery of theroom.
He turned toward her when they reached the bed and cupped her face in his hand. His blue eyes appeared black as he looked down ather.
“This is where I know you’remine.”
