He eased off the other side of the bed, grabbed a pair of boxers from the floor, and pulled them up his distracting thighs. Then he reached out a hand. “Let’s go to the kitchen. I’ll cook breakfast. You call someone and tell them you’re late.” He lifted a brow as if asking if those three statements were acceptable.
“Okay.” She lowered her hands. “But don’t start with the demands again. I need a break.”
“Got it.”
He held her hand as they headed down the hallway toward the rear stairs and then descended. She’d forgotten how big his house was and how modern. The kitchen was filled with enormous stainless steel appliances. The counters were black and gray granite. The cabinets white. The floor gray tile. It was a dream.
He pointed at a stool along a long stretch of what she would call a breakfast bar. “I set your purse on the counter there.”
She reached for it as she sat and found her phone. No messages. That was good. She flipped through her contacts and dialed her assistant, Stephan.
“Morning, Lily. How was the wedding?”
“Great. Beautiful. Listen, can you do me a favor?”
“Open for you?” He laughed. “Of course. Consider it done.”
“Thank you. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Take your time.”
She ended the call and set the phone on the counter.
“All good?” Dominic asked as he kicked the fridge shut behind him. His hands were laden with what looked like the makings of omelets.
Her stomach growled. “Yes. Now…about last night.”
He dumped the contents from his arms to the counter next to the stove and turned to face her.
“You can’t just fix my problems behind my back, Dominic. That’s eerie.”
He leaned on the bar across from her with both hands. “It seemed simple. I thought you would be happy to wake up and find the problem gone.”
“I am. And I appreciate it. I think… But next time, talk to me first.”
“Next time?” He gave her a mock grin. “How many deranged ex-boyfriends do you have?”
“Ha ha. Just this one.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“I didn’t say I don’t have ex-boyfriends, just not crazy ones.”
“Touché.” He leaned in close and kissed her lips. “Now, how about an omelet?”
* * *
Dominic leaned back in his chair after they finished eating and took a sip of his coffee. He needed some answers from Lily. “Talk to me about this ex of yours. What happened between you two?”
Her shoulders fell, and she didn’t meet his gaze. After she fiddled with her fork for a few seconds, she finally dropped it. “We dated for two years. It was my first long-term relationship. In retrospect, I was an idiot.”
“Don’t call yourself an idiot. We all make mistakes.”
“Sure we do, for a week or two, not two years.” She lifted her gaze. “I’m embarrassed.”
He reached across the table and covered her hand with his. “Don’t be. I’m listening. Lord, I spent more than two years acting like a damn fool until I nearly ruined my career. I win the idiot award.” He pasted on a huge smile, hoping to ease the tension.
She sighed. “He was probably cheating on me the entire time. Ava and Zia certainly think so. I was naïve.”
“Who’s Ava?”
“My sister. She’s twenty-two.”
“Go on,” he encouraged when she hesitated.
“He had a tendency to cancel on me. When we were together, we usually had fun, but sometimes we didn’t see each other for a week or two.”
“After two years?” That was a definite red flag.
She inhaled slowly. “Yeah. Stupid. I see that now. But I didn’t have anything to compare it to at the time. I thought I was lucky to have him.”
Dominic furrowed his brow. This side of Lily didn’t match the confident business owner he’d come to know. “Why?”
She drew her hand out of his grasp, crossed her arms, and leaned back in the chair to stare at the ceiling. “I was eighteen when my parents died. I was in college. I lived on campus, even though it wasn’t far from home. We argued that day. I thought they were suffocating me. I wanted more space. They visited too often.”
He didn’t move a muscle when she hesitated, perhaps reliving that day in her mind. He ached already for whatever she would say next.
“They wanted to take me to lunch. It was a Saturday. I needed to study. I wanted to hang with my friends. Anything but have my parents visit my dorm room yet again.” She dipped her face, not meeting his gaze. “Their car was hit by a truck on the way to campus. Died on impact.”
“Oh, baby…” He wanted desperately to reach for her, but she was closed off. Moments ticked by, and finally he scooted his chair back and reached for her. He wrapped his hands around her biceps and lifted her out of her chair to haul her onto his lap.
She let him. She also started to silently cry, her chest heaving as she buried her face under his chin. “They died, and I was being a total bitch. I’d give anything in the world to have lunch with them again.”
“Oh, Lily. God.” He stroked her hair with one hand and held her body tightly against his with the other. “I can’t begin to imagine the pain you must have felt, and still feel to this day.”
She cried for several minutes while he held her. When she spoke again, her words shocked him. “I guess I always thought I didn’t deserve to have the kind of happiness my parents were robbed of. I spent the next fourteen years taking care of my sister and feeling guilty. When I met Luke, I thought I’d hit the jackpot. I wouldn’t find someone better. I was lucky I had anyone at all. It was what I deserved.”
Shit. That was so fucked up. “Lily…”
“I know it’s not rational.” She straightened her spine and lifted her face, still not meeting his gaze. Instead she stared at a spot across the room. “I raised my sister. She was only six at the time. The child my parents never thought they could have. Twelve years between us. I loved her so much. And I took her parents away from her. She hardly remembers them at all.” She sucked in a deep sob.
His heart ached for the eighteen-year-old Lily who lost everything and found herself responsible for a small child. “You know it wasn’t your fault. Right?”
“Of course. Intellectually. But that doesn’t change the games my mind plays.”
“I can understand that.” He couldn’t begin to imagine how he would have felt. At eighteen, he was on invincible. His parents were alive and well. They still were. He needed to call them more often. He’d been a dick at eighteen. Maybe everyone was. He’d argued with his parents all the time. He’d thought he was king of the world. What did they know? He was already on his way to the top.
Lily spoke again, breaking him out of his morbid thoughts. “I threw myself into making sure Ava had everything a child needed. I put my own life on hold. I was thirty-two when I met Luke. He was a charmer. I thought I’d finally found someone I could spend my life with. It wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t deserve perfect.”
“What happened between you two? You said he was cheating? Did you find out?”
“Yeah. That morning.”
“What morning?” Dominic was confused.
“The day I met you.” She winced as she glanced at him and then back at her lap. She slapped a palm over her forehead. “God.”
“You broke up with him that same day we had sex in my bathroom?” He had to admit that was kind of weird. Had he been a rebound fuck?
“Yep. Not quite as dramatic as you’re thinking. My assistant, Stephan, was at the coffee shop that morning grabbing us a drink before coming in to work. Luke was there. With a woman. A blonde.”
Dominic stroked his hand up and down her arm. She needed his support, not doubts about her motives from that night. Who was he to talk? He’d fucked her in his bathroom impulsively the same as she had. For all he’d known, she could have been married. It wasn’t as though he
asked first.
“Stephan never liked Luke, either. Seems I was the only person who had blinders on.” She chuckled sardonically. “So he took pictures.”
“Stephan? Of Luke? With the woman?”
“Yep. They were kissing the entire time they were in line. Never saw Stephan. They looked like lovers. No one would have suspected Luke had another woman on the side. Me.”
“Shit.”
Suddenly she turned to face him full-on, smiling. “I dumped his ass by text an hour later. Never looked back. Oh,” she snapped her fingers, “and then I had the best sex of my life with the pitcher for Miami in his Nickelback bathroom.”
Dominic had no idea what that meant. “Nickelback?”
“Yeah, you know.” She shrugged. “Your bathroom is big enough to play baseball in.” She hummed a few lines of the song.
He laughed. Hard. It felt good, and it broke the tension between them entirely.
* * *
When Dominic strolled into her gallery at five minutes to six, Lily wasn’t sure whether she was elated or nervous. A little of both.
“Hey.” His voice was soft. Deep. It went straight to her sex and sent her pulse racing.
“What are you doing in the city?”
He smirked. “Oh, I was just in the neighborhood. Heard about this gallery. Thought I’d check it out.”
“Well, I’m sorry, sir, but we’re about to close. You’ll have to come back another day.”
“Mmm. I fully intend to.” He turned away from her and strolled around her space. Why did it cause her stress?
She fidgeted with the cash register, trying hard not to let his meandering bother her. His opinion shouldn’t mean so much to her. But it did.
He paused halfway around the room at a gorgeous painting of Greynolds Park. “Zia did this one.”
“Yes. She loves the park. Many of her works are scenes from that area.” Lily rounded the counter and headed toward him as he slowly turned to face her. His gaze wandered up and down her frame as she approached, making her aware of every step, every sway of her hips, every bounce of her breasts.
Her nipples jumped to attention behind her lace bra, abrading against the material to remind her of their sensitivity—caused by Dominic’s lips, tongue, and teeth.
“Love the gallery, Lily.” He reached out to her as she got within a few feet.
She closed the distance as if lured by a magnet.
His arm snaked around her waist to haul her closer until her front was plastered to his side. Then he kissed her with enough passion to make her knees buckle.
When he pulled back, his eyes were dancing. “Glad you don’t have any other clients right now.”
“Shit.” She wiggled out of his embrace and glanced around, straightening her blouse and then smoothing her hands on her purple skirt. She glanced at her watch and headed for the door. “It’s time to lock up, anyway. But maybe you shouldn’t come in while I’m working. I can’t seem to think when you’re within a mile radius.”
He hadn’t moved when she turned back around. His gaze followed her every step of the way, as though tracking her. She walked back toward the counter to shut down the cash register and then lifted her gaze to his again. “You just going to stand there? I mean, it’s a great spot to see nearly all the art, but I don’t think you’ve given any of it a chance.”
He smirked again. “Is your car in front or behind?”
“It’s in back.” She reached for the panel on the wall and flipped several switches. The main overhead lights went off, but the recessed lighting remained to leave the room in a glow. “Come on. I’ll show you the back of the gallery.”
“Ah. There’s another room.”
“It’s sort of an employee space, but we use it when we have a show.” She pointed to the wide hallway behind her that led to the kitchen area and a sort of living room. She decorated it herself, hoping for a spacious inviting area where people could mingle, sit on one of the several sofas or love seats, or hover around high, round tables.
Dominic approached her so quickly and quietly she jumped when he wrapped his arms around her waist, nudged a lock of hair aside with his chin, and kissed her neck. “You. Are. So. Fucking. Sexy.” His hands spread out on her belly and then rose to cup her breasts. “These tight short skirts you wear… And those legs… Is it the heels that make them look so much longer than they are?”
She didn’t answer.
“Then you add these blouses I can see through well enough to practically describe the lace of your bras…” He reached a hand up and tugged at the clip holding her hair on top of her head in a messy bun. It fell around her shoulders, and she suddenly felt like the most desirable person on earth.
She closed her eyes and leaned back into his chest. How was she so affected by this man? After spending the night with him, she would have thought she’d spend at least an entire day sated.
But the truth was, her mind wandered to Dominic several times throughout the day. Thank God she’d had Stephan with her for the bulk of the day. They’d been busy. Without her assistant, she probably would have given the art away.
Stephan had lifted a brow several times, smirking. He’d left at five, but before he left, he leaned his elbows on the counter next to her and set his chin on his palm. “Do I know him?”
“Who?”
“Whoever put that dreamy look on your face and kept you occupied this morning.”
She tried to keep a straight face and send him an I-have-no-idea-what-you’re-talking-about look, but failed miserably and shrugged with a giggle.
“Or a woman.” Stephan lifted his hands. “Didn’t mean to imply it had to be a man you were with.”
“It was a man. He’s a friend of Brett.”
“Ah, hunky baseball dude.”
“Yep.”
Stephan sighed as he left. “Maybe don’t let me see him anytime soon. I’ve been known to fall for hunky baseball dudes…”
Dominic yanked her out of her reverie. “What’s making you smile?”
Lily opened her eyes to face him. “I was thinking of my assistant.”
It was Dominic’s turn to lift a brow. “You were thinking of another man while I have your breasts in my palms?” He squeezed them for emphasis.
She giggled. “Not like that. I was thinking about him questioning me about you this morning. I might have been a little distracted most of the day. And you don’t have to worry about Stephan. He doesn’t date women.”
Dominic’s mouth turned up. “Perfect, then.” He reached for the buttons between her breasts and pushed them through the holes. Slowly.
Lily’s breath hitched as she glanced around. Here? In my gallery?
Butterflies danced around in her stomach. “Dominic…”
“Yes?”
“We should go. I work here.” She did nothing to stop him from continuing. Seconds later, he lowered her blouse down her shoulders and off her body. After the strained conversation they’d had over breakfast, she was relieved he didn’t bring it up again, nor did he appear to have judged her for her tumultuous past.
“You own this gallery. No one’s here. And there are no windows in this back room.”
She rose onto her tiptoes as he slid his fingers under the lace of her bra to pinch her nipple. His lips landed on her neck to nibble a path toward her ear. His beard tickled her skin sinfully. “I adore how you react to me. It makes me so hard it hurts.”
She felt the evidence of his erection pressing into her lower back. The man was so much taller than her. Even her heels didn’t bring her head up to his chin.
When his finger slid over her nipple again, she pressed her legs together.
“Spread your feet, Lily.”
Her brain heard the words but didn’t process them.
He pinched her nipple hard. “Spread them apart.”
She held her breath while she stepped wider, a sharp rush of arousal soaking her panties when he released her tight bud.
A loud crash
ing sound made Lily lurch forward, dislodging Dominic from contact. It was immediately followed by a blaring alarm.
Dominic pressed her blouse into her hands and stepped in front of her. “Is that the building alarm?” He spun around, looking at all angles.
She shook her head, shoving her arms into the blouse. “No. I think it was outside. A car alarm maybe?”
He rushed toward the solid metal exit door and pushed it open, even though Lily’s instinct was to remain inside and call the police.
She heard the squeal of tires on pavement the second the door opened. As she stuffed buttons through their holes, she hurried toward the door, but Dominic was through it and outside before she reached him. It clicked shut, leaving her to finish making herself decent with shaky fingers that didn’t want to cooperate.
Finally, she left the blouse untucked, but pushed through the door to find Dominic nearly a block away running down the alley. When he reached the corner, he stood and stared toward the left for a moment and then returned, stomping.
As he walked back, she turned her head toward the blaring sound, and her shoulders sank. Her car. Dammit. Someone had thrown something through the front windshield, shattering it and making the alarm go off.
When Dominic reached her side, he already had his phone out and was talking. She realized as he gripped her neck with one hand that he was speaking to the police. He rattled off the address and a partial plate number.
How did he manage to get a partial plate?
By the time he hung up, he had hauled her front against his chest and was massaging her neck with his enormous fingers. She tried to control her rage, taking deep breaths and blowing them out slowly.
“Let’s go back inside and wait for the police.” He directed her toward the door, she typed in the code, and he pulled it open.
“Why the hell would someone throw something through my windshield?”
“I don’t know, babe.” He held her close still, kissing the top of her head. Then he stepped back a few inches, eyed her shirt, and went to work undoing all her buttons and replacing them in the correct holes. He winked and added, “Tuck your blouse in before the cops get here.”
She nodded, lifting her hands to right herself as the sirens grew louder.
Catching Lily (Spring Training Book 2) Page 9