in like it was a lifeline exploded, and he let loose. “You never would’ve had to fight with me!” His nostrils flared, and he gripped my throat. “I never would’ve let you get hurt.”
Like energy cackling through dry air, awareness shot through my entire body. His single touch suddenly commanding my every breath, the pain, the rage, the regret—all of it—fell away. But my entire life came down to one single truth. “You never would’ve let me sign that contract.” And I never would’ve been famous. “You wanted to control me.” I said the words again because that’s what I’d been saying to myself for ten years to justify my actions when the guilt became too much, but they tasted as ugly as they sounded.
“I wanted to take care of you,” he bit out. “There’s a crucial difference.”
“You wanted me to be submissive,” I spat with all of the indignation of a society that condemns that sort of behavior, even though my heart and my body held no such convictions.
“I still do,” he roared.
My breath caught, and I blinked, because Ronan Conlon did not raise his voice, not ever. He didn’t have too. His presence alone made people take notice. But when he spoke? It was with measured, commanding authority. I’d loved that about him. I’d missed that about him. Yearned for it until I ached.
But this man wasn’t him.
This Ronan wasn’t calm, controlled and rational. This man had beaten his brother and clenched his fists when he’d asked me about Leo, and the look in his eyes was one I’d seen once before, ten years ago.
Fighting tears, I did what I should have instead of what I wanted. “Let go,” I ordered.
His jaw clenched and his hand tightened, but then he did what he’d done all those years ago.
Without a word, he let me go.
Except this time, it wasn’t him who walked away. Straightening my back, forcing air into my lungs and my legs to move, I made it all the way to the door before the first tear fell. Yanking the door open, ignoring the concerned look of the bodyguard just outside, I took one more stride and I was out of the suite.
The door softly clicked shut, and I couldn’t hold it in any longer.
I fell apart.
Harm opened the door after it’d closed behind her. “She’s aiming for the suite down the hall.”
“Stay with her,” I ordered.
Harm nodded and stepped back, but before the door closed, Vance appeared behind him.
Glancing down the hall before looking back at me, Vance paused. Then he walked into the suite.
“By the looks of things, that didn’t go your way.” Hooking two glasses, he grabbed a bottle of expensive scotch off the bar and sank onto the couch. “Pretty sure she’s the only woman who’s ever handed us our asses besides our mother.”
“What the fuck would you know about it?” Asshole.
Vance chuckled as he poured two stiff drinks. “Plenty. She’s taken her fair share of shots at me.” He held a glass out. “Here.”
That was because he beat the shit out of her. Martial arts training or not, he was still too goddamn rough with her. “I don’t drink.”
“Because you don’t want to be like our old man or because you’re too consumed with control?”
Pissed off, I grabbed the drink and downed it in one go before slamming the glass on the coffee table. “Because it dulls the senses, fucks with your cognitive functions, and delays reaction times.”
The asshole smiled. “That’s why you sip it.” Rubbing it in, he took a single swallow.
The hard liquor burning a path all the way to my gut, I thought about pounding my own brother’s face in before going after the one woman who could piss me off like no other. “You’re lucky you’re still breathing right now.”
He grinned. “Is that merely a statement of fact or an actual threat? Because I thought you already had a good go of it.” He cocked his head to the right, showing me my handiwork. “I’m still sporting the evidence.”
I hated everything about him now, including the British nuances he affected in his speech to hide the fact that he was a ruthless bastard. “If you hurt her again, I’ll end you.”
Vance laughed. “I was never hurting her. And for the record, not that you asked, but I’ll put you out of your misery anyway—I am not now, nor have I ever, fucked your woman. But go ahead, brother, keep up the good fight. I hear you loud and