by Jo Leigh
God, what was wrong with her? When had she become this cynical?
They had a lot more in common. They’d even had some fun times...
“My ribs are fine,” Dom said, covering her hand with his free one. “You don’t have to do this.”
“What?” Sara met his eyes. “Did I—I don’t understand.”
A resigned smile curved his mouth. “You’re thinking awfully hard. And I bet they aren’t pleasant thoughts.” He let go of her hand and started to rise.
She gripped his arm and held firm. “Please don’t,” she said. “I wasn’t very gracious the other day when you took care of the food truck. I don’t have a good excuse. I don’t even know why I acted that way, but it’s really bothered me.” She paused to take a breath, not sure how much longer she could maintain eye contact with him. “I’m so grateful my dad won’t have to stress out over that damn truck, I can’t even tell you. Moretti’s is all they really have, and it makes me crazy to think they could lose it.”
“I was glad to help,” he said, and stroked her cheek with his thumb. “So let’s forget about it, okay?”
“No, it’s not okay. I don’t—I can’t just—”
Wariness flickered as his eyes narrowed. He lowered his hand. “I’m not looking for anything in return. You understand that, don’t you?”
“What?” She blinked. Had a horrible thought. “No. God. Of course not.” A laugh escaped her. “As if any woman would...” She trailed off, unsettled by the flash of annoyance in his eyes. “Are you saying that because I’m jittery?” She gave him no time to respond. “Look, the kiss was fake. I know that, okay? But I—I liked it. And I just said that out loud so I might have to kill myself.” Sara sighed and slumped back against the wall. “The truck would’ve been so much easier for my parents to deal with than a funeral.”
Dom was clearly trying to hold back a laugh. “You have anything decent to drink?”
She nodded. “I do, in fact. Something very good.” She stood and headed for the door. “Why don’t you come with me?”
He followed the short distance to her bedroom. She motioned to her thankfully made bed while she unboxed a bottle of Jameson Gold Reserve Irish Whiskey she’d received as a moving-away gift. “Neat? On the rocks?”
“I’m good,” he said. “Pour yourself a shot. Or two.”
“That bad, huh?”
He just smiled, and she stared down at her trembling hand.
“Part of this has to do with what happened with those guys,” she said, avoiding his eyes.
“I’m sure that’s most of it.”
Damn him. Why couldn’t he be the jerk she’d always imagined? Yeah, two shots sounded like a very good idea. She needed to calm down. And to keep her mouth shut. As if almost being mugged wasn’t bad enough, Dominic was in her bedroom. On her bed. Looking sexy as hell with his shirt yanked from his jeans, while she still couldn’t quite get over the fact that he’d helped ruin her senior year, which almost cost her a place at GWU.
And now here she was blaming the victim. When she knew damn well her editorial had been the root cause of all her grief.
“It’s a great whiskey. I don’t bring it out except for special occasions.”
“Like watching me get clocked?”
Mentally wincing, she grabbed her water glass from the nightstand and opened the bottle. “Tell me about those kung fu classes you took,” she said, pouring in two fingers, then letting the aroma of molasses and almonds linger before she took a sip.
He smiled and took the bag away from his eye. “When I was a little kid I got bullied a lot.”
“You?”
He nodded. “I was always getting fawned over by teachers and parents. Everyone kept saying I should be on TV or something because I was cute as a bug. Which, in case anyone ever asks, isn’t a compliment to a seven-year-old. It also didn’t help that I had a lisp. It got pretty bad.”
“That’s awful.”
“My mom got me a speech therapist. Eventually the lisp cleared up, which was actually more about my teeth than a real impediment. But my father enrolled me in a karate class, which helped even more.”
She tried not to stare at his chest exposed by the two undone buttons. “Did you do a lot of fighting back then?”
“Nah. Because I knew I could win, and my classmates discovered that real quick. Although I didn’t stop at karate. I didn’t compete in school, but I got into mixed martial arts. I still go to the dojo, although I’m not that into it anymore. It’s a tough sport, and I don’t like getting hurt.”
“Yeah, well, it’ll help if you keep your distance from me. I seem to be a trouble magnet when it comes to you.”
He stared at her, his lips slightly parted, his gaze probing.
She hid behind her drink, but that didn’t faze him.
“What did I do to you?” he asked. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, but I can’t. I don’t like not knowing.”
Any relaxation the whiskey had afforded her vanished, replaced by a panic that jumbled her thoughts and made her want to run from the room. Instead, she leaned across the short distance between them and kissed him right on the lips.
7
DOM INHALED AS her lips moved against his. His response might have been delayed, but not unenthusiastic. He’d wanted to kiss Sara since he’d first seen her at Moretti’s, but with her hot-and-cold attitude toward him, he’d been pretty convinced it was a lost cause.
He reached for her hand and pulled her down to sit beside him. He swept a hand down her back all the way to her waist as he got a feel for what she liked. A soft sexy sound inspired him to explore her mouth slowly, thoroughly, and she seemed to enjoy a tease here and there.
It didn’t take long to let go of his thoughts and concentrate on her taste, now that the whiskey was gone. Enjoy the feel of her slender back under his hand, and the scent of something delicate and flowery when he nuzzled her just behind her ear.
Her hand moved up on his thigh. He reacted with a jerk, but not in a place she would have felt. Accepting her boldness as an invitation, he cupped a hand over her breast.
“Oh,” she whispered, the warmth of her breath gentle across his cheek.
“Okay?” he asked, slipping his fingers underneath her T-shirt. The first contact with her smooth warm skin sent his pulse into a frenzy.
“This is crazy,” she whispered, one second before she kissed him again, harder, her tongue pushing its way past his lips into his mouth.
Heat shot through him. Groaning, he cupped her bra-covered breast, the nipple poking his palm stirring all kinds of sensations inside him. Deepening the kiss, he swirled his tongue around hers, then teased her lower lip with his teeth.
Carefully, giving her plenty of time to stop him, he traced the edge of her bra to the front clasp, which he unhooked in a miraculously smooth move. Then he had her lush flesh filling his hand, the silky skin making him moan with want.
Instead of chasing him away, her fingers found his remaining shirt buttons, and as they switched positions so he could kiss her in every possible way, she moved down button by button until she’d reached his belt.
Her next move made his cock press against his fly. Her delicate hand brushed his chest, ran lightly over his nipples, up his neck, then down again, circling, teasing. Goddammit, he wanted them naked, now.
He grasped her wrist and pulled her arm up so he could slip off her T-shirt. For a moment, he just stared at her pink cheeks, her moist lips, then down to the stunning breasts that he wanted to know much better.
“Now you,” she said, easily twisting her hand free so she could push his shirt off his shoulders.
He let her finish taking off his shirt but then caught her hand when she went for his belt. “Wait,” he said, looking into her sparkling eyes. “Let me look at yo
u.”
Sara tensed a little, hunched her shoulders slightly forward and let out a nervous laugh. He wanted to say something to reassure her. Tell her how beautiful she was, but somehow he didn’t think it was the right thing to say. Both of her rosy pink nipples stood out and nothing short of an earthquake could’ve stopped him from touching them.
He thumbed the right one, and she shivered.
“I forgot to check your ribs,” she whispered, and he laughed.
A blush spread across her face, her lashes sweeping the top of her cheeks, and he had the oddest flash of memory, of that shy teenage girl she’d been ten years ago. Sara looked and sounded different but she still had that bashful streak in her.
Not without regret, he moved his hand from her breast and lifted her chin. “You must’ve had a tough time in college,” he said, drawing a finger across her lush bottom lip.
With a slight frown, she met his eyes. “Not really.”
“Don’t tell me you weren’t chasing men off left and right.” He smiled when she laughed. “No use lying to me, I won’t believe it.”
“Now I’m really worried about your head. You must have a concussion,” she said, leaning forward for a kiss.
“Nothing wrong with my head, Sara.” He brushed his lips over hers, his mouth and body craving more. “Or my eyesight.” He couldn’t stand another second without tasting her, and then he was going to kiss her, and keep kissing and touching her until she understood exactly what she was doing to him.
His impatient cock was damn hard, but it would have to wait—well, as long as his brain was still functioning. He swept his tongue inside the moist recesses of her mouth, probing, teasing and inviting her to play.
Until he thought he heard a sound.
Sara didn’t react so he was probably wrong.
There it was again, and this time Sara stiffened.
They broke apart.
“I think that was the kitchen door,” she whispered, then fell silent while they listened.
A voice floated up the stairs and into the bedroom. “Sara?”
She froze. “Shit. Ellie.” Sara sprang to her feet, pulling her bra together with clumsy fingers.
He rose, tried to help her, but she slapped him away. As he was debating whether he could get it together enough to shut the door quietly or if he should just grab his shirt and run for the bathroom, he heard the stairs creak.
“Hurry up,” Sara whispered in what was tantamount to a verbal slap across the face.
He hurried. Buttoning as fast as he could, willing his erection to deflate like a pricked balloon, although his body had other ideas.
She had her shirt on, and presumably her bra but everything had happened in a flash, and now she was doing something to her hair.
Dom quickly turned around. Looking at Sara wasn’t helping tame his arousal. Then Sara grabbed him by the front of his shirt and dragged him out of the bedroom into the bathroom.
One second later, Ellie was in the hallway. “Sara?”
“I’m here,” she said, exhaling as she pasted a smile on her face. “Just getting Dom straightened away.”
“Dom?”
Ellie sounded as if she was right outside the bathroom door. There was no hope of doing anything more. If he ignored his condition, then hopefully everyone else would, too.
“Yeah,” Sara said. “I can still hardly believe it, but I was almost attacked coming home from work. Dom stepped in and got hammered for his trouble.”
“What?”
Dom followed Sara to the hallway. “I wouldn’t say hammered. More like a lucky punch.” He’d left the damn peas in her bedroom. “It’s nothing serious,” he said, lightly probing the area around his eye for good measure.
“We’ve got to talk, though,” Sara said, blinking at Ellie. “No more walking home alone. Not for any of us. These guys weren’t from the neighborhood. One of them had a knife.”
“A small knife.” Dom watched Ellie’s wide-eyed gaze skitter back and forth between him and Sara. “Like I told Sara, I’m pretty sure their plan was to cut her purse strap and make a run for it.”
“Luckily, I didn’t have much cash on me, but still...” Sara turned to Dom. “I think you’ll be okay,” she said, “but you should probably ice that eye when you get home.”
He nodded. “Good idea.” Over her shoulder, he saw that Ellie’s mouth was still open, her eyes wide, and now she was staring so hard at Dom he felt sure she’d seen the bulge behind his fly.
“Let me just rinse my hands,” he said. “Then I’ll take off.”
“Okay,” Sara said, too quickly.
He hid in the bathroom, willing away the last of his erection. Dammit, he wished Sara would take a hint and walk Ellie downstairs.
“What the hell?” Ellie said.
“I’ll explain more after he leaves,” Sara said, barely keeping her voice to a whisper. “Just give me a minute to walk him out.”
“Yeah, right. You do that.”
Dom left the bathroom, then he and Sara walked in the most innocent way possible to the end of the hall and down the stairs. Neither of them said a word until they got to the front door. Sara put her hand on the knob but he stopped her from turning it.
“Wait a minute,” he said. “We have unfinished business.”
Her eyes widened and her hand went to her throat. “Are you crazy?” she whispered.
“Not that. You were going to tell me what I did—”
“Oh, God, Dom. Not now.”
“Now. I won’t let you brush me off.” He waited while she glanced at the stairs, assuring herself Ellie wasn’t there. “I’m not leaving until you tell me.”
She gaped at him as if he’d slapped her, but that was okay because he was just now realizing all that kissing was probably her way of weaseling out of answering him.
“The spring dance,” she said, barely opening her jaw enough to get the words out.
“Spring dance?” he repeated, his brain struggling for context. “When?”
“I was thirteen. You were a freshman in high school.”
Nothing clicked. “Hell, that was a long time ago.”
“I know. I told you to forget about it—it’s stupid.” She started to pull the door open.
Dom pushed it closed. “It’s not stupid. I can tell you’re upset.”
“I’m upset because of...” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Ellie.”
“I get that. Let’s stick to the spring dance.”
Sara’s anguished sigh almost made him back off. But it also made him more anxious to understand what had happened. Left to fill in the blanks on his own would kill him. So he waited, hating the grim look on her face. He was a second away from giving in and leaving when she finally spoke.
“It was the dance our mothers wanted us to go to. Together.”
“Okay.” He was still drawing a blank. If he remembered correctly, matchmaking had been a favorite pastime of every mother in the neighborhood. “What about it?”
“You didn’t want to take me. Which was understandable. But not when I was thirteen. I was still the obedient daughter who did whatever my parents told me.”
“So you were disappointed we didn’t end up going together?” He still wasn’t clear how that made him the bad guy. He hadn’t asked her to go, and then reneged.
Shaking her head, Sara wrung her hands together. “It’s what I overheard you say to your friends...”
That landed in his gut. He’d hate to think he was too big of an asshole when he was fourteen, but it was hard to know for sure.
“Fair warning,” Ellie said. “I’m coming downstairs now.”
They both heard the steps creak.
Dom met Sara’s eyes. “We’re not done with this,” he said. “I
need to hear it all. But I am sorry.”
She nodded, swung the door open and practically shoved him out.
Jesus, he knew it wouldn’t be easy to hear, but he had to know. Especially if it was something that would always keep Sara just out of his reach.
* * *
AFTER SARA LOCKED the door and turned around, she found Ellie standing on the second step, arms folded and glaring.
“Did you get a prom dress?” she asked, her mind still on Dom and the puzzled look on his face as he left. “Isn’t that why you went shopping?”
“Did you know Dom was coming over tonight?” Ellie countered. “Is that why you gave me a later curfew?”
“Don’t be silly.” Sara shook her head and went to the kitchen. She was so not in the mood for this crap. Of course she didn’t want Ellie thinking something had happened between her and Dom, but Sara had offered a perfectly acceptable explanation. No reason her sister shouldn’t accept it.
God, he must think she was such a twit, reacting over something that happened half a lifetime ago. She poured herself some water when she should’ve gone straight to her bedroom and taken another gulp of whiskey.
Ellie had followed her and leaned a hip against the counter, watching her guzzle half the glass. Her defiant expression was pissing Sara off.
She thought about reminding Ellie she was only seventeen and what Sara did or didn’t do was none of her business. But Ellie had that crush on Dom and there was no point in getting into a no-win argument with her.
Sara took a deep breath and checked her tone of voice. “So, no dress?”
Ellie shook her head. “I didn’t see one I liked.”
“Where are you going to look next?”
“I don’t know.”
“When’s the prom?”
“Four weeks.”
“You still have time,” Sara said, and feeling more relaxed, gave her sister a smile, which Ellie didn’t return.
She wasn’t glaring, though, just staring. “You really were attacked?”
“Almost. Like I said, Dom stepped in.”
“How could he just step in? He must’ve been with you.”
