Chapter 115

Dominic POV

Dominic had the pamphlets in his hands again and he sat behind his desk inside his study, the glossy paper crinkling slightly under his grip as his thumb glided over the top of them.

He wasn’t sure which unsettled him more: what was printed on them, or the bright, almost trembling anticipation he’d seen in Aurora’s eyes when she’d presented them to him and waited for his answer.

Universities. Classes. Degrees… the idea of Aurora out there, mingling with strangers he couldn’t vet and wandering across wide-open campuses with hundreds—maybe thousands—of people he didn’t know, in areas he couldn’t control, immediately set off alarms in his head.

It wasn’t that he didn’t think she could handle herself, he knew she had a resilience most people underestimated, but Dominic had learned the hard way that you could be smart, capable, and cautious and still end up wrapped up with a psychopathic Russian halfway across the world if the wrong people decided you were worth taking.

She’d already had that happen to her once and there was little he could’ve done to stop it from happening, made even worse considering it had happened right under his own nose.

His stomach twisted at the memory, his paranoia rising like a tide he couldn’t hold back. He’d gotten her back but it had taken a lot of risk. Every second of not knowing if she was alive had carved scars into his heart that he knew would never fade.

And now she wanted to put herself right back into the kind of situation where someone could slip a hand around her arm and disappear her to someplace he could never reach before he even knew she was gone in the first place.

At the time, he could feel the word no forming in his throat. He’d held back, questioned her more, despite the ironclad refusal that would shut the conversation down before it could get momentum crawling up his throat.

But then Aurora started talking again, telling him she wanted more out of life than what she currently had.

Her voice had grown softer, careful, almost as if she already knew he might crush her idea before she finished the sentence. She’d told him before she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life as just a wife sitting in a penthouse, existing in the shadow of his world while he carried on his empire.

She wanted more than that. She wanted to learn, to grow. She wanted freedom.

And that was what cracked him open all over again.

Because for all the ways Dominic had always justified keeping her close, keeping her guarded and within reach, he knew damn well that she’d already spent a lifetime locked inside her family’s cage.

All this time he had been telling himself it was for her protection, but looking at it now he couldn’t ignore the truth.

She deserved more than bullet-proof glass walls and armed guards at every turn.

Aurora might have her flaws—and he sure as hell had his own—but she’d proven time and again that she wasn’t some fragile ornament like he first thought she was. She’d been through hell with him and had come out the other side, scarred but still left standing.

It made him want to do better for her.

Pushing away from his desk, he kept the pamphlets clutched in his hand as he exited his study. Aurora was in the kitchen, putting something together with her back turned toward the archway. When he got close enough to see over her shoulder, he spotted the knife in her hand and the pieces of fruit she was in the middle of cutting.

Sensing him, she looks up and over her shoulder, flashing him a small smile. “Hi.”

Setting the pamphlets down on the counter behind him, he moved closer and wrapped his arms around her from behind. She sags into him almost instantly, making his heart patter softly with affection.

He loved how settled they’d both become. Dominic normally would’ve hated being accused of domestication but this was another level of heaven he never thought could be experienced.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said. About going to school—”

“The twins could take me,” she said quickly, almost like she’d been saving the idea for this exact moment. “To and from classes. Both of them. And if they’re not available… Romero could escort me.”

Dominic raised a brow. “Oh?”

She gave a small, sheepish shrug. “I’m sure the twins wouldn’t mind. And Romero… I know he doesn’t like me much, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t let anyone get the drop on him.”

It wasn’t a bad point.

Dominic leaned back, considering it.

The twins weren’t needed for any pressing Guerrero business right now, things were quiet enough that he was keeping them idle but still close.

Having them run security for Aurora’s classes wasn’t the worst idea in the world. It would keep her safe, keep her from being alone and still give her the freedom she wanted.

Plus, if he was being honest with himself, it would keep him from losing his mind worrying about her while she was out of his line of sight.

Her solution was a compromise he could live with.

Finally, he nodded, the decision clicking into place. “Alright. But I have a condition.”

Her eyes lit with cautious hope. “Okay…”

“I’m coming with you to tour campuses,” he said firmly. “Before you choose one.”

Aurora blinked, clearly surprised but not displeased. “You… want to help me pick?”

“Not help,” he corrected, his lips twitching faintly. “Approve.”

She laughed softly, shaking her head, but there was a smile tugging at her mouth that hadn’t been there before. “Alright, approve. Deal.”

Dominic didn’t say it out loud but the truth was simple: if she was going to step back into the world, he was damn well going to make sure it was on ground he’d already walked, in hallways he’d already scanned for exits, and under the watch of people he trusted with his life.

She might be ready to push the boundaries of her cage but he was going to make sure that cage could still slam shut if the world tried to take her from him again.