Page 43 of Beauty and the Billionaire

Did he have any idea how his words made me feel? Did I? It sparked such a storm of conflicting emotions that I wasn’t sure which to tackle first. “Was it?”

Dominic looked into my eyes with such intensity. “Not for me. Not at all.”

“There,” I said. “That’s all I needed to know.”

He smiled again. He was learning it quickly.

“Last night was beautiful,” I said. “And I want more of it.”

Dominic considered this briefly since I had told him so already. There was little to think about. What surprised me was that he offered me his hand now.

I took it without hesitation and let him lead me into the forest. Sunlight poured through the bare branches above us and kissed the orange and brown leaves on the forest floor.

Dominic spoke again in a tone that allowed no debate. “Then you can’t be my employee anymore.”

“Why not?” I asked without alarm. The fact of the matter was that I was getting much more comfortable with Dominic. I trusted him more than I had realized. I trusted that he considered my best interests.

His hand was warm around mine, his grip tightening. “My life’s built on contracts, Zain. All my relationships are built on signed agreements, so there’s no confusion later. I can’t be your boss. I can’t hold that power over you if we are going to be…involved.”

I bit my lip hard to avoid grinning at the way he phrased it.

“Personal matters and business don’t mix,” he said. “And I would rather have you in my private life in some capacity that suits you than to be your boss and stay away from you.”

“Are you asking me to be your boyfriend?” I asked.

Dominic’s cheeks were pink, and I wasn’t sure if he was blushing or cold. “I suppose that I am.” He said that in a way that it sounded like he’d only just realized it himself. He looked into my eyes. “That’s what I would like. I would like to date you.”

“That’s a big leap from thinking I’d made a mistake last night,” I said, tormenting him just a little.

Dominic folded his lips and halted, pulling me close to himself. “You convinced me when you kissed me.”

“Then let me convince you some more,” I offered, causing him to flash a grin. Once upon a time, I’d thought of it as wolfish. It was not. It radiated Dominic’s inner warmth beneath the layers of insecurity, and I found that it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

Dominic didn’t resist as I rose to the tips of my toes and leaned against him for stability. He lowered his head enough to let me reach his lips with mine. The kiss warmed me more than my clothes ever could. The worries of the day behind me, the failures, the lies that tightened around my heart, it all eased a little when I kissed him.

But Dominic pulled his head away and looked into my eyes. “You’re avoiding something.”

“Huh?”

He ran the back of his finger down the side of my face and examined my face warmly. “What upset you while you were out?”

I exhaled and stepped back, then turned to face the forest. We both took a few steps deeper between the trees, and Dominic waited patiently until I simply shrugged. “I wanted to come out to them,” I said.

“Are you certain?” he asked, alarmed.

“I was,” I said and scratched the back of my head. “I was until the moment I sat down with them.”

“Why would you want to?” he asked. He sounded genuinely bewildered by it.

I shrugged. “I’ve always been close to them. And I thought…” I sighed. “I don’t know what I thought. Maybe that I was lying to them and to myself whenever I thought we were close. Maybe that they loved someone who didn’t exist.”

“But you’re putting so much at risk,” Dominic said with sheer concern in his voice.

“I’m not sure that’s what I was doing,” I admitted. “It’s like a cloud hanging over me. I can’t seem to move from its shadow until I tell them. They’re my parents.”

“I know, Zain, but they could hurt you if…” His words faltered, and he fell silent. After a time, he said, “They’re not the same as mine. Don’t let me influence you like this, but I worry. If that goes wrong, it’ll break your heart.”

I looked at Dominic softly and sadly. It was hard to parse through all these emotions. The sudden need to be honest with my parents seemed so urgent and important that I couldn’t see a happy life before that was out of the way. “But I’ll still have you, right?”

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