“I didn't invite you,” I protested, but my voice fell as he hit me with a dark look I'd never seen before.
Suddenly, my heart hiked into my throat as it bore into me. It was as if I could feel him inside my body, as if he'd reached down inside of me and taken hold.
“You just want me that badly, don't you?” he asked with a wild smirk.
I couldn't hide how I sucked in a harsh breath, how my knuckles went white around the strap of my bag as he kept me there. I was stuck to the path, unable to move my feet, with Dom rearing over me like a fierce predator.
“Harry,” he said, his seriousness unnerving me. My back straightened, my chest tight as the frequent tension that bubbled between us reared its head. He pulled one hand from his pocket, raising it towards me, and I couldn't bring myself to step away.
A tremor of nerves beat through me as I swallowed, hoping he would and wouldn’t do something. All I could do was shift my weight and wait, acting like I couldn't step away if I wanted to.
“Listen, handsome, I…” He trailed off. His chin dipped to the ground, and another vision accosted me. Lying in his bed in shadowed light, kissing him, holding him, leaning in close as he murmured that nickname in my ear. I pushed the thoughts away with a shake of my head as his gaze shot up and pierced me with his intensity. “I need to tell you something,” he said.
Another breath, another heartbeat in my throat. His fingers inches from my skin as we locked eyes and he made me weak for him again.
“Harry!” A gentle voice called out from the front of the building to my right, slicing through my reverie. I flinched and whipped my head around, the moment shattering around us. Life burst back into focus, though my body still pulsed with awareness of him.
As soon as I saw Natasha waving me over, my face split into a grin. Not just because she was saving me. It was because she cared about whether I was comfortable. And my feelings for her were real, not some fantasy I conjured because I had to listen to her have sex with other people every night. It was because I actually wanted to be with her.
I bit my lip, my cheeks flushing as she smiled at me from across the courtyard. It was supposed to be embarrassing; according to my parents, a man wasn't supposed to blush and fumble, but I liked it. It showed how I really felt about her.
“Who’s that?” Dom asked as he turned and spotted her. She was at least thirty metres away, which was still enough for me to return her smile.
“Ah, Natasha?” I asked, looking back at him. “She's my girlfriend,” I said happily.
She was the best remedy for Dom.
Her full lips and sweetheart face, deep brown eyes filled with compassion and love that always made me soften. And she was short enough that she fit under my arm naturally. We'd been on the edge of something since the beginning of the semester. It was so new and exciting, and it was hard for us to stop drifting off into our own world whenever we were together.
Natasha laughed with the small group of friends around her, grinning as they teased her while she said her goodbyes. She clutched her textbook to her chest, biting her lip as she walked across the grass towards us.
She brought out lightness in me, not the desperate lust that plagued me when I let myself feel how much I craved Dom.
I glanced at him, and my heart clenched at his look, the same one he gave me a month ago when I woke up in his room.
Disappointment grabbed me, the heavy shame which always whispered at the back of my mind taking hold. I didn't want to confront that feeling anymore. I’d been so scared of it because it was another sign I wasn't good enough. Not just for him, but for anyone.
But I'd talked myself through it, forcing myself to grow stronger from it. Dom's answer to that question was why I pushed myself to ask Natasha to be my girlfriend last week, to really try something with someone who liked me for me. I didn't want to be with someone who saw me as an accomplishment.
My name and money didn't mean anything to her. But the only reason I asked her out was because of the way Dom's eyes danced over my body whenever I talked to him.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, hoping he might explain why his pupils narrowed, his lips pressed tightly together while he looked at her.
His chest rose, and the sheer weight of the energy flowing from him caught me off guard. It made me want to reach out, stroke his arm, and murmur to him softly so he would relax.
“Dom?” I said, hoping to shake him out of whatever was happening.
His gaze snapped back to mine, and he sucked in another deep breath. “I have to go to class,” I said.
“Right, yeah, of course. I'll see you for coffee later?”
I eased as Dom returned to his normal self. Or, at least, I thought he had. He was more serious than usual, but I couldn't say I even knew him well enough for that.
I nodded, still cringed over how eager I’d sounded. “Text me where. I don't mind,” I said. He’d managed to coax my phone number out of me on his third day of following me around.
There was a pause as we watched each other, but I couldn't handle his intensity. I didn't want him to see me falter.
He tutted, like he'd realised something, or he was just annoyed. “You just want to be with me that badly, don’t you?” he said hoarsely.
