by Lee Piper
Bloody hell,
“Angel?”
My eyes popped open and I swear he read every filthy thought running through my mind like they were projected onto a big screen.
Dominic’s grip on my hips tightened in warning. “Don’t look at me like that.”
But for the life of me, I could not stop. So I continued, mesmerized by the droplets of water trickling down his face until they gathered on his bottom lip. I wanted to lick them off with my tongue, one by one.
I wondered if they would taste salty, like his skin.
He shifted beneath me and I felt his hardening erection. If I leaned forward slightly it would, by pure accident, rub against my exposed clit. I bit back a moan.
“Dominic,” I whispered. “I just—” I moved until my face was a hairsbreadth away from his, my eyes trained on his mouth. “I need to kiss you.”
Dominic groaned and then swore. When he next spoke his voice sounded broken. “Angel, I can’t. You know the rules, I can’t fuck you again.”
“Shhh,” I crooned, before darting my tongue out and licking the water droplets off his full lips.
He hissed.
Dominic tasted like heaven, absolutely divine. “I didn’t say anything about fucking. It’s just a kiss, nothing more.”
But I was lying.
Oh, boy, was I lying through my teeth. And as soon as our mouths touched, he knew it too. Only, by then it was too late. The spark ignited, the flame caught, and an inferno engulfed us both.
Chapter Sixteen
This emotion hurts deeper,
And when I hold on,
We feel here in this moment,
All we’ve wanted for so long.
—MONDEZ, “Moments”
Dominic was the first to pull away. He pressed his forehead against mine, breathing heavily. “What the fuck are you doing to me? You’re breaking me, Riley. You’re tearing me apart.”
I shook my head, pushing my breasts against his chest, needing to get closer, inside him somehow. It seemed to be the only place I felt sane.
He reached out and skimmed calloused fingers down my face until they brushed over my swollen and bruised lips. After gathering the droplets of water that gathered there, he then placed his fingertips in his mouth and sucked.
Sweet Lord.
I couldn’t look away if I tried. Instead, I found myself squirming on his lap until he let out a low growl. Was it a warning? A promise? I couldn’t say, though God and sundry knew what I wanted to happen within the next five minutes. Rules, anxiety, and future complications be damned, I was all in.
“I want you,” I murmured, for once not surprised by my brazenness. For some reason, Dominic brought out the truth in me, plain and simple. And in that moment there was nothing I craved more than the feel of him inside me once again.
“I think about you,” I continued, watching his eyes grow darker with each word. “All the time. I think of us together, like this.”
His pupils fully dilated. Not gonna lie, the effect I had on him felt pretty damn good.
“Angel, there’s nothing I want more than to be balls deep inside you right now. I want to fuck your sweet pussy until it milks my cock, I want to hear you scream my name, but I can’t, and you know it. I’m a fuckin’ broken man.”
I kissed him, long and deep. I kissed him until he buried his hands in my hair, pulled my head back by the roots and ground me against his straining cock.
“I know you can’t,” I whispered. “I just… It’s killing me, you’re killing me.”
Dominic groaned as one of his hands trailed down my neck and came to rest on my breast. It felt full, swollen, practically begging for his mouth—the hussy.
“I remember what it felt like,” he growled, his thumb flicking my nipple as I gasped in surprise. “I remember how tight and wet you were, how your greedy pussy took all of my cock and still begged for more.”
He shook his head before turning his attention to my other breast, kneading and molding it with his large hand. Those hands were going to be the death of me, no question. I might as well have typed up my eulogy then and there—gotten it over with.
“I remember the noises you made and the look on your face when you came.”
I moaned. Loudly. Honestly, I couldn’t help it. Between those magical hands and that dirty mouth of his, I was officially a pile of orgasmic goo.
“It’s burned into my fucking brain.” Dominic’s hand then deliberately skimmed down my stomach and pushed its way under the sodden hoodie. His fingers caressed the lips of my exposed pussy, essentially short-circuiting every nerve ending in my body and rational thought in my head. I threw it back, desperate for more.
After a pleasure-filled minute, my gaze returned to his. “I remember the way your cock filled me, stretched me, owned me.” I whispered against his lips, “You owned me, Dominic.”
With an anguished groan his fingers slipped inside.
I cried out before sighing, “Just like you’re owning me now.”
Dominic’s fingers pumped me while I slowly rotated my hips and murmured in his ear, “I need you, just for tonight. Please, can we … can we pretend it’s our first time?” I pulled back to stare at him.
Silence.
Heat.
Crash.
Our lips collided. I swear, he stole my breath, my sanity, my very existence. When his lips claimed mine, the world receded, when his tongue possessed my own, there was nothing but stars. Nothing but heaven, hell and purgatory in between. Oh, and Dominic.
Contradictory, unpredictable, all-consuming Dominic.
He was everywhere, everything. Strangely, this awareness was both life-affirming and soul-destroying in the same breath.
Lord help me, I’m lost.
I peeled his t-shirt up and over his head, not allowing any time for second thoughts. Not that he seemed to be having any; his deep groans and ruthless tongue left little room for hesitation. Not to mention his fingers massaging my clit and then systematically filling my pussy until I thought I was going to explode. Yeah, we weren’t stopping anytime soon.
I marveled as my hands stroked his pecs and worshiped those chiseled abs. “I love your body,” I murmured. “I love how it feels under my fingers.”
Dominic yanked my own sodden sweater off. He leaned back against the tiles and stared at me revering him. His gaze traversed my face, breasts, hips, with every passing second, his breathing accelerated and the pulse in his neck throbbed. It was lucky I was already naked because there would have been no way in hell my clothes could have survived the fire in his stare for a second longer. They would have incinerated, for sure.
Reaching around behind me, he grasped my ass, squeezing it, drawing me closer still. “I love the way you fit perfectly in my hands.” He squeezed again and I moaned. “You were fucking made for me, Riley.”
Hot, wet kisses trailed down my neck and across my collarbone. “I love how you taste,” he muttered, continuing his sweet torture. “Like motherfucking strawberries.”
It was official, I had to have him. Enough with the polite shit, that ship had sailed the minute his fingers dipped inside me. Reaching down, I gripped his cock through his jeans. “I love the feel of you. You’re so hard, thick, perfect.”
Dominic groaned and nipped my neck, I would have a mark in the morning. The thought gave me a dark thrill I had no intention of psychoanalyzing.
“I love how you’re always so wet for me.”
I gasped and gripped him tighter as he pinched my clit. The man was going to have me screaming his name in next to no time if he was not careful. I only hoped the acoustics in the bathroom did not cause the mirror to shatter.
“The feel of your juices dripping down my fingers? That’s fucking perfect, angel.”
With my free hand, I cupped the side of his face and took a deep, steadying breath, trying desperately to hold off for a bit longer. There was something important I had to say. Once I felt like I had my impending orgasm under control, I
whispered, “I love your eyes. The way they see me, the real me.”
It was true. Despite all the crap we had been through, Dominic was the only man who truly knew me. He saw the flawed, awkward woman I was and encouraged the courageous, determined woman I wanted to be. And for once, I was okay with it, I was okay with another person knowing the truth. After all, this man did not expect me to be perfect, he expected me to be authentic and that made all the difference.
Sadly.
To say my heart was screwed was the most obvious statement in the history of the universe. Not that this realization made any difference to what we were about to do—hell no—I was in way too deep to stop.
Dominic looked like he wanted to say something too, his mouth opened but then quickly closed again before formulating any words. Instead, he grasped me tighter and growled, “I love being inside you.”
I shook off the fact he had probably said the second thought that came to mind rather than the first and instead replied with, “I love you being inside me too.” After all, it was true. There was nowhere else I wanted him to be.
My fingers unzipped his fly and freed him from his boxers in a dexterous move which would have shocked my sensibilities if they were not already clouded in a sex-starved haze. When I gripped the base of his hard cock, Dominic’s eyes rolled back in his head and he hissed, “Jesus, woman.”
I worked the shaft, relishing the feel of his silken skin as it moved under my fingers. When he groaned I took note of what I was doing so I could do it again—and again and again. I could not get enough, pleasing him turned into the strongest aphrodisiac I ever encountered. Fuck oysters, they did not stand a chance.
When I teased the head, Dominic swore before gripping the back of my neck with one hand—thankfully not the one pleasuring my pussy—and crushed his lips to mine. We kissed for what felt like an eternity and I marveled over the fact that if it were not for our hands on each other, he would no doubt be impaling me with his cock.
I really wanted his cock.
There was a distinct possibility the man in question read my mind because he broke away from the kiss, removed his fingers from inside me and slipped them into my mouth. With a moan, I sucked them dry—not at all minding the tangy taste of myself on his skin—and pretended they were him. He cursed again.
With the taste of myself on my tongue, I cupped his face with both hands, leaned forward and kissed him. Ruthlessly. The poor guy did not stand a chance. I licked his lips, massaged his tongue, and explored his mouth. Hell, I staked territory.
Mine.
That’s what each deliberate swipe of my tongue declared.
You. Are. All. Mine.
A low growl emanated from deep inside Dominic’s chest and with one fluid upward thrust of his hips, he entered me. Guess I was not the only one who needed to stake a claim.
“Fuck.”
“Fuck,” I groaned back, completely overwhelmed by how phenomenal he felt, how full, how right.
We both stared at each other until I slowly began to rotate my hips, craving the friction of his cock against my sweet spot more than my next breath, or five.
“Damn, angel. Fuckin’ love the feel of you.”
Spurred on by his admission, I increased the pace, brokenly murmuring, “Me too. God, I love the feel of you too.”
Dominic clasped his hands over my hips, controlling the pace, the depth, the extent of this pleasure-fueled torture. And the sensation built. Oh, fuck, did it build. We fed off each other’s gasps, cries, and pleasure under the cascading water of the shower.
Steam.
Heat.
Desire.
Need.
Our bodies moved seamlessly together, perfectly synchronized. Honestly, it was like we had done this a million times before. Finally, when I could not take it any longer, I whimpered, “Dominic,” but could not continue because my orgasm was about to erupt and it became impossible to formulate any words.
He thrust deeper inside me, his voice harsh, “Christ, angel.”
Our eyes locked.
“Dominic—”
He gripped my ass. “Riley—”
Holy. Shit.
After registering the look in his eyes, the mother of all orgasms tore through me and I let go. My body was torn, wrecked and annihilated with a pleasure so acute, so concentrated, I truly was not sure I would survive it.
From somewhere far away I heard Dominic bellow my name and seconds later felt his cock twitch before a burst of hot cum released inside me.
In the aftermath, with my head buried in his neck and his heart thundering against my chest, a series of truths suddenly hit me like a wrecking ball to the face.
Boom.
We had unprotected sex in the shower.
Boom.
We were never going to see each other again.
Boom.
I was in love with Dominic Mondez.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
****
After carefully placing our saturated clothes on the heated towel bar in the hopes they would dry, Dominic toweled me off and wrapped my sated body in one of the hotel robes. Sadly, he then proceeded to cover up his own male perfection in the other one and it was only when he noticed the scowl on my face that he winked before kissing the tip of my nose. I had no idea how he did it, but that man could rock a white robe like nobody’s business.
We did not talk much after that, just ordered some room service before eating it in amicable silence in bed. It was nice, a much-needed change of pace.
Once finished, Dominic cleared away the dishes before turning off the lights and coming back to where I sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed. He lay down, pulling me in close until we were spooning. Never thought I would see the day, the man actually liked to spoon. Not that I was complaining—heck no—the intimate gesture was the icing on the subliminal cake that was the past two hours. And of course, our bodies aligned perfectly. I sighed.
Fate was officially on my shit list.
That bitch was going down.
I tried not to think about the irony behind finally experiencing intimacy with Dominic on the same night he told me he was moving across the country. I tried not to decipher the raw emotion on his face when we both came. I tried not to think, period. I was over it, it hurt too much.
So instead, I snuggled in closer to the warm wall of towel-wrapped muscle behind me and smiled when Dominic’s cock hardened against my ass.
“Bloody hell, woman,” he growled low in my ear. “Can’t get enough of you.”
“Maybe I can’t get enough of your cock. You ever thought of that?”
He bit down on my earlobe and I moaned softly. “Be careful what you wish for, angel.”
I rolled over until we were so close I could see the lights from the buildings outside reflected in his gaze. “I wish you’d fuck me again,” I whispered. His muttered curse spurred me on. “I want to wake up tomorrow aching in the best way possible, I want it to be a reminder of you long after you’re gone.”
Dominic’s eyes dropped to my mouth when my tongue moistened suddenly dry lips. What the hell kind of woman had I turned into? Since when did polite, well-mannered Riley Sears talk dirty? Had we suddenly entered an alternate universe or something? Apparently so.
“You’re really moving over here, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Then take me again.”
His hips rocked against me and I gasped, the friction felt sensational. “As much as I want to, I’ve got no business being inside you without a condom.”
“Bit late for that, isn’t it?” Chastened, Dominic looked away, but I drew his face back to mine with a smile. “It’s okay, I’m on the pill and since I’ve never had unprotected sex before, I know I’m clean.”
But his haunted look remained. “I haven’t gone bareback in almost four years. Not since Allie.”
“Who’s Allie?”
Seriously, Riley? You actually want to go there?
Luckily, D
ominic ignored my ill-timed interruption and did not seem to notice my internal chastisement. “Even then it was only once and I sure as fuck got tested afterward. Had to, to find out—” He let out a long breath.
“To find out what?”
But he shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, that shit’s in the past.”
“You sure about that? Because I swear I can feel the weight of it, like another person in this bed.”
He squeezed my hips, drawing me closer. “Ain’t no one else here except you and me, angel. That’s a promise.” His hand slipped around to my ass, cupping it. “Don’t know what it is but you always make me forget the fucked-up shit life has thrown at me.”
“You make me forget too.”
His lips were gentle as they teasingly caressed mine. “One day you’re gonna tell me all about it.”
“Only if you do the same.”
He stared at me for a long moment, his eyes searching. Finally, he murmured, “Deal.”
“Toby?” I screamed, before taking another deep breath. “Toby?” I spun in frantic circles searching for my brother, only the deafening sounds of the carnival swallowed my voice until it sounded like nothing more than a mere whimper.
Everywhere I turned there were people, so many people. They were smiling, laughing, hugging, running—it was like a macabre freak show sent to torture me—and I could not see him anywhere. I desperately searched the throng of revelers but there was no sign of his Batman t-shirt or navy blue shorts. There was nothing but confusion, chaos and the tinny sounds of carnival music crackling over a loudspeaker.
I only turned my back for a minute. Honestly. The sideshow we stopped at was offering a superhero costume as the main prize and I knew Toby would love it. So, I had been asking the bored teenager running the stall what the rules of the game were. Only, when I turned back to ask if Toby wanted to play, he was gone.
Gone.
My stomach plummeted to the soles of my feet and tears began to stream unchecked down my face as I haphazardly pushed my way through the crowds of people. And with every step, I felt it—a slow, ominous dread creeping up my spine, slinking around to my chest and squeezing my thumping heart. Tightly.