Chapter 6 - The Dragon's Sanctuary
An hour later, the gala was over, the elite had dispersed into the cold Newport night, and the private penthouse suite overlooking the Callahan estate was blissfully quiet.
Maeve stood by the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, looking out over the Atlantic as the moonlight danced across the dark waves. The emerald gown pooled around her feet like water.
The door behind her opened, and heavy footsteps approached. Strong arms wrapped around her waist from behind, pulling her back against a warm, solid chest. Ronan rested his chin on her shoulder, breathing in the scent of jasmine and rain in her hair.
"You stopped half the senators in Rhode Island from breathing tonight," Ronan murmured against her skin.
"I think I also gave your head of security a heart attack when I hugged you on stage," Maeve smiled, leaning back into his embrace.
"Cormac will survive," Ronan chuckled softly. He turned her gently in his arms, his dark eyes searching her face with a quiet, fierce intensity. "The press is already calling you the mystery songstress of Newport. By tomorrow morning, every headline will be asking who the woman on my arm was."
"Let them ask," Maeve whispered, reaching up to trace the faint scar along his jawline. "They don't know the half of it."
Ronan captured her hand, pressing a warm, lingering kiss to her palm, right over the ink of his dragon tattoo. "My grandfather built this empire on blood and fences, Maeve. But standing here tonight... I realize he built it all wrong."
"How so?" she asked softly.
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"He tried to lock the world out," Ronan said, his voice dropping into a low, absolute promise. "I just want to make sure you never have to clean another floor that isn't our own."
Maeve smiled, the last lingering shadows of her past finally dissolving into the ocean air, and pulled him down into a kiss that felt like coming home.
