He did write to me.
Dominic didn’t forget me, and I was important to him.
I have enough now to open my heart and trust him completely.
I understand now why he had to go and why he couldn’t be here.The best doctors could be at his doorstep, but it was the act of leaving that set him on the road to recovery and redemption for all he’d done.
I have one more thing I have to do for him.
* * *
It’s nearly dark when I hear the front door open.
Cory stayed away from me today.I’m not even sure if he came in the apartment at all and if he did, it was at the times when I was upstairs.
So I know that’s not him walking around downstairs.
I head down just as Dominic was about to walk into the passageway to make his way up to me.
When he looks at me, I smile.It’s a smile I feel from deep inside me.One that comes from my heart.
I rush over to him, straight into his arms, and give him a warm kiss.He brushes his firm, full, sexy lips over mine and sweeps his tongue into my mouth to taste me.I taste him too and enjoy him the way I’ve always wanted to.
When we kiss, it’s never tame or sweet, I always want more and he always gives me more.So I pull out of the kiss before we get carried away.I have things he needs to hear too.
“I love you,” I tell him, and his eyes brighten with appreciation.
“I love you too. I’ve been in love with you my whole life.I’m sorry I left you.”
I shake my head. “Don’t be. I understand and I forgive you.I don’t want us to think about any of that anymore.”
“No?”
“No,” I rasp, running my fingers over his beard.“I want different memories with you.”
He smiles. “Here’s one I’ve always wanted to make with you.”
He tugs me into the living room, walks over to his music station, and switches it on.When Billie Holiday’s beautiful voice fills the room, I know exactly what he wants to do.
“It’s Friday night. Date night," he says."I want to dance with my doll the way my father used to dance with his.”
Joy bubbles within me at the thought of such a sentiment and memory.It grips my heart in a way I can’t describe.When he puts his hand out to me to go to him, I do and slip into his arms.
As we dance, memories of his parents fill my mind and now I know how they must have felt.The ghosts of the past are still in love with each other.It’s the same way I feel now.
We dance until the song ends and then Dominic reclaims my lips for a kiss that’s as raw as it is unapologetic.
It sends us straight to his bed where he takes me over and over again relentlessly.
In the early hours of the morning, we sit in his bath together.Him with his arm around me and me between his legs, nestled against his chest.
We’re sitting in silence, enjoying each other.
I know he’s thinking though about everything else that exists outside us and I am too.
As I do, I realize there’s one more thing I need to do for myself to have my own redemption.
Turning to look at him, I pull in a breath, and he brushes over my cheek.
“You okay, Angel?”
“Yeah. Dominic… when you find my uncle.I want to see him.”
His brows knit together. I said when, because I know he’ll find him, wherever he is.It really is a matter of when.
There was death in his eyes when I told him the truth.It’s there now.
“Do you think that’s a good idea, Angel?”
I nod. “Yes.”