Page 191 of A Matter of Time

“Jesus, you should see your eyes, and your mouth…” He trailed off, staring at me. “My beautiful baby… God, I could just look at you all night.”

“How ’bout you put me in your bed?”

“That too,” he promised. “And I will never let you go.” He leaned sideways and kissed me again, this time gently, slowly, like he had all the time in the world. “Oh yeah, you’re mine.” He smiled wide before he pulled me forward and hugged me tight. “I missed you so bad.”

I couldn’t speak around the lump in my throat. I just laid my head on his shoulder, hugged him back, and cried. The tears just rolled from my eyes.

“Aww, love, don’t cry.” He sighed and pulled back, wiping at my eyes with his fingers. “And don’t move.”

I watched as he got out, walked around the front of the car, and opened my door to look at me. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

His long exhale of breath. “I’m sorry I slept with Maggie. So sorry. Please forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive. We weren’t together.”

“No, I know but… I still…”

“Sam?”

“It felt wrong and—forgive me.”

I nodded, reaching for him, and he lifted me down to stand in front of him.

“Did you… Was there anybody⁠—”

“No.” I cut him off, my voice barely there.

“No one in your bed since me?”

“No.”

The look on his face that he couldn’t hide, the relief, the smugness, made me smile.

“C’mon, let’s go inside.”

He tucked me next to him and supported my weight, keeping me from putting any pressure on my ankle. He kissed me in the elevator, in front of his door, and grabbed me once we were inside his apartment. With his hands on my face, he was smiling down at me as I stood there.

“You’re very happy,” I said, because it was obvious.

“I feel good,” he confessed, helping me take off my trench coat and then scooping me up and putting me down gently on the couch. “It’s like this huge weight just lifted off me.”

I waited, smiling at him.

“What?”

“Is there more?”

“Yes,” he muttered, “but lemme get you taken care of here.”

I sat there and watched him drag out a machine that he filled with ice and water. There were tubes that led to a wrap that he put around my ankle. He talked while he moved around, explaining how he’d torn his meniscus as well as his ACL while he was chasing some guy down an alley. He’d gotten twisted up in a fence, and the guy’s partner had pushed him back while his foot was planted. It sounded painful, and he smiled in agreement when I said so.

When I was reclined on the couch, my foot elevated on pillows, the wrap pulsing ice water around my ankle, staring at the fire he’d made, I felt really content. I had directed him in the process of making the tea, and he was in the kitchen when the thundering knocking came from the front door. I thought I was going to jump right out of my skin.

“Calm down, it’s all right,” he soothed me, having come out of the kitchen to put both hands on my shoulders. “It’s probably Dom.”

And as soon as he opened the front door, Dominic shoved past him and crossed the room to me. He looked furious.

“Goddamnit, Sam, what the fuck is going on?” he roared, pointing at me.