Chapter 40
you are my inevitable
DOMINIC
September
At the threshold of my house, Mia hesitates, her posture tense, her arms folded over her chest. And when she looks at me, she purses her lips tighter. She’s even more annoyed now than she was when I told her I was taking her back to Monterey.
“Come on in.” I splay a hand over her lower back and guide her inside. “I just want to talk. You’re free to leave anytime you want.”
“What if I want to go now?”
I chuckle. “In that case, I’d ask you to give me just a few minutes first.” I hover closer, my face inches from hers. “Please, Mia, come inside.”
With a huff, she finally steps into my house. Just inside the door, she scans the living room: the black sectional with throw pillows, the dark wood coffee table, the shelves, and the big TV on the wall. When she finally looks at me, her expression is guarded.
“What? Not what you expected?”
“Actually…it’s very you.” The corners of her mouth twitch. “And it’s an upgrade from your apartment. Bigger. Neater.”
I shrug. “The shop is doing well. I saved like crazy for the down payment.”
“You never thought about moving back in with Mom and Allan to save money?”
“Never.” I place my hand on the small of her back again, guiding her further into the room. “Did you live with Luke?”
The way my skin burns when I touch her should be studied. There’s no fucking way it’s normal. But when she doesn’t pull away, that heat settles into something bearable.
“Yeah,” she says, lowering herself onto the couch. “His apartment near the Duomo is beautiful. Though, after graduation, I moved out. It was time.”
“Did you like living on your own?”
“Um…sure.” She looks around the space, as if cataloguing every detail. Her gaze lingers on the helmet on the bar before she focuses on me again, and her head tilts. “Are you just going to stand there, or are we going to talk?”
I chuckle. “Just thought I’d get drinks, maybe some sandwiches if you’re hungry.”
“I’m good. Thanks. The coffee and snack from the gas station were enough.” She places her hands on her lap. “Do you live here alone?”
Unease curls through me. “Of course. Why do you ask?”
“No reason. Just wanted to confirm.” She wets her lips. “Sit.”
Her tone is authoritative, confident. I shouldn’t be surprised after the way she handled meetings with her team.
She took charge and came up with a plan to fix the problem, yet she never tried to put the blame on someone else.
Her goal was simply to find a solution and ensure they wouldn’t have the same issue again.
Lips twitching and a little turned on by her stern tone, I sit. I’m not nervous, but I’m careful. I need her to give me a chance, and in order to earn that privilege, I have to play my cards right.
“Though I wish I could go back and do things differently, I can’t. I can’t undo the damage, and the hurt I caused you won’t magically disappear, but I still want to try and make things right.”
Her voice is quieter now, less sure. “Why?”
“Because I want you. Because you’re it for me. My future.”
She twists her lips, her fingers rapping over her thigh. “What if I don’t feel the same?”
Hurt blooms in my chest, but it dissipates quickly when her attention drifts to my mouth, and her breath hitches.
She’s lying, and I don’t want that. I want us to be honest with each other.
“Let’s make a deal.”
One eyebrow arched, she asks, “A deal?”
“No more lies. From me. From you.” I hold my hand out. “You ask me something, I give you an answer. No lies, no omissions, just the truth, and you do the same for me.”
Mia studies me like she’s searching for the hidden meaning behind my words, searching for the trap. Then, she puts her small hand in mine and shakes it.
“Okay. Just the truth.”
I slowly thumb her knuckles, refusing to let go. Her skin is warm, soft, and the feel of her causes a volcanic eruption in my chest. God, I want her. I’d do anything to earn her forgiveness.
She pulls her hand away and leans back, silently studying me.
“I want you back,” I say.
“You think it’s that simple?”
“No. I don’t think it’s that simple. It never has been. But I know what I want, and it’s you. It’s always only been you.”
“I find that hard to believe.” She folds her arms over her chest. “You broke my heart, broke my trust. You easily pushed me away and made me think I meant nothing to you.”
“It was anything but easy. Every fucking time I saw you around town, all I wanted was to fall to my knees in front of you and tell you what a fool I was. Tell you you’re the only one for me.
Tell you how sorry I was for breaking your heart, for making you doubt me.
But…” I rake a hand through my hair. “I also saw how much healthier you looked; I saw the way you smiled when you were with your friends. It was everything I wanted for you. It reinforced my belief that letting you go was the best thing for you. So, I admired you from afar, watched you become everything you were meant to be.”
“That wasn’t your call to make. You could’ve talked to me about your concerns. Instead, you took away my agency.”
The place where my heart used to beat, the place that’s been empty since Mia got on that plane, aches.
“I know. I’ve known it for years, and I’ll never make that mistake again.
You are it for me, Mia, and I’m fucking done pretending that’s not true.
” I shift closer, though I don’t allow myself to touch her.
“It’s been over four years, but I still wake up every morning thinking about you.
I see your face everywhere I go. When I see something interesting, my first thought is to tell you.
” I swallow thickly. “You live in my dreams, you’re in my blood, you’re the air I breathe.
You are my inevitable. You and I are inevitable. ”
“You’re way too confident,” she retorts, her voice laced with pain. “Too dominant, too sure of yourself. I don’t like it.”
My lips tip up on one side. “I thought we agreed not to lie to each other.”
Her eyes flare with anger. “I’m not lying. That’s exactly the kind of person you are.”
“I’ll give you that, but you don’t hate it. You never have.” I cup her cheek. “You love it when I take control, the way I pull you in and refuse to let you hide from me.”
She shifts, her lips parting. The tension between us is palpable.
“You love it when I challenge you because you’re strong and you love to prove it, but you also love when I defend you.
You love that I won’t back down from a fight, especially if it involves you.
And you know I’d do anything for you.” I take her hand in mine, and my confidence is bolstered when she lets me.
“You’re strong, so fucking strong. But more than that, you’re compassionate and kind.
You see the good in people. You even found the good in me.
You fell in love with me despite my imperfections, and you love me still. ”
She lets out a nervous laugh. “Now you’re telling me how I feel?”
“Yes, because I promised you the whole truth.” I drag her into my lap. “You know I’m the only one for you. No one will ever make you feel the way I do; no one will ever fuck you the way I do. You love me, and I love you. That won’t ever change.”
I cradle her face, making her look at me, and she presses her hands to my chest over my heart.
“Tell me I’m wrong,” I challenge. “Tell me you don’t feel it. Tell me you don’t love me.” My voice cracks. “Tell me you found a man who made you feel the way I do while you were away. Tell me.”
She exhales sharply. “I’ve moved on.”
I grip her chin. “You’re a terrible liar, baby.”
She pushes me away, eyes full of fire. “And what about you? I saw the text, remember?”
I hold her gaze, my voice dropping lower. “None of them compared to you.”
Hurt flashes across her face. “Yeah, right.”
Cuffing her neck, I make sure she’s paying attention before I speak again.
“I knew I’d never move on. I’d never forget you.
So, I settled for just trying to feel something, anything other than the emptiness that settled in my chest after I pushed you away.
But it never worked. Every time I tried, with every fucking woman, I only saw you.
In every sound, in every breath, in every touch—I saw you. ”
Her chest heaves, and her brows knit together. “It wasn’t like that for me,” she finally says.
“No?” I ask, feigning that confidence she swears I’m full of. “And who was he? Who was the guy who helped you move on?”
She shakes her head and tries to stand, but I firmly hold her in place. My breath is shallow, my chest aching. The way she looks at me is disturbing. It’s wrong.
“Tell me,” I urge her.
Looking right at me, she sighs. “I was engaged.”
My body goes numb, and my heartbeat thunders in my ears. “What?” I croak.
“I met Theo during my senior year. He was my professor.” She swallows, the delicate column of her throat twitching.
“Nothing happened then, but after graduation, we ran into each other at the bar. From there, everything happened so quickly. It was the definition of a whirlwind romance. After just a few months, he asked me to marry him.”
A storm builds inside my chest, my muscles tensing. “And no one told me?”
Matt’s parting words come to mind, and I grit my teeth. He fucking knew, and he didn’t tell me.
“You were gonna marry him?”
She pushes against me again, and this time, I let her climb off my lap. Hovering over me, she worries her bottom lip. Then, she shrugs. “I said yes.”
I stand from the couch and pace the room. I could’ve lost her forever, and I had no fucking idea.
Running a hand down my face, I choke back the bile rising in my throat. Matt hid it from me and so did my dad, but the person I’m most angry with is myself. I should’ve followed her to Italy. I should’ve begged for her forgiveness years ago.
I stop and turn to look at her. “I still follow your socials. How come I never saw you with him?”
“He was my professor before we started dating. We didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.”
I storm over to her, my breath sawing in and out of my lungs. “Where is he now? Because you’re here, and I don’t see a ring. What happened?”
She doesn’t shy away. No, she lifts her chin and pulls her shoulders back. “He’s in Milan.”
“And what happened? Did he not want to move to the U.S. with you? Shouldn’t he be here for Matt’s wedding?”
She snarls, “He’s not here because we broke up, but Theo was amazing. He treated me right, he respected me, he supported me in every possible way, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t marry him.”
My heart thuds heavily. “Why not?”
She wrings her hands, her fingers trembling.
“Because my heart wasn’t his. Fuck, it wasn’t even there with me.
It stayed here with you.” She presses her hands to my chest and pushes me away.
“Because you fucking ruined me. You wrecked me. You wormed your way so deep under my skin, you’re the only one I feel, the only one I want. It’s all your fault.”
A rush of adrenaline zips through my body, and my reality shifts, twisting and turning until all the pieces are slotted into place and the puzzle is complete. The gravity, the pull, the destiny. It all led us here, to this very moment.
There’s still a chance. Please, let there be a chance we can fix this.
“It’s not my fault.” I grab her wrists and pull her against me. “It’s because we belong to each other. You are mine, and I’m yours, and that’s the only way it will ever be.”
“You really think that’s enough?” she whispers, growing soft in my arms.
I hold her, staring deeply into her eyes. “Yes. I love you, Mia. I’ve never stopped loving you. I never will.”
She places her palm over my heart, the ghost of a smile tugging at her lips when she feels how wildly it’s beating.
“I love you too,” she finally whispers.
Gently, I place my lips on hers and hope to hell she lets me in.