When I had burned off enough of my mad with the derpy Brownie and the disgusting, sodden ball of slobber he loved so dearly, I went back inside.
And found the two most important women in my life looking awfully smug.
“What?”
“Nothing, darling,” Mom said, rising from her chair. “I’ve got to get to the office. Get me a disclosure notice today, and I’ll present it. You both should stay home for the day. You look like you could use the rest.” She said the last with a raised eyebrow.
I walked her to the front door.
“I’m sorry about this,” I said as I helped her into her coat.
She turned around and patted my cheek. “Really? Because I’m not. Not in the least.”
“You don’t have to say that. I know this puts you in a shitty position. I know it looks like a repeat of everything you already went through.”
“Dominic, my only son is head over heels in love with a woman who challenges him and makes him smile. I’m happy for you.”
My guts did a cartwheel and didn’t stick the landing. “Hang on. No one said anything about love,” I argued, feeling the icy licks of panic.
She grinned. “You’re a good, stubborn man who will hopefully get out of his own way someday. Trust your mother on this. You’ve never looked at another woman the way you look at Ally.”
There were a lot of feelings I had for Ally that I’d never experienced before. Not the least of which was an unholy obsession with her naked body. But I wasn’t inclined to share that with my mother.
“This is very new. I wouldn’t go throwing labels around,” I said dryly.
“It’s an awful lot to go through for a woman you just kind of like. Enjoy your day off, darling.”
She left on a smug, finger-wiggling wave, and I closed the door after her.
Love? I didn’t understand how the woman who had been systematically humiliated by her husband for decades could still believe in such ridiculous notions. And if she knew I’d played a part in it, I doubted she’d be able to love me back.
With absolutely nothing settled like it would have been had they let me commit to the obvious solution, I returned to the kitchen.
Ally was doing the dishes and carrying on a one-sided conversation with Brownie. Fat snowflakes were falling faster outside the windows. A cozy, domestic scene. One that took place in homes across the country, around the world. But never here.
Something weird and uncomfortably warm bloomed in the center of my chest.
My first instinct was to squash it, and I went with it. I wasn’t going to fall prey to some adorable domesticity. Not when I was annoyed with her.
“Do you want to fight first or nap first?” I demanded gruffly.
Ally looked up from the dishwasher and crossed her arms. “How about an abbreviated fight and then nap?” she suggested. “We can finish up fighting when we’re better rested.”
“Lady’s choice.” I stepped around the island but kept my distance.
She nodded. “If this whatever this is is going to work anywhere besides the bedroom—”
“Relationship, Ally. Say the damn word.”
Her glare was withering. “Relationship,” she said in a caustic tone that made me want to kiss her until she shut the hell up. “I need to feel like an equal partner. Which means I want my fair share of the decision-making, and I don’t want to be beholden to you financially.”
“That sounds not completely stupid.” It was fair. It made sense. But it left out the how.
“Gee, thanks. Your approval means the world to me,” she said, heavy on the sarcasm, slowly closing the distance between us. “Dominic, you’re not my winning lottery ticket. This can’t be based on you being some kind of benefactor to poor little old me.”
She probably didn’t mean it in the way I took it, but I was looking to stay pissed off. “I’m so sorry you don’t think I’m a prize,” I snapped.
“Stop deliberately misunderstanding me,” she said. “You know damn well I meant that I don’t consider you to be my very own ATM. I don’t want your money. I want you. I want an us. And for there to be an us, I want a say.”
Okay, so maybe that appeased me a little bit.
“Fine. How the hell do you propose we actually make that happen?”
She stepped into me, and I wasn’t certain that she wasn’t going to try to knee me in the nuts. “Oh, look who’s suddenly interested in how,” she said.
When she moved, I flinched, and a smug smile spread across her face just a second before she slipped her arms around my waist. I was used to the bickering, the banter, but this physical affection was… different. Plus, I’d been in fear for my balls.
“Don’t be an ass.” I wrapped her up and tucked her head under my chin.
“How do normal people do this? Who’s in charge of what? How do they assume debts or keep assets separate without pissing each other off?”
Ally sighed against me. “I know you’re trying to be a smartass right now, but to be honest, I don’t really know how the dynamics of a long-term relationship work. Neither one of us has a solid example from childhood. Maybe it depends on the people in it having an ongoing conversation?”
“Fine. We’re conversing. What do you want a say in?”
“Everything that affects me that doesn’t involve your money,” she shot back.
“Ally, I don’t want my… you lying awake at night trying to figure out if you need to skip meals to make ends meet.” I wanted to take care of her. I wanted to take her worries and concerns and problems and solve every last one of them so she could focus all of her attention on me. And Brownie of course. I wasn’t a completely selfish monster.
She was going to argue with me again, but I was suddenly too tired to fight it out.
“Look, can we figure this out later?” I asked. I didn’t want her drawing lines when I wasn’t thinking clearly enough to redraw them properly.
She would live here. She would have anything and everything she needed. No one would ever take advantage of her or lay a hand on her ever again. End of fucking story. I was her Prince Fucking Charming.
“Okay. But only because I’m so tired I’m seeing two of you.” She sighed.
“Come on,” I said, taking her arm and leading her up the stairs.
Brownie bolted ahead of us.
“We’re just sleeping, right?” Ally asked as we turned into the bedroom.
“Just sleeping,” I agreed, dragging my shirt over my head. “Naked sleeping.”
“How’s your hydration?” she asked, pulling off her sweatshirt to reveal the stars of all future fantasies for me, her bare breasts.
“Great. Totally rehydrated,” I lied. “How’s the soreness?”
“Hardly feel a thing,” she fibbed. I could tell it wasn’t the truth because her neck flared red like a beacon.
I took off my pants, my cock already flying like a flag.
“Just sleep,” I promised, watching as she removed her leggings and underwear. We stared at each other, naked and maybe even a little vulnerable, from opposite sides of the bed.
The linens were an unholy mess from our gymnastics mere hours ago. So much had changed so quickly, and there was so much more to come.
But I wouldn’t break that to her now. She’d been through enough for one day… or twelve hours.
For now, I would settle for holding her while I worked out what needed to happen next.
We slipped under the blankets, Brownie making himself comfortable at our feet. And when Ally hesitated, I made the decision for her, pulling her against me. Her back to my chest. My face to her hair.
She hissed out a breath and an honest to God giggle when her ass wiggled against my hard-on.
“Just sleep,” I promised her again.
“I won’t be sore forever,” she hinted.
“Shh,” I ordered, not ready to test my own chivalry or hydration levels.
She settled against me, sighed, and was fast asleep within minutes.
Having her in my arms, in my bed, felt foreign. Familiar. Right. Wrong. And everything in between.
We slept for three hours.
And when I woke with her round, soft ass pressed against my erection, I thanked my lucky stars. When she rolled over and looked at me with sleepy eyes and “please” on her lips, I promised my soul to whatever deity had delivered her to my bed. And when I slipped inside her slowly, sweetly, when she sighed out my name, I wondered if maybe I’d finally been forgiven for my own sins.
One thing I knew for sure when I felt her start to surrender was that I was going to fix everything for her. Whether she wanted me to or not.
