Page 12 of Return To Love

A signature cocktail made of sex and jasmine and the chocolate-flavored lube…all his. Just filling his senses with her grounded him instantly. He pressed a soft kiss to her cheek, even as he braced for her to push him away.

Instead, she clasped his cheeks with both hands and pulled him in for a kiss.

The first press of her lips against his made him gasp like a drowning man. Sliding his fingers into her hair, he pulled her head into the angle he liked and devoured her.

Her taste, so familiar and yet somehow new, exploded inside his mouth, sweeter after craving it for months. Just last night, he’d wondered if he would ever know the wonder of her kiss again. He stroked his tongue against hers, biting and nipping, allowing her breath only because she needed it. This way and that, he ravaged her mouth until she gasped.

Pulling back, he stared at her, his chest painful enough to crack open.

“Good morning, Dominic,” she said, palms cupping his shoulders, mouth turned up in a wide smile.

The band of tension rippled and released, making him breathe in deep lungfuls, at her use of his name.

When she patted the spot by her thighs on the bed, he jumped on it like a dog waiting for its master’s affection. Grabbing her roughly, he hugged her tight.

Like he’d wanted to do for months, and last night. He nuzzled into her hair, his body trembling. “I missed you, sweetheart. So much. I…I’m not good at words, Mona. You know that.”

“You did well enough last night,” she said, burying her face in his neck.

He shook his head, laughter lightening his ache for just a breath. “That was…something else.”

“You liked it though, right?” A sliver of hesitation danced in her words. “It wasn’t too much?”

He pulled back and stared into her eyes. Only now, after his initial fears and the haze of lust had cleared did he see the subtle changes in her.

Dark smudges cradled her eyes, and she looked thinner, leaner. But the pale, pinching gauntness she’d worn during the recovery was gone. There was a new confidence, an inward spark of joy, radiating from her very pores.

The thought lodged like a heavy rock in his stomach even as he was happy for her.

“I loved being the alien overlord,” he said with a fake smirk. “I’m thinking we should make it a monthly event, if you like. We could do this all over the world.”

“Really?” she said, teeth digging into her lower lip.

He nodded. “Mona, sweetheart, if you need a…” a boulder lodged into his throat as he tried to force the words, “longer break to continue traveling alone or if you want to live in a separate apartment and only meet for this kind of…stuff, I’m okay with it.”

Her gaze searched his, something flashing in it. “Like just use you for sex and a luxury lifestyle?” she said so softly that he had to strain to hear it.

Dominic wondered if she could hear the cracking of his heart. But he owed her whatever kind of happiness she wanted, even if it wasn’t with him. “I want our life to be whatever you need it to be, Mona. Even if that means I get to be your stud, not your husband.”

* * *

“Doyou love me that much then?” Mona asked, tears crowding her throat, making her words come out like wispy rasps of falling leaves.

Her usually stoic husband’s eyes filled with tears for the second time in the twenty-six years she’d known him. His hand shook as he lifted her hand into his and pressed a kiss to the tips. “I love you. So much. Enough to give you whatever you need. Even if that means breaking my own heart.”

She pulled her hand away, some of her tears leaking onto her cheeks. “I only ever wanted you, Dom. Even when I found I needed the hysterectomy, you employed a cook, a maid, a full-time nurse and a therapist. I was in unbearable pain with the constant bleeding, my hair was falling out and…you still didn’t come home for weeks, chasing some big deal. You made me feel alone and unimportant. If not for Chaaru and Kash, I’d have…broken down completely.”

Anguish made his eyes shine bright, and his stubbled cheeks were damp. “I’m so sorry, darling.” His large hands patted her everywhere, as if he needed to make sure she was there. “When I asked and you said you were fine to go through it without me…I didn’t give it second thought. Not that it excuses it.”

“I was hurt that you had to ask, Dom.”

He brought her knuckles to his damp eyes. “I’m sorry I lost sight of what we had and how precious and fragile it is. I’ll say it a thousand times, for the rest of our lives, if only so that your pain is lessened just a bit, sweetheart.”

“You abandoned me,” Mona said, the hurt she’d been pushing down for months bursting out of her. It crushed her and liberated her like a cleansing fire. “I never asked for millions or this lifestyle or…”

He gathered her to him, his own chest shaking. His arms were steel bands around her. “I know you never asked me for anything, darling. Not even when you were living in two pairs of sweatpants and shirts. But every big project and deadline I pursued, every milestone I chased, it was all for you, sweetheart. To show you how much I love you, how much I appreciated your sacrifice when you walked out on a cushy life with your parents.”

A half-gasp, half-growl escaped her mouth and Mona slapped his bare shoulder. “Dom, that was twenty-four years ago. You can’t still think you have to prove something to me…”

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