The Heiress' Return: No More Pretending novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Ask Him

"The rule said only if it helps," I said.

It was seven in the morning and I stood in Ronan's kitchen with a cold cup of coffee.

I had lain awake all night with my mouth still burning.

"It helped," Ronan said.

He sat by the window with his back to the sea, not drinking his coffee either.

"Not for the man at the bar. He was gone before the check came."

"Then it was a good picture."

"It wasn't for a picture."

He looked at me, and I put the cup down before I dropped it.

"I need to ask you something," I said.

"Ask."

"You said yes to this." I made my voice steady. "Before anyone told you my name, you agreed to marry a stranger in Camille's place."

"I did."

"You never asked what she was like. You never asked if she'd want it."

His face didn't change.

"No," he said slowly. "I didn't ask."

"I've been carrying that since the study." I hadn't meant to say it out loud. "You said you hadn't asked, and you didn't say sorry."

He turned the chair a quarter turn toward me.

"You touched me last night," he said. "That was a rule, too. You've broken it three times."

"You kissed me back."

"I'm not saying I'm sorry."

"Then what are you saying?"

"That you're angry at me for something I haven't explained, and I'm angry at you for being right about it."

He rolled forward until his knees were against mine.

I looked down at him.

"If I wanted the money," he said, low, "I'd have let Gordon put you in that car on Saturday night. He would have had to pay. Two hundred million dollars, to me, by Monday. I told him no in front of three hundred people."

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