By a Thread: A Grumpy Boss Romantic Comedy

by Score, Lucy

  But he caught me.

  I was staring into the eyes of one furious Dominic Russo.

  I clutched at my heart to make sure it was still functioning. He yanked my earbuds free.

  “Who the fuck hit you, Ally?” He enunciated each word with a burning fury that was both terrifying and touching. None of that rage transferred to the fingertips that gently tilted my chin so he could get a better look.

  “No one,” I lied, trying to slip out of his hold. My neck was en fuego. This was so stupid. I should have just stayed home. “I had a little home renovation mishap. Not that it’s any of your concern.”

  “That’s a fucking handmark on your face, Ally. Don’t lie to me.” He sounded pained.

  My neck was a pulsing beacon of hives proclaiming my lies.

  “Dom, it’s none of your business,” I said, trying to wheel back to put some distance between us, but he held my chair by the arms, and my feet skittered uselessly on the carpet.

  “Don’t pull that shit with me, Ally,” he said darkly.

  “Don’t ask questions about things that don’t concern you.”

  “You’re my employee. You concern me. Are you dancing again?”

  I rolled my eyes. Which was a mistake because a) it hurt my face and b) it really pissed Dominic off.

  “Again. None of your business. And no I’m not dancing. It was an accident. He—” I choked on the word and immediately shut up.

  “He.” His voice simmered with rage on the pronoun.

  “Dominic, stop. It’s nothing to worry about. It’s my responsibility,” I said, my voice breaking.

  I realized with horror that my eyes were going hot and glassy. I thought I’d gotten a hold on the waterworks. But it was like someone had turned on a freaking geyser.

  “Ally.” He whispered my name. It was like a caress.

  I shook my head. “Don’t do this, Dom. Don’t be nice. Don’t ask me questions. I’m hanging on by a thread here.”

  He pulled me out of the chair and into his arms.

  It was a hug. A hard, breathless hug.

  And that’s what broke me. The unyielding contact of his body pressed against mine, his arms wrapped around me tight enough that the only thing I knew for certain was that I was safe.

  “I can’t take this anymore, Ally,” he breathed against my hair. “I can’t just watch from the sidelines and pretend it doesn’t fucking kill me that I can’t touch you.”

  I didn’t trust my voice. Didn’t have any words worth saying anyway. I just wanted to be held like this.

  The tears I’d been holding back for so long burst through the dam. Those defensive walls trembled once before crumbling to dust beneath the weight of relief. I was going to ruin his very nice shirt with my silent but dramatic waterworks.

  “Baby,” he whispered against the top of my head. “Talk to me. Please.”

  I shook my head.

  His arms tightened around me. “Why do you have to be so fucking stubborn?”

  Again, I shook my head. “Not won’t talk. Can’t talk,” I managed between shaky breaths.

  “You’re killing me, Ally. Right now, I just want to murder whoever put that mark on your face without letting go of you.”

  That only made me cry harder.

  In a moment that would have been incredibly romantic had I not been squirting liquid from both eyes and nostrils, Dominic picked me up, tucking my face under his chin, and carried me into his office. He kicked the door shut, threw the lock, and crossed to the couch.

  He settled with me in his lap. Which was a much different feeling from the last time I’d been in it. Though, despite my hiccupping sobs, I still managed to engage my Dominic Dick Radar to notice that he was indeed hard. Definitely a permanent condition.

  “You can’t murder him,” I told him mournfully.

  “Give me one good reason why not.”

  “He’s my father.” He stiffened against me.

  More tears poured forth. An entire six month’s worth of banked hurt, angst, and fear flowed down my cheeks and onto Dominic’s crisp, white shirt.

  He clutched me tighter to him. Murmured softly in my ear. Making promises we both knew he couldn’t keep. Through it all, he stroked my hair, my back, in long, comforting sweeps. The sweetness, the gentleness of his touch when I could still feel him vibrating with anger beneath me steadied me.

  “Tell me, baby,” he demanded.

  So I did. In fits and starts while silent tears slipped down my cheeks.

  “Once I sell the house, that money will go to the nursing home, and he’ll be safe for at least a couple of years. It’ll buy me time to figure out how to make it work. I don’t want to have to move him to another facility if I can help it. But it’s so expensive. I’m not going to have a choice if I can’t get the house on the market.”

  He said nothing, but I felt his arms band tighter around me.

  Shifting in his lap, I sat up.

  He cupped my face, then brushed my hair back from my eyes. His expression was so very serious. “Thank you for telling me,” he said finally.

  “My dad isn’t violent,” I said earnestly. Wanting him to understand. “It’s his disease. He’s not who he was. There are still glimpses of him here and there. But for the most part, my dad is gone.”

  “I’m so sorry, baby,” he whispered, wiping the fresh tears from my cheeks with his thumbs.

  “Stop being nice to me, Dom.”

  “Not this time.”

  We stared at each other for a long moment. The night skyline of Manhattan glowed outside the windows across the room as the predicted snow fell steadily. I took a few slow, deep breaths. Selfishly stealing Dominic’s heat and claiming it for myself.

  “I should go,” I said. “I have some work to catch up on, and I need to get home before the snow gets worse.”

  “No.”

  “No?” I laughed. “It’s adorable that you still believe you have a say in what I do.”

  “It’s adorable that you think I would let you walk out of here tonight,” he countered.

  I made a move to get out of his lap, but he tightened his grip.

  “Dominic.”

  “Kiss me, Ally. Let me make you feel better.”

  I hesitated, balancing on a very dangerous precipice. I’d already crossed lines tonight. I’d shared too much, been too vulnerable.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said softly. If he kissed me now, when my heart was already in a million little pieces, I was going to do something really stupid… like fall in love with the man.

  “Let me,” he said, his voice grave.

  Of all the ways we’d been intimate to this point, we had never kissed. I’d never had his mouth on mine.

  “I don’t know if I can walk away when I need to,” I confessed, the panic rising up in me.

  “We’re past walking away, Ally.”

  A statement of fact, as if my fate were already sealed by his words.

  “I’m not looking for anything,” I insisted, nerves getting the best of me.

  “I wasn’t looking for you. But I still found you.”

  “What are you saying?” I squeaked.

  “I’m saying I found you. And I’m not fighting it anymore. You’re mine.”

  He shifted me in his lap so I was straddling him. Just as I had at the club. Only this time, I was the vulnerable one.

  “You’re scaring the hell out of me, Dom,” I admitted, digging my fingers into his shoulders, into the heat under that damn vest and shirt.

  “I’m scaring me, too,” he said, nuzzling my jaw and down my neck. Moving his lips against my flesh. “I’m fucking terrified.”

  Goose bumps exploded on my skin. I was suddenly hot and cold and dizzy and rooted to the spot. His mouth moved ever so gently over the bruise on my face, erasing the hurt as it went.

  I was spread wide over his crotch, his cock nestled up against where I ached for him the most.

  “I don’t want anything serious
,” I whispered on a shiver when he brushed a kiss to the corner of my mouth. My lips burned with the need to feel his.

  His laugh was gentle, but I still heard the sound of prison doors slamming shut. “Oh, sweetheart, you no longer have a choice.”

  He kissed me then. Mouth firm and demanding, he devoured me until I lost the battle and opened for him. His tongue thrust home, invading me, taking from me any breath, any words, any sense that wasn’t already completely wrapped up in and around him.

  I was flying and yet anchored to this spot by his body, his arms. His hands settled on my hips, and he dragged me over his erection. Back and forth.

  “Let me make you feel good, Ally,” he demanded again, roughly.

  “Yes.”

  And with one little word, I set us both free.

  49

  Dominic

  I slid the sweater over her head, and when I realized there was nothing between Ally’s perfect breasts and my mouth but a flimsy white tank top, I felt a primal growl work its way up my throat.

  Her nipples were hard and pointed beneath the simple cotton. I cupped those breasts in my hands, loving the feel of those buds going even harder.

  She attacked my tie, the buttons of my shirt, but lost her train of focus when I yanked the scoop neck down, baring one breast. I paused just long enough so that she could feel my hot breath on her skin before sucking that pink, pert nipple into my mouth.

  Her gasp of pleasure, the feel of that delicious rosette puckering against my tongue, made every torturous second in the last two months worth it. This moment of heaven was worth a lifetime of misery. I sucked harder, holding her to me. She bucked her hips against me, driving my dick wild with the friction. She was in leggings, and judging by the wet heat I could feel through them, she didn’t have a damn thing on underneath.

  I needed her naked. Nothing between us.

  “Why do you wear so many damn layers,” she demanded, her voice shaking as she shoved my vest off my shoulders.

  “Never again,” I promised, moving my attention to her other breast and suckling hard.

  “Please don’t stop wearing vests,” she begged.

  “Anything you want, Ally. All you have to do is ask.” I gave her nipple another resounding suck and had to tamp back the wolf inside me when she whimpered.

  I helped her strip my shirt away and then reluctantly abandoned her breasts to pull the tank over her head. I tossed it on the floor in the direction of the growing pile of clothes.

  “Come here,” I whispered darkly, pulling her against me and reveling at the feel of her hard, wet nipples against my chest.

  She hissed in a breath. “Chest hair. So good.”

  I wanted to laugh. But every cell of my being was entirely focused on her body and the endless list of things I wanted to do to her. The litany of ways I wanted to make her come.

  Finally. Finally. Finally.

  “Baby, we’re going to have to stand up and get rid of the rest of these clothes,” I warned her.

  “I don’t want to stop touching you,” she confessed. Her hands were stroking over my chest and shoulders, down my arms, across my abs. I felt… worshipped. Loved.

  “Just for a second,” I promised. Despite my protesting cock, I lifted her off my lap.

  “Strip faster,” she demanded, peeling her leggings off in one swift motion.

  She was spectacular. Naked in the city lights with snow falling behind her. Ally Morales was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my entire life.

  Humbled and stunned, I fumbled with my belt. She stepped in and loosened it for me. Together, we shoved my pants to the floor. She was trembling, shaking as she stared at me. It was the distance. Everything made sense when we were touching. Anything seemed possible then.

  She started to sink to her knees, but I stopped her. I wouldn’t be able to withstand that mouth on my cock. Not this first time. I’d had too many fantasies burned into my brain. Besides, I owed her. Two.

  “No. It’s your turn, sweetheart.” I pulled her to me. Her skin was so soft and smooth against my own. My cock was pinned between us and demanding more.

  She cupped my face in her hands and stared into my eyes. “I don’t want your tongue. I don’t want your fingers. The first thing you put inside me is going to be your cock, Dom.”

  My dick jerked its agreement between us.

  Holy motherfucking shit.

  “I don’t have a condom,” I confessed. I had no need to stock condoms in this office. I wasn’t my father.

  Ally’s eyes closed then opened again. “You don’t need one tonight,” she whispered. “I’m on birth control, and I’m clean.”

  I was struck by two things. Permission for my darkest fantasy. Of fucking her until her pussy closed around my shaft and milked my own orgasm out of me, making me pour myself into her. Making her mine.

  And then there was the caveat she tried to slip past me.

  “This isn’t for just one night, Ally. So get used to it. Once I’m inside you, there’s no going back.” Ever.

  I wished we were in a bed. My bed where I could spread her out and look my fill, take my time tasting her. But I wouldn’t survive waiting another minute and settled for the couch. I laid her out on it and slid a knee between her legs.

  Before giving into her greedy demands, I dipped my head and helped myself to her breasts again. They were rapidly becoming my newest obsession. My erection hung heavily, its tip painting Ally’s stomach with precum as it leaked shamelessly from the slit.

  This is what she did to me. Reduced my body to a series of biological and chemical chain reactions.

  Her breath was coming in short, sharp pants as I nuzzled at her perfect fucking tits. I wanted to die with this nipple throbbing in my mouth.

  She wrapped her legs around my waist, trying to pull me down to her.

  “Are you ready for me, baby?” I whispered, fisting my cock at the root.

  She nodded wordlessly, eyes wide. I felt so many things. Powerful. Vulnerable. Ready. Terrified. And the rage that simmered low in my gut every time I looked at that bruise. I was never going to get over seeing that mark on her face.

  “Are you sure?” I asked, part of me wishing she’d change her mind. Because it was all going to change. “You trust me?”

  “Yes. Dom, please!”

  I lined the weeping head of my cock up against her pussy. She was so fucking wet I thought I might die. I wanted to tease her a bit, prepare her for me. But I couldn’t help myself. I gave a shallow pump, force-feeding the first two thick inches into her.

  Her gasp echoed inside my blood.

  Gritting my teeth, I held on to my sanity as she squeezed the head of my dick. “Tell me you understand me, Ally. Tell me you know this makes you mine.”

  She was trembling around my throbbing tip, and if she didn’t say it in the next five seconds, I was going to plow into her anyway and make her say it after. I could only hang on for so long. I was only human.

  “Dom,” she whispered brokenly.

  “Say it. Tell me, Ally.” I knew it didn’t make sense. I’d spent the past two months telling her, telling myself, that we would never happen. Now I was claiming her. I didn’t know what it meant. Or what it would cost. But I knew I was willing to pay any price.

  She squeezed her eyes closed tight. “I’m yours,” she whimpered.

  The knot in my chest loosened, and as soon as she opened her eyes again, I fucked into her tight sheath on one long, hard thrust. I held there as she scrambled under me, managing to open just a little wider, and my last inch slid into her. I hit bottom and stalled.

  I could feel her fucking quivering around me. Bare. Nothing between us. She was impaled on me, her beautiful whiskey eyes open now. Wide and glassy.

  “Breathe,” I gritted out. “Just breathe for a second.” Her breasts were smashed against my bare chest.

  She was so tight, clamped around my erection, and I was so damn hard, I was seeing stars. She sucked in a breath, and I
swear to God, I felt it in my cock.

  Sweat broke out on my forehead. “Are you okay?” I asked, trying to hold on to the reins and not just mindlessly fuck my way in and out of her body.

  “If you move, I’m going to come,” she warned me.

  “That’s my girl.” I kissed her again, teasing her with my tongue, and when she started to relax, I pulled out and thrust back in.

  “Oh, God.”

  “Dom, baby,” I corrected. She lasted four glorious pumps before the quivering clamped down on my dick like a velvet vice.

  “Dominic!” Her fingers bit into my back, and I fucking loved that nip of pain. I kept driving into her, biting my lip until I tasted blood, pushing off the armrest with my foot to power into her harder and harder. Determined to hold on through the most in-fucking-credible experience my cock had ever had inside a woman.

  She undulated beneath me like she had when she danced for me, and in that moment, I counted myself the luckiest man on the planet. I felt every squeeze, every wave, and rode out her orgasm with her.

  I was sweating. My balls were sending out an SOS. I couldn’t hold on much longer, but right now, I was her fucking superhero.

  I kissed her, and when she dreamily sighed against my tongue, I bit her bottom lip. “Mine. Ally.”

  “Yours,” she agreed.

  It gave me another dose of superpowers. I beat back the threat of my own orgasm, picked her up, and sat with her on my lap.

  “I’ve been thinking about this since that night,” she moaned, bringing her hands to my shoulders.

  “I want to watch you while you ride my cock. I want to see your eyes go glassy and that pulse in your throat flutter. I want to watch your tits bounce while I tell you I’m never leaving you.”

  “Dominic,” she whispered.

  “I’m never leaving you, Ally.”

  “You can’t say things like that,” she argued.

  I gave her ass a little slap and then another one because I liked the sound of it.

  She liked it too. Because she was writhing on me just like she had in the club that I still wanted to burn to the ground. But this time, my cock was where it belonged. Buried deep inside her.

  Wet didn’t begin to describe Ally. She was a goddamn rainforest, and I couldn’t get enough. I wanted to throw her down and eat her out. To flip her over and slam into her from behind. I wanted her in missionary and up against a wall. In every conceivable position. I wanted to take years discovering all the ways I could make her come. My own personal treasure hunt.