Chapter 157: Chapter 157
Music Recommendation: You’re In Love by Taylor Swift.
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Celeste raised her face from him. Her brow furrowed, and her lips pressing into a line as she studied him. She paused, then said. "Dominic, do you smoke?"
The question was quiet, but it carried weight. She caught a faint scent of cigarette on his suit jacket.
Dominic didn’t flinch. He leaned back against the pillows, his tone calm, and almost too casual. "Yes. Just occasionally. When I have business with my origin partners."
Celeste blinked, her hand instinctively pressing against his chest as she pushed herself up, her body shifting to stare into his eyes properly.
Her gaze was unwavering. Steady, sharp, and carrying that unspoken authority only she could have over him.
Dominic read it instantly. Her silence wasn’t neutral. It was rejection, and it landed between them heavier than any spoken disapproval.
His jaw ticked, but not in defiance. He lifted his hand to cradle her cheek, tilting her face gently toward him. "You don’t like it."
It wasn’t a question.
"No," Celeste admitted, her voice soft, though her eyes held his without wavering.
Dominic’s breath left him in a slow exhale. He didn’t bother to justify it, nor did try to smooth it over with excuses. "Then I’ll stop."
Her eyes flickered, uncertain if he meant it. He caught the hesitation, and his thumb brushed slowly across her cheekbone as he continued.
"I don’t do it daily. Not even weekly. But it doesn’t matter how rare. It’s enough that you don’t like it. So it’s done."
Celeste’s throat worked, her lips parting as if to argue, but she stopped. He was serious, utterly serious. She felt it in the way his gaze didn’t waver.
Finally, she leaned down, pressing a soft kiss against his lips. It wasn’t heated. It wasn’t even urgent. It was simply acceptance.
Dominic’s hands immediately framed her face, both palms cupping her cheeks as though she were the only thing in the world worth holding.
His voice dropped, low and thick. "What can I do for you right now, Celeste? Tell me. Your food? Your medication? Anything?"
Her lips curved faintly. "I already ate. And I took my drugs."
He chuckled, the sound soft but full, before flipping them over again in one smooth motion. She gasped as her back met the mattress, his frame towering above her.
Dominic dipped his head, his lips brushing her collarbone first—slow, reverent, unhurried. He trailed kisses downward, each press of his mouth was a vow in itself against her skin. Across her shoulders, down her arms, and along her stomach. His devotion carried him further, softer still, until even the tips of her toes weren’t spared from his reverence.
Celeste smiled at the absurdity of it, her chest tightening with warmth. Her fingers tangled in his hair, not to pull him closer, but simply to anchor herself to the reality of this man and his grand, impossible devotion.
"Dominic," she murmured, a quiet laugh breaking through as she watched him. "You’re annoying. The health doctors might not agree with what you’re doing right now."
"And yet," he murmured against her skin, "you’re smiling."
Her laugh softened into a grin as her hand reached sideways, toward the nightstand where she’d left her book. She stretched but couldn’t quite reach. Dominic, without being asked, leaned over and plucked it for her.
Celeste flipped the pages slowly, then turned the book toward him. It was a photo—soft colors, still water, a glass lake house nestled at the edge.
"I like it," she said simply, her eyes lingering on the picture.
Dominic’s gaze followed. He had no interest in lake houses, nor any affection for their calm simplicity. But she liked it. And for him, that was enough.
"You want it?"
She nodded.
His lips tugged faintly, a dangerous, mischievous curve. "Words, baby."
Celeste looked up at him through her lashes, the corner of her lips curling. "I want it."
The grin that claimed his mouth was soft, but his eyes burned with promise. "Then it’s yours."
Celeste’s breath caught at his words, the simple weight of them heavier than promises carved in stone. Then it’s yours. Just like that. No hesitation. No bargaining. No pause to consider cost or consequence. He said it as though the world bent itself in her direction, and perhaps it did.
She knew he’d get it for her if she asked. However, knowing something, and living in the reality of that which you knew wasn’t the same thing.
Her lashes fluttered, and for a moment she forgot to blink. "You can’t just say things like that so quickly," she whispered, her voice a fragile mix of awe and warning.
Dominic leaned closer, bracing his weight on one forearm as his other hand slid to capture her fingers. He threaded them together, his knuckles grazing her lips. "I don’t say things I don’t mean. Not to you. I love you, and I’ll hate to look at your face, and ever say no to you. Especially when I can do what you’re asking for, and even more."
Her heart twisted painfully at the truth threading through his voice. She studied him, the sharp lines of his face softened by the dim glow of the lamp, and the dangerous edge to him hidden under the way he looked at her now as though she was something both sacred and untouchable.
"Dominic..." she began, but the words faltered, drowned by the way he kissed her knuckles.
He didn’t let her finish. His lips brushed hers once more, softer than before, deliberate. "If you want a lake house, I’ll build you one. If you want the stars, I’ll climb into the sky and steal them. If you want peace—" his gaze darkened, "—then I’ll destroy anything that disturbs it."
Celeste’s breath trembled out of her. Her smile was small but impossibly bright. "You’re insane."
"Obsessed," he corrected smoothly, the corner of his mouth lifting. "With you."
Her laughter spilled between them, light and unrestrained, but he drank it in like it was oxygen. She reached up and touched his jaw, the roughness of his stubble against her fingertips grounding her. "And if all I ever want is this? Just you. Here. No lake house, no stars, no promises bigger than us? No blood?"
Dominic stilled. For the first time that evening, silence fell heavy between them. The silence was not because he didn’t know what to say, but because she had disarmed him entirely. His throat worked, and when he finally spoke, his voice was raw.
"Then you’ll still have everything," he said simply.
Her chest ached. She tugged him down to her again, sealing her mouth to his in a kiss that was less gentle this time. The kiss this time was needier, and edged with something desperate, as though she needed him to understand just how much she believed him.
Dominic answered in kind, his hand sliding beneath her jaw, deepening the kiss, claiming and surrendering all at once. His devotion wasn’t in the words anymore, it was in every movement, every breath, and every deliberate brush of his lips against hers.
When they broke apart, breathless and flushed, Celeste leaned her forehead against his. "You make me feel..." She trailed off, unable to pin the right word down. Safe. Seen. Loved. Entirely undone. All of them at once.
Dominic’s lips curved faintly against hers. "We’ll always have unfinished business," he murmured. "Because I plan to keep doing it."
And then he kissed her again, softer this time, as though he had all the time in the world to prove it.