Chapter 52 Cecily #2
I walk with Rainbow and my grandma to reception, and when I take a step for the elevators, they go in the opposite direction.
"Aren't you going upstairs?" I point above my head.
Rainbow's shoulders shake with suppressed mirth, and I narrow my eyes. Did I miss the joke?
"Fuck no," Grandma says. "We're sleeping in the motor home. Haven't you heard? This place is haunted."
I want to laugh, but I'm afraid it will devolve into tears. "Oh, Grandma. You really are savage."
She blows me a kiss, and I watch the two of them disappear through the front door. For the first time on this trip, I am grateful Grandma has Rainbow.
When I step off the elevator on floor three, Dom is there, peeking his head from the open door of room 306.
He reaches for me, pulling me inside and closing the door with his foot. "That was the third time I looked out there for you. I told myself the third time would be the charm." He looks into my eyes, and his happy expression disappears. "Are you ok?"
"She's dying." The admittance feels like defeat. The longer I put off saying the words out loud, the longer I could refuse their truth.
"Yes." Dom's voice is gentle, nearing apologetic. "I wish I could take this pain away from you. I wish I could feel it the way you do, so you don't have to."
Pressing my face to his chest, I tell him, "My grandma said that you want to exist in my orbit."
My head moves with the ripple of his chest as he chuckles. "She's right. That's why I gave my boss an ultimatum earlier. So I can exist in your orbit."
I step back, my sadness overshadowed by my surprise. "What?"
"I asked her if I can start a new arm of the agency in Phoenix. If not, I quit and I'm going to open up my own shop."
"Dom, are you serious?" It's the last thing I expected.
Something I hadn't dared consider. But now that I know it's a possibility, I want it.
Badly. Dom and I in the same city? Nothing sounds better.
My hand presses to my chest, an attempt to contain my heart.
It's galloping from my chest, overwhelmed with the notion Dom would do something so big for me.
"Cecily, this road trip is a fever dream.
It's close quarters and high emotion and complex family dynamics.
When it comes to you and me, I want to give us the best chance.
Long distance, especially after an experience like this, doesn't accomplish that.
I am desperately in love with you and I'd like to give all that I have to making this work. "
YES. Yes one thousand times. I push him backward until he sinks onto the bed.
I scramble onto his lap, pressing myself against him as if I could soak into his skin.
Diffuse him into my bloodstream. Have I ever been like this?
Never. I want to put my mouth on him, and my hands.
I want to sit under his gaze and listen to the details of his day.
I want to drink blueberry mojitos with him on a Saturday afternoon, then go back to my place and make love, the slow kind where he rocks between my legs and our noses brush.
"Dom—"
He's shaking his head, quieting me. "Don't say it back.
Not yet." His lips skim mine. Back and forth.
Torturous. "Don't say it now when you're dealing with everything else this road trip requires of you.
Save it for some other time, when everything that has your attention now has subsided.
I'll still be here, Chestnut. I'll be beside you. Tell me then."
My lips lower to his throat. I swipe my tongue over his Adam's apple, his scruff coarse like sandpaper. "How will you know if I don't tell you?"
His hands roam. One sneaks into my hair, the other tightens on my hip. "Your actions, baby."
"Mmm." The sound vibrates my throat as I press down on the part of him that has grown under me.
Suddenly I'm hungry for him. Ravenous. He is in soft shorts, no zipper, and I pull him out.
My skirt has already ridden up around my hips, and when I lift up to my knees, Dom pulls my panties to the side.
Gripping his shoulders, I take him. Slow.
Drawing it out. Dom loses his patience and grips my hips, hurrying me down.
"I need you right there," he grounds out, moving my hips back and forth, pressing me against him. "Forever. I want you there forever. You hear me?"
He lifts me, then lowers me, over and over. I breathe out the only response I can form. "Forever. Yes."
I hold on to him, my hands in his unruly hair, scraping his shoulders, his upper back, everywhere I can touch.
Together we move, becoming frenzied and desperate. Mouth to mouth, nose to nose, forehead to forehead. Everything Dom has said makes the experience more profound.
The pleasure crests, and I rise up to meet it. Dom feels it, says, "Me too, baby." And then he holds me close while I shatter, and I hold him closer while he splinters.
He kisses my jaw, soft and sweet, and I run my hands through his hair as we both settle back into ourselves.
We get ready for bed, and when we crawl under the covers, Dom holds me tenderly. He doesn't say I love you again, but he doesn't have to. His actions speak for him.