All I knew was that I was in his arms, in his hands and that was it.
“Delaney.”
I managed to flutter open my eyes. The last rays of sun made the flecks of gold in Ronan’s green eyes shimmer like ore as he stared down at me, his thumb brushing against my cheekbone. Our bodies were slick against one another, the heat draped over us like bedsheets.
“I’m giving up.”
Ronan had stilled inside of me once more, but I felt in his quivering muscles that he was trying to hold back a tidal wave with his open hands alone.
“Tell me you want me,” I whispered his words back to him, my own tidal wave looming on the horizon, its monstrous peak catching the sunlight.
“I want you.”
“And I want you.” The words spilled out of my mouth before I could stop them, spilled out of my mouth like I was never going to stop them, never stood a chance of stopping them.
Despite being strung as tight as a bow, Ronan managed a wry grin. “We’re back at an impasse.”
My breath was coming in desperate gasps. “What do we do?” I asked breathlessly.
Ronan’s fingers tightened in my hair and I stared defiantly up at him.
“We see who wants the other more.”
Red marks streaked our skin as we each struggled to get atop the other. Ronan slammed my shoulders against the mattress. I’d roll him over, both of us nearly falling off the edge and saved only by sweat-slick fingers grasping for the bed posts. Our peaceful truce lasted just as long as it took to get solid ground beneath us in which to wage war. Our bodies were weapons we threw at each other with the speed of bullets and the intimate passion of knives.
Our pants and moans like battle cries echoed around the glass dome of Ronan’s bedroom. We wanted to break each other, we wanted to break together, to be shattered into beautiful pieces we could mend into a single mosaic.
It was hard to tell who came first, just like it was hard to tell what part of a river cascades over the edge of the falls first; it was all fast, all rushing, all one. We sank against one another like there was no floor, no ceiling, and it wasn’t until the bright white light behind my eyes faded to the first flash of a star that I realised it was Ronan atop me, me below him. My slick chest quivered against his and it seemed to remind Ronan to breathe.
He sucked in air like his lungs were on fire and rolled off me to lay beside me.
“Fuck,” he exhaled.
The dusk sky gave one last blush of vibrant pink at the sight of our naked bodies, gasping and glistening and completely ravaged, and then it descended into a deep violet. Blinking stars outlined constellations as we watched and tried to calm our pounding hearts.
“You were right,” I said, my voice hoarse.
Ronan rolled his head to stare at me. His hair was still damp against his forehead, his cheeks still red, his lips still wet.
“What?”
“In the library,” I whispered, “I wanted you. You were right.”
I bit my lip as the green of Ronan’s eyes swirled, a warning before a tornado.
“You shouldn’t have said that, Ms Evans,” he said.
Then he was atop me and I was deliciously, intoxicatingly, wonderfully doomed.
Ronan
On the second knock, I opened the front door, surprising Shay and Kane, neither of whom had even had time to even slip off their designer sunglasses.
“Hello, boys!”
“Um, that was fast,” Kane said, tucking his black shades in the crook of his slightly unbuttoned collared shirt. “And doesn’t Benson normally answer the door?”
I grinned as I tucked my own shirt into the back of my slacks.
“We were just passing through the foyer, actually,” I replied. “Thought we’d just get it.”
“We?” Shay asked, stepping out of the heat onto the cool marble floor.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” Delaney said, emerging from behind the door I held open.
Kane and Shay exchanged surprised glances as I closed the big front door after them.
“Sorry,” Kane said, slowly, warily. “We didn’t see you there.”
Delaney rocked on her heels, wrists clasped demurely behind her back.
“You’re being kind,” she said, humbly inclining her head. “I think you mean that you didn’t hear me. I know we Americans have a reputation for being quite loud.”
I cleared my throat and ducked my chin. Shay laughed nervously as his eyes glided up and down Delaney’s body, searching for the usual splinter or barb to snag his