Page 152 of Say My Name

Dominic slows. His hand cups my cheek, and the tenderness in his face frightens me more than anything he’s done since walking into my office. Anger I could fight. This gentle, unwavering certainty feels like something I could drown in.

“I love you, Elena.”

The words are quiet and certain.

My body goes still beneath his.

“I’ve loved you longer than this arrangement,” he continues. “I’m telling you because it’s true. I’m not saying it to force an answer from you.”

He doesn’t ask whether I love him.

He doesn’t need to. I know the answer so completely that the fear around it feels separate from the truth now.

Dominic kisses the corner of my mouth and begins moving inside me again. Each slow stroke forces me to feel every inch of him.

Tears slip into my hair.

“Say my name.”

My fingers tighten against his back.

“Dominic.”

His eyes close, and a broken sound leaves him.

“Again.”

“Dominic.”

He thrusts deeper. “Say it like you mean me.”

I do.

I say his name like a confession, until his composure breaks and my voice turns ragged.

His thumb presses firmly against my clit.

Pleasure crests without warning. I come around his cock with his name on my lips, my body clenching hard enough to pull a curse from him.

Dominic drives into me twice more before burying himself deep. His body locks over mine as he comes, hot pulses filling me while my name breaks from his throat.

When the last tremor passes, he lowers himself carefully and presses his face into my neck. His breathing is rough against my skin. I wrap both arms around him and hold on.

The truth is no longer difficult to identify.

I love him.

I love Dominic Rowe. I love the man who knows where my plates belong and when I’m lying about work. I build my days around him while refusing to place him anywhere in my future.

Fear never changed how I feel. It only kept me silent.

My lips part against his shoulder.

I love you.

The words are right there.

I close my arms tighter and hold him instead of saying them.