I knew I didn’t deserve his kindness, let alone more.
If I could take it all back, I would. There’s so much I wish I could take back.
“Your job scares me,” I admit. “I know Red Mountain isn’t LA, but bad things can happen anywhere.”
His hand moves to gently settle on my neck as his thumb glides along my jaw. “Now you know how I feel. Why I freaked out. There are bad people everywhere, and now one is after you.”
“We don’t know that. Nothing else has happened.”
“Yet. I won’t rest until I know you’re safe.”
“Okay,” I relent, too consumed by him in this moment to do much else but agree with everything he says.
He pulls back, inching his face from mine, but continuing to cradle my jaw.
“I saw you,” he says softly. “Right before it all went black. Your face was the last thing I saw—your eyes, your smile. People say your life flashes before your eyes, but there was no montage for me. Just you.”
I’m trapped in his gaze, his dark eyes locked on mine. I swallow roughly as my heart threatens to jump out of my throat.
“Then what happened?”
“When I finally saw the sun again, I asked for you.” He lets out a quiet, sad laugh. “I wasted so many years trying to get over you, trying to accept that our story was over. I figured you would’ve reached out if you wanted to see me again, and when you never did, I decided I wasn’t going to make more of a fool of myself than I already had.”
“Dominic—”
“No, let me get this out,” he breathes. “Almost dying was the best thing that ever happened to me. I survived, but it killed my pride. It killed my fear of rejection. And all that was left was determination.” He grabs my hand and places it over his chest, right over his thundering heart. “Feel that? Feel how steady it is?” It hammers against my palm at an even rhythm. “My heart still beats because I couldn’t leave this life with so much unfinished. I couldn’t let go, knowing the other half of my soul was still missing.”
Panic crawls up my spine. If he knew what an awful person I am, he’d change his mind. He would never look at me the same. “I need to tell you something,” I start, but he shakes his head, stopping me.
“Querida mía, what are you so afraid of? Push me away all you want, make me work for it, give me your worst—I’m not going anywhere. I came here for you, and I won’t let you slip through my fingers again.”
My heart is a racing, chaotic storm. I don’tknow what to say because nothing feels sufficient, nothing feels big enough in comparison to everything he’s just told me.
It’s overwhelming.
There’s no way to grasp the surging emotions coursing through me. I need an anchor. I need to feel him.
Reaching for Dominic, my hands move up his arms with a slow drag, traveling over new and familiar tattoos. The continuation of roses that started on his forearms has now spread up and over his biceps, a multitude of pieces all connected, creating one image. Years of stories on his body, each one I’m desperate to know.
“Feels good,” he breathes as the skin beneath my palms prickles with goosebumps.
On their own accord, my hands move to his stomach, tracing the ripples. He shivers, his head falling back, eyes closing with a groan.
“Is this okay?”
He works down a swallow. Huskily, he says, “It’s more than okay.”
I snake up his abdomen, looping my arms around his neck, resting them on his gold chain.
He leans in, slowly, hesitantly, giving me every chance to pull away, but I can’t. I don’t want to. His breath mingles with mine, warm and intoxicating, and my resolve finally shatters.
I close the distance.
Our lips meet, and the world falls away.
It’s instinctual, it’s familiar yet entirely new. It’s ten years of longing and heartbreak crashing together in one perfect, all-encompassing instant.
His tongue curls against mine as his hand sinks into my hair, cupping my head. He opens his mouth wider and an embarrassingly desperate whine escapes me. He groans in response and deepens the kiss, stealing the air from me.His free hand moves to my waist, pulling me closer, and I melt intohim, my arms tightening around him. The heat between us is combusting, a mounting pressure that’s been building for so long there’s nothing left for it to do but explode.
