“She said she was hoping I’d come back to her. She’d fallen in love with me. But I told her I’d found my person and that was that. She saw it even before I explained.”
“I saw her at the restaurant. She was torn up over you and confirmed what I’d suspected.” A small smile curved his lips. “Am I allowed one moment to gloat about being right?”
Oh, he was already doing it. Smugness filled his voice.
“You are not, since she wasn’t stalking me and you were already an asshole to me about her.”
That sobered him. “I regret every damn thing I said. Even if I was right about her feelings for you, I know you. You have my utter trust. I won’t hold you back from seeing her again if that’s what you want.”
That had to pain him to say, but sincerity laced every word. He would hate it, but he wouldn’t cage me and stop me from seeing my ex who was in love with me.
“Thank you. I won’t be seeing Megan Mills again.” My eyes locked with his. “And if you ever think about sharing a meal with another woman who is actively in love with you and tells you to your face, I will twist your balls off.”
His mouth crashed into mine, kissing me hard and deep, his groan of pure pleasure like a balm on each of my injuries. He was careful with me, ravaging my mouth while holding me like a delicate and priceless piece of porcelain.
Breathless, he pulled away, still holding my face in his. “Fuck, I love you, Iris. There’s no other woman, but I’ll send her straight to you if one should magically appear.”
And I would claw her goddamn eyes out.
“I love you too, Ronan. There’s no other person for me either. Only us. Only this. That’s how it’s been since the beginning, when you were just a handsome stranger at the dog park.”
“All the way back then?” Pleasure filled his grin.
I held up my index finger. “One.”
He kissed the pad of it and touched his finger to mine. “Only one that counts.”
We talked for a little while more, but I wasn’t great at hiding my pain, and damn, being stabbed was more than a little painful. Ronan helped me lie down, then he joined me, touching me in every place that wasn’t hurt.
“You were mine too.” The low timbre of his words was lulling me to sleep, but I fought it, wanting to hear everything he had to say. “I fell hard, right away, but I convinced myself to stand back up. I was only upright for a minute, an hour tops, before I started falling back down the way I came.”
“Mmm…” I nuzzled into his shoulder. “Falling in reverse.”
“Aye,” he murmured. “That sounds about right. The tape rewound, and I fell all over again.”
“Throw the tape away. No one uses them anyway. You’re staying fallen.”
He laughed beside my ear. “No choice. I’m yours.”
My eyes opened a crack to meet his. “And I’m yours.”
He traced the curve of my jaw with his fingertip. “Damn right you are.”