Page 86 of Sweetest Sin

Guilt fills my insides like lead. I thought he was mad, but he wasn’t. He was distraught because he cares so much and doesn’t want to see our son upset.

“Daddy,” Damien whispers after a few minutes, “can you read meThe Giving Tree?”

“Of course, buddy,” Dominick says, walking over and grabbing the book off the shelf.

He slides onto one side of the bed while I go to the other since it’s big enough for all three of us.

Dominick opens the book and starts to read, and when he gets to the page about the boy going to school, Damien asks, “I go to school?”

Dominick looks down at him with love and warmth in his eyes. “Yeah, we’re going to find you a school.”

“Can I bring my stuffies?” Damien asks.

“You can bring whatever you want,” Dominick says, making me stifle my laugh.

“As long as it’s okay with your new teacher,” I add.

“Okay,” Damien says with a yawn, snuggling into Dominick’s side. “I go to sleep now and go to school tomorrow.”

Dominick continues to read the story, but before he even makes it through a few more pages, Damien is snoring softly.

“You okay?” I ask Dominick when he makes no move to leave Damien’s bed.

“You thought I was going to hurt him,” he says.

I was hoping he hadn’t noticed, but Dominick doesn’t miss a beat.

“I’m sorry. I just?—”

“Andrey used to beat us,” he says, changing directions and giving me whiplash. “If Matteo or I cried, he would beat the hell out of us and say that we now had something worth crying about. He told us men didn’t cry and to stop acting like pussies.”

He glances down at Damien and sighs. “When I heard him crying from downstairs, it brought back memories of Andrey beating us. Of my mom begging him to stop and then him hitting her. Eventually, she stopped fighting him, knowing she wouldn’t win, and Matteo and I learned not to cry. I never want my children to feel like they can’t express themselves, and I will never lay a single hand on them or you.”

His eyes meet mine, and I know he’s telling the truth. I could feel the conviction in his tone, in every word he said. He might be a violent man, but he’ll never be violent toward us.

“C’mon. Let’s get some rest,” he says, standing and walking over to my side to help me up. “We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow, and if I were to guess, he’ll be up at the crack of dawn, ready to go to school.”

I let him pull me up and fall into his arms. “You’re right about that,” I tell him, leaning into him and kissing his jaw. “I give him until five a.m.—at the latest.”

Dominick groans. “Then, we’d better get to bed as well.” He glances at his watch and then looks at me with a sparkle of mischief in his eyes. “We have less than eight hours for me to make you come as many times as possible and give our son a sibling.”

He waggles his brows, and I roll my eyes as I walk past him. He’s not going to give up until he’s filled me with another baby.

While I should be insisting that he not do that, the thought of having another baby with Dominick doesn’t seem like such a bad idea anymore.

Jesus, I internally groan. I can’t believe I’m even considering it.

Then, I turn around and see him leaning over and giving our son a kiss on his forehead, and my ovaries damn near explode.

If he keeps doing shit like this, I’m going to lose the fight against him …

But the truth is, I think I’m okay with that.

29

Dominick

“The quarterly report states …”My words trail off as my eyes catch Peyton standing in the doorway, dressed in yoga pants and a tank top that show off every curve.