He bumped his tray, nearly upending the glass of water he was drinking with the spaghetti. “What? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. You’ll never guess what he wanted.”

“What’s that?”

“He told me to ‘call off the Steels.’”

Ryan scoffed. “Or what?”

I knew one thing. My father didn’t make warnings for the hell of it. He wouldn’t harm me. He’d consider it offensive. It was okay to rape me, but now that I was grown and a cop? He had a strange desire to see me succeed, which was directly contradictory to him succeeding. That was my theory, at least. With the power he seemed to possess, he could have taken me out long ago.

However, he could harm the Steels. He’d have no qualms about that.

That wasn’t happening on my watch.

“My father doesn’t make empty threats.”

“Joe said something about when Wendy was holding him captive—that either Mathias or Simpson, I can’t remember which, said they knew the consequences if they harmed Joe. That could have been a lie of course. Are you telling me we should back off?”

“I would never tell you that. Even if I did, you and your brothers would never back off.”

His shoulders slumped slightly. “Ruby, I might.”

I stared at him, my eyes wide. Had I heard him right? That didn’t sound at all like the Ryan Steel I knew. And loved. “What?”

He sighed. “I might. I love my brothers and my sister, but they lied to me.” He cleared his throat. “You lied to me too.”

I had known that would come up eventually. “I didn’t lie, Ryan.”

“Fine. Semantics. You omitted. Then you gave my hair to my sister for a DNA test.”

“We’ve been through that.”

He sighed again. “I know. The least you could have done is fought me on it. But no. You did the cop thing. You admitted your wrongdoing and stepped up to take the consequences.”

I braced myself. “So what are the consequences?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t know.” He looked me straight in the eyes. “I don’t know if I can trust you.”

I gulped, my heart pounding. “You can trust me, Ryan. I swear it.”

“I’d like to be able to.”

“Then do. I won’t let you down.” I put the container of food on a nearby table and went to him, cupping his cheeks, staring into his sad but beautiful brown eyes.

“I want to. I want…a lot of things from you.”

I had no idea what he was getting at. I loved him with all my heart, but I wasn’t sure someone as amazing as Ryan Steel could ever love me.

“Anything. What do you need?”

He smiled. “First, you can tell your psycho father that the Steels aren’t going anywhere.”

Good sign. I hadn’t bought it when he said he might back off. He still considered himself a Steel. Of course he was one. He had the same father as the others. “He hung up before I could say anything, but my father isn’t stupid. He knows I won’t call you off, even if I could.”

“Good.” He winked. “I’ve got one hell of a boner right now, so next, you can climb on top of me.”

I chilled. We were in the hospital where anyone could walk in. “Ryan, that’s not going to happen.”

“Why not?”

“You’re recovering from a concussion, for one. And we’re in a public place.”

“No more public than when we were on a nude beach.”

“Oh my God…”

“And this is a private room. I’ll bet there’s a lock on the door.”

I looked toward the door. There was a lock. Still…this wasn’t happening.

Was it?

I was turned on already, just thinking about having Ryan again. “Why would you want to fuck someone you’re not sure you trust?”

“Christ, Ruby. I can’t help what you do to me. I can’t help what I feel.”

What do you feel? The question was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t bring forth the words. In all likelihood, he only meant that he was feeling something physical.

In truth, so was I.

I couldn’t tell Ryan I loved him—I was too insecure, too frightened, to do that—but maybe I could show him. Besides, I had to make some use of the pink string flossing my butt. What had I been thinking, trying to wear a thong? It was so not me.

A seductress I was not, but Ryan had asked me earlier to take my hair down, so I slowly raised my hand to the knot at the back of my head and pulled out the two barrettes holding it in place. My nearly black hair tumbled in a sleek mass down my back and over my shoulders.

“Your hair is so beautiful,” he said.

I warmed at his approval, turned, and walked to the door. It was already closed, so I simply pushed in the locking mechanism. Then I walked back to the bed.

Ryan’s cock was tenting the sheet covering him.

I drew in a deep breath and touched the top button of my shirt.