by Em Petrova
The rough words erupted from him without thought. Every dark desire and lurid fantasy took over, and he had no way of stopping the flow of words.
“Dom!”
The flesh of her hip felt like soft heaven under his fingers as he sank deeper, deeper, deeper yet.
Cum tingled in his balls, alerting him to the fact he had moments left before he blew. Then he’d do his best to keep her from leaving.
He withdrew and rolled her on top of him. Looking into her eyes, he meshed their hands. “Take what you want from me.”
She made a soft mewling sound and then began to ride him, rising onto her knees and then sinking down on his cock to the base. He bottomed out inside her, and she gave a raspy cry. Her long braid swung over her breast, and his gaze latched onto the movement of the blonde strands against her taut pink nipple.
He wrapped the length around his fist and tugged her in to kiss him. When she set her mouth over his, a fire took hold, and he rocked his hips hard and fast. She bit into his lower lip and issued a guttural moan that swept away the last of his control. He let go with a holler, the ache in his balls spreading through his spine as jets of cum burst from him.
“Look at me.” He captured her stare as the moment spiraled out for long seconds. The intimacy of that look as she came for him again took everything in him and made it hers.
He didn’t look away, and neither did she. He cupped her face and drew her into his arms. “Say you won’t leave me tonight.”
Leaning in, she gave him a tender kiss that revealed far more about her feelings than he could have guessed at. He closed his eyes, drinking her in for long minutes. When he gathered her close and drew the edge of the quilt over her nude body, she cuddled into him.
“You’re not leaving,” he made the decision for her.
She didn’t speak, and he guided her head against his chest, holding her there. This felt so right. He couldn’t think what had ever made him leave Crossroads. If he hadn’t put that time and distance between them, she might be his wife.
He eased off the bed and went into the bathroom. After taking a moment to dispose of the condom, he switched on the shower. When the space filled with steam, he went to the doorway. Jada lay on her side, and their gazes connected.
“Come to the shower with me.”
Watching her slide off the bed and saunter naked across his room had to be the hottest damn moment of his life. His heart burst with more than lust for her—but he couldn’t talk about love. Not right now, not when he had no idea what could happen next between them.
As she stepped up to him, he took her hand and lifted it to his lips. Skimming his mouth over her knuckles raised a shiver from her.
Her brown eyes lifted to his. “What are we doing, Dom? We must be crazy.”
“Must be,” he echoed.
“We can drive each other out of business.”
“We just might.”
Her eyes skittered away. “Then why am I here?”
Reaching out, he brushed his thumb along the outer curve of her breast to the underside. “Because there’s something here worth exploring?”
At the question in his voice, she shot her gaze to his again. She nodded and stepped past him, into the steamy bathroom. He watched her round ass as she moved into the shower, letting the curtain swish shut behind her.
His cock bobbed against his abs, ready for round two. He wanted her—all of her. But he didn’t want to cause her pain either. Come morning, would they be rivals once more? He didn’t see any way around it.
But they had the present, and he’d live for that.
He followed her into the shower. The minute he set foot inside, Jada flashed a look at him and dropped to her knees.
“Oh fuck,” he groaned as she gripped him at the base of his cock and eased him inside her sweet mouth. The hot water rushed over his back and her tempting lips worked his length, up and down, squeezing, sucking, pulling at him. He closed his eyes on the sensation and memory of her body clamping around him as she came.
“God, woman,” he bit off, cupping her face.
She took him to the root again before gliding her tongue around and around his veined erection.
“Fuck!” He had to stop her. Had to—
He drew away and gripped her upper arms, pulling her to her feet. He kissed her swollen lips with one hard stamp before he splayed her apart with his fingers. She sank over his digits.
“Dommmm.” She shook in his hold, and he lashed her against him while he slipped his fingers in her juicy pussy. When he set his thumb over her clit and pressed down lightly, she parted her lips on a gasp.
He held her stare, fingering her and rubbing her nubbin. She started to climb, he saw by the pink in her cheeks and the hazy expression in her eyes. He watched her face as she tensed, shuddered and then clamped down on his fingers, milking him with her orgasm.
Hell, he’d never seen such a beautiful woman in his life. He drew her release on and on until the final tremor left her. Then she looped her arms around his neck, leaned into him and kissed him.
The taste of her passion shook him to his core. He needed a condom—and fast.
She hit her knees again, and this time she took him into her hot little mouth, he let her. Blind lust rocked his hips with each swirl of her tongue down his shaft. He bumped the back of her throat, and she moaned. He locked his thighs and held completely still, allowing her the room to move at her own pace. When he watched his cock vanish into her mouth, he issued a primal noise.
She cupped his balls and took him with all the pressure that would drive him to the brink. His mushroomed head hit her throat. Then again. He felt the cum shooting up before he could stop it and tried to yank free of her mouth before he flooded it, but then she swallowed.
“Fuck!” He jerked in and out of her mouth, unable to hold back as she swallowed him. His eyes shuttered on the sensation, and only when she drew off his cock did he open them.
He braced a hand against the tile wall. “You didn’t have to.”
“I wanted to.” Her brown eyes burned into his, and he saw the truth there. Somehow, he knew that she wanted to give her all just for this one night. And he’d take it.
He reached behind himself and switched off the water. He grabbed her hand and drew her out of the shower, wrapped her in a towel and took her back to his bed.
He started at her mouth again, growling at the taste of his own cum on her tongue. When he plucked at her nipples, she bucked into his caress. And after he lowered his mouth to one and sucked, she cradled his jaw and closed her eyes.
As he sucked one nipple, he explored the other with his fingertips, learning how it beaded to his touch and pinched harder when he squeezed. He teased his fingertip and tongue around each, loving her responsive moans and the way her skin pebbled.
When she gripped his cock and ordered him to find a condom—now—he sliced a grin at her.
“Best do as the lady commands.” His crooked smile was all for her as he reached into the drawer a second time and located a condom.
After he had the rubber settled in place, she shocked him by shoving him onto his back and moving atop him. Facing away from him in reverse cowgirl style, she wiggled her little bottom down on his groin. The angle and the view sent him into a frenzy, and he latched onto her hips to guide her movements as she fucked him.
She ground on his cock. He gasped as she cried out. The pressure building up from his balls again threatened that this would end far too quick. He latched his gaze to the golden tan of her spine and hissed with pleasure.
She threw a look over her shoulder, and he damn near lost it. He grabbed her by the hips and held her still, elevated over him, their bodies still joined.
“Dom!”
He lifted her off him and tossed her into the covers. Before she bounced, he was on top of her, spreading her thighs with his body to enter her again. With his hands under her ass, he lifted her to take him—all of him. He held her stare, and she didn’t even
try to look away as they thundered toward another blissful end.
Chapter Six
“I feel guilty taking a night off,” she said against Dom’s chest. His hard pec acted as her pillow, rising and falling with his rhythmic breaths. “Do you?”
He grunted. “I might if I wasn’t still riding a high from that last orgasm.”
She bit down on her lip. “What are we doing?”
“Carousing?” His deep, dusky voice raised the fine hairs on her forearms.
“But why?”
“Because it feels good.” He ducked his head and nipped her shoulder, sucking her skin briefly between his lips.
“And you have no regrets?” she asked.
He dropped his head to the pillow. “None. Don’t tell me you do.”
This wouldn’t end well, but she wasn’t ready to leave his bed yet. In fact, Carolee deserved a raise for holding down the fort on such short notice. She simply told Jada to take the night off and enjoy.
He lifted his head and looked at her. “Jada? Are you having regrets?”
She twisted her face against his pec. “I haven’t taken a day off work since I left Crossroads Manor.”
His expression softened, and his eyes warmed in that way that stole her heart from the very beginning. “Grandpa misses you.”
“And I miss him. And all my other patients. I just couldn’t go on losing all my friends, you know? It hurt too much.”
He nodded. “It ain’t easy.”
“Neither is owning a restaurant. I’m constantly worried and anxious that I’m not bringing in enough business or making enough.” She found it difficult to believe she was confiding this to her adversary. He could take the things she said and use them against her or toss them in her face.
Somehow, she felt this pillow talk would go no further than this room.
“I’m the same, you know.” He brushed her hair over her shoulder, raising a shiver in her.
“Do you wake in the night to worry if you’ve paid the bills?”
“Yes.”
She rested her head on his chest again. “That day there was no power, I was convinced for a while that I had failed to pay and they shut me off.”
He chuckled, low and deep. “I thought the same thing.”
For all their differences since their split, they did have so much in common. More now than ever.
Moments passed where she listened to his heart thudding steadily beneath her ear. “Dom?”
“Hmm.” He stirred, moving his hand to her lower back and anchoring her solidly to him.
“Do you think my sign really sucks?”
He made a noise in his throat, as if he cleared it. “I never said it sucks. But it doesn’t reflect you.”
She considered his statement. It was true that Mortimer’s had morphed into more than the barbecue chicken it was famous for in these parts. Maybe she needed to make her sign reflect that change.
“Do you think my sign sucks?” he asked.
She laughed at his question and looked him straight in the eyes. “Yes.”
He chuckled. “Fair enough. It was a bit of an afterthought, but I’ll remedy that soon.”
She propped her chin on her hands and stared at him. He really was the most handsome man she’d ever seen. Too bad this would end the minute she climbed out of his bed and returned to her life. When she ran her fingertip over a bare spot in the beard on his jaw, he tensed.
Her stare flashed to his. “I never noticed this scar before. Is it new?”
“Got it while on the circuit.”
“Bull riding?”
He wouldn’t meet her gaze. “Yeah.”
Sensing there was more, she moved her finger and didn’t pressure him for information. She snuggled against him again. “You never paid me for your delivery.”
His brow hitched up. “You’re right. I’ll have to remedy that too. Maybe you’ll accept partial payment until I can reach my wallet?”
A shiver skated down her spine. “I think I can agree to those terms.”
He rolled her into the sheets and hovered over her to brush his lips tenderly over hers. “Mmm. Tastes like chicken.”
She giggled and smacked at him. “You’re terrible.”
He grew serious as he studied her. “If I hadn’t put my restaurant across the road from yours, you’d still like me.”
“No, if you hadn’t captured my heart and then turned around and dumped me to go to the rodeo, then I’d still like you.”
He sighed. “I deserve that.”
She couldn’t resist the pull of his lips and leaned up to kiss him. The soft flip of her tongue against his drove her crazy.
When he drew away, he stared into her eyes. “Maybe we can come up with some delivery schedule. You come by on Wednesdays.”
“Don’t push it.” She smiled.
“Yeah, I can’t become your regular customer. Imagine what the neighbors would say when they see your purple car parked out in front of my house every night.”
“You said Wednesdays.” She ran her hand down his back to land on his carved buttocks. Damn, the man’s body was a shrine to fitness.
“Oh I did, didn’t I? I just thought it would be so nice to have you in my bed every night. Or I can swing by your place tomorrow night.” He kissed her long and deep. “What do you say?”
She started to automatically agree to his offer but then stopped. “My family’s coming from Florida for a celebratory dinner for my nephew’s birth.”
“Oh well, I’ll bring the ribs.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I’m capable of making my own ribs.”
“Yeah, but you want something good.”
She issued a frustrated scream, and he cracked up laughing. “Maybe we better not talk anymore.”
“That’s right. Just kissin’.”
“Just kissin’.” She slipped her arms around his neck and pulled him down.
* * * * *
Dom pulled a pair of wire snippers from his back pocket and cut the excess barbed wire on the fence. Cort lifted the heavy roll and carried it to the back of his truck parked in the field.
Grabbing the sledgehammer, Dom followed. They placed everything in the truck and then reached for bottles of water. He drank off half his at once before coming up for air.
“Hot, thirsty work.” Cort chugged his too.
Dom nodded and then swiped some perspiration off his brow with the back of his hand. Leaning against the tailgate, he looked at the work they’d done that morning.
“’Preciate you coming out to help me today.” Cort lowered his water from his lips and admired the new line of fence.
“Sure thing. My mornings are free until the restaurant opens, so if you ever need help, give me a jingle.”
“I’ll do that.”
“How’s that son of yours?”
He beamed like the new proud papa he was. “Great. Sleeps a lot except at night. Been a little rough in the mornings to drag myself out of bed.”
“No doubt.”
“We had Joss’s family in to meet CT too, and that drained me. Dinner at Jada’s I thought I’d doze off listening to everyone talk.”
At the mention of Jada, Dom perked up. “Family dinners are good fun, but they can be tedious.”
He nodded and finished his water. He crumpled the bottle and tossed it into the bed of his truck. “Talk about diapers and pacifiers. When to introduce baby food. Then talk turned to Jada. Her restaurant and relationships. Your name came up.”
Dom’s brows shot up. “Mine?”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t realize your in-laws knew Jada and I briefly dated.”
“They know everything. All in-laws do.”
“What was said?” Had she brought him up or did they remember his name?
“Mostly had to do with competing restaurants. But she bit off all her fingernails during the conversation, so I believe she was thinking of something else.”
Dom grunted. “Not much to say about
Jada and me. We don’t see eye-to-eye about barbecue.”
Cort chuckled. “So she said. Anyway, she shut down the topic when her mom mentioned she saw you on TV for a rodeo competition and noticed how cute you are.” Cort stuck his finger into his cheek where a dimple would be if he had one, twisted his finger and gave a cheesy grin.
Dom chuckled. “I’m sure Jada doesn’t think about that when we’re arguing about business and customers. Speaking of, I’d best get cleaned up and head to the restaurant.”
“Yeah, got a long list to complete before Kaoz gives me hell for not keeping up with the ranch.”
They shared a laugh at his slave-driver cousin’s expense, and then they climbed into Cort’s truck and bumped across the field. Dom took in the bright day and thought about Jada talking about him at a family dinner. Oddly satisfying knowing that he’d been there in spirit even if he’d never be invited in person.
But that thought ended up putting him in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Why couldn’t they make it work? Why did they have to be adversaries?
* * * * *
As the van bumped into the parking lot, Jada ran out of the restaurant to greet it. She felt like a child on Christmas morning with her new sign being delivered. She rushed to the parking lot, a grin plastered on her face.
She wouldn’t have considered the new sign if Dom hadn’t gotten her thinking about whether or not it really represented her restaurant anymore. So after spending time with the sign designer, she settled on something brand new but still bearing the Mortimer’s name that was so well known.
The driver climbed out and offered her a smile. “I guess you’re excited to see it.”
“I am!”
He twitched his head toward the back of his van, and she followed him. He opened the doors and grabbed a huge wooden sign wrapped in a layer of protective plastic. He pulled it out of the van and carried it to the spot where the old sign had recently been removed with the help of Cort and Kaoz and in exchange for a roaster chicken each.
The man extracted a utility knife and cut the plastic. As soon as she saw her dream design come to life on the sign, she slapped a hand over her mouth.