Page 68 of Worth the Vow

“You should go sleep.”

“I’m fine right here,” he murmurs. “Nice try at redirecting the conversation, baby. What’s going on?”

“You did all of this for my pictures, and I don’t know how to process that,” I finally confess.

“Of course I’d try to save those pictures. They’re important to you, and you’re important to me.”

I stiffen in his arms. “What?”

“You heard me.”

I shake my head against his shoulder. “But this — this is supposed to be fake.”

“Maybe it was. Or maybe it was never fake to me,” he says. I lift my head from his shoulder to stare at him. I’m not sure if he realizes his hands settle on my ass as he continues. “I think I nitpicked things you did and fought with you because I was attracted to you, and it was easier to use my normal defense mechanism of being the grump than actually try to discern my feelings. I’ve been content for so long in not wanting a relationship that I chose to ignore the connection we clearly have.”

“But you just said you’ve been content,” I argue.

“I’m not explaining this right,” he sighs. “I swore off love. Decided relationships weren’t for me. I didn’t want to bother trying. I figured I had my family, my kids, and work, and that was good enough. And then you steamrolled in here.”

I frown. “I steamrolled? This isn’t giving me any confidence, Dominic.”

He chuckles. “You’re a force to be reckoned with, Katharine. You have the patience of a saint to deal with me and my family. You’ve had a shitty set of cards dealt to you from a shitty deck, and you still wake up each day knowing something good will come of that day. Do you know what I thought the first time I saw you?”

“Her fashion sense leaves a lot to be desired?” I joke.

Dominic smiles. “I thought you were Matt’s girl, and I was so fucking pissed that he got to you first.”

“What?” I breathe.

“I thought you were breathtaking, and I was jealous of my cousin. When Victoria walked up, and Matt introduced you as his half-sister, I was immediately horrified at my thoughts, because I wasn’t sure if we were actually related or not. Then I felt guilty for being jealous of Matt. The next time I saw you, once I finally got up the nerve to talk to you, it had been too long that I was standing there staring at you, and so I bit your head off about something dumb.”

“You told me my shoes matched your daughter’s shoes, and maybe I should buy something made for adults,” I remark dryly. Our first interaction was equally as memorable, when he explained that he hadn’t met me yet because he ran the hotel and was a busy man, making me feel about an inch tall in comparison.

Dominic winces, dropping his chin to rest on his collarbone. “I would think one thing, and say another, when it came to you. I was never well-spoken around you, it seems.”

“I’m pretty sure I threatened to kill you one of the first times I hung out with Hannah and Arianna.”

“For hotel issues or me issues?”

“I think it was you and your kids. One of the first times I nannied for you. I can’t remember exactly why.”

Dominic gives me a weird smile before he bursts into laughter. “Did I yell at you to leave the kitchen while I was in there?”

My eyes widen. “Yes! You said I couldn’t be in the same space as you. What the hell was that about?”

“Do you really want to know?”

“Obviously.”

“Baby, I was hard, and I was trying to get it to go down.”

“Hard? From what?” I blurt out.

“You were wearing this shirt, and the top button ripped? You talked about it as you were walking in the door. I don’t think you knew I was home, because you looked as surprised to see me as I was to see you. But I saw your bra, and the tops of your tits, and … well, my dick took notice,” Dominic says sheepishly.

My mouth agape, I’m speechless.

“Close your mouth, Katharine,” he says, clearing his throat. He leans forward and whispers in my ear, “Or I’ll fill it with something else.”

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