Salvation (The Protectors 2)

I wished desperately that I could do the same for him. Because for every layer Ronan seemed to strip from me, his own past became more and more of a blur. I’d had tiny glimpses today when he’d told me about medical school, but what he’d shared had been like a pebble being thrown into a lake…look away for even a second and you miss the ripples.

Trace had never told me anything about Ronan’s childhood and at thirteen, I hadn’t given it much thought. But two words today and the way he’d said them had me realizing there was so much to Ronan that I didn’t know and it likely wasn’t good.

My father.

“Come on, get up,” Ronan murmured before he pushed himself up. “I don’t make my famous spaghetti and meatballs for just anyone.”

Ronan avoided my gaze as he left the room and I didn’t manage to take a deep breath until he was out the door. I reached for my cell phone on the nightstand as I got out of bed and grimaced at the sight of several missed calls and texts from work. A glance at the switch on the side showed it had been turned to silent mode. I sent Ronan a telepathic thank you because I definitely would have gotten sucked back into work stuff if I’d heard the phone going off. And even though I was still feeling emotionally drained, physically I felt a little better.

I’d managed to change into a pair of sweats and a T-shirt before collapsing on my bed after we’d gotten home and Ronan had urged me to lie down. Under normal circumstances, I would have been happy to leave the comfortable clothes on but wearing the too-loose sweats around Ronan just wasn’t a good idea so I swapped the sweats for a pair of jeans.

The smell of garlic reached me long before I entered the kitchen and I briefly wondered if I would have to play the same game with Ronan that we’d had to play with my mother regarding her cooking. But one look at Ronan in my mother’s apron as he tasted what I assumed was spaghetti sauce and the thought fled my mind completely. The apron had been a gag gift from my father but my mother had gotten a kick out of seeing the shocked expression on his face every time she wore it so it had quickly replaced the pretty, flowery one she’d bought for herself years earlier.

“Come taste,” Ronan said as he glanced at me and held up the wooden spoon expectantly. “What?” he asked when he took in what I assumed was my stunned expression.

“Nothing,” I said quickly, though I couldn’t take my eyes off the curvy woman’s bikini clad body covering the apron. “Nice,” I said as seriously as I could as I looked Ronan up and down.

“Fuck off,” Ronan said, though there was no actual anger in his voice. “I just did laundry.”

I laughed at that which earned me an irritated look. I quickly grabbed the spoon and took a taste of the sauce. “Wow, that’s good,” I said.

Ronan nodded knowingly. “Can you get the garlic bread out of the oven?”

And so it went. It was dinner, plain and simple. I had no idea if we were friends, lovers, family…and in that moment, I didn’t care. Whatever we were, we just enjoyed each other’s company. I still did most of the talking but it was a role I was happy to take on for as long as Ronan was willing to listen.

I did the dishes as Ronan cleared the table. Once everything was done, I tried to garner the courage to ask him to sit with me and watch a movie but I didn’t want to press my luck. “I think I’ll go read,” I said quietly. “Thanks for dinner.”

But Ronan grabbed my arm just as I turned away and my whole body drew up tight with excited anticipation. Shockwaves went up my arm and filtered out to all my limbs but it was my cock that reacted the most violently to his touch. God, I needed him again. I didn’t care what it would cost me in the long run. I just wanted to feel his body pinning mine down, his flesh buried deep inside of me.

“I thought maybe we could hang out a bit,” Ronan said as he released me. I couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t seem to be as strongly affected as I was. Shit, did that mean his attraction to me had already started to wane? Had my weakness today turned him off?

“Um, sure, we could watch a movie,” I said awkwardly. Suddenly I just wanted to get away from him as my self-doubt increased.

“I have something else in mind,” he said and I had no choice but to follow him. We ended up in the TV room but I didn’t realize what Ronan was doing until he picked up the remote for the video game machine and turned it and the big screen TV on.