“I don’t think Dominic has the asshole gene,” Gwen defended him. “I’m just scared that he’ll take all of himself and his awesomeness and move on to someone else when there is no longer anything holding us together.”

“Gwen,” Mia said gently, “no matter what you want to believe, it was the attraction between you two that brought you together in the first place. If he hadn’t felt the same way he would have shown you the door. You might have had some liquid courage that night, but he’s the one you went straight to. I’ve got a strong hunch that he has been hoping something would happen between you two for a while—and maybe you have as well.”

“It was just sex—men never turn that down,” Gwen argued weakly, afraid to get her hopes up. “And I was dating Mac until very recently.”

“Honey, don’t be dense,” Mia snapped. Gwen braced herself for the tough love she knew was coming. “I’ve seen you and Dominic together a couple of times now and trust me, he doesn’t act like a man just going through the motions until he can move on. He looks at you like there’s no one else even on the planet but you two. I’m not bragging or anything, but I consider both Crystal and myself at least glance worthy, and he only gave us the barest bit of polite interest. We could have been naked and fondling each other’s breasts and the man wouldn’t have noticed or cared. He was centered on you completely. Plus, if Mac was really thinking of Ava while you two were together, I’m pretty sure you were thinking of Dominic as well.”

Ignoring her comment about Mac, Gwen said, “He did take me to dinner with his sister, but we had made plans to go out already when she contacted him. I think he hated to cancel on me.”

“Oh, bullshit.” Mia snorted. “A man just killing time would not have cared about canceling plans with you, and he damn sure wouldn’t want you meeting any family members. Men guard that like some national security secret. He is showing you in every way possible that he’s more than interested in you so don’t go running scared. Nothing has to change between you if you aren’t pregnant.”

Gwen took a few sips of her rapidly cooling coffee while she pondered Mia’s reassurances. Finally, she admitted, “I’m afraid to believe that something this good could be happening to me. I haven’t exactly had much success with my past relationships. Usually, I end up doing everything I can short of proposing to make it work and it just always seems to go into a downward spiral that I’m helpless to stop.”

“We’ve all had relationships like that,” Mia grimaced. “You just have to realize something that takes that much energy to hold on to wasn’t meant to be in the first place. You know I went through some tough things when Seth and I started out, but from the beginning, he was always different. I felt it, and I’m betting you do here as well. I’m not suggesting you go and profess your love today . . . but stop acting as if someone is holding a stopwatch over your head and just enjoy getting to know Dominic. I have seen nothing from him to indicate that he’ll be packing his bags if two pink lines don’t appear on that white stick in a few weeks. Heck, you’ll probably both have a drink and a big laugh over the scare before having some amazing sex to celebrate.”

Gwen felt her heart lighten for the first time in days. Could Mia be right? Who said that a relationship had to begin in the typical first date dinner and a movie manner? She had to believe that fate had led her to this point in her life, and it was up to her to embrace the opportunity. She needed to put all the fears from her mind and just focus on how much she loved being with him. They had jumped the gun a bit on that part with the whole sex even before the first date, but she couldn’t pretend to regret that. She might love his company out of bed, but dear Lord, the man could do things with his body that she had only dreamed about.

She had no idea what the future held, but he was hers right now and maybe that was all that mattered. Looking ahead and trying to avoid a relationship disaster had never helped her before, so trying to live for the day might be worth a shot.

Chapter Seven

Dominic walked through the door of East Coast Security on Monday after a lazy weekend spent largely with Gwen. He had left early that morning to get a start on looking through the security feeds from the weekend. He planned to take a break in an hour and pick up a coffee for her. He looked forward to that stolen moment in her office each morning. If he was being truthful, he had more than a couple of fantasies involving bending her over the desk and burying himself deep inside of her while he palmed that amazing ass.

His head was still in the clouds—or on Gwen’s ass—when the sight of Mac sitting in a chair in front of the row of monitors brought him up short. “Please tell me that Ava hasn’t already kicked you out,” he asked warily.

Mac looked up, giving him a lazy grin. The bastard looked entirely too content for this early in the morning. Mac turned his chair to face him, crossing his ankles, and reclining backward. “Nah, I’m still in her good graces. I decided to go ahead and come in when she said something along the lines of ‘have mercy.’”

Dominic chuckled¸ knowing full well what the woman must have meant with that comment. After waiting for years for the woman he loved to finally return his feelings, Mac probably hadn’t let her out of bed much in the last week. He was damn glad it had finally worked out for his friend. Now, though, he needed to tell Mac about the new development in his relationship with Gwen. The other man had given him his blessing on pursuing her, but he might not have expected it to happen so soon. Heck, he hadn’t expected it himself, but he sure wasn’t complaining. “We could have swung another week here without you, man. I hate that you had to come back from your honeymoon so soon.”