Page 25 of Yes, Love

I nodded and stilled my hand on his chest. “Why’d you stop? That’s nice.” He took my hand and clumsily started rubbing it up and down his chest again.

I giggled and resumed. “Dom?” I wanted to ask him something, but I was afraid of his answer.

“Hmm?”

“Why did you want to come here tonight?”

“Easy. I like you.” Dom sloppily kissed my cheek and then made a face. “Ava, it’s too much makeup, babe. You don’t need it.” He wiped his lips and then studied my face for a minute. Then he gave me a wicked grin and tugged his shirt off. He took the soft black fabric to my face and rubbed it in gentle circles on my cheek. When he pulled it away, it was stained tan. Dom raised both eyebrows at me. “See?”

I glared at him and tried to turn over, but he hauled me back against his chest. He kissed the cheek he’d just cleaned and sighed. “That’s better.” Dom picked up his shirt again and rubbed it all over my face with his stupid drunk-ass laughter.

I thought about smacking him, but a laugh bubbled up instead. Besides, his shirt smelled good, all beachy and manly and sexy. When he finally pulled the shirt away from my face, he looked far too pleased with himself. “I did it.” Dominic grinned and covered my face in kisses.

I laughed and playfully shoved his chest. “Did what?”

“Messed up the pretty fairy painting.” He bit his lip as his eyes roamed my face. My heart raced out of control, slamming against my ribcage. The way he was looking at me right now was too real. “Stunning. Fancy a shag?”

Yes. I rolled my eyes and pushed him away. “You are drunk off your ass and need to sleep it off.”

Dominic hit me with a pouty frown. “But we’d both been drinking last time!”

“We were buzzed last time. This is completely different.” Plus, I was feeling things, and he was still heartbroken over Lucy. I didn’t usually mind being a rebound fuck, but I seriously minded this time. I slid away from him and walked toward the door. “Night, Dom. I’ll be upstairs if you need anything.” I paused in the doorway to look back at him. He’d rolled back onto his stomach and was already half asleep.

I headed up to my room and caught sight of my reflection in my backlit full-length mirror. My lipstick was smeared all over my chin and cheeks, and one of my false eyelashes had come loose and dangled at a wonky angle. My first reaction was to laugh out loud at how ridiculous I looked. Then dread started to gather in the pit of my stomach. It melted away when I remembered the look in Dominic’s eyes as they traveled all over my face. He didn’t care. He’d called me stunning.

Thirteen

Dominic

My phone dinged with constant notifications as I groomed myself for the party at Ava’s tonight. I didn’t bother checking it. It was probably more comments and follows from Ava’s most recent video of us. A fan had suggested that she show off one of her makeup techniques on me. Jeanie insisted that it was a brilliant idea and instructed us to fill the video with heavy flirting. Ava flirted effortlessly with her influencer persona. I flirted easily back, though it was more real than I was keen to admit.

The fans were eating up the Domava love story, and Jeanie and Kitty really wanted us to milk it. Ava and I were throwing a party together tonight and then leaving for the Wild Love reunion in Miami two days later. There would be plenty of chances for PDA, plenty of chances to sell our love story even harder to the fans.

Once I’d finished shaving, I rinsed my razor and set it on the edge of the sink. I picked up my phone and scrolled through the notifications. I stopped in my tracks when I saw a text from Kara. Hi, Dom! It’s Kara. I met up with Lucy yesterday, and she seemed great! Her usual sunshine-y self. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about, but I’ll keep an eye on things.

I let out an audible sigh of relief and rested my elbows on the bathroom countertop. Lucy was all right. I had confirmation. I could put her out of my mind now, couldn’t I? It still felt off to me that she’d completely canceled her appearance at the Wild Love reunion, though. Lucy loved all the girlfriends she’d made from our season. She wouldn’t let gossip and rumours stop her from seeing them.

Was it me she didn’t want to see? Or did Will have something to do with it? Was he isolating her?

No. I had to stop this. Kara only just told me that Lucy was doing well.

“Beard’s crooked, mate.” Noah leaned in the doorway of my bathroom with a cheeky grin on his ugly face.

I rolled my eyes at him and then glanced in the mirror. “Ah, fuck.” He was right. I didn’t have a clean line on the left side of my jaw. I picked up my razor again to fix it and asked, “You sure you don’t want to come to the Wild Love reunion this week?”

Noah snorted. “Right, so everyone can look at me with wrinkled noses and say, ‘Now who were you? One of the staff, innit?’”

I chuckled and shook my head. It was a rotten deal that Noah got voted off his season so soon. But he did all right for himself without the Wild Love fame. He worked in a shit customer service job during the week but recorded 3D videos of forest hikes on the weekends and posted them to a Youtube channel. It was growing nicely.

“Hey, I’ve just heard back from Kara.” I waved my phone at him. “Says Lucy’s fine.”

Noah let out a sigh of relief and reached out to pat my shoulder. “That’s great news! I mean, I would have gone to prison with you for murdering Will, but I’m glad to stay a free man as well.” He laughed and turned to leave.

“Oi, you at least coming to the party tonight?”

Noah grinned. “Can I bring a plus one?”

I raised both eyebrows at him. “Who?”

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