Curvy Girls Can't Date Bad Boys - Kelsie Stelting Page 0,82
forming in my throat. “I just didn't want you guys to be hurt. I care about you. Even if...” My voice cracked. “Even if you don’t care about me.”
Slowly, he stepped forward, as if he were afraid of shattering what was left of the walls holding me together. His hand reached out, and he brushed his thumb over my cheek. I practically disintegrated into his hand. My body had missed him, his touch, more than my mind even comprehended.
I had to speak, had to do something to make sure this wasn’t goodbye for good. “I know you're mad at me for not telling you about Ryde, but I promise you, if you could give me another chance, I'll never keep a secret again.”
He shook his head quickly, and my heart fell. It was senseless of me to hope for a second chance when I had so colossally ruined the first. I look down and nodded. “You’re right. I shouldn't have even asked.”
His fingers lifted my chin, and his dark eyes captivated mine. “Don't you ever apologize to me again. You made a mistake, but I did too. I found gold in you, but I let the tarnish of the world keep me away. Amore et melle et felle es fecundissimus.”
I panned my memory, trying to figure out what those words meant, but I couldn’t remember a one.
“Love is rich with honey and venom,” he answered my unspoken question. He cupped my cheeks with both of his hands, so close now I could feel his breath on my skin. Smell the freshness of his gum. It intoxicated me, but not as much as his next words. “I would get stung a million times before I would ever give up something so sweet.”
I held my breath, scared to even dream of what this meant. “You told me we were over?”
His eyes softened, and he tilted his head so we were eye level. “No one ever said I was smart.”
The meaning struck me fully, but so did fear. “But what if I mess up again? What if I do something else wrong? I don't think I can take you leaving again.”
He shook his head. “I’m going to mess up, and you are too, but I’m here for you. For us. I'm not leaving if you're not.”
“You’re not?”
“No.” He was resolute. “If I’ve learned anything, it’s that there are some things worth getting burned for.”
The strength in his words, the message behind them, caught me right in the heart. Tears leaked from my eyes, happiness at what he was saying and sadness at his past. “What does this mean for us?”
“It means we're doing the biggest Dulce Periculum stunt of all.”
“And what would that be?” I asked.
“Falling in love.”
A light only Ronan possessed shined in his eyes, and I drank it all in, getting lost in the sunlight. I leaned in close and pressed my lips against his, tasting everything that was uniquely Ronan.
His hands caressed my face, the back of my neck, tangling in my wavy hair and then moving down my body. He had missed me too; I could feel it in his touch and in the way he savored each moment. I recognized the feeling in myself.
“I love you,” he said against my lips, and I barely broke the kiss long enough to whisper it back.
I had meant what I said in front of the cameras. Ronan was everything I had dreamed of having in a guy, but now he was right here in front of me, making my reality even better.
The sun had begun fading when Ronan pulled back and linked his fingers through mine. It made me think of my mom saying the sun was shining through the window as she had me. Maybe this was the birth of something new—something incredible.
“We're going to be late for your party,” Ronan said.
My eyes flew open, and a cuss word slipped past my parted lips. “I completely forgot. My friends are going to be so mad at me!”
He chuckled low, in a way that told me he knew something I didn't.
“Why are you laughing?” I demanded. “You’re going to be the stranger meeting them for the first time and taking the blame for making me late!”
“What if I told you I was part of the birthday present?” He waggled his eyebrows, lighter and more carefree than I'd seen him. I liked the look on him, and it made me feel like maybe we were getting back to where we'd been before—but