Dominic was nothing like all the other men she’d known. That was one of the first things she’d learned about him. He wouldn’t have asked for so much from her if he wasn’t willing to give her as much in return.
Even though she chose to focus on the more positive thoughts, her mood swung between excited anticipation and debilitating fear. Cissy found the latter won out as she stood at the door to Dominic’s bunkhouse twenty minutes later.
Shifting from one foot to the other, she glanced around, half expecting someone to spring from the side of the building and call her a coward. She hesitated, turning away for a moment and toying with the idea of returning to the main house.
Just go, Cissy, a tiny voice urged. He’ll never know you were even here.
She spun back around and firmed her stance. That was the exact reason she shouldn’t back out. Dominic would never know she was here, but she would. She’d know it every time she regretted walking away or not speaking up.
Just as Jason had known it when he’d decided to leave the boys. She’d seen it in his eyes when he’d sparred with her in the office. It had filled his expression and saturated every line of him. He’d ended up emptier than he’d ever been after that moment.
Cissy lifted her chin. Jason may have not learned from his mistakes but she had. She wasn’t going to let another opportunity for happiness just slip on by.
Raising a fist, she rapped her knuckles on the door.
“It’s open.” Dominic’s muffled voice just managed to reach outside.
She twisted the knob with a shaky hand and entered. Immediately, Dominic’s woodsy scent enveloped her, warming her skin. She remained still for a moment, glancing around. The kitchen and living area were small but adequate and tidy. A coffee mug sat on the table by a recliner. A TV sounded low on the other side of the room, issuing forth a recitation of PBR statistics and standings.
“You packed yet?” Dominic’s deep rumble drifted in from an adjoining room.
Cissy swallowed the lump in her throat and rounded the corner. The fresh scent of soap and shampoo lingered in the moist air at the threshold. A black overnight bag yawned open on a rumpled bed. Clanks and clunks of items being shuffled around sounded from the bathroom.
“I’m planning on leaving on time, Colt.”
The bathroom door swung open and Dominic emerged, his muscular bulk filling the doorway and his tanned hand rasping the zipper shut on a shaving bag. A pair of faded jeans hung, unbuttoned, low on his slim hips. His feet and chest were bare and his damp hair stuck up in adorable, dark tufts on his head as though he’d just rubbed a towel over it.
“I mean it. I’m not waiting on your slow...”
Dominic’s words trailed off when he looked up. His expression lit with surprise, then relaxed into a pleased smile. “Cissy.” His eyes darkened with confusion as he examined her expression. “Is something wrong? The boys okay?”
“Yeah.” She licked her lips, dragging her eyes from the black sprinkling of hair that arrowed down his sculpted abs and returned her gaze to his face. “Fine.” She swallowed again. “With Tammy.”
Get it together. At least make a full sentence.
“I mean, the boys are fine.” She forged ahead before her tongue tied again. “I needed to ask you something.”
“Okay.” He tossed the shaving bag on the bed then turned to start back to the bathroom. “Just let me grab a shirt—”
“No. Wait. I need to do this now.” Cringing, she wrung her hands together. “Please? Can I just get this out first?”
He spun back around and waited, arms hanging at his sides.
“We went and picked up my car this morning. It’s in good shape now.” She shrugged. “Well, at least, as in good a shape as it’s going to get. And I paid the work off, so, there’s that. Which led me to think about the next step.” She squared her shoulders. “I’ve given it some thought and I want to do something with my life. You know, something more?”
Dominic moved slowly, his hands slipping into his pockets and his chiseled jaw tightening.
“I’ve looked at a lot of degree programs and there’s a couple different ways I can go about it. I could get an apartment near a college campus and take a few night classes. Or I could do an online program and basically do course work whenever I wanted. Wherever I wanted. Which is what I want to ask you about.” Her heart thundered and her mouth went dry. “I wanted to ask you...”
Dear Lord, there had to be a way to ask. An easy, face-saving way to ask if he wanted her to stay or go. And then it occurred to her, her heart slowing. It didn’t matter what his answer was. It wouldn’t change how she felt. No matter whether she stayed or went. She’d still feel the same.
There was no need to ask. Only to tell.
“No, that’s wrong,” she whispered. “I don’t need to ask you anything. I need to tell you something.”
He relaxed slightly, muscular abs and chest rippling on release. “Okay.”
“And before I say it, I want to point out that it’s daytime.” She gestured toward the light slipping through the blinds in the window. “And that I haven’t been drinking. And know exactly what I’m doing.”
Dominic smiled and shook his head. “Cissy, what is it you want to say?”
“You have it.” The words burst from her lips. Her nerves clamored, shaking her frame.
“Have what?” He crossed to her side, concern flooding his features. Taking her upper arms in his hands, he murmured, “Relax. What exactly is it I have?”
She reached up and moved his hands. “You have it,” she whispered, placing one of his palms over her heart and the other at her temple. “You’re here, you see?”
Understanding dawned in his eyes. It gave her the courage to finish.
“I love you. That’s what I needed to tell you. That’s all,” she mumbled.
His gaze roved over her face, lingering on her mouth. “That’s all?”
The words held a note of wonder and were so soft she barely caught them. She moved to answer but Dominic cut her reply short. He dropped his head and parted her lips with his own, sweeping his tongue deep into the recesses of her mouth.
Her body hummed, longing streaming through her veins and urging her closer. She stepped forward and pressed her chest to his. The hard heat of him seeped into her breasts and spread over her skin.
His fingers stroked into her hair, gripping the back of her head, sending tingles over her scalp and down her neck. He pulled back, dark eyes clinging to hers as he shook his head from side to side and whispered, “That’s all?”
Waves of sensation pounded in her blood. She wrapped her hand around his neck and brought his mouth to hers again, pouring all her love into it. Into him. His soft sigh of pleasure enveloped her before his strong arms did the same, drawing her in so there wasn’t an inch of space between them.
Cissy vaguely registered Dominic’s movements as he reached around her to sweep the bags from the bed. He toppled them onto it, removing her clothes and pausing to brush his mouth over every inch of her skin as he went.
She tugged at his jeans and he lifted his hips, assisting her in pushing them down his legs and off the bed with her toes, then rolled to his back to clasp her on top of him. Her eyes drifted closed as his calloused palms swept back up her legs, cupping her calves and the backs of her thighs. They smoothed over the curves of her bottom and drifted over the line of her spine.
Trembling, she ran her hands over his body, the sprinkling of dark hair on his chest and abdomen rasping against her fingers. She bit her lip on a rush of excitement as she moved her hand over the hard length of him, then absorbed his soft moan with her mouth. His hands stilled, curling over her shoulders and lifting her away from him.
“Please,” she whispered. She teased his lips with nips of her teeth before kissing the strong column of his throat. “Please...”
“Tell me what you like.” His hoarse voice was strained. He swept her hair back with a trembling hand, cupping her cheek a
nd tilting her face to his. His face flushed with passion as he searched her eyes. “Just tell me and I’ll give it to you. What do you want?”
Vulnerability resided in every tautened muscle of his body. The sensuous curve of his mouth firmed in determination but his long limbs shook against her. There was no mistaking the yearning in his gaze. The desperate desire to please her.
Her heart turned over and warmth pooled low in her belly. She smoothed the pads of her fingers over his strong jaw and brushed a wave of black hair from his forehead.
“Just you, Dominic,” she whispered. “I just want you.”
His body heaved on a rough exhalation. He tasted her mouth before he lowered his dark head to her breasts. A whimper of pleasure left her when he parted her thighs and explored, testing her readiness. She succumbed and dropped her head back, curling her fingers in the soft waves of his hair, relishing the gentle sweeps of his tongue and the heat of his touch.
Her hands scrambled across his broad back when he rolled to the side, retrieving protection from the nightstand. He returned quickly, donning it, then teased the soft skin at the back of her knee and lifted her thigh over his hip, bringing them face-to-face.
Her eyelids fluttered shut when he kissed her forehead and gently eased inside. His warm fingers moved into her hair and he touched his lips to hers. He tempered his movements, adjusting to each of her gasps and moans and reaching deeper. So deep, he stirred her soul.
Cissy gripped his muscular back, pleasure sweeping through her in a rush. Dominic swallowed her sigh with his mouth, his movements slowing as he was overtaken, too. Moments later, he drew her tighter to him and wrapped his hand in her hair.
Her body throbbed; her skin tingled. How she loved this man. She’d never felt so alive before. She’d never felt so at home. So cared for. So loved.
It wasn’t until her heart slowed that she realized that although Dominic’s body had shown the same, he’d never actually said it back.
* * *
EVERYTHING.
Dominic wound his fingers deeper in Cissy’s hair and tucked her blond head under his chin. He shifted his hips, his heart tripping at her soft cry. The nagging thought that he should take care of things kept intruding but he couldn’t make himself part from her yet.
Everything. That was what she’d given him. Three words. That was all it had taken to bring him to his knees.
He snatched in a ragged breath, still reeling. Her soft scent coated his skin, her sweet taste lingered on his tongue and her tender touch still pulsed inside his heart. He’d never felt so complete and at peace.
Or so afraid.
She moved as if to pull away and he smoothed his palm over the soft ivory skin of her back, keeping her against him. He opened his mouth to speak but it went dry, his tongue clinging to the back of his teeth.
It wasn’t the words that held him back. It was what lay on the other side of them. The expectations. Responsibilities. The risk of failure. Failing her.
He gripped her slender frame tighter. He’d be damned if he’d do that.
A good man.
He winced. Those damn words had begun to haunt him. They taunted him, sending a shiver over his skin. He was just another man out here. He’d always known that. The only place he’d ever stood out was the arena. Where his talent and strength garnered respect and admiration. There, he was everyone’s hero.
Out here, he was no one. Just another guy falling in the shadow of so many others. Nothing special.
But was that all there was? Was there no in-between? Did it have to be all or nothing?
He wasn’t a saint by any stretch. Didn’t even think he qualified as what Cissy termed a good man. But damned if he wasn’t turning out to be a better man than he’d been. And he could be better still if it meant having Cissy and the boys to come home to.
His blood ran cold. The boys. Kayden and Jayden. There hadn’t been a day since he met them that they hadn’t looked up to him. Tugged at his hands. And his heart. What was it they saw in him? But, even worse, how the hell could he risk letting them down?
“Dominic?”
Cissy’s voice prompted him to loosen his hard grip on her. She eased back to look up at him, her brow furrowed and cheeks flushed. Questions filled her eyes and hovered on the next breath she took. Questions that were too demanding. Ones he had no answers for.
“Come with me.” He cupped her face, savoring the pink heat of her skin under the brush of his thumbs.
She blinked, glancing down at his chest before asking, “You’re still leaving?”
He pressed closer, deeper. “I have to. But I want you with me. Come with me to the invitational.” It was a start, at least. “To Atlanta.”
Disappointment clouded her features. “But the boys—”
“Bring them. They’ve never been to a competition before, have they?”
A strand of blond hair slipped over her face as she shook her head. “No, they haven’t. But it’s a long drive from here. They didn’t enjoy the trip the first time.”
“I’ll ask Logan and Pop to come.” He brushed the hair from her face and placed a kiss on the tip of her nose. “It’ll be a chance for us all to spend some time together. Let’s just give it a try, Cissy.”
She hesitated, running her tongue over her lips and looking away. “Okay.” She looked back at him, expression wary. “We’ll give it a try.”
That was all he needed. One try. Once chance to show Cissy the better side of him. The man who wasn’t afraid. The one who had no trouble grabbing a challenge and wrestling it to the ground. And, God help him, he hoped she saw that man. Because he didn’t know how to be any other.
Chapter Ten
“It’s so loud, Aunt Cissy,” Jayden shouted.
A yank on her shirt prompted Cissy to stop midstride and look down. Jayden curled his fists into the hem of her T-shirt and shoved his head under it, burying his face in her waist and dislodging a handful of popcorn from the bucket in her hand.
Music boomed louder from the PA system and vibrated through the floor at their feet. Sporadic chatter and laughter burst around them, boisterous movement on all sides. The PBR event had hit high gear in Atlanta’s Gwinnett Center.
“It’s awesome,” Kayden yelled over his shoulder, stamping his feet and throwing his arms over his head from several steps in front of them.
“Slow down, Kayden.” Cissy maintained a firm grip on the bucket of popcorn in her hand and wiggled a cup of soda underneath her arm. She nudged Jayden’s cowering form with her elbow. “Jayden, please. Just wait a minute until we sit down.”
“But...lo...oud,” he mumbled from underneath her shirt.
Cissy strained to make out his garbled response, stumbling over his feet and spilling another pile of popcorn. He rubbed his face against her belly and left a warm trail of slobber on her skin.
“I know it’s loud, Jayden, but—”
“Aunt Cissy, there’s a bull over there.” Kayden jerked to a halt and shoved his face in between the heads of a couple sitting in the aisle below them. He pointed earnestly, his arm knocking the baseball cap off the man’s head.
Cissy mouthed I’m sorry to the man and offered an apologetic smile. “Kayden, say excuse me and get back over here.”
Kayden blinked back at her, eyebrows raised and jaw hanging open, then turned back to the couple, helping the man right his hat on his head. “’Scuze me.” He tapped the man on the shoulder. “You see the bulls?” His voice rose with his excitement. “There’s a bunch of ’em over there.”
“They see the bulls, Kayden,” Cissy gritted. “Now get back over here.”
Kayden sprang back and rushed over to tap Jayden’s head through the cover of her shirt.
“They got ’em out, Jayden.” He bounced in place, grabbing a handful of the material and stretching it to peek at Jayden underneath. “The bulls, you know? The bulls!”
Kayden’s excited jostling dislodged the lid to the cup, and a gush of cold soda flooded Cissy
’s armpit. The lights snapped off, plunging them into darkness. The crowd let out a collected whoop.
“They turned out the lights, Aunt Cissy.” Kayden stated the obvious right before his hands clamped on to her arms, spilling more soda and popcorn.
Nice. Real nice. Now she could add being blind to the physical handicap the boys had already given her. People lining the seats on both sides of them surged upward, dancing to the music and adding to the chaos. Something sticky on the floor clung to the bottom of her shoe, making it difficult to take a steady step.
Cissy counted to ten before groping around for Kayden’s hand. Snagging it, she took a firm grip on it and lowered her head to shout, “You have to stick with me if we’re going to make it to the seats. I need your help, okay?”
“Okay,” Kayden yelled back.
“Here.” She shoved the popcorn into his hand, feeling to make sure he held it with both hands. “You walk ahead of us but don’t go too far. Follow the lights on the floor, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Kayden returned.
Cissy relocated the half-empty soda to her hand, then tugged Jayden’s head out from under her shirt. “Come on, Jayden. There’s not enough room for us to walk like this. You’ve got to get behind me and hold my hand. You can cover your ears back up when we sit down.”
Thankfully, he complied. Cissy kept a firm grip on Jayden and grappled her way down the aisle behind Kayden. She kept track of his progress by trailing his shoes as they gleamed in the spotlights twirling about the stadium.
“Over here, Cissy.”
Pop’s deep call couldn’t have been more welcome. Cissy barely made out his waving profile a few seats down. She reached out and bumped Kayden on the back with her wrist.
“There’s Pop, see? Up on the left.”
“I see—”
Heavy metal banged through the speakers, causing all three of them to jump. Flames flashed from the dirt floor of the arena, spilling flickers of light into the stands and escalating the crowd’s cheers. A giant PBR emblem, on fire, glowed below them. Fireworks and strobe lighting exploded on either side, smoke billowing out among the sparks.
Twins for the Bull Rider Page 15
