they’d be?
At that moment, one of the guys leapt back into my view, hopping easily from tree to tree until he dropped right in front of me. I didn’t need him to remove the mask to recognize the beautiful brown eyes staring back at me.
My lips parted in shock. Ronan was in Dulce Periculum? And he was telling me about his membership in one of the most elusive groups of all time? The weight of that hit me full force. I reached out and lifted the bottom of his mask, rolling it up until full lips, sharp cheek bones, and a crop of dark wavy hair came into view.
His dark eyes seared into mine, melting me from the inside out. My mouth opened with the intention to speak, but no words came. Maybe that was good because I didn’t want to speak anymore.
I leaned forward, and he met me with his lips in a collision of everything I’d been dreaming of since I first met him, first spoke to him, first felt his lips on my skin.
Our mouths and tongues tangled in a dance of passion and longing and hunger. In that moment, I realized how much Ronan had been holding back all this time. He had wanted to kiss me just as much as I had wanted him to.
His hands slowly roamed my body, feeling my back, the swell of my curves and the sensitive skin around the hem of my shirt. I wanted him to continue exploring, continue claiming all of me as all of his. Because after this kiss, I knew there was going to be no one else. No one had ever made my skin come alive, like my nervous system was attuned to only him. And there was no way you could walk away from a fire and settle for a candle. Because that was what Ronan was. Beautiful, dangerous, and full of heat.
That heat spread within me, and I felt like I couldn't get close enough to him. I gasped for air, not wanting to part from him even to breathe. I needed him more.
When he finally pulled back and rested his forehead against mine, he was breathless, his short gasps for air matching my own as his exhalations caressed my skin.
The truth of what he revealed to me settled in. “You're the leader of Dulce Periculum,” I said. And I’m never going to meet anyone like you again, I didn’t say.
“Yes,” he said simply. “I wanted to let you know that I'm all in, if that’s what you want. Will you have me?”
The weight of what he was saying pressed in on me. Would I agree to choose him too with my dad so resolved on my marriage to Ryde? Would I risk my family for this person standing in front from me?
But then again, would I risk my heart? I’d have to live with it every second of my life.
Slowly, I nodded and kissed him again. After all, fortune favors the bold.
Twenty-Seven
That night, I texted my friends and called them for an emergency breakfast at Waldo's Diner before school the next day. I hardly slept that night, still thinking of the way Ronan had touched me. My skin was still charged from being that close to him. If I touched my lips, I could almost feel his warmth from earlier. I couldn’t wait to tell my friends about the day before... and the decision I’d made.
The first person I saw when I walked into Waldo's Diner was Chester. The old man smiled up at me from his newspaper and said, “Hey, girl, how you doing?”
I knew he was probably just calling me ‘girl’ because he couldn’t remember my name, but he sort of had a pass, being older. I smiled at him. “I'm good. How are you doing?”
He set his paper down. “Same old, same old. I heard they're getting ready to tear down the animal shelter across town.”
My eyebrows came together. “Emerson Rescue?”
He nodded. “Not enough funding. It's all about money, isn't it?”
I lifted the corner of my lips. I knew that, and I was only seventeen years old.
He nodded his head toward the back of the restaurant. “Your friends are already back there. Better go meet them.”
I smiled. “See you around.”
As Chester said, my friends were sitting in our usual circular booth, looking at their menus.
“Hey,” I said in greeting.
Menus immediately forgotten, they looked up at me, and Ginger said, “If you don't tell us the whole story right now,