Page 55 of Broken King

I got spoiled with him as my first real boyfriend. I didn’t realize until after I started dating other men that most of them aren’t like him.

“A few years ago, I had to go to Italy to see the house my father left me when he died. It’s in Rome, so if you ever want to go back, you have somewhere to stay instead of a hotel. It’s a nice place. I haven’t been there in a while, but I think you’d like it.”

“Oh, that would be great!” I want to ask if he’d like to ever go there with me sometime, but travelling to Rome isn’t like asking someone if they ever want to grab lunch together.

As we finish the meal, he reaches over and lifts the cover off the container to show me a chocolate cake for dessert. I feel my eyes grow big at how wonderful it looks.

Ronan remembered my favorite foods and asked Eleanor to make them for our lunch together. He’s the same thoughtful person he’s always been.

Tears fill my eyes, but I’m embarrassed, so I turn away to look at a honeysuckle bush nearby. “I love honeysuckle. It’s such a pretty plant with the soft yellow flowers, and I love how it smells so sweet all around it.”

He doesn’t answer, but I can’t turn back to face him yet because I can’t stop my eyes from filling with tears. Nobody has ever been so sweet to me, and I’m not even sure he knows how much I appreciate all he’s done for our lunch today.

“Kate, what’s wrong? Don’t you like the cake? You don’t have to eat it. I just thought you loved chocolate,” he says, his words full of confusion.

I shake my head and finally turn to look at him. “Nothing’s wrong. This is wonderful. All of it. You asked her to make my favorite foods. I can’t believe you even remembered, but no, that’s not true. I know you, Ronan. Of course, you remembered. That’s just the kind of person you are.”

“So you’re happy?”

Sniffling, I dry under my eyes and smile. “I am. I’d forgotten how incredible it feels to be with someone so thoughtful.”

That makes him smile like he’s the happiest man on earth, and he cuts a slice of chocolate cake for me. “Eleanor said it had something special in it, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is. It’s good, I’m sure, though.”

I take the plate from him and cut a tiny piece of the cake with my fork. It melts in my mouth like the best chocolate should.

“Oh, my God. This is straight from heaven.”

Then I remember Ronan doesn’t like chocolate. Never did the entire time we were together. Ever since Theo and Marius let him eat too much Halloween candy when he was very young and he spent the entire night throwing up, he’s avoided chocolate like the plague.

“What are you going to have? Unless you’ve overcome your hatred for chocolate?” I ask, suddenly unsure I know that fact about him anymore.

He shakes his head and puts back the lid on the cake container. “Nope. Still hate it. But I never failed to enjoy watching you eat chocolate because you love it so much. Go ahead. Enjoy! Have a second piece. Eleanor will be heartbroken if I bring back this entire cake with only one slice gone.”

I take another bite of her wonderful creation and the second one is even better than the first. “Well, I don’t want her to feel bad, so I guess I’ll have to take another piece.”

Ronan watches me eat, and I swear he may be enjoying this cake as much as I am. “That’s one thing I always loved about you, Kate. You were never the kind of girl who worried about eating too much cake or anything like that.”

I see his expression change as soon as he finishes talking. He switches from being happy to looking uncomfortable, but why?

“Do I have chocolate all over my face? Is that why you look like that?” I ask as I look for my napkin to wipe my mouth.

He shakes his head. “No. You look perfect. Just like always.”

But even as he says that, he doesn’t look like he’s happy. Why?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Ronan

I watchas Kate eats the cake I asked Eleanor to specially make for her and can’t stop wishing I didn’t fuck things up between us. Even something as small as her love of chocolate I miss. I threw away the best thing in my life for nothing that night, and I’ve regretted it ever since.

She hasn’t flinched once when she’s around me, unlike most people do when they see my missing hand. I get it. It’s a shock when they first encounter it. My family has gotten used to it, but Kate doesn’t even seem to notice.

Maybe it doesn’t matter to her.

That’s stupid. Of course, it matters to her. It matters because I’m missing a fucking hand. You only get two, and I don’t have both anymore. That doctor I see wants me to believe it’s not a big deal. That it bothers me more than it does anyone else, but how could someone like Kate ever accept a man who isn’t whole?

“Now I’m sure there’s something on my face or chocolate in my teeth,” she says, hiding behind her napkin.

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