by Laudat, Reon
***
If seeing Kendra semi-naked for the first time took Dominic’s breath away, he’d never recover from the sight of her stripped bare. “You’re simply stunning,” he said with reverence as he appraised her contours and lavish curves. A perfect hour-glass. All woman. All his. Finally! His jaw clenched as white hot lust pounded through his veins. His teeth caught his bottom lip. He had worked his way up her torso and plunged his tongue back inside her mouth before his hands moved over breasts still encased in what look like black tourniquet that made them appear at least three sizes smaller than they were. How does she breathe in this damn thing? He ached to touch and taste her there, feel the weight of all that lusciousness in his hands, suckle her erect nipples, but when he tried slipping his fingers underneath the fabric, it refused to give. He moved to dip inside the top with no success. The straps would not budge without digging into her delicate flesh.
“Wait.” With a sensual grin on her lips, Kendra took a kittenish step back and tried tugging at it. As she did a little shimmy, she tried slipping her thumbs underneath its band to no avail. A sheen of perspiration had practically fused it to her skin. She wriggled again and tried to pry fingertips under the stubborn band Tug, tug, wriggle, wriggle.
Both released frustrated sighs when it still wouldn’t shift.
“There’s no sexy way to do this,” she said, marching toward the kitchen. “I’ll be right back.”
When she returned, Dominic’s eyes went wide and he instinctively covered his junk as any naked man would do when someone charged at him with scissors the size of hedge shears. “Whoa! Careful now.”
“Snip. Snip. Snip,” she teased. “No worries. I noticed you’re already circumcised.” She passed him the scissors and motioned toward the bra. “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.”
“You sure?”
“Yes!”
Dominic smiled and clipped, finally freeing her from the blasted thing and tossing it across the room. “We’ll perform an exorcism on it later.” He moved to his discarded pants and overcoat and removed handfuls of condoms. “I had a feeling about tonight. And I’m always prepared. Because you’re such an over-the-top foodie about colors—”
“You have colored and flavored condoms?” Kendra grabbed one for closer inspection. “Clearly you were confident about your odds of scoring a blow job.”
“We have Screw-Berry, which has an essence of blueberry, in case you were wondering. There’s Wham-Bam Banana, Lick-Me Lime, Grab-Ass Grape.” Dominic grinned. “Surprise!”
“These are what you’ve been taunting me with all night?” She punched his shoulder. “You! I’ll bet you’re the guy who gifts a girl with skanky lingerie for her enjoyment.”
Amusement twinkled in his eyes. “I am.”
“You’re such a dork-a-dingus, but I like it! In here.” Kendra molded herself against him again, backing them toward the bedroom. Not bothering to light the scented candles, she fell on the bed. He tossed her “surprises” on the nightstand, and then covered her fully naked body with his.
Kendra reached to turn off the nightstand lamp.
“Oh, no you don’t. I don’t want to miss a thing when I have all of you,” he said.
Busy hot hands explored everywhere as their mouths mated.
“I’ve wanted you, wanted this…wanted to be with you like this for what seems like forever,” he said, kneading her breasts.
Kendra sighed as he alternately drew her beaded nipples inside his mouth and swirled his tongue around her areolas. “And I’ve wanted you, too.”
“I hope I don’t come in three seconds,” he said between kisses.
“Only you would admit something like that before our first time together. And that’s why you’re utterly adorable, Dominic Tobias.”
“Utterly adorable ain’t what I’m going for.”
Kendra felt the hard evidence of his desire against her leg. “But you are.”
“It’s just game to lower your expectations before I blow your mind.”
“If you do, um, jump the gun, remember we have all night,” she said to reassure him.
“We do, don’t we?” Dominic replied with a wolfish laugh against her breasts. “Then you won’t walk for a week when I’m done with you, wench!”
“Ah, Alpha Man returns!” Kendra laughed and watched as he reached for Wham-Bam Banana. “So take me, my friend,” she added with a theatrical purr. “Make me your lovah.”
Dominic braced himself above her and eased between her silky thighs, sliding in as deep as their bodies would allow. “Yes, oh yes,” he said with a moan of satisfaction.
Kendra’s eyes closed. Soon lost in her private pleasure, she nipped at the skin on his broad shoulders.
“Look at me.” He lifted her knee to his waist.
Kendra couldn’t. Not if her goal was to focus on the passion. They were just friends, good friends, giving and receiving pleasure. Still, something inside her heart stirred and bloomed.
“Look at me,” Dominic said again as his eyes smoldered with desire.
Kendra pushed past her hesitation. Only after their gazes met did he begin their most erotic dance yet. Unhurriedly. Skillfully. He worked her as if each stroke would bring him a little closer to her soul.
“I love,” he whispered, “being with you. I love who I am with you, what you bring out in me. How you accept me for who I am.” His heartfelt words and movement created a steady, delectable beat at her core.
“And I…” Kendra eased one hand toward his. “Oh, Dominic.” Their fingers intertwined. She wrapped her legs around him and tipped her hips up, expressing with her body what she couldn’t say with words.
“You feel so good,” he said as their lips met again in achingly slow, satiny kisses. The intensity of it all, the perfect melding of the emotional and physical, was like nothing she’d ever experienced before. Her toes curled as the hair on his chest brushed against her inflamed skin. That beat quickened and strengthened to a release radiating through her womb and ripping a gasp of pleasure from her throat too soon. She stilled, panting and riding the wave as he continued to rock above her, his strokes increasing in cadence, penetration, and power. He released her hand to latch onto her hips, tucking himself in to the hilt. Abandoning restraint, he thrust into her, muscles flexing, face flush and hard with determination, reigniting her own arousal and sending another divine tremor through her as she called his name.
As her heat surrounded him, Dominic knew he would never get enough of her. He would memorize the parting of her lips, her mewling pleas for more, the softness of her breasts against his chest, and the way her eyes went misty when he told her what she meant to him. He held back until he felt her walls quake. But now, he clenched his jaw, drove harder, faster, and higher as she arched against him and held on, absorbing all he had to give and urging him on with her hands gripping his ass. He claimed her mouth, still holding her tight. A groan of ecstasy tore from his lips when his climax thundered through him.
***
“Looks as if I was the one who, um, jumped the gun,” Kendra said about a half hour later, relaxing in Dominic’s spooning embrace. “I closed a little too quickly.”
“It was not a race, you know.” Dominic rolled with her until she was on top, straddling his hips. Eyes smoky and heavy-lidded, he reached toward the nightstand. “And remember, we still have all night, and plenty of Grab-Ass-Grape to spare.”
“We do, don’t we?” Kendra laughed, took the condom, and unrolled it on him.
Dominic kneaded and slapped her bottom. “Now, ride’ em, cowgirl.”
Kendra braced one arm against the headboard and inch by tantalizing inch took him deep inside again and slapped him back. “Giddy-up, horsey.”
Chapter 29
Later, Kendra admired Dominic’s strong cheekbones and full lips as he slept beside her. Her gaze lowered to his sculpted pecs and broad shoulders. Her hand dallied over the mussed waves on his head, the scruff on his chin, and then skimmed the h
air on his chest. She could check off another box. Dominic had been amazing in bed. The perfect lover for her, by turns, passionate and tender. And best of all, frisky and downright fun. And oh man, did he know how to improvise. That mouth trick he’d done to her cha-cha with the maraschino cherries from her fridge… And he made her his human road map with that skillful tongue tracing hot paths from tattoo to tattoo. Wow. Could she drop hints to Alyssa about it all for an upcoming Steele Everheart bedroom escapade without revealing the source of inspiration?
How many people could say they laughed during sex? Well, laughed for the right reasons? Images of her body entangled with Dominic’s flashed through her mind, warming her from the inside out. They’d reveled in one another. Nice and slow with whispered endearments. Hard and fast with naughty demands. He’d taken the lead. She’d taken the lead. They’d catnapped and then started again, working their way around her bedroom and to various pieces of furniture. Who knew that rickety old papasan chair would prove so sturdy! Ha!
Still, she found her rapidly growing emotional attachment to him unnerving.
It was just sex.
As much as she wanted it to be just great sex, all attempts to minimize what it meant didn’t ring true. She’d had good sex with the former fiancés, but this felt different.
Okay, so he put it on me better than the others did. Keep the Cupid4You.com account and all options open.
With that deliberation done, Kendra kissed Dominic on the cheek and climbed out of bed for a drink of water. She pulled on an over-sized T-shirt and padded to the kitchen. She’d planned to return to the bedroom and maybe awaken Dominic for another round, but not before checking voicemail and text messages. It had been hours since the last time she’d glanced at her cell phone. What if Aunt Jackie had called? She fished the phone out of her purse and listened to chirpy check-in messages from Alyssa, Selena, and her aunt. Nothing that couldn’t wait a little longer. She’d hoped for a message from Vanessa, but there wasn’t one. Brody, whom she’d given her personal cell number, had left the fourth message. He reminded her that the thirty-day wait to complete the termination of his contract with Impact had ended, as if she didn’t know. She’d been counting the days, too. He was free and wanted to set up a face-to-face meeting so they could freely discuss representation, expectations, and working styles. Yes!
Again, Kendra, excited and anxious about taking on Brody as a client, had to believe that Dominic and their friendship would survive it. After all, it was just business. She’d done nothing deceitful by delaying the news until Brody was contractually free of his agreement with Dominic.
As soon as Kendra had a signed agent/client agreement and the go-ahead from Brody, she would broach the topic of her role as Brody’s new literary representative. As she considered the various ways in which she’d approach this, it also occurred to her that she had yet to receive a progress report from Corinne on those requested revisions.
Though Kendra had been eager to contact her the last few weeks, she hadn’t wanted to push. Agreeing to make the changes had not been an easy concession for Corinne. Kendra skimmed the headings of a few hundred emails looking for something from Corinne. Nothing. However, she did have about a dozen emails from her client Blake Spencer, fresh from a writers’ conference, where authors tended to belly up to the bar, get bombed, and then spill their flipping guts. Judging by the dates and times, all emails had been written within ten minutes:
Why did Dreya Carlson get splashy cardboard displays, front-table positioning, and shelf talkers inside all Brooks & Nimrod bookstores across the country when I had only patchy distribution at best, and one or two copies of each book in my series buried on the back shelves, spine-out? Why did Paul Davis get a full-page ad in the New York Gazette? I had postage-stamp-sized ads and stock advance-reading-copy mailings to low-traffic blogs and low- circulation dead-tree publications?
Those Porter Agency A-list authors or best-selling brand authors he compared himself to wrote romances and thrillers. Oftentimes the people who least needed the extra push and co-op were the ones who received it.
Blake, a fantasy novelist, had been solidly midlist. Forever. As hard as she’d tried to get his publisher behind his work with something besides additional middling contracts, his numbers hamstrung her efforts. He was just as gifted in his chosen genre as the others, but the fairy dust and publisher promo bucks had yet to rain on him. Often there was no obvious reason why one writer succeeded over another. No one—particularly those who’d made it—liked to hear how much dumb luck was involved. But Kendra hadn’t given up on Blake yet. She read his next email.
Many authors were exceptionally supportive and generous with knowledge. And while it was important for her clients to educate themselves about the business and cultivate fellowship with other writers, too much information often triggered vicious cycles of compare and despair. Kendra knew all about those from personal experience. She tapped out a quick but compassionate response, offering to discuss first thing Monday morning his concerns in greater detail and brainstorm a new strategy to reach his goals. He hadn’t mentioned an interest in indie publishing yet, but maybe it was time to have that discussion after carefully revisiting his present contract. She’d negotiated terms that provided leeway for shorter indie works in his genre and longer works outside his current genre.
Kendra would also send Corinne one quick note to inquire about her trip back to the mainland and whatever progress she’d made on the manuscript since returning home. Then she’d mention how eager she was to read the revised version when Corinne believed it was ready. She’d emphasize that last part so Corinne wouldn’t feel pressured.
Kendra’s fingers hovered over the Internet search icon on her cell phone with the intent of surfing over to Just Vanessa because she hadn’t heard from her in a while. Don’t! She’d moved to compose that email to Corinne when she noticed a message from Dominic. The romantic note made her eyes mist. “Dominic,” she said. “What are you doing to me?” The size of the attachment brought a slow smile to her face. She hurried to her laptop to download the document from her email account and print a copy. The cover page read Sneak Easy by Dominic Tobias. She recited the first line. Riveted by the words on the page, she sat on her sofa.
That’s where Dominic found her with the printout hours later.
Looking gloriously naked and muscled, he stood in the doorframe between her living room and bedroom. “Why are you up so early, or late, on a weekend?” He raked his hands through his hair and glanced at the clock, 8:12 a.m. He plucked his briefs off the head of her wooden seahorse sculpture, where they’d landed the night before.
“I left the bed around three a.m. But I couldn’t go back to sleep,” Kendra said, feeling oddly energetic as she leapt to her feet. “Did my laughter wake you?”
“Your laughter?” He put on his briefs, the waistband snapping against his taut bronzed skin.
“The condoms weren’t my only surprise.”
“Ahh, so you checked your email.”
“I did. And this is wonderful! So funny! Smart! Sharply observed! I couldn’t stop reading! And I’m not just saying this to spare your feelings as you spared mine with that atrocious sweater.” Leaving the pages on the sofa, she went to him, and he wrapped her in his strong arms. “I enjoyed what you’ve done here. Why did you change your mind about letting me read it?”
“You have to ask?” he replied, looking deep into her eyes. “I’m falling in love with you.”
Not the answer she expected or wanted. Kendra blinked and found herself speechless again for more than a beat. “Oh,” she replied with a shaky breath.
As Kendra struggled to find the appropriate response, Dominic looked downcast. Her throat tightened. “I’m touched and, um, humbled that…” What the heck did that mean anyway? Humbled in that context? “I think you’re so great. You’re one of a kind. I, mean, what you just said was…” Her words trailed off a cliff. She must’ve sounded like Leighton Rothchild 2.0 after that fail
ed prom invite he’d told her about.
Kendra felt her resolve give way, but her pragmatic side took hold. It had been only weeks since they’d had their first conversation on the plane. It had taken longer to get her passport renewed.
Dominic did not loosen his embrace. “Hey, it’s okay,” he said softly.
“I, um,” Kendra stuttered, before pressing her lips against his. If she were going to be true to herself and Dominic, she couldn’t return anything close to those words yet, though what she felt for him was strong. She did not trust her flip-flopping emotions anymore. The next time she declared something more than “like” for a man, she had to first rule out infatuation and lust. There would be no echo to stave off awkwardness. No donning love goggles that failed to detect fatal flaws sure to tank a relationship. No crushing disappointment destined to follow.
But still, Kendra questioned herself. Was she over correcting? Too risk averse? Just because everything between her and Dominic had happened quickly, did that make it any less real? It was exhilarating for sure, and why couldn’t she go with that feeling? One more time? What if her fearful, buzzkill side was malfunctioning, overanalyzing, and choking all the romance out of something wonderful?
Then there was Brody.
What if after learning Kendra was Brody’s new rep, Dominic revealed that side Selena and others had warned her about? Even if the two managed to move past the Brody situation, sharing an occupation would test them. What if intense competition and jealousy became frequent issues?
After the kiss, they stood, holding each other in an extended embrace.
“I can’t move close enough to you.” Kendra gave him another squeeze and buried her face against his bare chest. “You always smell so good. It’s unreal!”
“I just want to melt into you, too,” he replied, placing soft kisses on her forehead.
“It’s scary, no?”
“Not to me.” Dominic cradled her face and his thumbs stroked her cheeks. “What are you afraid of?”