Page 58 of Dual

I text, wishing words could capture the depth of what I feel, the constant pull she exerts on me.

She responds almost immediately:

ANNA: All good here! See you at 7!

A heart emoji. Something so small shouldn't send such pleasure coursing through me, but it does. Sometimes I think I'd tear the world apart just to keep that heart beating, to keepher sending me these tiny digital tokens of affection. I've been such a lonely fuck for so goddamn long.

I abandon any pretense of productivity around six. My assistant raises an eyebrow as I sweep past her desk.

"Hot date?" she calls after me.

"Something like that," I reply, already halfway to the elevator.

I stop for Thai food—the spicy curry Anna loves but can never finish, so I get to eat the leftovers—and pull into our driveway with my heart already beating faster at the thought of seeing her. Pathetic, maybe, how after all this time, she still affects me like this—like a teenager with his first crush, not a grown man who's seen the darkest corners of the world.

But that's the magic of her, isn't it? She makes me forget all that darkness and feel whole again.

The house is unnaturally quiet when I enter, every surface gleaming like she's been scrubbing for hours. I find her curled on the couch, face peaceful in sleep, one arm thrown above her head in a gesture of complete surrender. An empty Red Bull can sits on the coffee table beside her—her third today, if the recycling bin is any indication.

I set the food down and move to her side, unable to resist touching her. I trace the curve of her cheekbone with my fingertip, marveling as I always do at how soft her skin is, how perfectly she's made. My chest aches with the force of what I feel for her—this fierce, consuming love that's reshaped me from the inside out.

"Anna," I murmur, brushing my lips against her forehead. "Wake up, love. I've brought dinner."

Her eyes flutter open, unfocused at first, then locking on mine with startling intensity. For a heartbeat, she looks almost afraid, like she's expecting someone else.

"Domhnall," she breathes, my name a prayer on her lips. "What time is it?"

"Just after seven," I say, smiling down at her. "You were dead to the world."

She sits up too quickly, pulling away from my touch, her movements jerky with tension. "I—I didn't mean to fall asleep." There's panic in her voice, a tremor I can't quite understand.

"It's alright," I soothe, catching her hands in mine. "You clearly needed the rest."

She stares at our joined hands, then back at my face, her expression shifting from confusion to something else entirely—a dawning wonder, as if she's seeing the sun for the first time after years of darkness.

"Anna?" I prompt gently, squeezing her fingers. "What is it?"

A slow smile blooms across her face—dazzling in its intensity, transforming her features into something luminous. "Nothing," she says, and her voice is breathless, almost giddy. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just... I'm here."

Before I can say anything more, she launches herself at me, throwing her arms around my neck with such force that we both tumble backwards onto the plush carpet. She landson top of me, her weight a perfect anchor. Her body fits against mine like it was sculpted for this purpose alone. Her scent surrounds me—vanilla and sleep-warmth and something uniquelyher—and I feel myself drowning in it, in her.

"I love you," she says fiercely, her hands framing my face, her eyes liquid with emotion. "I love you so much it terrifies me sometimes."

The raw honesty in her voice steals my breath. I reach up to trace the delicate arch of her eyebrow, the slope of her nose, the full curve of her lower lip—committing each detail to memory all over again, as if I haven't already mapped every inch of her with my hands and my mouth and my heart.

"And I love you," I murmur, the words inadequate for what I feel, for this bone-deep certainty that she is the axis around which my entire world turns. "More than life itself."

She smiles down at me, radiant as the sun, and then lowers her mouth to mine. The kiss is deep and desperate, her fingers threading through my hair, her body pressing closer as if she could merge us into one being. I groan against her lips, my hands sliding beneath her shirt to find the warm skin of her back, tracing the knobs of her spine one by one.

Time slips away from us, long minutes passing into half an hour as we lose ourselves in kissing each other like randy teenagers. When we finally break apart, we're both breathless, her lips swollen from my kisses, her cheeks flushed with desire.

"You brought Thai?" she asks, suddenly noticing the takeoutbags on the counter, her smile widening impossibly further. "From Sukho?"

I laugh, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, delighting in the way she leans into my touch like a cat seeking affection. "Your favorite. I wanted to surprise you."

"You're the best," she says, pressing another quick, hard kiss to my lips before scrambling off me. "The absolute best. Have I told you that lately?"

I try not to groan at how hard I am.