AllFreeNovel
Share Us
3…2…1…
The room erupted into shouts and cheers and whistles. Dom’s mouth pressed against mine just as real fireworks sounded off from the balcony behind me, brightening the sky. But they were mere sparklers in comparison to the exploding stars inside my soul as his lips moved against my own, as his body pressed against me, as warmth bloomed at the feel of his skin caressing mine.
He grabbed my face with both hands, deepening the kiss.
And, finally, I was home.
Chapter 28
Wedidn’tstayatthat party past twelve-oh-one before we left, hand in hand. We didn’t go back to my apartment, or his, either. We went to the beach. We sat down in the sand, in each other’s arms, as we listened to the waves crash against the shore.
We talked about his parents, mine. We talked about our childhoods and our favorite foods. We talked about religion and politics, and where we both felt we fit into the world. I realized that I liked him more and more the longer he spoke. I liked everything about him. All the thoughts in his head. All the things that made him who he’s become. I also realized that I wanted to know every single thing about him. I wanted to know him inside and back out again.
And when we noticed we’d sat out on the beach so long that the sky began brightening behind us, we walked hand in hand back to my apartment. Back to my bed. Back into each other’s arms. He stripped my dress from my body. Softly. Slowly. It wasn’t a rush as it had been before between us. It was a savored moment, knowing that we were solidifying something deeper.
He laid me down onto my bed and crawled over me. Where sex with Dom had always been an exploration of desire, that joining had been nothing like we’d done before. It was emotional. Intimate. In a way neither of us had ever experienced before. In a way I know I’d never experience with anyone but him.
The whispered words weren’t playful, or punishing, or commanding. They were raw and real. They felt like promises. Felt like love. Because that’s what we’d been making, and I realized in those moments that I’d never had that before.
That I’d always wanted adventure. Desire. Lust. But I always wanted love too, and until that moment, that moment where I felt him so deep inside me that I knew he’d branded my soul, that moment where his eyes blazed and shined and bursted with light, I’d never had love before.
Never, until now.
And he didn’t say he loved me. I didn’t say it either. At least not in those words, but I think he said it in different ways. In the way he rolled his hips, in the way he kissed my jaw, in the way he tucked my hair behind my ear. In the other words he whispered against my skin with each thrust of his body into my own.
You’re beautiful.
You’re incredible.
You’re everything.
You’remine.
While the sun rose, we finished, falling asleep in each other’s arms. It was mid-afternoon by the time we woke, and we opted not to leave the house on the first day of the year. We showered and we ate before cuddling back up in my bed. I’d found out a few days earlier that someone had taken a video of my cursed table dancing, and subsequent knockout, a few weeks ago and posted it online. Dom begged to watch it, and I told him I’d let him only if he watchedTwilightwith me first. Very reluctantly, he agreed.
As I scrolled through the tv guide, Dom’s phone rang. When I saw that the caller ID read Carina’s name, he only smiled at me softly before answering. I could faintly hear her soft, seductive voice through the phone asking him where he disappeared to the night before.
He had no hesitation when he said, “I left just after midnight. I went home with my girlfriend.” I gaped a little at him, and he only winked back.
I swore I heard a squeal on the other end of the line.
He tucked his phone beneath his ear and turned to me. “Carina wants to know, if you’re done marking your territory, do you want to meet up for lunch sometime next week?”
I heard a muffled shout through the phone that sounded like someone protesting that they most certainly had not said that.
My cheeks flushed with embarrassment at my behavior the previous night, but the light in Dom’s eyes made me feel easier. “I’d love to,” I said.
He nodded at whatever she was saying before telling her they’d iron out the details later. He nodded once more, told her goodbye and hung up the phone.
He lazily leaned back against my headboard and draped his arm over my shoulder. “She said that she wants to get a better idea of what you’re interested in and what your skills are, but she’s always looking for seasonal interns to help her with their summer events. She said, if we’d like, we can spend the next couple of months volunteering at some of the charity events they have coming up this spring. If things work out, then when you’re done with school this summer you can go work for her and see if the event industry is a good fit for you.”
His fingers softly brushed along my shoulder in a comforting touch.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “Is it normal for me to be this confused about what I want to do with my life?”
“Of course it is, Mace. You’re twenty-six. Some people don’t find their thing in life until they’re fifty, or eighty; some people find it at five, like Penelope. The only timeline that matters is your own.”
I nodded thoughtfully.
