“But who’s that?”
Dominic panicked as she pointed her finger at the photo of Dina. “Umm...Dina’s just an old friend.”
Adaline could immediately tell from his tone that the young woman was more than just a friend. And she couldn’t help but admire how beautiful she was. With piercing grey eyes and a large crown of thick, curly hair that fell past her shoulders, there was no denying that their relationship had been more than platonic. But Adaline warned herself once again that it didn’t- couldn’t- matter to her. So instead, she settled on the couch with a smile.
Dominic, anxious to change the topic of conversation, simply followed her. Ignoring the former awkwardness and heat that had characterized her visit from the start, they continued to talk just like old times. They both pretended as if the other night had never happened. Instead, Adaline aimed to just enjoy his company. And she did. That night she enjoyed laughing with him. Especially as he revealed to her what he had been doing religiously every night.
“Are you serious?” she asked.
“Yes, I love this show. It really helps to get my mind off of work. You know how much I loved Tolkien’s work in high school. I was obsessed. Now, I’m just as drawn to Martin.”
“I’ve never watched Game of Thrones,” she admitted to him. She giggled at the appalled look staring back at her. His mouth gaped open and he dramatically held his heart as if he were dying.
“What? Did I just hear this? I’m dying!” he fell to the couch dramatically, still clutching his chest.
Adaline laughed and rolled her eyes. “Get over yourself!”
“No! We must rectify this immediately, Addy,” he returned, sitting up once again. “I refuse to be friends with someone so ignorant of the brilliance behind the world of the Seven Kingdoms. This is blasphemous! It can’t go on!”
“What if I don’t?” she challenged him.
“Oh, you will. There is no choice in this, baby. You are watching the entire first season even if it takes us all night. I don’t care; I will lock you in my house until we’re done.”
Ignoring the term of endearment, Adaline shook her head with laughter, “You sound psychotic, Dominic!”
He merely shook his head as he stood up excitedly and ran to the front of the television. In a flurry, he had the screen set up for the first episode as promised. “Are you ready for this?” he boomed like the announcer of a wrestling match.
Adaline couldn’t help the giggle that burst from her lips. “You’re such a nerd!”
Dominic winked at her and then pressed play before throwing himself onto the seat next to her. Even as the show began with the famous and suspenseful music, Adaline’s body couldn’t help but to respond to his nearness. She could feel the strength and warmth of his thighs touching hers, and after they finished their meal, Dominic leaned back and placed his arm behind her. Instinctively, she leaned into him and placed her head into the crook of his chest. It felt so comfortable, as if they were made for one another.
Somewhere in their marathon, they completely lost track of time. The next she looked at her phone, it was past midnight. Shocked, Adaline stood up and raced toward her shoes,
“I’m going to miss the last train back!” she exclaimed.
Dominic shook his head at the panic-stricken look on her face. As she neared the door, he took her hand into his and forced her to look at him, “Relax! You can just sleep over. I’ll drop you back home tomorrow.”
Adaline could immediately tell he had been practicing his sign language. His movements were much crisper than before. “Wait, have you been practicing?”
He gave her a sheepish grin and nodded. “Of course, I have. You’re back in my life, and I don’t want you to feel beholden to always speaking with me.” He paused, bringing his hands up to gently caress her cheeks. “Stay. We’ve been having fun, haven’t we?”
A warmth decorated her cheeks at his touch, but she nodded her assent.
“I have an extra room with the necessary toiletries. Plus, I did warn you we were going to watch the entire season tonight.”
“It’s officially morning,” she scoffed jokingly.
Dominic rolled his eyes and pulled her toward the couch, “Semantics” he called out.
But as they settled back into their former positions, this time more willingly having their bodies touch and gently tease the other’s, there was a shift in the air. Dominic’s arm rested against the back of her neck, allowing his hand to grasp her shoulders. But instead of it simply resting there, he began to knead the area, simultaneously pulling her deeper into his embrace. They sat there like that for several minutes until Adaline couldn’t help the moan that escaped her lips once his hands fell to her waistline. The gap between her jeans and shirt allowed him to touch the soft skin of her abdomen. A shiver ran down her spine at his touch and she buried her face into his chest. Forgoing the pretense of innocence at the sound she released, Dominic tilted her chin up so that she could look at him. They were frozen in time, their eyes locked on one another. Adaline was at a loss for words in anticipation of what he would say or do. She felt him caress her facial features with his gaze, occasionally resting intently on her plump lips like the night outside the Lizard Lounge.
Until finally he gave in. She waited with baited breath as he leaned down, his soft lips coming to rest on hers. They both sighed contentedly. It was as if they had never kissed before, the experience was just as new and encompassing. Dominic plied playfully at her bottom lip until she giggled. When she backed away with a hand over her mouth in embarrassment, Dominic smiled in return. She looked adorable.
“You’re so beautiful, Addy,” he whispered breathlessly.
She felt her heart leap into her throat at his words. “Why did you ask me here, Dominic? What are we doing?”
It was the topic they had been avoiding all night out of a need to just be with one another.
A guilty expression was written on his face as he replied, “I’m sorry for the way things ended that night. I never meant to hurt you, and I know how significant it was for me to be your first. It’s just that…Addy, I woke up that night, and I was in complete shock. All we’ve ever been is friends and then in one conversation, things took a drastic left turn. I didn’t know how to deal with that after what I’d just gone through in my previous relationship. I woke up and I wasn’t ready for the next step, but it doesn’t mean that I could never be, though,” he added quickly at the look of sadness in her eyes.
“Things between us are changing…and I didn’t want to accept that. Do you understand where I am coming from?”
But before she could reply, his phone rang. Adaline couldn’t help the slight frown that spread across her features as his warmth was replaced with the coolness of the air-conditioned room. For some reason, his mission to remain friends seemed to have changed, and with this new interruption, she was unsure whether it would return to the magical moment between them. The phone had completely burst the bubble they had created in finally being open and honest about their feelings and relationship. As if affirming her worries, when Dominic answered the phone, the relaxed nature of his shoulders immediately disappeared.
“What?” she read his lips as he spoke. “Dina! Calm down and tell me what’s wrong?”
Adaline immediately recognized the name as the girl from the photo. It was as if cold water had been splashed over her. Sitting up, she began to scoot away from him.
“Alright, alright. I’ll be over soon. Just give me a minute.”
As soon as he spoke those words, Addy felt her heart plummet in disappointment. But she refused to show him how she was affected by his decision to so quickly go running to another woman after just talking about his feelings for her. So, as Dominic turned to her with a guilty look, she simply said nothing and waited for how he would explain himself.
“I’m sorry, Addy. There’s an emergency and…I hate to do this to you.” He stood to his feet and looked down at her. “You can stay in my guestroom tonight sinc
e you’ve missed the last train. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Maybe…” he paused as if he were in deep thought. “Maybe tomorrow morning, we can make breakfast and go down to the harbor?”
Adaline sighed and stood up to her feet. “No, I’d rather just catch a cab or call Uber.”
“What?” He gave her a look as if she was the one that was crazy.
And Adaline was nearing her breaking point. Instead of responding to his question, she asked one of her own. “Do you even really know what you want from me, Dominic?”
Dominic’s brows furrowed at her question and his lips pouted in confusion. She met his stare without flinching so that he would know she was serious by her question. He stuttered for a moment, unable to get his words out. But, eventually, he found his tongue. “What are you talking about?”
“If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ve already answered my question.” Adaline reached for her purse and began to walk toward the door. She paused for a moment and turned around. Dominic was still looking at her curiously, but he seemed to be frozen in place. At any other moment, she would have found the predicament humorous. But in that moment, Adaline felt like lashing out at him. She recalled the temptation of her date with Murphy. For the first time, she had amorous thoughts of someone beyond the man in front of her. Murphy had woken something in her that had been buried and scarred for so long. But she had ignored it.
Instead, she had coming running as soon as Dominic had deemed her worthy enough of his time again. Now, all she could recall were the many times she had come running for him. And in a split second he had gone from the romantic love interest she had always dreamed of, back into the man who continually overlooked her. Why was she allowing history to repeat itself? Moving out of Dover was supposed to be her new path to a life that fulfilled all of her dreams and desires. Unfortunately, on the top of that list had always been this very man. She knew now, however, that some dreams needed to be broken. Completely.
“Dominic, thank you for trying. You said you wanted us to stay friends, and I thought you were right…” she bit her lip at the words she knew would hurt them both. “I thought that would be best, but I never considered the alternative. And I think maybe we should. Maybe it’s best if we left our friendship in the past where it belongs.”
For a moment, Adaline was taken aback by the crushed look that marred his handsome features at her words. To her own surprise, she seemed to have deeply hurt him. Quickly, she went on to add, “We just can’t be…being around you…I can’t help but want something more and that’s not something you can give me. J-just,” tears brimmed in her eyes as she prepared herself to cut all ties, “let it go. Okay?”
Without waiting for his reply. She walked out of his home.
Chapter Eleven
Dominic was thrown by the feelings that rested within his heart as he drove to see Dina. He could continually hear the vibrations of his phone as she called him again and again but despite the fact that he was on his way to see her, he refused to answer. Instead, his mind was overrun by thoughts of Adaline. And just as he had noticed for quite some time, they were thoughts that were unfamiliar and, if he were honest, scary. He had never seen her in the ways that she was now always pictured in his mind. He had never yearned for her touch, the feel of her dark, soft skin against his own. He had never dreamed of what it would feel like to hold her close to the point that he could physically feel the rhythmic beat of her heart melding into his. But now, that was all he could contemplate.
Dominic’s fingers tightened on the wheel of his car as he continued to follow the vehicle in front of him. When it stopped, he watched closely as Adaline exited and rushed towards the loft. She may have walked out before he could respond to her disclosure, but her safety came first. He knew from his previous experience with women that it was sometimes best to let them walk out and leave. However, it was past midnight when Adaline decided to exit his home, and he refused to simply allow her to catch a cab without some assurance that she made it back in one piece. So, instead, he had followed the Uber driver knowing that she would’ve refused any offer for a ride from him.
Interrupting his thoughts, his phone vibrated once more in the cup-holder. Reluctantly, he finally answered,
“What’s up?”
“Are you on your way?” Dina’s voice answered on the other line.
“Yeah, I am.” Putting the car back in drive, Dominic threw one last regretful look at the loft building. At the sound of Dina’s voice on the line again, he returned to the present and made a U-turn. “I should be there in a few minutes. Is he still there?”
“He’s waiting outside. He refuses to leave.” There was a level of panic in her voice as she relayed the information to him. Dominic knew she wasn’t afraid of Slade hurting her. No, her fear was of her own comeuppance. And while it did feel a bit like an invasion of privacy, in a weird way he felt a part of this melodrama. He was the cuckold after all.
Within only a few minutes, he was walking towards her home. It was the first time he had ever been there, but the shadow of a man leaning against the side of the door indicated her exact apartment pretty quickly. Cautiously, Dominic began to walk towards Slade. Even as he approached though, he wasn’t sure exactly what he would say. Slade and him had never been on good terms for obvious reasons. It certainly made things awkward whenever they both wound up at Dmitri and Sasha’s home.
He waited until the man looked up and noticed him. His already slanted eyes, narrowed even more at the sight of Dominic.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
Well, that certainly wasn’t the warm welcome he was expecting. Not that he really expected one. “Dina gave me a call about a crazy man standing outside her apartment refusing to leave.”
Slade took a menacing step towards him. “This really has nothing to do with you. If you still don’t get that by now…” he shook his head and scoffed.
Dominic ignored his words. “Listen, I’m fully aware of what happened between you and Dina. That however has nothing to do with what’s going on right now. You’re my brother’s best friend, so I’m here to warn you to just go before Dina ends up calling the cops.”
“The cops?” Slade released a humorless laugh and turned to the door. “I dare her to call the cops. Then maybe I can have her arrested for kidnapping my child!” He banged on the door. “You hear me, Dina!”
Quickly, before Slade could make even more of a ruckus, Dominic grabbed his arm and pulled him back around. What he didn’t expect was the fist that came flying toward him in response. Ducking quickly, he lost his footing and grunted at the right hook Slade threw into his gut. His immediate instinct was to throw a few of his own punches in self-defense; Dominic’s fist connected with Slade’s jaw in response and the scuffle continued. The two men began to let out their frustration with punches and shoves, but for two completely different reasons. Dominic’s eye was already beginning to swell from Slade’s right hook and there was still a slight pain in his ribs. Slade’s mouth bled in comparison, his hair ruffled and clothes askew. They broke up, winded by Dominic’s shove that had placed several feet between them. And when they looked at each other from the light that shone over from the streetlamps, it suddenly occurred to them how they were acting.
Dominic shook his head, resigned by how shitty the night had turned. He didn’t want to be here fighting for a woman who had shown him time and time again how little she cared. So, what was he doing? Ignoring the pains that came to his awareness as the adrenaline left his body, he stood to his full height and tried again.
“Listen…I am not here to cause any trouble but to get you to calm the fuck down. Is this how you want to meet your daughter? Do you really want her to see you as some psychopath who rants, raves and threatens her mother?”
The words seemed to have made their mark judging from the dimming look of anger in Slade’s eyes. “I would never put my hands on her,” he said with clear conviction. “You know that.”
&nbs
p; Dominic didn’t bother to nod his agreement. “I know you want to see her, and I’m not here to prevent that. But you need to think clearly for a moment. Is this really the best time?”
At that, the fire leapt back into Slade’s pitch-black eyes. He growled and turned back to the door of the apartment. “I don’t need to fucking hear this from you. Dina needs to get her ass out here and speak for herself. I’m done with her hiding behind the gallery, her apartment, even goddamn Italy! I’m done, and I’ve reached my breaking point. Get her out here now or I promise I’ll break this fucking door down. I don’t care if she calls the cops.”
And despite the fact he was there for Dina’s aide, Dominic found himself empathizing with Slade. The very woman he was here for had brought him to that breaking point as well. But for different reasons. He had promised to be there for her, but his mind was still overcome by Adaline’s parting words. He didn’t want to be here, he realized again. And while he was the cuckold, a realization snuck up unforeseen even though it had been staring him in the face for so long; he was making himself a part of this spectacle out of an irrational sense of duty. Why was he coming to the aid of a woman who had broken him down when the one who had been there to put him back together was the one he truly wanted? It was because of his continued feelings for Dina that he had decided to ignore his growing attraction to Adaline. But those feelings were gone. And yet she still had this hold over his choices.
Dominic knew then he had made a mistake. For picking up the phone, for leaving, for even promising to be there for Dina. Maybe it was because he hadn’t yet been ready to let go of her completely. But now he was. And it took seeing Slade overwhelmed by her and her actions- a place he had been – for realization to strike.
Without any more words between them, Dominic hit the call button. There was only one ring before he heard her voice.
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