The beeping is what wakes me up.

At first, it filters into the dream I’m having. I’m dreaming that Dominic and I are at an amusement park, only it’s a vast, sprawling thing with hundreds of booths and attractions, with paths winding between them in such a labyrinth that it’s impossible to find our way. He’s totally unconcerned, laughing in the sunlight, his sleeves pushed up to his elbows, top buttons undone, his dark hair lifting gently in the breeze. “We can agree to forget this, Vivienne,” he says, his voice warmer than the sun.

“I don’t want to forget it,” I tell him. “I’m trying to remember where we saw the ice cream.”

“You’re sweet like ice cream,” he says, putting his arm around my waist.

“We saw that before.” I point to a booth I’m sure we’ve seen before, only it keeps changing while I try to fix my gaze on it.

“I’ll buy you all the ice cream you could ever want.”

“Cotton candy,” I say, and I can taste it on my tongue, the sweetness, the sugar, and Dominic laughs again.

The beeping starts again, a steady tone. “What is that?”

“What is what, sweet thing?” His voice sounds strangely like an echo, and I put my hands to my ears. It feels colder, but the sun is still out, still drenching the entire amusement park. I shiver.

“Vivienne?”

“What is that?” I ask it again, but my mouth doesn’t seem to work as well this time. The amusement park starts to lose all its color, the vivid brightness leaching out of it, the beeping growing louder and more annoying, and for an instant everything goes dark.

Then my head breaks the surface and I open my eyes to see Dominic’s blue eyes wide in front of mine, looking at me with such concern and love and hope that my heart shatters all over again.

“Vivienne,” he says.

I can’t help but smile at him. My lips are dry, and my eyes feel gummy. When I raise a hand to rub at them, I discover for the first time the hep lock in the back of my hand. “Hi.”

“Hi, sweet thing.” Dominic reaches for my other hand, takes it in his, and raises it to his lips. “Hi.”

I blink, once, twice, and there’s a nurse leaning over him, too. “How are you feeling, Ms. Peterson?”

“I—” Wasn’t I going by Davis? I narrow my eyes, trying to make sense of all this. “My side hurts.”

“That’s a side effect of getting shot,” she says, her voice smooth and low. Her hands are working at the gown I’m wearing, and my side throbs again. Shot? The memories filter up from somewhere deep in my mind. Dominic’s office. Mark Sadler. The flash drive. I start to bolt upright, and the nurse puts a hand on my shoulder and presses me gently back down into the pillows. “Calm down, honey. Did the pain get worse?”

She’s peering into the side of my gown, but the dressing there must meet her satisfaction, because she deftly ties the strings closed again. “The flash drive.” My voice is a little rough.

Dominic squeezes my hand. “They took it off my desk. They have everything they need.”

“There was a second one, but it was—”

“They got that, too. Your boss was harassing me about where your purse was the second you got out of surgery.”

“Did you tell him?”

He rolls his eyes. “I told him it was probably in your desk, and then I told him where the desk was. He started to suggest that I show them where the desk was, but—” Dominic laughs. “I’ve been here with you every moment. What an absurd thing to ask.”

I crack a smile. “That’s Milton.” He’d want all that stuff collected as soon as it was appropriate—sooner, if he could get away with it—and it looks like they did. “Did they—did he say—”

“He said you did a fantastic job.” The nurse steps away and turns down the volume of the machine that’s beeping.

“I’m going to go get you some food, Ms. Peterson,” she says. “Some food and water. Call if you need anything in the meantime.” Her eyes travel over Dominic, and the corner of her mouth quirks in a smile. “I doubt you will, though.”

I give her a nod, and she disappears out the doorway.

Dominic raises my hand to his lips again, eyes locked on mine, and his next breath comes along with a ragged hitch. “You scared the shit out of me, Vivienne Davis—Peterson.” He grins at his own correction. “I was ready to be the hero.”

“You were a hero.”

“I was not. I let you get shot.”

“No.” The memory is getting clearer by the second. “You tried to save me.” I smile at him, my heart aching with joy that he’s still here, still with me. “I was busy doing my job, that was all.”

“Vivienne.” My name is like a prayer on his lips.

“Dominic.”

“I love you.”

My eyes fill up with tears in an instant. “I love you.”

“I’m never going to leave your side again.”

I laugh. “I hope you leave my side sometimes. Otherwise, it could be a little oppressive.”

“Fine, fine…you can go to work. But first, we’re going on a vacation.”

“A vacation?”

“As soon as you’re out of the hospital, we’re heading out. And we’re not coming back for a month. Maybe longer.”

I can’t believe what he’s saying. His last vacation went down in flames in less than a week—there’s no way he’d take a month off from Wilder Enterprises.

“You can’t do that.”

“I can do whatever I want. And what I want is to take you somewhere warm and gorgeous and spend every moment with you, showing you that you mean so much more to me than a company ever could.”

I pick my jaw up off the floor. “Dominic, I don’t—I don’t know if I can take a vacation for that long.”

He gives me a look. “I already cleared it with your boss.”

“Wow.” I try to look stern. “That’s pretty presumptive.”

He leans in close, his eyes shining. “No, it’s not.”

I breathe him in, the scent of him filling me with warmth and hope and love. “No, it’s not.”

Then his lips are on mine, and the rest of the world fades away. Nothing else matters. Nothing else ever will. Not like this.