Chapter 9 - Dom
Dom
I WATCHED DEREK saunter out of the bar, and every muscle in my body turned to stone. Then I saw Eunice, pale as snow, moving through the dining area like she’d been gutted.
Two and two make four. Derek opened his fucking mouth.
She was headed for the door with a single-minded focus I recognized from my own worst moments. When the only thing that was keeping me upright was the promise of a locked door and privacy.
Not happening.
I was out of my seat before she cleared the first table, my chair scraping the floor loud enough to draw attention. A few heads turned, curious about the drama, but I didn’t give a shit about everyone. The only thing that mattered now was the woman trying to make herself invisible.
She was almost to the exit when I caught up, my longer stride eating up the distance faster than hers.
“Eunice.”
She didn’t stop. If anything, she moved faster.
My hand closed around her arm, not hard, but firm enough to stop her. “Let me explain.”
She tried to pull away, but I wasn’t letting go. Not when she was looking at me like I just ripped her heart out and stomped on it.
“Let me go.”
Still, I didn’t let go.
Instead, I stirred her as far away from the exit. Whatever the asshole said, whatever poison he poured in her ears, I was not letting it fester in public.
The cold air grew colder with each step. By the time we’d crossed the lot, the cold had teeth, biting exposed skin.
She finally stopped fighting me, but her whole body was rigid. Like she was bracing for impact. Like she was waiting for me to prove her right about every terrible thing she believed.
“He told you, didn’t he?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. Derek’s never been able to resist twisting the knife.
“That you’re the boss’s son?” Her laugh came out broken. “That you’ve been lying to me?” She looked at me with those eyes filled with hurt so deep it made my chest ache. “Yeah, he mentioned it.”
The pain in her voice made me want to hunt down every person who ever made her feel small and show them what happens when they mess with what’s mine.
“Good,” I said, stepping closer. “Then I don’t have to hide. Did he also mention that ‘Dominic Rutherford’ is a name I hate, but ‘Dom’ is the man who will burn down the world for you?”
But her mind was somewhere else. She was stuck in whatever story Derek spun, whatever narrative that painted me as the villain and her as the fool.
“Bullshit,” she said, but the word wasn’t angry.
It came out as a whisper. “Everything you said was bullshit. The IT guy? The ‘we work together’?” She continued, but it was not fury; it was defeat.
“You let me believe you were just some normal guy, so I’d—what—fall into bed with you?
” Her hands were shaking. “You’re just slumming it with the admin assistant? Is that it?”
Her words were like acid, dissolving the last of my control. I saw red. Not at her, but at Derek, at my father, at the whole fucking world that put this look of betrayal in her eyes. My hand tightened on her arm to anchor her. To anchor me.
“Slumming it?” My words came out as a low growl. The idea that she thought so little of herself, that Derek convinced her she was somehow beneath people, beneath me, made me sick. “You think you’re so unimportant that the only way this makes sense is if I’m slumming it?”
I shook my head, a harsh, broken laugh escaping. The irony was so bitter I could taste it. “Fuck, Eunice. It’s the other way around.”
Her eyes widened, confusion warring with the anger. “What are you talking about?”
And suddenly, I couldn’t hold it back anymore. All the reasons I lied, all the truth I’d been too fucking scared to tell her.
“I lied because the moment I saw you…” I rubbed my face with my free hand.
“I was standing across the street from the firm, feeling like a ghost in my own life, and I saw you, trying so hard to get that asshole to see you.” The memory was as clear as glass, painful.
“And it felt like lightning hit me. Because I know that feeling. I’ve spent a large part of my life trying to get my own father to see me. ”
I released her arm and stepped back, hands rising in surrender.
“The lie wasn’t… It’s not to get you into bed. It was desperation.” My voice cracked on admission. “It’s the only way I can think of to get close to you without this name—this fucking curse—getting in the way first. The ‘IT guy’ was a coward’s way of getting that one clean chance.”
She was listening now, and I could see the war happening in her head.
“You think ‘Dominic Rutherford’ has anything to offer? He’s a broken, angry disaster who hates his own life.
The IT guy… all he wanted was a moment of your time.
To see if the woman with light in her eyes, burning herself to the ground trying to brighten an asshole, might also spare a little of it for me. ”
Tears welled in her eyes, but she didn’t look away.
“Girls like me don’t end up with guys like you,” she whispered, and I recognized a poison in every word.
That snapped the final thread of my restraint. I was in her space again, cupping her face, thumbs catching her tears before they could fall.
“There are no girls like you,” I said, emphasizing each word. “There is only you.”
I leaned closer, so close our noses almost brushed.
“Guys like him walk past a jewel and are too blind to see it.” My thumb caught another tear slipping down her cheek.
“I saw it. The second I saw you. Eunice, this isn’t about my family name or money.
This is about you and me, nothing else.” I searched her face for any sign that she believed me.
“So yeah, I lied. And I’d do it again if it meant I got to stand here with you right now. ”
The silence stretched, so I continued. I laid everything bare.
“Tell me you believe me,” I whispered. “Tell me you feel this connection. Tell me it’s not just me. Because if you walk away now, you’re not just walking away from me. You’re siding with every asshole who ever made you feel small. Don’t do that. Don’t let them win.”
She stared into my eyes, and I could see the battle raging—Derek’s poison against what she felt in my arms, his lies against the truth written all over my face.
Finally, she gave the smallest nod, her breath hitching. “Okay.”
Relief crashed over me so hard I could barely stand. But I didn’t give her time to change her mind. I didn’t give doubt time to crawl back in. I kissed her like I was drowning, pouring everything into it. Pouring every ounce of relief, every promise I wanted to make, all into the kiss.
And when she kissed me back just as desperately, the man who’d been dead all these years came sparking back to life. I knew then that everything would be okay.