Chapter 48 #2
Everything he’d wanted with her, everything he’d dreamed of, was gone.
But the longer Dominic held her pleading stare, the hotter his ire grew until it sealed his pain behind roaring flames.
It wasn’t gone. It’d been taken from them. And he’d make whoever took it pay.
Whirling away with clenched fists, Dominic stormed to the door, just stopping to swipe up the papers he’d thrown aside. He rushed out of the room and down the stairs.
Victor, George, River, Kelly, and Erin were all still there, sitting on the sofas with varied degrees of twisted, sympathetic expressions. No doubt they’d heard the louder parts of his and Rayna’s argument or could guess the result of it from his scowling expression.
Dominic strode straight to Victor in the armchair and held the rolled papers up. “I need to know who gave this to Rayna. Now.”
Rayna:
Are you and River taking Dominic to the lab?
V:
Yes
Rayna:
Please don’t let him confront Sheun
It won’t change anything
Just bring him back to the farmhouse please
I’m heading there now
V:
He’s allowed to speak to her just like you did
Rayna:
Where are you?
Are you still at the lab?
Why haven’t you come back yet?
Dominic answer me
Rayna
It was agony, sitting in the farmhouse living room, trying to distract herself by flicking through random TV channels but glancing at the clock every five seconds, wondering why River and Victor hadn’t brought Dominic back yet.
She deserved it. Gosh, Rayna knew she deserved every second of suffering for all the devastation she’d caused Dominic. For pushing him away and filling his eyes with the web of cracks that marred his heart.
She’d hurt him.
She’d done it for him.
But she’d broken them both in the process.
Spewing those half-truths and lies to him had been the same as stabbing herself with poisoned arrows, the burn so excruciating she’d struggled to keep talking. She’d been so close to tears, so close to screaming that it wasn’t really what she wanted, but it was what she had to do.
She’d listened to Kelly, Erin, and George scold her and encourage her to rethink her decision afterwards. But she repeated to them what she told herself, what she chanted through the drive back to the farmhouse, and pleaded in broken whispers in the hour Dominic didn’t return.
He’ll be happier without me. He’ll be happier with Lady Claire. I just want him to be happy.
Rayna glanced at the clock ticking on the wall at the other end of the living room.
I want him…to come back.
Why won’t you hurry up and come back? Come back to me. Please, Dominic.
A minute passed. And then ten.
Rayna couldn’t take it anymore. She turned the TV off and paced the room as she dialled Dominic’s number repeatedly.
To no avail.
She let out a frustrated sound, dread making her pulse erratic, and tried one last time. That was when she heard a car driving along the gravel path right in front of the house.
She ran out of the room and ripped open the front door.
Dominic climbed out of the front passenger seat of River’s car, bent to say something, then closed the door as if he had all the time in the world. As if Rayna wasn’t standing behind him, anxious to the point of nausea, and that sent a stampede of anger trampling through her veins.
River gave her a pursed-lip nod through the windscreen, but she barely acknowledged it as Dominic walked towards the house.
“So because I didn’t answer my phone, you thought it’d be a nice bit of revenge not to answer yours?” she spat as River drove off down the path.
Dominic’s hollow, golden gaze stilled before he patted a hand over each of his front trouser pockets. “Apologies,” he said. “I do not seem to have it on me. I think I left it at the house.”
Oh…
“I did not mean to leave it behind. I am sorry.”
Her anger slipped off her shoulders, but sadness, guilt, and regret filled her throat. And it was the worst combination. One that threatened to spill the tears she was struggling to hold in.
“Why did you take so long?” she asked as she closed the door behind him.
“There was rather more to do than I had anticipated.”
She frowned at his broad back. “What does that mean?”
He stopped just past the living room entrance and rotated halfway. The bloodshot glaze coating his eyes made her stomach sink.
“I did as you asked. I shall be returning to my time at the end of our ten days.”
Nothing.
Rayna felt nothing. Said nothing. Heard nothing, not even her own heartbeat.
She waited and waited. And waited. Unblinking, unbreathing.
Looking for the crack of a smile before Dominic told her it was a test, that he’d said it to prove she didn’t really want him to leave, that he was lying; really, he was staying, and there was nothing she could do to get rid of him.
They’d marry and have children, not immediately but at some point, and he’d be the husband she never knew she wanted, and an amazing dad, and… and he’d be with her. Always.
He didn’t say any of that. Didn’t look away either.
He was serious.
He’d done it.
He was leaving.
Rayna’s lungs started burning, forcing her to breathe. “That’s…”
Good? Bad? Wrong? The best choice for him?
“That’s in two days.”
“It is.”
Silence.
For maybe a few seconds, a minute, or longer, she stared at him, and he stared back. They probably would have stayed there all night, unwilling to set each other free from their scrutiny, like they were afraid the other would disappear.
But then Dominic’s face crumpled on a gritted sound of pain. A stuttered exhale slipped between Rayna’s lips. He turned fully to face her, edged forward, arms reaching for her. And Rayna staggered towards him with urgency.
She collided into him, his arms bounding around her waist as hers went around his neck. He lifted her off the floor, and she kissed him.
She ravaged his mouth as he drank from her like an animal, both of them needing each other beyond finesse and civility. Because it wasn’t passion that had Rayna scoring Dominic’s scalp and nape with her nails, or him bruising her waist and hips with the imprint of his fingers.
It was desperation.
A desperate need to feel each other one last time, so they never forget what they had.
They didn’t make it to their bedroom.
Dominic dropped to his knees and laid Rayna down on the carpeted corridor at the top of the stairs.
They licked at throats and lips and tongues, grunting and panting, as they pulled at zips and strings and buttons.
Until he dragged her cotton trousers and underwear off her feet along with her slippers, and she’d pulled his boxers and chinos to the bottoms of his thighs.
Without a care for the rest of their clothes, she wrapped her hand around the thick root of his cock, and he hooked one of her legs high around his waist. He dropped over her on his forearms, his kiss-stung lips hovering over hers, as she pressed his tip to her sex.
He was too big, and she wasn’t wet enough. But she welcomed the slight discomfort, encouraged it by locking her limbs around him as he kept pushing into her. Until he filled her completely, and they were anchored to each other in the most intimate way possible.
That was when the weight of reality crashed down on Rayna’s chest, suffocating her on a sob.
Her eyes swam and lips trembled, but she felt too vulnerable being so close to him.
She didn’t want him to see her crying. She hated that she was crying again, so she screwed her lashes together and ducked her head.
But Dominic clamped her jaw between his thumb and fingers, forcing her face back up. “Open your eyes,” he croaked as he pulled his hips back.
She shook her head against his hand and mewled as he sank back into her. She couldn’t tell if she felt more pleasure than she did pain in her chest.
“Please, my love.” He dragged out. “Open your eyes.” He thrust in. “Look at me.” Drag. “Rayna.” Thrust. “Dammit, Rayna, open your eyes.”
He pumped his hips through his growled words, and she cried out, her wet lashes flying apart. And the way he was looking at her, his expression twisted, a pinch of despair between his brows, liquid brimming in his narrowed eyes, crushed her heart.
“Dominic,” she wretched, tears slipping from the corners of her eyes and vanishing into her hair.
“I love you,” he rasped, thrusting hard. “I love you.”
A harsh sob clambered out of her. “No, please. Don’t.”
She tried to cover his mouth, but he caught her wrist and pinned it to the carpet, his pelvis slapping against hers.
“I love you.”
“Dominic, please.”
“I love you, Rayna.” Tears dripped off his wet lashes and splashed against her cheeks as he let out a gritted sound. “I love you.”
“Dominic.” She wept harder as he pumped faster.
“I love you,” he ground out. “You may never forget that.” Thrust. “You are forbidden from forgetting me.” Thrust. “Promise me you won’t.”
“Please,” she begged.
But he didn’t stop. He kept her breathless on his thrusts between quiet sobs of his name as his tears dripped off her cheeks and intertwined with her own.
“You cannot forget me,” he pleaded. “You cannot, Rayna. Please. Please. Promise me you won’t. Promise you will always remember how I love you. Promise not to forget me.”
“I promise,” she cried out in wrenching mix of agony and pleasure. “I promise. Dominic, I—”
He captured her lips on a guttural sound, branding her own promise into her with his mouth and dick. And Rayna clung to him, vowing with her submission, with her every touch, claiming his tongue with her own, taking his rough pounding, catching his tears on her thumbs.
She told him with her body how much she would always love him.
Her orgasm didn’t crest with intensity. It was still sharp enough over the ache in her chest, but it was short. It didn’t linger as Dominic came inside her but rather collapsed with his body on top of hers. An empty end to something that had been about far more than pleasure.
Just like them.
This was their ending.
And they mourned it. Cradling each other as they cried, while he stayed buried inside her.