Page 90 of Between Love & Ruin

I stare at him, all serious. Sometimes he makes me want to strangle the shit out of him.

I don’t know why he gets me so riled up.

He sighs and pulls me towards himself. I feel this urge to argue with him, but the softness in his gaze stops me from opening my mouth.

He makes me sit on his thighs, and I instantly find myself leaning into his warmth.

“Tell me what’s bothering you, hm?”

I sigh. I know it’s not his fault, but how do I get all of this to not bother me?

“I don’t know,” I tell him, looking into his eyes. “I am not used to all this spotlight on me. I don’t like this unwanted attention. This is why I stayed away from my own family all these years. People are calling me names, and you know it’s disgusting. My own friends from Chicago have been texting me endlessly. Not that I care about them, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying.”

He tucks my hair behind my ear, his hand lingering on my skin.

“I am sorry you have to go through all this,” he says, kissing my cheek softly. “I have tried finding the people who could be behind all this. But all we find is random tabloids. I know you are not used to all this, and I hate that my lifestyle is troubling your peace.”

“It’s not that.” I shake my head, hating how he blames himself for everything. “You don’t have to apologize. I always knew this was a part of your life. I am just annoyed with how much leverage people think they have to question you, me, or our choices.”

He nods, kissing me on the forehead, and I close my eyes, letting myself soak all of the peace he brings with himself.

“You know, I can always quit,” he says.

“Quit what?” I ask, confused.

“This. Everything. We can always move to a secluded place where you’ll write and I will watch you write. I will be the first reader of everything you write.”

My heart warms up hearing this. How can someone love you so much to quit the only thing they have ever loved doing?

“Dominic, you are crazy.” I shake my head, batting my lashes so that I don’t let the tears gathering in my eyes fall. “I would never ask you to quit this life. This is your hard work, your passion. I am selfish enough to keep you all to myself but not enough to have you quit what you built.”

“So you want me all to yourself?” he asks with a stupid, wide grin.

“That’s what you focused on?” I chuckle.

“Priorities, baby.”

He leans in to kiss me, but the door to his office opens abruptly. So suddenly that I don’t even have time to compose myself.

Even when I try to move away from him, lifting myself from his lap, he doesn’t let me go. Instead, his arms tighten around me, keeping me firmly in place.

“You called for me?” he asks, his voice stern all of a sudden.

I try not to look at Myra even when I know her gaze strays towards me. Every time we meet, she says or does something that fills me with doubt and anxiety, and I am better off without that.

“I heard you know a lot about my personal life,” he says, and I feel anxiety coiling in my stomach at the sudden tension in the room. “Remind me what was mentioned in your job description.”

“What do you mean?” She asks, her voice clipped, and I wish I could escape this—whatever this is.

“Your job as my PA is that you make sure I am equipped with work. However, you get no say in what I do in my personal life. I have reminded you time and time again that you don’t get a say in my life. And I certainly do not need a twenty-something to tell me what’s going to ruin my life or not.”

She chuckles, all hollow before glaring at me. “So you bitched about me to him. How classic.”

“Enough,” Dominic says, and I shudder hearing him so loud and so angry. His jaw tightens, and I can notice his pulse quickening at his neck. “You have crossed your line time and time again, but I let you because I have known you for a long time. But you do not get to talk shit to my girlfriend—who’s soon going to be my wife. You don’t get to threaten her and you don’t need to act protective towards me.”

I know he said a lot of things, but my mind just focuses on the wife part. Does he really mean that?

Myra stands rooted in her spot, dumbstruck with his sudden outburst.