“Please,” I beg, needing him inside me, needing him to tell me with his body that we’re going to be okay. That he believes I am strong enough to be what he needs by his side.
He’s my king. I’m his queen.
Whatever that means, whatever it takes, I’ll learn, not because I want to please him but because I want to. For me. For us.
His gaze meets mine, like he wants to watch my face as he enters me, his eyes burning with unspoken soulful release, and he slams balls-deep into me in one stroke, driving my breath out of me in one sharp, glorious explosion.
“Yes!” I cry, fighting to keep my eyes open, wanting to see him too as my walls quiver around him, teetering on edge again from the way he stretches me. It’s an overload, from tonight’s dance, to the terror of the parking lot, to the conversations here in Dom’s house. And now this. I’m in need of release, again and again, and Dom knows it.
He pounds into me, giving me no mercy. But I neither want nor need it. I simply need him, however he comes to me.
He leans forward, bending me in half easily, thanks to my flexibility, and grabs my hands, holding them to the bed with our fingers interlaced. His hips piston against my ass as he fills me and retreats, pulling all the way out and leaving me desperately empty and wanting his next stroke. He thrusts in deeply, taking me over and over until everything from before, everything outside this moment is washed away in our passion. And it is just us. Now.
We are reborn, exposed and vulnerable, with no secrets from one another, just the way it should be. “I love you, Dominick Angeline.”
I say his full name intentionally, communicating as best I can that I accept him, all of him, just as he is. Not the monster, not the man, but both and everything in between.
He hears me and roars, the orgasm crashing through him at my words, and he rides me hard as he fills me with his hot cum, sending me off on another wave of bliss too. It’s huge, powerful and monstrous, and that’s just what I want. It’s what I need.
As the tremors slow for both of us, he lets go of my hands and lowers my legs to the bed before lying on top of me, his legs splayed enough to not crush me, but instead, he’s a warm, large, powerful security blanket. One with soulful eyes that search my face and hands that brush a lock of hair away to make sure there’s nothing between us.
“Allie, are you sure? I can’t let you go, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept me.”
I notice he hasn’t said it back, but I know why. He’s trying to raise his shields, to prevent himself from being hurt, but I know he loves me. Looking up into the scruffy face, the steel eyes, the face of my king, I know what he needs. He needs my strength, and in that sharing of our strength, we’re more than the sum of our individual abilities.
So I give it to him, unconditionally. “I love you, Dominick. Yeah, there are some things we’ll have to talk about and some fights we’re probably going to have—fair warning, I fight dirty—but I’ll let you in on a little secret . . .”
He lifts his eyebrows, waiting, and I can’t help but grin. “My secret plan to always get my way is to annoy the fuck out of you until you give in.” I smile like it’s a genius idea. It actually really is. He just doesn’t realize how annoying I can be when I put my mind to it.
He smirks. “Ah, but if you misbehave, you already know there will be consequences.”
He says it like he’s already imagining some dirty punishments he could mete out, and though I have a quick mental flash of blood blooming on Tony’s forehead as the punishment he received, I willfully choose to let that go, knowing that though Dom might be a dangerous man, he would move heaven and earth for me and would never hurt me.
I tap his nose. “Silly man. If I like it, is it really a punishment? It’s a win-win for me either way. I get my way, or I get a good punishment that’ll leave us both sweaty and satisfied. And I’m betting that I could get you to agree to just about anything if I pouted enough or had you gag-deep in my throat. Or maybe . . . well, there are things I could tease you with that nobody’s had before.”
He swallows, then laughs fully at my sexy tease, and it’s like beautiful music to my soul. I want to record it and dance around to the sound of his chest-rumbling baritone.
I smile, just taking it in.
He smiles too, but when it’s over, he sighs, sounding a little sad. “I don’t remember the last time I laughed that hard. You bring out good things in me, woman. Though they may be few and far between and buried beneath layers of mud and muck in my soul.”
I smile big enough for the both of us. “I’ll find them, but you only get to share them with me. I’m a greedy, possessive girl like that.”
His face is serious. “And I’m an obsessive, overprotective asshole. But I love you, Allison Bancroft.”
And finally, the dark question in my core dissolves.
Chapter 27
Dominick
She sleeps peacefully, and I dread waking her, but know it’s inevitable. We made our peace last night, but there are still landmines to traverse that could blow the whole accord to smithereens.
But I need to know. I need to make sure she understands what I’m giving her, what I’m offering, and that I want to take those steps to have her fully at my side without a barrier between us.
So I’m ripping my mask the rest of the way off, exposing it all to see if she truly wants no secrets between us. To see if she truly wants me.
Placing my hand on her shoulder, I shake her gently, my voice soft but firm. “Allison.”
She stirs but moans softly before wiggling in place and drifting back into sleep. I set the hot cup of coffee I’ve prepared for her on the nightstand and run a hand through her hair, rubbing my fingertip along the curve of her earlobe where I know she’s slightly ticklish.
“Wake up, Allie.”
She does so in stages, almost putting on a show with it as her long legs stretch under the blankets and she twists her body this way and that before her arms stretch overhead, almost in a caricature of wakefulness. Finally, her eyes open and a smile breaks across her face.
“Rule one. If you’re waking me up, there’d better be coffee or sex involved.”
I can’t stop the curl of my lips, and I have to tease back. “Do you have a preference?”
She looks me up and down, eyes tracing the tattoos on my broad chest and down to where my hips disappear into my sweatpants. Her gaze leaves a trail of heat in its wake, and I suddenly feel a small dose of what she must experience when she performs, that sexy sway of power I hold knowing she wants me.
I play with her, picking up the coffee mug and taking a sip of the bitter roast, moaning softly as the hot liquid rolls down my throat. As soon as the cup’s clear of my mouth, she lurches for me, sheets falling to her waist and giving me quite the morning view.
“Gimme! That’s my coffee.”
I’m tempted to pull it back until her body is pressed against me and I get a moment of bliss from feeling her breasts pressed against my skin, but I relent, handing it to her carefully. She takes it with a smile, her eyes closing, and a moan works its way free as she takes a sip.
“Not sure how I feel about being second-string to your daily dose of caffeine.”
She shrugs and winks. “Well, at least now you know how to bribe me.” She rises to her knees, wiggling her hips again. “Coffee, dick, or both.”
She takes another sip but raises a pointed brow as she notices that her little dance has certainly woken up another part of my body, smirking as she sees my cock thickening unrestrained, tenting against my pants.
“While I would love nothing more than to bury any part of me I could inside anything you’d let me have access to, I think we might have some pressing matters to attend to.”
She wrinkles her nose, setting the cup aside. “Ew, Dominick. I mean, it’s bad enough you’re hitting me up with the ‘we need to talk’ speech right after we wake up, but do you have to make it sound like a business meeting? I tell you what, why don’
t you go get the chessboard? I think you promised me a game of strip chess with some dirty side-bets. We can talk while we play.”
I think she’s fucking brilliant, coming up with a distraction to get us through what is bound to be an awkward conversation, though the memory of the fight after we’d initially made that plan stings.
“Don’t move,” I order her, and go get my board from my office, carefully carrying it back. I set it on the bed and climb in across from her. She sits on top of the blankets now, wearing only my T-shirt.
“Seems like the strip part of these bets will be over rather quickly,” I say as I look her over, noting silently that I only have a pair of sweatpants on myself. “Hope you have some valuable bets to make.”
Her look is pure seduction, and she rolls her shoulders back, showing exactly what she can distract me with if she wants to.
“You know I do.”
We set up the pieces and I let her go first. We play a couple of moves each, both of us moving our pawns but making no real progress. I’m not really trying to push her, and besides, neither of us is truly focused on the game. It’s just busy work for our hands.
Allie breaks first. “So last night was fucking awful. How often is it . . . that?”
Right to the point, no beating around the bush from her, which I appreciate.
“I feel like the answer to that question might be bigger than you think,” I reply as I counter her move, placing a pawn in a position where either she takes it and I take her bishop with my rook, or she retreats. “You’re asking for complete honesty, which I will give you. This house, this room, can be a place for that. If you want it.”
She nods, as I knew she would, and pulls her bishop back. Even if she doubts her ability to accept my world, she wants all the information to make that call.
“Go ahead.”
“I run a tight ship in East Robinsville,” I reply, taking my time as I ponder my next move, “and everything dark passes through only on my approval after the transporter pays a percentage to the family. I do my best to keep the city as safe as possible. That means controlling the influx of drugs, weapons, and people.”
Allie looks at me sharply. “You said you don’t traffic people.”
“I don’t, nor do I allow it,” I clarify for her. “But by giving my disapproval, I must then enforce that ruling. Like last night. My life is not like some made-for-TV movie, full of drama and shootouts. Most days are boring, checking in with businesses, meeting with Captains and Lieutenants, and monitoring all the moving parts that make East Robinsville what it is. Having said that, there is danger, real threats to me and to you. Those who are not in power always imagine it is some glorious feeling of control, like an ultimate ego boost, and they’ll do anything to experience it, not realizing that it is more like . . .”
I pause, searching my mind for the right words, and finally land on a funny phrasing I heard recently.
“It’s like trying to herd kittens, but they’re tiger kittens, not housecats. They will scratch and bite the hand that feeds them merely to be difficult because they do not know any better.”
She laughs at my explanation and makes her next move. “That sounds oddly accurate. But if it’s so hard, such a heavy responsibility, why do it? Why not let someone else do it or let everyone do their own thing?”
I move a pawn forward, sacrificing it but not mentioning that I should remove my pants, letting the bets go for now in favor of the raw nakedness of our souls.
“An anarchist, are you?” I ask with a smirk. She shakes her head and I continue. “I will not let my city fall into the hands of someone who would ruin it with their narcissistic need for power. It is mine by birthright, but it remains mine because I am willing to do whatever is necessary for it, not for me.”
She runs a red fingertip along her King piece, my words turning in her head. “I think I can understand that. You couch it in pretty words like you always do, but every kingdom has war, insurgents, and instabilities. I need to know, though, Dominick. If I’m going to do this with you, I will not be set aside like some pretty woman without a brain in her head, kept in the dark as you do shady or dangerous things. Look at this board. A player who hides their Queen away is going to lose every game.”
“True, but real life isn’t chess.”
Allie smirks, trying a different route. “You’ll have to tell me everything, all of it, even the parts you know I won’t like. One, because I won’t stand for it any other way, and two, because I think you need that. Somewhere you can filter all the ugliness, a soft place to land, someone who doesn’t give a shit about the city but cares for you. Let me be that for you?”
I look at her in surprise, sitting up to my knees to lean over the board and kiss her. She leans into me, our kiss warm, smoldering, but not naughty . . . yet.
I whisper against her lips, letting her taste the truth. “You already are.”
She smacks her lips against mine and pulls back slightly. I watch as the smile grows from a small hint to a wide, full exuberance. She’s happy, and I marvel that I can be the cause of that for her, something I rarely give to anyone, but she seems to take it from me easily.
I can see she’s aroused too, but when my eyes flicker down to her stiffening nipples, she holds up a hand. “Whoa, cowboy. We’re not done with Serious Talk. But remind me to return to that.”
She winks at me, but a moment later, the roller coaster of emotion drops in freefall and her face is washed in a sense of sadness as doubt takes her.
“I’m scared, Dominick. Seeing what happened last night, I don’t know if I can really be the right woman for all that out there.” She waves a hand at the window, indicating the city outside. “But I’m damn sure I can be the one for you, if you’ll let me.”
I can see her demons chasing her, whispering in her ear that she’s weak, not good enough, can’t handle this, but I am fierce enough to fight her demons. More importantly, though, she can fight them herself and has done so many times over, beating them into a box in her mind. I just need to be the backup sometimes, give her the right words to remind her. She’s the true Rocky Balboa. I’m just Mick, though thankfully, younger and better-looking.
“Allison, I know you are strong enough. Last night was the deep end, and you got tossed in without warning to a near worst-case scenario with it being your family, but I can be your water wings until you’re comfortable swimming. Because yes, I’d appreciate your opinion, your insight, and your tendency to make things a little chaotic. We balance each other, I think.” I take her hands in mine, vowing, “You are the only one I would want to be by my side, here or anywhere. You’re mine, Allison. Before you even knew it, you were mine. And before you’d even asked for it, you had my heart. And it is the same today as it will be tomorrow.”
Allie takes a deep breath, and I hope she’s letting the promise of my words fill her, leaving no room for doubts. Finally, she lets the air out slowly through her nose and looks me squarely in the eyes.
“So that means trackers, guards, and all that again? Cameras?”
Part of me feels like things have come full-circle, and we’re right back where we were weeks ago. Even as readily as she seems to have accepted the ugly parts of my role as The Boss and the cold machinations I’m known for, I’m hesitant to subject her to the constant watchfulness again.
But it simply can’t be any other way.
“Yes, though we can ensure full transparency. You’ll know everything. I need that from you or I’ll go mad with worry, Allie. But,” I say, holding up a hand before she can object, “I offer something in return.”
“What’s that?” she asks, tapping her fingers together.
“Reciprocation. If you ask, I will tell you. If it is something I do not think you’d wish to hear, I will warn you. But if you insist, I will tell you. You will be the only person in the world with such access to my whereabouts, but more importantly, to my body, my heart, and my mind.”
She moves a pawn on the board, s
talling, and my heart ceases beating as I wait for her verdict. Finally, she looks at me, steady and sure. “I can do that.”
It feels like a negotiation, but she’s giving me everything, and I’m more than happy to take all of her, hoard it for myself if I can, and then yearn for more. I’m greedy, I know that.
She bites her lip and then I see it.
She’s set me up. Somehow, someway, she had already reached that determination in her mind. She might have been willing to fight me for my giving in on my transparency, but she had made up her mind sometime during the night, maybe in her sleep, that she was mine.
I’m not mad. If anything, it just proves to me just how special Allie is. She’s going to keep me on my toes, keep my mind sharp and my heart full.
But there is something more.
“Dom?”
I give her my full attention, the chessboard all but forgotten as we move to the endgame of the real contest we’ve been having over this bed.
“When Robbie said you were sending stuff to his Old Lady, you called his family interesting. What did you mean?”
The tension in her shoulders seems heavy compared to the question, and I analyze it, looking for hidden subtext or something she would deem important because she doesn’t seem the least bit jealous. She’s . . . curious.
“As part of Zallow entering my territory without clearing it with me, I went to his house,” I explain carefully. “I met Myra, his woman, and their daughter, Violet. They’re a good match. He is a rough man and has seen and done awful things, and though Myra is small, she is strong enough to be there for him. In return, he worships the ground she walks on. After he and I smoothed over our differences, I sent them a few baby goods as congratulations, to make their life easier. I take it that he didn’t appreciate the gift as much as I’d hoped.”
Dirty Secrets Page 28