“What’s mine?” I ask a little breathlessly.
He thinks for a moment, his eyes searching my face as he moves even closer.
I don’t dare look at his lap to see if he’s remembering the nights we spent together. But from the way his eyes darken, I know he is, and I grow slick between my thighs.
“I think yours is the same.” His voice is thick with arousal.
“W-why do you say that?”
“Because it always has you screaming?—”
I slap a hand over Ronan’s mouth just in time for another flight attendant to walk past.
Ronan’s body shakes with silent laughter, and I playfully hit him on the shoulder with my free hand.
“You’re so bad!”
He gently wraps his fingers around my wrist and lowers my hand from his mouth, but he doesn’t release me. Not until he presses a soft kiss to the inside of my wrist, and my breath catches in my throat.
“Feeling better?” He looks up at me beneath his dark lashes.
I shake my head as I glance at his fingers, which are still wrapped around my wrist. The panic slowly building in my chest is no longer to do with flying but has a different reason entirely.
Him.
This side of Ronan, the one who distracts me from my fears and who makes me laugh, feels even more dangerous than flying. Because not only can I feel myself falling for him, but I’m starting towanthim too. Not the reluctant husband or the ruthless mafia don.
I want the man beneath all that.
The one he guards like a secret.
But the reality is that I can’t afford that kind of want. Not when my loyalty to my father is hardwired into my blood, and my brother is out there plotting something that could destroy his entire empire.
My stomach twists with guilt as I look into Ronan’s dark eyes.
If he finds out I knew Callum was plotting and didn’t tell him, I’ll lose whatever ground I’ve gained with him, but turning Callum in feels like the ultimate betrayal. The final nail in the coffin of my old life that I thought I’d hate to leave behind.
Now I’m not so sure.
“Hey.” Ronan snaps me out of my thoughts. “Are you okay?”
I nod as I swallow past the lump in my throat. “Yeah… Thanks for distracting me.”
He shrugs like what he did was nothing, when in reality it meant everything.
As silence settles between us, the sounds of our laughter long gone, I consider opening up to him. After all, his actions today have shown nothing other than care and concern for my well-being, which certainly wasn’t in the marriage contract.
I could tell him how I can feel myself starting to fall for him, despite the history between our families, but I don’t. Only because I’m afraid of what it would mean if he says he feels the same way.
“Why are we really going to Vegas?” I try to distract myself.
“I told you earlier, you said you’ve never been, so I figured why not now?” He smoothes his hands over his thighs.
I open my mouth to press him further, but he doesn’t give me a chance.
“I also want to talk to someone. An old friend of my father’s, who lives in Vegas. I’m hoping he can shed some light on a few things.”
And just like that, the bubble bursts.
