Page 54 of Dominance

“Who?”

“Mm…Gloria. It made her hair look like fire. Perfect.” I’m dozing, drifting in and out of sleep.

What might be a snort of laughter or maybe my imagination sends my head spinning deeper, fading.

“I wish…” my voice, somewhere in the distance.

“What do you wish, Adri?” Her question is so quiet. So far away.

“I just wish that you and I could have met different. Like on the train, and just that way.”

“Me too Adri. Me too.”

My eyes crack open,the golden slice of sun cutting right across my face, splitting my skull right in half. Good God.

I feel terrible.

Serves me right.

Glancing to my left, every ache and pain fades into the background. Gloria’s right there, laying on my arm, her copper hair strewn across the pillow.

Her eyes ease open.

No surprise, no judgment. Just soft, golden brown, watching me.

It occurs to me as I contemplate kissing her, the fact that we just slept together. In the same bed. For the first time.

And then how bad I must look, how awful I must smell.

And how much of a jackass I was last night.

Fucking. Idiot.

10

GLORIA

Adriano gives me a sidelong glance as we swoop around another corner, going a little too fast. It’s thrilling, though.

It would be a lot less scary, of course, if he wasn’t hung over. Possibly still a little drunk.

You’d never know it for looking at him, sitting there with his arm on the door, the window down, and the wind in his dark hair. His white shirt unbuttoned to show off his chest.

He’s captivating. Stunning.

I almost insisted that I drive, but things were…odd between us this morning. Like waters that are perfectly calm on the surface. That you don’t want to disrupt if you can avoid it.

Sleeping next to him was peaceful.

The best sleep I’ve had in months.

Even if he was comatose.

“It’s going to be a long morning. So maybe…”

“I promise, I’ll only have six mimosas to feel better, then only a few more when Dom starts giving speeches.”

Wrong answer, Adriano.

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