Amila wasn't just nervous. She was a wreck. Her mind spawn webs of doubt and worry that her heart tried to dismantle by using the memories of the time she and Dominic shared but her empty stomach flip-flopped, sloshing the acid that mixed with well with angst. Her conflicting thoughts made the flight seem shorter than the two and a half hours that the pilot told her it would be. The familiar chauffeur that greeted her on the tarmac didn't subdue the tension that surged within her. He amplified it with his critical eyes and snarky smirk. She didn't know how to decode that.

As the man whose name she still didn't know while the Rolls Royce cautiously through the snowy terrain their previous conversation materialized in her mind like it was yesterday. She remembered asking him about how many ladies Dominic entertained and he never gave her an answer. She lifted her eyes from the window to the back of his gray speckled head contemplating asking the question again but shook the inquiry out of her head. Knowing the answer wouldn't benefit her at this time. Whatever woman Dominic shared his time with in the past after Jade and before her were irrelevant.

The house was empty when she arrived. She took it as a good sign. That was until the silence that hovered in the spacious modern cabin gobbled up her clarity leaving indecision in its wake. She began to second guess every choice she made. Signing the contract, was that right, or was it a mistake. Maybe she should've stayed in therapy and then she'd be able to use the money in her back account months ago instead of Dominic's.  If she wasn't so weak she wouldn't have needed his lifeline then she wouldn't have been in this position.

Amila's eyes refocused on the scenery before her, the Elk mountain range in the distances, the powder blanketed rolling terrain that made up the vast backyard on that side of the house, and the falling snow as a clear, sure voice sounded in her mind. It reminded her of the one choice she didn't regret. The decision she'd make again and again if her life repeated on a continuous loop. Falling for Dominic wasn't a mistake. It would never be a mistake.

"What are you doing here?" Dominic's footfalls stopped at the entryway of the living room.

Amila whipped away from the massive window to be rendered speechless from the sight of him. A man in an all black suit with a gold chain and an immaculate edge-up would always be her weakness.

"How'd you—" He paused as a realization moved to the forefront of his mind. His jaw clenched then said. "I knew all of them didn't have the flu."  He shook his head then set his stoic eyes on her. "My mom sent you?"

"Yes." The word slipped from her mouth as she pulled herself out of her rumination. She shook her head, removing the images and coming back to reality. "No. She just told me where you were. I came. It was my decision to come."

He shook his head. She didn't know why; was it because of her words or his thoughts. His Adam's apple descended and she watched it fall slowly down the neck, her lips missed. The ocean of space between them was just as tormenting as the time she spent away from him. But she didn't take a step towards him. Her sock-covered feet didn't lift from the wood floors nor did his.

"Hmm." He sounded, his jaw clenching more from the way he ground his teeth as if he was in visceral pain. "Your boyfriend was cool with that decision. He seems like a fine guy."

"He—" She stopped, pulling her hands out the front pocket of the black hoodie that matched her sweatpants. She didn't want to spend time defending Savion's character or anything pertaining to him. This moment was about her. "I don't have a boyfriend. I'm single."

"So, back to kissing strangers."

"He's not a stranger." She shook her head as a wave of ire rushed through her. "But if I wanted to kiss a stranger that's my business since we broke up."

"We didn't break up." He cavalierly said, sauntering to the cream sofa rolling his shoulders out the suit coat. "You ended the contract."

"A contract?" Her eyes followed him intently. "So, you're saying that's all we were...a contract."

He leered at her blankly as if his emotions were safely behind a stone wall. "Just a contract. Nothing more."

"Nothing more." She enunciated each syllable of the words as if it was a task that needed to be done for her to comprehend that exact meaning of the statement. A statement that juxtaposed all of his actions and meanderings. "I could do this dance with you forever. You said those words."

"You were asleep."

"Not asleep enough." She took a shaky inhalation. "If we were just a business deal then why were you in Houston. Why did you come to the studio?"

He nonchalantly shrugged. "A moment of weakness."

"This is a moment of weakness." She pointed at him sharply. "The cold way you stand, looking at me like we didn't share affections for each other. Reducing us to nothing more than a—" Her voice caught as the emotion flooded her system.

Tears rolled from her eyes from the way he closed up his emotions. She turned back to the window not wanting him to see the effect he had on her. If he didn't want to be honest with her, she didn't want to share her honesty with him. Her blurry eyes watched the fluttering of snowflakes waltz to the white terrain wanting its coldness instead of his. She wiped her eyes and rushed to the side door.

She ignored the way he called her name as she twisted the lock and opened the door. The frigid breeze was refreshing as it blew into her face drying the tears that fell. The chill that washed over her damp cheeks sent a shiver down her spine that greeted the quiver rushing her legs as she stood in the foot of snow. Her eyes closed as she lifted her nose breathing in the freshness of new snow and pine coming together as one in the silent night. A silence that was about to be interrupted.

"Amila. You're barefooted." He said, placing his suit coat on her shoulders. "You're going to get yourself sick."

"Why do you care?" She rolled her shoulders back, casting the coat off her as if it offended her in some way. It was strong with the smell of him and that might have been its biggest crime. "You don't care about me. You fuck me with such sincerity but when its time to actually share yourself with me...show me your soul, you lock me out. You don't—"

"I can't." The veracity in his tone made her flinch. "I can't love you because if I lose you..." His voice was quiet as he shook his head more to himself than to her.

Amila's exhale plumed between them. "If you don't love me...if you can't admit it then..." She weakly shrugged. "You've already lost me, Dominic. I can't be with a man that can't confess his love to me.  I deserve that."

"You deserve the world." He said, placing his hand against her face. "I'll give you the world."

She rested her cheek into her palm and peered into his eyes. "I don't want the world. I want your love. I want you."

"I want you, too." He breathed out the words as a war of emotions fought in his gaze.

Amila sat her hand against his. "Then tell me how you feel."

"Swan...I—" He shook his head as his chest rose and fell with such haste she feared he might hyperventilate.

Amila placed her hand on his chest, feeling the rapid beating of his heart. "I'm here with you. I'm not going anywhere. I love you."

His face twisted as if those words made the stone wall he constructed around his heart turn into rubble. The frigid breeze that blew over them didn't dry the mist in the wells of his eyes.

"I..." His voice shook as he held her hand firmly against his chest. "Amila...I love...you, too."

"I know." Her lips curved up. "I know."

"Then come back to be." He took a step closer to her. "Come home."

She blinked at him with confusion. "Home?"

"Wherever we are is home to me." He stroked her cheek with his thumb. "You are home to me."

"Dominic..."

"What?"

"I'm cold." She giggled as a shiver rattled through her body and made her teeth chatter.

He knelt over and latched his hands on the back of her knees. Her hands instinctively went to the shoulders as he lifted her frozen feet from the ground.

"Let me warm you up, Swan." The deepness of his voice was already defrosting portions of her body.

She nodded then nuzzled her face in the hook of his neck as the wind and snow picked up. She relished in his redolence as he carried her back into the house where she was certain that with his love she'd never be cold again.

Why do you think it was so hard for Dominic to admit his feeling for her?

What do you think made him finally say those three words?

How do you think Dominic is going to warm her up?