Sweet Seduction Sacrifice

by Nicola Claire

  He sighed, exasperatedly, above me, clearly seeing my thoughts on my face. I was going to have to get better at hiding my emotions. But even if that worked, my mouth had a tendency to blow any cover I strove to hide behind. Already he knew too much about what I felt for him. Already my stupid mouth had given too much away. So, I decided I'd just stop talking altogether. Better to be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all shadow of doubt. I'd read that somewhere. Now would be a good time to take that advice.

  "You're impossible," he said. It was definitely laced in exasperation still, but was spoken in a soft voice. He moved his hand down and plucked at his T-shirt - the one I had stolen last night and worn to bed. "And mine, whether you accept it yet or not." He smiled broadly at me as I glared back, lips zipped firmly shut. "And adorable when you're angry." I furrowed my brows further, it was starting to ache across my forehead, but I could be stubborn when I wanted to. "Christ," he said on that cough-which-could-have-been-a-laugh sound. "You have absolutely no idea." And that was said as though to himself; incredulously, wonderingly, quietly.

  I bit my lip. He growled. And then his mouth was on mine, his tongue sweeping across my bottom lip - and like every other time he'd done it, as though I was a bloody hussy - I parted them and let his tongue inside. I groaned, he groaned, our hands started exploring each other. One of mine up into his thick, dark hair, the other all over his very fine chest and abdomen. His hand attached to the elbow he was resting on, twisted into the strands of my hair, tugging gently to make my head move to the side, allowing him unhindered access to my mouth at just the right angle. The other hand under my T-shirt - his T-shirt - and already tweaking my nipple. I got the impression he liked heading there as soon as things began to progress.

  A voice inside my head warned that this was not where I wanted things to go, but my body said to hell with that and wrapped itself around him, arching my back, grinding back against his very impressive erection and generally acting like a cat in heat. He didn't seem to mind, his own movements frantic with desire, his mouth hard against mine, his tongue plunging in and out, and in and out, in a motion that strangely made me wetter with each hot plunge inside. His hips rocking back and forth in a faster and faster rhythm, sweeping us up in a tidal wave we had no hope of surviving.

  Within seconds, things were out of control. My T-shirt was gone, we were naked chest to naked chest, his hands had moved, one to the back of my neck, supporting my head as he kissed me, almost ate me from the mouth down, the other between our hips, rolling around at exactly the right delicious spot to make me writhe. A few sweeps on the outside, a thumb and forefinger pinch that made me shout out in surprise, and then he thrust two long fingers inside making me gasp.

  "Christ, you're wet," he breathed against my lips. "Is that all for me?" I rolled my eyes at him and caught the amused glint in his eyes in return. "Wouldn't want to waste it," he whispered against my lips, and then his fingers withdrew and my mind stuttered in protest, but within a couple of seconds - which felt way too long - his body pressed back against mine and even through the fog in my mind, I recognised he'd removed his boxers and we were now completely naked in bed.

  One hand slipped down and lifted my leg out slightly to the side to allow him to settle between my legs, his erection strained between us, the flat tip butting up against my centre. I wanted this so badly, I'd dreamt about it for the past two nights. Most of the time telling myself I shouldn't go there, the rest of the time wishing I could. And here we were, about to do it. I was about to feel what it was like to have him move inside me, to stretch me, to fill me. He'd said we'd do it against the wall, but right then I didn't give a rat's arse about any wall, I just wanted him. For one moment in time I'd let myself believe, that I could have him. That he was mine.

  I knew I was walking on dangerous ground, I knew this could all blow up in my face. But there was no way I could walk away now, not when his hard, hot, naked body was pressed against mine. Or when his very talented tongue swept inside my mouth, or his teeth nibbled on my bottom lip, or when his hands made magic happen across my skin. My body was on fire, my heart was pounding in my chest, my breath was laboured and all I wanted was him.

  I tilted my hips to allow him better access, he muttered, "Christ," into my hair and I felt him shift to enter. Our hands and lips and entire bodies moving, ready for the moment we connected in the most intimate of ways. He pulled back to look me in the eyes, I knew why he did it. He wanted to see me when he sank himself deep inside. I wanted that too. I held his gaze, time seemed suspended...

  ...and then the door banged open and Katie announced, "Out of bed sleepy head, it's a bright a sunshiny day." There was a pause, Dominic had frozen, I think I had too. Then, "Oh crap!" Katie said with meaning. "I am so sorry." The door clicked shut at her back.

  We didn't move, the moment was definitely ruined. Katie - lovely, sweet, adorable, Katie - was as good as a bucket of ice cold water.

  "I'll, ah, start breakfast," she said through the door. Dominic groaned and rolled over to his side of the bed, pulling me with him by simply placing one arm around my neck. My face ended up snug into his throat, my body flush against the length of him. "Take your time. No hurry," she added.

  "Katie?" Dominic said, his forearm covering his face.

  "Yes, darling?" came her slightly muffled reply.

  "Go the fuck away!" he semi shouted back.

  "Right," she said. "Got it. I'll, ah, go the fuck away, then."

  We lay there expecting to hear another outburst from Dominic's sister, but after several seconds all was still silent from the other side of the door.

  "I think she's gone," I announced into his throat. He wasn't letting me move further away.

  "I'm going to kill her," he said softly.

  "She didn't know," I argued, somewhat relieved, but Katie was definitely going on my Christmas Card list now.

  "Doesn't matter," he declared. "She should have knocked."

  "And that would have altered things, how?" I demanded, sure even a knock would have put a dampener on things.

  "Then she wouldn't have seen my naked arse, poised to thrust myself deep inside your wet and waiting pussy. That is something I do not need my sister seeing. Ever."

  He had a point. Still, I couldn't help feeling grateful to Katie. My mind had cleared from the Dominic sex-god fog that had engulfed it, and I now realised how bad things could have been. My heart was already in hundreds of tattered ribbons, doing the nasty with the man would simply obliterate what was left, when he stabbed it with a knife and returned to his cellphone woman waiting in the wings.

  "I'm not going to hurt you," he said softly and somewhat bizarrely reading my thoughts.

  "What? How did you..? What?" Yeah, eloquent I was not.

  "You're tensing, ready to run, and my guess is because you think I'd have sex with you and then do something to hurt you. Because that's what he did, isn't it?" I didn't answer when he paused as though expecting me to. He eventually went on. "What I want to know, sweetheart, is what you think it is I'm going to do, that has you so scared to give me your heart?"

  I blinked a few times, frantically trying to get my thoughts to line up and make some kind of sense. To come up with an argument, a deflection, a shield of some description, anything, that would throw him off the scent. The longer I spent in his company, the more of me he saw. This could only ever end one way. With me broken, my heart destroyed on the floor.

  Because he was right, I had given my heart to Brett and for a while Brett let me think it was safe. I lowered my guard and gave him more and more with each passing day. And then he annihilated it. Completely and utterly demolished it.

  And any trust I ever would have in a man again.

  And lets face it, Dominic wasn't exactly convincing me that stance was wrong. Cellphone calls that pulled him away without a good-bye. He was hiding something, his chance to come clean passed this morning, while he lay half-naked in my bed, trying to persuade me I had no reason to
run, but not explaining why.

  I disentangled myself from his embrace and reached over the side of the bed to slip his T-shirt back on. For the first time since I stole it last night, wishing I had something else to wear. I'm not sure if he was watching me, he didn't stop me, he didn't reach out and touch me, and I didn't look back to see if any of that could have happened or not.

  I grabbed my overnight bag and practically ran into the attached bathroom, closing the door behind me and searching for a lock. There wasn't one, so I dragged a stool over and shoved it under the door handle, TV style, making a shit-load of noise. Then I turned the shower taps on to fill the ensuing silence and slunk down to the cold floor.

  Then because I'm me, Genevieve Cain the emotionally expressive waterworks, I cried, making sure it was quietly, whilst I hugged my body tight.

  Chapter 19

  Precious Sand Through The Hour Glass

  By the time my tears had dried, I was feeling worse than I did before I climbed into bed. Three hours sleep, four hours rest but wide awake mentally dissecting my disastrous life and then twenty minutes of hot and heavy with Dominic Anscombe doing nothing to relieve the exhaustion that hung like a black cloud over my head.

  I hauled myself upright by gripping the bathroom vanity and stared mutely at myself in the mirror for a good minute. If I had thought there was reason for Dominic to look elsewhere before, my battered and bruised face staring out at me from the mirror with pale, washed out, tired-looking skin, sent the message home once and for all. I looked dreadful. I looked worse than dreadful, I looked pathetic.

  I cringed and watched the blue-turning-a-sickly-green and yellow bruising ripple beneath my expression. I practised a few facial positions; bored, lethargic, happy, impassive, angry, laughy - but none of them seemed to make a difference. I sighed. And then for some inexplicable reason started to giggle. My life was an absolute debacle. I laughed harder. I laughed so hard I had to wrap an arm around my ribs to hold myself together and then with herculean effort I got myself under control.

  OK, so life was not as I had planned it, but that was no reason to lose the plot completely. And, even though I knew I was a crier and I knew I was a pathetic wimp for taking Brett back four times, I also knew I would survive this. Because you do, don't you? You survive. You've got no choice, and looking at my miserable self in the mirror, I resolved to survive this with a sense of pride and dignity.

  I brushed my teeth and showered and then dressed in killer black denim jeans and an even more killer black lacy singlet top that hugged my waist and skimmed low over my breasts, but not too low as to cause a car accident when I crossed the street. Then I tied my hair up in a high ponytail, attempted a little make-up that didn't so much as hide the bruises, but distract from them, and slipped on a simple gold pendant and matching gold bracelet on my wrist. It wasn't much, but the effort made me feel better. And then my sling-back black two inch high heels did the rest.

  Feeling a million times better to face the day - and Dominic - I headed out to the voices I could hear out in the kitchen/dining room attached to the lounge. As I walked in the room all conversation stopped, as though I had been the topic of conversation and my appearance put paid to that. Feeling uncomfortable and a little unwanted - trashing my million times better feeling of moments before - I plastered a smile on my face and continued on into the kitchen where Katie was fussing at a bench and Dominic sat sipping coffee at the table.

  "Hey," I said, unoriginally.

  "Good morning," Katie trilled brightly. "Take a seat, I'll bring you some toast."

  The table was set with jams, conserves, fresh fruit and a coffee plunger full of coffee, so I went to slip into a seat opposite Dominic, prepared to give breakfast a go. But in superhero speed, he stood, nabbed my wrist and pulled me round to his side, placing me firmly in the chair at his side. Then he sat, flashed me a disarming smile and picked his coffee up again to sip. It was then I noticed he was dressed for work; crisply ironed shirt, expensive suit and the subtle smell of his cologne. I forced my body not to sway closer to take a sniff.

  "You came here in your suit last night?" I asked, surprised.

  "No, I brought it with me. I knew I'd be heading to work from here and didn't want to waste time going home first."

  Hmm. So no mad dash from the white monster house when he found me missing, he took time to pack a bag. I'm not sure how that made me feel.

  "Katie's going to take you back to my place for the day," Dominic said, spreading jam on a slice of toast before him. I watched, unable to form an argument but wanting desperately to, while he finished that then poured a fresh cup of coffee, and then slid both in front of me to eat. "Eat," he instructed, picking up his own coffee cup again. "You can invite anyone over you'd like, make a day of it," he suggested, "I'm sure Kelly would love the opportunity to trash my place."

  I raised my eyebrows at him, he raised his in return. The note, I was guessing.

  I sighed. "What did the note say?"

  "Oh, you'd like to talk about that now?" he asked, as Katie came and slipped into a seat on the other side of the table, pushing fresh toast towards her brother and swiping a slice for herself.

  "Don't mind me, darlings" she said breezily, "I'm blocking you two as much as I can right now. Clearly seen and heard enough for one day."

  Dominic frowned at her. I sniggered, I couldn't help it. He looked downright uncomfortable. I hadn't seen him uncomfortable before. Of course, that just brought his attention to me again. He leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs and let his eyes run over me from head to toe. As if he hadn't already done that when I walked in the room. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared back.

  "Nice top," he said lazily. I uncrossed my arms. He just smiled. "The note," he started, "not one of your better moves, sweetheart. If you've got something to say to me, just come out and say it. From what I've seen so far, once you start talking, you can't seem to stop."

  I gritted my teeth and purposely chose my words well. "What did the note say, Dominic?"

  He reached inside his jacket and pulled it out, then slipped said note across the table between us. Even from where I was sitting I could make out Kelly's scrawl. Gone. Don't come looking. You're a jerk. She really did have a way with words. I blinked at it several times, then found my bottom lip firmly between my teeth. I didn't know what to say to that. Words failed me.

  "So," Dominic said, voice low, "what shall we address first? Well, we've covered the gone bit, you left a safe house and jeopardised your own and Katie's wellbeing. I think I've managed to make you understand how ridiculous that was. That leaves two things to address. What about the Don't come looking part. Again, addressed. The house, inside and out, is under video surveillance as you now know. I watched you get in Katie's car and was advised she drove straight home from the GPS system at ASI." Katie's car had GPS in it? What was with these people? I glanced across the table at Katie, she was definitely ignoring us, pretending we weren't there. What she wasn't doing was looking appalled at the idea that her car had GPS tracking, kept an eye on by big brother ASI. "Also, as I have made it perfectly clear, I am not letting go, hence the coming looking, on my part." He paused to take a sip of coffee, his toast sat untouched. "That leaves You're a jerk and I think this is where you should take over."

  Silence. Even Katie had stopped eating or drinking or even moving.

  "I didn't write it," I said in self defence and then frowned. Now I was landing my best friend in hot water, just to avoid a conversation? I sighed and went to run a hand through my hair, realised it was tied up, so hauled the elastic band out and let it fall freely. Then I ran a hand through my hair. When I looked back at Dominic - having gained courage to do so, with the hand through hair moment - he was smiling at me. His gaze sweeping over my hair as it lay around my face.

  "Better," he murmured, his eyes blazing the way they had in bed that morning. I let a little breath out on a huff of air. Even arguing with me, making his point in a lawyerly f
ashion, he can switch to hot-guy-lawyer in a flash.

  "I don't want to talk about it," I found myself saying, surprised because I was still trying to decide what to say, but my mouth obviously had other ideas.

  "Try," he shot back.

  I glared at him, he stared impassively back. Iced-lawyer sat beside me again, hot-guy-lawyer had disappeared. We sat like that for several minutes, or at least it felt like it. We probably would have both stubbornly sat there for the rest of the day, but Katie had other ideas.

  "For crying out loud!" she declared, hands going up in the air dramatically to emphasise she'd had enough of our to-ing and fro-ing. "Dominic," his gaze turned to hers as she said his name. "You've been taking mysterious phone calls," - oh hell no, she wasn't - "then disappearing, that has upset Genevieve."

  "Katie!" I exclaimed frantically. Dominic had sat forward in his chair. "Please stop."

  "No, darling. I'm sorry, but you'd just pussy foot around it and Dom would get mad and things would escalate. You have to understand, you're good together, I want this to work."

  I stared at her dumbly for a split second, not daring to look at Dominic's face, then steeled my resolve.

  "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint. But I don't." Then I got up out of my seat and ran from the room. Not exactly the exit I had been going for. It didn't scream sophisticated and controlled woman in their faces, but it was all I could manage on such short notice. I'd do sophisticated and controlled later, for now I needed a locked door and a tub of ice cream and to be left the hell alone.

  The ice cream was a miss, and the locked door was debatable, the stool looked like it would topple if given a hard shove from the other side of the bathroom door, but I was thankfully alone. Of course, I'd overlooked the other door to the bathroom. I hadn't even registered it last time I was there. Katie's guest bedrooms both ran of a shared bathroom. And Dominic simply walked through the second bedroom and straight into my hell.