“Yes.”
Chapter Sixteen
Kevin
Iwoke up hours later, hoping I hadn’t made a mistake. But I rolled over and found Ronan beside me, head propped in his hand as he stared down at me while I slept. I smiled and closed my eyes again, stretching my legs toward the bottom of the bed. Chains rattled and I started, looking down and finding cuffs around my ankles, my legs chained to the bed. As I tried to stretch, the chain pulled taut, holding me in position.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” he said softly, the tone of his voice not aligning with the calculated smile that rested on his face.
“Ronan.”
Someone knocked at the door, and my heart lurched into my throat. Ronan glanced over his shoulder toward the doorway and then back at me.
“Oh, good,” he said, turning back to me. “They’re here.”
“Who’s here?” I croaked.
Last night had changed things for us. I’d…shit, had I told Ronan I wanted to marry him? Ididwant to marry him, but was that really what we’d agreed on? More than that, who was at the door? We’d talked about doing things with other people before, but only as a hypothetical. Had my acceptance of his proposal last night put those plans into hyper drive?
I tried to sit up, but found chains around my wrists as well. They yanked through the D-rings on my cuffs, pulling taut on the other end…the end looped through my ankle cuffs. It jerked me down and flat, and I tried to not hyperventilate. There was too much unknown in this small and singular moment for my liking. But Sam’s words flitted into my brain and like a light switch, I settled.
There was only room for one of us when things were like this, and it had to be Ronan.
I tugged a little on the chains to find a more comfortable middle ground between when the links pulled taut and was rewarded with a soft kiss against my forehead.
“Good boy, Kevin,” he praised, climbing out of the bed. “I’ll be right back.”
Another knock at the door.
“I’m coming!” Ronan hollered as he disappeared out of the bedroom, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
He was back before I had time to overthink anything, which I hoped meant I was getting better at things, and I breathed an audible sigh of relief when I smelled breakfast and coffee.
“I’m going to undo one of your wrists,” Ronan said, “so you can eat.”
“Thank you, Ronan.”
He unclasped one of my wrists and the chain slipped out of the cuff. I tried to sit, still restrained on the left side of my body, so I angled myself up against the pillows as much as I could. Ronan handed me a cup of coffee, then set a greasy white to-go bag between us. He reached into the bag as I took a sip of the coffee and pulled out a croissant. Ronan tore off the end and held it out for me. I opened my mouth and he dropped the flaky pastry onto my tongue with a satisfied smile.
“I still mean it,” I told him, after I’d chewed and swallowed.
“Mean what?” he picked off a piece of the croissant and put it in his own mouth.
“I want to marry you.” I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment, so I stared down at the white plastic lid on my coffee cup.
“I know,” Ronan said with a smile. “You mean everything you say after you get off.”
“Ronan,” I groaned and looked away, taking a drink of my coffee to hide the satisfied smile on my face.
“I love you.” He reached for me and brushed his fingers against my cheek, drawing my attention back toward him.
“I love you. I want to be better for you. I don’t…don’t want to get mad at you over stupid shit.”
He chuckled and passed me another piece of croissant “Then don’t.”
“I’m trying.”
“I know. You always try.” He finished off the croissant and reached back into the bag, pulling out a bagel. I was pretty sure Ronan was trying to carb load me, but I didn’t want to find out why he wanted me weighed down with food while chained to the bed in our vacation rental.
