Page 77 of Deceit

He looks a little surprised, but smiles at me regardless.

“Okay, what do you want to do?”

My mouth dries a little, as the nervousness from earlier creeps back in.

“I want…” I trail off for a moment, before attempting to appear a whole lot more confident than I feel suddenly. “I want to see your bedroom.”

His eyes flash with surprise again, but a satisfied grin quickly covers the emotion as he prowls towards me like a hunter.

“Yeah?” he asks. “Whatever you want, baby.”

Slipping my hand into his, he begins guiding me through the house and up the grand staircase. My heart is practically jack hammering out of my chest, which is stupid because I’ve never felt so sure about anything in my life. Honestly, I think it’s just more about the idea of the moment finally being here. About it not living up to expectation. About it blowing all of my expectations out of the water, and the consequences of us never leaving these four walls again.

He leads us into a room on the top floor, pushing the door open and revealing a grand master bedroom. If I’m honest, I’m not the least bit interested in how his balcony overlooks the property or what I can see is a large en suite. I’m far more enamored by the way Ronan looks at me. The way he turns to me like a hungry predator before backing me up to the bed, forcing me to fall with a soft bounce.

His body covers mine before I even have a chance to breathe, as his mouth presses to mine. Our tongues battle in a fight for dominance, a fight I lose remarkably fast. His hands are everywhere, roaming up and down my body before his mouth moves across my face and down to my neck. I feel his cock harden as he begins grinding himself against me through our clothes.

“There is a condom in my purse,” I gasp out, as he sucks on the sensitive flesh where my collarbone meets my neck. “It’s downstairs. Or if you have any up here,” I continue, before his entire body stills.

Slowly, he lifts himself up enough to make eye contact with me, his face practically devoid of all emotion.

“Come again?”

“A condom,” I say on an exhale. “You know, protection? I mean, I guess it’s not one hundred percent necessary. The school did force me to get the shot and an STD panel. I’m assuming the same happens for faculty so maybe—”

“We’re not having sex tonight, baby,” he says, cutting me off shortly.

All other words die on my tongue as I look at him, disappointment and confusion warring inside of me.

“Wait…why not? I thought…” I trail off, too humiliated to verbalize what I thought tonight was about.

“I asked you to come tonight because I wanted us to get some space from Gallows Hill, from the Brethren. I wanted to have a night of just you and me, where we didn’t have to constantly look over our shoulders. You thought I brought you here for sex?”

“I don’t know. I just…assumed. We’ve been seeing each other for a while and…I mean, don’t you want to?”

He pushes up from me completely, sitting at the edge of the bed as he blows out a breath and runs his fingers through his hair. Ronan sits there for several seconds as I sit up, watching him closely until he finally seems to settle on a singular thought.

“I want to, of course. I want you in every earthly way possible, but I can’t. We can’t.”

“But why?” I ask, the sting of rejection ebbing slightly, but not all the way.

His hand reaches up, gently brushing against my face as he speaks.

“If I can’t find a way to get you out of this marriage to Asher, if I can’t get my brother to reconsider…if you have to go through with everything, and they found out you weren’t a virgin?”

Ronan literally shutters, as if whatever he is thinking is so horrible he can’t even utter the words.

“We can’t let that happen, and the only way to make sure it doesn’t happen is to not have sex. Really, no penetration at all, if we can help it.”

I frown at that. “Liam fingered me, that’s penetration.”

Ronan’s teeth clench together, his jaw ticking as he speaks.

“Yes, and he was fucking stupid for that, something I’ve made him abundantly aware of.”

His hand grips the back of my neck, holding me in place as he presses his forehead to mine.

“I want to make love to you so fucking bad, but not at the potential risk to you. I’d sacrifice everything before you, Skyla.”

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