Page 414 of Cheaters: A Dark Romance Anthology

“All of it. I want to know how you ended up in Vegas. And why do you keep spouting this bullshit about how you’re not a good person. And why you’re so fucking guarded.”

He holds up a hand to stop me. “One question at a time, Katarina.”

Thinking for a moment, I settle on, “Where are you from?”

“Colorado,” he answers without hesitation. “Near Boulder.”

Okay, that was an easy one.

“Any siblings?”

“Nope. Only child.”

I smile. “We have that in common. Do your parents still live in Colorado?”

The look on his face shows I’ve hit a nerve. “No, they’re not around anymore. They died in a car crash when I was eighteen.”

“Shit, I’m sorry, Dominic.”

He doesn’t reply and avoids making eye contact.

I pause a moment before speaking again. “Alright, while I appreciate you divulging that stuff, I think it’s about time you tell me what you’re scared to say. Why are you so hell-bent on me thinking you’re an awful person?”

He takes a deep breath before beginning to speak. “Katarina, when I was eighteen, I was getting into a lot of trouble. I was a bored teenager doing all kinds of stupid shit. My parents tried to get me back on track, but that made it worse. One night, I snuck out of the house. They came looking for me, and that’s when they had their accident.”

Now, it’s all starting to make a little more sense.

“Dominic, you can’t blame yourself.”

“I can,” he interrupts. “If they hadn’t been looking for me, they wouldn’t have died that night. Those are facts.”

“That doesn’t make you a bad person,” I argue.

“Kitten, that’s only the beginning of the story.”

While I wait for him to continue, I look at him. At this moment, this behemoth of a man seems quite small.

“After they died, I got a pretty sizeable payout from their life insurance. I started using the money for more reckless decisions—drugs, booze, women. I had a girlfriend at the time, and between the lying and the cheating, I destroyed her.”

I’m shocked to hear he had a girlfriend. I guess a lot has changed between now and then.

He goes on, “I came to Vegas to try to keep my mind off of everything. What better place than America’s Playground to drown out your demons? I partied all night and slept all day. Every night, I had a different woman in my bed, and I gambled most of my money away. But one night, I hit big on a jackpot. I figured I should use that money on something productive. I knocked on over a hundred doors, trying to get someone to take a chance on me and my idea. Finally, one of them stuck. But since then, I have stayed away from people in general. If I don’t get close to anyone, no one gets hurt.”

“Do you think you’d hurt me?” I ask.

“Not intentionally. But yes, I think you’d eventually get hurt—not physically, of course. I’d mentally fuck you up, I’m sure.”

We are both silent for a few moments, and when I look into his eyes, I see all of the vulnerability he’s been trying to hide. Somehow, it makes me like him even more.

Realizing how hard it must have been to tell me all of this, I feel the sudden urge to be closer to him.

Moving through the water, I climb into his lap so that I’m straddling him. With my arms wrapped around his neck, I look into his eyes before peppering small kisses all over his face.

“I’m sorry for not telling you sooner,” he says. “It wasn’t fair to you.”

“You told me. That’s what matters.” I yearn to tell him that he’s not as bad as he thinks and that I know there’s a whole hell of a lot of good buried under his tough exterior. But I know he won’t believe my words.

I decide to try to show him instead. Grabbing his face, I press my lips against his. It takes no time for him to deepen the kiss and pull me closer to him.

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