Page 199 of Sweet Temptation

“That’s not a bad thing,” she said. “What would I do without you? You questioned everything you saw when you walked into my life. And maybe I needed that. Just like you said.”

Okay… So we were officially getting to that point in our relationship where we were starting to really open up—and vocalize—our appreciation of each other. She’d been saying things like that a lot lately.

I kinda loved it… even when it made me uncomfortable.

I’d decided, long ago, that I was taking a little… hiatus… from falling in love. Not that I was never gonna do it again. I’d be an idiot to make a promise like that to myself, because who the hell knew that the future held?

But I’d definitely put my heart on ice. And out of reach of the women I met.

It was a conscious choice.

I just didn’t see Summer coming. This woman who’d not only thawed me out, but set me on fire.

It was intoxicating, being admired by her. Being wanted by her.

Being with her.

But I also had years of honing my extreme self-control, my cool demeanor, my icy self-protectiveness… and it wasn’t so easy to just let it all go and openly bathe in her kind words.

“Well,” I said modestly, “if it wasn’t me, Brody and Jude would find someone else. There are other men who do what I do.”

“No,” she said firmly. “There aren’t.”

God. She was killing me.

Just take my heart, for fuck’s sake.

It’s yours.

I almost wanted to say it to her.

Instead, I looked away, at the posters on the walls. “So, did you play all these shows?”

“No. Most of them, yes. But some of these are just flyers from shows I went to that I loved, or ones where I loved the art they put on it. I wanted every inch of wall in this box to inspire me, so no matter which way I look, I like the view.”

I looked at her, and she was still looking at me.

“Did you always know you wanted to be a bodyguard?”

“No. I had an uncle who ran the company before I did. He was always a role model for me. And then he became a mentor. If it wasn’t for him… I probably would’ve ended up in the military.”

Or maybe in jail. Who the fuck knew?

“Really?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Uh. I just can’t really see you marching in formation, taking orders.”

“Why not?”

“You’re way too alpha.”

I smirked a little. “So maybe I’d be giving the orders?”

She eyed me. “Nope. Still can’t see it. Underneath that stony exterior, you’re a free spirit, Ronan Sterling.”

“Maybe. Either way, my uncle was in the military. And he told me if I went that direction I’d be dead or destroyed before I was twenty-five.”

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