Page 107 of Accidental Doctor Daddy

The heartbreak of what I’d done to him.

I knew that expression. I saw it every morning in the mirror.

I took his face in my hands, kissed him long and deep, slow and aching, while his hips kept moving—slower now, every stroke languid and bittersweet, like he couldn’t bear to let me go just yet.

Then I tasted salt.

Not my tears this time.

His.

Something inside me cracked open, and I wrapped him up in me, arms and legs locking around him like a vise, as if I could press us back into the time we lost. I didn’t know what this meant for us. I didn’t know if it fixed anything.

All I knew was that I needed him this way.

I needed him to be mine.

Even if only for this moment… and maybe the next one.

“Harder,” I whispered, breathless. “Please.”

His control snapped. He drove into me with a force that made the floor groan beneath us, his hand sliding under my thigh to hitch my leg higher around his waist. The angle hit deeper, sharper, right where I needed him most. I cried out, andhe swallowed it with a kiss—messy, desperate, full of everything we hadn't said.

The rhythm built, faster now, frantic. His name fell from my lips over and over, each syllable rougher than the last, until I was gasping, legs trembling around him.

“I’m close,” I choked out.

“I’ve got you,” he said, driving harder, deeper, until stars exploded behind my eyelids and I shattered around him.

My orgasm tore through me like a wave, my whole body shuddering with release. A thousand unspoken emotions broke free with it, spilling from me in gasps and sobs and clinging hands. He followed, chest crushing against mine, trembling as he emptied himself inside me.

His breath hitched against my neck, rough and ragged.

Then we collapsed, chest to chest, limbs tangled, our hearts still pounding like they couldn’t believe we’d finally closed the distance.

Minutes passed in a haze of gasps and tangled legs. Eventually, I found the strength to shift onto my side. The late afternoon light filtered through the curtains. Dom’s eyes locked onto mine, brimming with tears, and my own did the same. We didn’t speak, just stared for a while.

Finally, he broke the silence, voice hoarse. “Ella…”

The guilt slammed me. “What…what are you doing here?”

He exhaled shakily, still half-lying across my thigh. “I was in Chicago to finalize the sale of my company shares. And to figure out my future. I ended up at the restaurant by pure chance.” A weak laugh escaped him, overshadowed by sorrow. “I think the universe is laughing at me.”

I clenched my jaw, curling my fingers against the rug.He sold his shares?That was always part of his plan, once the hospital promotion was locked in. My plan worked. He got whathe always wanted. I swallowed. “I guess congratulations are in order. You must be thrilled about the promotion?—”

He shook his head. “I quit, actually. No admin position. Nothing.”

My stomach lurched. Panic churned. “Because of me?”

He pushed himself upright slightly, cradling my cheek. “Yes and no. Because losing you made me realize what I was doing—sacrificing everything for ambition. I’d done it once before, with my wife, and I lost her without noticing how sick she was, thanks to working all the time. Then I lost you and the twins because there were too many conflicts between us and the hospital…it all clicked.”

I stared, tears threatening again. “Dom, I…that was exactly what I wanted to prevent. I didn’t want to ruin your career or your family life?—”

He gave a shaky laugh, leaning in to rest his forehead against mine. “Ella, you didn’t ruin anything. You saved me from repeating the same damn mistakes. I lost Jodie in part because I was too blind, too wrapped up in my ambition to see her illness. And I lost you because of it, too. But it took losing you to see the pattern.”

I felt sick. “But you loved it there.”

“The hospital was a job. The company was a business. Loving something that can’t love you back leaves you lonely. So I left….the hospital, the device company.”

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