ation in public and all was a haze. The one thing that I could sense was the tightness in my chest, the su

living area, I sto

re

ispy cloud of steam hovering over the plates, and yet I couldn't help but wonder how I'd gott

ricted, too shocked to talk. She looked at

y, she

or are you going to just stand there a

losing everything. Too many specters tonight, specters wh

s feeling raw. "I thin

ut down her cutlery and looked at me, her o

the room. I felt like I was ready to leap off a cliff

s thinking. I've just been so stressed out about all the stuff that's been going on. The business. The d

e, something I couldn't read. She did not provide me with the re

happened. Why did you lock me out? You've never done that before. You've never shut me

rought into my life, that I'd never even given thought to how it was affecting Serena and now here she is, ri

lead in my mouth. "Liana. She showed and she's bee

sion was obvio

ing from me, because there was

ny, taking over the board, using her influence to manipulate them. I don't want you involved in any of it. I don't want you to un

ng the math in what I had just told her. I could tell that she was worried

to say, Dominic," she qu

throat constricted with emotion. "I'll fix it. I promise you, I'll fix it. Just. please...

d she nodded. "Okay. L

dinner was subdued, the muffled clinking of knives and forks and the intermittent glance between us. We didn't s

lp but laugh again, something I hadn't done in what felt like years. It had been a lifetime

the line between want and comfort got tangled. There was so mu

decades. All at once, my hands were all over her, pulling at her clothes,

sed me in the slightest. We stumbled to the bedroom, the atmosphere thick with ten

in a way that was close to being animal. The attraction we had was not just ph

release. It was about being together again, feel

ess she'd gotten me into. But at this moment, for this moment, all I needed was her. And a

nd I wasn't going to let