“Shh, no need.” Kayla placed her palm against Ronan’s chest. “It was a chance to redeem myself. If I’d done things differently after he’d attacked me the first time, he wouldn’t have even been here in Austin. I’m so sorry that I brought all that craziness into our lives.”
Ronan pushed her head against his broad chest and kissed the top of her light blonde hair. “Okay, we’ll have to agree to disagree on which one of us has the right to feel more guilty. Fuck, I just wanted to say thank you, and you start a contest for who’s the biggest arse.” Ronan chuckled while Kayla playfully slapped his chest.
Duncan took Kayla’s elbow in his hand and positioned her next to him by bringing his arm over her shoulder. Their height difference made her look even smaller since she was barely five foot five. He took his turn in kissing the top of her long, waist-length, almost white hair and said, “Okay, that’s enough. She may have saved your life, but she’s still my girl, so leave her alone. Go find yourself your own woman.”
Donovan and Ronan chuckled at Duncan’s playful scowl and joined Pops, their dad, and their brothers Declan and Brennan. They were in the middle of retelling the events from Ronan’s fight last night when Donovan overheard Kate’s sisters over the rowdy pub goers.
Kayla voiced her worry for Kate to Errin. “You know how she gets. She needs to get her butt off the couch and get out more.”
Donovan strained his ears to hear the rest of the conversation behind his back in the crowded pub, but he was quickly reminded that Errin wasn’t so demure as Kate when she spoke rather loudly. “Oh, come on, sis. She probably wants to test her new toy tonight and doesn’t need me to be home. You know how thin the walls are in our apartment.”
During his investigation of her personal life, Donovan started seeing the sweet and demure Kate in a whole different light. He discovered she liked the thought of being dominated, as she read smut where the heroine was spanked six ways from Sunday. He even spotted several orders for sex toys in the last year only.
The thought of Kate playing with some of her toys had his blood boiling. He wanted to be the one to play with her. He wanted to tease her, to extend her high before she came beautifully for him.
He turned to Ronan and clapped him on his back. “Ro, something came up, and I need to leave. Again, congratulations, bro.” Ronan narrowed his light green eyes at Donovan, opened his mouth to probably tell him off but closed it again when he was interrupted.
“Come, do some shots with me to celebrate,” shouted an attractive redhead with ample cleavage who was hanging on Ronan’s arm. “Ooh, where’s your beard, Ronan?” She pouted as she let her long, red nails trail over his jawline.
Ronan had the biggest build of all the Mills brothers since he was the MMA fighter who still practiced. Their brother Duncan had to stop fighting due to a shoulder injury last year, but instantly took on the role of coach and trainer for Ronan.
People often confused Ronan and Duncan because they seemed so alike. They both were bulky, muscled, six-foot-four fighting machines with a strong jawline, crooked nose, and they both even had a scar running through their right eyebrow. And obviously those twinkling, light green eyes full of mischief were another factor to make them so alike. In contrast to the other three Mills brothers, they were always shooting the shit, those two.
But where Duncan’s hair was shaved closed to his scalp and his face always clean shaven, Ronan appeared rougher, beast like even, with longer, messy dark hair on top and one hell of a beard—which he’d had to shave off for the last fight.
As he stood there for a second, the girl who hung on his brother’s arm threw her long red hair over her shoulder and winked suggestively at Donovan. He shook his head in annoyance and walked out of his family’s pub.
During the drive to Kate’s apartment, doubt kicked in and he was this close to turning around and going home. Maybe he could text an old hookup and fuck Kate out of his system. But he sighed while coming to the conclusion that he’d been trying that tactic for the past five months, and it hadn’t worked so far.