by Dani Collins
His only lifeline was that she didn’t know he was the one who had destroyed her marriage. She could never know.
“Enough,” he blurted. “He’s gone. Out of our lives forever.”
“What?” Arianne gasped. “Who? Dominic?”
“I should have said no when you first mentioned him,” he spat out, so furious with himself he could hardly see straight. “None of this should have happened.”
“That’s not true. I—”
“You what?” he spun around to demand. “Showed up with pure intentions and let him play his games without telling you all the rules? He’s a self-centered bastard.” She stared at him, her face so pale her lipstick stood out in a stark smear.
Jason turned away. The sting of humiliation climbed into his face, and cold emptiness invaded the rest of him. Knowing he had hurt Arianne again shamed him so deeply, he couldn’t bear it.
“I like Dominic,” she said in a small voice behind him.
He flinched, rejecting that with a shake of his head. “There’s nothing to like. You don’t even know him.”
“I want to.” The yearning in her tone was like a slow edge of a razor drawn down his back.
“Too bad. You won’t see him again.”
“That’s not your decision to make for me.”
Shocked as much by her quiet vehemence as her words, he turned to find her stiff with umbrage.
“Dominic has taught me more about myself than I knew there was to learn. It’s not your place to protect me from that. If Dominic doesn’t want to see me again, fine, but you don’t tell me whether or not I should have this experience. I make that choice, and I want to keep seeing him.”
He shook his head, baffled that she’d even suggest—
“Yes,” she insisted fervently. “Yes, Jason. I said yes.”
Chapter Six
Arianne was twenty minutes late. Jason called the chauffeur who was collecting her, only to learn she hadn’t answered the man’s knock.
It would seem she had decided she didn’t care for Dominic after all, despite the outburst that had kept Jason silent while she had walked out on him last night, and had brought him here today at the appointed time, somewhat shaken.
He had considered calling this off despite her insistence yesterday that the lessons continue, but he realized he would be quitting out of fear. Dominic might be teaching Arianne about herself, but she had spent months teaching Jason about himself and he owed her for that. He loved the homey smells in her kitchen; he loved seeing her name on a real-estate sign, so neat and professional. He loved describing to her a particularly tricky function of a piece of equipment and having her help him find the words a layman could understand. He loved her and was terrified she could never love him—not when he had a secret like Dominic in his closet.
But Jason had given up letting fear hold him back a long time ago. Maybe this exercise would ultimately cause her great pain, but Arianne had been right. It wasn’t his place to set boundaries for her. She had to find her own and put them where she needed them. Which was why she had asked to see Dominic in the first place.
He rubbed his face, not comfortable with releasing control of this game to her.
But he had arrived promptly nevertheless, no longer worrying about Jason’s needs. He was here wholly for Arianne.
Unfortunately, Arianne was not.
He wasn’t surprised she’d changed her mind, but he was worried enough to try her cell, only to hear it sing beyond the door. A brisk knock followed.
He ended the call and let her in.
“God, I’m sick of this thing,” she said, phone in hand as she brushed by him on a pair of sensible pumps. The sensuality of her luscious curves was downplayed by one of her conservative power suits. “I missed whoever it was, and I don’t even care.” She powered it off and took her time tucking it into her purse.
“I was beginning to think you might not show up,” he said as Dominic.
“I know, I’m sorry.” She didn’t move to kiss him. “I had back-to-back showings right through lunch. Then this prick I work with tried to take one of my listings. I sold this couple their friggin’ honeymoon cottage and now they’re divorcing and he thought— What?” she asked as she noted his smile.
“I’m surprised by your language,” he admitted, carefully stifling his grin. He wasn’t Jason and didn’t have the same history with her. “You seemed so straitlaced when we first met,” he added, knowing she was damned prudish at times.
“That doesn’t mean I’m a pushover.”
Tell me about it, he thought wryly, recalling her temper last night.
“You should have seen him whining, ‘But you were taking the listing for the Mitchmans.’ The Mitchman estate is going to be big, let me tell you. I can’t wait. But it’s still no excuse for him to try bullshit like jumping my callback.” All of yesterday’s passion continued to crackle off her, begging for direction. As Dominic, he was intrigued and excited. As Jason, he reminded himself that she didn’t usually turn into a workaholic unless she was upset.
“It sounds as though you’ve been working hard all morning,” he observed.
“Yeah, well, I have to eat,” she muttered, swinging around to pace, catching her thumbnail between her teeth. “And I have a lot of work to finish up before the cruise.”
The cruise she would take in a few days with a man he didn’t know. He was reminded anew that this might be all he’d ever have with this woman. He caught her and slowed her down, examined her unmarred polish, then tried to meet her eyes. She avoided his gaze.
“No kiss, Arianne? Have you decided against our continuing?” Despite wanting nothing more yesterday than for her to say goodbye to Dominic for good, the thought of losing what remained of their time together drove a sharp pain into his chest.
“No,” she said, drawing the word out in a way that was less than decisive. “I want to. I just wasn’t sure after yesterday if you wanted to. I half expected this room to be full of tourists from Omaha. That maybe Jason wouldn’t let you show up.” Her lashes stayed lowered.
It had taken courage for her to come here today, despite her bold demand last night.
“That control freak?” he dismissed. “He doesn’t own me.”
“No?” Her guileless gaze came back to his, full of curiosity, but there was a tiny crinkle at the corners, a hint of something playing around her mouth that suggested mystified amusement.
For the space of a few heartbeats, he wondered if she’d stood in his kitchen with the full knowledge of who he was. If so, she would have felt doubly rejected. First after being dismissed, unfulfilled, by Dominic, and then told by Jason that he didn’t want Dominic in her life.
No, he couldn’t bear thinking of her taking that many hits from him.
“I like being with you,” he said with deep sincerity. “You gave me incredible pleasure yesterday. I should have been less selfish and given you the same gratification.”
She tucked her chin. “You weren’t being selfish, I was. I walked in here expecting my pleasure to be all that mattered, but that’s not right and I’m glad you showed me that. I like that I gave you pleasure. I’m just sorry I didn’t try until yesterday.”
He wore his black gloves and stroked his fingertips along her jawline, using the seam because he thought she might like the hint of roughness against her tender skin.
A little shiver made her shoulders come up and resettle.
“Every minute I spend with you is exquisite, Arianne. Do not doubt it.” He firmed his finger beneath her chin, tipping up her face to look directly into her eyes. “Every second.”
With the flush of a desert flower tasting rain, she colored and blossomed. Her mouth softened into a tremulous smile.
“I have been anticipating returning the pleasure you gave me, Arianne.” He moved his hand to cup her neck so he could feel the heat of her skin and the rapid pulse in her throat penetrate the leather of his glove. “Will you kiss me and tell me you’d like that,
too?”
She caught her breath as he bent over her. He was taking the initiative, but he watched for signs of rejection, wary of continuing their game while desperate for her to wish to do so.
When he saw only invitation in her fluttering eyelids and softly parted lips, he kissed her, invading her taste. His hair follicles tightened as she pulled on his tongue, drawing him all the way in. Convulsively, he slid his arms around her and crushed her tight, so he could feel every one of her generous curves, the full cheek of her ass in his splayed hand, the give of her gently rounded stomach against his thickening prick.
With a little moan, she lifted onto her toes so her mound crested against the ridge of his cock, pressing her cleft against the firming knob.
Too many clothes. He would be on her, swallowing her, if she weren’t wearing layers of pinstripes and goddamned pantyhose.
“Get your ass behind that screen,” he muttered, setting her away.
She backed away with a dazed little nod, staggering without any of the grace she’d begun to show, leaving his sight but not his mind’s eye. He closed his eyes, drinking in the sense of a stayed execution. Resurrection.
“There’s nothing here,” she said from behind the screen.
No—he’d begun to pack, thinking she was done with him, but she was here. His for one more day.
He shrugged out of his shirt and tossed it over the top of the screen.
* * *
White silk floated into her hands. Dominic’s shirt.
“Oh.” Arianne bunched the warmth of it against her face, inhaling his scent, wondering if she was crazy to be so relieved they were going through with this, but she was insanely relieved. Insanely.
Throwing off her clothes, not bothering to fold them the way she’d done the first day, she stepped out from behind the screen, feet bare, his shirt billowing in generous folds around her.
“It’s too big,” she said, even though in length it felt too small. That wasn’t true. It draped well to midthigh, but because it hung so loosely and air swirled in cool drafts up to her breasts, she suffered a sensation of nakedness.
His chest hair was as dark as the dusting over his arms.
Plumbing the depths of his brown eyes, she searched for the telltale circles of contacts, even though they wouldn’t be definitive. Jason wore contacts every day and glasses in the evening.
He didn’t meet her intent gaze, too busy studying the fit of his shirt on her.
She tried to use the laces at the collar to draw it tighter, but it was a lost cause. “I look ridiculous, don’t I?”
“Don’t start with that talk. Where is the confident woman who stormed in here talking so boldly about the prick whom she wouldn’t let push her around?”
“Back there with the power suit.” She thumbed toward the screen.
He smiled and dragged the fluffy duvet from the bed. Folding it in half, he spread it on the floor in front of the fireplace. “So today we teach her to get what she wants without relying on such armor. Do you know what you want, Arianne? You didn’t ask me for anything yesterday, so how could I know?”
She wanted him. This. Was that so hard for him to figure out? She’d been so scared he wouldn’t be here when she arrived and so shocked yesterday when she’d learned Jason held such deep resentment for this part of himself. That had been what had given her the nerve to show up here. She loved Jason, deeply, and to learn he hated such an intrinsic part of himself…she needed to understand that, needed to understand him.
“Hmm?” he prompted, flicking on the gas fire then fetching a butter-yellow sheet from his case. “Can you tell me?” He used the sheet to cover the duvet.
“You mean tell you what I want in a sex way?” She hugged herself, not chilly but self-conscious. “I don’t think so.”
“You did the other day, when you asked me to fuck you with my fingers.”
“I know.” She ducked her flaming face into her hands. “But I was…”
“Motivated?” he asked with some amusement. “Do you not feel motivated now? I assure you I intend to devote myself to your pleasure, so be frank.”
Involuntarily, her skin tingled. Heat began to gather. Internal muscles tightened. At the same time, she found herself shaking her head. She couldn’t, simply couldn’t, ask him to go down on her.
“I think,” he said, strolling toward her, “that if I had coaxed you yesterday, after you licked and sucked me to absolute ecstasy, that you might have asked me to fuck you with my tongue. Were you aroused, Arianne? Did you wonder how it would feel to have your clit sucked?” His gloved knuckles grazed the hem of his shirt, his fingertip tickling over her tight curls.
“Yes,” she said. “But please don’t make me say it.”
“You’d rather show me? Even better.” Backing away from her, he lowered himself onto the yellow sheet, leaned back on an elbow and beckoned her to join him.
Arianne moved closer, but cautiously. “What do you mean?”
“I want you to show me what you want me to do. Kneel here.” Dropping flat onto his back, he cupped two hands in the air above his nose. “Sit on my face, Arianne. I swear you won’t have to say a thing. I’ll get the message.”
With a helpless laugh she let her knees buckle, but beside his hip, not where he’d asked. “The things you ask me to do!” The folds of his shirt rippled to cover her thighs. “I just spent a night feeling like the most selfish person for wanting a repeat of the other day when you…”
“Finger fucked you into unconsciousness.”
She covered her blazing cheeks with her palms. “You’re killing me.”
“You really can’t just let me give you this?” he asked. “Surely you’ve been thinking about it.”
“Yes.” Despite all her confusion and worry last night, her hand had still found its way between her thighs while she imagined the rasp of his tongue there. Her breasts swelled and her nipples grew tight as she thought of it again. Would he really make her say it?
“How about this,” he suggested, neatly releasing the fly on his black leather pants, hitching them off his hips and down, revealing his engorged cock. “We’ll see who can get the other one off first.”
“What do you mean?” A truly wicked thrill shivered through her. “You want me to…while you’re…?”
“Oh, come on, Arianne. You can say it. It’s just a number.”
“I can’t say it. I can’t do it.” She clamped her thigh together but it only increased the tingling ache between.
“You’re obviously not horny enough.”
Oh, she was growing plenty horny. It was just so— “It’s not me, Dominic. Maybe other people do things like that but I don’t.”
“Yet,” he said, and rolled up on an elbow, bracing his forearm alongside her calf. He toyed with her bare foot while he used his free hand to pull out the neckline of his shirt and peer down. “Do you have any idea how badly I want to suck these nipples?” He tugged the neckline sideways until her breast overflowed the loosened laces. Dropping his head forward, he opened his mouth over the tip of her breast and nipped.
“Ouch! You bit me.”
“Not hard. Did you like it?”
Kind of. An electric pulse tingled and throbbed through her. His one hand shaped her heel, grazing the cheek that plumped over it, edging toward the sensitive skin in the crack between her buttocks.
“Did you?” he insisted.
“Why do you like to talk about these things?” she asked, tucking her breast away. She was more baffled than outraged, but played indignant anyway. “Why do you want to make me talk like that?”
He sobered. “I was under the impression you enjoy being pushed past your comfort zone. Is what I’m asking you to do making you feel debased?”
“No, just like I’m turning into a slut when I do these things you ask.”
“This isn’t about turning you into a slut, Arianne.” He looked to where she clutched the neckline tight over her breasts. “It’s about dragging the slu
t that’s in you out of the basement where you keep her. She needs to know she’s safe to come out and enjoy herself.”
“You think I have an inner slut?” The suggestion appalled her yet also made her…proud. Normal, even. She giggled. “That’s really bad, isn’t it? Having an inner slut?” She loved saying the word, applying it to herself. “Why aren’t you disgusted?”
“Because the word delighted comes more quickly to mind.”
She laughed again, thinking how perfect it was. She had an inner slut, and he, Jason, had Dominic.
“Now tell me if you liked my teeth on your nipple,” he said.
She shook her head once. “I mean, yes, I liked it, but I want you to suck it. Please.” She closed her eyes, embarrassed yet turned-on. Her nipples lifted and peaked.
“Offer your nipple to me.”
The tight order made her abdomen jump. Misgiving made her clumsy as she fished for the weight of her breast, peeling the V of the shirt collar down to reveal herself, leaning out on one hand while still cupping the underside of her breast in the other. The sheer sluttiness of what she was doing amplified her arousal. She dared to outline his lips with the turgid nipple, trembling as excitement burned like a hard ember in her abdomen.
As the hot cavity of his mouth closed over the full circle of her areola, she practically melted. He massaged her other breast through the shirt and sucked hard, inciting sharp sensations to streak into her abdomen and lower.
She moaned, catching at the back of his head, his shoulder, holding the awkward position just so she could continue to experience that pulling sensation on the sensitive tip of her breast and deep in her belly. She loved it. She listened to the sloppy, sucking noises he made as he released and captured, slurped and pulled, licked and tugged, and her pussy grew wetter and wetter. Her other nipple begged for the same exquisite abuse.