Where We Began (Where We Began Duet Book 1)

by Nora Flite

  “Your father isn't good at keeping promises,” I say. My skull throbs. “He's happy to say whatever he has to, to get people to do what he wants.”

  “Like I said, you don't know him!” she snaps.

  I hesitate, torn between letting her win this argument and wanting her to understand my side of things. I wait too long, and my long stretch of silence exposes me to her. She reads between the lines, scanning my face, my uneasy frown, and her eyebrows arch upwards.

  “Dominic, what aren't you telling me?” she asks warily.

  I drop the bag of pinecone on the ground. I can't hold them anymore. “I'm not making wild guesses. I'm speaking from experience. Laiken, I've met your father. We worked together.”

  The rain is coming down hard. It's soaked into her hair, made it look like black seaweed. Laiken could be created from nature, a dryad hiding among the plants and animals, beautiful spirit designed to judge my every flaw.

  She stares at me accusingly. “How could you wait so long to tell me that you worked with my dad?”

  I shake my head as I approach her. The ground is soft and slippery. “I didn't think it mattered. My work with him had nothing to do with you.”

  “Everything that has to do with my father has something to do with me!” she yells. “Dominic, this is what I'm talking about. These casual lies, this information that you hide from me, they're why I can't let you get close to me.”

  “I wasn't trying to hide it,” I say, but as it comes out of my mouth it rings false.

  She takes a step back, and I get the idea that she's about to flee. I don't blame her.

  I'd run from me, too.

  “Laiken, just listen.”

  “Why, so you can tell me more lies? You'll manipulate me anyway you can to get what you want. Does it feel good to trick me into falling into your arms?”

  “No,” I cringe.

  “Then why didn't you tell me? What did I do to make you hate me so much?”

  “It has nothing to do with you!” I yell back. Overhead the thunder booms, a flash of lightning turning her skin white. I'm breathing heavy, fingers flexing at my sides. “I didn't tell you... because I was ashamed. Telling you that I worked with your father would involve telling you that his escape was my fault. My fucking mistake.”

  “What?” she whispers, the rain's constant rattle drowning her out.

  “I was working with him on a project. I wanted to show my dad that I could be useful at the company. All the programming I learned, and I still wasn't anywhere as talented as your father. But I wanted to be. I thought if I worked with him, I could learn.” A bitter smile clings to my lips. “Instead, he pulled the wool over my eyes. He made me comfortable until I trusted him.” My attention shifts to her stunned face. “Just like he did to you.”

  Laiken's head gives a single shake. “How did it happen?”

  “He told me that he was coming back to the house for his monthly meeting with you. He told everybody else that I was in charge of escorting him. But I wasn't. I didn't know I was supposed to be. He got away, and now, I'll never be able to convince my parents I'm not worthless.”

  There's water on her face and I don't know if it's rain or tears. “You hid this from me, because you thought I'd hate you for making a single mistake? Do you really think so little of me?” I stare at her, ingesting her words like a man starving.

  “There's very little I think about more than you,” I admit solemnly.

  Her lower lip trembles. A raindrop catches there, then dives to its death. “Dominic, I don't care what your parents think about you. They're flat out wrong. You're not worthless. Especially not to me.”

  Her feet move forward; she sinks on a patch of mud. Her legs go out from under her. She's about to hit the ground and the damp thorny branches, but I'm faster than gravity.

  I jump forward, grabbing her forearms, keeping her upright. The rain makes her skin wet, and everything smells like fresh cut grass, like the world has been sliced open and all the green has poured out right here into our private clearing.

  A flame of desire lights inside of me. It had dimmed during our fight, but the acceptance in her eyes pours on the gasoline. “Tell me,” I demand. “Tell me all the reasons that you want me.” Her eyebrows fly upwards. I watch her neck flex as she swallows nervously. “If you can't tell me why,” I whisper, “then let me tell you why I want you.”

  I watch how her mouth puckers. She's thinking about kissing me and it drives me fucking mad.

  “I want you because of the way you move,” I say. “I want you because of how your hair feels in my fingers. I want you because you're my light in the darkness, strength where there is none. Because you're the only person in this broken world that cares about their promises.”

  Her pupils are round, undeniably shining with overwhelmed tears. “Dominic.” My name catches in her throat.

  “I'm not done,” I whisper hotly. The world around us is gray, but Laiken makes the colors saturated where we stand. “I want to see you smile, I want to see how gentle your face is while you sleep. I want to see every kind of face you're capable of making. I want you for so many reasons but right now, right this second? I've never ached so badly to see the way someone looks while I'm fucking them.”

  She lets out a desperate moan. I move my grip to her neck, sliding up and feeling her pulse flickering beneath me. Her hair is heavy with water, her braid a mess, and I make it worse when I tangle my fingers in it. “I know you said nothing was going to happen between us,” I whisper. “You said that after our first kiss, you said it while wishing I would kiss you again in the kitchen, and you said it while I pet your beautiful pussy as I made you come in that ballgown. Are you going to say it now, here, when I can smell your juices even through the scent of the rain around us?”

  “No,” she breathes out the word. “Dominic, I do want you. I've always wanted you, even before I knew what that word meant. I just didn't want the secrets.”

  “Well right now, we have one less between us. Isn't that worth something?”

  She focuses on my eyes, looking into them so hard, like she can read small words written on my irises. Water drops from her eyelashes careen down her round cheek. Standing on tiptoe, she presses herself on my chest, fingers wrapping in my soaked shirt, and she kisses me so hard that I feel our teeth come together.

  “God, Laiken,” I mumble against her mouth. My tongue darts in a circle, chasing hers, pursuing it the way a hunter chases its prey. I want to kiss her and explore every crevice of her mouth. I want to count her teeth and her heart beats.

  My arms wrap around her body, holding her to me like I can crush away all the mistakes I've already made.

  I don't want to make anymore.

  I know I still will.

  - Chapter 23 -

  Laiken

  Euphoria wraps me in its warm embrace. I don't shake it off. I can't, or I'll realize I've come undone by the desperate words of a man I'm afraid to trust; someone in a mask who peels it back when he sees fit. Someone who thinks he can whisper sweet words, telling me he admires my strength, my candor, and my steadfast promises... all while he makes me break the one I made so recently.

  I promised not to give in to him, not until I understood his wounds. Then I kissed him, and the promise unfurled until weaving it back into something solid became impossible.

  “Dominic,” I whisper, tracing his name with my tongue. He pushes me under a canopy of thicker trees. The rain is reduced to erratic, occasional splashes here. That's good, but it's too late; I'm already overflowing.

  “I love when you say my name.” He fans his hand on my jaw, forcing my head back into the tree bark. I see the orange leaves, the determined green pine needles above. His lips glide over my throat where he's stretched the skin tight to draw out the sensitivity. The sensation of his warm, wet tongue, moving ever so slow, makes my lungs squeeze. Hot flashes dart through my blood.

  He blocks out my view of the foliage. He's taller than the trees, bigger
than the world. “I need you so badly,” he says. Rain has turned his brown hair shiny, shaded it and the rest of him darker than ever. “Laiken, I've thought about this so many times. Every night, imagining it brought so much hurt... and then, when I realized it could happen, it hurt even more.”

  I'm light headed. I can't break his stare. “It doesn't have to hurt.”

  He hesitates. “That's what I'm supposed to tell you.”

  Pulled back to the reality of his hands on my cheeks, his body flattening me on the tree, I shiver. He went from discussing emotional pain to the literal one he might cause me by taking my virginity. “Dominic, I'm not scared of this. Not anymore.”

  He moistens his lips. “You should be.” He looks away quickly. “But I'm glad you're not.”

  I struggle to understand him all over again. He's so confusing, but am I any better? I'm weak to him in ways I didn't expect. Then, at times, I remember my goals and shake his claws from my skin. It got harder after he kissed me. Every sign of desire—every hint of affection—that he graces me with erodes another layer of my strength.

  Dominic leans away from me. His expensive clothes are drenched. He shrugs out of the black jacket; it hits the ground with a wet slap. The gray dress shirt beneath clings to his chest, leaving nothing to my imagination. It's so shear I can see the ghostly shapes of his tattoos under the surface.

  He's dressed so fine. I'm under-dressed in my tights and empire-waist top. Yet we're both soaked, laden with water and our invisible problems. The rain has unified us.

  I lift my hands; they're trembling. “Right here, right now, let's have no secrets. Okay?”

  “Laiken, I can't tell you anything about—”

  “I'm not asking about your past,” I say. “Only new things.” Fascinated by the shape of his lips, I follow the contour with my thumb. His whole body tenses. “If we do this, I want it to be honest. I want to know what you're thinking all the way through.”

  He pulls in a long, exerting breath. It's so compelling that I breathe in, too. “You don't know what you're getting into.”

  “I can handle it.”

  He searches my face and wraps my wrist in his hand. “Maybe, maybe not. There's no backing out now... for either of us.” His nose brushes mine. “I'll tell you every single thought in my head while I touch you, Laiken. I'll let you hear every single filthy word all in the name of truth. All for you.”

  My mouth opens, but I'm wordless with anticipation. I'm vulnerable to his next kiss; he captures my mouth hard, his lips sealing us together. Fingers tangle in my hair then his other palm explores my hip. I shut my eyes, dropping my hands from his face to his chest. His firm muscles set my heart matching the rhythm of the storm above.

  When the kiss ends, I gasp for air. Dominic's grip hasn't eased up. “I can't get enough of your mouth,” he says, watching me closely. He's looking for my reaction to his honesty. “I've never tasted something as divine as your lips. I—fuck.” He interrupts his own admission with another kiss.

  I have to shove on him to get enough room to speak. “I want to undress you.”

  The dazzling glow in his pupils encourages me. “Do it.”

  We're shaking, but I can't tell if it's from the cold or our anxiousness. Both of us want this. Both of us are desperate for it. I can see it in how he fidgets when I struggle with the buttons on his shirt. I'm full to bursting, my limbs unable to work the hard discs with any skill. His chest flexes, stretching the materials; I see his skin through the gaps.

  The first button splits away. His collarbone winks at me, then the deep groove between his pecs as I undo more of the shirt. Water has soaked through, making his lovely, inked skin slippery.

  Grabbing his collar, I peel the shirt down his carved arms. He holds his hands out, helping me as he shrugs out of the clothing. The sight beneath makes me salivate. I try to look at all of him, all at once, but it's impossible.

  I knew he was in amazing shape, yet witnessing it, touching it, is something else entirely. My fingertips skirt down his bare shoulder, exploring the curve of his deltoids, the ridges between each muscle. There's script on his skin here; it reads Faith. Outlining each letter makes my lower belly tighten.

  Extraordinary feathered wings spread across his chest. I trace those next, following each individual feather. My eyes dart up; he's staring at me, his wonder matching mine. “You're beautiful,” I whisper. I think I should have said handsome, or sexy, but it doesn't sound right. Dominic is unquestionably masculine, but standing half-naked in the rain, huddled under the trees, he's something else. Beautiful is the closest word I can find.

  His eyes widen. Then his lips part, and it sounds like all the air leaves his body. “Nothing about me is beautiful,” he whispers. “I don't need it to be. You're enough for both of us.”

  I can't blush. I'm already as red as I can get.

  Grabbing my shirt, he rips it over my head. It's so sudden I'm stunned. I stand there, my hands flying to my chest. It's automatic—a built in need to protect myself from being exposed. Dominic eyes my bra straps greedily, grabbing my arms, pulling them away to expose the rest. “Fuck,” he manages, swallowing the word. “I've seen your tits already, I thought that would make this mean less. But it doesn't. I'm more excited than ever, fucking hell.”

  My nipples are hard from the temperature, and my arousal. They needle into the padding of my bra. Water drops onto the rounded tops of my breasts from the leaves, the perfectly clear droplets sliding over my skin, into my cleavage.

  Dominic bends low, shoving his face between my breasts. I gasp out loud. He breathes in, then sucks, taking a drink of the raindrops pooling there. When he looks up at me, his hair sticking to his forehead, shadowing his eyes, he smirks. “Delicious,” he says. “Everything that touches you tastes better.”

  I'm speechless. I watch as he reaches for his belt. I don't want to be a passive participant in this event; I want him, I truly do—even if my mind is slowing down my ability to stay in control. Be honest, I remind myself. Show him you're here with him, doing this WITH him. “Let me,” I say, reaching for his belt.

  Dominic's grin is like a hungry wolf's. “Please,” he whispers, “it'd be my pleasure to let you undress me more.”

  Grabbing the hard metal buckle, I slip the leather through the loops. I can't ignore the huge tent in his pants. Those slacks are as wet as the rest of him. And like his shirt, it clings to the length of his cock. I can see the shape of it—the girth. I stare, fixated, forgetting what I'm doing.

  “The belt,” he says flatly.

  Startling, I nod and pull the leather free. It drops to the forest floor, lost in the leaves. I go for the zipper but he beats me to it. Dominic fondles his entire shaft through his pants, breathing heavily as he undoes the metal zipper teeth. The noise is louder than the thunder.

  His cock jumps free into the air, already halfway peeking from the top of his black boxers. The tip is maroon, the brightest spot of color in the overcast forest. I can't look away. Especially with how he's touching himself, jerking his own dick out of his boxers, gripping it erotically.

  He pumps his fist along it once, twice. Each time, my pussy squeezes hungrily. I've never had anything inside of me, but my urge is instinctual. I ache for him to the point of pain.

  “Do you want this?” he asks me, cruelly coy. His cock pulls through his thick fingers looking more massive the longer he plays with it.

  My breath comes out in the air as visible steam. “Yes. God, yes.”

  Reaching into his back pocket, he pulls out a foil packet. I've never seen a condom in person, but I know what it is. He tears the wrapper, looks me in the eye. He offers it to me.

  With reverence, I take it. It's somehow warm in spite of the cold water infecting everything else. I slide it fully from the foil as I glance at his terrifyingly tempting cock. I want to touch him. I'm afraid to do it. Both emotions mix, and in the end, the unsatisfied pulsing between my legs wins.

  I kneel on the wet ground, care
fully gripping the base of his cock. He watches me with turbulent eyes. He's worked up by the sight of this, maybe more than I am. His skin is deliciously hot in my palm. Guided by curiosity, I slide my fist up his length until I bump the ridge of his cock-head. He pulls in a strained breath through his teeth. The sound makes my clit throb.

  Steeling myself, I unravel the condom from his tip to his base, just above his heavy hanging balls. I can hear him panting eagerly. I glance up, meeting his wild stare—glimpsing the beast swimming in his galaxy-dark pupils that wants to eat me alive. I recognize it for what it is; the part of him he said to be afraid of.

  And for a second, I am.

  He crashes down on me, kissing me without remorse. “Fuck,” he growls, spinning me so my chest goes flat in the slick mud and leaves. “I can't wait any longer, Laiken. I need you so damn bad.”

  The ground is cool under me. My excitement leaks outward, and soon, even the earth is searingly hot. Dominic's weight settles on my hips. I'm panting, anxious—rigidly expectant. His voice is a smoky whisper in my ear canal. It heads for my brain and fills the cracks. “Tell me you need me, too.”

  “I need you,” I sob. What will that word mean after we're through?

  My knees scrape on the rough path as he lifts my hips from behind. His firm fingers reach beneath me, digging into my soaking wet yoga pants. I feel him take hold of the material; it stretches, the tugging sharp and sudden. He rips a hole into the crotch of my pants with a single twist of his forearm.

  Cool air rushes over my inner thighs. My muscles knot up, I brace myself in the mud. He runs his fingers down my spine, stopping at my bra strap. “Breathe, Laiken.”

  I draw in a shuddering gasp. “I'm fine, I'm really fine.”

  “You're not, you're trembling.”

  He's right; I'm quaking all over. But he's got the wrong idea. “I'm not scared, Dominic.”

  “Of course you are. What else could make you react like this?”

  I twist in the leaves, bending so I can glance at him behind me. I force back overwhelmed tears. “I'm shaking because of how much I want you. I never thought—I hoped, but to be doing this with you, after all this time, I feel like I'm about to turn inside out. I don't know how else to describe it. It's just... I just really can't wait to have this moment with you.”