“The only impression I care that anyone gets is that we are enjoying each other’s company. We like one another. We are choosing to be together for as long as it lasts and that’s it. If anyone else has anything else to say or think about the situation they can fuck off.”
His hand rose up and wrapped around my wrist and before he blinked those wintery-looking eyes I could have sworn I saw a glimmer of emotion bright enough and hot enough to manifest into tears in that gaze. “I’ve never been with anyone like you, Dom.” His words were a whisper that floated right into the center of my chest. A punch: I could see coming that and duck and maneuver to evade. But those light words carried by murmurs were sneaky and got inside of me too fast to dodge.
I leaned forward so I could kiss him, so I could show him that I didn’t care who or what or why just as long as it was me and him. He kissed me back, but it was softly, reverently. It was a kiss that said thank you for something I didn’t even know that I did. I slid my hand over the sharp curve of his waist until I could reach his ass under the hem of his heavy coat. I gave the firm globe a playful squeeze and pulled back.
“I’ve never been with anyone like you either, Lando. You have a good heart, a soft center, but the parts that are hard – that you protect like I might try to steal them away from you – they have some really sharp and ugly pieces to them. I don’t know who made them that way but whoever it was wasn’t worth it.”
He put his hands on either side of my face and gave me a look that wrenched at my guts. I’d seen heartbreak before. I knew what it looked like because my mom had worn it ever since the day my dad died and Royal had been colored with the same brush for the few months it took her and Asa to get on the same page about their relationship. That’s what was on Lando’s face as he gazed into my eyes. Pure, unfiltered heartbreak.
“He was worth everything, but he didn’t think our relationship was and there is no going back to try and fix all the things that went wrong.” He sighed and bent forward so that his lips skimmed the outer shell of my ear. “I hurt for a long time, too, Dom. I was a man who was nothing more than my injuries. I did my best to heal, but I didn’t have anything that looked like a new normal until you showed up at my clinic. I want you to know that, however we end.”
It was my turn to curl my hand around the back of his head and brush my fingers through his longer hair.
“How can things begin if you’re already planning the ending? Doesn’t seem fair.”
His breath was warm and tingled the skin at the side of my neck. “You’re right. It doesn’t, so, since the beginning is where things usually seem perfect and the ending is always tragic, why don’t we just skip to the middle? There’re good things in the middle.”
It was his turn to run his hand over my chest until it came to rest over my heart.
Indeed … there were very good things in the middle and it was that center, that protected core that I think we were both trying to avoid and claim all at the same time.
Chapter 10
Lando