Page 86 of Dominate
“Jesus,” I reply, my hands flexing angrily by my sides.
“Yeah,” Sloan replies with a small, self-deprecating laugh.
“So, what happened?”
Sloan begins walking again. “I gave Callum the money given to me by Margaret.”
My blood pressure spikes. “What? Sloan, you said it was millions.”
“I don’t care because I don’t need it,” she states firmly, turning to face me. “What I need comes in a much different sized package.” She swallows and walks toward me in the middle of the room, standing only a couple feet away from my face. “Gareth, what I need is to know how you could think I’d subject myself to that dick of a man again?”
My jaw slides back and forth as I look down at the floor. “He is Sophia’s father. I think that because you always put her first, you will always have a soft spot for him no matter how awful he is to both of you.”
Sloan laughs, her entire body shaking with agitation as she shoves a hand through her hair. “So that’s it?” she retorts, her eyes welling with tears. “You think I’m the same emotional wreck of a woman who showed up on your doorstep that night in tears? The one you had to kneel in front of before she crumbled into dust?”
“Sloan…Jesus, no.” I step closer to her and her scent washes over me, sweet as always and mixing with the memories of this room. It makes everything inside of me ache. “I think you’re incredible. You’re the strongest mother I know, and I’m madly in love with you. But I love Sophia now, too, and I would walk through fire before I’d ever hurt her again. So I’ll walk away if that is what’s best.”
Sloan’s eyes soften and a single tear slides down her cheek, but she swipes it away before it drops to the floor. “You’re right, Gareth. What’s best for Sophia does come before everything else. I’ve always put her first. I had to because she was sick for so long, then recovering even longer. I’ve always adjusted to other people’s needs so much, I had forgotten what it felt like to have any of my own.”
She steps in even closer, her face only inches away from me. “But then you happened. And you empowered me to own my feelings. My desires. My fantasies. You let me be who I wanted to be. For the first time in ages, I wasn’t pretending anymore. I wasn’t playing make-believe like Sophia says I was before. I was being me because of you!”
She grabs hold of my hands, her touch like an ice bath that shocks and zaps all of my senses into overdrive. “Gareth, you have given me my only real moments of pleasure, of happiness, of pain, of crazy, intense passion that I get to feel on my own without having to adapt to someone else. How can you walk away from us so easily?”
My entire body erupts with equal parts joy and pain. “This isn’t easy, Sloan. Nothing about this is easy. The majority of my life, I built these cliffs around my heart and never let anyone get in. I never wanted to feel the pain my father felt when he lost my mum. I thought I was doing what was best for you and Sophia. I didn’t think you needed me anymore.”
“Of course we need you!” she exclaims with a cry. “I want us to be a family!”
With that magic word, I grab her face in my hands and slam my mouth to hers. I part my lips and kiss her with such ferocity, I forget where we are. I forget where we’ve been and where we’re going. I just fall. I jump off that cliff, out of that plane, and I free fall with the delicious words that came from her mouth.
They taste good. Like a promise, and a devotion, and a future.
She tastes like mine.
I pull back, my body tingling with raw, earth-shattering awakening as I stare down at her ruddy lips while dragging deep breaths back into my lungs. “Sloan…Treacle…I love you, and I’m sorry for pulling away. I’m sorry for hurting you and not trusting you. Please dominate me like this anytime you’d like because, as long as you’ll have me, I’ll be right here.”
Sloan laughs and a garbled cry escapes her throat as I wipe the tears away from her cheeks. “Let’s just promise to jump out of the plane together, okay?”
My smile is wide, and vast, and happy. Really fucking happy. I press a kiss to her lips and murmur, “Whatever you say, boss.”
I wrap her in my arms and kiss her deep, and hard, and soft, and slow. I kiss her the thousand different ways I’ve kissed her this past year because I’m in. I’m all in now no matter how scary this dive feels.
Sloan and I rejoin the others downstairs. I’m thrilled to see that Sophia has come with her and is in the back garden, kicking around a football with my brothers. Watching them play with her like she’s one of their own brings a sense of pride to my chest that is new and different and equally as extraordinary as the day I met Vi’s little one.
I ask Sophia if she’ll take a walk with me. After some urging from her mother, she agrees.
She’s quiet as we walk through the back gate that opens up into the woods behind my dad’s house. I explain to Sophia that this wooded park is owned by the city and how we recently got into trouble for helping Booker build a playhouse out here. Then I start rambling about how it is a bit odd for a grown man to want to build a playhouse before he even has kids because, at the time, Booker and Poppy hadn’t had their babies yet. But they were best friends when they were Sophia’s age, and the house turned out quite cute, so I thought she might like to see it.
I was doing a lot of rambling.
My entire life, I’ve been a man of few words and kept everything close to the cuff. But the minute I need the forgiveness of a stubborn seven-year-old, I’m suddenly a chatterbox.
Sophia and I find the playhouse that ended up being donated to the park so they wouldn’t tear the thing down. It’s an adorable topsy-turvy-style cottage with crooked windows and a high peak roof. The truth is, it’s some keen craftsmanship that we Harris Brothers wouldn’t have had a clue how to build if it wasn’t for Hayden, his brother, Theo, and his friend, Brody.
I open the little door and Sophia’s eyes are downcast as she steps inside. She immediately sits at the tiny table and looks around the room, taking it all in.
I knock on the tiny doorframe and she glances over at me with a frown.
“May I come in?” I ask, half smiling.
