Chapter 6 - Ryan #2
Dom inhaled deeply. “In the interest of full transparency, Taff knows the truth. I got drunk one night and it all came spilling out.”
I thought back to my interactions with Taff. “Figures. Felt like far too much of a set-up to be natural.”
“Taff’s not one for subterfuge,” Dom said. “Really unable to read a room too. But Mimic? He can walk in and get the lay of the land in under a minute. That’s what he did tonight.”
“I don’t care.” I shrugged his hands off my shoulders. Didn’t help, I could still feel the weight of them. “I can’t believe you brought him here just to fuck with me. That’s so fucking typical of you.”
“No, I brought him here to show you that you’re wrong. That you don’t want to see me moving on any more than I do.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Don’t you realise how fucked up that is? You’re insane, Dominic.”
“What I am is in love,” he shot back fiercely. “Yes, I know the way I’m acting isn’t right, but you know what? I don’t give a fuck. I’ll do a lot worse if it means getting you back in my life.”
Dom’s words sent fire through my veins. A fire that went straight to my heart, attempting to melt the years of ice that encased it.
You do not find that attractive. It’s sick and twisted, I hissed at my heart.
But he’s ours, my heart protested.
He wasn’t. Not anymore.
I balled my hands. “You’re still labouring under the delusion that I want you back, Dom. I don’t. I want to be with Kate.”
“Ah, Kate,” Dom mused. “Yes. Let’s talk about her some more. I really enjoyed the part where you almost combusted just because she was checking out my tattoos.”
Not tattoos. My art, my heart whispered. See? He never forgot about us.
It didn’t matter. Not with how he’d behaved in the years since. The silence.
The way he’d left me.
“Of course I was bothered. My fiancée was touching you.”
“Funny, you didn’t seem as bothered when she was touching that other guy. That was far more intimate than what she did to me, but you barely blinked.”
I snorted. “Because that’s her stepbrother. There’s nothing to be jealous over.”
“Stepbrother?” Dom considered that for a moment before shrugging. “Yeah, I don’t think that matters.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just that love doesn’t give a fuck about trivial shit like that.” He reached out to brush a lock of hair from my forehead.
I let him. I let him touch me.
Why am I letting him?
“If it did, we wouldn’t be in this predicament,” he said. “That’s why you hated it when she touched me. Because it was me she was touching. As fucked up as it is, you don’t want anyone else’s hands on me, because I’m yours. Just like you’re mine.”
“There’s nothing going on between Kate and Rafe,” I said finally, deciding to just ignore the other part of his statement. “They don’t even talk.”
He tilted his head mockingly. “Just like we don’t?”
I swallowed, my throat tightening at the reminder of all those lonely years, wondering if he was okay. If he was injured. If he and Max had finally got together. If he ever thought about me. “Exactly. There’s nothing between them, and there’s nothing between us.”
Dominic leaned close, until there was no more than an inch of air and a decade of broken promises between us. “Liar.”
I jerked back a step to glare at him. “I know what you’re doing, Dom, and it’s not happening.”
His lips twitched in amusement. “And what am I doing, Shadow?”
“You’re trying to plant seeds of doubt in my mind about Kate. It’s not going to work. Our relationship is strong.”
“Your relationship is weak at best,” he fired back. “She doesn’t even know you’re an artist.”
“Because I’m not.”
“Really? Didn’t realise you could just decide to turn off part of your heart.”
“Well you can. I turned off all of mine the day you left me.”
“And that right there is how I know you don’t love her.” He grabbed my chin as though he had a right to. “You can’t, Ry, because your heart belongs to me.”
This time, I did shove him away. I had to. Another second with his hand on me and I might do something stupid to shut him up. Like punch him.
Or kiss him.
“Tell me you don’t love me,” Dom demanded. “I dare you. I fucking dare you.”
I tried. I did.
But the words wouldn’t come.
Triumph flared in Dom’s eyes at my inability to say it. To confirm what we both knew would be a lie. But my next words doused it. “It doesn’t matter, Dom. Love isn’t enough.”
He laughed harshly. “Love is enough for everything.”
“Not for me,” I said honestly. “I’ve had a lot of time to reflect since we were together. I know what’s important to me now. Reliability. Communication. Security. Honesty. Respect. That’s what I want, and what I need.”
“I can be those things for you,” Dom said. “Please, Shadow, just give me a chance.”
“You had one,” I said bitterly. “Every day for the past ten years that passed without you picking up your phone. It’s too late now.”
“I couldn’t have called you earlier.” Dom sounded haunted.
“I had to be sure that I’d grown up enough.
That I could be the man you deserve. I wasn’t him ten years ago.
Or five. Or even four? But three years ago?
That’s when I was sure. That’s when I started planning.
It wasn’t because I found out about your…
engagement.” He spat the word like it was poison.
“It was because the time was finally right.”
“You could’ve reached out,” I whispered in disbelief. “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through while you’ve been gone?”
His eyes widened. “Shadow—”
“No, you don’t.” I was more than ready to be done with this conversation. Behind me, my engagement party was in full swing. That was where I needed to be, not out here, rehashing the past with Dominic like it could do anything but bring me more pain. “Because you never called.”
“You would’ve hung up,” Dom whispered, shaking his head slowly. “You wouldn’t have taken my call.”
There was no humour in my laugh as I stepped away. “Guess we’ll never know now, will we?”