I stared at myself in the mirror and cringed, it looked pretty similar to Nick's grimace when he first laid eyes on me this morning. But it wasn't just for the raccoon eyes and obviously swollen nose, or even the over pale pallor of my skin. It was the sight of me in this ensemble. How the hell did I walk out of here and face Dominic, sexiest smile and name, god-like Anscombe? I leaned against the vanity and hung my head in defeat.
I was so way out of my league.
Squaring my shoulders I prepared for the worst. Of course, my worst was not as bad as it ended up being. If I had known that, there is no way I would have ever come out of that bathroom. I would have pitched a tent and demanded my rations through a slit in the door.
I followed the sound of music, Barry had moved on to Lisa Ekdahl, a surprising discovery, I adored Lisa Ekdahl. I Will Be Blessed bringing a smile to my face as I walked into the lounge, which quickly evaporated at the sight of the movie star beautiful woman who stood leaning against the back of a couch talking animatedly to Dominic. She had thick dark hair down her back, braided in a casual, yet glamorous way. Thick black eyelashes that framed wide blue eyes. Perfect porcelain skin, rosy red lips and a figure to die for. She was dressed in a skin tight midnight blue skirt, which left nothing to the imagination, it hugged her curves, of which she had plenty. A tight fitted white T-shirt covered her chest, a somewhat casual accompaniment to the skirt, but I guess the skirt was the statement, who cared about the top? She wasn't big breasted, so in a fit of jealousy I decided that was why she downplayed her chest, emphasising her derrière instead. I stood up a little straighter, making sure my lovely ladies were front and centre, even if I was wearing an oversized, sexless top.
She had on strappy sandals that matched the skirt and added a few inches to her already impressive height, and gold bangles and earrings adding a little bling to the whole shebang. She was stunning, there were no two ways about it, and I reluctantly admitted that it was my heart plummeting that I felt inside my chest.
This woman belonged here, she seemed comfortable and at home. With Dominic, with the obvious expensively designed interior and no doubt with the car museum downstairs. I fidgeted slightly at that realisation and Dominic's head swung immediately in my direction at the small movement.
"Here she is," he announced on a smile. It was that smile, it didn't elicit the same response as usual, it simply cut through my heart as it lay lifelessly at my feet on the floor.
The movie star turned the most amazing smile at me, it seemed momentarily familiar, then she jumped up and down and clapped her hands with obvious delight. Well, that was unexpected and not as sophisticated as I would have thought.
"Oh, wonderful!" she practically shouted, instantly sashaying towards me, a friendly and genuine looking smile on her face. I cocked my head in shock.
This was not how it was meant to play out. She was meant to take one look at my battered and ridiculously dressed self and sneer, make some snide comment under the pretence of niceties and then bat her eyelashes and well clad arse at Dominic. I flicked a glance towards him, his eyes weren't on her, they were on me. And they looked... uncertain.
I swallowed and returned my attention to the rapidly approaching threat. Albeit a threat that was beaming happy vibes at me.
"Dominic has told me so much about you," she gushed in a happy voice.
"No I haven't," he denied instantly.
"Well, it's not so much what you say, Dom, as what you don't say, that says it all." Um...
"What didn't he say?" I asked, widening my eyes at the slip of tongue. Shutupshutupshutup.
"Well, he didn't say 'no one'," she replied, bizarrely.
I frowned at her. She beamed that megawatt genuinely friendly smile back at me.
She leaned in as if to confide something, I saw Dominic crossing his arms over his chest and frowning at her out of the corner of my eye. "Well whenever I ask who some woman in his life is, he always says 'she's no one.' When I asked about you, he didn't say that." She seemed supremely amused at this little bit of news. I was lost.
"Um..."
"He said..." she went to divulge the answer to the universe, but Dominic beat her to it.
"She doesn't need to hear your waffling, Katie. That's quite enough."
"Waffling," movie star Katie scoffed. "As if."
I flicked my gaze between them, my head swivelling back and forth. This was unusual, to say the least. They bickered like an old married couple. I was starting to feel ill.
"You waffle and always have," Dominic shot back.
"And you're a stick in the mud," she smiled sweetly up at him. I rubbed my stomach in an effort to calm my nerves and not swallow back bile.
He smiled indulgently back at her. "You love me this way."
"Of course I do, darling, but you're still a stick in the mud."
I think I groaned, or growled, it was hard to say, but I was backing away and getting ready to bolt again.
"Ah, oh. She's going to bolt," Katie announced unnecessarily. "I thought you were joking when you said that."
"Genevieve," Dominic said my name in that voice again. I halted in my tracks transfixed.
"Wow," Katie whispered. "That truly is most impressive. Can you get her to do other tricks?"
"Katie," Dominic growled, most definitely not in that voice. I came unstuck and took a step back.
"Stop!" Dominic chided, softly, but it was still a command, so my body halted in its retreat. Katie tittered, but tried to cover it with her hand. "Don't run. Please."
I blinked at the please. He said please. My eyes were on him, but I saw Katie's smile. It was stunning. I couldn't help flicking my eyes to her face, it was like I was the moth being drawn to the her naked flame. She noticed my attention and shrugged, smile still in place.
"He's never said please to his women before."
"I'm not his woman," I said, finding my voice again, thank God.
"Oh, sweetie, you are so his woman."
I stared at her, Dominic cleared his throat. "I don't think you're helping, Katie."
"Well, she needs to know." She seemed a little put out at his chastisement. "Besides, if she's your woman then we're practically related." It looked like that pleased her no end.
Dominic sighed. "Always trying to plan my life out for me. I am a grown man, you know."
"I had noticed, darling, but you still need a little direction in your life."
"And you're the right person to give it to me?"
"Well, Nick won't say it. That leaves only me."
"Nick understands boundaries," Dominic shot back, my head flicking back and forth between them like a Wimbledon match.
"Nick has his head up his arse, he's not going to help you find eternal happiness."
"And you are?"
"Well, I am the queen of matchmaking."
"I don't need a matchmaker," he growled, clearly losing patience with the conversation.
Katie flicked her glance back to me. "No, you're right. You seem to finally be doing OK on your own." Both sets of eyes fell on me, I felt like I was standing naked under a spotlight. I shifted uncomfortably.
Dominic grinned. "Yes, I am."
I blew a breath out thinking it was time to figure this mess out, I was getting the impression I had misread the situation. What girlfriend tries to set her boyfriend up with a clearly beaten and dishevelled woman in his own house?
"Who are you?" I asked, it sounded a little blunt, but I softened it with a smile. It was amazingly genuine, she'd been entertaining in an ohmigod kind of way. I saw Dominic still as soon as I asked the question. OK, maybe my re-evaluation of the situation hadn't been warranted at all.
"Catherine Anscombe, but please call me Katie," she said stepping forward with her hand raised to shake mine.
I stared at it in shock. She was his wife. Holy fucking shit. His wife was trying to set him up with another woman. Maybe family law lawyers are a little more free and easy with relationship parameters. Maybe they were sepa
rated, but both unable to let the other go, so interfered in each other's lives to keep the connection going. The divorce or separation had been an obvious mistake, because although they bickered, they clearly still loved each other. I'd walked into the twilight zone and I wanted desperately to get out.
I took a step back from her and watched as her face fell. Dominic began to scowl.
"I... I..." I stuttered. "I have to go." And then I spun on my heels and ran.
"Oh dear," I heard Katie muttered at my back.
I made it to the front door again, I was faster this time, having committed the lay of the land to memory, I didn't stumble down unnecessary halls. But my speed hadn't been enough. Dominic slammed into me and pinned me to the door, I hadn't even got my fingers to the door handle and he was there. His hard body moulding to the length of mine, his hot breath already in my ear.
"You know, that was quite rude," he bit out and then abruptly pulled back, spun me round to face him and slammed back into me again.
His hands grasped my wrists and lifted them above my head, holding them securely in one large palm of his own, then his body pressed full frontal back down the length of mine. His free hand came up and cupped my jaw, tilting my head back so he could look me in the eyes. His were looking scary, killer lawyer had been let out.
"She didn't deserve that," he said in an extremely low voice. A shiver shot down my spine and not in a good way.
"You're scaring me," I whispered.
"Then you shouldn't be rude to guests in my house," he shot back.
"I don't understand you," I accused, because really, I didn't. This was so wrong, no one did this sort of thing in real life. These people were nuts.
"Then let me make myself perfectly clear," Dominic replied evenly, voice still threateningly low. "Katie has a very special place in my life and I will not tolerate her being treated in such a fashion, even by you, sweetheart."
I glared at him. "Then that's easy to remedy, isn't it? Let me go home and I won't have a single thing to do with your life ever again."
He pulled back shocked and I didn't think it was from my request to go home. I'd said that enough times not to receive that kind of reaction. It was something else, something I was missing.
"How can you say that?" he asked, voice vibrating with anger now. "What has Katie ever done to you? She is the sweetest, most generous person I know. She is genuinely happy to meet you and you act like a bitch in return."
I flinched at the bitch remark, but I'd had quite enough of hearing him sing Katie's praises for the day.
"Then you'll be most happy together without me getting in the way, I'm sure," I said, my voice vibrating with threatening tears.
"You are really something else," he said through gritted teeth, his jaw clenched in what looked like tremendous effort not to yell.
"I told you I wasn't what you'd bargained for." I was just saying things to hit back now, anything to direct the hurt away from my own pain.
"Clearly I did make a mistake."
The more I said, the more pain he seemed able to inflict. I kept telling myself I barely knew this man, walking away should be easy, but for some reason I'd already lost my heart, and it was being trampled on as we stood there glaring at each other. Quite clearly both wanting this moment to end, but neither being able to be the one to walk away. I told myself that I didn't need to be involved in a man's life where he let his ex - or not so ex - wife matchmake his relationships for him. I repeated it like a mantra in my head. For a moment it was all I could hear, but then his voice broke through my haze again, tearing it with sharp edged claws.
"If you could see your way to being ladylike, please say good-bye to my sister before you close the door at your back. I'll call a taxi for you. I'll even carry your luggage, the luggage she packed for you from your loft, out to the car. Because that's how civilised people behave, something you clearly are not familiar with."
I stared up at him blankly for a moment, my heart no longer on the floor at my feet, but crashing into my throat instead. His words finally making it through the fog of pain and slamming into my face like a smarting slap. I blinked, swallowed and then thinking I might be sick, kind of gagged a little. I was sure it wasn't very attractive. Dominic pulled back and frowned down at me, not that he hadn't already been frowning, but this one was mixed with concern, not anger.
"Your sister?" I whispered in a hoarse, high pitched voice.
He stilled. His body hadn't moved away, only his face had, so he was still pressed along the length of mine - which was weird, considering he had just told me to pack my bags and get out the door - so I could feel the tension evaporating from his frame. He wasn't relaxing as such, but something was happening.
"She's your sister," I announced, something he obviously already knew. Ah, crap, had I so got it wrong.
I dared to flick my gaze back up at him. He was smiling.
"It's not funny," I said, deadly serious. He started shaking with suppressed laughter. "No, really, this is not funny," I declared firmly, feeling mortified at my mistake and pushing back against his frame in an effort to escape the fallout.
He only pressed himself firmer into mine, his body shaking harder with silent laughs.
"Stop laughing!" I demanded.
He made one of those coughs-which-could-have-been-a-laugh noises and then when I glared up at him, he really let loose. His whole body shaking with unbridled laughter, his eyes glittering with mirth, he threw his head back and laughed out loud.
I let a soft sound of defeat out on a groan and his eyes came back to mine.
"You are adorable," he murmured, then lowered his head and crushed his lips against mine.
I fought it at first, mortification still forefront in my mind, but he was skilful and determined and having spent the past few minutes crushed up against me in a rage, quite clearly needing an outlet for all that pent up emotion. His hand still holding my jaw shifted, so his finger and thumb on either side forced my mouth open. It was firm, but still carried out in a gentle manner, obviously not wanting to bruise me, but hell-bent on making me let him in. His tongue slipped inside as soon as my lips parted. And that's all it took.
The moment his tongue found mine I was gone. My leg wrapped around one hip, my body arching against his. As he still held my hands in a firm grasp above my head, I had no way of touching him back. But his hand at my jaw had wrapped around my neck and his fingers now entangled in my hair. He tipped his head sideways, brushed his chest against my protruding breasts and groaned.
I moaned back and then we were eating each other. Tongue and teeth and hips and bodies and my leg clinging to his frame the only way I could. He ground himself back against me, exactly in the right spot to elicit a response. I made a noise, he reciprocated and the kiss became heated, we were both on fire and in danger of setting the house alight. But still neither of us stopped.
It was as though we couldn't get close enough, couldn't taste enough, didn't have a moment to spare. His hand left my hair and stroked down my side, finding the bottom of the T-shirt and sneaking in underneath. His fingers felt hot against my flesh, a soft caress over my hip, above the track pants, a splayed, finger flexing moment as he wrapped his palm around my waist. And then, to my absolute delight, he moved it upwards. His thumb brushed the underside of the curve of my breast and my legs buckled. He held me upright by the length of his body pressed against mine, for some reason determined not to release my hands from their imprisonment above my head. In my mind I pleaded with him, I so desperately wanted to touch him as he was touching me, but my mouth was too occupied to voice my thoughts.
A hot hand placed over my whole breast. I whimpered into his mouth. A shift, as his thumb and forefinger found my already erect nipple and brushed it. I groaned into his mouth. Then with expertly timed precision, he rocked his so very hard erection in exactly the right spot and in exactly the right way, hitting me perfectly and timing it to match the pinch of his finger and thumb against my nipple to abs
olute mind numbing perfection. I shuddered against him, my groans and whimpers being kissed away, but he didn't stop, he knew how close I was and he wasn't giving me an inch to escape.
Suddenly he released my hands, but I barely acknowledged this, leaving them somewhere near where they had been, as his now free hand slipped between us and into the top of my track pants, finding no restriction in underwear, making a beeline for exactly the right spot. With his finger and thumb against my nipple, the heightened turned on state he had kissed me into, just one sweep of his finger inside my wet core and I was gone.
A low, deep moan escaped me as I convulsed and tightened around his finger, and my body shuddered against his frame. He kissed the sounds away and brought me slowly back down with soft sweeps inside.
"Christ," he muttered and I flicked my eyes open, my lids only making it halfway. "Christ," he repeated, hot breath washing over my face. I watched him swallow, his throat directly before my eyes. "Christ," he said for a third time, as though stunned.
I couldn't help it, I smiled.
"Oh, Christ." This time it was a resigned whisper, with a hint of a smile to back it up.
Chapter 11
Supersonic Hearing As Well As Silent Feet
We stood staring at each other, my back against the door, my front flush against Dominic's. His hand had moved out from my intimate place, but was wrapped around my waist, resting on the curve of my hip, under the T-shirt and track pants, hot against my skin. His other hand was resting flat against the door frame beside my head, his face tipped down staring into my eyes. He looked a little stunned, completely transfixed and entirely too turned on.
I couldn't find my voice to save myself, he looked good enough to eat, but from the expression on his face, I was about to be the meal. In an effort to stall for time - God alone knows why I wanted to, but some part of me was still heading towards escape - I mentally searched for a distraction. I needn't have bothered.
Sweet Seduction Sacrifice Page 11