Chapter 32
THIRTY-TWO
CAMILLA
The sun is bright on my face as we take the path off the side of the house and head towards the tree line. My hand is tucked in Dom’s and he’s holding it like it’s his lifeline.
“There’s a picnic table just beyond those trees,” I say. “We can sit there.”
“Okay.”
We walk quietly until we’re through the trees and at the little wooden table. It has all of our initials carved in it. I sit on one side, Dom sits on the other.
“How do you feel?”
“Better today. How are you?”
“Sad.”
He runs his hands down his face. “Cam, I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorr—”
“No, baby, listen to me. I’m sorry. For a lot of things.”
“I went and was told not to. I see why now. I got you hurt. That’s really hard to live with.”
“Let’s forget about that night, okay? If we’re going back with twenty-twenty vision, I shouldn’t have fought. I was hurt as fuck to start with and was being hard-headed about doing it. It was like I was proving to myself I could. I don’t know. It was stupid.”
“It was stupid.”
He takes my hand and holds it in the center of the table.
“Fact of the matter is this: I shouldn’t have pushed you away like I did.
I was mad. Maybe that was valid. But … I’ve never had someone treat me like you do.
With respect. With loyalty. You showing up there to support me just blew my mind.
I thought I could tell you to stay home and you would.
No one has ever cared about me like that. ”
“Of course I do, Dom. It hurts me when I’m not a part of something you’re doing.
Like I can’t be a part of your life because it’s off-limits to me.
But then I see Red and she certainly can, and I don’t mean to bring her up because I know she’s nothing to you, but it makes me jealous that she can have that part of you in any way at all and I can’t. ”
“I guess I always thought you shouldn’t or wouldn’t really want a part of it. It’s a dirty, nasty world. Why would you want to be in it?”
“Because you’re in it. And I want to be wherever you are. Don’t you see that?”
He rubs a small circle on the back of my hand, a sexy smile drifting across his face. “Come here.”
My favorite words fall on my ears, causing a spatter of goosebumps to dot my skin. I stand and walk around the table to him, sitting next to him but facing the other way.
He takes my hand and laces our fingers together, resting them on his thigh. “Let’s do this. For real this time,” Dom says. “And by that I mean no excuses. We’re all in. If you don’t think I’m good enough for you, tell me now. Because once you commit, I’m holding you to it.”
“Hold me to it, please.” I look at our hands. “And if you think I’m too much of a liability to you, tell me now. Because once I commit, I’m definitely holding you to it.”
“Please do.”
We exchange smiles, like we used to before the fight, and I feel my insides melt. He leans forward, his lips hovering over mine. His breath is hot and spicy and I can taste the desire in the air.
“Cam?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I tell you one more thing?” he asks, brushing the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip.
“Yeah.”
“Make it two.”
Laughing, I pull away, squeezing my legs together to dull my pulsing core. “What is it?”
“I cleaned out my locker today at Percy’s. I told him I wouldn’t be back in, at least not for a long time.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” I tell him.
“I did. It’s time to find other coping mechanisms for things. Guess it might have to be your body,” he shrugs.
“Oh, darn,” I deadpan.
Laughing, he looks at me with that killer smile. “The other thing?”
“Yes?”
He takes a deep breath, the smile on his face the widest I’ve ever seen it. “I love you, Cam.”
“I love you too, Dom.”