“Yeah?”
He gives me a slow, reluctant nod. “I was an ass, and he didn’t deserve that.”
“And you’ll let him do his job?” I need to hear him say it.
Ronan exhales through his nose as he meets my gaze. “Yeah. He can do what I pay him to do.”
My lips twitch despite myself as I walk back over to him slowly and kiss him. It’s soft and hesitant, and Ronan’s hands find my waist again as he licks along my lower lip.
“You’re on thin ice,” I warn him when we break apart.
“Fair enough.”
“And if youeverpull some possessive macho bullshit like that again?—”
“You’ll leave me.”
“Maybe,” I shrug, though I have no idea if that is even a possibility at this point. “Or maybe I’ll show you what real flirting looks like with the next guy you assign to be my bodyguard.”
A grin tugs at the corner of his mouth, like he knows better than to think I’m joking.
I hold my hand to the side of his face. “This thing between us... It only works if we’re in it together.”
“I know. I want to be better for you and for us.”
For our child.
The thought catches me off guard, but perhaps this is the right time to come clean…
“There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about…” My heart starts to pound in my chest.
Ronan’s brow furrows slightly as his eyes search mine, then he leans in and silences me with another kiss.
“Can it wait?” he murmurs against my mouth. “It feels like we finally got something right tonight, so maybe we quit while we’re ahead, just this once.”
I should push back and tell him that no, it can’t wait. But I find myself losing my nerve once again.
The words are on the tip of my tongue, but I bite them back, wanting to cling to this moment with him for just a little longer.
Maybe Ronan’s right.
Maybe this one quiet moment of peace is something we shouldn’t disturb just yet because I know the moment I utter the wordsI’m pregnantout loud, that peace will never show its face again. At least not for the next eighteen years.
“Yeah. Of course, it can wait.” I’ve already waited this long, so what’s a few more days?
Thankfully, Ronan doesn’t notice the flicker of hesitation in my voice. He just wraps me up in his arms and holds me like it’s the only thing anchoring him to the earth, and for tonight, that’s enough.
Chapter Twenty-Three
RONAN
I ruba hand over my face and exhale through my nose as I lean back in my chair. I still feel the lingering heat from Ciara’s touch all over my body. She doesn’t even need to touch my skin to make me absolutely feral with need.
Should I have finished our conversation instead of fucking her? Probably. But I don’t regret taking her right here on my desk, her sweet scent lingering in the air even after she’s gone.
It’s like she’s marking her territory, making sure I can never get any work done because all I can think about as I sit in my chair is her spread out before me like my own personal feast.
I wish I had a chance to taste her, but she was too desperate for my cock, and who am I to deny my wife?
