Page 35 of Kiss Me, Mr. Bridge

I nod. “I want you to be happy. Live your dream. There’s fifty thousand dollars on the card. If you need—”

“I can’t take this.” She hiccups back a sob. “It’s too much.”

Tears roll down her cheeks, and my heart breaks at the thought that I did this to her.

“It’s not enough, Lucia. I should—”

“We should never have kissed,” she interrupts. Her voice sounds so weak and sad, I can hardly cope with it. “This was supposed to be a no-strings-attached arrangement. You changed the rules, Ronan. You—”

“I’m sorry, Lucia.” I want to say so much more, but I don’t know what to tell her.

“Me too.” Her breath hitches.

I grip the edge of my desk, my knuckles turning white seeing her tears streaming down her face. Each drop cutting through me like a knife.

She swipes at them with trembling fingers, smearing her mascara.

“Don’t cry,” I whisper.

“Don’t tell me what to do!” She pushes back her chair, the legs scraping against the floor. Rising to her feet, her eyes flash with anger. “You fucked me against your window. My parents could have seen, and you didn’t care. Yet your daughter tells you to end us and you do? What the fuck, Ronan!”

My jaw clenches. The memory of her body pressed against the glass, her skin flushed with desire, haunts me. “It’s complicated.”

“Complicated?” She spits the word like poison. “No, it’s simple. You’re a coward.”

I slam my palm on the desk. “Watch your mouth.”

“Or what? You’ll punish me?” Her laugh is bitter, hollow. “You’ll never get to spank me now. Those days are over, remember?”

“Lucia—”

“You asked me to trust you.” She shakes her head, cutting me off. She laughs. “I shouldn’t have trusted myself.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“Have a pleasant life, Mr. Bridge.”

I swallow as she steps out of my life, slamming the door behind her.

Chapter 10

Ronan

I stand next to my son, Oscar, and his wife while pretending to listen as he talks about the baby’s sleeping patterns.

My gaze keeps drifting to Lucia. She’s standing in the garden. The sunlight making the golden streaks in her dark hair shimmer.

She’s standing with Romeo Evans, a hockey player for the New York Stars, and throws her head back, laughing at something he says. I know she is trying to piss me off. It’s working. And unfortunately, Romeo looks extremely interested in her.

“Why did you bring your hockey team mate, Oscar?” I ask my son.

“Nadia thinks him and Lucia are alike and looking at the way she is smiling at him, I reckon she’s right, don’t you?”

Nadia leans forward and whispers, “And because we knew Dad had invited him.” She nods toward Lucia’s ex Jack, who hovers nearby. “We thought we’d get involved.”

I glance at Jack, and my blood boils when he steps closer to her.

Her father, Niall, told me he’s trying to get them back together. I know I have no right to the way I feel, but the thought of her with that cheating bastard makes me want to punch something.

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