by Snow, Lucy
“Yeah that was a big mistake, one that I’m already regretting.”
He held up his hands. “Too bad, no take backs.”
“Take backs? What are you, 12?”
“Give me a little credit. I’m at least 15.”
I laughed at that, and wanted to laugh more, but the pain rippling through my stomach as my body shook kept me quieter than I’d like to be.
“Keep still, don’t want to pull your stitches out,” Ronan cautioned, resting his wrists on the railing of my bed.
“I’m just now learning that, thanks.”
Ronan reached over and took my hand in his. I looked down, marveling yet again at just how much bigger than me he was. It never ceased to amaze me. “You saved my life, you know.”
I didn’t say anything, just stared back at Ronan’s beautiful face. What could I say to that? “How long have I been out?”
“A couple days. Doctors say everything’s looking good, you should be able to leave in a couple more.”
“Not too shabby for being stabbed.”
“No, I’ve seen worse.”
“Give me a little credit,” I gave him an impish grin. “It was my first time getting stabbed.”
“You’re the worst.”
“I know.”
Ronan leaned forward, a glint in his eyes that I knew meant he was about to get serious for a moment. “I had a lot of time to think these last couple days.”
“In between running all your many nightclubs and shady operations?” I quipped, missing the point of his seriousness entirely.
He darkened. “You know I haven’t left the hospital since we arrived.”
I saw how serious he was being. “I’m sorry, I didn’t meant to imply…”
He waved me away, then came right out with it. “I was wrong to push you away. I was wrong to tell you to leave the city on your own.”
My heart fluttered but I remained skeptical. “Are you just saying that because of what happened?”
“No, not at all. Of course I’m angry that I let things get to that, but I realized along the way to come find you that you’d become the most important thing in my life in just a few days. And I couldn’t bear to let you go.”
“What’re you saying?” I didn’t want to get my hopes up too far in advance, but this was a pretty good sign, all told.
“I’m saying you were right. About this life not being for me. I used to think that this was what I wanted - I wanted power and control over people. I wanted to walk down the street and have people get out of my way because they knew who I was and what I could do to them if they didn’t.”
“And now?”
He waved his hand away. “That’s all hot air. None of it matters. Empty gestures and posturing. What matters now, what you taught me that matters, is to spend your time with someone you really care about.”
I knew he meant me, and I felt a warm glow rush over me, despite being in a hospital bed almost unable to move. “I can’t live this lifestyle with you, Ronan. Don’t ask me to. I couldn’t bear to see you get hurt, to be constantly worried…”
“Oh, Kara, I would never subject you to all that. I can only imagine how difficult that would be.”
I didn’t dare take the next step. “So, what’re you saying?”
Ronan smiled at me, a smile that was tentative and hopeful at the same time. “I’m asking you if you want to keep playing house with me. Not in the city. Somewhere else.”
At that moment I didn’t care how much smiling hurt. “Of course I do, Ronan. I’d love to play house with you.” His lighthouse smile went off again. “But what about the family? All those obligations of yours.”
Ronan sat back in his chair. “Since you’ve been here a lot of things have changed. Let’s just say the Russians were eager to wash their hands of Arkady and his predilections - turns out he’d been running his own operations on the side for some time now, and they were looking for a clean break.”
“What does that mean for you?”
“It means I found a really good opportunity to tell my father I wanted out of the family so I could lead a normal life. He understood, I think, that it was in my best interest. He also stepped in and he and the head of the Russian family worked things out in a much more fair manner than Arkady was proposing.”
“So you’re free to go? You don’t need to be here?”
“Nope, I’m all set. Sam’s taking over my role at the clubs. I’ve been pretty good about saving money so far, so we’ll be OK till we can figure out where we want to go and what we want to do.”
“I like it when you say ‘we’ like that.”
“Me too.”
“I could get used to this.”
“Being in the hospital? I sure hope not.”
“No, silly. We. Us.”
“I know what you meant.”
I looked down, the tears welling up in my eyes. “Thank you, Ronan.”
“For what?” He learned forward, moving his head right in front of mine, and I could feel his warm breath on my face.
“For helping me escape.”
I saw tears forming in Ronan’s eyes too, and he didn’t make any attempt to wipe them away.”
“No. You helped me escape.”
And then he kissed me.
Hi! I’m Lucy Snow, and I wrote the book you just read. I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you read the rest of my books!
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OTHER BOOKS BY LUCY SNOW!
STEPBROTHER ROMANCE
Redeemed, Book 1
My evil, arrogant prick of a stepbrother is back…and now he’s even more irresistible.
And he has his eyes set on me. (52,000 words, HFN)
Redeemed, Book 2
I thought I could stay away from my blindingly hot arrogant ex-soldier stepbrother.
I was wrong. (51,000 words, HEA)
Redeemed, Complete
The complete saga of Laurel and Harrison. (103,000 words, HEA)
