Page 56 of Legal Attraction
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
RONANGLANCEDATthe address Muriel had texted him on his cell. Was this right?
This small house in the Bronx was where she’d wanted him to meet her. But why?
This wasn’t her place. Was it some kind of S and M sex den? She seemed to really want to tie him up. He wasn’t sure if he should ring the doorbell or not. But a barking dog from within the modest house must have alerted her to his arrival because she opened the door and smiled at him.
“You came.”
Standing two steps down on the stoop made him level with her beautiful face. He closed the distance between them and kissed her, and as he did, he murmured against her lips, “Not yet. But I want to come soon...inside you...”
Her face flushed and her pupils dilated, swallowing the green the way he wanted to swallow her—
“Is your friend here?” a male voice asked from within the house.
And Ronan tensed.
“Muriel, bring him in,” a female voice chimed into the conversation.
And Ronan wondered if Arte and his friends had really lied about the orgies.
“Where am I?” he asked her. And why had she had him meet her here?
“Home,” she said, and her smile widened.
“You bought a house?” he asked. With the money she had to be making as The World’s Most Beautiful Woman, she could have easily afforded something much nicer than this.
She laughed. “No. This is my grandparents’ house,” she said. “Home...”
That explained why she was there. But why had she invited him? “Did you want me to meet you here?” he asked. Maybe he’d misunderstood the text. Maybe she’d just been telling him where she was because he’d asked her if she was home. He took a step down. “I can leave.”
“No,” she said, and she tugged him back up the stairs. “I invited you here. I wanted you to come for Sunday dinner.”
His breath caught, panic pressing on his chest as he stepped over that threshold. And it wasn’t just because he wasn’t fond of little dogs like the one that had rushed down the hall to bounce around his feet. It was because he didn’t like families.
Any families...
He’d hated his own, and he’d never seen another one he’d wanted to be part of, even the ones that had seemed perfect on the outside. Pitching his voice low, he asked, “Why would you invite me here?”
Hurt flashed through her green eyes. “I wanted you to meet them.”
“You should have asked if I’d wanted to meet them,” he said.
“I didn’t care,” she replied, and there was a sharp tone to her voice now. “I wanted you to see why I was so upset about the trial. I wanted you to understand.”
And suddenly he did. He hadn’t been certain if she’d forgiven him, not even though they’d had sex every day since that night in the dressing room. A couple of weeks had passed, which was a long time for him. Longer than he’d seen any other woman exclusively.
This might have been the point in a relationship where the woman introduced the man to her family. But he didn’t know, because he’d never been in a relationship. And it didn’t sound as if he was really in one now.
Muriel obviously hadn’t forgiven him yet. Not that he could blame her.
“So this is an ambush?” he asked, keeping his voice low so her grandparents wouldn’t overhear. “They have to hate me just as much as you did.”
Or did she still?
“I explained to them what Arte did,” she said, “how he lied to you, too.”
He nodded but he wasn’t convinced that was really an excuse for what he’d done to her. So he didn’t expect her grandparents to be forgiving or sweet. But he didn’t turn for the door and run like he wanted.
