Page 132 of For the Love of the Gods

Dominic nodded, his face lit up by a brilliant smile. I ran my hand across his jaw and his stubble.

“I love you too, Dominic,” I said and his eyes darkened to those black pools with pure satisfaction. “So much that sometimes it feels like I can’t breathe. We wasted so much time…”

I had to shake my head to fight the tears building again.

“Hey, no.” Dominic smoothed his hands down the side of my face. “Everything that happened in the past got us here. I love you now. That’s all that matters.”

I nodded, relishing in the scrape of his hand against my cheeks. “It’s going to take me a second to calm down. I feel like my chest is cracking in half.”

Dominic reached down to grab the hand that was now curled over my chest, trying to soothe the ache. “Sweetheart, that’s everyday with you. But it's a good crack. Big enough for you to weasel your way in there.”

I smiled, pressing myself closer. “You’re a lot bigger than me. I don’t know how you’re gonna fit.”

“I have time to try,” Dominic said, after a loaded pause that had another response lifting one of his brows. Just the knowledge of it, ringing through my head in the exact voice and tone he would have used, warmed my body.

Fuck, I loved him. I opened my mouth to tell him again, tell him why. But Dominic spoke before I could start again. “As much as I want to hear how much you love me, I’d rather kiss you.”

I laughed, giddy at the thought. “Okay.”

“Good,” Dominic chuckled, “Now come here.”

He used the hand on the back of my neck to crush my lips to his, the kiss channeling every ounce of relief and terror and love we felt. I wiggled my other hand out from between us and threw both hands around his neck, pressing up on my toes to kiss him harder.

Dominic held me with so much care and love, it was the final stitch I needed to sew up my heart and hand it back to him, trusting that it wouldn’t break again.

I giggled against his mouth, earning a nip on my lower lip, and then went back to trying to climb him like a tree, raking my hands over his shoulders and corded neck.

Without warning, Dominic broke the kiss and squatted down grabbing one of my arms and pressing his shoulder into my waist. He hauled me up over his shoulder for the second time, my ass in the air and my face parallel with his lower back and sauntered out of the room with a clear destination in mind.

“Where are we going?” I asked his lower back. If this was going to be a pattern I would have to start naming it.

“To bed,” Dominic said, swatting me lightly on the ass. “Because the next time I say I love you, it’s going to be while I’m inside you.”

My face flushed and my stomach went molten at just those words. I could feel the rumble of Dominic’s laugh through his back at my silence and what it gave away. Within seconds, I was hitting the bed as Dominic practically threw me across our room.

I bounced twice, and a bright smile split my lips. Dominic jumped on top of me, pinning me to the bed with his hands on either side of my shoulders.

“This for me?” Dominic asked, shifting his weight into one hand so that he could run a finger over my lip.

I nodded and smiled brighter. “Always.”

Our clothes disappeared in record time, fabric ripping in our frenzy to get each other undressed. Dominic almost didn’t keep his promise, murmuring a brokenlove youagainst my core as he drove me crazy with his tongue, my back arching while release burst through my chest. Moments after, Dominic rose and notched himself at my entrance, pushing in in one stroke.

The second he was fully seated inside me, he bent down, placing his lips against the shell of my ear. “I love you.”

“I love you,” I said in a half gasp as he drove in again. And those seemed to be the only words, other than each other’s names, we could form for the rest of the day. The only thingtosay when Dominic brought me over the edge again and went with me.

When we laid together, lazily running our hands over each other.

When we fell asleep tangled together.

When we woke up still touching.

When I lifted my head off Dominic's chest to find him already looking at me. Like he loved me.

And I believed him.

Chapter 36

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