"Just shine like you always do."
Gwenn Davidson has always known she was adopted, but after clearing up her stuff for her first move out of her parent's house, she finds an old blanket gifted to her by her birth mother that triggers an avalanche of...
A lull passed between them, neither knowing what to say. Gwenn busied herself eating, chewing for far too much time than it was normal. Ronan cleared his throat when he wiped his plate clean with his last bite.
"After I received news that I got the spot, I started settling on my own," he revealed. She found his eyes, glimmering like burning stars in the night sky. "I can stay here like I always wanted, and have the job of my dreams."
Gwenn popped the last bit of her pancake into her mouth to smother her growing grin. "Already found a place?"
"Already signed the papers," he said.
Once she swallowed, she let the grin show through. "If it weren't for this counter, I'd throw myself on you to hug you." Ronan bit down on his lip, looking down at said counter with a flush on his cheeks.
"Should I do something about that then?" He gazed up at her, then ran to the other side of the counter. She yelped as he threw his arms around her, successfully picking her up from the stool and twirling her around her apartment.
She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. Though her massive headache pounded hard, she couldn't stop her lips from stretching into a big smile.
"I missed that," he whispered, his words breathing into her own lips. "I missed that contagious smile of yours."
Her smile dimmed, but her eyes were alight with vigor. A surge of energy coursed through her being like she was zapped with an electrical shock. His touch alone burned her so nicely, she was on the verge of melting and sparking a thousand wildfires at the same time.
"The last few weeks were hell," she said, going against every molecule in her body that wanted to ignite.
Ronan set her down, but his arms never left her waist. "They were."
Both knew they weren't talking about their recent successes. That wasn't about him getting the spot at MNTR. That wasn't about her finally standing up to the hungry wolf.
"I'm sorry about what I did," she whispered. "I shouldn't have given Wolf all that information. I shouldn't have let him hold that much power over me."
He shushed her, pressing his forehead on hers. "I know what he can be like, honey. I'm just sorry I never got to...ruffle him up a bit for what he did to you."
Gwenn giggled at the slight bite in his tone. "Violence never solves anything," she chided. "Besides, he has more things to worry about now."
Ronan grinned, and she wished she could commit the image exactly to memory. The dimple on his cheek. The singular crooked tooth peeking out from the bottom. The crinkles on the sides of his icy eyes. Everything.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry I never told you the truth earlier," he said. "You deserved to hear it a lot sooner from me, not from him."
She reached up to touch his cheek. Her heart sighed when he leaned into her hand. At any minute, she thought he would disappear into thin air, like a product of a sick trick. But he was there, solid on her palm.
"I do wish you would've told me," Gwenn said after a pause. "But I don't blame you. I really don't."
His smile saddened. "I was a coward. I just didn't want to lose you after everything."
Her forehead creased. "You wouldn't have lost me."
"Gwenn," he started, then stopped as if to compose himself. His fingers dug into her waist, looking to ground himself in her. He closed his eyes, sighing in defeat. "When we struck our deal, I didn't think this would happen."
His words started to make less sense. She feared he had found a way to slip in alcohol into her home and was under the same influence she was the night before. But when he met her eyes, he was focused, serious.
"I thought it would be an easy exchange, but the more I got to know you and the more I got to spend time with you, the more I didn't want to be away from you."
Gwenn stared up at his face, searching every corner to find the tell. Anything to confirm her deepest fears that her ears were hearing the beautiful song of pure lies.
"I wasn't expecting to fall for you, Gwenn," he said, pulling her in close. "If you don't share these same feelings, just tell me right now and I'll leave you be."
Her eyes began to sting with a new wave of tears. "You're an idiot." His grip loosened on her waist. His mouth parted, ready to say something else. "Couldn't you see that I was falling for you, too?"
Within a second of taking her words in, Ronan crashed his lips on hers. The smallest yelp escaped her throat, but she swallowed it down as she closed her eyes at the feel of him overriding her senses. She let her other hand come up to wrap around his neck, pulling him down closer.
Ronan put an inch between them, breathing deeply into her lips. "You have no idea how much I dreamed of kissing you again."
She didn't have time to react before he was pulling her in again into another mind-numbing kiss. She sighed into his lips, her knees so weak that if it weren't for him holding her up, she would have collapsed like she were still drunk.
When they parted for the second time, Gwenn caught her breath. She didn't even have time to compose herself before Ronan hugged her, letting his head fall on her shoulders.
"Be mine, please," he whispered into the bare skin of her shoulders. Her eyelids drooped as she took in his scent that was so wonderfully him. Vodka didn't have the power to fog her senses like he did.
"I've been yours." The words left her lips without warning, without a thought. But they were the truest words she had uttered in the longest time.
Ronan lifted his head before his lips pressed against her forehead, then her nose, before joining her lips. Her heart hammered in her chest like it wanted to fall out onto her floors.
"Nothing makes me happier than this," he admitted. A wicked grin stretched on his lips then, different than the growing smiles he had been handing out to her moments before. This one was wide, glimmering, and just on the brink of being feral. "I wish I had brought the gift I got you with me."
Bubbling excitement clawed its way up her throat. They had been drifted apart in the last weeks, but he had been thinking of her the same way she had of him. "What was it?" she asked.
He bit down on his lip. "A necklace."
Gwenn smiled. "I can't wait to wear it."
They both stared at each other, like they were suspended in the same disbelief. Ronan was right there in her arms, looking down at her like he held onto the world. And maybe he did because in her hands lay a sun, shining so bright she was nearly blinded by its luminescence, and she couldn't care less.
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