Page 140 of Hate Me Like You Mean It

His gaze flicked over my face questioningly.

With a sigh, I nabbed my phone from the table and tapped the screen. “I was waiting to surprise you with it in person once it was all done, but here.”

Dominic squinted at the email chain, and I watched with a grotesque amount of satisfaction as his expression slowly transformed. First into dumbstruck bewilderment. Then into sheer astonishment and awe. He gaped at me. “Are you serious?”

I grinned, tempted to flip my hair back and toot the hell out of my own horn.

Around three weeks ago, I’d woken up extra early, nabbed Dominic’s car keys while he was still snoozing, picked up a box of macarons from Jamie’s favorite French pastry shop, and driven to my parents’ old house in Rosedale.

I’d already chatted with the new owners—a darling Lebanese couple in their fifties who were enjoying their early, child-free retirement by rescuing more animals from shelters and millsthan I could count—after tracking down their number from our old real estate agent, so they’d been expecting me.

The rest had been easy.

As luck would have it, their staff had taken great care of Rosie’s old garden. Most of the layout hadn’t changed, and while a few of the bushes had been replaced with other plants, the vast majority of them were the same ones Rosie had grown from seed.

“You said you wanted to keep a piece of her,” I murmured, brushing my nails through his hair. “And since I ruined your replica, I thought I’d make up for it by getting you the original. They agreed to let me have it after I told them what had happened, and I promised I’d have a new garden planted for them within a month. This way, you’ll get to have the real thing, Dom. They’re her decorations and her flowers. The ones she picked out and tended to herself. I’ve already scheduled a team of?—”

The kiss I was awarded was so deep and visceral that I grew very lightheaded, very quickly. He cradled the back of my head and clung to me like I was the sole distinction between life and death, his lips moving against mine with reckless torment.

“I love you,” he breathed when we finally separated. “Just in case it wasn’t already painfully obvious, I’m so in love with you it borders on a sick addiction. I’ve loved you since the very first time you compared my hair to that of a shaggy barn animal, and I will continue to love you well after the day you finally realize your brother’s right. I don’t deserve you, Alice. I don’t. You have no fucking idea how sorry I am, and I’m not going to waste your time telling you about it because it’s never going to be enough.”

He cupped my face, stroking my cheekbone with his thumb. “And I’m also not going to make you choose between me and your family. I’m just not. I love you too much to put you through that, so just?—”

“I love you, too.”

I may as well have called upon the gods to strike him with lightning, he stilled with such intense shock.

Cute.

Grinning, I continued to toy with his soft hair, twisting on his lap so I could straddle him. I was getting very used to this position. My legs almost preferred it now.

“I loved you back then, too, you know,” I cooed. “When you gave me that letter. I know I kind of alluded to it already, but I don’t think you realize how far gone I really was. I loved you so much that I couldn’t think too hard about it, because it felt like my heart would burst in my chest.”

His eyes glazed over as they drooped to my mouth, trying to soak in every word.

“Today wasn’t great,” I admitted softly. “Adrien overreacted. What he did was wrong, and I know him well enough to know he’ll regret it soon enough. That’s not to say this is going to be easy, but to me, it’s worth the fight. I love you. Really, I do. Rachel was wrong about us. We’re not poison, Dominic. We’re fucking magic. And as far as I’m concerned, this isn’t over until we say it’s over. And I’m not saying it is… are you?”

He studied me, his muscles slowly releasing some of their tension, the stubborn golden spark returning to his eyes.

“No. I’m not.”

“Good.” I smiled. “You know what I think we should do next?”

“Bring out the whiteboard again?”

My grin widened. “Yes, eventually. Not this second, though.” I kissed him once. “I’m sorry you had a bad day. Will you let me take care of you like you took care of me? Just until you feel better.”

It was only fair.

He opened his mouth to argue, but I interrupted him with another sweet kiss. “Let me make my case before you say no,” I murmured, nibbling on his bottom lip. “I’ll wear the cobalt-blue bikini as my uniform. You’ll meet me in the shower in five minutes, where I’ll dote on you the same way you doted on me. I’ll suck you off until you’re drooling and cross-eyed, then let you take me to bed and use me any which way you like. I’ll cook you breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Hand-feed you your favorite snacks. Light up a few candles, and give you a few massages to help you release the tension… how does all that sound?”

A pleased sound rumbled in his throat. “What about your family?”

“We’ll figure it out once you’re feeling better. I need to take care of my man first.”

He shuddered at that, melting into putty before my eyes. “Can you tell me you love me again?”

“I love you.” I licked his lower lip, then nipped at it. “I love you so much I don’t know what to do with myself.”