AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He knew what was between them was real. He felt it in the way her body melted into his like mercury, the way the boundaries between them fell when he was insideher.
So why did it feel sotenuous?
4
Julia waitedto slip from the bed until Ronan’s breathing was slow and regular beside her. His arm was heavy across her body as she eased carefully out from under it, cursing the fact that she couldn’t sleep, that the one night she’d gotten him to hand off the stakeout at Moran’s to Nick, she couldn’t even settle in and enjoyit.
She looked down at him as she slipped his T-shirt over her naked body. His arm was still flung across the mattress where she’d been a moment before, his expression serene. His thick hair was tousled from their lovemaking and she felt a rush of fresh desire as she remembered his mouth on her skin, his fingers and cock insideher.
Her lust for him still took her by surprise, the barrier she erected between them harder to maintain as he brought her to orgasm over and over again, as he probed her body like an eager explorer determined to leave no territoryunmapped.
She considered laying back down, waking him with her mouth and hands, giving herself over to physical sensation again in the hopes that it would eventually lead tosleep.
She discarded the idea. Ronan spent most of every night holed up in his car, staring through the binoculars at their latest stakeout target in an effort to find a new clue that would lead them to Elise. It wasn’t fair to wake him just to keep herself distracted on the one night when he had a shot at decentrest.
Chief lifted her head from her bed on the floor and Julia raised a hand. Ronan had taught her that the signal meant Stay, and the dog whimpered and lowered her head back to the cushion as Julia left theroom.
Her bare feet moved silently across the runner in the hall. She liked everything about the house — its rambling floor plan that was separated into private wings for each of the Murphy brothers, the communal living and kitchen areas that guaranteed she was never alone for long, the quiet of it atnight.
Declan was usually out in the early part of the evening, but he almost always returned home to sleep, albeit with one of his conquests, and Nick was more often than not at home when he wasn’t at the office or playing rugby with the intramural team that seemed to be his primary source ofactivity.
Julia was comforted by the comings and goings of the three brothers, by their familiarity with each other. It reminded her of Elise, of the unique sibling bond that was familiarity and acceptance and just enough baggage to keep thingsinteresting.
She took a seat at the end of the sofa and folded her legs under her body. It was hard to believe it had been four months since she’d first walked into the house, scraped up from her run-in with Ronan in the alley behind Seth Campbell’s brownstone, having no idea that her gramps had hired MIS to find Elise, having no idea that she would come to love the man with deep-sea eyes who had so tenderly dressed her woundedleg.
She’d fallen for him hard and fast. Too hard and fast, as evidenced by the fact that she’d been back in his arms shortly after the debacle inDubai.
She hadn’t been able to look at him on the plane home, hadn’t been able to see anything but Gold, the long hallway of closed doors, an image of her sister behind one of them, waiting for Julia to saveher.
But the anger had left her body as soon as Ronan dropped her at the apartment, his face a mask of restrained pain andregret.
In the cast of her family, Julia had always played the starring role of Doer of Things That Must Be Done. It wasn’t always appreciated, but she knew too well that someone had to do thosethings.
Someone had to say no when saying yes was easier. Someone had to save the money and pay the bills and keep the boat on an even keel when everyone else seemed determined to sinkit.
Plus, she’d missed him. Had missed him with a fierceness she’d been afraid to examine too closely. When he’d appeared at her door with another apology — an apology for carrying her screaming from Gold, saving her life when she’d reached the point where she didn’t care about it at all, when saving Elise was all that mattered — she hadn’t even hesitated before letting himin.
She sighed, reaching for her laptop and forcing herself from thepast.
Forcing herself from thefuture.
She didn’t know what would happen between her and Ronan long-term. She only knew that she loved him, that she was scared of how much she lovedhim.
She opened her laptop and the screen came to life, the browser still open to the page for Manifest, the dark blue door glowing like amirage.
It had opened only once for her — when it had revealed the logo for Gold behind the stylized “M” that they now knew stood for Manifest. She had no idea why the people behind Manifest had invited her to one of their lairs after she’d been caught snooping at the Whitmore Club. She could only assume it was because she hadn’t been working with Ronan at the time, not formallyanyway.
Had they thought she would come alone? Had they planned to take her like they’d taken her sister? Shut her up, keep her from asking questions, sell her to one of their clients on the Darknet as abonus?
She didn’t like to think about it, about what could have happened if Ronan hadn’t been there to haul her out of the club. Maybe that’s why she’d forgiven him so easily. Maybe she knew deep down she would have disappeared into the black hole of money and corruption that had swallowed hersister.
Maybe she valued her own life more than she was willing toadmit.
She swallowed her guilt at the thought. She would do anything to saveElise.
Anything.
She clicked on the blue door and was unsurprised when nothing happened. She’d tried more times than she could count, hoping for another invitation, entertaining the thought of accepting it without telling Ronan if it came, wondering if the only way she would know what had happened to Elise was to let it happen to hertoo.
