out for a drink, to party, to forget for a few hours. I wasn’t banking on you turning up throwing ultimatums in my face again.’
‘I need to know, India. Can you understand that? I need to know where I stand.’
She got up, walking away from him but he followed her, grabbing her arm and swinging her round.
She stared at him, although she made no attempt to shake him off. ‘You want to know where you stand, huh?’
‘I want to know where I stand. Yes.’
‘There was no need for any fucking ultimatum, Dominic, okay? Because I was never going back to Michael. Did you hear that? I was never going back to him.’
‘So, what was with all the concern, all that at the hospital?’
‘Jesus, come on! He was a part of my life for a long time, I loved him like crazy, once. I loved him like crazy. Once. And to see him like that, knowing that it could have been so much worse… He’s Ethan’s dad. He’s my baby’s dad, and I guess I’ll never stop caring, I’ll never stop hoping that he sticks around for a long while yet because his little boy adores him, he worships the ground his father walks on…’
‘And you don’t?’
Dominic loosened his grip on her arm and she leant back against the wall, pushing a hand through her long blond curls, looking away from him, focusing on the exit ahead of her that led out onto the terrace.
‘No. Not anymore. Maybe I thought I still did, y’know? Just for a second.’ She turned to face him again, his eyes never leaving hers. ‘Maybe I thought I did. But that’s the kind of person he is. He makes you think that he’s everything you need, and that’s the way I lived for a long time. But not anymore. I’ll always love him, in some way that I’ll never really be able to explain, but I can’t ever go back to him.’
‘Why not?’
She stared at Dominic, into those piercing blue eyes that were so much like Michael’s. ‘Because I… I just can’t.’
Dominic really wanted to push it further, to find out more because it wasn’t as simple as her just saying she couldn’t go back to Michael – and she’d used the word ‘can’t’ rather than ‘won’t’. Should that make a difference? As far as Dominic was concerned, yes. It should. Because she was hiding something, that was for certain.
Pushing a hand through his hair he looked down at the ground for a few seconds, trying to work out what to do next. This hadn’t really made anything any clearer; he was still confused, still uncertain as to what was going on.
‘Dominic…?’
He slowly looked up at her, into a face so beautiful, but a face as confused as he was. And suddenly only one thing seemed the right thing to do. Leaning forward, he reached out and touched her warm cheek, stroking it gently with his thumb, moving closer until his mouth was just millimetres from hers, his breath warm on her face.
She said nothing, just closed her eyes and gave in to his kiss, trying so hard not to fall against him as his mouth moved slowly against hers, sending every mixed-up emotion she was already feeling into even deeper confusion.
‘Shit! Dominic, what the hell are we doing?’
He said nothing, just continued to gently stroke her cheek, running his thumb lightly over her slightly open lips.
‘I want you, so badly,’ Dominic whispered, his mouth close to her ear, his warm breath on her skin making India’s heart flutter like some love-sick teenager. She hadn’t wanted this tonight. She hadn’t wanted to think about this at all, not tonight. Tonight she’d wanted to kick back and relax, party with Kenny, forget all about Dominic, but how could she forget about him now when he was standing here, touching her, telling her he wanted her? And she wanted him too. Boy, did she want him too.
As the music pounding out of hidden speakers in the walls seemed to get louder, almost shaking the floor underneath India, that familiar feeling of knowing exactly where this was going to end rose up in her, and there was probably no point in trying to fight it. He had her cornered. In every possible way.
‘Let’s pretend,’ he said quietly, his fingers now stroking her shoulder, running up and down her arm, sending shivers right through her. ‘Let’s pretend we aren’t who we are. Let’s pretend that we’ve never met before, okay?