Page 94 of Disavowed

“Let me go.” She struggled in his grip, but his other arm was now wrapped around her back, holding her in an iron-hard embrace.

His gaze was both soft and determined as he looked down at her. “That’s something I can never do.”

“You have to,” she choked out. “Because every time you come into my life you upend my entire world, then leave me to deal with the consequences, and I can’t do it again. I just can’t.” Her lower lip trembled, and her eyes filled with unshed tears.

She’d loved this man with every ounce of her being. There wasn’t a part of her heart or soul that hadn’t ached at his loss. It was like losing her parents all over again, only worse. Her parents died in an accident. They didn’t choose to abandon her. Dom did. He had a choice, and he’d left her.

He lowered his forehead to hers. “When I saw you covered in blood and—”

His voice broke, his big body shuddering against hers as he took a deep inhale. Daisy knew the end of the sentence he couldn’t finish. After Dom had shot Smith in the head, there hadn’t been an inch of her skin or dress that hadn’t been splattered with his blood and brains.

“Seeing you nearly die reminded me of Anika,” he whispered. “It was like a switch turned off in my head. I don’t even remember leaving the hotel. The next thing I knew I was patched up and on a plane to San Diego. I didn’t know where I was going or what I needed to do. I only knew I had to get away.”

“From me.” She swallowed the sobs building in her throat. If he didn’t release her she’d lose it and break down and do something stupid. Like tell him I still love him and always will. No matter how much he keeps hurting me. “I understand.” Tears rolled unchecked down her cheeks, falling on his chest.

He pulled away, a look of disbelief in his eyes, and he let out a short laugh. “No, not from you. Never from you. I had to get away from my past, one that nearly repeated itself right before my eyes.” He removed his arm from her back, holding her upper arms gently. “Don’t you get it? I love you. You. But I was weak. Seeing you almost die… I couldn’t handle it.”

The empty hole in Daisy’s heart constricted painfully. Though he’d said he loved her that day in the hotel room, she’d always wondered if he’d truly meant it or whether it was something he’d said under duress, thinking they were both about to die. For her, it had been real. A love magnetic and all-consuming. The once-in-a-lifetime kind that never dies. No matter how much a person wishes otherwise.

As he gazed down at her, she felt as if she were looking directly into his pain-ridden soul. There was love in his eyes, but there was also suffering so raw and intense it was like a neon sign screaming for help, and it nearly brought her to tears.

In the aftermath of the Piazza she’d been so self-absorbed by her own needs she hadn’t once considered the trauma that Afghanistan had inflicted on him, or that he’d been forced to relive that horrible part of his past. And the worst of it was, she above all others should have.

Losing her parents had been devastating enough, but she’d never been forced to experience what must have been sheer horror for Dom—seeing someone he loved bloody and battered. As a teenager she’d been shielded from that brutal ugliness. Her grandparents had identified her parents’ bodies, and it had been a closed-casket funeral. Dom had been forced to bury Anika’s remains and leave her behind in the desert.

Tears filled his eyes as he slowly knelt in front of her and wrapped his arms around her legs. When he looked up, his cheeks were wet. “I’ll never leave you again,” he said in a hoarse voice. “I’m home. You’re my home.” He pressed the side of his head to her belly.

Numb with shock, she couldn’t move, couldn’t utter a word. This was the biggest decision of her life. Take that giant leap and give herself to him, or risk never being whole. Because without him she would remain fractured, with no hope of ever fitting back together.

Several seconds ticked by, then she lifted her hand to his head and stroked his soft, wavy hair. He inhaled deeply, almost as if in relief, then let out a long, heavy sigh. When she caressed his cheek, he turned his head into the palm of her hand, kissing it tenderly, sending shivers up her arm.

“Dom.” She paused as her gaze roved the contours of his face. “I love you.”

He smiled up at her, relief obvious on his handsome face. “I was hoping you’d get around to saying that again.”

His lips were warm against her cool skin as he began kissing his way up the underside of her forearm, grazing her rib cage and breast with his chin before standing to gaze down at her with unabashed heat.

He clasped her face in his hands and gave her the most earth-shattering kiss she could ever imagine. Slow. Hot. Wet. They tumbled to the bed, disrupting Taz, who jumped off and scampered away.

Daisy’s clothes disappeared, peeled off hastily and dropped to the floor. Dom tore off his shirt first, then his jeans and tight Jockey shorts. Not for the first time she was overwhelmed by his incredible physical beauty. But beneath all that strength and power was also a man of the greatest character she’d ever known. A soldier and law enforcement officer born to serve and protect. A man with unexpected kindness, gentleness. One who had suffered great loss but had found love again. With her.

The mattress shifted as he leaned over her, his delicious clean, fresh scent settling inside her lungs. She gazed up into the clearest, bluest eyes. Windows to a beautiful soul. Levering onto his forearms, he leaned down to kiss her, but she touched her fingers to his lips, stopping him.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Tell me this is real,” she whispered. “Tell me again so I know I’m not dreaming.”

The look in his eyes was soft and gentle, yet fierce in its intensity. “I. Love. You. Always.” The smile he gave her was hesitant, as if he was waiting for something. Reassurance, she realized, and she clasped his face in her hands, pulling him down to her.

His kiss was gentle, his tongue stroking expertly with hers. As he deepened the kiss, a passionate longing took hold inside her, and her body thrummed with need.

She let out a little moan as he dropped languid kisses along her neck and breasts, then flicking and teasing her nipple into a hardened peak with his tongue, and doing the same with his fingers to her other nipple. She cupped the back of his head, holding him to her breast, arching into his mouth. The ache inside her grew, blossoming urgently into a beautiful flower desperate for water. Desperate for him.

With a deep, guttural groan he rose and kissed her again on the mouth. This time the tempo was faster, and she kissed him back with everything she had, pulling him on top of her, loving his weight and the feel of his body pressing against hers. She ran her hands down the steely hardness of his back, gripping his ass, urging him to enter her before she burned up like a comet entering the atmosphere.

He grasped her thigh, hiking her knee up, then thrust inside her, filling her so completely she uttered a throaty moan. She locked her other leg around the back of his thigh and met his thrusts, their bodies merging again and again until she was writhing against him.

“Please,” she whispered, arching her neck, pushing her breasts against his chest. His lips were hot beneath her ear, sending tingly shivers to her core. The tightness became unbearable, and her breaths came harder, her pulse racing as he rocked into her. She clung to him, completely mindless as the convulsions slammed into her, and she cried out his name again and again.