I'll cherish her forever. Forever.
Chapter Five
Summer
Dominic and I make love again and again, dozing between rounds. Sometime around midnight, he carries me to the bathtub and climbs in with me. I cuddle against his strong chest, tracing the lines of the lion tattoo on his upper arm. He's covered in tattoos, though I've never seen them before. I never imagined that his suits hid all of this beneath.
He's incredible to me, larger than life in some ways. I thought my dreams of him were perfection, but the real him is somehow even better than that. The things he says to me, the way he touches me like he knows exactly how to make me crazy…I feel like I stepped out of the real world and landed in the most extraordinary alternate universe ever.
I still feel him between my legs. The delicious ache and his warm embrace convince me that this is reality. We're really here, together. Where I never imagined we'd be. Even in the best of my dreams, a part of me knew it wasn't real. That I'd wake up and he wouldn't be there. I don't have to wake up without him this time.
I don't have to wake up without him ever again.
"What are you thinking about, sunshine?" he asks, drawing little circles on my back. His chest vibrates beneath my ear like a motor, the words rumbling there.
"About your grandma's letter."
"She would have loved you," he says with a wistful smile in his voice. "You would have loved her too. She loved to give me shit at every available opportunity, but she was the most badass woman."
"She sounds incredible. I'm sorry you lost her."
"Me too, sweet girl. But her and my grandfather and my dad are together again." He laughs quietly. "She's probably up there right now, giving them hell for tracking mud in her house or arguing over football."
"Hey, Dominic?"
"Yeah?"
"My answer would have been yes."
"Hmm, sweet girl?"
"If you'd asked me to marry you today, I would have said yes."
His entire body goes completely still. His chest even stops moving as if he's stopped breathing. He stays like that for a long moment, long enough for me to worry that he's going to pass out if he doesn't take a breath.
I scream when he stands up without warning, holding me in his arms. Water sluices off us, falling in a flood all around the bathtub. I barely have time to fling my arms around his neck before he's climbing out of the tub and grabbing a towel to drape around me.
"Where are we going?" I ask through laughter as he stomps through the bathroom, his brows furrowed like he's concentrating really hard on something. He does that a lot. Gets so focused on his goal that everything else ceases to exist for him. It's adorable.
"To get your ring." He sits me on the edge of the bed and kisses me hard on the mouth. "Do you still have the key?"
"Oh. Um." I glance around the bedroom but don't see it. I must have dropped it in the living room. I kind of lost track of it when he started kissing me. Actually, I think I lost track of everything when he started kissing me. My brain fogged over, the whole world narrowing down to just the two of us. I hop up and scurry toward the living room, smiling when he groans like I'm torturing him.
I love that he loves my body and makes no secret of it. He always used to look angry when he first spotted me every morning. Like he was annoyed with me for some reason. I know that's not the case now. He wasn't angry with me. He was fighting himself for control. He said jealousy eats him alive when other men look at me. That probably shouldn't make me love him more, but it does.
I find the key in the floor in the living room and scoop it up.
By the time I make it back to my bedroom, he's already pulling his slacks on.
I stop walking and shamelessly ogle him. His body really is incredible. The little trail of hair that disappears into his waistband sends heat twisting through me. My nipples harden.
He smirks at me like he knows exactly what I'm thinking about. I don't care though. For the first time in months, I feel like I'm allowed to think about him that way. I'm allowed to look at him and fantasizing about his hands on my body. Except I don't have to rely on dreams any longer. I know how good he feels on top of me. How big he feels when he's inside me. How incredible I feel when he's making love to me.
"You better get clothes on if you want your ring, sweet girl. Otherwise, I'm going to have you on your back again in about two seconds," he says, raking his heated gaze up and down my body. His eyes linger on my breasts and then on my mound. He licks his lips like he's remembering the way I taste on them.
I dart toward the closet when he takes a step in my direction. He chases after me, which has me screaming with laughter.
"No panties!" he yells when I slam the door closed before he can get his hands on me.
"Worry about yourself!" I yell back, laughing. God, I love that we get to have this. It's like the last two months never happened and we're right back to where we were before, when we teased each other and laughed and were friends. Except it's better this time. Because I belong to him now.
He's cum in me so many times at this point, I could already be pregnant with his baby. Or at least working on
