“We’ll stay at your apartment this week and work on getting your things packed up. Then, we’ll move to my house,” he stated.
Dominique shot him a sidelong glance. “What if I don’t want to leave my apartment?”
“Then, I’ll pack my shit and move in with you.”
She pressed her lips together hard to keep from laughing at his matter-of-fact delivery. It was clear that he didn’t care where they lived as long as they were together.
Ronan sensed her amusement and looked over at her. “Do you want to stay in your apartment?”
“Not really, but I wondered if you would hold me to my agreement to move in with you after we were married.”
She immediately regretted her words because his grin faded, and his expression closed down. Dominique tightened her grip on his hand and gave it a little shake.
“Hey, I’m not saying that to make you feel badly. I was trying to tease you.”
His bright blue eyes flashed to hers and she saw the regret there. Dominique decided she wouldn’t joke about how their relationship began again until he did so first. It was clear that being reminded of his behavior was painful.
The muscles in his shoulders slowly relaxed as he continued driving. “I know. It’s just difficult to let go of the guilt.”
“I understand,” Dominique said. “It took nearly twenty years for me to forgive myself for getting us cursed.” She laughed a little. “I guess I didn’t do such a great job of forgiving myself since I felt guilty again as soon as I realized who you were when you came to my office.”
Ronan lifted their joined hands and kissed her knuckles. “I tell you what—I’ll keep working on letting it go if you do the same. Let’s focus on moving forward.”
The backs of her eyes stung at the affectionate gesture. Dominique blinked back tears as she answered, “I can do that.”
When they arrived at her apartment, Ronan refused to let her carry her bag, insisting that she go unlock the door. He also insisted that she wait to go get Oscar from Aksel’s apartment until he was with her.
She didn’t bother to fight with him because she knew it was a battle she wouldn’t win. At least not today. And if his desire to take care of her made her chest warm and the ice inside her to melt, well, no one else needed to know.
She did give him a sharp nudge with her elbow when they walked up to Aksel’s door, and he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck, pulling her firmly into his side.
“Controlling much?” she asked, shrugging her shoulders.
Ronan had the grace to look chagrined and he lowered his arm so that it wrapped around her waist and his palm rested on the front of her opposite hip.
Dominique rolled her eyes because the move was still extremely possessive but knocked on Aksel’s door anyway. The quicker they got this over with, the faster he would see that Aksel had no romantic designs on her whatsoever.
Aksel opened the door a few moments later and Oscar darted out to twine his body around her ankles and then Ronan’s.
“Hi, Aksel,” she said. “Thanks for watching Oscar for me.”
“It was no problem,” he said, his deep voice barely more than a low rumble, like stone grinding against stone. His eyes dropped to her left hand and a small smile pulled at his mouth. “You got married?”
“We did,” Dominique said.
Aksel stepped forward and held out a hand to Ronan. “Congratulations. I hope you realize how lucky you are to have a woman like Dominique.”
Ronan took his hand, and Dominique saw the faint outline of his shadow magic creep below the cuff of his shirt. “Thank you. And I absolutely do know how lucky I am.”
When Aksel released his hand, he took a step toward Dominique as though he was going to hug her. The outlines of Ronan’s magic became writhing tendrils that wrapped around her protectively.
Aksel eyed them and chuckled. He settled for leaning over and kissing Dominique on the cheek. When one of the shadows darted toward him, Dominique stomped her foot down on Ronan’s toe.
“Behave,” she admonished in a whisper as Aksel stepped back.
Ronan shot her a look that said she would be paying for that later, but his magic retreated, dissipating like smoke.
“I assume you’ll be moving out?” Aksel asked.
