“Hold on a moment.” He returned to the cupboard and came back a moment later with a lollipop.

I raised a brow, not sure if he was messing with me. “Are you serious?”

“One hundred percent.” He handed it over. “Your body is having a shock reaction. Sugar will help.” I peeled the wrapper off and popped it into my mouth. “Are you okay to stand?”

I got up. He took the seat, then patted his lap.

“I’m not sitting on your knee,” I told him.

He rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing sexy about it. You’re cold, and my body heat will warm you.”

I hesitated, then told myself I was being silly. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter that we’d kissed last night or that my body always reacted to his presence. This wasn’t personal. He’d seen a problem and was trying to fix it. I lowered myself onto his lap. His warmth immediately saturated the fabric between us.

“You’re hot.” His lips twitched, and I cursed my runaway mouth. “You know what I mean.”

“I do.” He ran his hands up and down my arms to get my blood moving. “I need to know who’s after you.”

I closed my eyes.

He’d been well and truly dragged into the Lennox family mess now, and he deserved answers, even if I didn’t want to give them.

Opening my eyes, I took a leap of faith.

“I don’t know who they are, but Tom owes their boss money.” I felt him stiffen at the mention of Tom, but when he didn’t say anything, I continued. “Three men came to our apartment last night. They kicked down the door and tied us up.” I didn’t look at him. I still hated that we hadn’t been able to fight back yesterday. “I don’t know who their boss is or how much Tom owes him. I’ve suspected the company was in financial trouble for a while, so I’d been trying to bring in more clients, but I could never get him to talk about it. He’s like a vault when he wants to be.”

Ronan grunted in disapproval. One of his hands curved around my face and caressed the side of my cheek. “The men who came to your apartment did this?”

“Yes.” I longed to lean into his touch, but he seemed to be doing it unconsciously, and I feared he’d stop if I drew his attention. “They hit me and trashed the apartment.”

He exhaled slowly. “Did they do anything else?”

“They didn’t sexually assault me.” My voice was stronger than I thought possible. “If that’s what you’re asking. One of them wanted to hurt my roommate.”

“Damn,” he muttered. “Is she all right?”

“As much as she can be. They manhandled her and cuffed her but nothing worse, thank God.”

His arms circled my waist, and he held me close. “What did the police say?”

“We haven’t called them yet.” He stiffened, but I soldiered on. “They threatened to throw Tom off a building if we did. Sage wanted to contact them immediately, but I got her to agree to wait until I’d had a chance to speak to him. Now he’s not answering my calls and when I went past his place, he wasn’t there.”