CHAPTER SIXTEEN
FOR THE FIRST time in his life, Ronan understood what it meant to fail epically. His hand shook as he clicked off the flat-screen TV that was mounted over his white marble fireplace. He turned toward the windows that looked out over Central Park. He’d seen enough of the news broadcast.
The reporters had ambushed Muriel outside the door of her dressing room at the show. Since she’d been so surprised, she had spoken honestly.
She wasn’t going to give him another chance.
God, no...
That had been her reply. He felt sick and hollow inside—even more than he had when he’d dropped her off that night. He missed her so damn much.
Apparently he was just going to have to get used to it, though. She wasn’t giving him a second chance.
His doorbell rang, echoing off the high, coffered ceilings of his apartment. He hesitated before heading toward the door. It was probably one of his partners or maybe all of them. Except for Simon.
He would be celebrating with Bette. Her fashion show had been a huge success. But, of course, her designs couldn’t help but look amazing when The World’s Most Beautiful Woman was modeling them.
The bell rang again—longer and louder this time—as if someone was repeatedly stabbing the button. Irritated now, he stalked toward the door and jerked it open. “What the hell—”
But it wasn’t Trevor or Stone standing in the hall outside his penthouse apartment.
“Muriel,” he murmured, shocked to see her. How had she even found him? He had never brought her back to his place. He should have...
But then, he would have found it even harder to sleep in his bed if she’d ever been in it with him. Not that he’d been sleeping, anyway.
He couldn’t do anything but think about her—how she’d felt, how she’d tasted.
“Muriel,” he murmured again as he reached for her. But before he could wrap his arms around her, she slapped her palms against his chest and shoved him back, just as she had shoved him out of her apartment that one night. But now she was shoving her way inside. After stepping through his door, she slammed it shut behind herself. “What the hell are you up to now?” she demanded.
“Up to?” he asked. “What do you mean?”
“That interview you gave,” she said. “Was that to appease your conscience?”
“You once told me that I don’t have one to appease,” he reminded her.
“Then why did you do it?” she asked, and her gorgeous green eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Why the hell would you give an interview and open everything up again?”
He flinched as he realized now what a bad idea it had been. “Everybody else sends you flowers,” he said. “Your place already looks like a funeral parlor.”
She glared at him but she didn’t argue about the flowers. Instead, a little glint lit up her eyes. “If you’d wanted to send something, there’s chocolate or wine.”
He slapped his forehead. “Chocolate or wine... I didn’t think of those things.”
“You went straight for the news interview instead,” she said. “And I’m still trying to figure out why.”
At the moment, so was he.
She had once seemed offended that he hadn’t taken their relationship public. He couldn’t have taken it any more public than he just had. Except it was obviously too little, too late. They had no relationship, so the only thing that had gone public was his humiliation when she’d made it clear that she was not going to give him another chance.
He expelled a ragged sigh. “It wasn’t a smart move,” he admitted, “but I did it because, just like I told those reporters, I have fallen for you.”
She closed her eyes, as if she couldn’t even look at him, and murmured, “I wish you would have told me first.”
He tensed. Was that because she didn’t return his feelings? “So did I make a fool of myself?” he wondered. Not that he cared about his pride. He didn’t care about anything but her.
She shook her head, tumbling her long wavy hair around her shoulders. He loved when she did that when she was naked and astride him. “No. I just wish you’d told me...”
Oh, no. She had moved on—she was dating someone else already. And probably really dating him, like dinner and movies and shows and art galleries...
“So I’m too late?” he asked. “You’re already seeing somebody el—”
“No!” she exclaimed as she opened her eyes. “I am not seeing anyone.”
“But you don’t want to see me again,” he said.
Her brow furrowed with confusion. “I never said that.”
“Yes, you did,” he said, and he pointed toward the dark television screen. “I believe your words were God, no when asked if you would ever give me another chance.”
“I thought the ex they were talking about was Arte,” she said.
The tightness in his chest eased, and he sighed out his relief. “Okay, that makes sense.”
“I didn’t even know you were my ex,” she said. “We were never really together.”
“We were lovers,” he said. In more ways than he knew because he had fallen in love with her. Of course, he hadn’t realized it at the time because he’d never been in love before.
Her green eyes gleamed as if she was remembering all those times they’d been together...
And hope flared inside him. “I know you won’t give Arte another chance. But what about me? Will you give me another chance, or did I completely blow it?”
She narrowed her eyes and studied his face. “Is that what you want?” she asked. “To date me or for me to blow you?”
He chuckled. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say both.”
She laughed, too.
But she hadn’t answered his question or commented on his feelings. Did she have any for him?
“What do you want, Muriel?” he asked her. And this time when he stepped toward her, she didn’t push him back. She let him close his hands over her shoulders.
She put her palms against his chest again, but she didn’t shove him. Instead she ran her palms up until her arms linked around his neck. Then she pulled his head down and brushed her mouth across his.
The kiss took his breath away. It was gentle and loving and had hope swelling in Ronan’s heart. Could she return his feelings?
He asked again, “What do you want, Muriel?”
“You,” she said. “I want you...”
It wasn’t a declaration of love. But it should have been enough. It had always been enough for Ronan before. But then his heart had never been involved before.
He didn’t want to wind up like his father—in love with a woman who didn’t and probably couldn’t love him back. But then he reminded himself that Muriel was not his mother.
She was straightforward and honest. And she had a heart—a big one—he’d seen it when she’d defended and supported her friend and when she’d interacted with the grandparents who raised her.
That was why he’d fallen for her. That and the incredible sex. Maybe he could make her fall for him—with incredible sex. He swung her up in his arms and headed toward his bedroom.
She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and snuggled into his neck, pressing kisses against his skin. He shuddered as passion overwhelmed him.
But when he stepped into his bedroom, he brought her to the bed, laid her down and stepped back. Her arms reached out for him, but he turned away and opened his closet door instead of joining her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice thick with passion.
He pulled out four ties and held them up for her to see. “Letting you tie me up,” he told her.
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Really?”
He nodded. “That way you’ll know I won’t run away afterward...”
“I told you I wouldn’t try to tie you down anymore,” she reminded him.
“I want to be tied down,” he said, “with you.”
He stripped off his clothes before knotting the end of each tie around one of the posts of his four-poster bed. Then he lay down on the king-size bed. “Tie me up,” he invited her.
Muriel leaned over him, her beautiful face even more gorgeous with the big smile that curved up her full lips. “I love you.”
The words hit him hard and made him hard, his cock swelling and extending toward her. He wanted to bury himself inside her—wanted to be so close that it wasn’t possible to tell where one of them ended and the other began. But before he could reach for her, Muriel cinched a tie around his wrist. Then his other one and his ankles.
He had promised her this—had promised he’d give up control to her. But it was killing him. Then she was killing him with soft kisses and caresses...
With her lips and her fingertips, she touched every inch of his skin—in places he hadn’t even realized he was sensitive. Like his knee and his hip...
He wanted to move, but he didn’t fight the restraints. He didn’t fight the feelings.
And when she closed her lips around his cock and sucked it deep into her mouth, he nearly came. But she just teased him, swirling her tongue around his girth. She even nibbled gently on the head.
He groaned. “Muriel, I want you... I want to be inside you...”
She pulled back and stared down at him. And for a moment, he wondered if this was it—her revenge. She was going to leave him tied up and out of his mind with passion and just walk away. But she’d said she loved him. Did she?
* * *
Muriel saw that fear flicker through Ronan’s dark eyes again. And she knew he’d made himself more vulnerable to her than he had ever been.
His gorgeous body was naked and tethered to his bed. His cock pulsated with the need for release from the tension she’d built inside him.
But it was his heart that was most vulnerable—because, for the first time, Muriel could see it. Ronan’s heart was in his gaze as he stared up at her. He didn’t have to say the words she had. She knew. He loved her.
“I love you,” she told him again.
And his body relaxed—slightly—and the fear passed out of his eyes, which warmed with that love she’d already seen. “I love you,” he said.
He didn’t have to tell her. She knew that was the first time he’d ever said those words to a woman. And she was so damn glad she was that woman.
His woman...
She pulled off her dress and dropped it to the floor on top of his clothes. She wore the lingerie she’d modeled last in the show. The silk and lace was purple and black and sexy as hell with bows holding it together in the back. She turned around, so he could see the bows as she tugged them loose.
Then the lingerie dropped to the floor—leaving her as naked as he was.
He struggled now against those restraints. “I want to touch you,” he said, his voice gruff. “I have to touch you...”
And she needed his touch. She untied his silk power-tie bindings.
But when he was free, he didn’t automatically reach for her. Instead, he studied her face. “You’re not afraid I’m going to run off?”
She shook her head. “Not anymore...”
He leaned closer and kissed her lips. “I’m not going anywhere...”
“Well, this is your place,” she reminded him.
He laughed and leaned his forehead against hers. “I love you.”
Love rushed through her—along with desire. The power of both stunned her. “I hated you,” she said, “after what you did to me in court and the media.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, his eyes darkening with regret. He lowered his head, as if unable to look at her. “I hate myself for what I did.”
She slid her fingers along his hard jaw, tipping it back up so their gazes met. “That’s all in the past now,” she assured him. “Now I love you far more than I ever hated you...”
He expelled a ragged breath of relief. “That’s good. I worried that you would never be able to forgive me.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her naked body against his. She felt his cock move between them, pulsating with desire. And her clit began to throb. She’d never wanted anyone more—not even Ronan himself.
Love changed everything, made every touch and kiss more intense. He kissed her deeply, and her toes nearly curled with the passion coursing through her.
Then he stroked his hands down her bare back to her hips and lifted her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and rubbed her clit against his penis. A moan tore free from her throat. She nearly came at just that contact. And she couldn’t stop moving, couldn’t stop shifting her hips against him.
“Muriel,” he said on a groan. “You’re going to make me...”
“Come!” she yelled as she shuddered and began to come herself. But it wasn’t enough. She wanted more. She wanted him buried deep inside her.
And he must have wanted the same, for he quickly, despite his shaking hand, rolled on a condom. Then he rolled her across the bed, parted her legs and slid deep inside her.
Muriel clutched him to her, raking her nails down his back. The muscles rippled beneath her fingertips. Then she grasped his butt. It was so tight, so firm...so damn sexy.
“You really could be a model...” she murmured against his lips as his mouth settled on hers.
He kissed her deeply, his mouth sliding over and over hers. She parted her lips on a gasp of pleasure, and he slid his tongue into her mouth. His cock slid in and out of her, as well. She arched her hips, taking him deeper and deeper.
But he rolled again, moving onto his back so that she wound up on top. She moaned as his cock sank even deeper. She was so close, the tension inside her nearly unbearable. Ronan gripped her hips, lifting her and moving her, as he arched his hips up from the mattress. They found the rhythm that was theirs alone—like a station on the radio that only the two of them could hear.
And the tension broke as an orgasm overwhelmed her. Her body shuddered as her inner muscles convulsed. She screamed as the orgasm went on and on and on...
Ronan’s hands tightened on her hips as his body tensed beneath hers. Then he shouted her name as he came. Muriel lifted herself off him and dropped onto the bed next to him. But as usual, he moved quickly—leaving her lying alone on the tangled silk sheets.
Maybe she shouldn’t have untied him. But he was back within seconds. He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her against him.
She settled her head onto his chest. His heart was still beating fast and frantically beneath her ear. “Are you okay?” she asked.
His arm tightened for a moment. “I’m afraid,” he admitted.
She’d thought he’d already made himself as vulnerable as he could be to her when he’d professed his love and then let her tie him up. But this was even bigger than that.
“Why are you afraid?” she asked.
“I’ve never felt like this before,” he said. “It’s overwhelming.”
She pressed her lips against his chest. “I know. But I will never hurt you.”
His heart beat slowed in pace and intensity. And his hand was steady as it skimmed down her back in a sweet caress. “I trust you,” he said. “I just hope I don’t screw this up. I don’t want you to leave...”
“I’m not going anywhere,” she assured him.
He must have believed her because eventually he fell asleep. And Muriel drifted off, as well.
But when she awoke a while later, panic flashed through her. Ronan was gone.
But he hadn’t gone far. She felt his lips...on her ankle. Then silk replaced his mouth as he wrapped a tie around it. The other end was already tethered to the bedpost.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Tying you up,” he said.
“Afraid I might run now?” she asked.
“Not at all,” he said. “I’m not afraid of anything anymore.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“Showing you how much I love you...”
He showed her over and over again as he kissed and caressed every inch of her. His lips touched her everywhere, the inside of her elbow, the curve of her hip, the back of her knee...
Then he dipped his tongue into her belly button before moving farther down her body. As he rubbed one of her nipples between his thumb and finger, he kissed her mound. Then he made love to it, stroking his tongue over her and nibbling at her with his lips.
She tugged against the restraints, wanting to touch him—wanting to drag him up her body, so that he could bury himself inside her.
But then she arched off the bed as an orgasm shuddered through her. He wasn’t done, though. He kept making love to her with his mouth until she came again and again.
The sheets weren’t just tangled but damp beneath her. When he finally released her, she launched herself at him. They made love in a frenzy, his cock sliding deep into her wetness.
She shuddered as she came again. “Ronan...” She nearly sobbed his name.
Then he tensed, his body going stiff before he drove deep with one last thrust. He shouted her name and dropped onto the mattress next to her. His skin was slick, like hers. “They got that title wrong,” he murmured.
“Title?”
“The World’s Most Beautiful Woman.”
Unoffended, she brushed her sweat-soaked hair back from her face and wholeheartedly agreed, “I always thought they got it wrong, too.”
“Your title should be...” He paused dramatically before continuing. “The World’s Best Lover...”
She smiled and settled her head back against his shoulder. “That title is yours,” she told him. “All yours...”
“It’s ours,” he corrected her. “We are amazing together.”
But they were more than just lovers now. They were in love. And while her lover might be a little too cynical to totally believe it would last, she had no doubts. They had already survived the worst.
They had nothing but pleasure ahead of them.
* * * * *
Be sure to check out the rest of Lisa Childs’s LEGAL LOVERS miniseries:
LEGAL SEDUCTION
and
LEGAL PASSION.
And for more fantastic sexy reads, try these:
PLEASURE GAMES by Daire St. Denis
BEDROOM SINS by J. Margot Critch
BURN ME ONCE by Clare Connelly
Available now wherever Harlequin Dare books are sold!
Keep reading for an excerpt from BURN ME ONCE by Clare Connelly.
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