An End and a Beginning
Summary: They didn't work out the first time around, but they have something tangible between them that forces them to be in each other's lives forever. They are getting a second chance, but with Dominic and Letty, nothing comes easy.
Rating: M - eventually
Chapter 19
"The biggest coward is a man who awakens a woman's love with no intention of loving her." – Bob Marley
0
"We shouldn't have done this", Letty shook her head, hands in the back pockets of her pants as she leaned against the doorjamb to the adjacent bathroom. Dominic was watching her from where he was sitting on the edge of the bed. The hotel room was larger than she had noticed last night in their mad scramble to get their clothes off and into bed.
"Don't say that. We should have done this a long time ago. If I had any fucking idea that letting you walk out that door all those years back meant losing you, I swear I wouldn't have done it", he said seriously. "At the time, I just wanted you to be alright."
"Dom- c'mon. We've got a good thing going. I don't even know if we can have this again", she motioned between them.
He snorted derisively. "A good thing?" he repeated incredulously. "We made the best of a shitty situation, but I wouldn't exactly say it's a good thing, Let."
She flinched. "I didn't mean it like that. Just… we've got a lot of shit between us. If it didn't work out-"
"What if it did?"
"I don't think I can handle losing you again."
"Letty, what if it worked?"
"We're a disaster, you know that right?" she raised an eyebrow, softening her rigid stance just slightly.
"We have a lot we need to talk about", he corrected calmly.
"I don't understand how you can even still be in love with me after everything that happened", she admitted quietly.
"You know I don't believe in that destiny crap", Dom said. "But you're it for me. I never stopped loving you, Let."
"Kind of a glutton for punishment, huh, Dom?" she murmured regretfully.
"Nope", he grinned. "I'm just smarter than you."
"Flattery to insults", she raised an eyebrow. "Interesting tactic…"
"You're gonna have to help me out here", Dom shrugged. "I don't know what you want. And if you don't know either- I can give you some time to figure it out, Let. But you need to get there. We've been in limbo for way too long as it is."
Her mouth twisted thoughtfully. "You know we can't just jump into this. We have a lot of shit to sift through, and Aiden to consider. Neither of us can act like the past didn't happen."
"I need you to decide if you think it's worth it for us, knowing going in, that fixing all the shit between us that's broken- it's going to hurt."
"Do you? Think it's worth it?" she asked quietly.
"Yes", he said seriously, nodding once. He stared at her for a moment. "Come here."
Her lips twitched. "I got dressed for a reason", she pointed out.
"Get over here", he laughed. "I've got pants on."
"Like that's ever stopped you before", she muttered skeptically.
"Okay, I'll give you that", he said, slightly amused. "Would you believe I just wanted to talk for a minute?"
She snorted. "No. If I remember correctly, that's how you got me in bed with you the first time."
He smiled like he had made his point. "We didn't have sex the first time you were in my bed – even if you were trying to jump me the whole time", Dominic teased.
"Oh, nuh-uh. You're so full of it!" she retorted incredulously even as she approached the bed slowly. "Your memory's going with your old age. I think you were the one trying to feel me up. In fact wasn't I the one who had a nice hickey to hide the next morning?"
He smirked and grabbed her hips, pulling her onto the bed with him, turning on his side and putting her back to his chest. "That's just semantics, baby", he explained lazily. "You were the one rubbing all over me counting my muscles."
"I was drunk!" she grumbled defensively.
"I'm just sayin' that not pouncing on you took phenomenal restraint on my part – which you should appreciate."
Letty twisted around slightly to look at him. "I did. I do. You treated me right, Dom. You always have", she admitted.
He leaned down to kiss her temple in an appreciative gesture, and let the silence rest between them for a few minutes before he spoke again. "Look, I know I didn't really make things easy on you when you came back from Miami. I wanted to help you, and you wouldn't let me. It was so frustrating, because before that, you and I had always been on the same wavelength."
She turned over to face him completely. "I had so much shit going on inside my head, Dom. It took weeks to stop feeling disconnected from everything around me even after I came back. And then I felt guilty. When we got back to L.A., I was so intent on proving I could do it all on my own. Every time you tried to help, it just made me angry. In my head… I felt like you thought I was a bad mom."
He sighed against her neck, raking a hand through her hair. "You know that's not true, right?" he murmured seriously. "I didn't want you to feel like you were doing it by yourself. It wasn't because I didn't think you could."
"I figured that out once I was in my right mind again", she said ruefully.
"What, when Aiden finally figured out what the word 'no' meant?" Dom chuckled.
"Yeah, what was he, like four?" she chuckled. "I thought for sure we were gonna have all of our stubbornness combined into one kid. I was ready to tear my hair out."
"Lucky things evened out and he got some of Mia's personality too, huh?"
"No shit." Letty groaned and reached for her phone on the night table to check the time. She groaned again. "I have to go", she said reluctantly.
"Go where?"
She chuckled. "I have to go take our son to school."
Dom made a grumbling noise of complaint and grabbed for her when she tried to sit up. His hand on her hip pulled her backwards against him, and he grabbed her phone, dodging her attempts to grab it back. He fired off a text and then dropped it lightly on her stomach with a grin. "Mia will take Aiden to school."
"What did you do?" she accused grabbing her cell and thumbing into her text messages. And found the last one that had been sent to Mia. Her eyes widened in horror. "'About to have some hot morning sex. Please take Aiden to school'", Letty read incredulously. "Dom!" she complained. "You asshole! Mia's gonna freak!"
He laughed at the irritated look on her face.
Her phone buzzed and she looked at the text Mia had sent back. You tramp! With who?
Letty rubbed her forehead. "You Torettos", she sighed and slung a leg over his hip. "I give up. Better be some damn good sex", she teased. "I mean, I already got dressed and shit."
He snorted, and yanked open her pants, "Details, sweetheart. And sex between us has always been better than good", he growled.
"Wait- what about work?"
"I think we deserve a day off, don't you? We'll go in for the afternoon."
Once he finished undressing her, he let her get rid of his pants before deciding on a different route this time.
"Damn", she teased, rolling her neck carefully. "If I had known we were going to have an all-night sex-a-thon, I would have taken time to stretch or something."
Dom snorted with amusement and rolled her over, "Smartass."
He had her back against his chest and shoved her hair out of the way, mouth travelling her neck and across her shoulders. Her thighs tightened at the emotions that were surfacing within her. She had was using his left arm for a pillow, but he pulled her closer, both hands finding her breasts, fingers playing gently at her nipples.
"Dom." She said his name as a warning. Her voice was low and thick, coming from a place deep inside that was wound so tight for him that it almost hurt.
He slipped a leg between hers; turning them until she was face down on the pillow, mouth leaving a trail of kisses across her shoulders and down her spine.
"Your ass", he growled, squeezing her backside for emphasis, "Could stop a Mack truck."
"Sweet talker", Letty laughed, looking over her shoulder at him.
Dom pulled her up enough so that he could slide into her easily, and she tucked her elbows under her chest to brace herself. He forced a slow pace which nearly killed her. His hands were gentle, stroking over her skin, tangling in her hair. His touch steadied something inside her, erasing the doubt that had been plaguing her mind. She realized that he had been loving her longer than she had believed throughout the past years – despite the anger.
Tears burned her eyes and she tried to bury her face in the pillow.
He stopped, pulling back and forcing her to roll over underneath him so that he could see her face even as she tried to stop tears from falling down her face.
"Let?"
"I'm sorry", she managed hoarsely, rubbing at her face. "I gave up on us and took the easy way out. If I could go back and do it differently I would. You have no idea how much it kills me that I can't. I wanted to take it back- about a year later... But I knew you were still angry at me, and I couldn't bring myself to even try. I didn't think you'd ever forgive me. I hated myself for acting like such a coward."
"I really wish you would have just come talked to me", he sighed. "I honestly don't know what I would have done. I resented how you handled our relationship. But maybe we would have been able to fight it out. I probably would have at least listened. You shut me out hard, Letty. I used to be able to read you so easily. And then more than a few years went by where I had no idea what the hell you were thinking."
"I feel like you've been mad at me for over five years, Dom. When exactly was I supposed to decide to just ignore it and start sharing my life with you again?"
"You're right; I know. We've just wasted a lot of time because we're both stubborn."
0
They stayed in bed most of the morning, napping and fucking… mostly just enjoying being able to touch each other without reservation. They ordered room service for lunch, straightening the blankets on the king-sized bed, giving into picnic tendencies instead of using the small table across the room.
Letty's phone chimed. It was Mia again. She read the text and laughed.
Assuming you haven't gotten held for ransom by your ONS, let me inform you that I have classes this afternoon, and haven't been able to get Dom on the phone. Will you please remember to get your son from school! I told him you went into work early this morning, and he wasn't thrilled. & I want details later.
"Mia's pissy today", she chuckled.
Dom took her phone and read the text. "She's been trying to call me?" he handed it back to Letty and got up to find his phone near the television. "It's off", he muttered.
"Is the battery dead?" she wondered as she texted Mia back.
"Actually, I'd bet you were the one that turned it off during all of that ass grabbing you were doing last night", he teased.
She snorted, "Hah-hah. See what happens when you take too long to get your pants off?" Letty got up from the bed and went looking for the rest of her clothes for the second time that day. "Mia's right though. I need you to take me to get my car so I can go home and change before I have to drive to the school. Those teachers hate me enough as it is; I can't show up there in leather pants with sex hair. And you need to get to the garage before Tony gets pissed."
"It's twelve-thirty. Neither of us had a full day scheduled today", he said mildly.
"I know", she groaned. "But I wanted to go in this morning and have the evening free. This is all your fault for seducing me", she giggled.
"You can't even say that with a straight face", Dom grinned as they both finished getting dressed. "I barely had to try."
"Yeah, yeah. Although, to be fair, I think you've been seducing me for the past year", she accused mildly.
"You could shower here before we leave-"
"Oh, no", Letty held up her hands in protest. "You get in the shower with me and we'll never get out of here. And as much as I'd like that, we have to get back to our life."
"What's that going to be exactly?" he asked seriously. "Are we going to pretend this didn't happen?
"I don't want to", she said quietly, shaking her head. "But I don't really want to jump right back into this and get everyone else involved when we're not sure what we're doing. Are you going to be mad if I say that I want to keep this between us for a little while?"
He pulled her into a hug, and she absorbed the feelings of safety and warmth, and home.
"We have a lot to discuss", he murmured into her hair. "Including the future… I'm not exactly looking to have a family vote right now either. It's okay if we wait a while."
"Thank you. Oh, and fair warning, I'm totally going to make up something juicy to tell Mia about what happened last night. Because we both know she's going to ask", Letty grinned up at him.
Dom rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, don't go too overboard about the imaginary sex god you were with all night."
She pulled away with a laugh. "Come on. Check-out is at one. Let's get out of here."
0
They got into his car and rolled the windows down. Letty immediately began pawing through his center console for CDs. She spotted one that looked familiar, and opened it with a frown as they got on the highway to head back to where she had left her car at the bar the night before.
Guns N' Roses: Appetite for Destruction
She waved the case playfully, raising a suspicious eyebrow as she slid the disc into the CD slot. "Didn't I have this at one point?"
Dominic glanced over and smirked. "I wore yours out. That one's newer."
"Uch", she hissed, scrunching her face in annoyance. "I thought I lost it when I moved."
"I found it under my bed sometime after Aiden turned one."
"Didn't you think that maybe you could have given it back? I had to buy another copy from iTunes."
He smiled gently and tugged on her hair that was blowing from the wind. "I was mad at you, remember? And then I remembered that I actually liked that CD. So you weren't getting it back either way."
"Unbelievable", she shook her head, mildly amused, and relaxed further into the seat.
0
The bar parking lot was empty. It was too early in the day for it to be open. Dominic pulled into a space near her car. They eyed each other ruefully, and Letty laughed.
"Feels like the end of a date or something", she teased.
"I don't know that last night qualifies as a date", he said skeptically.
"Back to the real world?"
"More or less."
Letty pushed her car door open and got out, snagging her tiny clutch purse from the floor. She unlocked her car and turned around to find Dom behind her. He trapped her against the door and attacked her mouth before she could get a word out.
It took them a few minutes before they had to pull back to get real air.
"I'll see you at the garage later", he murmured.
"You're gonna have to keep this groping thing on the down low", Letty smirked as his hands fondled her backside. "For a little while, at least."
He frowned. "Did I agree to that?"
"You did", she nodded, amused by his tone.
"Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts", he said dryly, reaching around her to open her door.
She fisted her hand in his shirt, pulling him down for another kiss. "I gotta go. I'll probably have to kiss Mia's ass tonight, so I'm gonna stop at the store and find something to make for dinner."
"You cooking…" he shook his head as she slid into the driver's seat. "That's still gonna take some getting used to."
"I'll see you in a few hours."
00
A/N: Eek! Well, I'm quite satisfied with this chapter! Let me know what you think.