“This song always makes me think of you,” Dom said as he sat beside me. “Do you remember when we heard it live?”
Like I could forget. Caffeine Daydreams remained one of my favourite bands, and I played their music often, but never this song.
I didn’t answer Dom. Instead, I listened to the lyrics I’d tried so desperately to forget.
All because you do something to me
Something that stops me being lonely
Something that makes me need you
For the love of all that’s holy
Say there’s something
That makes you need me too
“I do need you,” Dom whispered, his eyes burning into the side of my face. “So much it hurts.”
“I wish I could believe that,” I said bitterly, staring into the dancing flames in the fireplace. “But you left, Dom. You promised me everything, and then you just…left.”
“Because you asked me to.” He reached out to touchmy hand, but I still didn’t look at him. “It was what you wanted. Right?”
I’d thought it was. But I’d been angry. Young. Foolish. For fuck’s sake, it hadn’t even taken me a few hours to realise the mistake I’d made.
By then, it was already too late.
“I can’t do this,” Irasped, lurching to my feet. “I’m going to bed.”
“Shadow.” Dom’s fingers closed around mine. “Please. Wait.”
“For what?” I asked hoarsely, searching his face. “This won’t end happily, Dom. It never does. Not for us.”
“That was in the past. We’re talking about our future.”
“We’re talking about a pipe dream,” I shot back. “You say you spent ten years thinking about me, but guess what? You also spent ten years ignoring me. Do you have any idea how that felt?”
Dom’s eyes were wide. “I didn’t contact you because that was what you wanted.”
“Right.” I laughed bitterly. “Because we both meant everything we said that night.”
“I did,” Dom said quietly. “Every fucking thing, Shadow.”
“Something” finished, Luca Weston’s voice fading into silence before a new song started. I recognised this one too—“Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” by Jeff Buckley.
The irony of the title alone had the heat rising higher. I should leave. I really should.
But my body wouldn’t move.
“Dance with me,” Dom said huskily, tugging on my hand. “Stop thinking, and just dance.”
My body had no trouble moving now. It led me straight to Dom. My left arm slid around his waist with ease. Myright hand clasped his. Our chests brushed as we slowly swayed to the beat.
Dom’s temple rested against mine as he quietly sang along with the lyrics. I squeezed my eyes shut as words of yearning, of a desperate need for another, melted the remaining ice around my heart.
It was enough to have that final confession springing free. The one I’d fought so hard to contain, knowing the damage it would cause. “I did, you know.”
Dom pulled back to frown at me. “You did what?”
