49. Dom
Chapter forty-nine
Dom
“ D o you want me to wish you a happy birthday, or would you prefer I ruin it by singing to you instead?” Ellie asks as she cuddles in close, one leg wrapping over my thigh, and her hand snaking around my waist.
I love waking up like this.
I hum, relaxing into a slow stretch of my muscles to shake off the fog of sleep. “You know your husband. I want the fanfare. Give me fireworks, Ellie.”
“Fresh out of fireworks, I’m afraid,” she says with a giggle, nuzzling her cheek further into my chest.
I reach her hip and pull her closer, catching her surprised gasp in a lazy kiss. She melts in my arms.
“Little liar. It’s always fireworks with you.”
Her shy smile looks familiar and new all at once. It touches her eyes, and it’s like I’m watching the Ellie I met a lifetime ago come back to herself.
“Happy thirtieth,” she says. “Now give me the full inventory. How bad is it? Muscle aches? Heel spurs? Did you throw your back out with that stretch a minute ago? What’s the damage?”
“Oh, ha-ha. You just wait…two years, and you’ll be right here with me. ”
Her laughter fades and her eyes shine in the early morning sun cutting through the room. “Yeah, I will be.”
I hold her jaw and roll her onto her back, taking her in another slow kiss, soaking up every second of her undivided attention. She opens for me—thighs and lips—and moans. Her fingernails drag up my back and I drive my hips between hers.
“I’m curious to see what it’s like to drive a vintage car,” she says breathless against my lips, barely able to contain her laughter as her hips roll to meet mine. “I’m pretty good with stick shift. Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle.”
“Someone woke up spicy today,” I say against her neck, before trailing kisses across her collarbone. Her hands weave into my hair.
“You said you wanted fireworks.”
“Is that why I’m being roasted?”
“Precisely.”
“Remind me to be careful what I wish for when I blow out the candles this year.”
“I didn’t get candles,” she says with mirth, before rolling me onto my back and straddling my hips. “Can’t have a fire hazard like that in the house. We have a child, Dom.” The false reprimand in her voice is a relief.
I’ve missed this so goddamn much. These moments that just feel like…us.
We’re still here.
I rub my palms up and down her thighs, and my eyes catch on her nipples, pebbled beneath her soft cotton T-shirt. I reach down and palm her ass before giving one cheek a slap.
“Relentless.”
“Consistent,” she counters, with a wink. “Lie down on your stomach.”
“Baby, I’m all for trying new things in the bedroom, but it’s been a while. Maybe we start back up with some vanilla before you go all in, huh?”
She rolls her eyes and slaps my chest. “First of all, I’m disappointed in your seriously lacking sense of adventure and spontaneity. Second, that’s not what’s happening. Roll over.”
I do, and she crawls onto my back, before she starts kneading my shoulders. I unwillingly let out a deep groan as she works my muscles.
“Oh fuck, okay. Maybe I am feeling my age. We might have to cancel any birthday plans so we can do this all day instead.”
I can hear the smile in her voice when she says, “Afraid we can’t do that, sweetheart. I got us a sitter and plans I can’t and won’t”—she leans down to kiss my shoulder—“cancel.”
My brows hit my hairline in surprise. Ellie got a sitter and planned for us to go out, just the two of us? What the fuck is she up to?
I roll over, careful to keep her braced astride me, and hold her waist tightly.
“What’s the plan, Captain?”
“For once, Dominic, that’s for me to know and for you to learn as we go. No planning. No interfering. No trying to one-up anything with your exuberant need to be thoughtful. Your job is to enjoy today, okay?” She’s clearly put a lot of thought and effort into this, and it’s important to her. Fuck if I’ll be the one to mess that up for her.
“But before we do anything, you’re going to need to open this,” she says, handing me a small box with a purple ribbon. I slowly open it and my stomach drops when I see a single puzzle piece inside the packaging.
Turning it over, I read, Grow with me.
My eyes search hers, lost in their depths.
“Why did you give me a piece of my own, Ellie?”
“You’ve spent all this time helping me piece myself back together. But you forgot a really important part of the puzzle. You.”
I stroke her cheek and commit this moment to memory. I don’t care what the rest of the day looks like, what we do, who we’re with, or where we go. I know she’s here with me, all the way with me, and I’m never letting go.