Chapter 31 - Dominic
Dominic
I had no idea what time we’d fallen asleep last night, only that I wasn’t sure it could still be called night. Sunlight had definitely been creeping through the curtains when our bodies had finally given in to the exhaustion and forced us to rest.
It wasn’t even just sex. I mean, yes, there’d been a lot of that. But there’d been so much talking too. More confessions of love. Ideas for where we might live. What kind of house we’d like. Ryan’s priority was somewhere with a big kitchen.
Me? I fancied a patio, just like the one we’d had in Scotland. Where we could have a bench that was slightly too small for both of us to fit on.
Not that I needed an excuse to curl up on Ry now. He’d tucked me in against his chest in the early hours, locking his limbs around me. I’d had to choke back tears.
This was really happening. I’d told myself it would, but there’d been so much in our way…
I was going to be pinching myself daily for a while yet. Years, perhaps. Or maybe I’d never stop marvelling at the fact that Ryan was mine. That he’d chosen me.
That idea didn’t scare me. It thrilled me. Ryan Davies was a better person than I could ever hope to be.
But I was the one he’d decided to spend his life with.
Others might think we were moving too fast, but it had taken us over a decade to get to this point. Neither of us wanted to waste another second apart.
We didn’t just talk about the distant future, but the near one too. How smug we suspected Xander would be. The few days I’d taken off from work, expecting to be mourning losing Ryan to another.
Instead, I’d be celebrating that not happening.
With him.
I’d even brought up what had happened at the hotel, asking Ryan about how Kate had reacted.
My question had taken him aback. “You really want to know?”
I grunted. “Believe it or not, I don’t bear her any ill will. I’m sure she’s a lovely person—she must’ve been for you to propose—I just knew she wouldn’t make you happy. Not like I would. Besides, if she was upset, that would upset you too. So yeah, I want to know.”
He’d filled me in then. About how he’d walked in on Kate and Rafe.
That she knew he’d cheated too, although he was oddly vague about how that part had gone.
He’d concluded the story too fast for me to push him on it.
“Really, we both realised what everyone had been telling us all along—that we didn’t truly know one another.
We were using one another to try and hide from the fact we couldn’t be with the people we loved. ”
“But you can.”
“I don’t think Kate can say the same,” Ryan had mused. “I do feel bad for her. Obviously, I knew there was a chance of her heart being broken, but I’d assumed I’d be the one to do it. Had no idea there was another threat to it entirely.”
My mind returned to the engagement party and the proprietary way Rafe had behaved towards his stepsister. “Makes sense to me. I suspect their situation’s probably even more complicated than ours.”
“You’re telling me,” Ryan said, his lips twitching. “But if our parents end up married, we’ll catch them back up.”
I’d tickled him then until he was squealing and breathless. Only then had I given him a reprieve, grinning down at where he was pinned under me. “Doesn’t count if we’re already together.”
We’d lost another hour in each other then, our lips never parting as I slid inside Ryan, taking us both over the edge.
That was when our bodies had given up, forcing us both to sleep, whether we wanted it or not.
I woke slowly, still half on Ryan’s chest. His hand was wrapped around my wrist, like he was making sure I didn’t leave him during the night.
My Shadow didn’t need to worry. I wasn’t going anywhere.
For a while, I was content just to lie there. For the first time in years, my mind was quiet. At peace. I’d worked so hard for so long to get to this moment. To Ryan in my bed. In my home. In my life.
Now, I had just that. All that was left to do was enjoy it.
When Ryan started to stir, I kissed my way across his chest. Up to his collarbone. From one side to the other. Along the column of his neck.
But the time I reached his lips, he was smiling at me sleepily. “Now that’s a good wake-up call.”
“Not as good as last week. I promise I’ll wake you with a blowjob again soon,” I said before kissing him slowly. Thoroughly.
“Nah, I think this is even better.” Ryan rolled onto his side and snuggled back into me. “Besides, if you’d done that, we wouldn’t be able to tick off another one of your fantasies.”
I was too distracted by the broad expanse of his shoulders to catch his meaning. “Which one?”
He slid one knee up, opening himself to me. “The one where you slide into me for sleepy morning sex. Where you take your time, because you know there’s no need to rush.”
I didn’t know what swelled more—my heart or my cock. “Shadow… Fuck. You have no idea what this means to me.”
“Yes, I do,” he said, meeting my gaze over his shoulder. “Because it means the same to me.”
Ryan’s hole was still a little sloppy and soft from our round a few hours ago. I stroked him tenderly, continuing to pepper his skin with kisses. “God, I love you so much.”
“I love you too.” He gasped as one of my fingers breached him. “Especially when you do that.”
I grinned against his shoulder. “Are you saying your love is dependent on how good I make you feel?”
“Yep,” he said, wriggling on my finger to get it deeper. I held back, knowing we needed more lube.
“Good thing I plan on making you the happiest man alive.” I withdrew my hand to grab the lube. It took me a few seconds to locate it among the sheets. The bedding was a complete mess, the sheet barely clinging to the mattress. “Unless I’m annoying you. I’ll probably do that too.”
“Your addiction to my irritated face is weird.” The last word dissolved into a moan as I slid a finger back into him. “No one should find that cute.”
“It’s not cute on anyone else.” I crooked my finger, hitting his prostate and making him moan. “But your irritation is beautiful.”
“Only because it ends in sex,” Ryan said, another moan slipping free as I tapped the spongy gland again. “You don’t have to annoy me to get that.”
“I know.” If I could bottle the warmth I felt knowing Ryan was officially mine, no one would ever go cold again. “I’m one lucky fucker.”
“There’s no luck to it,” he said, his head falling back against me as I worked another finger into him. “You made us happen. Don’t ever forget that, Dominic. We’re here because of you.”
I ducked my head to kiss him. “It’s only right, given we were apart because of me too.”
“No.” Ryan reached over his shoulder to grab my chin. “We’re not doing that. Our past is what it is. We’ve discussed it. We’ve accepted it. And now we’re going to move on from it. Together. This is our first time without a single roadblock in our path. Let’s not put any there. Okay?”
“Okay.” I ducked my chin to kiss his palm. “If that’ll make you happy.”
“It’ll make us both happy. That’s what I want.”
“Just having you here makes me happy.”
Ry’s eyes heated. “Maybe you should add another finger. That’ll definitely help the happiness scale.”
“So impatient.” I grinned, doing exactly what he asked. “Did I not satisfy you last night, Shadow?”
“I’m making up for lost time.” He moaned as I scissored my fingers, his hole loosening with ease. “Going to need a lot of sex.”
“Then I’m just the man for you,” I quipped.
God, my cheeks were hurting with how much I was grinning.
I couldn’t help it. I’d thought the happiness I’d found with Ryan at eighteen was the greatest I’d ever experience.
But this? Knowing we could live in the open?
That I could touch and kiss him whenever I wanted?
That we had no secrets, nothing lurking in the shadows, waiting to destroy us?
That eclipsed anything I’d experienced before.
Ryan was taking three of my fingers now, his voice needy as I massaged his prostate over and over again. “Fuck, Dom. Stop teasing and get inside me already.”
That was all I needed to hear. I gently drew my fingers out of him, then I rolled over to grab a condom from the bedside table. It only took a few seconds to get it on and lubed up, but those were precious seconds I could’ve spent inside him.
Back on my side, I nudged Ryan’s leg higher. With my hand on his hip, I guided myself home. “What do you think about us getting tested and ditching the condoms?”
“Going bare? I think you need to not mention it again while you’re inside me, because if I come before you get started, I’m gonna be pissed.”
I laughed and kissed his shoulder, then I just let myself enjoy him.
I rolled my hips gently, grinding against his prostate.
Slowly stroked his chest. Teased his nipples until Ryan was shivering against me.
Worshipped his cock with my hand while my mouth gave his shoulders and neck the veneration they deserved.
There was nothing urgent about my actions. Nor Ryan’s, despite his insistence that I take him. Now that I was inside him, he was content to take it slow.
“That’s it,” Ryan moaned, his eyes fluttering shut as I angled myself deeper. “God, I’ve missed you. Missed this.”
“Ditto,” I murmured, the warmth growing as I held the man I loved closer. “More than you’ll ever know.”
Ry twisted to catch my mouth with his. We came like that, Ry first, his tight, clamping heat taking me with him.
I didn’t stop kissing him as we came down from the high. With the late morning sun catching the sweat on our skin, I knew I was right where I was meant to be. This love was the greatest gift I’d ever been blessed with.
I’d once believed that I needed to leave to find happiness. That my home had to be elsewhere, because the one I’d grown up in had brought me nothing but misery.
I’d been so wrong. I hadn’t needed to leave to be happy or find my home. It had been right in front of me all along.
Shadow was my happiness. He was my home.
And I was never letting him go again.