Chapter 8
DOMINIC
Marcus corners me in the parking garage just before seven in the morning.
He’s leaning against a pillar with a coffee in his hand and an expression I haven’t seen on his face since I pulled him out of Rikers. The one he had when he was about to tell me something I did not want to hear.
“Boss, we need to talk.”
“No, we do not.”
I try to walk past him, but he steps in front of me, blocking the elevator. “Yes, we do.” Marcus is the only guy alive with the balls to get between me and my destination. That’s why I hired him as my number two. “You’ve lost your mind, boss.”
Anger flares in my chest. “Get out of the way before I fire you.”
“You think I don’t know what’s going on?
” he hisses, his voice low. “You trapped a teenage girl in an illegal contract, did who knows what with her in the office, and last night you took her out to a Michelin-starred restaurant in full view of half the financial industry. But that’s not what worries me. ”
“Nothing should worry you.”
“Oh, no? She thinks this was all an accident, Dominic.” His voice drops to a careful and deliberate tone. “She thinks she just submitted a blind resume to my inbox and got lucky. She doesn’t know I pulled her financials before you ever saw her.”
I say nothing.
“She may have seen the contract and decided to stay, but she thinks she just stumbled into all this.” He holds my gaze, giving me that serious look he gives when he wants to be heard.
“There’s a difference between a woman who signs a bad contract and a woman who finds out the man she now loves engineered a trap for her. ”
He may be my second in command, but his words land like fists. Not because he’s being cruel but because he’s telling the truth.
What if she finds out? How will she react?
“I’ve been with you for every deal, every risk, every decision you’ve made for ten years,” he goes on. “I’ve never questioned you without reason. But this? This could bite you in the ass.”
I want to respond, but I don’t know what to say. After a long moment, Marcus reads my silence correctly and steps aside.
In the elevator, I press the button for my floor and stare at my reflection in the polished steel doors. I don’t fully recognize myself. There’s my pressed suit, my strong jaw, and the aura of my net worth that’s in the billions…
…but my eyes are different. They look—for the first time—afraid.
Not of losing money or harming my business but of Marcus being right. That Hazel finds out none of this was truly fate. That the moment she appeared in my inbox, I targeted her with every resource I had to make sure she wouldn’t slip away.
She thinks the universe just brought me to her, when in reality, I hunted her down before she even knew I existed. If she finds out that the first step of our relationship was a lie, she’ll hate me for it.
I can’t lose her. Not now. She’s everything to me. The rest of my life is just noise.
She’s sitting at her desk as I enter, wearing the new cream blouse I bought her, hair down just the way I like it, with the smiley face cup from this morning sitting beside her. She sees me, and her face lights up. A smile so genuine it sends a warmth through me I never would have thought possible.
No one has ever made me feel that. Not once in thirty-four years.
Our fingers brush as I pass her desk. Neither of us visibly reacts. Gotta keep things professional…sort of.
The simple touch races up my arm and settles in my sternum like a gift. I carry it into my office, feeling ready for anything.
But still, Marcus’s words sit in my head like thorns.
The day is long. A blur of meetings and numbers moving across screens, traders wanting my opinion on moves. I process everything the way I usually do—ruthlessly and precisely—but every time I look over at her, I can’t help thinking…
She thinks there was an actual job for her…
The thought gnaws at me all through lunch, through my conference call with Paris, through a budget review that commands my full attention.
I can feel it slipping…
What if Marcus is right? Should I tell her?
If I tell her, she might leave. And just the thought of Hazel leaving me—of that gorgeous smile vanishing from my life—that’s a kind of pain I don’t know if I can endure.
She glances back at me throughout the day. My body responds, but I keep myself busy, leaving no time for one of our usual rendezvous behind the smart glass.
I’m just too conflicted.
She chose to stay after she read the contract. That was real. That was her decision. But the road that brought her to me? That was all me.
When we get to the penthouse, she quickly changes into my T-shirt and nothing else, then joins me on the couch. Her finger traces little circles on my chest—lines like she’s writing secret messages on my skin.
The hem of the shirt rides up, showing me the smooth curve of her thigh, the seductive slope where her waist dips, and the lines leading down to her pink slit, hidden in shadow.
But I know it’s ready for me. She’s ready.
The most beautiful woman in the world, and she chose to be here with me.
Except she didn’t choose. I made the choice for her. I trapped her in a contract and made it feel like opportunity.
“I still can’t believe we found each other,” she murmurs against my chest. Her voice is sleepy and at ease. The voice of a girl who feels safe. “What are the odds I’d send a resume to a hedge fund and actually get hired?”
Yeah, what are the odds…?
My chest tightens. A crack forms, and guilt comes pouring out. Yeah, Marcus is right. She has to know. I can’t keep lying to her.
“Hazel…” My voice is weak.
“Hmmm?”
Using my thumb, I lift her chin and bring her eyes to mine. Hazel, just like her name. So sweet, filled with a trust I haven’t earned. Her brow furrows as she searches my face. She knows me well by now, and she knows something’s up.
“I need to tell you something, angel.”
She sits up and faces me, causing the T-shirt to drift off one shoulder. My desire rises up inside me. I want to press my teeth against her exposed skin and kiss her all over. Devour her.
She’s mine. MINE!
But not right now. Not until I’ve given her my confession.
“I’ve never said this to anyone before.” My voice sounds like rough gravel being poured over steel.
“In thirty-four-years. Not to a woman or a friend. I didn’t think I was capable of feeling it.
I thought…I was built wrong. The night before you applied to the position, I sat in my bedroom alone.
Alone like I’ve been for years.” My stomach clenches. I drag my tongue across my teeth.
These emotions…they’re so foreign to me.
“I thought, this is it. This is how the rest of my life will be. Work and nothing else. An empty penthouse with a dead woman’s photo on the bookcase.”
Concern floods her eyes. She finds my hand and grasps it tightly.
“Dominic—”
“And then I saw your face.” My thumb traces over her fingers. “And I knew I would do anything to have you, Hazel. To keep you. Things I should be ashamed of. Things…you would run away from me if you knew.”
Her lips make a line. “What do you mean?” I’m teetering on the edge of a full confession. The background check, how I gave her the contract with the intention of trapping her. “Dominic, you’re scaring me. What do you mean?”
I’m right on the edge of a full confession. The financial background check, the rent problems—all of it. It’s right there on the tip of my tongue. I just have to let it go.
But her eyes are so bright and vulnerable. She’s wearing my shirt, and her hand is gripping mine like I’m the only solid thing in her world.
It’s time to speak the truth.
“I love you, Hazel.”
Words that have never left my mouth before.
I feel awkward saying them. Clumsy, like a man trying to sew with a hammer.
I hang there in the silence, waiting for her to respond, my heart racing in my chest. Finally, her face crumples. But not from sadness—from the overwhelming emotions of my confession. An admission she didn’t think she deserved.
Tears slide down her cheeks as she presses her forehead against mine.
“I love you too, Dominic,” she whispers. “So much it scares me.”
I kiss the salty tears from her face one at a time and lay her down beneath me.
This isn’t the way I normally take her. No commands, no orders, no hands pinning her down. I simply lower her down onto the pillows and stretch my body over hers, caging her in with my arms, staring down at her face.
I really look at her. At the freckles across her nose, the tiny scar on her chin from when she was a kid, and the way her lips are trembling like she’s feeling too much inside.
Unzipping my pants, I slide inside her slowly, one inch at a time. Her mouth falls open, but her eyes remain locked on mine. The feeling of her body accepting mine is pure bliss.
That’s right. That pussy stretches to fit me.
I roll my hips in with no roughness or urgency. Just a linking depth that causes her to gasp. She wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me closer until our chests are touching and I can feel her heartbeat against mine—fast, strong, and synced with the rhythm of my body against hers.
“I love you,” I tell her again, saying the words into her mouth between kisses, moving with long, deliberate strokes that make her toes curl against the back of my thighs. “So much, angel.”
“Don’t stop,” she breathes. “Tell me more, more, more.”
“I love you,” I say again. I say it with every stroke. I whisper into her throat, groan into her hair as her soaked walls tighten around me and her nails bite into my shoulders.
She comes quietly this time—not screaming or thrashing around. A slow, rolling wave that builds from her center and spreads out, causing her body to arch against mine. Her mouth opens in a silent cry, her eyes locked on mine the entire time.
I follow her over the edge with my forehead pressed against hers, spraying my seed so deep, holding my body still as my cock pulses inside her and my arms hold me up to keep me from collapsing.
She feels every throb. I know because she taps against my arm in time with each of them. In the following silence, lying together, my hand in her hair, I say it.
“Marry me, Hazel.”
Her breath catches, and she goes still against me. When she lifts her head, she’s searching my face with those gorgeous eyes.
“You–you mean that?”
“I would never say something to you I didn’t mean, Hazel.”
She stares back at me. Then her hand comes up to my face. She traces the line of my jaw, my cheek, and finally the crease between my eyes like she’s trying to smooth my brow.
The edges of her lips twist into the most adorable little smile I’ve ever seen.
“Yes, sir,” she whispers.
I kiss her deeply, closing my eyes, pulling her so tight against me she squeals. But somewhere, in the back of my skull, I hear Marcus’s voice: “She may have seen the contract and decided to stay, but she thinks she just stumbled into all this.”
I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. For now, the only thing that matters is this wonderful girl in my arms who just agreed to be mine forever.