Page 4 of Dual Surrender

“I might be,” I said softly.

“I’m not,” he countered. “If anything, I’m exceedingly careful. I’m thoughtful. I’m...calculated.”

“I got that feeling about you.”

How were words coming out of my mouth when my heart was so firmly lodged in my throat?

“Would you like to come home with me and find out?” he asked.

“Isn’t that careless?” I threw his own question back at him, even though the answer already lingered between us, unsaid.

“Come home with me,” he said, not asking this time. Ronan turned his face away from me and held his hand up. When Callum came closer, Ronan pushed the fifty toward him. “I’m taking Kevin home with me.”

“Have fun, then.” Callum gathered the glasses without another look and was gone.

“Why did you tell him that?” I asked.

“So someone knows where you are,” he explained, “in case something goes wrong.”

“I thought you were careful and calculated.”

“Kevin.” Ronan straightened and smoothed a hand down the front of his shirt. “Come home with me, and we’ll talk about the rest later.”

“Yes, Ronan,” I whispered, following him out of the club and into the parking lot.

Chapter Two

Kevin

Ronan drove a Range Rover.

It fit him, somehow. He didn’t look like he had enough money for one, but I didn’t think most people who had money looked like they did. I made more than enough myself and didn’t plate all of my furniture in gold or anything like that. I followed Ronan back to his condo and rode the elevator with him in silence. If he picked up on my nerves, he didn’t say anything about it. Then again, maybe he did pick up on them and that waswhyhe wasn’t saying anything.

He wanted me to be nervous.

The elevator pinged, the doors slid open, and Ronan stepped into the hallway, not even looking back to see if I’d follow.

I followed.

He unlocked the door to his condo and stepped aside so I could enter.

“Shoes off,” he said abruptly before I had time to look around.

I closed the front door behind me and bent over, pulling at the laces on my boots until they were loose enough to toe off. I arranged them neatly beside an array of other shoes in the entryway, then straightened and waited for his next command.

“The playroom is down the hall. Second door on the right.” He pointed toward a dark hallway. “We can talk in there.”

I nodded and slipped past him, through the living room and down the hallway. He didn’t tell me to turn on a light, so I dragged my fingers across the wall, dancing over the first doorknob I passed until I reached the second. I twisted the knob and let myself in. The room was as dark as the hallway.

While Ronan hadn’t told me to turn on the lights, he hadn’t told me tonotturn them on either, but I was a good listener and I wanted to make a good impression. Considering that, I realized he hadn’t told me to sit or to stand. He hadn’t said to kneel, but I made an educated guess based off things I already knew, lowering myself to my knees in what I estimated to be the middle of the room.

He left me there until my eyes adjusted to the darkness, until I wondered how long I’d been there. I started to count, making it to 379before the light flipped on. The brightness blinded me and I squinted, casting my stare toward the dark floor I’d been kneeling on.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Ronan murmured, closing the door behind him.

“Are you?” I asked.

He chuckled, coming closer. He stopped in front of me, his bare toes in my line of sight, inches from my knees. At his sides, he worked his hands, clenching and unclenching his fists.