“There is no way my father would sanction you to…” I wave my hand around, struggling for once to find the words.
“What? Role play with you?” he asks. “No, that was me. I needed to know everything about you, so I knew how to protect you. I learned you visited Giselle’s place, so I inserted myself into your life. I know it was wrong to keep it from you, but I couldn’t help myself. I could see the tolls your life was taking on you and I needed to be part of the comfort you sought. Do you understand me, Ruby?”
I bite the inside of my lip to stop myself from dropping to my knees in front of him and begging him to give me the care he neglected to administer earlier.
“Why?” I ask quietly. “Why do you care?”
“I have grown to care about you, Princess,” he says. “You may not know that I’ve been there all this time, but I have. I’ve been watching out for you, taking care of threats before they reached you. What happened to you in the alley yesterday is entirely my fault. The guilt is eating me up. I neglected you and it distracted you. If I had taken care of you the way I was supposed to, you wouldn’t have been caught by surprise.” He drops to his knees in front of me, head bowed. “Can you ever forgive me?”
I stare down at him in shock. I back away to the side to get away from him. He is fucking with my head again. I can’t let him do it again.
“Get up,” I whisper.
He shakes his head. “I failed you twice, and now I need to pay penance.”
“I can’t deal with this. Not now,” I blurt out.
He grabs my hand to stop me from darting off. “You know how to make me pay,” he says quietly in that Irish accent that sends a thrill down my spine and makes me go damp despite how upset I still am with him.
I can think of only one way because we are only involved in one way. “We’re over,” I say just as quietly, hoping that is what he is after because if it isn’t, I’ve just made a complete dick out of myself.
He breathes in and nods, even in the dark, I see him wince with a pain that is hard to fake. “I understand, Ruby,” he says. “But I’m not going anywhere. Your father hired me to take care of you and I will.”
“You keep saying that, but I don’t even know your name,” I say, shaking my head in irritation. This man is infuriating.
He rises, again with a fluidity that is so sexy I want to crawl up him and kiss him until I can’t kiss anymore.
“My name is Declan Gannon,” he says, and my blood runs cold with recognition, freezing me on the spot with a fear that doesn’t often paralyze me.