by M. S. Parker
And there she was.
She stood there, dressed in a slim fitting sun dress the color of her eyes. Those eyes were locked on me, her lips parted in shock.
“Aleena.”
She took a slow step toward me, her gaze darting between me and her father.
“Just exactly what are your intentions here, Dominic?” he asked.
Her eyes widened, her mouth falling open.
She could hear us.
The town was small, quiet. So different from New York. The cafe was only two store fronts away from where I was standing. In New York, that might as well be a mile with all the hustle and noise. But here? She could have been standing two feet away.
Slipping my hands into my pockets, I stared directly into her eyes as I answered her father, “Well, for starters, I plan to ask her to marry me.”
Chapter 25
Aleena
Dominic was here.
He'd come after me.
Heart lurching hard and fast against my ribs, I stared back and forth between him and Dad. The grin on my dad’s face told me he couldn’t have been more pleased. He looked so damn smug, I wanted to stick out my tongue at him, some remnant left over from childhood.
Here I was working on convincing myself I could have a happy, Dominic-free life and there was Dominic, talking about marriage and Dad looked like he was ready to break out the cigars.
And Dominic…
My knees were weak just looking at him.
I thought they just might give out under me as I took a step toward him but I kept my voice calm and level as I said, “Dominic.”
My father slid his gaze back and forth between us. “Why don't you two go back to the apartment to talk?”
I nodded even though I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to talk to him. I waited until my dad went back into the cafe before I asked the question I really wanted to know.
“What are you doing here?”
“You heard me,” he said, his voice calm and steady.
His eyes were…not.
They were a burning, blazing blue, the kind of blue I'd seen sometimes in fire.
“You should go.” I looked around nervously, my heart giving another hard lurch against my ribs. “I’m not in the mood for another pity proposal right—”
The rest of my words were caught against his mouth.
His hands framed my face and instinctively, I reached up and closed my fingers around his wrists. Under my fingers, I felt that hard, driving beat of his pulse and the frantic rhythm made my head swim. His tongue thrust past my lips and the taste of him flooded me, sending something that felt like an addict’s high crashing through me.
I tore away.
“No!”
Dominic let me go.
I watched as he slid his tongue along his lips as if he was tasting me.
“You need to leave.” I shook my head.
“We need to talk,” he returned.
Talk…
Oh, no. That look in his eyes had little to do with talking and everything to do with fucking. But I found myself nodding. If he thought he was just going to do what he'd done before and use sex...well, he might find his balls more intimately connecting with my knee than any other part of me.
I turned on my heel and led him around the back of the café to the stairs. He wasn’t wrong. We hadn't talked before, so maybe we should now. Maybe he’d want to be a part of her life. Her…I was already thinking of my little baby as a girl.
My dad had given me the apartment over the café where he sometimes spent the night if he was closing late and opening early. I’d spent last night at my old childhood home and had plans to do the same tonight since the only furniture in the apartment was an old twin bed, but it was better to talk here than somewhere we could be interrupted.
Besides, it was going to be my home so I needed to be comfortable here.
My heart ached at the thought and to distract myself, I shot Dominic a narrow look. “What were you and my dad talking about?”
“Being dads.”
His calm reply—and the answer—had me stumbling and I would have tripped on the stairs if he hadn’t caught me around the waist and steadied me with his hands. I shoved his hands away, trying to ignore the heat his touch sent through me.
“Don’t let him guilt you into anything, Dominic. I’m more than capable of raising a child on my own.”
He didn’t answer.
Not surprising.
I unlocked the door. Ducking inside, I held the door open for Dominic, then followed him inside. He stood there for a moment, looking around with curious eyes.
“It’s more than enough room,” I said defensively. It could fit in the living room of his penthouse, but it had two bedrooms and that was all I needed. I wasn't planning on having anyone else living here.
His expression was calm. “It’s a pretty place, Aleena.”
I didn't say anything. It was his turn to know how that felt.
He was quiet for a moment, and his voice was soft when he began to speak. “You know, I’ve done a lot of thinking the past few days, and you were right. I did jump on you when I heard you tell Koren. I assumed the worst and I didn't try to talk to you.” His gaze slid to my belly and then back up to meet my eyes. “You can imagine this is all new for me. I’ve never been in this position before.”
“Neither have I.” My mood was swinging down into the petulant zone and I was tempted to pout, but I didn’t let myself. It wouldn’t help and I’d feel stupid later. I was determined to get through this with some dignity. “But…look. It’s over.”
Turning away, I moved into the kitchen. I’d borrowed some of the essentials from the café until I got my own. Picking up a glass from the dish rack, I got some water from the fridge and poured a glass.
He hadn't responded to what I'd said yet. I needed him to understand it because I needed it to be done so I could focus on the baby.
“It’s over. We can talk about…”
His hands came down on my shoulders.
“Nothing’s over, Aleena.” Dominic’s lips brushed my ear as he whispered those words. “Nothing.”
“Dominic.” My voice cracked, an echo of what my heart was doing inside my chest. My head fell forward. “Please…I can’t…I can’t do this—”
He spun me around and I sucked in a breath when he boosted me up and planted my ass on the counter so we were at eye level.
“It’s not over,” he said again, the calm mask he’d worn cracking. “It can't be. You’re mine. I’m yours. That’s forever, Aleena. ‘Til death do us part and all that.”
“Dominic…”
“Please, baby.”
My heart twisted. I'd never heard him sound so vulnerable before.
“I fucked up. I know that.” He brushed my hair back, his fingers lingering on my cheek. “Please forgive me.” He pressed his forehead against mine. “Please, Aleena. I love you. I need you.”
Tears pricked at the corner of my eyes. “I need you too,” I whispered.
His mouth closed over mine and I shuddered as his hand cupped the back of my head, holding me still as he kissed me. It was a deep, possessive kiss, thorough. It was the kind of kiss that told me he meant every word he'd said. I was moaning by the time he lifted his head. He didn’t pull away.
He just hovered a breath away, enough to whisper, “Forever, Aleena. I want you to marry me. Not because it's what we should do, but because I don't want to live another day wondering when you're going to realize you're too good for me.”
I sniffled, tears blurring my vision.
“I want to watch my baby grow inside you and I want to be there when she’s born.”
He slid his hands down, fingers trailing over my neck, my shoulders.
“I want to watch your breasts swell and I want to sit in the sunlight and watch as you nurse our little girl. I want to play dress up with her and scare her boyfriends and dance with her at her wedding.”
“What if it’s a boy
?” I asked, my voice hitching as he palmed my breasts through my dress.
“Then I’ll teach him how to not make the same mistakes I did. How to truly love a woman and be what she deserves.”
“And I want to be what you deserve.” He rubbed his thumbs over my nipples and I moaned. “I want to strip you naked every day between now and the end of forever and worship you. I want to prove to you that I'm worth your trust. I need you, Aleena. Please, say you're mine. Not because you think I want to hear it, but because you want to be mine.”
I was crying now. As he placed his hand over my belly, I didn’t bother to wipe the tears away. I just reached for him.
But when I tried to kiss him, he pulled back and shook his head. “Not yet…”
And then he went to his knees.
I stared at him, struck speechless.
He pulled a velvet box from inside the light jacket he wore and flipped it open. “I want you to marry me. I didn’t do it right before and I know that hurt you. I’m going to do it right this time.”
My heart stuttered to a halt as I met his eyes.
“Aleena…please say you’ll marry me because I can't live without you.”
I launched myself at him and he caught me halfway.
I was dimly aware of him sliding a ring, the metal cool and smooth, onto my finger. But I didn’t even have time to appreciate it because he was too busy sliding something else in the next second. My skirt, up to my hips.
His hand caressed my ass even as he got us both to our feet. His eyes locked with mine for a moment and he let me see him. Really see him. No pretense, no mask. Just him and how much he loved me.
I reached up and ran my thumb along his bottom lip. “I think I need to be punished...Sir.”
He growled as he spun me around, his hand on my back to bend me over the counter, my skirt rucked around my waist.
I cried out at the first blow.
“Tell me,” Dominic ordered as he brought his hand down again. “Tell me you’ll never leave me like that again.”
The hot, stinging pain echoed in my pussy and spread up to my nipples, already tight and pulsing. I whimpered and my fingers scrambled at the counter as I lifted my butt for more.
He smoothed a hand along my skin teasingly. “Say it, Aleena.”
“I’ll never leave you again, Dominic. Please…”
He brought the flat of his hand down on my ass again, then again and again until I was burning and even the lightest brush of his fingers against the skin of my ass was a blast of pain-edged pleasure that left me shaking. Only then did he pull aside my panties and press the head of his cock against my sopping entrance. When he drove inside me, I nearly sobbed in relief. I never thought I'd feel this way again, this full, this complete.
His hands came down on my hips and he slid out slowly, tauntingly, teasingly.
“Please…” I moaned.
He rolled his hips, then began to move, each stroke a lesson in torment. When I tried to shove back on him, he dug his fingers into my flesh and locked me in place.
“Be still,” he ordered. “Or I’ll tie you up.”
I whimpered, my eyes closing.
But I didn’t move.
He kept going slow, so slow, I felt every nuance of his cock, from the flared head, to the wide base and the curls that brushed against my burning skin. When he slid one hand around to the front of me and his finger brushed against my clit, my legs began to shake.
I was quivering with the need to come long before he started to move faster and when he pressed his thumb against my asshole, I shattered. And then he shattered with me, and we were broken together. Broken, but finding our missing pieces in each other.
I let out a soft sob as my heart came back together. He'd come for me. He wanted me. He wanted our baby.
He kissed the back of my shoulder after a long, quiet moment and I opened my eyes. As I pushed myself upright, I glanced down at the unfamiliar weight on my hand and stared.
The ring sparkled and glowed, the stone a pale, pale pink. It glittered like nothing I’d ever seen. “Is that a…”
“It’s a pink diamond. It’s been in…well, Jacqueline’s father gave it to her mother as an engagement ring.” He reached out and touched it, stroked a finger down it even as he straightened my clothing with his free hand. “Pink diamonds are very rare. My…” He stumbled over the word.
“She’s still your mother,” I said softly.
I turned towards him and he tugged me towards him, looping one arm around my waist even as he threaded his fingers between mine. I rested my free hand on his cheek and shrugged. “Me and her, we won’t ever get along, but she loves you, even if she isn't always great at showing it.”
He nodded slowly, his eyes still on the ring. “Mom never much cared for it, so it went into the family collection until I was ready for it. I'm pretty sure everyone assumed I never would be.” He smiled at me. “She…well, she wasn’t surprised when I asked for it. I think…no, you’ll never get along, but I think she’s happy that I’m happy.”
“Are you?”
His eyes met mine and the answer burned there, so hot it knocked the breath out of me.
I leaned against him and closed my eyes.
He was the only man I'd ever loved. The man I trusted with my body, my everything. He was the father of my child.
He was mine.
Forever.
Chapter 26
Dominic
“You sure you got it?” The FBI agent’s eyes were cool and assessing as he studied me.
Russ Andretti couldn’t have been anymore stereotypical if he tried. Hard-faced, grim and brooding, his suit was nice, but straight off the rack and he gave me the impression that not only were the rules there to be followed, but that any deviation might cause an apocalyptic event.
Normally, his kind would piss me off, but I knew he was the kind of man I needed to work with if I wanted to keep this all from going to hell. That was the last thing I wanted. So I planned to toe the line with Special Agent Russ Andretti.
I was going to trust my friend’s gut on this.
“I understand what needs to be done,” I said, looking from Andretti to his partner. They’d been trying to nail my birth father for a long time, a fact that had only been made known to me yesterday, minutes after I disembarked from my private plane, my hand gripping Aleena’s, my mind focused on one thing.
Not sex, either.
I’d been focused on…her. Her and the baby.
My family.
I’d spent almost half of the flight from Iowa to New York making sure she knew without a doubt how much I loved her, worshipped her. How much I needed her in my life, in my heart. I'd made her come more times than I could count, using my fingers, my cock, my mouth. I'd never been so desperate for the feel of another person. A part of me had thought she wouldn’t come back to me. A part of me had thought…
I shoved those thoughts out of my head. It didn't matter now. She was back home. She was wearing my ring and carrying my child. I wasn't ever going to lose her again.
“So.”
The bright, almost happy voice of Andretti’s partner pulled me out of my head and I looked over at Special Agent Carter. I wouldn’t have pegged her for any sort of law enforcement. She looked like the sort of woman who'd be making cookies for the bake sale at the local elementary school or maybe telling stories at some program at a kid’s library.
Her eyes locked on mine. Her smile would disabuse anybody of the notion that she wasn’t every bit as capable as her partner though. She’d been the one to tell me they wanted my help.
And what had happened to the last person they'd approached to help them take down JC Woodrow.
It hadn't been pretty and since then, I’d been told, nobody else would talk.
“You’ll have to go with your gut, Mr. Snow,” she told me. “We can’t coach you or anything. We’re doing this on the fly and I’m afraid if we wire you up and try to feed you lines, you’ll give your
self away.”
We’d already done more than one dummy run. Our best bet was letting me play it by ear. It was my strength, I knew, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t nervous about what lay ahead.
Nerves, I knew, weren’t always a bad thing. They kept a man on edge and a smart man learned how to use them. I’d use all this extra energy inside me to keep my focus and work the two sons of bitches I was meeting until I had them right where I wanted them.
Solomon Snow and JC Woodrow would pay for all the misery they’d caused. They’d pay for the pain they’d brought Cecily when they stole me from her and they’d pay for the pain they’d given Jacqueline too.
My adopted mother had been quietly composed over the past few months, but that hadn't meant this had been easy on her. This had hurt her and she'd been left to suffer in silence.
While I was thinking, Special Agent Carter reached up and touched her ear piece. As she took whatever call had come through, I looked down and checked the simple gold lapel pin that had been affixed to my suit jacket.
“Don’t mess with it,” Andretti advised. “Don’t even look at it.”
I shot him a frown.
His eyebrows came down as he frowned. He was about as Italian as they came, the thick brows heavy slashes against his olive skin. Crossing his arms over his chest, he said, “If you mess with it now, you might think you should mess with it later. Check it. Fiddle with it. You strike me as a man who needs to be in motion, but you don’t strike me as a man who fusses with his clothes, which means you'll call attention to it and that would be bad.”
“We need to get you out there,” Carter said, interrupting us. She rested a hand on my arm and flashed me that bright, happy smile. It had a sharp edge and I could see the determination that had driven her to pursue my birth father for so long. “Are you ready?”
***
My fathers kept me waiting for twenty minutes. Solomon was the first to arrive and he strode in briskly, his movements quick and economical. He was also looking at things—every damn thing. He was subtle about it, so subtle that if I hadn’t been watching myself, I wouldn’t have seen it, but I’d have bet my left nut that he had already sized up everything in there, from how many people were in the quiet uptown restaurant to how far away my table was from the door.