Always Will Summary, Characters and Themes | Claire Kingsley

Always Will by Claire Kingsley is a contemporary romance novel that centers on the intense and complicated relationship between Selene and Ronan.  Set against the backdrop of corporate takeovers and personal upheaval, the story explores the dynamics of power, vulnerability, and desire as two former lovers reconnect after years apart.

Selene, caught between a stable but passionless relationship and the thrilling, dangerous attraction she feels toward Ronan—her new boss—must navigate the difficult balance between professional boundaries and emotional risk.  The novel blends themes of trust, trauma, healing, and the challenge of building a relationship amidst external pressures and internal conflicts.

Summary

The story of Always Will follows Selene and Ronan, whose intertwined past and present create a charged, complex dynamic.  Selene is currently involved with Aidan, a stable and dependable partner who contrasts sharply with her previous experiences of dating exciting but unreliable “bad boys.”

Despite Aidan’s kindness and steady nature, Selene feels a deep disconnect, sensing their relationship lacks passion and intimacy.  Her best friend Kylie, who is also closely connected to Selene’s family, supports Aidan but also encourages Selene to find what truly fulfills her.

Ronan Maddox bursts back into Selene’s life in a dramatic fashion.  A bold entrepreneur and risk-taker, Ronan has just acquired Selene’s company, Vital Information.

This business move not only disrupts Selene’s career but also reopens old wounds between them.  Their shared history includes a brief, intense night five years earlier when Ronan disappeared without explanation.

Now, their reunion at a company meeting is electric and laden with unresolved feelings.  Ronan’s daring, charismatic energy starkly contrasts Selene’s cautious and disciplined demeanor, setting the stage for a tense but undeniable attraction.

As Ronan integrates into the company, the push and pull between him and Selene grows stronger.  Ronan openly flirts and tests boundaries, while Selene tries to keep their relationship professional despite the magnetic tension.

Their mutual respect for each other’s abilities is evident, but so is the simmering desire beneath the surface.  Selene remains tethered to Aidan, but Ronan dismisses that relationship as lacking true connection, believing Selene is drawn to the excitement he offers.

They make a tentative agreement to avoid dating others while maintaining professionalism, though the fragility of this pact is clear.

Their interactions are marked by moments that blur the line between business and personal, such as a prolonged dinner meeting where their chemistry becomes undeniable.  Selene wrestles with her conflicting feelings—caught between the comfort of stability and the dangerous thrill Ronan represents.

For Ronan, Selene is more than a conquest; she awakens emotions he has long suppressed, and the risk of mixing work and romance is both thrilling and daunting.

The narrative moves through their perspectives, revealing Ronan’s guarded vulnerability and Selene’s internal struggle with desire and control.  A pivotal event occurs during a business conference in Denver, where they find themselves isolated as their colleagues cancel.

This forced closeness deepens their bond, allowing glimpses into their pasts.  Selene reveals the trauma of losing her parents young, while Ronan shares the scars of a college accident that left lasting emotional wounds.

These moments of shared vulnerability heighten the emotional stakes between them.

The story reaches a critical moment when Selene is assaulted by a drunken man at a bar after a birthday celebration.  Ronan’s fierce intervention and protective response mark a turning point in their relationship.

His violent defense contrasts with his usual composed demeanor and shows a raw side of his care for Selene.  She allows him to stay with her that night, breaking down their emotional and physical barriers.

This scene leads to their first real intimacy, where they surrender to the depth of their feelings, combining trust, passion, and vulnerability in a way they never have before.

Their romantic relationship faces challenges beyond personal emotions.  Office gossip threatens Selene’s professional reputation, and the power imbalance between boss and subordinate complicates their lives.

Ronan openly declares his love for Selene, exposing his emotional walls and signaling his commitment, while Selene grapples with the fear of being perceived as merely “the boss’s mistress. ” Despite this, their connection grows into something deeper than lust, built on mutual respect and emotional honesty.

Skydiving, a recurring motif throughout the story, symbolizes the risks they take both in love and in life.  Selene’s initial jump with Ronan represents her willingness to trust him completely, while a later near-accident during a jump brings Ronan’s protective instincts and past trauma to the forefront.

Ronan’s fear for Selene’s safety forces him to confront his own demons, revealing the contrast between his adrenaline-fueled lifestyle and his desire to keep Selene safe.

The support of Selene’s closest relationships—her brother Braxton and best friend Kylie—adds layers to the story.  Their cautious acceptance of Ronan mirrors Selene’s own attempts to balance chaos with stability.

The couple’s integration into this circle serves as a test of Ronan’s place in Selene’s life and a symbol of her hopes for a stable future amid emotional upheaval.

Following a dramatic skydiving incident, Ronan struggles with survivor’s guilt and the fear that his past recklessness makes him unfit to be with Selene.  He abruptly distances himself, leaving Selene heartbroken and confused.

Their professional relationship strains under the weight of personal pain, as Selene contemplates leaving a job she loves.  Despite her own resilience during the incident, Ronan’s withdrawal feels like rejection.

Ronan’s conversations with his brother Damon provide insight into his internal conflicts, highlighting his need to find healthier ways to cope with trauma and his struggle to accept Selene’s calming influence.  This dialogue helps Ronan begin to heal, and he eventually reaches out to Selene to apologize and confess the depth of his feelings.

The story concludes with their reconciliation and renewed commitment, both personally and professionally.  Selene takes on the role of VP of Operations, while Ronan manages their companies.

Together, they continue to face life’s uncertainties, symbolized by a dramatic skydiving proposal that fuses their shared love of adrenaline with a promise of a future built on trust and partnership.

In essence, Always Will is a story about navigating the complexities of love and ambition, overcoming past trauma, and finding balance between risk and stability.  It portrays two people learning to open themselves to love while managing the challenges of their professional and emotional worlds.

Characters

Selene

Selene emerges as a complex and deeply conflicted woman whose journey intertwines emotional vulnerability with professional ambition.  At the start, she is caught in a steady but passionless relationship with Aidan, a reliable and kind “nice guy” whose stability contrasts with her own restless desire for excitement and unpredictability.

This internal conflict highlights Selene’s struggle between craving security and yearning for the intensity of deeper, more turbulent connections.  Her professional life is equally important to her, as she is a competent and respected figure within Vital Information, navigating the corporate upheaval caused by Ronan’s takeover with both caution and resilience.

The arrival of Ronan stirs a powerful and confusing attraction, challenging Selene’s carefully maintained boundaries.  She is shown to be guarded but passionate, someone who values control yet is willing to risk emotional exposure when faced with genuine connection.

Her interactions with Ronan reveal layers of complexity—her attempts to maintain professionalism despite simmering desire, her hesitations about the repercussions of workplace gossip, and her gradual surrender to vulnerability in their intimate moments.  Throughout the narrative, Selene’s emotional arc involves confronting her fears of love and rejection, as well as learning to trust and accept both her own needs and Ronan’s protective care.

She also demonstrates strength and courage in moments of crisis, such as the bar assault incident, where despite trauma, she begins to let down her walls.  Her evolving relationships with her best friend Kylie and brother Braxton provide a social anchor and further dimensions to her character, showing her longing for acceptance and stability amid personal chaos.

Ronan Maddox

Ronan is introduced as a charismatic, adrenaline-fueled risk-taker with a powerful presence that dominates both his personal and professional worlds.  He embodies the archetype of a daring entrepreneur who thrives on high stakes and danger, from his business ventures to extreme sports like wingsuit flying and skydiving.

Yet beneath this confident, sometimes arrogant exterior lies a man grappling with deep-seated trauma and survivor’s guilt from a college accident that claimed the lives of close friends.  This tragic past explains much of his reckless behavior and emotional guardedness.

Ronan’s encounter with Selene five years earlier left a lasting impression on him, awakening desires and vulnerabilities he has since struggled to reconcile.  His acquisition of Selene’s company not only asserts his business dominance but also reignites unresolved personal tension.

Throughout the story, Ronan’s character oscillates between his usual controlled, dominant persona and moments of intense protectiveness and tenderness towards Selene.  His attraction to her challenges his tendency toward casual flings, revealing a longing for something more meaningful and stabilizing.

Ronan’s emotional evolution is marked by his fear of losing Selene and his simultaneous struggle to break free from his past.  His protective instincts become apparent during critical events, such as intervening during Selene’s assault and his anxiety over her skydiving safety.

His vulnerability is most evident in conversations with his brother Damon, where he confronts his survivor’s guilt and the possibility of healthier emotional expression.  Ultimately, Ronan grows to openly express love and commitment, culminating in a symbolic skydiving proposal that blends his thrill-seeking nature with newfound emotional maturity.

Aidan

Aidan serves as a foil to Ronan and a reflection of Selene’s conflicted emotional state.  As the “nice guy” boyfriend, he is characterized by stability, kindness, and predictability—qualities that many might see as ideal in a partner.

However, despite his genuine care and effort to win Selene’s affection, Aidan’s relationship with her feels mechanical and uninspired.  His adherence to self-help checklists and steady, slow approach to intimacy contrasts sharply with Selene’s yearning for passion and excitement, leaving their connection lacking in chemistry and depth.

Through Aidan, the story explores themes of comfort versus desire, and the limitations of relationships based solely on stability without emotional intensity.  His role also emphasizes Selene’s internal dilemma about what she truly wants from love and partnership.

Kylie

Kylie, Selene’s best friend and sister-in-law, provides emotional support and a sounding board for Selene’s turmoil.  As someone who deeply cares for Selene’s well-being, Kylie is both encouraging and cautionary, openly skeptical of Selene’s entanglement with Ronan given the obvious professional and personal risks.

Her perspective represents the voice of reason and concern, highlighting the stakes involved in Selene’s decisions.  Kylie’s close connection to Selene also enriches the narrative by illustrating the importance of friendship and family acceptance in Selene’s life, especially as Selene’s romantic choices create ripple effects in their shared social circle.

Braxton

Braxton, Selene’s brother and Kylie’s husband, appears primarily as a familial anchor within the story.  His marriage to Kylie ties the close-knit relationships together, serving as a grounding presence for Selene amid the emotional turbulence.

While less focal than Selene, Ronan, or Kylie, Braxton’s role is significant in reflecting the intertwined personal dynamics that influence Selene’s decisions and highlight the importance of family support in her journey.  His acceptance of Ronan and involvement in the social circle also adds pressure and context to Selene’s navigation of her professional and romantic worlds.

Damon

Damon, Ronan’s brother, functions as a crucial character in revealing Ronan’s inner psychological landscape.  Through their conversations, Damon confronts Ronan about his reckless risk-taking and the emotional scars left by their shared past trauma.

Damon acts as a grounding force, urging Ronan to find healthier ways to cope and to embrace emotional healing.  His role is pivotal in exposing Ronan’s vulnerabilities and encouraging growth beyond his self-destructive tendencies.

Damon’s presence underscores themes of family, accountability, and the long-lasting impact of trauma on relationships.

Themes

The Tension Between Stability and Excitement

The narrative revolves around Selene’s internal struggle to reconcile the comfort of a stable, predictable relationship with the thrilling but risky allure of Ronan.  Selene’s relationship with Aidan symbolizes the safe and dependable path, one that many might expect to lead to happiness.

Yet, despite Aidan’s many positive qualities—his steadiness, care, and even the approval of Selene’s close circle—there is a pervasive sense of emotional and physical disengagement.  Selene’s dissatisfaction with this relationship is not rooted in any overt problems but rather in a yearning for something more dynamic and intense.

This tension reveals a deep human conflict: the desire for security versus the craving for passion and unpredictability.  Ronan embodies that riskier option, representing adrenaline, danger, and emotional chaos.

His presence disrupts Selene’s carefully maintained world, challenging her to confront what she truly desires.  The story captures this push and pull vividly, showing how attraction can be as much about emotional resonance as physical chemistry.

This theme highlights how individuals often grapple with the dual need for control and surrender, and how the pursuit of excitement sometimes risks sacrificing stability, yet can also lead to profound personal growth when navigated thoughtfully.

Power, Control, and Vulnerability in Relationships

Power dynamics permeate both Selene and Ronan’s personal and professional interactions, creating a complex landscape where control is constantly negotiated and challenged.  Ronan’s role as Selene’s boss and company owner inherently places him in a position of authority, intensifying the stakes of their emotional entanglement.

Selene’s insistence on boundaries and professional decorum is as much about maintaining her own agency as it is about workplace propriety.  Yet beneath these surface controls, both characters reveal deep vulnerabilities that unsettle their power balance.

Ronan’s confident and often provocative demeanor masks fears rooted in past trauma and survivor’s guilt, while Selene’s guardedness conceals a yearning for emotional connection and trust.  Their relationship explores how power is not just about dominance but also about the willingness to be vulnerable and surrender control, especially in intimate contexts.

The shifting boundaries—between professional and personal, dominance and submission, safety and risk—underscore the difficulty of balancing authority with genuine emotional openness.  This theme resonates beyond romance to speak to the universal challenge of managing power in human connections without losing authenticity or respect.

Trauma, Healing, and Emotional Growth

Underlying the charged relationship between Selene and Ronan are profound themes of trauma and recovery that shape their motivations and fears.  Ronan’s history of a traumatic accident that claimed friends and left him physically and emotionally scarred drives much of his risk-taking behavior.

His thrill-seeking is a means to reclaim vitality, yet it also masks unresolved pain and survivor’s guilt.  Selene’s loss of her parents and her experiences of heartbreak and betrayal contribute to her cautiousness and emotional walls.

The story charts how their connection acts as both a catalyst and a crucible for healing.  Moments such as the skydiving incident reveal the fragility of life and the raw emotions beneath their tough exteriors.

Ronan’s panic over Selene’s safety and his eventual apology highlight his gradual acceptance of vulnerability as a strength rather than a weakness.  Likewise, Selene’s willingness to confront her feelings despite fear marks significant emotional growth.

Their journey reflects the messy, non-linear nature of healing, showing how trauma can both isolate and bind people, and how love often demands facing inner fears head-on.  This theme lends emotional depth to the romance, framing it as a transformative process rather than mere escapism.

The Intersection of Personal and Professional Lives

The story intricately explores how personal relationships become entangled with professional roles, complicating both spheres in significant ways.  The corporate backdrop—marked by mergers, power struggles, and high-stakes business negotiations—adds urgency and tension to Selene and Ronan’s evolving romance.

Their positions in the company place their emotions under scrutiny, exposing them to gossip, judgment, and questions of credibility.  Selene’s efforts to maintain professionalism in the face of attraction and workplace politics illustrate the difficulty of separating personal vulnerability from career ambitions.

Ronan’s open declaration of love, despite the risks to his authority and reputation, further blurs these lines.  This theme captures the challenges many face in modern workplaces where boundaries between private and public selves are porous.

It raises questions about how ambition, respect, and emotional honesty can coexist amid the practical realities of office dynamics.  The narrative shows that navigating this intersection demands constant negotiation, resilience, and sometimes sacrifice, reflecting broader contemporary concerns about work-life balance and the costs of intimacy in professional settings.

Desire, Intimacy, and Negotiation of Boundaries

The relationship between Selene and Ronan is charged with a powerful erotic energy that both excites and unsettles them, leading to ongoing negotiations about boundaries and expectations.  Their physical encounters are depicted not just as expressions of lust but as complex interactions imbued with trust, dominance, and surrender.

This physical language serves as a metaphor for the emotional give-and-take that defines their connection.  Selene’s initial attempts to rationalize her attraction and set limits reveal a struggle to protect herself while acknowledging the depth of her desire.

Ronan’s provocations and protective instincts highlight his dual role as both risk-taker and caretaker.  The evolving dynamic between them shows how intimacy is never static but requires continual communication and adjustment.

The narrative’s frank exploration of sexuality, including scenes of dominance and submission, underscores the theme of vulnerability intertwined with empowerment.  By portraying sex as a site of emotional negotiation rather than mere passion, the story emphasizes that desire involves not only physical connection but also the courageous act of exposing one’s true self and trusting another with it.

Trust, Fear, and the Risk of Emotional Exposure

At the core of Selene and Ronan’s relationship lies a profound tension between fear and trust, reflecting the inherent risks involved in opening oneself to another person.  Both characters carry emotional scars and past disappointments that make them wary of vulnerability.

Selene’s cautiousness and efforts to maintain control are defenses against potential hurt, while Ronan’s bravado conceals a deep fear of loss and inadequacy.  Their journey illustrates how trust is not given lightly but earned through repeated acts of courage and honesty.

Moments of crisis, such as the skydiving accident and the bar assault, act as catalysts that force them to confront these fears head-on.  The narrative shows that emotional exposure involves risking pain but also offers the possibility of profound connection and healing.

By the story’s conclusion, the protagonists’ willingness to embrace uncertainty and admit their feelings marks a significant emotional breakthrough.  This theme speaks to the universal human challenge of balancing self-protection with the desire for intimacy, highlighting that true connection demands embracing vulnerability despite the possibility of suffering.

The Role of Friendship and Family as Support Systems

Throughout the story, Selene’s relationships with her best friend Kylie and her brother Braxton serve as vital anchors amid the turbulence of her romantic and professional life.  These bonds provide a sounding board, guidance, and a sense of normalcy that contrast with the intensity of her connection with Ronan.

Kylie’s skepticism and protective instincts remind Selene to consider the practical implications of her choices, while Braxton’s acceptance of Ronan signals the potential for integration of her personal worlds.  These relationships also highlight the importance of external validation and community in navigating complex emotions and life changes.

The narrative suggests that while romantic love is central, sustaining friendships and family ties is crucial for emotional resilience and balanced decision-making.  This theme enriches the story by portraying how people rarely face life’s challenges in isolation and that trust and support outside of romantic partnerships are essential to growth and healing.