Michelle stopped talking in mid-sentence. She suddenly studied her sister. Oh, mercy, she thought as she watched the way Dominique suddenly became nervous under her close scrutiny. “You did do it! You slept with that guy, didn’t you?”
Dominique glared at Michelle. “That is none of your business.”
Michelle glared back. “I’m making it my business, since you decided to come here instead of going home.” A horrible thought then flashed through her mind combined with a look of sheer mortification. “Oh my goodness! What did he do? Force you into performing some sort of kinky sex?”
“Michelle,” Dominique chided gently, remembering just how dramatic her sister could get. While she and her sister were growing up, her parents and grandparents always referred to Michelle as the drama queen. “Jordan did not force me to do anything I didn’t want to do.”
“But you’re admitting that the two of you did do something kinky?”
Dominique tipped her head back and stared at the ceiling. Lord, please give me strength. She then looked back at Michelle. She refused to think of what she and Jordan had done in the workout room as kinky. If the two of them never spoke again, she would still always think of that time as something pretty damn special. “No, we did not do anything kinky.”
“But you are admitting to having slept with him today?”
Knowing Michelle was like a dog with a bone who wouldn’t let up until her curiosity or nosiness was appeased, she said. “Yes, Jordan and I slept together.”
“And?”
Dominique squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she didn’t have to tell Michelle anything, but knowing deep down she wanted to tell someone, and like it or not, her sister was also her best friend. She opened her eyes. “And he bragged about it afterwards to someone on the phone.”
Michelle’s eyes widened. “You mean he actually had loose lips?” she asked in astonishment. “He’s actually the type to kiss and tell or in this case, one who bangs then sings?”
At Dominique’s nod Michelle became livid. “How dare he! The dog! Who did he call? The Tattler?”
Dominique raised a dark brow. The Tattler was their local tabloid that exploited everybody’s business. They had done a hatchet job on her last year when she had called off her wedding to Kenneth. Within twenty-four hours everyone in Orlando and the surrounding counties knew that Kenneth had screwed around on her. “No, I believe that he was talking to another guy.”
Michelle snorted. “Probably that good-looking attorney friend of his name Royce Parker. The two of them were probably comparing notes about the women they screwed today.”
Dominique sighed, deciding she had told Michelle enough and didn’t want to talk about it any longer. “Look, I’m not in the mood to go back home tonight. Do you have a problem with me spending the night over here?”
“Of course not. If you want me to I can change my plans and not go to Chimeka’s house warming party.”
Dominique shook her head. “No, you should go. I’ll be fine. Besides, I want to be alone for a while.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Just promise me you won’t say anything to the family about this.”
“Of course I won’t, Dom. Is there anything you need?”
Fresh tears appeared in Dominique’s eyes, although she tried fighting them back. She had sworn after Kenneth that no other man would make her cry. She looked over at her sister sadly. “I could really use a hug right now.”
Michelle quickly crossed the room and gave Dominique the hug she needed.
Twelve
Jordan crawled in bed that night madder than hell. He had gone directly to Dominique’s house after reading her note, only to discover she wasn’t there. He had sat in his car for over five hours waiting for her to come home and she never did. In fact, he had just returned from her place and she wasn’t there. His anger had started turning into worry.
He had called directory assistant to obtain her sister’s phone number, only to be told the home phone number for Michelle Kincaid was unlisted. In a frantic he had called Royce, who within minutes had gotten Michelle’s private number from a woman he used to date who worked for the phone company.
He had call Dominique’s sister’s home, only to be royally told off by Michelle once he had identified himself. She had told him the same thing Dominique had written on the note, “Go to hell”, but that was only after she had called him a number of not-so-nice names. With an order that he not call back, she had hung up on him.
He was so angry he was seeing fire. Come hell or high water, he intended to get to the bottom of what was going on. Starting first thing in the morning he would camp out on Dominique’s door steps if he had to. She had to come home at some point in time. She couldn’t stay away forever.
As he moved around in his bed trying to find a comfortable spot, he breathed into his lungs her feminine scent that was now drenched in his bed linens. The smell of sex still lingered in the air. They had made love too many times that day in his bedroom for it not to. For a while it seemed like he was superglued between her legs. No sooner had they recovered from one orgasm then they had started working on another. Hell, at one point he’d even had a few multiple ones, which was something that had never happened to him before. But being inside of Dominique’s snug, tight, and hot body had almost driven him insane.
He shook his head, thrown for an emotional loop. What could have possibly gone wrong? Had she awaken and regretted what they had done? No, that couldn’t be right, because he knew for a fact that she had enjoyed their lovemaking as much as he had.
Had it been the number of times that they had made love? Had the realization scared her senseless when she’d taken the time to think about it? They had made love more times in one day than some married couples did all year. But he hadn’t forced her, and again, she seemed to have enjoyed it as much as he did, so that excuse wouldn’t wash with him.
He sighed deeply as he stared up at the ceiling. He knew her body had to be sore. Did she blame him for that? He levered himself up on his side and thought about it. He had been rather greedy, but again, she could have stopped him at any time. Besides, even if that was the reason she had left – so he wouldn’t make love to her any more that day — that was no reason to write what she did on that note. The words she had written seemed so out of character for her. A part of him knew she must have really been driven by a high degree of anger to write such a thing. And the question was, Just what in the hell was she mad about?
He remembered Royce telling him once how a woman had gotten really made at him about finding another woman’s undies under his bed. Since no other woman had ever shared this bed, or had even been in his bedroom, for that matter, he felt certain she hadn’t found another woman’s underwear or anything else that could have set her off.
Finally finding a comfortable position in bed, he stopped fighting against the sleep he needed. He loved Dominique and he had to believe that no matter what the problem was between them, it could be worked out.
Early the next morning Jordan arrived at Dominique’s apartment. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her car. As far as he was concerned, she had a lot of explaining to do. Since he had called her practically all night, he could only assume she had just gotten home.
He hadn’t gotten much sleep last night and was irritated as hell. And on top of that, he hadn’t been able to eat, which had him agitated as sin. For a Prescott, a combination of irritation and agitation was deadly. So the way he saw it, Dominique had better have a lot to say in her defense and most of it had better sound good.
He knocked on the door and it was snatched open immediately.
“Michelle, I told you that I would be—”
She stopped talking in mid-sentence when she saw it was him and not her sister. Not waiting for her to invite him in, just in case she had a mind not to, he walked in and ignored the way she slammed the door shut behind him. “I don’t like disappearing acts, Dominique,” he said gruffly, turni
ng to face her and trying to keep anger simmering inside of him under control. “You owe me an explanation.”
“I don’t owe you anything and I want you to leave.”
“Not until you tell me why you left without saying you were gone and then leave me such a hateful note.”
Dominique placed her hand on her hips. “You better be glad that’s all I left.”
Scowling, Jordan lifted a dark brow. “When did you become such a hellion?”
“About the same time you became a damn jerk.”
Slowly, still struggling to keep his anger under control, he stared at her for the longest time without saying anything. She stared right back.
A few moments later, he sighed in frustration. They weren’t getting anywhere. “Dominique, I--”
“What are you doing here, Jordan?” she interrupted whatever he was about to say as she tried to hold on to her composure. “Haven’t you done enough?”
Her questions had a staggering effect. Jordan studied and wondered if all their lovemaking yesterday had sent her to the emergency room or something. Had making love to her all those times with such intensity hurt her in some way physically?
Not knowing the answer to that question he leaned forward and asked softly. “Did I hurt you yesterday?” His voice filled with the same deep concern that was reflected in his eyes. He lifted his hand to gently rub his finger across her cheek.
Dominique drew in a shuddering breath from his touch, mesmerized by the intensity of his care and concern. Thinking he was referring to the phone call she had overheard, she responded quietly. “How could you think you had not hurt me?”
The distress and regret in his features were evident with her response. “You were at the hospital all this time?”
Dominique’s eyes glittered in confusion. “The hospital?”
“Yes.”
“Why would I have gone to the hospital?”
Now it was Jordan’s time to look confused. “You just said I had hurt you.”
Dominique shook her head. Clearly they weren’t on the same page. “Just what kind of hurt are you talking about?”
Jordan lifted a brow. “What kind of hurt are you talking about?”
Dominique glared at him. “Like you don’t know,” she snapped.
Jordan shook his head in frustration. “I don’t know, Dominique.”
“Then I suggest you go home and try to figure it out.”
Jordan met her glare. “I’m not going anywhere until we get this cleared up,” he snapped, finally losing it. “You and I are going to talk.”
Dominique crossed her arms over her chest. “We have nothing to say.”
“The hell we don’t,” Jordan said, crossing his arms over his chest as well.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, why can’t you—“
She never finished her statement because Jordan pulled her into his arms and began kissing her, and her treacherous body let him; and actually enjoyed it as his tongue mated with hers.
When he finally ended the kiss, she regained her senses and tried pulling away from him.
“I’m not letting you go. We’re having this out, baby. Here and now. I’m not going to lose another night’s sleep or miss another meal because of you.”
“Oh, your conscience is bothering you now, huh?” she snapped.
“Among other things,” he said thinking of how his body was aching for her.
She noted his arousal and lifted her chin and glared at him. “You’re nothing but an animal.”
He leaned against the door with his arms crossed over his chest. “Then I guess that makes you an animal’s woman.”
“I am not your woman!”
“Oh, yes you are. My brand is all over you, sweetheart. Have you taken a good look at your neck lately? And I’m sure if you were to take off your clothes you would find a number of other such marks over your body.”
Dominique stared at him, her face flush. “And to think that I thought you were special.”
He heard the pain as well as the disappointment in her voice and it cut him to the core. “And I thought you were special, too. I still do. I think you are very special. Nothing and no one will ever change my thinking on that.”
Dominique turned away from him, refusing to let him see the tears that had come into her eyes. But she knew she had not been quick enough and that he had seen them anyway. She suddenly felt the heat of him directly behind her.
Wanting him to know that she knew the truth she turned to him and looked up at him, not caring that he saw the hurt in her features. “If you thought I was so special why did you tell?”
Very gently he asked. “Why did I tell what?”
“Why did you tell what we did?”
For the longest time he looked at her, trying to figure out what she was talking about then said. “I didn’t tell anyone what we did. It was private and between us.”
A single tear dropped from her eye. “I heard you, Jordan. I heard you talking on the phone. I heard what you said.”
For the life of him Jordan still didn’t have a clue as to what she was talking about. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at her, studying the tears in her eyes. “Okay, if you heard then tell me what I said.”
Dominique closed her eyes as the memory of his words brought her more pain. Moments later she opened them. If he wanted to play dumb he would do so by himself. “You know what you said.”
He reached out and gently pulled her to him. “No, sweetheart, honestly I don’t.”
Dominique glared at him. “Then by all means let me refresh your memory. You told whomever it was that you were talking with on the phone while standing in your kitchen that, and I quote as best I can . . . she was something else and I got just what I wanted and it was well worth the wait and that it wouldn’t bother you in the least if you didn’t see me again.”
Jordan frowned but didn’t say anything. He kept looking at Dominique. In fact he went so far as to tilt his head to the side as he continued to stare at her. When he still didn’t say anything, she said, “Does that ring any bells now?”
“Yes.”
He watched as her shoulders drooped. “And after eavesdropping on that conversation, only part of it I might add, you assumed I was discussing you?” he asked quietly.
“Yes, weren’t you?”
“No.”
“And you expect me to believe that?”
“Yes. Had you hung around yesterday instead of jumping to your own conclusions, you would have known the person I was talking to on the phone was another attorney who is working on the same case that I am. The person I was talking about was a client’s wife who has been a pain in the rear-end. For the past six months she’s been fighting the petition for divorce and denying her husband’s claim that she was having an affair. Well, information I received yesterday from a courier while you were asleep indicated she’d been lying through her teeth and wasting all of our time. All I was doing was letting this other attorney know that from the photographs my private investigator had given me, that the woman was something else; and saying it was well worth the wait, merely meant that I had been waiting to expose her for the adulterer she was; and saying that it wouldn’t bother me in the least if I never saw her again meant just that, considering all the hell she’s put my client through.”
Dominique swallowed. She hated admitting it but his explanation was plausible. “And it wasn’t about me?”
That single question, after what he’d just explained, set him off. “I just said it wasn’t, Dominique. In fact, I’m highly pissed that you would think that I would tell anyone about what we did. What kind of person do you think I am? You certainly don’t hold me in high esteem.”
She could see the hurt in his eyes and it took her back. It also made her realize that she had been wrong about him. “Well, what was I to think?”
He moved closer to her. “You were to think, after everything that we shared, that I could not in any way say those things about you.
But instead you lumped me into the same category as your ex-fiancé and took your role as judge to the hilt by being both judge and jury. And personally, I don’t appreciate you doing that.”
“Jordan, I –”
“No, I think you’ve said enough and it’s nice to know what you think of me.” He turned to leave.
“Jordan, wait!” When he stopped walking but didn’t turn around she said. “I’m sorry, I made a mistake. I jumped to the wrong conclusions. It’s hard for me to accept things at face value sometimes. I overreacted when I should not have.”
He turned around. “No, you shouldn’t have.”
“It’s hard for me to trust men.”
“I can see that. But I’m not just any man, Dominique. I’m the man who became a part of you yesterday in the most elemental way. The man who had to talk himself out of deliberately getting you pregnant, and last but not least, I’m the man who loves you.”
Dominique froze in place. Her gaze searched his. “You love me?”
“Yes, but I guess you’re not going to believe that either. You’re going to tell me that you don’t believe anyone can fall in love with another person that quickly.
New tears burned Dominique’s eyes. “No, I’m not going to tell you that because it happened to me.”
When she saw the uplifting of his brow she said. “I love you, too, Jordan. That’s why I hurt so bad when I thought all I was to you was a conquest to boast about.”
Jordan reached out and pulled her into his arms. “You were wrong, baby. But I guess when I think about it, I can’t expect you to trust me blindly since we haven’t really spent a lot of time together. I suggest we fix that. I want us to start spending more time together, building a stronger relationship between us so nothing like this will happen again.”
ALL HE DESIRES (Voluptuous Woman Series) Page 9