31. Thea

Dom: Hey can u meet me on Barbourville Rd?

Me: The one you take for Flealand?

I frown wondering why in the world he wants to meet there.

Dom: Yeah. It's above Flealand though. I'll send the info.

Me: You sure you don't want to meet at Mattie's? Was going to bring pizza. I'm hungry.

Dom: Bring pizza with u. I'll order it from Sauced. U pick it up.

Me: Ok. Are you alright, baby?

Dom: I will be when u get here.

I stare at the text as the address comes through. I'm not sure where it is. Maybe it is Killer's address. Dom is not a big text person. He normally calls. Something just feels off. I could be overreacting because I didn't get to hear his voice.

I worry about it the entire time I'm picking up the pizza and driving to the address that Dom sent over after our conversation. Part of me is really concerned he may be having second thoughts about the two of us having a relationship. There could be a chance that Gabby has come back. There's an even bigger chance that his parents convinced him to end things with me.

Suffice it to say, by the time I pull into the drive of a pretty little white house trimmed in red, my nerves are completely shot. The only thing in the drive is Dom's bike. I park beside it and grab the pizza. It's a cute place. It's an old farmhouse style home and you can tell it's been painted recently. There's a red tin roof and the shutters are also red. The porch is big and runs along the front and right side of the house, and there's an inviting swing in the corner where the two sides of the house meet. The steps are red brick and come out wide enough that three people could probably go up them at once. I make it to the door, and it opens before I even get a chance to knock. Dom is standing there. He grabs the pizza and my hand at the same time.

"Hi—"

I barely get one word out before he's literally pulling me through the door. I almost stumble crossing the doorway. I hear the door slam behind me. The pizza is thrust down on a table close to the door. Then, I instantly feel arms around me. Dom's face presses in against my neck and he holds me close. His body is vibrating with stress or anger—maybe both. I look up at him, confused as hell. Dom's eyes are swirling with emotion. He groans, and it sounds painful.

"What's going on, Dom?" I ask, taking my hand and caressing the side of his face.

"It's just a bad day. It will be better now that you're here," he says. His words are spoken with authority, but he looks lost. It hurts me to see him like that.

"Are you going to tell me?"

"Yeah. I will, I promise. Just give me a day to process everything, okay?"

"Whatever you need," I murmur. I'm worried to death, but he's obviously struggling. I want to do whatever I can to help him. "Tell me what I can do to make you feel better?"

His smirk—that I swear he should trademark—appears on his face in an instant. It doesn't exactly reach his eyes, but it's a start, I suppose.

"One answer immediately comes to mind, but I think I should feed you first," he mutters, making me smile.

"I am hungry," I admit.

"Then let's go into the kitchen and grab something to drink," he says, picking up the pizza and juggling it with one hand, while putting the other on the small of my back.

"Is this Killer's place?" I ask, as I open the pizza and put a couple of pieces each on two paper plates.

"Why would you think that?" Dom asks putting a soda beside my plate and twisting the top off the beer for himself.

"I just assumed. Although, I will say this place looks nothing like I imagined Killer living in."

"Killer only has a room at the club," Dom responds, sounding subdued.

"Then whose place is this?" I ask.

"Mine. I rented it today. It came furnished. I bought some sheets for our bed and a few groceries. You'll have to work your magic on it to make it more livable."

"Um… what?"

"Gorgeous, I don't want you worrying that Breaker will hear us when we make love. I want your mind to be completely on me. You didn't like the hotel room and even I know that's not a good place for long term. So, I went out and found a place I thought you'd agree with. It's not far from the college. It's within an easy distance to go to any of the places we like to eat. It works. I paid six months in advance, but if you don't like it, we can look for something else. In the meantime, it will work. We can go over to Breaker's tomorrow for your stuff, then go shopping for what we need here."

"You don't have anything to do at the club?"

"Nope. I'm free to spend the day with you and I have to tell you that's the one thing I want to do above anything else."

"Well, now I am too."

He smiles at me and takes another bite. I do the same and we eat together in a comfortable silence for a bit. My mind is swirling with all the new information and yet, at the same time, I'm also stuck on how he said we made love. It's a silly romantic thing to get stuck on, but I can't help it. It makes me feel warm inside. Heck, it makes me feel cared for.

When I look over at him, I'm immediately brought back to earth. He seems a million miles away. I don't know what's going on with him, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that he's really upset—no matter how he's trying to disguise it with me. "You've been busy today," I murmur.

"You have no idea," he responds, sounding cynical. That snaps my attention back to the present, and I remember how we parted this morning.

"What happened after I went back into the auditorium?" I ask carefully before taking a bite of my pizza. I need to get him to open up to me. I don't want Dom holding everything inside. That's not a healthy relationship. Truth be told, I'm desperate to make this work between us. I've been in love with Dom since I was a kid. It is becoming clearer and clearer that those feelings were still alive deep down inside of me. I just chose to ignore them. I don't want to do that anymore.

"King apparently had permission to be here. Dad knew."

I frown. "That's good, right?"

"I guess, I wouldn't know. You'll have to ask your brother or someone else. Apparently, I wasn't deemed worthy of the information."

"Excuse me?"

He takes a big tug of his beer and puts the bottle back down on the small table we're sitting at. The kitchen is big. It could handle a bigger table. Honestly, the whole place is nice, but I'm going to look at it all better later. If Dom is here and he wants me here, I'll stay.

"There's shit going on and apparently, Dad didn't feel he should trust me with the information yet. He doesn't trust my judgment."

"Because of T and Gabby?"

"Got it in one."

I reach out to hold his hand. "I'm sorry, Dom. I love your father, but he's wrong about this."

He squeezes my hand. "You stopped calling him your uncle," he says quietly.

"It sounds weird now since we are well, whatever we are." He frowns at me, and I know he's about to start in on another lecture, but I hold up my hand. "I'm with you, Dom. I want what is between us. I'd just rather not put labels on it. I don't want you to feel pressured into having a relationship with me because of who my father is or because of Breaker."

"Breaker is all for what's between us, Thea. As for the rest of the shit, I don't give a fuck about Dad or the club. I'm all in with us and you're what matters most. Fuck, you're the only thing that's important to me."

Before I can acknowledge exactly what he just said—how monumental it is or what it means to me—I lose my breath. "Dom, where is your cut?"

"Thea—"

"You're never without it. It's a piece of you. You always have it on unless we're going to bed. What exactly is going on?" He rubs the back of his neck in a way I've seen him do a million times. What worries me is that he usually only does it when he's worried or upset. I reach out and put my hand over the one he has lying on the table. I squeeze it gently. "Talk to me, honey."

He looks up and gives me a ghost of a smile, and it's then that he stops hiding. I know because I can clearly see the misery on his face. My man is devastated and seeing it up close makes my eyes sting with unshed tears. I can't give into them right now. Dom needs me, and it would hurt him even more to see me cry.

"I told Dad I was leaving the club. I'm turning my cut in tomorrow. I'd have just given it to him today, but I have a few things I need in my room there."

"Fuck. Dom, honey, if this is about me?—"

"It's not about you. Even if it was, I'd still choose you. I want you to know that. You're the only woman in my life I have ever said that about, and I need you to know it's true."

"We can talk about that later, honey. We're solid. I need to understand what's going on here. If it's not me, then what?—"

"It's me, Thea. It has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me. Dad looks at me and he sees a man who chose a bitch over his own brother. He sees someone who put a woman who didn't deserve it before a brother of the club."

"That's bull?—"

"He's right, sweetheart. I did all of that. Fuck, I had feelings for you, and I allowed a promise I made to a woman when we were kids to ignore that. I felt I owed her because I took her virginity—even while I watched her change from the girl I fell in love with. I hate what I did to T. It eats me up inside, but even though I'm responsible for it, I at least have the excuse that Gabby promised T knew she was in love with someone else and was just trying to help him get over everything."

"Yeah, by shoving her tongue down his throat and that's probably the most PG thing she did with that tongue of hers," I mutter.

Dom laughs, shocking me and making me look at his face again. "I really don't want to talk about what Gabby did or didn't do. At this point, I'm trying to forget I ever knew the bitch," he mutters.

"On that, we're in complete agreement," I huff, giving him a smile that I don't really feel. I'm rewarded when he gives one of his own and his face softens. "So, tell me what happened."

"King told me that my father knew he was in town. I went to confront him and found out most, if not everyone in the club but me, knew that King was here and that he was here to talk about some trouble headed our way. Or hell, maybe it was more than that. I have no idea to be honest."

"What the fuck?"

"You're sexy when you say fuck. I feel the need to do everything I can to make you say that word a lot…"

"Focus with your brain and not your dick, Dom," I mumble, ignoring the way my body instantly warms, or the moisture I feel gathering between my thighs. Damn.

"My dick is more expressive when you're close, Gorgeous."

I snort. "Okay, to give myself the CliffNotes version here, your dad is being an asshole and holding all of that shit against you?—"

"Thea—"

I hold up my hand to stop him from interrupting me. "Regardless of what happened between you and T, and I think you know whose side I was on in that, he's wrong here, Dom."

"I do know," he admits. "It's more than that, though. I laid drunk for a few weeks and my club duties slipped. My judgment was clearly impaired in ways I hope we never have to talk about."

"Let's make a deal that the past is in the past and we leave it there. It doesn't need to intrude on what we have now. We can live in the present."

"And the future, baby. You're my future."

"And the future," I agree. "Still, your dad has no right to hold that shit against you. Especially since you've been doing nothing but proving yourself lately."

"And how do you know that?"

I shrug. "Mattie told me. He's really proud of you. So am I, if it matters."

"It means everything, Thea."

On impulse, I lean over and press my lips against his. Dom quickly takes over the kiss, his tongue sliding inside my mouth and seeking mine. It's not an intense kiss, but it feels natural. It fills me with a peace that I can't explain. When we break apart, I stand up and get into Dom's lap. He welcomes me instantly, wrapping me in his arms.

"Might be difficult to eat like this," he points out.

"Are you complaining?"

"Fuck, no."

I giggle. "You can feed me."

"Now, there's an idea that I definitely like. Does that mean we're done talking about this bullshit?"

"For tonight. I think we both need a break from the past. I am going with you to the club tomorrow, though."

"I don't want?—"

I put my fingers over his mouth. "You may not be a member of the club right now, but you are my man and I happen to be very proud of that fact. I want everyone to know that I am. That means I'm going to be by your side, Dom. Well, unless you don't feel the same."

"You're proud of me?" he asks, sounding as if the idea is completely foreign to him.

"I went to dinner at your parent's house, Dom. We've practically been living together at my brother's. How could you think otherwise?"

"You and Raze were together at Breakers'," he points out.

I tense for a minute but shake my head. "Raze and I were having fun. I needed that after the mess with Deke. We fooled around and I'm not saying it couldn't have gotten more serious, but it didn't hurt like it should have when it fell apart, either. Mostly, I was glad that we hadn't gone all the way together and it ended when it did because…"

"Because?"

"Feelings I thought had been dead for a long time were slowly coming back to the surface and they weren't for Raze."

"What are you saying, Thea?"

"I'm saying, things had already begun to change between me and Raze and it wasn't entirely on him. I was glad he stopped being around so much. I let that happen easily because I was enjoying spending time with a man that I'd been hung up on for over half my life."

"What man?"

"You're being an asshole right now, you know."

"Yeah, but I need to hear you say the actual words more than I need actual air right now, sweetheart."

"You, Dom. I'm saying it wasn't Raze I wanted in my bed. If I'm honest, it never was."

"Who did you want there?"

"You, Dom. You've always owned a piece of my heart. I'm starting to think you always will."

"Thank fuck," he growls. He stands up, his hands going under my ass to support me as I wrap my legs around him.

"Where are we going?" I squeak, holding onto him and laughing at the same time.

"We're going to try out the new sheets I bought today. The bed came with the place, it will have to go, eventually. I want you in a king size, but I want to go bed shopping with you."

"You do?"

"This is our future, Gorgeous. I want us both to have a say in everything."

"Stop talking and get me to this bedroom you're talking about," I order.

"Fuck, woman," he groans, kissing me as we make it down the hall.

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but it sure feels like Dom and I are on the same page. I'm done holding back. I'm going to give him so much love that he knows that no matter what, I'll be here. I won't turn my back on him. I'm not going to allow his club to either.

No matter what I have to do.