“Absolutely not,” Dom said. “I ended up taking a gap year. I did odd jobs, like landscaping and fixing cars at a garage, but then I did go. My aunt was thrilled.”
“She seems nice.”
Dom shrugged. “I’m sure she was just happy to have me out of her hair so she could finish raising her own kids after I was dropped off with her.”
“I doubt that.”
Dom risked the smallest of smiles. “Anyway, college happened.”
I waited for more. “Is that it? Come on. There had to be at least a few nameless girls throwing themselves at you, gushing about how they wanted to get with a hot guy with tattoos.”
“I’m hot now?”
“Stop avoiding the question.”
Dom bit his lip, but instead of looking charmed or amused by the turn this story had taken, he looked like he was trying not to cringe. “There were more than a few.”
He glanced down at me.
It was going to take a lot more than that to put me off. “Go on. I’m intrigued already.”
“Fine. You want to know what I was like in college now? I drowned myself in it. I drank so much that I’m shocked my liver didn’t give out by the second semester. I partied and got relatively good at it. I got all my work done for the fancy piece of paper at the end, knowing I was good enough with numbers and computers to get by. I slept with nearly all the girls who wanted me, and I did what I wanted, no questions asked.”
“So modest.”
“At that point, I sure as hell wasn’t. I was that way for a while. It took me time to realize that stupid asshole of a human being wasn’t all who I was—most of the time anyway, as you remind me. By then, I was already an adult. I was living in a mostly unfurnished apartment with three other roommates I hardly knew, but I knew I had to make a change. I needed a change that came from more than a decent paycheck in my bank account every other week.”
“What changed?”
Dom sighed. “To be honest, I’m not completely sure. All I knew was that it happened. I stopped hating myself so hard for so much of my life. I started to care about where I ended up.”
“White house and a picket fence,” I murmured, remembering his carefully laid-out dreams that must’ve come to the forefront. It was Dom’s vision he had shared with me. One that clearly didn’t include me.
He licked his lips as he stared back at me. “I had no idea what I wanted for a long time. Last summer sort of sealed that for me.”
“Dom.” I lifted a hand, as if that was going to make him stop.
“I know. Like you said, I’m ruining this. But you must know, Ana. You were never just a fling to me or another random story in my life. You were probably part of the change—better late than never. Somehow, my life had pushed me to stop here in Barnett that night, like it knew I needed a little bit of you,” Dom said, his words getting softer as he went on.
I parted my lips as we sat in front of each other.
Somehow, in the past ten years, we had both changed. He was no longer rushing his life and I was no longer letting others decide mine. In one year, we were no longer people who fell in love quickly and completely. Even since Dom knocked on my door a few weeks ago, it felt like we had become different people again. We were people, however, who, for some reason, were meant to keep ending up right here on the floor of this dingy apartment as strangers turned something much more.
Oh, I was probably going to regret this later. But now, I leaned forward onto my hands, crawling toward him.
His eyes widened.
“We could be what each other needs now,” I whispered, setting my hands on his chest. I could feel his heartbeat, strong and picking up speed. “Just for now maybe.”
Dom’s eyes were soft, even as they held on to me. He watched my every move. His hands lifted, as if to set themselves on me, but not yet. Not quite yet. “Is that such a good idea?”
None of this was a good idea. Not from the start.
“Probably not,” I admitted. “But when has that ever stopped us?”
“That might be the most truthful thing either of us has said all day,” said Dom.
As he spoke, near laughing, his mouth brushed up against my lips. His breath caressed my skin before he fit his own lips against mine. Every slide of our mouths was smooth like silk as he tasted me.
