by Anya Summers
“It smells great in here. Going somewhere?”
“My brother was in an accident. I need to go check on him,” she explained.
“I’ll drive you,” Dante said, pulling his keys from his pocket.
“You don’t—”
He glared at her with what she was coming to understand was his big bad Dom look. “So help me, if you say I don’t need to go with you, I will turn you over my knee and give you a spanking that you would richly deserve. Until we have this matter with the board under wraps, neither I nor Michael want you going anywhere outside of the penthouse alone.”
She had never even considered that. Fear for her brother had overridden everything else in her mind. “Do you really think someone would make it so that my brother was injured to try and do something to me?”
Dante shrugged as they got into the elevator. “That would be the easiest route. It’s what I would do. Call with a fake emergency, and kidnap you in the parking lot.”
Fear for Alex shot through her. “They wouldn’t take Alex, would they?”
“Doubtful. He would be too much trouble, given his disease. But he could definitely be used as a lure to bring you out into the open. Especially since the call came while I was out. For all we know, the outside of this building could be being monitored. Did you call the facility back?”
“No. I didn’t think about it. I’m sorry, I just… when it comes to Alex…”
“I get it. Why don’t we go, see how he’s doing? It will put your mind at ease,” Dante said, taking her hand in his and leading her out of the elevator toward his vehicle.
“Sorry to be dragging you out when you just got back.”
He circled her waist and kissed her forehead before opening the passenger door for her. She held onto him for a minute. It was nice to lean on him. To know that she could lean on him. Then he released her and walked around to his side.
Climbing in, he leaned across the console and brushed his lips over hers. “It’s no big deal. We’ll go see your brother and then come back. Were you cleaning the penthouse, by the way?” he asked as he started the car and pulled out of the space.
“Yep. The place needed it. We were going to be able to start naming the dust bunnies soon. It had to be done. I had the time. There are a few more things I need to finish. I got the call in the middle of making Michael’s bed. There’s laundry to switch over, and I have fixings to make muffins.”
“You’re not our maid any longer. You do realize that’s not part of your job description.”
“That may be, but I’m living there, and I refuse to live in a pigsty. I mean, have you hired anyone to take over the cleaning?” She shot him an arched look.
“No, we haven’t. We’ve been a little busy,” Dante said, navigating through traffic.
“I know. Which was why I figured it was easier for me to just do it. I’ve got dinner prepped in the fridge. I was going to wait until Monday to take Michael’s clothes to the cleaners. I figured tomorrow, we could go to the grocery store for supplies.”
“It wasn’t a pigsty,” Dante muttered.
“Honey, it was on the way to being just that. What is it with men and not seeing dirt? Besides, it’s done for the most part.”
“I appreciate it. Although, it’s not a requirement. I want to make it clear.”
“I know. But I’m also used to being busy, and I no longer have work to do. I’ve never been one to sit around and binge watch daytime television. Why can’t I be the one to keep our home clean?” she asked, rather disgruntled.
“If that’s what you want. I just figured you might want a break,” Dante said, shooting her a confounded glance.
“Well, I’ve had a break. Besides, I don’t mind cleaning up. You can’t tell me that those sheets in Michael’s bedroom weren’t starting to smell funky.”
Dante scratched his stubble. “Love, I want what you want. If you want to clean house, knock yourself out. I just don’t ever want you to think we’re taking advantage of you.”
“You’re not, and I want to contribute to our home.”
“Fair enough.”
Dante had them at Houmas Assisted Living Facility inside of thirty minutes. He parked the Escalade away from other vehicles, and scouted the area for anyone he deemed suspicious. He walked around the hood of his car and opened her door.
“I doubt anyone would stay around once they saw you,” she said drolly.
“Let’s not leave anything to chance though, shall we?” he said, escorting her into the facility.
At the entrance, the nurse behind the reception desk asked, “Can I help you?”
“Yes, I’d like to see Alex Thomas. I received a call from Vicki Lewis that he’s been injured today. I’m Alex’s sister,” Sabrina explained, and held out her license.
“I’ll let Vicki know you’re here. Give me just one second.” The nurse picked up her phone. Sabrina could hear her speaking quietly through the receiver. “Vicki said to have you go on in, she’ll meet you at his room. Do you remember where it’s at?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Great. Enjoy your visit.” The nurse pressed a button, and the doors unlocked.
Dante beat Sabrina to it, held the door for her, and then kept a hand on her lower back as they walked along the disinfected halls to Alex’s room. At Alex’s room door, Sabrina knocked before pushing it open.
“Alex?” she said warily as she entered.
The curtains were closed, the room darkened. And on the bed, her brother was restrained. About his forehead was a white bandage. His eyes opened, staring at her with the glassy-eyed look she knew well. It meant they’d had to sedate him.
He must have been so scared. She shoved her worry and her tears back. “Hi, sweetheart. I heard you took a bit of a fall and hurt yourself.”
“Cissy!” Alex beamed.
“Yes, it’s me.” She sat on his bed beside him and stroked the side of his face. “How are you feeling?”
“Goose egg on the head. Chasing the mouse in my house.” Alex grinned. “Who’s that man? No man needed here.” He shook his head.
From the foot of the bed, Dante said, “Hi Alex, remember me? I’m a friend of Cissy’s.” He used Alex’s term for Sabrina. “I brought you here with Cissy and Nancy last week.”
“Do you poke at her like the men on the television do? If you poke her, you should marry her,” Alex said, rather seriously.
“Alex,” Sabrina said, horrified at the direction of the conversation.
“It’s all right, love. I’m with your Cissy and will take care of her, promise.”
“By poking at her. Does she cry out like the women on the TV? Do you hurt her when you poke her?” Alex asked, and strained to sit up.
Mortified beyond belief, Sabrina laid a restraining hand on Alex’s shoulder, certain her face was flaming red. Trying to change the subject quickly, she interjected, “Tell me how you fell, Alex. What were you doing?”
“Chasing the damn mouse in my house. It was on the wall, and I climbed up to get it,” Alex stated.
“What were you climbing on?”
“He was on one of the chairs in the common room, Miss Thomas.” A buxom woman in her early fifties walked into the room and turned on the overhead light. “Sorry, I got caught up with another patient. Your brother climbed up on the back of a chair in the common room, it tipped over, and he smacked his head against one of the tables.”
“Why was he left alone?” Sabrina asked. “It’s in his file that he requires supervision out in common areas.”
“We had another patient have a meltdown in the common room. The aides present needed help to sedate them. It was two minutes, tops.”
“But it was enough time for Miss Thomas’s brother to hurt himself,” Dante stated with his arms crossed.
“And you are?” Vicki Lewis asked.
“Sabrina’s significant other. What safeguards are going to be put in place so that this doesn’t happen again?” Dante asked.
A
nd Sabrina, for once in her life, let someone else handle the tough questions. Instead, she sat with Alex and held his hand.
“Well, today we want him to rest, but you’re right. We are working up a plan to make sure that he is never left alone.”
“Is there a reason you were apparently understaffed today? We’re paying a lot to ensure Alex is cared for. If you and this facility cannot do it, we will find another that will suit him and his needs better,” Dante said.
The nurse lifted her hands and said, “I’m not in charge of scheduling, sir.”
“Then we need to go sit down and talk with the director to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Dante demanded with quiet authority.
The nurse sighed and nodded. “Agreed. If you will follow me…”
Dante glanced at Sabrina. “I can take care of this if you’d like.”
“Please. I need to stay with Alex.”
He walked over, leaned down, and kissed her forehead. “Stay here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Dante and the nurse left the room. Sabrina moved her brother’s bed up, so he would be in a sitting position, and opened the curtains to get some light inside his room. She turned the television on. He loved game shows, with all their music and flashing lights.
Guilt swamped her. She hated that she had to leave his care to someone else. That she wasn’t capable enough to look after him herself. She smiled and soothed Alex. When an aide brought in his lunch, she fed him.
When Dante returned, he asked, “How are things going in here?”
Alex had fallen asleep after his lunch, which was normal. And one of the aides who had come in while Dante was gone was sitting on the couch.
“Good. He’ll be out for an hour or two, so we can head home. I’d like to come back tomorrow morning, though. Just to check on him.”
“We can do that,” Dante said, and held out a hand for her to take.
They left the facility and, in his vehicle, she asked, “How did the meeting with the director go?”
“Good. I’ve arranged for Nancy to come work with him again during the day to ensure that he will have someone with him. And then at night, the facility will assign a nurse to check on him every hour.”
“You had them bring Nancy back? But they’re going to charge me for that! I’ll pay for her, but…”
“It’s already taken care of and paid for, you don’t have to worry about a thing. You aren’t alone in this fight anymore.”
“What do you mean, it’s already done? You paid for it… but Dante…” Then words failed her.
His gaze never wavered, and was chock full of intensity, and downright possessive. “I take care of what’s mine. And make no mistake, you belong to Michael and me. When I said you were ours, I meant it.”
Sabrina couldn’t help it. Overcome, she burst into tears from the stress of worry for her brother. Dante’s generosity, all of it, left her a sobbing mess. In all her life, no one had looked out for her this way.
Dante slammed the vehicle into park, hopped out, yanked open the passenger side door, and pulled a weeping Sabrina into his arms.
“Just hang on to me, love.” He pressed his lips against her forehead, then trod the short distance to the elevator.
In the penthouse, he walked to the nearest Chesterfield sofa, sat, and just held her while she cried. “Let it all out,” he soothed.
She clung to him and sobbed in a way that broke his heart. Their Sabrina had been put through the wringer for most of her life. She was bound to break eventually. “Hush now, love. Everything is going to be all right. I’ve got you.”
“I don’t know why I’m crying. I just don’t know what I did to deserve you. I love you. I love you both so much,” she sobbed.
Warmth spread through Dante at hearing the words he had longed to hear her say but worried he was the one moving too fast. “Say it again, and this time could you look at me when you do?”
He wiped the tears from her cheeks and stared into her eyes, red rimmed with tears.
“I love you, Dante. I know it’s fast and it’s—”
“Perfect. You’re perfect. And timing doesn’t mean a thing when it’s right. Because I happen to be madly in love with you.”
“You are?” Her bottom lip quivered, and fresh tears began to fall.
“With every fiber of my being, love,” he said tenderly, wiping at her tears.
Her face fell. “I love Michael too. I hope, I mean… it doesn’t mean I love you any less. And I know it’s complicated, and I never thought I would love one man, let alone two.”
“Sabrina, you’re ours, and I think I can speak for Michael when I say he will be thrilled. How could he not?” Dante planned to have a little chat with his best friend to make sure he was going to get on board. Because if Michael hurt her in any way… still, that discussion was for a later time.
“I never thought anyone would love me. Not really. I’ve never been on a date until Michael took me out.”
“Is that right? Well, we can fix that. Although, until this business with Michael’s company is done, we’ll have to do it here. Or perhaps at the mansion one night. But for now…”
“Yes?” She worried her bottom lip.
“I’m taking you to bed.”
“It’s not made.”
“I’ll take you to mine then. We can make the other one later. Right now, I need you naked, and I need to love you.” He waggled his eyebrows, getting a laugh out of her, which had been his intent.
Dante rose with her in his arms, and carried her past the kitchen and down the hall to his bedroom. Thankfully, he was an organized soul, and even though they had been using Michael’s bigger room and bed, his was also a decent size, and clean.
“Do you miss having your own bed?”
“Nope. Whichever one you are in, that’s where I belong.” He set her down and told her, “Strip, and lie back for me, love.”
Neither of them questioned that it was the middle of the day, or that they were spending it in bed together. Dante could see how it would be once they moved past the business with Michael’s company. Dante worked, and worked hard, but it was his weekends that were typically booked, with him moving between both clubs. He could see himself having Sabrina all to himself on weekdays. She would be with Michael on the weekends while he worked. And then at night, they would all come together.
From his wooden chest, he withdrew some leather leg straps and Velcro restraints. By the time he had them out, Sabrina was lying supine in the middle of his bed, and he knew he had never seen a lovelier sight.
Dante started with the Velcro restraints, connecting them to loops on his headboard. With her arms above her head, her breasts were lifted up. The nipples were beaded into hard points. He tweaked one, enjoying the hiss she emitted.
Then he stripped and joined her on the bed, between her legs. Picking up one delicate foot, he fit the leather strap around her thigh, bringing her heel and calf up so that they were flush together. He did the same with her other leg, and by the time he was finished, she was in frog pose, with her pelvis tilted up slightly.
“You look lovely. Is all that cream I see for me, love?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Good. Because I plan to feast. Come as much as you need to.” He kissed her on the lips, but it was a quick, torrid affair that left them both breathing heavily.
He teased her nipples, sucking one into his mouth while he kneaded its twin. He wanted her so aroused that she was coming apart for him. It was how he could show her exactly what she meant to him.
He laved her nipples, sucking harshly until she cried out and the nipple pointed toward the ceiling. Then he bit down, hard, pleased when her eyes glazed over and went almost blind with pleasure.
Dante left a trail of kisses down her abdomen, marking her as he went. He needed to put his mark on her. She loved him. It was something he’d longed for, and had never thought he would be lucky enough to get. Not really.
And if Michael turne
d away from Sabrina, Dante would love her enough for the both of them. It would kill him to leave his best friend. But he needed Sabrina, needed to see his child at her breast. Needed to bind her to him in every way possible.
Sabrina moaned at the first touch of Dante’s tongue against her slit. The way he had her restrained, there was nothing she could do but enjoy it, enjoy the pleasure he heaped on her as he gave her oral. And good god, but the man had a talented tongue. He knew just the right amount of pressure to add with his stroking, seeking tongue, to the flicks against her clit, to the torture of circling the bud until it ripened and swelled from beneath her hood until it was so sensitive, the slightest touch left her shaking and needy.
He didn’t relent or stop as he loved her. And he did—he loved her. Sabrina wanted to crow with delight. She wanted to shout it from the rooftops. She’d never figured anyone would love her. When she had made the deal with them, her only thought had been taking care of Alex.
But she hadn’t counted on the secret fascination she had always had for these two alphas. That the moment they touched her, it would spark what had been inside her heart all along. She sank into the heat and the longing, and let her love for Dante shine.
And she did love both of them. Thank goodness Dante loved her back, because she knew that Michael doubted her. She didn’t blame him, because she understood it.
Dante stabbed his tongue into her weeping channel, and she came apart.
“Dante!” she cried out, her back arching as the orgasm barreled through her and left her quaking beneath his talented mouth. But he was in a greedy mood, it seemed. He took her body up again and again, until her pussy was so swollen, she ached.
“Please, Sir, please. I need you.”
Dante lifted his mouth from her pussy, his chin coated with her cream. He rose and positioned his cock at her swollen entrance.
“Tell me again,” he demanded, pressing the tip inside her sheath.
“I love you,” she said raggedly.
On a groan, he thrust. “Take it, take me, all of me.”
Her body welcomed him, reveled in the way he stretched her sensitive tissues. He propped himself up on his elbows. “I love you, Sabrina. Never doubt that.”