Chapter 5 Just Breathe #2
He produced the marriage license I’d spotted on the desk earlier. There were our names in looping script. Ronan Black. Delaney Fisher.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Oh, God.
Immediately, he tucked it away and grabbed my shoulder, his hand warm on my bare skin. “Note to self: legalese is another fainting trigger.”
I batted his hand away, though the rest of me ached for more of that strong touch. “I’m not going to faint again.” I hope. The pills were working, but they weren’t always a guarantee. “I suppose we need to discuss what happens next. Obviously, we can’t stay married.”
“Obviously.” Something flickered across Ronan’s face that looked almost like disappointment? But it was gone so fast that I couldn’t be sure.
“Can we get an annulment, do you think? Or is this going to require a divorce?”
“Divorce.” He said it like he had just bitten into a lemon, then shook his head. “No, we won’t need to do that. I know every judge in the city. I can get us an annulment with a phone call like that.” He snapped his fingers as if he had just performed a magic trick.
My lips tingled. And so, oddly, did other parts of me much lower down.
Why did I have the feeling that he had, in a way, done some kind of magic with those fingers last night? And why couldn’t I freaking remember any of it, even as my body tingled with hidden memories? It would have been funny if it wasn’t so frustrating.
When I looked up, he was staring at me, thumb rubbing meditatively over his full lower lip, like he too was struggling with the same sensations.
I shivered. I had to get out of here before we did something I would regret. Again. “So, can we call them?”
Ronan frowned. “Now? It’s not even ten in the morning.
This is Vegas. Civilized business hours are between two and five.
” He picked up a cup of coffee and took a sip as he sat back and elegantly crossed one ankle over his knee.
“I’ll call later this afternoon and have it taken care of. We can just hang out until then.”
Hang out.
It was such an innocent statement. So why did it feel so suggestive?
“I…” I found myself searching for a reason to leave. And failing.
Until a plane soared through the sky in the distance.
“I can’t,” I said. “I’m leaving today. Going home to Seattle.”
His cup was set back on its saucer with a sharp clink. “What? You’re going now?”
I nodded, standing and abandoning my croissant. “My flight’s at two, and I need to get back to my hotel to pack.” I stood up, and the torn slit in my dress fell over my leg, showing even more of my thigh than last night and certainly more than was appropriate for ten in the morning.
Ronan’s dark eyes tracked my skin. His jaw tightened. “I can get you another flight, Laney. As you pointed out, I have plenty of money to burn. Stay. We’ll figure everything out, and then I’ll use my plane to drop you wherever you need to go.”
My plane. He said it like he was offering me a ride home from school.
I shook my head. “Um, that’s all right. I think we can just share contact information so I can pass it on to a lawyer.”
Was it the wisest course?
Probably not.
But I also couldn’t stay in this room, alone with this man who had clearly done things to me and whose expression alone was making me want to jump his bones.
I swallowed hard.
Ronan stood too. He was close enough that his clean, spicy scent beckoned me forward, his body mere inches from my own. I didn’t have to look to know that goosebumps had broken out all over my skin and that my braless chest was certainly betraying my thoughts through the thin silk.
“You sure about that, baby?” His voice wrapped around me like a cloak.
My voice was barely above a whisper. “I—yes. I have a business to run. A, um, a cat whom well, he doesn’t need me at all, but I like to pretend he does. Bills, responsibilities… I need to get home.”
He floated a hand over my shoulder, then up to my neck. I tilted my jaw without even thinking about it, letting him trace what he would.
“Need.” His finger toyed with the strap of my dress. “Is that what we’re calling it?”
I shuddered as his finger stroked my collarbone. How could that touch feel so strange and yet so familiar? “What else would you call it?”
“‘Running away’ sounds appropriate.”
“I’m not running away.”
“Then why are you inventing reasons that could obviously wait another day or two?”
Because you scare me.
Because I feel myself pulled toward you, and I don’t understand why.
Because some part of me—the part that apparently marries strangers—wants to stay.
“We just met,” I mumbled. “This is crazy.”
“I think the ship sailed on ‘crazy’ when we exchanged vows last night. At least stay for breakfast.”
He pushed a strand of hair behind my ear with such impossible tenderness that I couldn’t help leaning into his touch.
“Why?” I had to ask, my voice suddenly small. “Why do you want me to stay so badly?”
His thumb brushed over my lip as a small divot appeared between those dark brows. All signs of humor and arrogance had disappeared, leaving him as earnest and undone as I felt. And maybe just as disconcerted by it too.
“Because… most of my time is either spent doing things I regret or trying to forget I ever did them. But last night—what I remember of it, anyway—I don’t think I wanted to do either.
With you, even when you’re looking at me like I’m crazy, I feel like I can just be. So, I don’t want that to end. Not yet.”
God, he was good at this. The words, the touch, the vulnerability that felt real even though I knew they were probably as calculated as my tax returns.
“I don’t remember…” My voice cracked with something like longing. “I don’t remember any of it.”
“I know.” His voice was soft as he continued to stroke my mouth, my chin, my face. “I’m sorry for that. You have no idea how sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“Because from what little I can remember, I think last night… it was better than good, Laney.” He took back his hand, and I stifled a mewl as he ran it through his hair, making the wayward curls bounce.
“We were a goddamn epic, Ariadne. The kind that sent men to war. Or at least to islands to steal wives for themselves.”
I arched a brow. “Did Theseus appear last night too at Naxos?”
“Christ.” His dark-eyed glance was so full of naked yearning, I wrapped my arms around my waist to prevent myself from climbing him like a tree. “You do know Greek mythology, don’t you?”
I chuckled. “I might have a half-written dissertation on the subject waiting to be finished.”
I couldn’t have said why exactly I told him. My scholarship wasn’t something I had the opportunity to discuss much these days, and I hadn’t wanted to in years.
But the look of pure joy on his face was more than enough reward. “Jesus, don’t tell me shit like that. Beauty, brains, and she knows Classics? Anything else, and I’ll tie you to the bedpost and keep you here forever.”
Why did my blood literally tremble at that idea?
We stared at each other for a long time, and I couldn’t quite stop my eyes from dropping to those lips. Those perfectly full lips, slightly curved in that ever-present smirk, full of mischief and intelligence and the promise of another dreamlike adventure.
The problem was, I had a feeling if I joined him again in another dream, I might never awaken.
And my family, my heart, my life…we couldn’t take that. “I…”
He sighed. “You have to go. I know. Goddamn it, I know.”
I waved a hand. There was nothing more to say.
He held out a hand. “Give me your number. I’ll call as soon as my lawyer gets the annulment in order and have the paperwork sent to you in Seattle.”
I hesitated but took my phone from my bag, unlocked it, and handed it to him. “Are you sure that’s not too much—”
He cut me off with a look. “Baby, it’s a drop in the fucking bucket. And nothing’s too much for you. Ever.”
Unsure of how to respond, I nodded. “Um, all right.”
While he typed in my number, I looked at the ring still on my left hand. It really was beautiful. A thin, delicate piece engraved with a twisting Greek key. It looked so natural there that the idea of removing it physically hurt.
All the more reason to get it over with.
“Here.” Hurriedly, I started to twist it off but was stopped when Ronan’s hand closed over mine.
“Stop. That belongs to you.”
“What? No, I can’t—”
“It has your name in it.” His voice dared me to contradict him. “Take a look.”
I blinked, then allowed him to remove the ring for me. I watched as he held it so the light caught on the inside, revealing a delicate inscription on the inside of the band.
To my Ariadne.
Oh, my heart.
I watched as he replaced the ring on my finger, wondering at the sudden urge to burst into tears.
“Okay,” I whispered.
Ronan seemed reluctant to release me. “One more thing.”
“What?” I was almost afraid to ask.
He pulled me close enough so that our chests touched. “You let me kiss you goodbye.”
I swallowed. It was a dangerous request. One that could easily lead to more, and though the manipulation I’d seen before was nowhere to be found on those chiseled features, I couldn’t trust that it wasn’t there, lurking under the surface. Ronan Black was smooth. Too smooth.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to dissuade me. Because, I realized, I wanted one thing—one fully conscious memory of this strangely intense connection—to take with me when I returned to my life of steady obligation. One sweet souvenir to go with this beautiful ring. Just for me.
And so I nodded. “Okay.”
Relief flickered across his features as he released my phone. Once I’d stowed it, he took my hand and yanked me into his arms.
Warmth and electricity sizzled through his touch like butter meeting a hot pan, and I melted into his touch.
The scents of hotel soap and coffee and man enveloped me along with that solid fit as one hand slid up my back and the other cradled my head under his chin.
Despite the difference in our sizes, we’d been molded to each other’s shapes.
We just… fit.
I closed my eyes, breathing him in as he buried his mouth in my hair. After this, I’d never see him again. I’d go back to Seattle and my failing business and my grief. He’d return to Boston and his family and whatever problems billionaire playboys had.
This moment—this strange, impossible connection—would be over.
I felt him tighten his grip even as he released my head so he could tilt up my chin.
“Ronan—”
His name was barely a breath before his mouth descended on mine.
It wasn’t like the kisses at the club. There was patience in this kiss along with the intensity I remembered.
He took his time with it, using his tongue and lips to write an ode to the night we’d never remember, to the future we’d never share.
My hands slid up his neck and into his curls, memorizing their silky mess, tugging him closer as I moaned.
He pulled away too soon, and I panted, fighting the urge to tug him back.
We stared at each other. His eyes were dark and intense. My heart was racing again, and he seemed to know it.
“All right?” he murmured.
I pressed a hand to my chest, and he tracked it there until it fell away. “I’m all right.”
It was a faster beat, but not unsteady. Almost as if my body knew his touch was safe, as titillating as it was.
“Okay.” He seemed unsure, but stepped back out of reach, shoving a hand into his hair where mine had just been. “My lawyers will be in touch. Like I said, you won’t have to do much. Just sign some papers.”
“Okay.” I recognized it as the goodbye it was.
Ronan walked me to the door, holding it open for me, but keeping space between us as I stepped past him and out of the beautiful penthouse. “Take care of yourself, Laney Fisher.”
I offered a smile. “You too, Ronan Black.”
When the door shut, it took me five deep breaths to calm my racing heart enough that I could walk down the hall to the elevators that would take me away.
I had just stepped into the elevator when I heard my name ring out.
“Laney! Wait!”
Ronan’s hand stopped the doors just before they closed, forcing them back open before wedging his big body between them and yanking me close for another kiss.
This time, my breath escaped me completely as he lifted me up his body, tugging my legs around his waist as he shoved me against the receded doors and devoured me whole.
The kiss went on for hours. Or maybe just seconds. Because just when I felt the pressure from the doors trying to close again, he released me back into the car and backed into the hall.
“I had to,” he said with a lopsided smile. “Goodbye, Ariadne. I’ll miss what we never were.”
Before I could answer, the doors closed completely on Ronan Black.
I stared at my ring the entire ride down.
I should have taken it off, but I didn’t.
It fit perfectly.
Of course it did.