No Dreams Allowed: A Billionaire Romance

by Sonora Seldon

  “Are my hands on you?” He whispered the words into my ear, and then he took the edge of the earlobe between his teeth, nipping and worrying at the tender skin.

  “Um, no.” It took every bit of concentration I had to say it, because the rest of him was all over me. His teeth were on my ear, one muscled thigh eased between my legs, and the only thing separating the warmth of our bodies was the thin cotton of my oversize t-shirt. He kept the contact light and maddening, his chest barely brushing against my breasts as my nipples shivered into hardness at his touch.

  “And it’s no-hands for you too, remember? So reach for the wall now, before the clock strikes twelve and you’re left standing here alone with a frustrated pumpkin.”

  Sleepy and confused and aroused, I put my hands to the wall, palms down and at my sides – and before I could remember why waiting until Friday was a good idea, Dave pressed his lips to mine, wet and wanting.

  The kiss was gentle at first, gentle and curious and sweet. He kissed one corner of my mouth and then the other, his lips like the soft brush of a feather against my skin. He licked lightly over my upper lip and then the lower, just a taste, and his thigh pressed further between my legs, spreading them apart, opening me.

  I trembled, chills racing over my skin as he stepped closer, as he leaned into me and need ached low in my belly, it had been so long – and then he took a kiss from me that was long and fierce and deep.

  I opened to his mouth without thinking, just needing, and his tongue thrust hard against mine, demanding more. He sucked and licked and bit, and then plunged deep into my mouth, taking me with his tongue again and again.

  I needed him inside me the same way. I needed him between my legs, claiming me, making me his with the powerful cock I felt straining against me. My body beneath his, overwhelmed by his weight and his size and his power as he kneed my legs wide apart and took me – I needed that more than breathing.

  Helpless and wanting, wide awake now but not thinking at all, I reached for him – and the spell was broken.

  The instant my hands left the wall, the moment I reached for his hips, Dave eased back. Not entirely away, he still leaned into me – but his tongue took one final taste, he sealed his lips against mine for one more wet and sweet and aching kiss, and then he buried his face in my neck.

  “You cheated.” His sides heaved with his desperate breathing, and his voice was low and hoarse, his words muffled against my skin.

  A quiet moment passed. The only sound was our breathing slowing, settling into a rhythm that was a little more normal and a little less frantic.

  Then he lifted his face from my neck and pressed his forehead to mine.

  “Promise not to hate me? This seemed like a great idea when I thought of it five minutes ago, I swear.”

  “It seems like a great idea to me right now.” Was that quavering voice even mine?

  He shifted to press a kiss to the top of my forehead and then he took a step back. The open space between us felt like a wound.

  “Me too, wild woman. But I think maybe we should focus on tomorrow like you said, because you deserve better for our first time than something rushed and crazy like this, up against the wall and with both of us already tired enough to drop.”

  I pulled my hands away from him and fisted them against the wall, fighting for control. I hated to admit it, but he sort of had a point.

  “Fine.” A deep breath, and then another. “Tomorrow, like I said. You get the speech and the schmoozing and the photo ops out of the way, we ditch the party as early as possible, and then we come back here and we do this right. And Dave?”

  “Yes, my master?”

  “Once we are inside this apartment and on a bed, rested and ready, I am going to fuck you blind, lame, and senseless. I won’t let you out of that bed for hours and hours, and when I’m done with you and your crazy self, you won’t remember your own name. You realize that, right?”

  He flashed his crooked grin and he owned me, heart and soul. “I’m counting on it.”

  15

  “Dave, hold still.”

  “I will NOT wear make-up.”

  In a private dressing room hidden deep in a warren of backstage rooms at the Wentworth Center, Dave fidgeted in his six-thousand-dollars-and-change suit. Every time the patient forty-something woman in charge of smearing goop on his face dabbed at him with a brush or a sponge or one of those blender thingies, he pulled away from her touch, as if suffering himself to be made all pretty for the waiting cameras was the heaviest burden a man could be asked to bear.

  It was 7:30 p.m. on Friday night, and showtime was less than two hours away.

  I tried again. “Dave, in real life you do not need make-up. In real life, you are a towering hunk of ravishing, virile man and any straight woman breathing can see that without the help of creams and powders and stuff – but cameras see way more than real life ever does, and nobody looks right on TV without makeup. Am I right, Mrs. Dillwyn?”

  The world’s most saintly make-up artist nodded as she smudged an atom or two of designer glop onto his cheek just so. “He is a pretty boy, but even the prettiest face needs some help when cameras are involved.”

  A certain irresistible and annoying somebody grinned from ear to ear. “She thinks I’m pretty, I knew it! Threesome time!”

  I punched him in the arm. “Do you have to be such an asshole? Is it imprinted in your genes or something? Leave the poor woman alone!”

  Mrs. Dillwyn smiled like a battle-hardened mom who was used to rowdy boys getting all full of themselves. “It’s all right, Ms. Hamilton – at this age, they’re brimming with hormones and silliness right up to their eyeballs, they can’t help it. My boys are the same way.”

  After blending a final microscopic something on his chin, she took a step back. Her head tilted to one side as she scrunched one eye shut and squinted at him with the other. She walked all around him in a circle, peering at ever pore and making sure his face was TV-worthy, and then she turned to me.

  “And we’re done here.”

  As she packed away the three different kits of gear and supplies she’d brought, she glanced at Dave with a smile. “And remember, having sons your age means I’m old enough to be your mother too, young man –”

  “That’s okay, I’m totally broad-minded about that kind of thing!”

  I groaned and Dave’s make-up expert laughed. “But my husband isn’t – and besides, I get the feeling your girlfriend here isn’t the kind to share. So you behave and do as she says, all right?”

  Without waiting for an answer – I figured because she knew no one could stand against her awesome mom powers – Mrs. Dillwyn shouldered her bag of make-up miracle stuff and headed out to her next appointment with a face that needed to be perfect.

  The door clicked shut behind her, and we were alone.

  A pang stabbed through me, deep inside.

  My mom would have handled Dave the same way.

  Two years, seven months, and numberless days had passed since she took her last breath, but Mom was almost beside me in that moment. Almost.

  Mom was the strong one, the glue that held our little family of three together.

  Then life laughed at us and took her away. Life took Dad away.

  Now it was just me. Now I had to be the strong one.

  “I miss my mom too, every day.”

  Startled, I glanced up to see Dave looking back over his shoulder at the door. He watched it for a few silent breaths, and then he turned back to me.

  “I miss her, I wonder what she’d do if she were still here, what she’d want me to do – so hey, I know the signs. And Cassie?”

  I picked at an imaginary wrinkle on his sleeve. “Spill it, cook boy.”

  “You don’t have to be strong alone.”

  But I did.

  Alone was scary – but if you were alone, no one could leave you. No one could let you down. No one could hurt you.

  But I didn’t say any of that. Instead, I asked hi
m, “How long?”

  “I was fourteen, Kristen was seventeen. Half a lifetime ago, more or less.”

  “What happened?”

  He didn’t say anything, not for a minute. I twined my arms around him, I listened to the lavish spectacular of a party gearing up in the main ballroom, the party we couldn’t avoid much longer, and I waited.

  Dave’s voice was flat and hopeless when he finally spoke up.

  “Mom’s car was rear-ended by a semi on the Kennedy Expressway. The truck kept right on going and they never caught the guy, the cops said he probably just panicked and took off, and that was that.”

  After a deadly pause, Dave added, “They said it was an accident. Dad swore it was an accident. He even cried a little.”

  Ice ran in my veins and I didn’t want to know more.

  So I laid my head against his chest and I just held him.

  Maybe five minutes later, music and echoing footsteps and the distant buzz of hundreds of voices filled the little dressing room as the door swung open again.

  Kristen stuck her head in, and she had both hands over her eyes.

  “Davey, I’m totally not looking, in case you two are in here ravishing each other like a pair of randy bunny rabbits – see how I’m not looking?”

  She shouldered the door the rest of the way open, walked in, kicked it shut behind her, and still kept her hands flat over her eyes.

  The last few minutes of darkness ran away, I laughed, and Kristen spread her fingers apart to peek. “So it’s safe to look now?”

  Dave threw himself into a nearby chair, heaving a sigh of exhaustion that sounded so real. “Sis, you missed the show – we did it doggie style and upside down for an hour, it was amazing! Then Cassie duct taped me to the wall and covered my trembling naked body in butterscotch syrup, and I’m pretty sure most of what she did to me next is illegal in this state, but it was so educational! After that we wore out about a dozen midgets apiece, and then –”

  Kristen planted both hands on her hips. “David Connor Dallstrom, you are the most disgusting human being on the face of the earth – and so help me, if you’ve splattered gross bodily fluids all over that perfectly good suit, I will kill you so dead.”

  A wicked smile on her face, she marched over to him, hauled him out of the chair by one lapel, and stood him on his feet. She made a big show of checking him for disgusting fluids and then walked over to stand next to me, as I giggled like a fool.

  She pointed one finger at him and she said one word. “Speech.”

  Dave rolled his eyes, and then he closed them tight shut as he aimed his face at the ceiling. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to be here tonight representing Dallstrom Defense Systems, the nation’s leading defense contractor, and I am honored that you’ve all chosen to share this special evening with my father and myself.”

  True, we hadn’t rehearsed it with all the wild arm-waving and obscene hand gestures he was doing now, but what’s wrong with a little improvisation?

  Kristen stuck her tongue out at him. “Davey, I’m warning you –”

  “Our nation’s armed forces are the finest on this planet, ready to go anywhere and do whatever it takes to protect our freedoms – and they have the equipment to carry out their mission thanks in large part to the company founded by my father, Einar Dallstrom!”

  And sure, he threw himself to his knees and said his father’s name in a shrieking falsetto squeal, but he probably didn’t mean to do it that way when it came time for the real thing … and if he did, well, wouldn’t that make sure the speech was all over the evening news? Good work, publicity boy!

  Kristen tossed Dave a creative obscene gesture of her own, as he clambered to his feet and favored us with a sweeping bow. Then he stood straight and tall, he thrust his hands into the pockets of his suit jacket, and he rattled off the rest of his brief speech in an expressionless monotone.

  Following the closing flourish of, “And thank you all so much for standing with us as Dallstrom Defense Systems leads the way to global peace through strength!,” Dave groaned.

  “What complete and utter gold-plated bullshit – I should get an Oscar if I make it through the whole thing without throwing up.”

  Kristen administered a hug to his sagging shoulders. “You can do it – every time your stomach churns and you get all queasy, just imagine killing Dad with a rocket launcher, or maybe dropping a fragmentation grenade down his pants.” She smiled as she grabbed his ponytail and gave it an affectionate yank, adding, “Remember our motto, baby brother – ‘family peace through murder fantasies!’”

  She swept me up in a hug next. Once she let go and I could breathe again, she stood back and held me at arm’s length.

  “And the list of people he needs to see and be seen with?”

  I pointed at my temple. “Right in here, and he’ll make nice with each and every one of them if he wants any spine-shattering sex from me.”

  “Cassie, you are, as of now and forever, my honorary sister. Take care of that idiot tonight, stay close by him, look out for his nerves and his morale, and I will be grateful beyond all human measures of gratitude.”

  Before she slipped back out the door, she turned and added, “In ten minutes tops, you two need to head out into that crowd for some pre-speech mingling – Cassie, you make sure he chats with everybody on that list and don’t turn your back on him, or I swear he’ll bolt for the nearest emergency exit. Dave, you do what she says and also stay out there schmoozing for at least an hour, or there will be hell and Einar Dallstrom to pay.”

  “Can I kill him, please? Pretty please, with sugar and landmines on top?”

  “No – and speaking of the Evil Demon Lord, I have to be gone right now, so I can go put out whatever fires he’s set with his loud personality while we’ve been in here. See you two after the apocalypse.”

  The door thumped shut, cutting off her words and leaving us alone for a few more precious minutes.

  I nodded Dave over to me. “Come here, you shy flower – before I haul you out there kicking and screaming to socialize, I need to put the final touches on your extreme hotness.”

  Two easy strides brought Dave to stand in front of me. But before I could check to see that every thread on him was perfect and not a single hair was out of place, he wrapped both arms tight around me, tucking my head under his chin as he held me close and safe.

  “It’s not the socializing itself, it’s doing it on command while I dance to Dad’s tune like a trained monkey. It’s meeting and greeting with people who have more money than brains, and not an ounce of common decency.”

  “I’m sure at least a few perfectly nice people wandered in here by mistake –”

  “It’s getting locked into a future that’s a maze full of blind turns and no exits. It’s being a clown with a painted-on smile. It’s living with blood and deceit, and pretending that’s normal. It’s being his Dave, not your Dave.”

  Still in the circle of his arms, I pulled back to look up at him. “Let’s get one thing straight, monkey boy – you are my Dave, and nobody else’s. And guess what, my Dave?”

  “You’ve decided to let me go out there stark naked?”

  “And waste all the begging and pleading it took to get you into this damn suit that costs more than a small car? Hell no.”

  “You’re going out there naked? Please, please, please?”

  “These curves are for you and you alone, asshole, no matter how much you don’t deserve them – no, what’s what is that I’ve brought along a secret weapon to remind you of what’s normal and real while you’re busy being Pretend Public Dave.”

  I dug into my drab, non-designer purse – it was a perfect match for my fade-into the background outfit of an ivory silk blouse and a sensible grey skirt – and I pulled out a small bundle wrapped in a handkerchief.

  Dad’s handkerchief.

  I unfolded the threadbare cloth and there was Dad’s silver pocket watch, resting in the palm of my hand.

  We
both looked down at it.

  Somehow, I kept my voice steady. “The day Dad graduated from high school, his grandfather gave him this watch – I think it dates at least from 1900, or maybe earlier. Anyway, Dad never used it to tell time, I’m not sure if it even runs anymore, but he folded it up in this handkerchief and carried it with him in his pocket every day. He liked to tell me it held his good luck safe for him.”

  I reached out and ran a hand over the vest of Dave’s three-piece suit, the pin-striped fabric of black silk soft as a whisper beneath my fingers. On the right of the vest I found the place to fasten the chain, and then I eased the watch into the flawlessly stitched pocket waiting for it on the left.

  “Now it’s holding your good luck, Dave. It’s there to hold your luck and to remind you of a man who was plain country and nothing but, a man who was as real and decent and honest as anyone you’ll ever meet, and a man who would have seen that same decency and heart in you.”

  I folded the handkerchief into a neat square and tucked it into the breast pocket of his jacket. Then I took a long step back, folded my arms, and looked my man right in the eye.

  “I’m not sure what he would have made of you fighting Jedi battles with french fries and wanting his daughter to tie you up, but whatever. I’ve got your back and now he does too, so let’s go mingle the hell out of these dandified rich bastards.”

  “Cassie, I love you.”

  Dave’s hands were shoved deep in his pockets, and those stone-cold serious green eyes stared right into me. “I love you and wherever your dad is, I promise him I will always look out for you and protect you, no matter what it takes to get that job done. You’re mine and I’m yours, so let’s go do this thing.”

  On the inside, I shivered with need and with a love so fierce it scared me. On the outside, I smiled and tossed him one of those silly salutes he liked. “Yes, sir.”

  “Wow, does that ‘sir’ mean you want me to tie you up? I have to admit, that situation sounds like it has definite and very sexy possibilities – youch, okay, I’m coming, my fierce mistress!”