A Touch of Summer

by Nichole Rose

  "They may treat you differently at first," he says, kissing my ring again as if to reassure me that everything will be all right, "but once they realize you haven't changed and that it's still going to be business as usual, things will go back to normal. Everyone adores you. That isn't going to change just because you're marrying me, sunshine."

  "Everyone adores you too."

  "No," he disagrees with a smile that says he doesn't mind. "They like me, but they'd take up pitchforks and torches for you. You're so easy to love because you radiant goodness, Summer. You care about people and it shows."

  "You care about them too." I know how much he cares about everyone who works for him. He really is an incredible boss. His employees are very well taken care of. He goes out of his way to make sure they have everything they need and more.

  He spends a small fortune feeding everyone at least once a week. He also pays everyone better than his competitors do, gives them more paid time off, and even pays for daycare for those with small kids. Several of our employees, like Tomas, have developmental delays or mental considerations. He doesn't hesitate to bring them on board and make them an important part of the Alessi brand. He says I'm the reason everyone is so happy, but that's not true. I made things more efficient and organized, but he's the reason everyone who works for him genuinely like their jobs.

  "I do care about them, but I don't know a fucking thing about what people need to thrive. You do. It takes you all of five minutes to read a person and get them to open up. That's why I hired you, you know. My entire staff was smiling about two minutes after you walked in the door because you made a point to make each and every one of them feel like they were important."

  "They are important," I say even as warmth fills me. He's so damn sweet.

  "Yeah, they are. But you're pure light, sweet girl," he says, pulling into the parking garage. "That's why I call you sunshine. Just being around you makes people happy. As soon as you stepped in my office, I saw it. I wanted that light for myself and for my staff. I knew right then that you were going to change my world."

  "I did too," I whisper. "As soon as you looked at me, I wanted to crawl into your lap and stay there."

  He grins at me before pulling into his parking spot. "That's because you knew you were supposed to be with me. We were made for one another. I've known it since I met you. I just didn't know how to get you to see the same thing." He turns the car off before turning to face me. One big finger glides across my bottom lip, his eyes locked on my face. Even in the darkness of the parking garage, I see the heat in his eyes, the desire. "I didn't know how to make an angel fall in love with me."

  "I saw it, Dominic," I whisper, grabbing his hand to press a kiss to his palm. "I've always seen it. I guess it just took us both a little time to find the courage to reach for it."

  "Yeah, sweet girl, it did. But that's all right. We figured it out. Now, I get to spend the rest of my life loving you like you deserve." He grins at me, his eyes alight with happiness. "I plan to be real fucking good at my job, sunshine."

  I smile back at him, unable to help myself when seeing him so happy has the feeling welling in my chest and then spilling over to fill up the rest of me. "I'm okay with that plan," I whisper, leaning across the console to press my lips to his. "Especially since I plan to be real good at mine too."

  He groans against my lips and then spears his hand into my hair before stealing my breath. I have a feeling he's going to be stealing it for a very long time.

  He kisses me long and hard, not letting up until we're both breathing hard. Once he's kissed my lipstick off and messed up my hair, he helps me out of the car.

  "I love you, sunshine."

  "I love you too, Dominic."

  He tugs me closer to his body, tucking me against his side. His lips brush across my crown, making me smile. He smiles too. Like he can't stop. Neither can I.

  We walk hand-in-hand into the office…and into our future.

  Epilogue

  Summer

  Five years later

  His hands dance like embers across my skin, setting me ablaze with each masterful stroke. Soft puffs of warm air sizzle across my overheated flesh, causing me to twist, and arch, and moan. His lips trail down the valley of my stomach, across the little lines that now mark me there. His wild hair follows in their wake, tickling what his mouth set on fire.

  "Dominic, please," I whisper, grasping at the wall but unable to find purchase. "I need you now."

  "Not yet," he murmurs, his mouth trailing lower, and then lower again.

  His lips caress my center, his tongue gliding through my folds. A powerful groan rumbles from him. His hands clutch me harder, pull me closer.

  I lose myself to him, lose myself in him as he takes me higher, higher, always higher. Until I'm trembling with desire, desperate for release. It comes like the soft wash of water over rocks, working its way through me in waves. First my core, and then higher, through my belly, up into my chest. My arms and legs tingle. My head lolls against the wall. I bite my lip, trying to contain the cry of ecstasy threatening to break free.

  "That's it, sweet girl," he croons, looking up at me with those dark emerald eyes. They're wide and dilated, dark with pleasure. Almost worshipful in their enjoyment of what he's doing to me. What he always does to me.

  No matter how many times he touches me like this, kisses me like this, he manages to fling me into the heavens in some new way, some extraordinarily beautiful, delightful new way. It's bliss. For five years, my life has been perfect because of him. I wouldn't change a single moment of it.

  He kisses his way up my body, stopping to nuzzle his scruffy face against my growing belly. He drops a little kiss there, whispers words I can't hear. They're probably praises for the baby girl growing inside me. Ever since we found out we're having a little girl, he's been talking to her, telling her how much he loves her, how she's the sweetest little baby. Already, he adores her.

  So do her older brothers. Not a day goes by when they don't curl up in my lap to talk to their baby sister. Like Dominic, they're fascinated by her. She's going to be the most cherished little baby on the planet if my boys have anything to say about it. I can't wait to meet her, to hold her in my arms and love her with my whole heart like I do Dominic and our boys.

  Dominic continues his journey up my body, stopping again to worship at my breasts. He loves watching them grow as much as he loves watching my stomach expand. He could spend hours kissing them, biting them…adoring them. He's good at it too. So very good. He knows my body better than I do. He should. He's spent the last five years exploring it at every available opportunity.

  He quests higher, nipping at my collarbone, sliding his lips across my cheek. He lifts me up, wrapping my legs around his waist. His lips touch mine as he sinks into me, filling me full. So full. No matter how many times he makes love to me, that first thrust always steals my breath. He's so big, so damn perfect.

  "I love you," he whispers against my lips as he makes love to me, lifting me up and down his length until I feel like I'm soaring close to the sun. He never lets it burn me. Nothing ever hurts me with him around. He won't allow it.

  "I love you too," I whisper back, scraping my nails against his scalp and then down his neck. I dig them into his broad shoulders, clinging as he fucks me up against the wall in the bathroom, unhurried. He never rushes when we're like this, always adamant that he's going to take his time. He does. Over and over again.

  I love it. I love him.

  His lips land against mine again, his hands digging into the flesh of my ass as he pumps into me. I know the minute he gets close. Hear it in the little gasp he makes, feel it in the way he holds me a little tighter, pushes a little deeper. I know his body too. Know everything about this incredible man. He's not the only one who has spent the last five years exploring.

  My greedy lips and curious hands have been all over him, worshipping him too. Our life together is our heaven. When we're like this, he's my god. He's
my everything just like I'm his. We were made for this, made for one another.

  We both know it. We both love it.

  "Come for me, sunshine," he says, partially a demand and partially a plea.

  "Together," I murmur, refusing to go over without him this time. We're in this together. Always. Always.

  "Summer. God, Summer," he groans, burying his face in my throat as his orgasm takes him. He loses his rhythm, loses his control. He grips me tighter, less carefully. His cock jerks inside me, spilling into me again and again. He trembles, his powerful body vulnerable in this moment. His breath rattles in his lungs, steams across my flesh.

  I fall apart with him, willingly, eagerly, completely. I moan his name and writhe against him as the waves crest, pulling me under. It's bliss. It's magic. It's everything.

  We come down slowly, so tangled up in one another I'm not sure where one of us ends and the other begins. Maybe we don't end. Maybe we're the same. Sometimes, it feels like we are. Like right now, when the sweat is cooling on my overheated skin and he's holding me close, protecting me with his body as I float in euphoria.

  "Happy anniversary, sweet girl," he says, pulling back to give me a lazy smile. His eyes are alight with happiness, his scruffy face set in lines of joy. "You've been mine for five years today."

  "I've been yours for longer than that," I say, smiling back at him.

  "I know, but five years ago today, you handed me your letter of resignation and your heart. It's an important day, you know."

  "The most important."

  He nods his agreement, his expression solemn, grave. "It was the day I finally started living."

  God, I love him when he's all serious and sweet. He's irresistible.

  He pulls me away from the walk, carrying me toward the shower. He's still inside me. Still hard. I don't think he's ever anything less than ready to take me again, ready to love me one more time, deeper and harder.

  He turns me so the cold spray hits him instead of me, using his body like a shield. He has to feel it, has to be freezing, but he doesn't complain. He just waits patiently for it to heat before he lowers me to my feet and begins to wash me.

  "Are you coming to the office today?" he asks as he massages shampoo into my hair.

  "For a little while. I promised Liberty I'd have lunch with her."

  He kisses me on my shoulder before tipping my head back to rinse the shampoo away. "The boys will like that. They love getting to play with Spencer and Toby."

  He's right. Our three boys adore spending time with Liberty's boys. She met the love of her life not long after Dominic and I married. She still works for Dominic, but she spends most of her time working from her husband's office now. She only comes in a couple days a week.

  I try to make a point to be there when she is so the boys can play while we work. Not that I seem to get much done when I'm there. Dominic has a way of keeping me busy with other things. Like cuddling on his lap after he makes love to me in his office. Or wrangling the boys when they get tired of playing at the daycare that now shares office space with Alessi Technology Inc. Or catching up with everyone else on staff.

  I still keep Dominic's office in order, because he refuses to let anyone else do it, but I only work a couple days a week now. I stopped working full-time when Deacon, our oldest was born four years ago. I have a more important job now; one I wouldn't trade for anything. I keep Dominic's life in order, keep our boys in order. It's the best of both worlds, what I dreamed about for so long.

  Sometimes, I think my life is a fairytale. Dominic kissed me and the whole world changed. I wouldn't change a single thing about it. Except maybe to have told him sooner how I feel about him. Those feelings have only grown in the years since. I have a suspicion they always will.

  "You're awful quiet today, sunshine," he murmurs, shuffling me to the side so he can rinse the shampoo out of his hair.

  "I'm just thinking."

  "About what?" he asks, pulling me back into his arms once he's finished.

  "About you and how much I love you."

  His eyes light up with happiness again. He cuddles me close to his chest, holding me as the warm water beats down on us. "I love you too, sweet girl."

  I know he does. The bottle of whiskey his grandma left him is almost empty. He never drinks it alone though. And never in a glass. He licks it off my body when he's happiest, which makes me happiest. I'm not sure what his grandma would say about that tradition if she knew, but it's one of my favorites. One I look forward to keeping for the rest of our lives.

  I hope you enjoyed reading A Touch of Summer. Thank you so much for joining my mailing list!

  Her Alpha Daddy Next Door

  Excerpt

  "Don't mention his penis," I coach myself as I walk down the steps, carefully balancing the plate so it doesn't crash to the ground. The bannister railing is loose, so I walk slow to make sure I don't end up breaking my neck. Wouldn't that be an awful way to die? Trying to deliver cookies to the hot detective downstairs. He'd probably be really grumpy then.

  His blinds are all drawn tight and his front door is closed.

  I stand outside it for a long moment, trying to work up the nerve to knock.

  "Stop stalling and do it already."

  "Do what?"

  I scream as his deep, sexy voice sounds behind me. My arms go up, the plate of cookies flying into the air. I watch in stunned horror as gravity immediately takes hold of the plate and sends it plummeting toward the cement.

  Surprisingly, the plate never hits the ground and neither do any of the cookies. Officer Grumpy grabs the plate out of midair. The cellophane holds, keeping the cookies safely on the platter…probably because I wrapped half a box around the thing. It's not my fault. There is no taming cellophane. It's a design flaw, I swear.

  "Holy shit," I whisper, blinking at Officer Grumpy. "You're like Batman. A really hot, really grumpy Batman."

  Officer Grumpy throws his head back and laughs loudly.

  I feel my cheeks heat with embarrassment. Why don't words ever stay in my head where they're supposed to stay? It's not really fair that they just come tumbling out without my permission.

  "These for me, sweetness?" he asks, cocking a brow at me. Even in clothes, he's hot.

  "Yes. Here." I shove the note at him, practically hitting him in the chest in the process.

  He catches my wrist in his free hand, sending sparks shooting up and down my arm. I expect him to let me go once he keeps me from accidentally punching him, but instead, he just holds onto me. I tip my head way back to look up at him.

  "Jesus," he mutters, staring at me like he can't figure out what to do with me. "You really are tiny, aren't you? Like a little fairy princess."

  "Am not," I mumble, licking my lips. He smells like brandy and pine needles. The combination is oddly erotic. "I'm normal sized. You're just big."

  His lips tip into a wicked smirk, revealing the dimple in his left cheek. "I think we established that last time, princess."

  My cheeks flame with embarrassment at the reminder of our last meeting. "We're pretending that didn't happen, remember?"

  "We are?" His grin widens.

  "Yes, definitely." I bob my head up and down for emphasis. "Never happened."

  "Well, princess, my dick is going to be sorely disappointed to hear that you never called him huge," Officer Grumpy says. "Especially since he seems to like you."

  "He has good taste. I'm very likable."

  "That so?"

  I nod again, tugging on my arm to get it back. Does he even remember that he's holding it like I'm a hostage or something?

  "Are you going to let me go?" I ask when he tightens his grip instead of releasing me.

  "I haven't decided yet."

  "Isn't it illegal to hold people hostage?"

  "Is it?"

  "You should know. You're the detective. By the way, am I supposed to call you Officer Grumpy or Detective Grumpy? I'm not sure which is appropriate."

 
"You think I'm grumpy?"

  "You don't think you're grumpy?" I narrow my eyes on him, highly suspicious that he doesn't know he's grumpy and kind of rude. "You're also kind of rude."

  Why does he keep smiling at me like that?

  "That why you made me cookies?"

  "No," I huff, rolling my eyes at him. "I made you cookies to say sorry for waking you up. And for insulting your parents. And also because being quiet is a lot of work and I'm not very good at it, so these are preemptive strike cookies."

  "You've been very quiet the last few days."

  "I know!" I beam up at him, rather pleased with myself. And grateful that he noticed my effort because good Lord! That was a lot of work. "See? I'm not a problem at all. You're just grumpy and rude. And you're still holding me hostage."

  "Doesn't count," he mutters, narrowing his eyes on me.

  "Why not?"

  "Because you don't want me to let you go."

  "I told you I did."

  "You're a terrible liar, princess." He tugs me closer to his big body, reeling me in like I'm a catfish on a hook. "You're all flushed and your heart is racing. I bet your panties are wet too. I think you like being my hostage."

  Wow. He's pretty good at this detective stuff. Not that I'm telling him that.

  "Do not," I lie. For good measure, I tug on my arm again. Not that it helps or anything. I think he could probably keep me here forever if he wanted to do it. "Hasn't anyone ever told you that steroids will make your um…penis shrink?"

  He blinks at me, his mouth popping open. "You think I'm on steroids?"

  "Either that or you're the Hulk." I wonder if his penis got bigger when he hulked out or if it's always been that size? I briefly consider asking him and then decide I probably shouldn't. It seems like an awfully personal question.

  He stares at me for a full five count and then laughs again, only it sounds more like a laugh-groan than a real laugh. "Jesus Christ, you're going to ruin me, princess."

  "Am not," I mutter, slightly offended and a little bit turned on. I like when he calls me princess. It makes me feel like he thinks I'm something important. "You could probably eat all those cookies and still look like someone carved you. Which really isn't fair, by the way."