Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 188

Chapter 188

DOMINIC

I had been pacing the length of my living room for what felt like hours, my feet pressing into the cold floor, my mind a tangled mess of thoughts I could not seem to untangle. Ever since Celeste had left after that night Julian and Seraphine saw what we had been doing, I had been unable to sit still.

I wanted to open my heart to her. I wanted to tell her that she had become more to me than I had ever expected, more than I had ever allowed myself to want. But she was still married to Juhan. Every time I thought about professing my love to her, while she was still legally bound to someone who did not deserve to breathe the same air as her, I felt sick.

How could I do that to her? How could I put her in a position where she would feel pressured to give me an answer before she was ready?

I thought about different ideas, different ways to bring her closer, to create an opportunity where I could show her what she meant to me without forcing the words out before their time. And finally, after pacing for so long that my feet had gone numb, I settled on something so pathetic I almost laughed at myself.

I decided I would call her and tell her I was sick. That I had no one to take care of me. That I needed her. It was low, even for me, a man who had built an empire on calculated moves and strategic deceptions. But I did not think I had any other choice. I was desperate, and desperation made fools of even the sharpest men.

But before I could pick up my phone and dial her number, before I could put my ridiculous plan into motion, my phone rang in my hand and her name appeared on the screen. Celeste. I stared at it for a moment, my heart lurching in my chest, and then I answered.

She told me she wanted to see me. She said it would be the next day, in the evening. I almost bit through my lip because I already had plans, important plans that I could not simply cancel without consequence. My grandmother was finally arriving after years of being away, years I had kept her hidden in a different city with a different family, years of pretending she did not exist so that no one could use her against me.

Now that my identity was out in the open, now that everything was balanced and the threats had been neutralized, it was time for her to return. And around the same time Celeste said she would be coming, I was supposed to pick my grandmother up from the airport and bring her home.

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