Opposition: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (NYC Doms), page 19
And me. I need to take care of me.
“How did you find me?” I ask, still not turning around. I don’t want to see the sapphire eyes, because if I do, I don’t trust that I can stay strong.
“Tracked you like a stalker,” he says, coming in front of me and holding up his phone. “Remember?”
“Oh,” I say with a sigh. “Right.”
“Liam, I… I can’t do this,” I tell him. My voice feels tight and strange, when I bring my eyes up to his. “I know we are at the end of this contract, and I’ve been asking myself for weeks what that will mean. Because I don’t want to see it end.” I close my eyes and take a deep breath, steeling myself for what I need to say. “I am moving out. I’m taking my things and Ben and Bailey’s. I’ve made a mess of things and I don’t want to do this anymore.”
The look in his eyes makes my heart ache, and for a moment, I let myself believe that I’m more than someone he contracted.
He won’t listen to excuses or reason, so I have to give him something that he will listen to. He takes a step toward me, and I shake my head, holding up my palm to him. “It’s time for us to end this. I broke the contract. You owe me nothing.” I shake my head, swallowing back tears that threaten to fall. “You need to let me go.” I lift my chin. “Like you said earlier, our contract is almost up.”
I don’t know how to handle the fact that he stands there in silence with his fists clenched, like he doesn’t know what to do or say. I have to go. I can’t stay here any longer, because every second in his presence makes me lose a bit of my resolve.
“You can’t break the contract,” he says. “You promised me.”
“What does that even mean?” I tell him, heat rising in my chest at what his damn lawyer said. I knew it. One look in those blue depths and my resolve begins to dwindle. I have to push him away. “You were the one who told your lawyer it didn’t matter because the contract was void. Then fine. Rip it up.”
I turn away from him. I can’t take this anymore.
It’s over. God, I have to get away from him because if he touches me…
When he reaches for my arm, I close my eyes.
“You can’t touch me,” I whisper. “I need to walk away and you’re making it impossible.”
“So that’s what it’s about,” he says, pulling me to him. The rain falls harder, blurring my vision, running down my face in rivulets with my tears. “You jumped to conclusions.”
I try to pull away from him. I can’t stand it one more minute.
“Cora, you listen to me,” he says, grabbing me about the shoulders and shaking me. “Listen. The contract is void because I broke it. Not you. Rule number six,” he says, dragging me to his chest, we’re both soaked through to the skin. A flash of lightning overhead lights up the sky and I see his eyes look down on me with a tenderness that gives me pause.
Wait. What?
“I love you,” he says through the rain, cupping my face in his palm and pulling me closer. “I love you. And I won’t let you get away from me. Not now. Not ever.”
Then his mouth is on mine as lightning splits the sky in two.
“Come home with me,” he says. “Get in the car and let’s go. Let’s drive away. We’ll buy a house in the country and take Ben and Bailey and leave this all behind. They can keep the Greenery and I can build somewhere else, because I don’t care. None of that matters. This is all that does.”
“We both broke rule number six,” I tell him. “I thought you knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That I love you,” I tell him. “God, we’re a pair of saps declaring love amid the flowers in a damn rain storm.”
Chuckling, he pulls me to his sodden chest again. “Don’t you ever run from me again,” he warns.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him, then give him a little fake pout. “I should maybe be… punished?”
His growl makes my body heat despite the freezing rain. “You sound a little too eager,” he says.
“No contract,” I muse. “Does that mean I have no rules? No consequences for disobedience?”
“Like hell,” he rasps out, pinching my ass.
And all is right with the world.
Epilogue
“I’ll miss the crowds,” Bailey says. We’re in the back of Liam’s car, and the four of us are moving the hell out of NYC. “And the stores.”
“I’ll miss the cheesecake,” Ben says with a wistful sigh. “And the pizza.”
“You guys, it’s not like we’re never coming back here,” I tell them. “Right, Liam?”
“Of course not,” he says, ruffling Ben’s hair and tugging a lock of Bailey’s. They both grin, and my heart melts a little. God, I love how he is with them. For the man who never wanted children or to be saddled with responsibilities, he’s taken to a ready-made-family as if it were meant to be.
And maybe it was.
“But I’ll tell ya, after you eat real pizza in Italy and real pastry in France, you may never want to come back to New York again.”
He’s bought a place an hour from the heart of the city, and he’s promised me we’ll return. After all, we have a private room at Verge, and I don’t want to miss my friends. I’m oh so happy to get out of the city, though.
“Oh my God, I want to go to Italy,” Bailey says. “And Paris!”
“Well, good,” I tell them. “Because someone’s splurged on a graduation present for me, and we all get to go.”
Ben’s eyes widen comically and Bailey squeals. “Oh my God, Liam, I love you! Well, you know, not the way she loves you,” she says, chattering on with the pink-cheeked blush that seems to run in the family. “I love you like a brother, and you know, that’s what you’ll be once you two… You know.”
He looks at me and I look at him, and I feel a lump rise in my throat. I do know.
“You two gettin’ hitched?” Ben asks curiously, his head tipped to the side.
“Ben!” Bailey says, smacking his arm.
“I dunno,” Liam says. “Depends on whether or not your sister will have me.” We cruise to a stop when we pull up outside of our new house.
I look from Liam to Ben to Bailey and all of a sudden they’re grinning, all of them, and Liam’s pulling a black velvet box out of his pocket.
“They were in on this, too,” he says. “I thought it would be all poetic justice if I proposed during the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new botanical garden, but you know…” His voice grows husky as he turns to me. “Get out of the damn car so I can get on one knee.”
“So romantic,” I tease, but I think I fly out of the car. He takes my hand and practically drags me out. The sun is shining and birds twitter in the air above us as if nature itself rejoices in this moment.
Liam drops to one knee and meets my eyes, suddenly sober.
“Cora, I love you,” he says. I want to capture this moment. I want to hold it in my heart and cherish it forever. My eyes fill with tears when he asks me. “Will you marry me? Until death do us part and all that—”
But I’m already tackling him to the ground and throwing my arms around him. “Hell, yes I’ll marry you,” I tell him. Bailey and Ben whoop and holler as he slips the ring on my finger, then Bailey takes Ben and drags him away when he pulls me to him for a kiss.
“A private ceremony,” I whisper, when I’m up against his chest. “With no damn media coverage.”
“Absolutely,” he says. “Let’s get married in Italy, after you graduate.”
“Oh, I love how you think,” I tell him. “But what about… I thought you didn’t want a family. Are you sure this is what you want for forever?” I ask, watching Ben and Bailey run ahead to check out the new house. It’s big and spacious and has a yard. They’ll each have their own room, and I’m on the first floor with Liam.
He shrugs. “They’re not exactly babies,” he says. “But hell, I like having them around.” He’s suddenly shy, an unusual look on him. “You know, I never had anything like this. And I like it.”
“I more than like it,” I tell him, holding his hand. “I love it, and I love you.”
“I love you, too, baby.” Leaning down, he kisses me. “You know, I’ve had this place already furnished.”
“Oh?” I ask him curiously. “How so?”
He grins. “Wait until you see the master bedroom.”
“Realllly,” I say, curious as all hell.
“Let’s just say I put a new spin on master.”
My heart trips in my chest. “Did you?”
He nods. “Manuel said he’d take Bailey and Ben to get some ice cream while we get the place… situated.”
“Oh, you did think of everything, didn’t you?”
Grinning, he pulls me to him for another kiss. “Wait until you see.”
“I trust you,” I tell him, my nose getting all tingly again. “I think it’s the first time in my life I’ve ever said that.”
He kisses me fully, and when he lets me go, the sapphire depths of his eyes burn into mine. “I know baby.” Then he grins. “But maybe wait until you see the master bedroom…”
THE END
Need more NYC Doms?
Nyc Doms
Although each book is a stand-alone novel and can be read in any order, the chronological order is as follows:
Deliverance
He’s bred to protect.
Tobias Creed likes things done his way, and he likes his women ready to submit. No strings attached. Until the night he meets the one woman who challenges him, practically begging to be taken over his knee.
As a single mom to a child with special needs, Diana McAdams does things her way. She’s in control and doesn't have time for love. Happily-ever-afters aren’t for her.
Then she meets the man who demands her submission...
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Safeguard
She's feisty, gorgeous, impossible.
Submissive.
And all mine.
I don't do half-assed relationships. When I set my sights on the most headstrong, tenacious submissive I've ever met, I'm all in. I'll show her the dark, sensual world she craves, dominate her, and leave her begging for more. But when her safety's endangered, she needs more than a dom: she needs a safeguard.
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Conviction
Braxton Cannon can’t get the girl on the dance floor out of his mind, the woman he literally swept off her feet and into Club Verge.
She’s no submissive, but he can’t help but admire her ferocity, even as he yearns to take her over his lap and teach her manners. He’s determined to keep her safe if he has to lock her up himself.
Officer Zoe Mackay can handle herself. But when she learns information that puts her life at risk, she’s forced to seek the assistance of a private investigator. Little does she know the man she hires is none other than Braxton Cannon, the high-handed dominant who gave her the hottest one-night stand of her life. With her assailants in hot pursuit, Zoe is forced to seek refuge in Club Verge, where she finds way more than she’s bargained for…
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Salvation
Seven years ago, she was sheltered. In need of guidance. I was a newly-ordained priest with a vow of celibacy. Our love affair was torrid, and wrong, and ended in heartbreak.
We broke it off and went our separate ways.
I left the priesthood. She left her home.
Seven years later, she’s stranded in my NYC Club while a blizzard rages outside, and she wants a taste of dominance.
I won’t let another man lay eyes on her, much less touch her.
She’s still my everything. My salvation.
And there’s no way I’m letting her go...
Read more…
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author Jane Henry pens stern but loving alpha heroes, feisty heroines, and emotion-driven happily-ever-afters. She writes what she loves to read: kink with a tender touch. Jane is a hopeless romantic who lives on the East Coast with a houseful of children and her very own Prince Charming.
What to read next? Here are some other titles by Jane you may enjoy. And don’t forget to sign-up for my newsletter for a free book!
Contemporary fiction
Dark romance
Island Captive: A Dark Romance
Undercover Doms standalones
Criminal by Jane Henry and Loki Renard
Hard Time by Jane Henry and Loki Renard
Wicked Doms
The Bratva’s Baby
NYC Doms standalones
Deliverance
Safeguard
Conviction
Masters of Manhattan
Knave
Hustler
The Billionaire Daddies
Beauty’s Daddy: A Beauty and the Beast Adult Fairy Tale
Mafia Daddy: A Cinderella Adult Fairy Tale
Dungeon Daddy: A Rapunzel Adult Fairy Tale
The Billionaire Daddies boxset
The Boston Doms
My Dom (Boston Doms Book 1)
His Submissive (Boston Doms Book 2)
Her Protector (Boston Doms Book 3)
His Babygirl (Boston Doms Book 4)
His Lady (Boston Doms Book 5)
Her Hero (Boston Doms Book 6)
My Redemption (Boston Doms Book 7)
And more! Check out my Amazon author page.
You can find Jane here!
The Club (Facebook reader group)
Website
Amazon author page
Goodreads
Author Facebook page
Twitter handle: @janehenryauthor
Henry, Jane, Opposition: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (NYC Doms)
