Chapter 3

3

RONAN

I only get a second to take in the utter beauty that is Roxie flushed and dazed with pleasure, the pleasure I gave her, before the power cuts out.

In the sudden darkness, Roxie jumps, something falling off the desk as she scrambles to her feet. I help her stand, adjusting her skirt for her, and wrap my arm around her waist to steady her. I’m so hyper-aware of every inch of her that even when robbed of sight, I grab hold of her easily. She lets out a small giggle as our hips bump together, the sound as stunning as she is.

“Oh God,” she laughs, and I picture her shaking her head, those loose strands of blonde hair bouncing. “That was … I don’t have words.”

I smirk, though she can’t see me, feeling more than a little smug. I’m so hard my cock aches in my trousers, but as much as I want to bury myself inside her, watching her fall apart on my hand was fucking incredible. I want to do it again. I want those pretty, soft thighs wrapped around my head. I want to show her just how good being bad feels. I just want her.

I only met the girl an hour ago, but I know I’ll never be the same again. Roxie is mine, and I don’t give a single shit if it’s too fast to make those claims. She’ll learn it soon enough.

“You’re fucking incredible,” I tell her, my voice husky. I can hear the way her breath shudders, and my cock jumps in response.

“I should probably find some candles,” she says, and I agree, wanting to be able to see her again.

“Let me help,” I offer.

There’s not much help I can do, considering I don’t have a damn clue where they keep their candles around here, but I need to be close to her. Every now and then, lightning flashes outside, just enough for me to catch a glimpse of her silhouette.

She slips her hand into mine, leading me around the desk and through a doorway to the right. We bump into the wall a few times, laughing as we stumble through the darkness. After rummaging through some drawers, Roxie finally finds a supply of candles and a lighter.

She hands me a candle and takes one for herself, the warm glow of the flame lighting up her face. It’s impossible not to stare at her.

“Since neither of us is getting out of here tonight, and nobody’s coming in with this weather, I need to lock up,” she explains, a glint in her eyes. “Want to help?”

As if I’d say no. She has me utterly snared, and I’m not complaining at all.

“Sure thing, sunflower,” I tell her, and together we check the locks on the windows, pulling the curtains closed to block out the outside world. “You always lived here?” I ask as we wander around, wanting to know everything there is to know about her.

“Yeah,” Roxie answers. “All my life. It’s a tiny town and a close-knit community, which can be a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but…”

“But sometimes it can be hell?” I fill in for her, making her smile at me over her shoulder.

“I’ve always dreamt of moving away,” she admits quietly, locking the front door and checking the handle as if doubting that it’s secure. “I’ve never lived anywhere but under my parents’ roof, and it’s … suffocating. I’m nobody but the pastor’s daughter here, and I want to be something for myself, you know?”

I nod, and she drops her hand from the door, inhaling deeply as she steps away.

“Sorry, you don’t want to hear all this,” she says, keeping her eyes on the flickering flame of her candle.

I reach for her, cupping her jaw with my hand. She looks up at me with wide eyes. “I want to hear everything,” I assure her, my voice soft.

She smiles, leaning into my touch. “Are you hungry?”

I smirk at her, letting my gaze roam over her obviously. “Starving.”

“For food!” she laughs, shaking her head. “Power’s off so there’s no chance at a warm meal, I’m afraid, but we do have plenty of snacks.”

She’s all the snack I need, but I bite my tongue to stop myself from saying it because she needs to eat. I need my girl happy and healthy and well taken care of. Yes, my girl . My very fucking bones know it.

“I’ll eat anything you feed me, sunflower,” I tell her honestly, loving the way she blushes pretty pink.

I help her gather and carry snacks from the kitchen to the living area, where we set out the makeshift dinner on the coffee table. Roxie grabs an orange and peels it, all her attention focused on her task.

She doesn’t seem ready to keep talking, and I decide to offer her the same information she’s given me. I want to get to know her, every sweet part, every dark part, every inch of her. It’s only fair that I give her the same.

Very few people truly know me. My brother’s perhaps the only person who does. I’ve never wanted to change that … until now.

“I didn’t come from much,” I start, and the piece of peel she was holding between her thumb and forefinger falls to the floor. Her head snaps up, gaze meeting mine. As always, she holds my eyes, totally unafraid despite the darkness I know lies there. “My brother and I left our home when he was sixteen and I was fifteen. We worked like hell to get a shitty apartment. It was damp and tiny but it was ours. Nobody thought we’d ever make anything of ourselves, coming from where we did. But we refused to end up like our parents, we wanted more for ourselves and we didn’t care what we had to do to get it.”

Roxie nods, peeling the white veins from an orange slice absently, her focus still utterly on me. I love having her attention. It’s intoxicating.

“We worked hard as hell for years until we had enough to buy a rundown bar downtown,” I explain. “It took months but we turned it around, fixed it up, spread the word. Blood, sweat, and tears went into that place. And it paid off. Now we have two locations and were looking into more before I went to jail.”

“That’s amazing,” Roxie says, and it’s not in the same patronizing, pitying tone I’ve heard from others my whole life. No, she says it like she really believes it. “You made something of yourself. I want to do that someday, too.”

“You could, you know,” I tell her, grabbing a cracker off the tray and crunching it between my teeth.

“Not here,” she says softly, shrugging. “Tell me more about your bars.”

I nod, letting her direct the conversation, wanting her to be comfortable. I want to know everything about her, but I don’t want to push her too far too soon and fuck this up.

So, I tell her about the bars and my brother and the city. It shocks me to find out she’s never even visited my city. In fact, she’s barely been out of this town at all.

“Can’t imagine being a wild teenager in a town where everyone gossips about everything,” I say with a laugh.

Roxie grimaces. “You could say that,” she answers. “If anyone even saw me and a boy look at each other, it got back to my father and his next sermon would be about keeping our eyes on ourselves or something ridiculous.”

I frown. “That sounds pretty controlling, sunflower.”

A spark lights up her eyes and she smirks. “Just made me more determined to break free one day,” she says, taking a drink from her glass of water and licking a drop off her bottom lip.

“And how, exactly, would you like to break free , Roxie?” I ask, my voice low and rough.

She sets her glass down, her breath hitching. “By doing all the things he’d hate,” she says, leaning closer to me. “Being loud and unafraid, not caring what the gossips around here say, tearing my good girl reputation to shreds, doing whatever I want with my body, with whoever I want.”

Fuck. “And what is it you want to do with your gorgeous body, sunflower?” I ask, leaning closer too so there’s barely a breath between us. Her pupils widen, swallowing the beautiful blue of her eyes.

“It’s not what I want to do with it,” she admits, her voice breathy and tinged with desire. “It’s what I want you to do.”

“Tell me exactly what you want, Roxie,” I demand, needing her to say it, needing her to tell me with her words.

She shifts in her seat, and for a second I think she’s going to back down. Instead, she straightens her spine and lifts her chin. Her hand lands on my knee, and fuck if all my blood doesn’t rush south at that mere contact.

“I want you to kiss me again,” she whispers huskily. “I want you to touch me again. Everywhere. I want to touch you, too. I want … God, I want it all.”

I grab her hand, dragging it up my leg to the bulge in my trousers. She gasps, her hand cupping me, squeezing experimentally.

“You want me, baby? You got me,” I tell her. “But if I kiss you again, if I touch you again, you need to know—you’re mine. There’s no going back, Roxie.”

“I don’t wanna go back,” she breathes, and that’s all the confirmation I need.

Roxie squeals as I grab her, standing and throwing her over my shoulder. One arm bound around her thighs, my other hand cupping her ass, squeezing and groaning as her dress flips up to expose her lacy underwear, I carry her through the building and up the stairs.

“You can’t just pick me up like this!” Roxie says, but she’s giggling and squirming as I spank her ass lightly.

“I can do whatever the fuck I want,” I tell her as I open the door to my room and kick it closed behind us. “You’re mine now, Roxie.”

“Is that so?” she sasses me as I set her on the edge of the bed. “Well, then that goes both ways. You’re mine, too. I get to do whatever the fuck I want.”

I can’t help but bark out a surprised laugh, utterly entranced by her spark. “Fuck yes I am, Roxie,” I agree, voice low. “You can do whatever the fuck you want with me, sunflower. Only question is, are you brave enough to do it?”

It’s not a real question, more of a dare than anything. I know fine fucking well she’s more than brave enough, she’s proven that. But I want to goad out that fire in her, want to stoke those flames and see how hot she’ll burn. I get the feeling Roxie has been told her whole life to keep her spark hidden to make life easier for everyone else, and I never want her to do that with me. I want the full force of who she is, bright and beautiful and blissful.

I want to find her limits and push her past them.

Roxie’s eyes widen briefly before she surges forward, kissing me hard. I groan against her mouth, tongue sliding against hers as my hands find the zipper at the back of her dress and drag it down. I break the kiss just long enough to pull the fabric off her.

“Fuck, baby,” I groan, realizing she’s not wearing a bra. Her tits are fucking perfect. I need a taste.

Roxie gasps and winds her fingers through my hair as I tease her pebbled nipples, sucking on her flesh hard enough to leave little red marks in the shape of my mouth.

“Clothes off,” Roxie demands in that hot-as-fuck, breathy tone of hers.

I don’t hesitate to give her what she wants, what we both want. I strip quickly, smirking when Roxie’s mouth drops as she stares at my cock.

“See something you want, sunflower?” I tease, watching as she squeezes her plush thighs together, trying to relieve the tension between them. “Go on, use your words and tell me what you want, baby. You can have whatever you want, you just need to ask for it.”

Roxie licks her lips, her breathing hitching a little. But I see the moment she reclaims the power I’m giving her, and fuck it’s beautiful.

“Lie down on the bed,” she tells me, and I keep my word and obey her. I stretch out on the bed as she stands and kicks out of her panties, making my mouth water at the sight of her bare pussy.

“Come here, sunflower,” I demand, grabbing her around the waist, needing to kiss her. I meant it when I told her she could have whatever she wanted from me, but I might actually fucking die if I don’t get to touch and kiss her properly. She whimpers against my mouth, and my cock jerks, desperate to be inside her.

“I want you,” she admits, panting.

“Then have me,” I challenge, helping her straddle my hips. The sight of her, her pussy glistening with need as she hovers over my cock, her cheeks flushed, her breasts marked with my mouth, is better than anything I could have ever imagined.

“There’s no way I can take all of you,” she gasps as she sinks onto me, taking the first inch. Her knees shake on either side of my hips, and I have to clench my jaw against the urge to sink further inside her. But the power here is hers, and I refuse to take that away from her right now.

“You can take it,” I promise her, “Go on, sunflower. Take what’s yours like a bad girl.”

That spark lights up her eyes again and she leans forward, bracing her hands on my chest. Her head falls forward, her hair creating a curtain around us, our breathing heavy and my hands gripping her thighs tightly. Slowly, she takes more and more of me, the slide of her wet heat both torturous and delicious as pleasure zips up my spine.

“That’s it, fuck yes, look how goddamn perfect you are, taking all of me so well,” I praise, and when I’m filling her entirely, her eyes raise to mine. I raise my hand, pushing her hair away from her face and cupping the back of her neck. I drag her down for a possessive kiss, fighting the urge to fuck her from the bottom.

Roxie moans against me, beginning to rock her hips, embracing her power fully as bliss surrounds us.

She nips my bottom lip between her teeth as her pussy squeezes my cock, and I’ve never been more turned on in my entire damn life. It’s sexy as fuck seeing and feeling her take control of her body, my body, her life, my life.

Our life .

She moves faster, letting out the hottest fucking whimper. Our kiss breaks as she sits up, her eyes falling closed as she bounces on my cock, lost to chasing her pleasure. Her brows furrow as she struggles to reach her peak, and I slide a hand between our bodies, circling her clit with my thumb. At the same time, I lift my hips from the bed, fucking her from the bottom as she grinds on me.

She gasps out my name as her orgasm starts to wash over her, her inner walls clutching me tightly.

“Fuck, Ronan, yes—” she cries out, shaking as bliss consumes her.

I curse as my orgasm rushes through me, taking in the utter beauty of her as she comes on my cock. I fill her, fucking her through our orgasms until she collapses on top of me, breathless and limp.

I wrap my arms around her, holding her tight to me as we come down from the high of the pleasure.

I’m never letting this girl go.