Page 19 of Yes, Love

“Morning, babe.”

I screamed out loud and slammed the bathroom door in Dominic’s face. He was still here? Fuck! He just saw me standing there naked with my face covered in green goo! Fuck, fuck, fuck!

He chuckled through the closed door. “Not my typical morning after welcome, but I’ve come to expect the unexpected from you, Ava Mills. I made — er ordered breakfast because I’ve got a wicked hangover headache and protein helps.”

Oh good. Was my kitchen full of slaughtered pig now?

“I ordered you some vegetarian protein smoothie. It looks disgusting, but you can have my eggs if it tastes as bad as it looks.” Dominic paused. “Do you eat eggs? Should have asked that earlier.”

I blinked in surprise at the closed door and forced myself to ignore the tingling feeling in my chest. He was a good lay and thoughtful with his breakfast order. I cleared my throat, realizing that I still hadn’t answered him. “Uh, thanks. I do eat eggs sometimes. Usually just egg whites. I’m not vegan or even full vegetarian.”

“Right. If you could get me a list of acceptable foods for the next four months, that would be lovely.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Anyway, food’s downstairs if you’re hungry. I’ll leave you to that frightening shit on your face.”

I heard his footsteps retreating as I yelled back through the door. “It’s a mud mask!” Ugh! The mud mask needed at least ten more minutes to dry fully, but I was starving. I took a deep breath and pulled on my black silk robe. He’d already seen the mud mask. It was pointless to hide it from him now.

When I entered my kitchen, Dominic was seated on a barstool at my island. He looked up at me and grinned. “Stunning, Ava.”

God, his bedhead was adorable. Fuck. That smile was making my knees weak. I held my head up high and grabbed the protein smoothie. “Is this made with chia seeds? Almond butter?”

Dominic shrugged and kept his grin in place. “Ava?”

I sipped the smoothie. It was actually delicious.

“Ava?”

“What?” I forced myself to meet Dominic’s gaze.

“I had fun last night.”

I swallowed my mouthful of smoothie. “I had fun, too.”

“Can we do it again soon?” His brown eyes almost begged, and I couldn’t stop myself from nodding.

Dominic let out a sigh of relief. “Brilliant news. I haven’t felt right about sleeping with anyone else since we started up.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Seriously? You won’t even cheat on a fake girlfriend?”

Dominic just shook his head with a half-smile. “Can’t do it. Cheating’s not in my playbook, ever.”

I gaped at him. I hadn’t dated a non-cheater since Evan. I didn’t think they existed. “Are you—” I shook my head and stared at my countertop. “Are you for real, Dominic?”

He grinned back at me. “You know you can call me Dom, right? And yes, I’m ‘for real.’” Dominic used his American accent on his last two words.

I laughed and felt my drying mud mask start to crack. “Gawd! How can you even take me seriously right now?” I pointed to my face. “I look awful!”

“You don’t.” Dominic laughed, too, and shook his head. “You’re adorable right now.”

Oh shit. I was two seconds away from running to the bathroom to wash off my mask so I could fuck him on my kitchen counter. But he stood while I was debating letting him see my face completely bare. “Well, I’m off. I’ll see you next week for our date, Ava.”

“Okay, see you, Dom!” I called after his retreating back as he showed himself out. Uh oh. I was feeling things for my fake boyfriend. The lines were getting blurred in my head.

Stop, you idiot. He loves Lucy. You’re nothing. Nothing.

I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind and headed back upstairs to shower.

When I got out of the shower, my phone was ringing. It was a facetime call from my mom. I hesitated and then answered. She was allowed to see me without makeup. Her face filled my screen, and the first thing I noticed was the sheer panic in her eyes.

A sick feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. That familiar blend of panic, pity, and heartbreak was all I saw when she looked at me for months after… It didn’t start to fade from her eyes until we moved, and I met Sienna. Would it ever go away completely?

---