Chapter Four: His Confession

White walls.

That was the first thing I noticed when my eyes opened.

White walls then the silence that was too heavy.

I shifted and groaned when my body protested painfully.

Where the hell was I?

The room looked like something out of a luxury catalog—cold, perfect, empty. Silk sheets clung to my legs like shackles. The air smelled like leather, glass cleaner, and faint smoke.

This wasn’t home.

My heart leapt in panic as I tried to run the last things I recalled.

Fuck, did the buyers somehow get me?

So me being rescued was just a dream?

But it wasn't..I remember him - and I remembered the last thing he said to me.

/Because you are mine./

Fuck!

That was just the same thing Damien said. At the time it had sounded hot but there's nothing hot about another man who just thinks I'm his property.

I threw the covers off and bolted ignoring the pain.

The doors opened before I could even touch them, revealing two armed guards standing outside like statues.

“Back up,” I said, voice shaking. “Move. Now.”

They didn’t. One of them didn’t even blink.

“Mr. Blackwood has instructed us to—”

“—make sure I’m safe,” I snapped. “Yeah. That’s just code for trapped, right?”

I slammed the door in their faces and spun around, breath coming in fast, shallow bursts.

Damien had sold me. That much I’d already faced.

But this? This felt like being passed from one man’s control to another’s.

I didn’t care that my saviour had killed the men who came for me.

I didn’t care that he’d wrapped me in silk sheets and stationed bodyguards at every door.

A cage was still a cage.

The lock just had a nicer accent.

Few minutes later the door opened behind me.

I didn’t need to look, not when I could feel his presence fill up the room.

“I see you’re awake.”

I turned slowly.

He stood in the doorway, sleeves rolled to his elbows, shirt open at the collar.

He looked infuriatingly calm.

Ronan Blackwood

I've been too shocked to recognise him last night but now - fuck!

Ronan Blackwood the rumoured devil.

I had no idea if I should scream or just laugh because how the hell did I end up with the devil himself?

“You had no right,” I said, my voice low, hard.

“I saved your life.” he responded calmly.

“You took it.” I marched toward him, heat burning through my chest. “You didn’t ask. You didn’t give me a choice. You just—scooped me up like I was some damsel who needed a knight.”

“You were bleeding.” His jaw clenched. “And unconscious.”

“So that makes you what? My hero?” I let out a bitter laugh. “You could’ve dropped me at a hospital. Or—hell, the police. But instead, you brought me here. To your tower in the sky.”

Ronan’s eyes darkened. “The police would’ve handed you right back to the people Damien owed. You think I was going to risk that?”

“You made a decision for me. You took that choice out of my hands.”

“Yes,” he said simply. “Because you would’ve run straight into fire just to prove you weren’t scared.”

I blinked.

He stepped closer. “I know you, Selene. I know you’d rather suffer alone than accept protection. Even now, you’re furious I stepped in. Furious I took control.”

“Damn right I am.”

He stopped right in front of me, gaze burning straight through me. “You think I care about control?” he said, voice low. “I let Damien live with you for two years. I watched him feed you lies. I watched you cry yourself to sleep behind a locked bedroom door while he gambled away everything you built. I let it happen—because I told myself it wasn’t my place. That I had no right to interfere.”

I froze.

He was breathing harder now, emotion cutting through every word.

“But then he tried to hand you over like a bargaining chip. And I realized—I’d rather you hate me for taking your choices… than bury you for keeping them.”

Silence cracked between us.

I swallowed hard. “You’ve been watching me.”

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Since the night you walked into that gala wearing blue. You didn’t belong there. You smiled at everyone but didn’t look at a single soul. And I remember thinking—she’s beautiful, but she looks like she’s holding her breath.”

I didn’t know what to say.

“I wanted to walk away,” he said. “But I didn’t. I couldn’t.”

The heat in my chest twisted. Fury. Hurt. A strange ache I didn’t know what to name.

“You had no right,” I whispered again.

“I know.”

I stared at him. “Why?”

Ronan exhaled like the answer had been sitting inside him for too long.

“Because I’ve seen everything dark in this world, Selene. And you were the only good thing I ever wanted.”

My breath caught.

“I wanted you before Damien even said your name,” he said, stepping closer. “And when he married you, I told myself I missed my chance. That I’d let you live your life and stay out of it. But I never stopped watching. Never stopped wanting.”

His voice broke just slightly on the next words.

“I don’t want power. I don’t want your obedience. I just want you alive. And safe. And here.”

He reached for my hand. I didn’t pull away.

“I love you,” he said softly. “And I think a part of me always has. "