Page 58 of Beauty and the Billionaire

Dominic’s lips parted, but no sound came out at first. He took a step forward, and I saw the hesitation in his eyes, the war raging inside him. His usually immaculate suit was rumpled, his tie hanging loose around his neck like a noose. He looked…wrecked.

“I missed you,” he said, voice raw. “I missed the man I could’ve been with you.”

I shook my head, blinking against the sting in my eyes. “Just answer me. Please.”

His gaze dropped, his hands curling into fists at his sides. “Zain, I?—”

“No!” My voice cracked as I cut him off, the words tearing out of me. “Don’t dance around it. Don’t try to soften it. Did you out him? Did you destroy Julian’s life just to get back at him, just to prove to yourself that you could?”

The pain that flashed across Dominic’s face almost made me take a step back, but I held my ground. I had to. This was it. This was the line I’d drawn, the line that would either save us or damn us for good.

His lower lip trembled as he looked up at me, his voice barely above a whisper. “No,” he breathed. “I didn’t. I couldn’t.”

The relief that flooded me was so overwhelming it nearly knocked the breath from my lungs, but I didn’t let it show. Not yet. I wasn’t ready to give in to the part of me that wanted to collapse into his arms, to forgive him for everything.

“Why?” I asked, my heart still racing, every word like a challenge. “Why not? You wanted this. You wanted to see him burn.”

“I did,” Dominic admitted, his voice shaking. “I wanted him to suffer. I wanted to rip apart everything he cared about, to make him feel the way I felt when they bullied me. But…” His voice cracked. “But then I saw you standing there. I saw the man who refused to compromise himself, no matter how much it hurt. And I knew that if I did this—if I became that monster—I’d lose you forever.”

“And you think that changes anything?” I asked, the anger bubbling up again, refusing to be drowned by the wave of emotions crashing through me. “You still wanted to do it! You came this close to ruining someone’s life just to make yourself feel better! And you made me wonder who the real you was.”

Dominic’s face crumpled, the weight of my words hitting him like a blow. He took another step forward, his breath shallow, desperate. “I know. I know, Zain. And I’m sorry. I’m so goddamn sorry.” His voice cracked again, thick with emotion. “I didn’t understand what I was turning into. Not until I saw you walk away from me.”

I swallowed hard, feeling the walls I’d built around my heart begin to falter. “It’s not about me, Dominic. This isn’t about just losing me.”

“I know,” he whispered, his eyes wet. “It’s about me losing myself. And you were right. You’ve always been right. You’re the best part of me, Zain. And without you, I’m just… this.” He gestured to himself, broken and hollow.

Tears stung my eyes, my heart hammering so hard I thought it might burst. “I don’t know if I can forgive you,” I whispered, the truth of it cutting deep.

Dominic’s hands trembled as he reached for me, stopping just short of touching my face like he didn’t trust himself to hold me. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness,” he said, his voice rough. “But I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to earn it. Because letting you go—losing you—was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. And if I have to live the rest of my life knowing I’ll never get you back, then I’ll still be the luckiest man alive just to have known what it felt like to love you.”

I stared at him, my heart breaking for the man in front of me. The man who was finally laying himself bare after all this time, after all the hurt. His tears matched mine, and for the first time, I saw not the monster I’d feared but the man I had fallen in love with.

“Say it again,” I whispered, my voice shaking as I took a step toward him.

His breath hitched as he looked into my eyes, his voice barely audible but filled with everything. “I love you, Zain. I love youmore than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything. And I will never stop.”

The dam broke inside me, and before I knew it, I was pulling him into my arms, our bodies crashing together in a frantic, desperate kiss. It was messy, it was raw, but it was real. And in that moment, all the anger, the pain, the fear—it all fell away.

When we finally broke apart, our foreheads resting together, I whispered back, “I love you too.”

Our lips met with a quiet, desperate softness, but the moment they touched, it was like everything else fell away. The world around us—our mistakes, the pain, the doubts—melted into nothing, and all that was left was the heat between us. His mouth on mine, warm and yielding, felt like the answer to a question I hadn’t even realized I’d been asking all along.

Dominic’s hands slid up to cup my face, trembling but steady as if I were something fragile—something precious. His fingers traced the edge of my jaw, almost reverent, and I shuddered under his touch. The kiss deepened, and with it came a flood of everything we had been holding back.

It wasn’t rushed or frantic this time; it was slow, purposeful. His lips moved against mine like he was memorizing the feel of me, savoring each second. Every brush of our mouths, every shift in the tilt of our heads felt like a promise—of redemption, of love, of everything we could be now that we had finally stopped running from it.

Dominic groaned softly into the kiss, and the sound sent a jolt through me, making me press closer. His hands slid down, wrapping around my waist, pulling me hard against him. I could feel his heart pounding, frantic and wild, against my chest, echoing my own. We fit together so perfectly that it almost hurt to think how close we’d come to losing it.

I ran my hands up his chest, feeling the rise and fall of his breath beneath my fingertips, his skin burning even through thefabric of his shirt. The kiss grew more heated, and I parted my lips, letting him in, letting him take me. His tongue brushed mine, slow and sure, like he had all the time in the world to explore me—and I wanted to give him forever.

The tension that had stretched between us for so long snapped, leaving only this raw, aching need. The kiss was everything—everything we hadn’t allowed ourselves to feel, everything we had yearned for. It was fulfillment, yes, but it was also hunger, a hunger that had built up for weeks between us—for years in my lonely life before him.

I tilted my head, pressing harder against him, and his grip on me tightened. His kiss became more demanding, rougher, his control slipping as he gave in to the fire between us. My heart raced faster, and I could taste the salt of our shared tears, could feel the way we trembled in each other’s arms.

I had him. The real him. And now that I had him, I never wanted to let go again.

When we finally broke apart, our breaths came fast, ragged, but our foreheads stayed pressed together, and his hands remained on me, anchoring me to him. His eyes opened slowly, still clouded with that same overwhelming intensity, and I saw it there—everything he couldn’t put into words.

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