Page 39 of Sweetest Sin (Tempting Love #1)

Peyton

The walls are a light shade of gray, unlike the white in the room I’ve been staying in.

The furniture is black. The bed is bigger, more comfortable.

And for a moment, I question where I am until the memories from last night surface—going to the club with Brielle, Dominick showing up and almost having that guy killed for touching me, having sex with Dominick in the club, in his bed, in the shower … in his bed again.

I’m in his bed.

I peel my lids open, but he’s not in bed with me. He left … again .

I sigh, wondering if I’m ever going to learn my lesson with this man. Then, I spot a note propped up where he should be, addressed to Peaches .

Peaches,

Five years ago, I made the mistake of not leaving you a note, and I’m nothing if not a man who learns from my mistakes. Our son woke up, and I figured you’d want to sleep in. Join us downstairs when you’re ready.

—Dominick

I can’t help the butterflies that flutter in my belly.

The man is such a contradiction. One minute, he’s threatening to slice a man’s throat, and the next, he’s letting me sleep in and leaving me sweet notes.

I’m starting to realize that if I want to be with him, I’m going to have to accept that Dominick is a complex man.

I was worried about him being violent toward me, but he’s yet to do anything but bring me pleasure.

That doesn’t mean I’m letting my guard completely down. My father didn’t show his violent side at first. But eventually, his true colors came out.

After showering, brushing my teeth, and getting dressed, I head out to find Dominick and Damien, but before I get to the stairs, I run into Brielle, who’s dressed to impress with a knowing smirk on her face.

“Looks like you made your decision,” she says, tilting her head toward the door I just came out of. “And from the way you guys were going at it all night, it sounded like it too.”

“Oh my God,” I groan, noting to be quieter in the future.

I’m not used to living with other people and having sex. Anytime I had sex after Damien was born, I went to the guy’s house, not wanting to bring him around my son.

Matteo walks over and slides his arm around my neck.

He’s dressed in his usual jeans, T-shirt, and tennis shoes, and with his tattoos running up and down his arms and neck, he reminds me of the stereotypical gangsters you see in the movies.

It’s comical how different he and Dominick are, yet they’re extremely close.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” he says, glancing down at me. “It’s nothing neither of us hasn’t done ourselves. Besides, I believe I have you to thank for my big bro’s good mood. He told me to take the day off because he wants a family day.”

Brielle laughs. “A what?”

“A family day,” Dominick says, appearing at the top of the stairs. “And get your hands off my girlfriend.” He flinches as he says the word, and I wonder why, until he adds, “We’re going to need to get married soon so I can call you my wife. Girlfriend sounds fucking juvenile.”

I snort out a laugh, thinking he’s joking, but he doesn’t crack a smile.

“Dominick,” I warn, “I said I’d give us a chance. That doesn’t mean marriage. And if you don’t like the term girlfriend , don’t use it. Honestly, it’s probably too soon anyway.”

He glares, Matteo laughs, and Brielle tries to hide her grin. I duck from under Matteo’s arm and walk past Dominick, but he lowers his hand to my belly to stop me.

“We’re having a family day today,” he says. “Sundays used to be family dinners, but Damien wants to do something fun, so we’re all going to the aquarium.”

“Hell yeah,” Matteo says. “I’m down.”

“I love the dolphins,” Brielle says.

“Our mother’s going too,” Dominick says as Brielle and Matteo head downstairs.

I should follow after them to go say good morning to Damien, but I stay where I am, needing a moment to get composed.

“What’s wrong?” Dominick asks, spinning me around.

“Nothing,” I choke out, but he gives me a look that says he’s not buying what I’m selling. “It’s just that … my mom was always so sick, so we could never go anywhere or do anything. I spent most of his younger years taking care of her before she passed. I’m glad he has this.”

“Has what?” Dominick asks, seeking clarification.

“A family.” I look up at him. “It might not be perfect, but I’m happy he finally has a family. Now, I just have to hope you don’t do anything to take it away from him, like go to jail or die.”

It was meant as a joke, but as the words pour out, I realize I’m serious.

It’s a real fear. While the violence scares me, what scares me even more is loving and losing another person.

I lost my father to violence, my mother to disease.

I don’t have anyone left but Damien and now Dominick.

The thought of losing him, of my son losing him, is crippling.

“Peaches,” Dominick murmurs, pinching my chin between his thumb and forefinger, “none of us are going anywhere. Not if I can help it.”

“Did you have fun at the aquarium today?” I ask Damien as I give him a bath.

We got there for opening and stayed until closing. The kid is officially obsessed with marine animals, and the only way we could convince him to leave was to promise we’d be back soon. Of course, it helped that Dominick bought him stuffed animals of all of his favorite sea creatures.

He slept during the drive home, but I had to wake him up to give him a bath because there was no way I was putting him into his bed after all the animals he touched.

“Yeah,” he says. “I wanna bring my stuffies to school to show Frankie. Can I go back tomorrow?”

He looks at me with bright eyes, and my heart cracks because even when he does go to school, he won’t see Frankie.

“Remember that we moved in with Daddy?”

He nods.

“We live too far away from Frankie, so you can’t go to school with him anymore. But maybe we can talk to his parents and visit.”

Damien pouts. “I wanna go back to school.”

“I know, and you will?—”

“Tomorrow?” he cuts me off.

“No, not tomorrow. Hopefully?—”

“It’s not fair!” he cries, his tiny fists hitting the water and splashing. “I wanna go to school!”

He starts to cry, and I take a calming breath, reminding myself that he’s overtired and emotional. Moving to a new place and everything changing have been a lot for me, so I know it’s a lot for him as well.

“And you will,” I tell him, pulling the drain plug and grabbing the towel.

I intended to get him out before he had a full-blown meltdown, but the second I pick him up, he arches his back and loses it—kicking and flailing about, tears pouring down his face.

“What the hell is going on in here?” Dominick barks, appearing out of nowhere.

I jump, assuming that he’s pissed that Damien is being loud and unruly, and hold Damien closer, preparing to protect him from Dominick’s wrath.

“He’s—” I begin, but Damien cuts me off.

“It’s not fair!” he wails. “I wanna go to school. I wanna see Frankie and Gracie and Ms. Judy. It’s not fair!”

Dominick stalks toward us, and I retreat, the back of my legs hitting the side of the tub. I’m cornered with nowhere to go, and I need to protect my baby.

I tighten my hold on Damien and try to turn around to get him out of harm’s way, but before I can, Dominick plucks him out of my arms.

I open my mouth to yell at him, to stop him from hurting our son. He’s just a little boy, and sometimes, he’s going to throw temper tantrums.

But before I can get a word out, Dominick says, “Hey, buddy, it’s okay,” his voice soothing as he holds Damien close to his chest, not caring that his wet body is soaking his clothes. “What’s the matter?”

Damien sniffles, several tears sliding down his cheeks, and Dominick wipes them away.

“Talk to me, buddy. Tell me what’s wrong. I’ll make it better. I promise.”

His soft tone—the opposite of what I was expecting—causes me to choke up.

He wasn’t going to hurt him.

He wants to fix it.

“I want to go to school,” Damien says, fresh tears filling his eyes. “But Mommy said no.”

Dominick glances at me and then back to Damien. “If you want to go to school, then you can go to school.”

I should tell him that giving in to Damien’s demands during a meltdown sets a bad precedent, but something in Dominick’s eyes tells me to let it go. We can talk about it later. He’s clearly distraught from Damien crying, but not in the way I thought.

“Tomorrow?” Damien asks, optimistic.

“Yeah, buddy, tomorrow.” Dominick wraps the towel around Damien and kisses his forehead. “We’ll find you a school tomorrow.”

Dominick carries Damien into his room and helps him get dressed into his pajamas while Damien tells him everything he wants to do at school. Dominick listens patiently, telling him he’ll make sure the school has everything he wants and needs.

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 me The 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.