Chapter 10
TEN
RONAN
I WON’T BE A MISTAKE
The pain shimmered in her golden eyes. While her moonflower scent teased under the sticky sweet cherries and sharp citrus, I could tell whatever was going on with her was about more than just a shitty drunk guy hassling her.
Carrying her out of there might not have been the best idea, but I wasn’t sorry about it. Seeing her take out that frat boy with such ease had given me a moment. First—hot. Very hot. Secondly—the fact that she probably knew from experience how to put a guy down was what made me see red.
The bitterness got under my skin to fester.
I hadn’t even thought about how others would look at us. I’d just scooped her up and then I needed to keep my arms around her. As if it was more important than anything in my brain in that moment.
What the hell was this woman doing to me?
More importantly, what was going on in her brain? And would she let me in enough to find out?
I coasted my thumb over her cheek. Her skin was like silk and her hair a heavy fall of wild around her shoulders.
I could distract her. Indecision swirled in the amber of her sunset-colored eyes. She seemed a little lost—so unlike the ball-busting woman I’d come to know the last few weeks.
The urge to bundle her up again was strong. Instead, I leaned in and gently laid my lips on hers. She tasted of cherries and salt from the heat of the day.
Her fingers gripped the tailgate and I wished they were around me. Instead of dragging her under, I coaxed. A taste, a tease, a breath-stealing sip from those full lips wasn’t enough.
I was pretty sure it would never be enough.
But I waited her out.
My fingers twisted into the heavy tangle of hair while my other hand dug into the belt loops I found at her waist.
“Let me take you home, Kira,” I said against her mouth.
Her amber eyes fluttered open. Questions and worries swirled in the gold. It seemed like there were always worries living there. As if she didn’t trust anything, even herself.
Suddenly her eyes cleared and she nodded.
Before she could find a reason to change her mind, I lifted her off the tailgate and brought her to the passenger door.
“You don’t have to keep carrying me.”
“I like carrying you.”
The words felt heavier than I intended, but no less true. I had a strong feeling not many people thought she needed that kind of support. She was so capable and sturdy in every way.
Not just in her lush body that I craved, but in the absolute capability she wore like a shield. Even the most self-sufficient people needed a little care. In fact, knowing the strong and self-reliant women in my own family, they needed it most.
I hiked her up on my waist to get my hand free for the handle and grinned up at her when she gripped my shoulders with a startled gasp.
“I won’t drop you.”
When her brow furrowed, I simply nipped her chin, rewarded when her mouth dropped open with the stark pleasure that bloomed between us like a summer wildflower.
I set her inside the truck and swung her legs gently under the dash. She dragged those long, capable fingers down my chest, and the urge to splay her out on the bench-style seat was overwhelming.
But I knew she deserved more. Needed to know that I would worship her for tonight and forev—
Best not to go there. Maybe I needed the one day at a time as much as she did.
Even if it killed me.
I pulled the seatbelt over her shoulder and harnessed her in before she could complain about that too.
Slamming the door, I went around the back of the truck to relatch the tailgate and give myself a second to get under control.
An older lady was walking to her car. She had her hand hooked into the crook of her husband’s arm. She had a huge smile on her face, and a twinkle in her faded denim eyes.
“I remember those days, don’t you, Harold?”
He patted her hand. “I’ll tuck you into the truck, Genie. We still have some spark in us.”
She patted his arm. “Save the spark for home.”
I laughed and gave them a two-finger salute before I climbed in.
Kira was already scrunching herself down in her seat.
“Ashamed to be with me?”
She squared her shoulders. “It’s not that.”
“Isn’t it though?” I turned over the engine.
Her head snapped up to face forward and her arms crossed.
Great. I knew how to step in it when it came to this woman. My tires dipped and the shocks absorbed what they could, but the gravel wasn’t kind this far to the left of the parking lot.
Ruts remained from the last storm and the natural erosions of people parking where they shouldn’t. I maneuvered over it silently, unsure where I should push her and where I needed to pull back my natural aggression when it came to how she reacted to us.
“Obviously I can’t read your mind, Sunshine. Where am I heading?”
“Back to my car.”
“Ain’t happening.”
Her jaw worked as she bit back a word or seven.
“Spit it out. Better out than in, my Ma always says.”
“Oh, you don’t want to know what I’m thinking.”
“I do. I can take it.”
“You’re a caveman.”
I nodded. “When it comes to you? Yes. First time for everything, I guess.”
“I would never have guessed.”
I laughed. “I have perfect manners unless you’re involved. Not sure what that says. From the moment I laid eyes on you in Lucky’s, you got under my skin like no one else.”
“Do you have to be so…truthful?”
I shrugged. I had a feeling it was exactly what she needed from me. Games weren’t for us. With her reaction to how people perceived her, it told me one thing—fuck around and find out wasn’t going to work for me.
For us.
“I won’t lie to you. Even if the words aren’t pretty—that I can promise you.”
She nibbled her lower lip, but she nodded slowly.
I wasn’t sure she really believed that, but I was more of an action guy. So it might take a little time to make her believe it.
I sure as hell wasn’t going anywhere.
“You’re also insufferable.”
I couldn’t stop the grin. “You like it.”
“No, I do not.”
I waggled my eyebrows. “You do. If I reached over and dipped my hand between your thighs, the truth would be there.”
She reached over and punched me. “Lines like that do not work with me, buddy.”
“Keep telling yourself that. You know the problem with you, Kira?”
“Oh, please. Do tell.”
“You’re too comfortable.”
Her head snapped to the left to face me. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You’ve become accustomed to the men in your life seeing you one way. Which actually works in my favor.”
“You’re making no sense.”
“You continue to act like you’re one of the guys and you’ll get treated like that.”
Her molars clicked together and I could literally feel the anger roll over to my side of the truck.
“I don’t want to be your buddy. You have more than enough of those. Whatever is going on between us isn’t a way to pass the time. It sure as shit isn’t comfortable. And I like that.”
She crossed her arms over her chest again protectively.
She was driving me crazy but being as straightforward as possible seemed best. “Easy doesn’t mean anything. At least not to me.”
“Who wants to be…” she waved her hand, “like this all the time.”
I glanced at her. “Like what?”
“Like I want to rip my skin off.”
“More like your clothes.”
She huffed out an annoyed breath and faced forward again. “I know you might be shocked, but I have had sex before. Good sex.”
And there was the problem. “I don’t doubt it. But you haven’t had the kind of sex you’re going to have with me.”
“You arrogant ass.”
I shrugged. “Maybe a little. But I guarantee I’ll back it up. Not because of anything that has come before us, Sunshine. But because when I touch you, I feel the difference.”
“That’s just lust.”
“I know lust. If it was just lust, we would have fucked earlier today and that would be the end of it. Okay, maybe more than just once today.”
She looked toward me and her chest rose and fell faster. Outrage put color in her cheeks, and I knew I only had a few minutes to turn this around.
“Smarter to just be a summer thing, right? I know you want to carefully put this in a box.”
“You don’t know the first thing about me.”
“I want to. I want to know where and how many freckles you have. How you moan when I slide into you.” My voice lowered and I shifted a little to give myself some breathing room behind my zipper.
Her eyes went wide and she swallowed—hard.
“I want to know what you look like when you wake up. If you’re going to be the little spoon or the big spoon.”
Her lips parted.
“Ahh, babe. You’re as starved for me as I am for you. Can’t you see that?”
“Do you have any other gear besides full throttle?”
I grinned. “Not when it comes to you.”
She blew out an exasperated breath.
“Besides that part. The part where I want to know everything about you—inside and out. There’s the Taproom.”
“Which is why we should not be doing this. What if this thing isn’t what you believe it is? What then? We still have to work together.”
I was completely winging it with this woman, but I knew it was more than just sex. “That’s just it. The minute you walked into that Taproom, you felt the shift. How right it is for you. You’re just not ready to face it. Whatever’s between us isn’t a part of that.”
“How can you say that? We literally have to make pairings together.”
“You’re the boss, Kira. You make the decisions and the plans. And believe me, I know you have a plan B, C, D, all the way to Z.”
“And when I fuck it up?”
My chest tightened with anger and a healthy edge of annoyance. “Who says you’re going to fuck it up?”
“Ever—” She cut herself off.
“No one. Beckett wouldn’t have put you in charge if he didn’t believe you could do it.” As much as it grated that they were so close, I knew that much was true.
I might be the new guy at Brothers Three, but even I could see how scarily capable she was at damn near everything.
“And you know what? You will fuck up some stuff.”
Her arms clenched tighter around herself.
I pulled one of her arms free then opened my palm. She stared at it for a moment before placing her hand in mine.