“Laney—”
“Stop.” I shoved him onto his back, then straddled his waist so that he was forced to look up at me. “I’m your wife, not yoursex slave. But more importantly, I meant what I said, Ronan. I’m yours. Are you mine too?”
Those dark eyes were fathomless. “I… yeah, you know, I think I am.”
I bent to brush my lips over his. “Then take me again, however many times you need it. Take me until you believe it. Until we both do.”
Our kiss was slow but deep, sharing the new truths between us.
Then, suddenly, I was flipped onto my back again.
“Ahh! Ronan, what are you doing?”
I was met with a grin that was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. Joy shone from Ronan Black’s face, full of hope that was for once untarnished by his past or the shadows of guilt.
“Just following orders,” he told me as he spread my legs wider. “Happy wife, happy life, right?”
I snorted even as he started to slip back inside. “If you believe in patriarchal clichés, I guess.”
“I believe in that one now, only because in this house, I’m pretty sure it’s true.” He pressed me into the mattress, holding my body with his, my soul in his heart. “Now, take me again, wife. If it takes the rest of the night, we’ll make believers of us both.”
28
SET FOR A DOUBLE LIFE
LANEY
“Can I help you, miss?”
Two weeks later, I entered the marble-drenched lobby of the Quayden Building, a truly enormous high rise that overlooked the Boston Common (which was never, as I had sternly been instructed by Ronan, ever to be called the Commons-with-an-s).
Over the last two weeks, Ronan and I had found a sort of rhythm together. By day, we parted ways—him to whatever mysterious things he did at the Blackguard Headquarters and his boxing gym that drew lines across his brow, me to getting to know Boston and trying to figure out what my next steps would be should I decide to stay permanently after six months. So far, this had included searching for a permanent creative director for Meráki and meeting the Classics chairs at three different universities.
By night, however, the stresses of the world melted away when we retreated to the little house in Charlestown, a bubble of books and sex and maybe even love, where no one could find us once the sun went down.
I didn’t think I’d ever been happier.
I blinked at the doorman and offered my best “I belong here” smile. “Hi, I’m Laney Fisher—er—Black.”
I still wasn’t sure about what name I was supposed to be using. Ronan liked to call me Mrs. Black when he walked in just to see me blush, and people tended to address me that way once they realized who my husband was. But at the same time, it didn’t completely feel like me.
Or maybe it just didn’t feel like I’d earned it. Yet, anyway.
The doorman seemed confused.
I sighed. “Ronan Black’s wife.”
Awareness dawned on the man’s face. “Oh! Mrs. Black, hello. Welcome to the Quayden. I’m Aaron, the morning doorman. Sully comes on at two, and then Richard at ten. We’ve been expecting you. Did Mr. Black give you the code?”
I nodded and held out the slip of paper on which Ronan had written the code to the “soulless vacuum,” otherwise known as the penthouse where the rest of the world thought he lived.
The doorman nodded with a friendly smile. “Very well, ma’am. Will we be seeing more of you and Mr. Black at the penthouse?”
That, I couldn’t say. Or rather, I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say, given that this was apparently a very expensive front for Ronan’s personal life that allowed him to live a much different one across town.
The arrangement was odd, to say the least. For one, it didn’t make sense to pay what had to be astronomical amounts of money for a home he didn’t use.
Secondly, he had to know his days with a secret residence were numbered, especially once he officially assumed the helm of his father’s company. I already knew the round-the-clock security chafed his need for privacy. I’d been avoiding it myself. But I felt his family’s notoriety just about everywhere in Boston,along with a hum of anticipation whenever Ronan’s name came up. Eventually, it would just make more sense for him to live in a tower like this for real.