Nine
Gray
Ronan took the adjacent stool, enveloping me in his cloves-and-campfire scent. I tried not to shiver as his shoulder brushed against mine.
Neither of us made a move to look at each other.
“Desario.” c*****g his head toward me, he said, “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a blood-sucker dive like this?”
“Looking for my future ex-husband, obviously.”
“I brought stakes.” Ronan slid a protective arm over the high back of my stool and leaned in, warm breath tickling my ear. “Say the word. I’ll save you the trouble of a messy divorce right now.”
I rolled my eyes and called to Darius, who’d been watching us with the cool detachment I now realized he could turn on and off like a tap. “Bartender? This boy needs a drink before he hurts himself.”
Darius set a cocktail napkin and g
