Page 14 of Wine & Warlocks

The instant before his lips touched hers, she shoved her hand between their faces. “You’re lying to me.Again,” she said flatly, somewhat shocked at how calm her voice was, when inside. she was a raging mess.

“Dove—”

“I’ll ask you one more time, Ronan O’Connor. What aren’t you telling me?”

After a sharp inhale, he hung his head and exhaled slowly, as if perhaps she was trying his patience. Sure, and wasn’t that irritating? As ifshewere the one puttinghimout!

“Ronan.” Her tone was as diamond-hard as her heart had suddenly become. Why the hell did she keep letting her guard down with him? Why was it that every single time he gave her that special look, the one swearing she put the stars in his sky, all caution dissolved and she found herself taken in?

In a single, rushed statement, he said, “I made up the need for a lockdown. It was a spur o’ the moment idea because I wanted to spend more time with you, Dubheasa. I swear I meant no harm to you or yours.”

As flattering as it was that he’d desired to explore a relationship with her, she simply couldn’t stand a liar. Hadn’t her mam lied to her da so many times that he’d had enough and left them all? Was she to follow in the same sorry footsteps as her parents? Destined to have her heart crushed a little more with every lie that poured out of Ronan’s beautiful mouth?

“I can’t,” she whispered brokenly.

“Can’t?”

His worried frown caused the ice encasing her heart to fracture around the edges, and she surged to her feet. If she didn’t get away, he’d do what her mam had done to her father, and he’d charm her into forgiving him.

“I can’t be with a man who spouts lies at every turn. I can’t.” The near hysteria in her voice made her cringe, and she drew strength from her righteousness, standing tall and staring down at him with cold eyes. “You keep away from me, Ronan. You’re not to call me, haunt my dreams, stalk the halls of my apartment, none of it.” She poked his chest and ignored the fact her finger didn’t make a dent or that it came back a little sorer than when she shoved it his way. “My knee will become closely acquainted with your fecking bollocks if you ever look my way again.”

“Dove, you’re blowing this out of proportion. Making mountains out of molehills, as the yanks say. It was abreag, sure, but a harmless one, all the same.” He rose and lightly cradled her face. “We’re Irish, love. If we aren’t fabricating a tall tale, we aren’t living, yeah?” His attempt at a grin never reached his wary eyes.

“My entire childhood, Mam made a habit of telling Da a harmlessbreagor two—daily. Until the night he went out for a pack of fags and never came home.” Until Ronan used his thumbs to wipe her tears, she hadn’t realized she was crying. Shoving his hands aside, she stepped back. “I’ll not tolerate dishonesty, Ronan. It’s already cost me a job I loved, and I’ll not have my heart broken like my da’s.”

Without a backward glance, she’d fled…

Now,here she was, in the one place she’d always considered home, and Ronan had followed her. Although Dubheasa hadn’t for a minute believed he intended to leave her alone for good, she didn’t expect to see him so soon. She’d hoped he would take her warning to heart, but that was for her own peace of mind, not from a true desire to never see him for the remainder of her life. Moving forward, she would nevernotsee him taking up excess space in the kitchen or delicately handling Granny O’Malley’s antique china. Or looking at Dubheasa as if he’d slay dragons for her. Or telling her that he loved her in his soothing, knicker-melting voice that caused her stomach to clench whenever she heard him speak. The fecker had gone and said he’d never lie to her again, and dammit, she wanted to believe him so badly it hurt.

“Oh, Da. Is this what you felt? The constant tug-o-war between hope and despair?” she whispered into the darkness of her room. “Aye, I want Ronan, but is it only desire? How can there be more if he keeps acting the fool?”

As she waited for the answer that would never come, she experienced a strange buzzing in her mind and wondered at the sensation.

Ronan.

It had to be. No one else had the ability to affect her so.

“Are you sleeping?”she asked him telepathically.

The buzzing stopped, and a feeling similar to happiness embraced her.

“No, Dove. I’ve too many scenarios running through my head.”He paused a long second.“Why are you still awake?”

“I’m not entirely certain. The oddness of the situation we find ourselves in, I suppose.”

“Aye, it’s a first for me, too.”

She took a moment to mull over the possible reasons why they might be experiencing such a weird phenomenon now, when neither had ever before.

“Do you think this is a temporary connection, Ronan? Like maybe it’ll go away after Loman is finally stopped for good?”

“I can’t say for certain, love, but it won’t hurt my feelings if we were to stay connected this way forever.”

“Stop with the honeyed words!”

His chuckle sounded as deep and naughty in her head as it always did in person. And as quickly as the happiness had washed over her minutes before, a melancholy teased the edges of her mind, making her sad.

“When this is over, I’ll ask Anu to give you your heart’s desire, Dove. If you wish to go about your life working for the likes of Nick Lamda or sever our new link, or whatever it is you decide you want, I’ll see that it happens for you.”

---