Page 65 of Legal Attraction
“So I’m too late?” he asked. “You’re already seeing somebody el—”
“No!” she exclaimed as she opened her eyes. “I am not seeing anyone.”
“But you don’t want to see me again,” he said.
Her brow furrowed with confusion. “I never said that.”
“Yes, you did,” he said, and he pointed toward the dark television screen. “I believe your words wereGod, nowhen asked if you would ever give me another chance.”
“I thought the ex they were talking about was Arte,” she said.
The tightness in his chest eased, and he sighed out his relief. “Okay, that makes sense.”
“I didn’t even know you were my ex,” she said. “We were never really together.”
“We were lovers,” he said. In more ways than he knew because he had fallen in love with her. Of course, he hadn’t realized it at the time because he’d never been in love before.
Her green eyes gleamed as if she was remembering all those times they’d been together...
And hope flared inside him. “I know you won’t give Arte another chance. But what about me? Will you give me another chance, or did I completely blow it?”
She narrowed her eyes and studied his face. “Is that what you want?” she asked. “To date me or for me to blow you?”
He chuckled. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say both.”
She laughed, too.
But she hadn’t answered his question or commented on his feelings. Did she have any for him?
“What do you want, Muriel?” he asked her. And this time when he stepped toward her, she didn’t push him back. She let him close his hands over her shoulders.
She put her palms against his chest again, but she didn’t shove him. Instead she ran her palms up until her arms linked around his neck. Then she pulled his head down and brushed her mouth across his.
The kiss took his breath away. It was gentle and loving and had hope swelling in Ronan’s heart. Could she return his feelings?
He asked again, “What do you want, Muriel?”
“You,” she said. “I want you...”
It wasn’t a declaration of love. But it should have been enough. It had always been enough for Ronan before. But then his heart had never been involved before.
He didn’t want to wind up like his father—in love with a woman who didn’t and probably couldn’t love him back. But then he reminded himself that Muriel was not his mother.
She was straightforward and honest. And she had a heart—a big one—he’d seen it when she’d defended and supported her friend and when she’d interacted with the grandparents who raised her.
That was why he’d fallen for her. That and the incredible sex. Maybe he could make her fall for him—with incredible sex. He swung her up in his arms and headed toward his bedroom.
She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and snuggled into his neck, pressing kisses against his skin. He shuddered as passion overwhelmed him.
But when he stepped into his bedroom, he brought her to the bed, laid her down and stepped back. Her arms reached out for him, but he turned away and opened his closet door instead of joining her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice thick with passion.
He pulled out four ties and held them up for her to see. “Letting you tie me up,” he told her.
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Really?”
He nodded. “That way you’ll know I won’t run away afterward...”
