Page 20 of Worth the Vow

“Ow! Katie, you weren’t supposed to do that too!” she cries.

“I’m sorry, sweetie. Your dad scared me,” I coo as I rub her head. Quickly finishing her braid, I turn to look at Dominic, and the vision in front of me literally steals my breath.

Dominic always looks attractive. Any woman would say he’s handsome. But right now, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest, he’s powerful and alluring. His three-piece suit stretches perfectly over his physique, and the navy blue somehow makes his brown eyes sparkle even more. His tie today is pink paisley, matching my dress almost perfectly. Not many men can pull off a pink tie, but Dominic can. Hell, he can pull off anything.

Including my clothes.

Jesus. Where did that thought come from? I mean, he’s attractive. Clearly my body recognizes that. But we don’t like each other. We don’t even get along in a cordial way. Dominic puts up with me because his family basically adopted me.

Which makes this sham of a marriage even weirder.

“Daddy,” Aspen says, jarring me from my inappropriate thoughts, “your tie matches Kate’s dress.”

“I know,” he replies simply.

“Did you do that on purpose?” I blurt out.

“Yes.”

“How did you know my dress was pink?” I ask, intrigued.

“You left the bag on the counter yesterday. I assumed it was what you were going to wear. Dresses aren’t really your style.”

“Rude,” I mutter under my breath, but he hears me.

“It’s not rude. I’m stating a fact. There’s nothing wrong with your clothes. You dress how you feel comfortable, and that’s completely fine. You manage to showcase your personality with your clothes, and I can tell when you feel very confident in what you’re wearing. But I’ve never seen you in a dress, so I took a shot in the dark that the dress in the bag was for today.”

It sounds pragmatic. His reasoning is sound. Yet somehow, he’s made me feel about five inches tall. He always makes me feel like that, honestly. Maybe someday I’ll understand more of why I react to Dominic the way I do. But today is not that day.

“Aspen, Uncle Alex is upstairs with your cousins. I need to speak with Kate before we leave,” Dominic says clearly. As Aspen bounces out of the room, he quickly kisses the top of her head before straightening his suit coat. Clearing his throat, he says, “I like your clothes, Katharine.”

“You do?” I whisper.

He nods. “I do. You have this one shirt that I fucking love —”

“Which shirt?” I ask, noting a slight blush appearing on his neck as he refrains from looking me in the eye.

“It’s nothing. Not important. I do realize we’ve forgotten one aspect of this ruse that we have to discuss now.”

“Okay?” I ask, confused about what he means.

“We have to make this somewhat believable. I don’t think the judge would hold it against us, especially since he’s a friend of the family, but I’d rather be prepared.”

“I’m not following.”

“We have to kiss, Katharine.”

I stare at him as I feel the blood drain from my face. Of course we have to kiss. I’ve been to weddings before, yet somehow I completely forgot about that.

“Well it doesn’t have to be something long, right? It can just be a quick peck? People don’t make out in the judge’s chambers, do they? They shouldn’t. That has to be disrespectful, I think. Or uncouth. Or just gross. Something. I never even thought about that, Dominic. What the hell are we going to do —”

I never even saw him walking across the room. I barely processed him standing before me, until Dominic’s lips are on mine, and his arms wrap around my waist, pulling me into his embrace. His lips, firm and soft, suction against mine, pulling a moan from my mouth and into his. I feel him shudder against me as he kisses me again, a hand sliding up my back to grip the nape of my neck, moving my head into the spot he wants it. I moan again, realizing my hands have slid under his suit coat to grip his sides, my thumbs in the V that I still think about often.

I won’t try to lie and say his kiss didn’t rock me to my core, and that I’d never imagined what it might be like to kiss Dominic. Honestly, I’ve focused on his lips more than once since meeting the Santo family. Upon our first meeting, I noticed how attractive all the Santo kids are, and Luca gave me a huge smile as we’d already met through Matt. Dominic hung back, poised and steadfast, the clear leader of the bunch. My gaze immediately dipped to his lips, which I found pursed in a straight line. His gaze was emotionless, his posture as stiff as his suit, but the quick clench of his jaw told me Dominic was not impressed with me. When I reached out a hand to shake his, he hesitated before enclosing my hand into his. The touch, albeit brief, was a shock to my system. When he yanked his hand away from mine as if he felt repulsed by my touch, I decided then and there to either make him like me, or irritate the shit out of him.

It ended up the latter … but this kiss tells me Dominic has been potentially hiding underlying feelings for me. He can’t kiss me like this and still hate me, can he?

I feel Dominic’s tongue tentatively touch my lips, and my mouth automatically opens for him, beckoning him to deepen the kiss. As if we were doused with ice-cold water, Dominic jumps back, breaking off the kiss as I lean toward him in an attempt to continue it.

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