by Sloan Storm
I bit my lip. I didn’t see anything like that. Impatience got the better of me, but just as I was about to turn around and tell him it was hopeless, something caught my eye.
At first, I thought I’d imagined it.
“You see them don’t you?” he said, paying attention to the change in my demeanor.
Engrossed in a world I didn’t know existed, I licked my lips while I watched the spectacular light show above.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” I began, leaning hard against the eyepiece. “I see them! What are they?”
Dorian chuckled behind me. “It’s the Perseid meteor shower.”
“Wow,” I said, my voice not much more than a whisper. “That’s so incredible.”
Without thinking, I pulled my face away from the telescope and smiled at him. Nothing could have prepared me for being so thrilled after looking through a telescope, but yet I was.
Our eyes met. He looked at me with steadiness in his gaze, like the eons-old stars overhead. I looked away, returning my attention back to the telescope and leaning into it. Soon after, Dorian moved in behind me, pressing his body against my backside.
“Keep looking,” he began, his hot breath beating against my neck. “I’m just making an adjustment.”
His hands weren’t the only thing hard on his body.
While he lingered there, I felt an unmistakable firmness just below his hips. Nothing about his approach was gentle – far from it. I lost my ability to concentrate.
Oh shit. No, no.
My tongue slipped from my lips, gliding across them a subtle flick. The feel of his hard body and pulsating, warm breath against my exposed skin started to take a toll on my resolve.
“Almost there, Tempest. Almost.”
His voice vibrating inside of his chest sent prickles down my arms. I started to feel weak, each breath more difficult to take than the one before it.
What is happening to me? No man has ever had this effect on me before.
Then, I thought about him…
What the hell was he doing? What about Ainsley?
No matter how bad my body might’ve wanted his, I wasn’t about to give him a reason to cheat. Reality came crashing down on me, sharpening my senses and focusing me on what I had to do –– stop him before it was too late. Swallowing hard, I made up my mind to tell him to back off when, at the last instant, he beat me to it.
“All set,” he said, stepping away from me. “Better, right?”
I didn’t even know what the hell he was talking about.
Oh right, the telescope.
Looking into the eyepiece again, I felt lucky to have the distraction. The tension between us, real or imagined, relaxed over the next few minutes. Dorian switched topics with a casual ease, asking me questions about what I was seeing.
While he talked, I detected a genuineness in his tone. Maybe I’d misinterpreted, taking things too far in my own mind. Watching the stars helped. They calmed me. It wasn’t hard to understand why he felt the same way about them.
“A shooting star!” I yelled, seeing the streaking slash in a way I never had before.
Swiveling my head away from the telescope, I looked at him. He smiled.
“Go ahead and take this one. You saw it. It should be your wish.”
Still smiling, I nodded at him and closed my eyes for an instant, making my wish. Of course, I’d been wishing for the same thing for years now but the chances of Dad getting out of jail weren’t any better than the day he went away. We’d exhausted all of our appeals, and in spite of his good behavior, the parole board hadn’t budged.
Assholes.
At this point, all I had left were wishes.
“What was it?” he asked after I opened my eyes.
“Oh no, you know the deal. If I tell you the wish, it won’t come true.”
Dorian leaned away, narrowing his eyes at me.
“What?” I asked. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” he began, nodding. “This is about your wish.”
“My wish? What about it?”
“I know that your dad was only trying to do the right thing. Even so, wishing won’t get him out of jail — not now, not ever.”
What the…? How? Was there no end to him digging into my past?
He seemed to already know everything about my life, but the fact he knew about my dad… He must have known how important it was for me to see him. By keeping me there with him, Dorian kept the only source of happiness in my life from me, confining me to this prison of luxury and in a way, similar to my dad’s imprisonment.
“Are you angry?” he asked, interrupting my train of thought.
“I-I… Yes. I mean, wouldn’t you be if you were me?”
Dorian shrugged. “Maybe yes, maybe no.”
“Well, I am. I need to see him. He’ll want to know what’s happened to me, why I haven’t come.”
Dorian took a couple of steps in my direction. “You will, in time. Just not right now.”
With that, I stood from the seat and walked away from the telescope, crossing my arms at my chest. “I’d like to go to my room now.”
Dorian didn’t respond immediately, eventually answering with a single word.
“Fine.”
It was a quiet walk back to my room. With every step I took, the anger I’d repressed while spending those few minutes with him looking up at the stars came roaring back.
He tried speaking to me once or twice, I don’t really remember. The only thing I do remember is wanting to get the hell away from him. So once I reached my room I opened the door quickly and tried to go inside. Before I could close the door, Dorian slapped his hand flat against it, holding it open.
“Go away,” I snarled.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he replied, leaning his weight against the door and forcing it open.
“Jerk!”
I backed away. He walked up to me, wrapping his hands around my upper arms. Our eyes met.
“Look, there are men involved who will stop at nothing to get what they want. They will harm anyone who gets in their way. I don’t want to be responsible for any more loss of life, and that’s the end of it.”
I looked down towards his fingers and then back to his eyes. “Let go of me.”
He did and I turned away from him, making my way towards the bed. “I’m no one’s prisoner. You can’t keep me here forever.”
From behind, I heard the sound of the door closing. I turned to see him still in the room with me.
“I’d like to be left alone. Why are you still here?”
While I spoke, he walked in my direction, closing to within a couple of feet. He didn’t need to answer the question about why he’d stayed there.
It was obvious why.
The look in his eye told me everything I needed to know. It wasn’t like he’d been subtle up until now.
I decided to change tactics.
If he wasn’t willing to listen to reason, then I would use the only power I still had. Maybe if I just gave him what he was after, what he really wanted, then he’d change his mind and let me go.
After all, men are men.
At this point, I could have cared less about what was happening between him and Ainsley. It was becoming increasingly obvious if I didn’t do something to get myself out of the situation, who knows how long I would have to stay there? I was done with being controlled, being told what I could or couldn’t do, and where I could or couldn’t go.
“Tempest, I…”
Before he could get another word out of his mouth, I leaned into him, pressing my mouth against his. It wasn’t the best kiss I’d ever given anyone, far from it. Hell, I didn’t even moisten my lips before I did it, not wanting him to see what I was thinking. Even so, his reaction wasn’t anything like I expected.
He didn’t have one.
Instead, he was unresponsive, emotionless. Blood rushed to my face. My cheeks burned with the heat of embarrassment, shame, and rejection. Confused, I pulled
away.
Dorian glared at me. “Don’t offer something you can’t afford to part with, Tempest. I know what you’re trying to do. The answer is still ‘no’. Visiting your father is out of the question.”
I wanted to kill him with my stare. “You bastard.”
“Fair enough. I’d rather be called that and have you safe than the alternative. You need to be patient and trust me.”
“Patient? Trust you! How about you go to hell?”
He turned and started to walk towards the bedroom door. “I’m not talking to you about this. I’ve got to be up early for a meeting.”
Furious, I looked in every direction, searching for something to throw at him. At last, I reached for my heel, ripping off my shoe and hurling it in his direction. It whizzed by his head, missing it by inches before it collided with the wall and hit the floor.
Unfazed, Dorian looked down at it and then at me. “Anger really isn’t attractive in you. Good night.”
He reached for the door and opened it.
“Fuck off!” I barked.
Ignoring me, Dorian closed the door. I heard the sound of his footsteps while he walked away. Exhaling, I flopped backwards onto the bed, opening my arms and stretching them out to my sides. I had to stop letting him get to me. Besides, it was starting to seem like he enjoyed it.
Trying to calm myself, I lay there for a while, maybe a half an hour or so. At last, I got up and took off my dress, changing back into the silk pajamas and deciding to go to sleep.
Walking towards the bedroom door, I reached for the light, pausing there, my fingertip pressed against the switch. I looked down at the doorknob and figured, what the hell, grabbing it and twisting. To my complete shock, it opened. Dorian must have forgotten to lock it when he left. Peering through the crack, I glanced out into the hallway.
This might be my only chance.
I eased the door closed and hurried to get my street clothes on. In less than five minutes, I returned to the door and opened it.
It was now or never.
Oh my God.
It felt like every sense I had was a thousand times stronger than normal. Every few steps I would stop, clutching my hands to my chest and holding my breath, listening for even the slightest of sounds. I inched down the hallway while my mind scrambled for ways to get out of there without being detected.
I’d seen Dorian’s security men around the property. If I managed to get out of the house, I still had no idea how to get off the estate. What little I’d seen of it during our walk to the observatory, I had to go on from memory.
But first things first, I had to get down the stairs.
I tiptoed towards a nearby wall, hugging my upper back close to it when suddenly, I froze in place, a noise capturing my attention. It sounded like grunting and effort mixing together in a familiar rhythm.
Were they? He and Ainsley? No, it couldn’t be.
If they were, I had the perfect opportunity to make a run for it. However, for a reason I can’t understand, I didn’t. Nope, like an idiot, my curiosity got the better of me. I turned in place, cursing myself.
What the hell are you doing? This is your chance!
It was as if I was being pulled by an invisible force, a perverse tractor beam, a need begging to be satisfied. With each step I took, the noise continued to grow louder, amplifying my now insatiable curiosity. I came upon a partially opened door, just beyond it, the source of the sound. Hopeless to help myself, I peered inside, expecting to see them having sex.
But, that’s not what I saw – not even close.
It was Dorian all right but he was alone, shirtless and… doing pull-ups.
Hypnotized, I forced a dry swallow down my throat. When he’d pressed his body against mine in the observatory earlier, I felt the hardness of his torso under his clothing, but this was something completely different.
Time seemed to stand still while I gawked at him. Each strong pull accentuated the slabs of muscle running down his lean backside. Intricate tattoos lining his arms and back, twisted and flexed, almost like they were alive.
Before I realized it, I’d forgotten all about the reason I left my bedroom or even that I was trying to escape in the first place.
Holy shit. He was fucking hot.
If I didn’t know any better I could’ve sworn I was on the verge of drooling when from behind, I heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Shocked, I turned to see Ainsley, a bitchy look plastered to her face right before she snarled at me.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Before I could respond, she looked past me into the room where Dorian was working out. After, she refocused her attention in my direction, crossing her arms at her chest.
“Why are you out here spying on him?”
Fed up, I assumed the same posture, crossing my arms as well.
“You know what? I really shouldn’t even tell you. You definitely don’t deserve it, not after the way you’ve been acting.”
Her posture hardened even more. “What are you talking about?”
Shaking my head, I looked up towards the ceiling and exhaled before staring at her again.
“Are you blind, Ainsley?” I began, my tone heavy with disbelief. “Dorian?”
She shrugged, shaking her head at the same time. “What about him?”
I knew I wasn’t imagining him coming on to me. How in the world was she not seeing the same thing? Even though I really didn’t like her in the least, telling her what had been going on would be awkward, if nothing else.
It didn’t matter. It had to be done.
“Okay.” I exhaled. “Fine.”
While I had the courage, I blurted it out. I basically told her everything that happened, especially the part where he’d taken me to the observatory to get me alone. At the very least, I expected her to be in shock, or call me a liar… Hell, who knows? Instead, after I finished, she just stood there, wordless.
“Uh!” I groaned, slapping my palms against the outsides of my thighs. “Don’t you have anything to say?”
She shook her head. “No. Why would I?”
Raising my hands toward my face, I rubbed my eyes before dropping them away. “I don’t understand. Don’t you love him?”
Almost immediately, Ainsley reached towards her face as well. Only unlike my gesture of frustration, she covered her mouth and stifled a laugh.
I frowned. “What’s so funny?”
Eventually, the giggling subsided. “Of course I love him. Why wouldn’t I?”
I don’t think I’d ever been so confused my whole life. Nothing about this made any sense.
“I don’t understand. How can you say you love him when I basically told you he is trying to get in my pants?”
Ainsley had this look on her face like I was the dumbest person on earth. “Duh, it’s because he’s my brother.”
Brother?
Stunned, I opened my mouth to say something, not even sure what that something was, when Dorian appeared in the doorway. Covered in a fine sheen of sweat, his chiseled torso glistened.
Oh man.
My mouth fell open. He looked at Ainsley and then at me before speaking. Luckily, I’d snapped my mouth shut again by then.
“What is going on out here with you two?” He paused, glaring at me. “How did you get out of your room?”
“Don’t ask me,” Ainsley snapped. “Her whereabouts aren’t my problem.”
Dorian grimaced at his sister. With that, she turned and stormed off, leaving us alone together.
As for me, I was done playing games. Once Ainsley was out of earshot, I looked at Dorian. “You left the door unlocked, and I opened it…”
While I talked, he began to wipe at the perspiration covering his body. Clutching a small towel, he passed his hand across the deep ridges and grooves of his chest and along the midline of his abdominals.
“I…” I stammered, the angry thoughts I had seconds earlier escaping from my brain like harmless vapor.
Dorian
looked up from what he was doing. He caught me, a smile curling in the side of his cheek. “You were saying?”
Bastard. Bastard. Bastard. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Determined to finish, I shook my head and glared at him, but before I could say a word, he cut me off.
“You mentioned the door. I, um, left it unlocked on purpose.”
What?
“Well if you did that, then why were you asking what I was doing? I haven’t exactly made it a secret that I don’t want to be here. I was on my way out when Ainsley stopped me.”
Dorian chuckled. “On your way out? That’s cute.”
“Cute?”
It was like he was constantly testing me, playing mind games. He didn’t respond but instead turned around and motioned for me to follow him into the room where he’d been working out. Obviously, my plans to escape were history. With reluctance, I started walking, trailing behind him into the room.
Room was an understatement…
It was more like a massive suite, almost the size of the presidential suite at the Bellagio. Not that I’d ever stayed there, but I’d worked a couple of private parties in it before.
Only, this wasn’t a hotel, it was his home. The rich really did live better than everyone else, certainly better than me in my shitty one bedroom.
Trailing behind him, I soon found my eyes drawn to his spectacular backside. On the one hand, I felt a strange sense of liberation knowing Ainsley was his sister, but at the same time, I was more confused than ever.
Not only that but with each second my eyes fixated on his hard, muscular ass, I began to feel disgusted with myself. After all, what kind of woman wants to sleep with the man who killed her fiancé, even if said fiancé was a worthless piece of shit?
Dorian stopped and turned around, facing me. Slinging the towel he used to dry off his sweat across his broad shoulders, he stood there looking like a vision of masculine perfection.
I couldn’t help myself. I was almost beyond the point of caring. His V-taper distracted me, drawing my eyes downward until I noticed a fine line of dark hair protruding just out of the top of his workout shorts.
“Tempest?”
“What?” I stammered, looking him in the eye. “I wasn’t staring.”