Shameless - Sybil Bartel Page 0,66
park, he glanced at me before he got out, but he didn’t say anything. In fact, he hadn’t spoken for hours. Which suited me fine because I had nothing to say.
Before I even pushed my door open, my long-sleeved thermal, leggings and boots were stifling, but as I got out the SUV, they became almost unbearable.
Fighting the overwhelming feeling that I was suffocating, I made the mistake of inhaling deeply. Exhaust, trash, brine and humidity filled my lungs and I wanted to weep, but I somehow kept it together as I joined Ronan at the back of the vehicle.
Shorter and leaner than Shade, but still ridiculously ripped, Ronan reached for one of my suitcases and I reached for the other, but his cool hand landed on top of mine.
“I’ve got it, Summer.”
Not princess, not woman, not sweetheart, not even Miss Amherst. Just Summer, said in a tone without emotion.
Nothing to say, I simply nodded.
Ronan pulled my suitcases out and closed the back hatch of the Escalade, and I led us to the elevator. Waiting patiently while I fished out a keycard I hadn’t used in more months than I could remember, Ronan stood stoically by my side.
A couple minutes later we’d been whisked up to the penthouse and I didn’t know if I was relieved to be home or terrified as I opened my front door.
Bright sunlight and designer everything hit us as I stepped across the threshold.
Ronan pushed my suitcases in. Then he stopped and stared at me like he wanted to say something.
I stared back because even in the bright light of day, I couldn’t figure out what color his piercing eyes were. All I knew, they weren’t a shade of brown that made my heart race.
After a long moment, his throat moved with a swallow and he spoke. “Do you mind being alone?”
The question, his unfettered stare, it threw me. He didn’t ask if I was okay, or if I needed anything, or if I wanted him to stay. Ronan asked if I minded being alone and I honestly wasn’t sure how he meant it. Alone right now? Alone in general? Alone as in single? Alone without Shade?
I realized it didn’t matter how he’d intended it. The answer was all the same, but I lied anyway. “No.”
He nodded. “Do you need my number?”
Instant and without warning, tears welled because for once, in that single sentence, I could read the mysterious Ronan. He was offering his number in case I needed him. Not as a bodyguard, but just him.
I wasn’t so full of pride that I didn’t fish my cell out of my bag and hand it to him.
He powered it up and programmed his number, then offered it back.
Humbled, I took my phone. “Thank you.”
“Think nothing of it.”
I thought everything of it. But I didn’t say that. “Thank you for driving me home.”
“You’re welcome. Be at peace, Summer.” He searched my face one more time, then turned toward the door. A moment later he was gone, leaving as quietly as if he’d never been there.
Exhausted, I should’ve gone straight to bed, but I knew I would never sleep.
Instead, I toed off my boots, pushed open the heavy slider to my balcony and stepped into the merciless sunshine. Walking to the steel topped glass railing, I stared at the ocean as a salt scented breeze brushed my hair off my shoulders.
Too many stories up to count, endless views of crystal-clear aqua water, swaying palms, and white sands—it should’ve been beautiful.
But standing here after going to rehab, and then falling for a man too old for me, too wrong for me, and too hardened to even give me so much as a nod goodbye, all I could think about was that my ocean view wasn’t a mountain view.
And I didn’t come by this place because I’d earned it. I’d demanded my father buy me the penthouse so I could look down on everyone on that beach and do drugs wherever the hell I’d wanted. He’d only acquiesced because I’d become too much for my stepmother to handle and a Miami Beach penthouse cost him less than an argument with his wife.
I glanced down at the phone still in my hand.
No calls.
Not that I expected a certain bodyguard to call and check on me. Or anyone for that matter. As far as I knew, no one but Ronan knew I was home.
Sighing, I contemplated tossing my cell off the balcony, but instead I walked back into the penthouse and dropped