Page 54 of Between Love & Ruin

He says as I frantically stare around the deserted street to see if this will make it to the press too.

Thankfully, there’s no one here.

He opens the car door for me, placing me on the passenger seat gently and buckling me in like I am a child.

I take a deep breath to calm myself down but the way he smiles at me as if he won a challenge pisses me off even more.

“I hate you.”

He shakes his head in denial. “I think you like me, cara mia. I think you like me so much that you’re beginning to hate that feeling.”

That stupid thing in my chest flutters at the conviction in his words because of how true they sound.

But if I keep pretending I don’t like him, I might get close to that feeling soon.

“You’re delusional,” I say, rolling my eyes.

“I am just hopeful,” he replies before finally starting the car.

I shake my head at how shameless he is getting day by day. I swear, he used to flirt very subtly before, which I thought was a trait of his. Turns out, it’s not, and he just uses that very special treatment on me.

“You do realize that I have a boyfriend, right? And you still keep flirting with me?”

“I wouldn’t get too attached to the ‘boyfriend’ label. He’ll be your ex soon enough. Considering how shitty he is as it,” he says, and I glare at him. I am baffled by his confidence. If I didn’t know better, I would say he shows a lot of traits of a narcissist.

However, he also possesses a significant amount of empathy, which makes it difficult to label him as such. I wish he had some flaws that I could pinpoint to dislike him.

But I am assuming he has none at this point, and the tiniest ones he may have just get overshadowed by his charisma.

“Look, by now you know I like you,” he says, and my ears perk up as if this was the most important conversation. “And if you didn’t know, then I will spell it out for you. I like you, Sienna Hayes. I think “like” might be a small word to describe what I feel for you, but since you have a man attached to you still, I will keep those words inside me. But you and I both know he isn’t going to last long. And he doesn’t deserve you.”

“And you do?” I question

Mark might be a shitty boyfriend, but I have spent such crucial years with him that it makes it hard to let go of him. I know I don’t love him still, but I had love for him in my heart for a long, long time, and you don’t just trash that easily.

He isn’t the love that I hoped would last me a lifetime. And that has hurt me too much to let any other guy near me.

The best thing after I break up with Mark would be to stay single and not engage in anything romantic for a while.

But Dominic makes me rethink all of that. He makes it so incredibly hard to…stay away.

“What?”

“Do you think you deserve to be with me?”

He smiles, the one that makes that dimple pop on the side. “If I don’t, then I will become the person who does deserve you, Sienna Hayes. I am not stupid to let you go.”

I chuckle. “When did you become so poetic?”

“I have the company of the most amazing writer in the world. I think that’s starting to rub off on me too now.”

I bite the inside of my cheek, wondering if I should spoil the moment by saying what is bubbling inside of me.

“What?” he asks

“What?”

“Is there something you want to say?”