“We hurt each other.” Colby gulped down her tears and shrugged her shoulder up to wipe her damp cheek. “Running away was stupid—it could’ve turned out so terrible. But it taught me to rely on myself. To fight for what I want. To trust myself.”
“And no one else,” Dominic finished, and all the words dried up in Colby’s throat. All she could do was nod.
“I, too, learned the lesson that what I wanted and needed was not just unimportant to my father—it was bad. Wrong. And I believed that for a long time. Until you came along.”
Colby shook her head, overwhelmed, but Dominic pushed away from the doorjamb and held out his hand. He approached her like a hunter stalking down a deer, intent and patient. “Yes,” he persisted. “You reminded me of who I am, the parts I had been concealing for so long. And what I felt for you was so strong, so undeniable—I had to learn how not to deny those secret parts.”
“I lied to you,” she said, desperate to remind him of the reality of this situation. “I made a fool of you. I could have told you the truth before we kissed, before we touched, before I sucked your dick. But I didn’t.”
“No.” The anger Dominic had clearly displayed earlier in the Maison kitchen was gone, wiped clean like a gleaming marble countertop, and Colby couldn’t get her bearings. “You didn’t make things easy for me. Instead, you brought me back to myself, Colby. And you gave me the guts to stand up and let myself be truly seen by my brother—who embraced me after you left. Marc loves me for who I am.”
The slap of relief mixed with a tinge of envy nearly knocked Colby over. “I’m glad,” she told him honestly. “Really. That’s great.”
Dominic shrugged one shoulder, more at peace than she’d ever seen him. “My father is another story, but I have my own life now. He doesn’t hold the same sway over me that he once did—and I will not choose to remain invisible, simply to make him happy.”
“That...is amazing.” Colby swayed on her feet. “You’re amazing. Every part of you.”
For the first time, frustration roughened Dominic’s voice. “But don’t you see—you are the reason for all of it. Without you, I would have stayed blind to myself and invisible to the world. Because of you, I know who I am. And I am proud to claim it.”
She shook her head again, the weight of a hundred bad decisions and wrong turns bearing down on her, but suddenly Dominic was there, his large, warm hands seizing her shoulders and forcing her to meet his intense gaze.
“Why can you not believe your part in this?” he demanded. “Why did you run from me at Maison, when I told you—when I told everyone—that I’d fallen for you?”
“Because it’s not possible that I can just have everything I want, after what I’ve done! I came here to prove a point, and to get Eva Jansen’s attention.”
“Which you now have,” Dominic pointed out. “She wants to see more from you. I’ll be very surprised if she doesn’t offer you the new restaurant herself.”
“That’s insane. But it’s not even the most insane part. Because there’s you! After the way I lied to you, the way I let you open up to me without telling you the truth about myself...I don’t know how you can stand to look at me. I hate myself.”
“But I don’t hate you. I want to get to know you, the real you. Why is that so impossible to believe?”
“Because things like this don’t happen to me,” she cried, pushed past all endurance. “I have fought and bled for everything in my life, every scrap of success, every night of security, every hope for the future. Nothing good gets handed to me. Ever.”
His hands slid up to frame her jaw, making her feel shockingly fragile. “That’s not all. Tell me.”
Goaded, Colby blurted out, “And I’m terrified of what it would mean if I believed you—and it wasn’t real.”
“It’s real.” Dominic’s thumbs stroked her cheeks, sending shivery memories dancing over her skin. “I can prove it to you.”
She gripped his sturdy wrists, fingers tight around the solid strength of his bones. He was here. He’d found her. He wasn’t letting her go.
It was the biggest leap of faith she’d ever made when Colby parted her lips and breathed, “Okay. Make me believe it.”
Chapter Eleven
Dominic stared down at the woman in his arms and wondered how he hadn’t realized she was a woman. The sweep of her lashes, the delicacy of her bones, the lush sweetness of her mouth. But then she moved closer, all heat and want and eager, searching kiss, and Dominic knew it didn’t matter.
Colby St. James was a force of nature. And she got him hotter than he’d ever been in his life.
His blood simmered and his fingers itched to map the lines of her body. He hadn’t gotten to feel enough of her skin the night before.
Of course, now he knew why. The kiss went deep and ravenous between one heartbeat and the next, the connection between them flaring to life and prompting Dominic to guide Colby backward toward the convenient futon.
“Wait,” she gasped, pulling away.
Unacceptable. Now that Dom had his hands on her, he had no interest in letting her go. “What now?” he growled, skimming his fingers up her sides and delighting in the way she quivered to the touch.
“I think we should get undressed. Don’t you want to see what I’ve been hiding under my clothes all this time?”
Dom’s cock gave an insistent throb. He did. He very much did. But there was a tension in her voice, and nervous lines gathering between her brows that made him pause. “We don’t have to. Maybe things are moving a little fast.”
Colby arched a brow. “Dominic. I had your cock down my throat last night, and loved it. Little late to slow down now, dontcha think?”
Merde. Dominic felt his way forward, deeply conscious of the fact that this was uncharted territory for both of them. “I loved it, too. But perhaps last night, while it was probably the most intense, fulfilling erotic act of my life...wasn’t as intimate as what we are doing now. I would understand if you wanted to slow down.”
The quick rise and fall of Colby’s chest told Dom he was on to something. “Okay. Maybe you’re right. I mean, we’ve only known each other for, like, a week! This is all crazy, and I’m definitely freaking out. But I need to do this. I need to be naked, all the way—no more disguises, no more lies, nothing but truth between us. I have to strip down to the bare essentials and find out if you still want me.”
For the second time that morning, the sheer bravery of this woman clutched at Dom’s chest. In answer, he pulled off his blue henley shirt and dropped it onto the pile of clothes haphazardly strewn across the futon. Colby’s eyes glazed over a little, in a very flattering way, as Dom’s hands went to the button fly of his black jeans.
“Nothing but truth between us,” he repeated like a promise.
Colby’s slim throat moved as she swallowed, but she didn’t hesitate. In the same quick motion she’d used that morning to unveil herself in the kitchen, she grabbed the hem of her tank top and drew it up over her head. A white cotton bra, the kind that was more athletic than aesthetic, covered her small breasts—but without taking her eyes from Dominic’s face, Colby tucked her fingers under the edge of the elastic and peeled it off.
Dom’s mouth watered. He had to clench his fists to keep from reaching for her and stripping her the rest of the way himself. “Now you have to slow down. Please.”
She froze with her elastic-waisted chef pants halfway down her hips, exposing her flat belly and the sharp jut of her hipbones. “Why?”
“Because I need to calm down or I’m going to come in my pants like a teenager.”
His words made her smile—or maybe it was the mouth-watering lust Dom wasn’t even trying to conceal. “Oh,” she said, pausing with her elastic-waisted checked pants halfway down her hips. “You need a break? I can stop.”
“
No one said stop. I never said stop.” Was that his voice? It sounded as if he’d been gargling gravel. His gaze was fixed on her flat belly, smooth and pale. He wanted to tuck his tongue into the shallow indent of her navel, to cup his palms over the sharp jut of her hipbones.
Slowly, teasingly, Colby shoved the pants down farther, exposing the top of a pair of...Dominic’s dick twitched. She was wearing men’s underwear. White cotton briefs with the familiar front pouch framed by the Y-shaped seam. They weren’t cut high over her slender thighs—they weren’t tight or suggestive or see-through or lacy or any of the things he was used to seeing on a woman’s body.
But they were undoubtedly the sexiest thing he’d ever encountered.
Colby St. James, with her short, punky blond hair, high, round breasts capped with tiny pink nipples, the undeniably feminine curve of her slim hips—and those briefs. Silence stretched while his head spun, and a hint of uncertainty returned to Colby’s demeanor.
“I had to wear them,” she explained, plucking awkwardly at the loose material in the front of the underwear. “For the sock roll, you know. To give me a bulge.”
Dominic manfully resisted the urge to adjust his own bulge. “They look good.”
Her head came up, eyes narrowing at the fervency of his voice. “Seriously? I mean, they’re kind of crazy comfortable. But they’re not very girly. Maybe you like that, though.”
Dominic shook his head. “I like them on you,” he told her honestly, not sure how to explain the way the contrast of her obviously feminine body with the boyish white briefs made Dom’s head swim with lust.
“You know there’s nothing under them, right?” She lifted her chin in a clear challenge, but there was vulnerability glinting in her blue eyes. “You’re prepared.”
“Oh, no,” Dominic disagreed, “there is something under those briefs. Something I want to see, very much.”
Defiant to the last, Colby huffed out a breath and whipped the underwear down her legs and kicked them aside before standing straight and unashamed, bare to Dominic’s consuming gaze.
He stared for long, breathless moments, eating her with his eyes—the subtle flare of her hips, the springy coils of golden fleece covering her pubic mound, the shadowy hint of the dark delights between her thighs.
“No more secrets,” she said, her voice a thin thread in the quiet room. “Be honest. Is this okay?”
In answer, Dominic shoved down his own pants and underwear together, so quickly that his hard, straining erection slapped against his belly as he stepped out of the clothes.
Colby’s eyes dropped to the solid proof of his voracious hunger for her, and her tongue darted out to lick her lips. Dominic groaned at the sight, tensing like a runner at the starting block, every inch of him dying to slam their bodies together.
“Hmm. Looks like you want something. What do you want?” She smiled, a spark of that sexy confidence returning. “You can have anything.”
Anything. Dominic’s mind reeled with erotic possibilities. On the floor, bent over the futon, his tongue licking into her, his fingers parting her folds, his cock buried in her mouth...he wanted everything.
It was dizzying. Explosive. And impossible—unless he convinced her that sometimes, good things happened. And that she deserved them.
Stalking closer, Dominic circled her naked form, surveying her from every angle, but he didn’t allow himself to touch. Not yet. If he touched her now, he’d lose the power of speech and persuasive, rational thought.
“What do I want?” His gaze traveled the line of her spine to the cleft of her ripe buttocks. “I want to explore you like an undiscovered country. I want to see every part of you, know every part of you, inside and out. And I want you to know me the same way.”
“I don’t understand how this happened.” The bewilderment in her voice made him want to fold her in his arms and protect her from the world. “We’ve known each other for a hot minute. And for most of that minute, you didn’t know I was a woman!”
Dominic faced her again, studying her almost pleading expression. “But I knew you were talented. Brave. Generous. A leader. A fighter. A survivor. A cocky smartass. Being female changes none of those things—and those were the things that drew me to you so strongly that I let you in. Closer than anyone in my adult life. In the space of mere days, you already know me better than anyone on earth...imagine what we could do with more time.”
He heard the catch in her breath, saw it echoed in the hitching rise of her small, firm breasts. “This is crazy. I have a life in DC, I should go back...”
But she didn’t sound convinced and Dominic’s chest swelled with hope. Finally giving in to the uncontrollable urge, he lifted his hands to her creamy bare shoulders. “Is that what you want? Because I know you, too, Colby. You told me you learned to fight for what you want. And you want me—you want us. So fight for it.”
With a low, almost wounded cry, Colby surged up and captured Dom’s mouth in a frantic, stinging kiss. He got his hands under her ass and hauled her up, crushing the iron rod of his cock against her smooth abdomen. Winding her arms around his neck, Colby lifted herself even higher, wrapping those long, athlete’s legs around his waist. They both gasped when her soft pubic hair tangled with the trail leading from Dom’s navel to his erection.
She was splayed open against him, the molten softness of her core burning into his stomach like a brand. Her nipples were tight points dragging through his chest hair. Dominic was drunk on the feel of her, the smell of her arousal and the tantalizing brush of her sex so close to his bobbing erection.
“Do you believe me now?” he growled, the words torn from someplace so deep in his chest, it felt like part of his soul came with them.
“Believe?” Colby gasped, frotting herself mindlessly against him, the friction so good it made them both shudder.
Dom fitted his hands to her hips, his thumbs finding the divots above her pelvis like a key sliding into a lock. With everything in him, Dominic ached to lift her up and plunge her down over his prick. He could imagine the heat, the softness, the internal clasp of her muscles. He wanted to fill her up, to invade every part of her and make her his.
But first, he had to know.
“I want you. This is real. You must believe me.”
Her head fell back on a gasp, her thighs tightening at his waist and driving him crazy. “I do. I don’t understand it, but I believe it. I trust you.”
Triumph cascaded through his system like a shower of shooting stars. “Then you’ll stay,” he commanded. “Stay in New York. Stay with me. Stay and find out what kind of life you can have here, and what we can be to each other.”
She moaned and squirmed a little more desperately. “If I say yes, will you finally make love to me?”
Dom’s heart thudded painfully. “If you stay, I’ll take you to bed. But Colby...” He swallowed, struggling with the words locked in his throat. “It has to be more than that.”
She opened her eyes and raised her head, nuzzling in so close to Dom’s face that their noses were touching. Her eyes were clear blue, with a darker ring around the iris that he’d never noticed before.
There was still so much to discover about Colby.
“Dom,” she breathed. “It’s more. Or I think, it could be. It will be. It only needs time.”
“And you will give us that time, by staying here.” His hands clamped down possessively. Stubbornly. But Colby didn’t seem to mind.
A slow smile stretched across her face and it was like seeing the sun edge up over the horizon at dawn. It was a smile for new beginnings, new possibilities, a new life. Together.
“I’ll stay.”
* * * * *
About the Author
Louisa Edwards worked as a restaurant reviewer, a waitress and behind the counter at a bakery before she decided to
unite her lifelong passions for romance novels and food by writing contemporary romances full of smokin’ hot chefs, independent women and original recipes. She currently lives in Austin with her husband and two terriers. She is also the author of the Sanctuary Island series under the pseudonym Lily Everett. You can find more about Louisa and her books at louisaedwards.com.
Sexy, contemporary romance stories
for today’s fun, fearless female.
On sale March 10, 2015
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Exposed by Zoey Williams
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ISBN-13: 9781460382547
UNDER HER CLOTHES
Copyright © 2015 by Louisa Edwards
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Under Her Clothes Page 10