Page 43 of A Taste For Trouble
“Are you okay, darling?”
“I am, thank you, Anthea,” I said, with a nod, feeling immensely comforted just to have her around.
“Mom, what are you doing here?” asked Dom, coming over to embrace his mother.
She fussed over his gunshot wound for a minute before she answered him.
“Trevor sent your private jet for me as soon as he heard you’d been shot,” she replied, with a warm smile at Trev, who was hanging around the doorway.
I walked over and dragged him into the room, and he shot a dark scowl in my direction.
“I’m never going to speak to you again,” he hissed. “I can’t believe you hogged all the action and left me out of your plans.”
“Oh, please,” I replied with a snort. “You’d have ratted me out so fast.”
“Of course. It was a damn fool idea, and nearly got both of you killed,” he complained. “Wait till Mara hears about it.”
“Where is Mara?” asked Anthea. “I thought she’d be here with you now.”
“She’s abandoned us for a man, Mrs Carlisle,” said Trevor mournfully. “And we’re falling apart, as you can see.”
I filled her in on everything that had happened in our lives in the past couple of months since she’d gone to Florida to visit her sister.
“And when did you and Dom start dating?” she asked with interest.
“He brought me home the day I broke up with Joe,” I said weakly, because how could I tell his mom that we weren’t exactly dating formally.
She gave me a knowing look, but allowed me to change the subject.
“Does this mean you’re going to join our Sunday lunches, Dom?” she teased, as we sat chatting over a few drinks. “He stopped coming to those after Polly died.”
“Let’s see,” he replied lazily, while I was acutely worried about Anthea’s reaction if she found out that Dom and I were still only fuck buddies. He still hadn’t told me that he wantedto turn our fake relationship real. I knew he had risked his life to save mine, but knowing Dom, he would have done it even if we weren’t sleeping together. He would have done it for my mother’s sake, if not for mine.
Sweetpea and Scary Mary wandered into the room just then, and we introduced them to Anthea. Luckily, they were both on their best behaviour and allowed her to pet them for as long as she liked. When Dom went back to work over our protests, Anthea stayed behind to talk to me, and again, I was filled with worry. What would I do if she asked for details about the relationship? I could tell her the truth. That we were only fake dating to send a message to the cartel, but she had already seen the closeness between us. Would she think less of me for having a fling with her son?
“Oh, honey…whatever it is, it can’t be so bad,” she said softly, as she brushed Scary Mary’s fur.
I stopped in the act of doing the same to Sweetpea and burst into tears.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s come over me. I think it’s the stress of the day,” I sobbed.
She let out a slow sigh as she took me in her arms and let me cry for a while.
“My dear child, I know Dominic isn’t an easy man to be with. He doesn’t know how to express himself, but no matter what troubles you’re having with him, be patient with him. Don’t give up on him too easily if you really want to be with him,” she said. “And if you don’t, that’s fine, too. Be fair to yourself and to him.”
“Of course, I want to be with him, Anthea. I love him,” I said, saying it aloud for the first time. “The question is whether he loves me.”
She sighed again and pursed her lips as she chose her words carefully.
“Dom has a…complicated relationship with love, Rosie. He craves it as much as he runs from it. At some point, he will have to pick one direction. And one can only hope he picks the right one. Which is why I said you need to be as fair to yourself as you are to him.”
I didn’t know what she meant by his complicated relationship with love, but I knew that I couldn’t force him to love me back. I knew he cared for me a lot, craved me physically, and loved spending time with me. But whether all of that added up to a lifetime of togetherness was something that had to be seen. As Anthea said, it all depended on whether he chose to run from love or towards it.
After dinner, Anthea returned to her own apartment, and Dom returned to his study to finish off some work. I waited for him to come to bed, but fell asleep before he came in. When I woke up the next morning, he was already dressed and halfway through his usual breakfast of four egg whites and a slice of toast.
He kissed me absently on his way out, and I wondered if something had happened to make him rethink our relationship.
CHAPTER 22
