“Ronan…are you okay?”

He glanced down at me, his handsome face marred by a frown of concentrated frustration. I was surprised to see that all his irritation was directed inward.

“I am so sorry, Annie. They had no right to touch you or talk to you like that. Those motherfu—” He didn’t finish the insult. Instead, he clenched his teeth and glanced away, huffing a bitter laugh. “No wonder you don’t want to be with me. No one is worth putting up with all that shite.”

His words caused an acute stab of discomfort in my chest near my heart. Looking at him intensified the hurt. Maybe it was because I was jetlagged, or maybe it was because of the Bloody Mary; but I couldn’t let that statement stand unchallenged.

“You’re absolutely fucking crazy if you think you’re not worth putting up with those wankers.”

The hard line around his jaw softened, and his eyes widened in surprise. I didn’t take too much time to process the abrupt change in his demeanor because I’d just realized that my words were somewhat slurred. I scrunched my face as I tried to concentrate on willing the cobwebs away, but it was no use. I was not a person who could function well on less than six hours of sleep.

Therefore, I pressed on, hoping to make my point as clear as possible even in my unsteady state. “You’re worth…going to graduate school again; you’re worth writing a master’s dissertation with Professor Perkins as a mentor.”

“Who is Professor Perkins?”

“Now, she is a motherfucker. Just be glad you’ll never meet her.” I shook my head, found the movement made me dizzy. I stopped shaking my head but continued my rant, which was quickly turning into a tirade. “You are worth so much more than the hassle of a few asshole paps. It’s not your fault that they acted like a pack of crude douchebags. You’re smart, and kind, and…just fucking wonderful. Never doubt that. Never.”

I let my head loll to the side as I gazed up in his big brown eyes. I loved his eyes. They were so big. And brown. And dreamy. And they were smiling at me. In fact, his whole face was smiling at me, his eyes sparkling as they perused my features.

“Annie dearest, are you feeling okay?”

“Mm-hmm.” I nodded dreamily then added, “But I’m a little tired…I think.”

His mouth was pulled to the side in a delicious slant. I wanted to lick the curve of his bottom lip, but I didn’t, mostly because the doors to the elevators slid open to our floor just as I seriously considered lifting on my tiptoes to make it happen.

He stared at me for a beat, not immediately exiting the lift, like he was waiting for me to say or do something. Eventually, tearing his gaze from mine, Ronan guided me down the hall to the room. I didn’t take note of the room number as we entered, nor—for that matter—did I know what floor we were on. Neither did I think much of the facts that our suite was huge and beautiful, but had one bedroom, and that one bedroom had only one king-sized bed.

Now that I’d made my point with Ronan and he seemed to be sufficiently calmed down, all I could think about was sleep. When I saw the bed, I stepped out from beneath the safety of Ronan’s arm, stumbled toward it, and let myself fall face first into its feathery embrace.

“Oh…this is heaven,” I groaned as I swam up the length of the soft duvet, caressing the satiny texture with open palms. “I never want to get up.”

I felt the bed depress next to me and then Ronan’s hand on my back; he shook me a little. “Annie, you shouldn’t sleep anymore until tonight. You need to stay up, or else your body won’t get used to the time difference.”

I turned and lay on my back. The movement caused my sweater to ride up and bare my midriff; Ronan’s hand now rested on the skin of my stomach. The sensation wasn’t sobering. If anything, it made me feel delightfully warm and cozy. I wanted him to keep it there. I had his touches on the plane to blame for my level of comfort with his touch now.

I wanted him to curl up on the bed and spoon me. I’d never been spooned—I’d only been forked and knifed.

“I don’t care.” I tried to open my eyes so I could look at him and show him that I was serious; I failed. My eyes would not stay open. So I covered his hand with mine and administered an ineffectual tug, trying to get him to lie down as well. “Come lie down with me; sleep with me. You know you want to.”

Ronan huffed, or growled, or some combination of the two. “You’re making it really hard for me to be good.”

I reached blindly for him, already succumbing to the gentle promise of sleep in a luxurious bed. “So what if we don’t” …yawn…“adjust to the time difference” … yawn… “what’s the worst…” yawn… “that could…” yawn… “happen?”

Ronan’s voice sounded far away when he answered; but his hand was still on my stomach, and my hand still covered his. “The worst that could happen is that we’d be up all night.”

“So?”

“Do you want to be up all night with me, Annie?”

“Mmm….”

That was a delicious thought, much more delicious than an éclair; and it was with that thought that I fell completely and pleasantly asleep, dreaming about all the things I wanted to do to Ronan that night.

***

I was woken up by the sound of a phone ringing, but it wasn’t the normal light trill of my cell phone. It was a meaner noise and sounded less like a ring than an oscillating buzzer. I lifted my head and tried to get a handle on where I was and what time it was and what the hell was going on and am I in my underwear?