“If you took a handful of that water and poured it out like fabric it would look amazing. Like satin. That’s what you should wear tomorrow night. Not something I pull together.”
She paused. Taken by the passion in his voice. “Okay.”
They walked for a moment in silence until they came to a rocky outcrop. Above it was a small jetty. Ducking underneath it they were completely alone. The world gone still and quiet, the light faded to soft dark blues. The water lapped again at their feet. “Sorry about before.” Dominic stooped to roll up his long pants.
“You ready to tell me what it was about?”
He took a deep breath. “It was my—” he paused a moment. “It was Giselle. My manufacturing manager. She came up with a scheme to save Wolfe clothing a bunch of money last year and she won’t let it go. We worked together really closely for a while and she started taking everything to do with the business personally. I thought we’d settled it, but she’s been ringing all week wanting to show me a new proposal.”
Maya frowned. “How is that such a bad thing?”
“It’s not. Of course. We need to stay competitive with ZeeMen’s still on us like flies on dogmeat. But her proposal—” he heaved a sigh and scuffed a foot at the sand. “She wants to dilute everything we stand for. That’s not what I got into this for. In fact it’s the exact opposite reason.”
“Dilute it? How?”
“Use cheaper suppliers. Import pre-made stuff from China, change our fabrics. We start doing that and we stop providing people with clothes that work. We become just the same as everyone else. In fact we become worse than ZeeMen’s. We’ll be dead within the year.”
“And she doesn’t understand?”
“I don’t know.” His voice softened again. “She says she does. That we can make it work. But she doesn’t exactly have the best track record.”
“Tell me about it. Not her,” Maya added quickly. “Tell me about why you got into this whole world. You’ve told me about your philosophy, and I can almost smell your passion when you get going.”
He chuckled.
“But all this, the why you started, where all of it came from? It’s not exactly a standard career path for a boy from small town Australia is it?”
He paused, deciding, she imagined, what part to tell her. “I’m lucky. I’m tall enough, broad enough, normal enough. If I have to, I can throw a ball around. My brother wasn’t so lucky.”
“I didn’t know you had a brother. You only mentioned your sisters.”
“He’s not with us now.”
A larger wave came in, crashing onto the sand and splashing over Maya’s feet. She jumped. Not with us? Gone? Or?
“He was bullied to death when we were at school.”
Woah.
“I can’t really say that of course. It’s not the official version. But it’s what happened. He was so tired of it all he just walked out on his life. Forever.”
“I’m so sorry.” She put a hand on his arm and his muscles flexed under her touch.
“It was a long time ago. But if I’m looking for a why I started, that’s it.”
“He was bullied about how he looked?”
“How he looked, what he said, what he loved. He was the one into fashion to start with. Used to drag me to second hand stores. I was more into drawing really, figures, bodies, animals. But when he died I couldn’t let it be for no reason. I decided to start working in fashion to make clothes for people like him. To make what he would wear fit his skinny, quirky body, and to make it fashionable enough that even the cool kids wouldn’t be able to fault it. There was nothing for a kid who was ordinary but different when we were growing up. And there isn’t enough now for guys who are like him.”
Maya took a deep breath. She’d felt his passion, had been able to smell it like she said, but this—this depth of compassion. This was another thing entirely. She glanced up at him from beneath her lashes. What an incredible human being he was. Her heart crashed in time with the waves out in the back break as time slowed and the rest of the world dropped away.
“That’s why you don’t want to compromise Wolfe Clothing.”
He nodded. “And that’s why I hate it when you say stupid things about your body not being beautiful. Words are so ugly, and so powerful. That whole sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you thing? It’s a crock. You have to own your own beauty, sweet cheeks. No one else is going to do it for you.”
No. No one was. But he held up a mirror at just the right angle to let her see the best bits and made her believe they were really hers. No one else did that.
Her hand was still on his arm and now he took it. “Thanks for listening to me rant on. I’ll get this all sorted with Giselle as soon as I get back. I just hate that she thinks I would want to do anything like that. There was a time when I thought she knew me better. I thought she knew the real me.”
On an impulse, Maya turned the hand that held hers over and planted a kiss on his palm.
His teeth glinted in the moonlight as he smiled. “What was that for?”
“The real you.”
Some people say that out of grief comes great passion. That in the face of death, the living feel they must live now, more vigorously. Maya wasn’t sure if that was it or if it was just that at that moment, the way Dominic looked at her stole a piece of her heart. Forever.
Letting go of his hand she pulled his face down to hers and planted a kiss on his chin. “You are an amazing person. Generous—” She kissed him again. “Compassionate—” This time the kiss was on the side of his mouth. “And kind.”
She didn’t have to choose a spot to land the kiss the final time because Dominic took over. His mouth covered hers and as his tongue demanded she follow suit, Maya felt the truth of what she’d described and also the pain, hurt and confusion the death of his brother had left him with.
“We have something don’t we?”
“We do.”
She smiled. “But.”
He shook his head. “Let’s not talk about but right now. We have something. Now. Here.”
He slid his hands up her shirt and she pulled it off, wanting to feel his skin next to hers. To smother his hurt with her attention. It was dark and there was no one around. When she was with him nothing else mattered. Not what she wore, who she was photographed with, whether other people thought she was good-looking, or whether she was sticking to her life plan properly. When she was with Dominic she was perfect. Completely. He made her believe it.
“You have a gift,” she said as she came up for air. “Don’t let anyone dilute it. The world needs you to make the rest of us feel beautiful. To be easy with ourselves.”
“That’s not my gift,” he said, and she gasped as his hands dove into the waist band of her pants and yanked the zipper down. “I just have the pleasure of watching people like you wake up and discover that they’ve been beautiful all along.”
They kissed again and as if he’d flicked a switch, the compassion fled and lust rachetted up ten notches. She wanted more of him. All of him. And she pressed her body against his to let him know. He’d obviously been waiting for her signal. Pushing her pants down enough to let in his hand, he tugged at the thin lace of her g-string and nudged a finger into her.
“Man. You’re so wet already. It drives me crazy.”
Maya tried to reply but the words wouldn’t come, not while he thrust his finger back and back and back inside her.
She tore at his shirt and pulled him closer, determined to get as much of his body on hers as possible. Whatever he said, she’d never felt more desirable or lovely around another man. Desirable, lovely and hot enough to melt.
“I want you,” he growled in her ear and she shuddered at the thought of him taking her on the beach.
“But,” she managed to gasp. “People could come—”
“The place is deserted. You’re already naked. The only thing that’s going to interrupt us is the moonlight.” As he said it, he ducked his head
to her breast and all further thought of protest flew away like sand. His tongue circled the bud of her nipple and she arched her back, pushing her hands through his hair and urging him to take it in his mouth. When he did her knees almost collapsed and it was all she could do to not to fall to the sand there and then.
“Come.” He scooped her up and lay her back on the dry sand under the shelter of the jetty and rocks. She moaned at the loss of his finger but he nipped her on the neck, hard and she watched instead as he tugged first her pants, then his, off, before kneeling in front of her. Maya opened her legs, willing him to enter her, to fill her up and take her over the edge. He felt for his wallet and then shook his head. “I left it in the room. Are you, are you on the pill? I’m clean. Get tested every year.”
She gulped. Then nodded. He was close enough to see even in the descending darkness.
He pushed her back and unzipped his pants. Then, he was hers.
Coiling her arms round his neck and wrapping her legs around his waist, Maya let the full extent of his erection stretch her a moment, unable to move, unable to make a sound. In time with the ocean, he thrust in and out of her, both of them breathing deeply of the salty air, both of them lost to the other.
The world was a mess of sensations. The silky sand on her back, the salty smell of the water, the hot spice of Dominic’s scent and the ebb and flow of their bodies together. His hands kneaded her breasts, her thighs, her ass, making her open further to him and let the hard edge of his pelvis grind right on the bud of her clit.
Clawing his back with her nails, she longed to take a bite of him. To devour even a little piece of this man who made her want to dissolve so completely. It felt like a hello and goodbye in one. She was going to a wedding with Rick. Dominic would have his campaign sorted soon enough and then he’d be gone. But somehow it also felt like the beginning of something. His bare skin inside her, their complete focus on each other without the excuses of lessons, or tension or the future.
Everything faded away except the two of them. Their rhythm, their union, their breath. No one had ever made her melt this way and when she was with him, there was no one other than Dominic who ever would.
Too quickly she felt her climax building. “It’s coming,” she managed. “Slow down, let me ride it out with you.”
“No slowing down now baby. Take all of me. Milk me dry.”
He didn’t have to tell her twice. Maya came in an exquisite burst, her muscles clamping him in place as he pumped into her, their bodies tense and locked in each other. Looking up, the dark sky was over-full of stars, but when she started to descend from the crazy height of her orgasm, they blinked out one by one, leaving the black night barely scattered with celestial lights.
Her breath slowed along with Dominic’s and the two of them lay quietly in the dark. When her heart finally calmed she felt able to simply enjoy the moment of being warm, naked, with another body. A body who knew hers better than anyone she’d ever met. The moonlight was out properly now and gilded his skin in silver and when he shifted, the muscles in his arm rippled with metallic luster. It was true what they said about beauty coming from the inside. This man’s compassion shone through his skin.
Maya’s chest leapt, the hammering under her ribs restarting. When she’d thought he’d stolen a piece of her heart she’d been wrong. It wasn’t a piece. It was her whole heart.
An errant wave crashed on the sand and pushed its searching tendrils up the beach to their feet. Maya squealed as the water nibbled at her toes.
Dominic laughed. “Something’s trying to tell us something. If that wave got up this high, the tide must be turning. Come on. Back to reality.”
Reality. It was a place she didn’t want to return to. One where Dominic would leave all too soon and she’d be back trying to squeeze her life into the timeline she’d decided would make everything alright. The timeline that included a house and husband in the not too distant future.
And then there was Rick. Going to his sister’s wedding with him now was a pale, sorry thought compared to the world of moonlight sensations they’d just created. But Dominic had told her to go. He wanted her to date Rick and at no point had he offered her a place in his universe.
She owed it to herself to see what Rick had to offer. She’d been attracted to him for a reason. Was still attracted to him. It was just that he didn’t have quite the same passion as— Stop it. She hadn’t given Rick a real chance yet. Despite the chunk of her heart that Dominic had stolen, Rick might actually be what she needed. Giving over your heart only made it easier to break, she reminded herself. Her parents had shown her that.
Dominic pulled her up from the sand and they both struggled into their clothes, clammy now that their bodies were coated in sand and a light sheen of sweat. “Time for me to wrap you up warm and put you to bed,” he said, dusting the excess beach from her shoulder.
As they walked, hand in hand, back to his suite, the tingling between her legs remained, fading rather than disappearing when they re-encountered the bright lights of humanity.
Neither of them said anything and Maya was careful not to make eye contact with the concierge at the hotel front desk. No way could he have known what she’d just been doing out on the beach in front, but she didn’t want to find out she was wrong.
As he closed the door behind them, Maya let go of his hand and immediately wished she could keep a hold of it. “Bed time for me,” she said with what she hoped was an unworried smile. “Big day tomorrow.”
“Yep.”
He started towards his room then turned. “Coming?”
“Thought it would be better if I slept in my bed. Like I said, big day tomorrow. Media calls and all.”
“Probably a good idea.” He came back and planted a kiss on her mouth that almost broke her determination. “Night then.”
She doubled down on her resolve. She could do this. “Sweet dreams,” she said as lightly as possible.
“Sweet and spicy preferably.”
Chapter Twelve
Maya stifled a yawn. She’d barely got five hours sleep after getting back to the suite late and then tossing and turning all night. When she’d decided to sleep alone, she’d been sure it was the right and virtuous thing to do. Now outside, in the heat of the Australian summer afternoon, she wished she’d managed a few more hours of unconsciousness.
With the WSL circuit finals about to be announced any second, she was on duty, ready to point the media in the right direction and make sure her boys were as charming as she could possibly make them.
She had already fended off a few reporters determined to ask Summer about her previous relationship with a surfer called T.J. it was always harder for her female clients to keep the interviews about their skill in the water instead of their relationships. Something that irked Maya no end.
The surfing was over, it was just time to make sure the right people got their microphones and cameras pointed at her clients when the results came out.
The loud speaker crackled into life. “Alright people. Two minutes till we announce the winner of this year’s Quicksilver Pro Event.”
A group of girls close to her screamed and Maya rolled her eyes. She didn’t need to turn around to work out that Rick had come out of the changing tent. She checked the two versions of the media releases she’d already written and uploaded to her phone.
“Hey babe.”
Maya startled and looked up.
“Looking forward to later this evening.” Rick gave her a salute. A sexy salute. The four girls practically hanging off him spun to gawp at her. If they could have, Maya was sure they would have bound and gagged her with their perfectly straightened blonde ponytails.
“Me too,” she said. “Smart move by your sister having it after finals night. The wedding is going to be crawling with media too. Hope you’ll have your game face on.”
“With you on my arm I’ll have my game body on.” He grinned at her and she smiled back. This was good. She was flirting. She
was enjoying the way he looked at her. Maya smiled, sure for the first time all day she was doing the right thing. She was going on a date with the man who fitted her plan and seemed to have every intention of making sure she fitted his.
Her phone beeped and she checked the display. Hell, it was the reminder she’d typed in this morning. The one telling her that she still didn’t have anything to wear. Not if she wasn’t planning on recycling Dominic’s dress or scorning his advice and wearing the hot pink peplum number. Nope. Not today.
And then the winners were called up. Holo, Jerry, and Rick. All standing on the podium, Rick spraying the crowd with a giant magnum of champagne. He raised it at her and gave her a thumbs up.
She should have been bursting. Her protégé had just pulled off the event. There were media everywhere, and he’d sought out her face in the crowd. Hers. She gave herself a little squeeze but it didn’t change the fact that while she was pleased, she wasn’t—wasn’t what? She wasn’t glowing.
Pushing send on the winner release for Rick and the runner up release for Holo, Maya made her way over to the boys. She encouraged the right cameras into place, fielded calls till her ear was hot and then, the crowd faded. Making sure she’d covered everyone she needed to she gave the boys a wave and put her phone in her bag.
Checking one last time that there were no media hacks on the lookout for her, she picked up her pace and headed for line of boutiques tucked conveniently down the road from Dominic’s hotel. She needed a dress. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it properly. Go all in as her father would say. This was for Rick. For her future. And nothing else? Okay, so a small part of her wanted to make sure Dominic saw her looking amazing. They weren’t going to be together, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t take a little pleasure in showing him what he was missing out on.
“Wow.”
Maya relished the look in Dominic’s eye. It was lust, and, was it a glimmer of jealousy? Twirling, she gave him another twist in front of the mirror. She’d found a navy satin dress. As soon as she saw it she remembered Dominic telling her she’d look good in the shimmering navy color the night had turned the ocean. It seemed too perfect to resist. Backless and lower than she’d usually wear at the front, it was all drapey folds and shimmering pleats. But maybe because of all the extra material, or maybe just because it was beautifully cut, she didn’t feel naked like she did when she tried on Brooke or Summer’s skimpy backless things.
Making over Maya (Hot Tide Book 2) Page 15
