Page 30 of Ronan
She’s on her second glass of wine, and I’d have to be blind and deaf to miss the fucking signals she’s tossing my way.
Maybe I’m reading into something I shouldn’t be, but I can’t help it. Those flush cheeks and fuck-me eyes are luring me in, and I’ve already learned that I am a very weak man when it comes to her.
This might be the night it all goes up in flames.
Dinner was fine, but sitting next to her the whole time with her leg against mine was pure torture, and now that she’s loosening up and letting that beautiful personality shine, I’m struggling to keep my hands to myself.
We’d probably already be fucking if the couple that hates each other wasn’t findingevery excuse in the world to bicker. I swear every time I hang out with them these days I want them to break up more, but I’m far too selfish to give up these random dinners with Atley.
“Is that wine good...?” I trail off awkwardly because I literally almost called her baby girl. Fuck me, I need to stop talking.
She nods quickly, taking another sip. “Mmhm. Want some? Or are you going to sit there like a gargoyle all night? You’re so tense.” Her left hand wraps around my bicep, nearly undoing me. “Relax, big brother.”
Fuck. Her touching me at all is equivalent to the best kind of agony. “A gargoyle?”
Chuckling, I make a show of taking a shot of Jack, and Orion laughs like he can anticipate where this night is going to go. That makes one of us.
“Yeah. Just a big grumpy thing made of stone.” She beams at me, like she’s trying to ruin my life. I’d let her. “You’re strong like one, too.”
You make my dick hard as stone, but we won’t go there. “Strong maybe, but I’m not grumpy.”
Iflex my arm so she can feel the muscle harden, and the way she steps in should be criminal. Her hand slides up and down my arm as she meets my eyes. “You look grumpy. I get that Orion and Emma keep bitching at each other —” she side-eyes the shit out of both of them — “but you’re never grumpy around me. What’s wrong?”
I want them to leave so I can flood my step-sister’s holes. Y’know, the usual. “They really are annoying, aren’t they?”
“I heard that,” Orion grumbles from the couch, but he’s still staring at Emma like he wants to kill her. Or eat her. Who knows with them?
“He’s being a fucking baby,” Emma snaps. “He scheduled these dinners because he knows I hang out with my friends on Sundays.”
Atley grimaces, taking another drink and moving just a little to hide behind me.
I try not to be too distracted by the fact that she’s seeking comfort from me, because it’s one of my favorite things in the world.
“A baby?” Orion hisses. “Would a baby have you in the position I had you in last night? And fuck those friends. Atley is a better friend than all of those dudes anyway.”
She scowls at my sister. “Yeah, maybe she was. She’s too distracted by the psycho she’s fucking to even text me hello anymore.”
“Hey,” Atley snaps. “You haven’t been home in weeks. Do you really want to have this argument right now?”
Emma groans, crossing her arms like she just might, but I won’t let that slide. “Just calm the fuck down. You’re mad at your man, don’t turn that bullshit this way or you’re about to have an argument you don’t want to have with all three of us.”
She rolls her eyes. “He’s not mad I’m hanging out with friends, he’s jealous of one of them. Ronan, are you that insecure that you’d freak out if your girlfriend had guy friends?”
“I’m not insecure, I just don’t fucking trust you.” Orion’s never actually laid it out that way in front of me, and I’m honestly proud of him. “You guys have all these inside jokes and share looks like you have a secret I don’t know. I’m not stupid, and I’m getting sick of explaining why I don’t like it. Are you in love with him or something?”
“No, I’m not. For your information, guys aren’t the only ones who can fuck someone without falling in love. Girls can do it too. Right, Atley?”
Orion didn’t know she fucked him, I know that much.
“What did you just say?” He stands up from his spot on the couch and sets his drink aside. “I thought you guys never fucked, Emma? You swore on your grandmother’s grave that you guys never fucked, and you’ve made me seem like a crazy person for ever being worried. Now look me in the eyes and say what the fuck you just said again.”
Emma rolls her eyes instead, making Atley slide all the way behind me and grip the back of my shirt. “It was years ago, one time, and we never talked about it again. I might as well have fucked this couch cushion for all it meant, and I didn’t tell you because you’re a fucking psycho!”
Orion kicks the coffee table so hard it slides across the room, and I find myself reaching back to keep Atley safe. I know he’d never purposely hurt a woman, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to rage right now.
“Orion, calm down, man.”
“Calm down?” he yells. “Would you be calm? Fuck this. I’m done. We’re done. Go home, Emma, and don’t come back.”
