“The board has agreed to follow Dmitri’s plan. And you will be in charge of overseeing our new branches in the Caribbean. And pretty soon, you will be in charge of it all, Dominic. I am going to step down.”
“What do you mean?” Dominic couldn’t believe what he was hearing from his father. The man lived and breathed his business; it was his legacy.
“I mean…I trust you,” Nikolai replied simply. “I have held on for as long as I have, despite my health scares, because I couldn’t let go. I saw the other day that my fear of your incompetency was misjudged. You showed me that you have vision, and I’m hoping that by leaving you in charge of the new resorts set to be built, that you have drive and execution as well.”
He should be happy, Dominic thought to himself. This is what he had wanted for years! He had wanted proof that his father believed in him. Instead, all Dominic could consider was how Nikolai’s statements proved the very opposite. He hadn’t believed in him.
Dominic sat down on the now familiar bench, and his body immediately relaxed into the soft cushions. The sun was beating down on the town today, but he found refuge beneath the overcast of the trees surrounding him. Even as he closed his eyes however, the earlier events of the day continued to dance in his mind. A part of him knew he hadn’t come just to find relief from the humidity and sun. He knew that by being there, there was a chance of running into her again. And maybe she could take his mind off of his father’s words and his brother’s actions.
At the thought, tears sprung to his eyes but he quickly shoved them away. Dominic’s relationship with his father had never been on the best of terms. He was constantly compared to Dmitri’s masculine stoicism and instinctive ability to lead. In contrast, Dominic hadn’t been too academically oriented. As a child, he had been drawn to music and art. Such a skillset was considered fruitless in his father’s eye, however. He could easily recall instances of verbal harassment,
“I won’t allow my child to grow up to be some sort of sissy. Stop crying, damn you!” Nikolai screamed at the young boy in front of him.
At the sound of his tears, Natalia came racing into the room, “What’s going on? What did you do?” Her tone was accusatory once her gaze rested upon her husband.
“I have a legacy to create. There is no way I am allowing my son to go to some fucking art school when he needs to be pursuing business. How do you expect him to ever grow up if you keep coddling him, Natalia?”
“Coddling? He’s passionate about music. What is so wrong with that?” She didn’t back down from the glare her husband returned to her. Natalia took a step in front of her oldest son and placed her arms firmly on her hips.
“You don’t get it!” Nikolai exclaimed in frustration. “You’ll never understand how hard I worked to come to this country and make something of myself. Music isn’t going to ensure he has a future, that our grandchildren have futures. He needs to be thinking about his place within the company.”
“He’s in middle school, Nikolai. Should he really be thinking about that now?”
“Dmitri’s always thought about it!”
Dominic winced slightly at the sound of his older brother’s name. Dmitri and Nikolai were two peas in a pod. They mirrored each other so much it was sometimes hard for Dominic to believe he was related to either of them at all. They both had strong, dominant personalities, and while he seemed to always be looking up to them, they constantly looked down at him. Dominic couldn’t remember a single kind word he had ever received from Dmitri. And his father for that matter.
Dominic returned to reality at the feel of someone sitting down beside him. Thankfully, dark sunglasses covered his eyes so that the visitor couldn’t see the sorrow in their dark pools. Just as he was secretly hoping, Adaline sat next to him with a small smile upon her dark features. Her hair was in an Afro of sorts, blowing gently at the slight breeze in the air. He could smell the shampoo she used in it and inhaled deeply at the sweet scent.
Despite his mood, he was excited to show her some of the signs he had taken it upon himself to learn. “Hello,” he greeted her.
He could see a blush come to her cheeks despite the darkness of her skin, and that made his belly do somersaults. Dominic didn’t know what it was about her, but he found himself reacting to her in ways he never had with Carla. He attributed it to being a sort of big brother and ignored the small voice that denied this and whispered something else.
She greeted him in the same manner using her hands. “You know, you’re one of the only people I can talk to in ASL.”
Surprised by this, he questioned, “Doesn’t your family use sign language when they speak to you? I’ve never seen Carla use it, but I thought at least her mother and father were fluent.”
Adaline simply shrugged. Instead of answering his question, she looked intensely at the tension in his jaw as he spoke to her. While the feminine part of her appreciated how it accentuated his masculine bone structure, as a friend, she could tell that he was bothered by something. Adaline knew then that the sunglasses weren’t just an effort to shield away the rays of the sun, but to hide whatever it was he was feeling.
“Take your sunglasses off,” she replied instead.
Confused by the drastic turn in conversation, Dominic shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Not waiting for him to concede to her request, Adaline reached over and gently took off the lenses herself. The action forced her closer to him; their eyes connected almost immediately. Adaline had always loved the stark obsidian depths of his gaze. As she looked into them, there was the familiar butterflies in her stomach at his nearness and the effect of his eyes upon her. In that moment, she never felt more jealous of Carla than ever before. He was absolutely beautiful.
Dominic was frozen in time as her soft hands gently caressed his cheeks in order to remove the wall he had put up against the rest of the world. Because that’s exactly what it was, an attempt to hide his shame, self-doubt, and insecurities. He couldn’t help but silently laugh at the way things had seemingly flipped between them in one moment. When he had first encountered Adaline, it was in an attempt to make her feel better and solve her pain. Now, she was doing the same for him.
Reluctantly, Adaline returned to her former position, recreating the platonic gap that existed between them.
“What’s wrong? I can see in your eyes that you’re suffering.”
He couldn’t help the snort that he released in response. It was all a defense mechanism however, a way to distance her from the truth. “What, are you a psychic now?”
Adaline didn’t take the bait however. “You have the same look I get every time I fight with my aunt or have to deal with Carla. So, tell me. It’s not like I have anyone to spread rumors too. No one is going to listen to the words of a deaf girl.”
Dominic flinched at her words, knowing they were the truth. That didn’t mean he liked hearing her put herself down. A part of his reaction was his own guilt though; he had been one of those people. Oh, how wrong he was! Though they had started off as few and far between, his moments with Adaline on this scenic bench had shown him just how wonderful a person she was. And now it frustrated him to see and hear the constant taunting she endured at the hands of Carla and her minions. Adaline was so much more than her disability to him now.
“Do you ever wish you could move away now?” he asked softly.
Adaline gave him a look as if to say, “Seriously?”
Dominic laughed dryly. “Well, I have that thought almost every day. I have a brother who has never truly liked me, and a father who ignores my very existence because I can’t live up to my brother. And I’m just at a loss as to what to do about it.”
“Why doesn’t your brother like you?”
Adaline watched and noticed the pained look on his face.
“I don’t know…I never understood why.”
She felt the urge to take his clenched hands into her own, but refrained from doing it. “And your father?”
“My brother is almost like a m
irror image of my father when it comes to his temperament and his will. He is already set to take over for my dad. But then you have me...when I was younger my dream was to become a singer. I was organizing a band with some of my friends so that I could audition at an art school, but when my father found out…” Dominic took in a deep breath. “Needless to say, I learned to stop dreaming and be a man. My father has a very…traditional view of what that means being Russian.”
Adaline’s eyes narrowed at what he had revealed to her. However, instead of asking him to further elaborate on his relationship with his older sibling and paternal figure, she surprised him.
“Will you sing for me?”
Dominic wasn’t sure if he heard her correctly. “What?”
Adaline shrugged as if her request was an everyday occurrence. “I don’t know. If singing is what you love to do, maybe that will make you feel better. That’s something he can never take away from you, right? Music isn’t something that exists outside of you; it makes up who you are. I may be deaf, but I see what music does to people. It’s not just sound, but it’s also energy. Positive and invigorating energy. My cochlear implant isn’t meant to help me distinguish pitch that way, so I may not hear you exactly right…but I would like to at least see you sing.”
And then, for the first time, Dominic sang for an audience. And while it did help, he knew the true source for the shift in his mood. It was she. And he felt excited and terrified all at the same time.
Dominic left his father’s office after grudgingly thanking him for the opportunity. It was long past due, but he found he couldn’t focus on that so much. As the memory of Adaline wafted through his mind, there was an invisible pressure in his body to leave the building. So, he returned home earlier than planned and reached for his phone. It felt silly to him how much need coursed through him. But he had to see her face…he had to hear her voice.
Dominic could recall the feelings he had denied while he was a teenager. Little did she know, Adaline had always been on his radar, but he had been unwilling to accept the feelings growing inside him toward her. However, that was no longer the case. He had made himself completely vulnerable to her possible rejection and while the former Dominic was usually self-assured and arrogant regarding his ability to attract the opposite sex, he didn’t feel that same level of assurance now. In fact, he was downright apprehensive. It was because she meant so much to him already, and he knew her rejection would hurt more than anything else.
As his phone rang, he paced through the living room of his townhome, waiting for her to eventually pick up.
Ring. Ring.
He was preparing to hang up in defeat when her image showed up on his phone.
“Yes, Dominic? What is it?”
Adaline’s greeting was not the warmest, but then again, he couldn’t blame her. The last time they had spoken, he had urged her to leave her current boyfriend before going down on her. At the thought of her taste and the screams she released when she climaxed, Dominic felt himself thickening within his pants.
Fuck. He wanted her so bad.
“I know this is probably a bad time…but…I needed to see you.”
He could tell she sensed the real reason why behind his words from the look of concern that marred her features on the small screen.
“What happened, Dominic?”
It was then he knew it wasn’t enough. He didn’t just want to see her; he needed to be close to her. “I’d rather not talk about it over the phone. Can I come see you?”
Adaline sighed and shook her head, “Right now, I’m back in Dover to see my uncle.”
“What for?”
“He fell from the roof and injured himself. It’s still pretty bad.”
All his worries and complaints about his own situation went out the window at her words. Immediately, he walked to his room with her still on the phone. Grabbing a bag, he began to shove clothes in for him to possibly stay overnight.
“Are you staying at home?”
Adaline shook her head, “I decided to just stay at the Hampton. My aunt and I got into it, and I just didn’t feel comfortable staying there.”
Dominic could tell there was more to the story than what she had revealed. The usual brightness he had grown accustomed to seeing in her eyes was long gone. In there place was the same defeated stillness he saw in his own when he left his father’s office. Dominic knew that Adaline’s relationship with her aunt had always been more contemptuous than loving. And now with her uncle injured, she had no allies to offset the strained relationship that had always made her feel like an unwelcomed guest. Dominic recognized that this was an opportunity for him to be there for her and show Adaline that his feelings weren’t just ones of carnal desire.
“I’m on my way. I’ll be there in an hour,” he said, his tone brooking no argument.
To his own surprise, Adaline didn’t say anything. And when he arrived as promised at the front door of her hotel room, she opened the door without protest. Dominic threw his overnight bag onto the beige couch that rested by the red curtains of the large window while Adaline returned to her seat along the queen-sized bed and laid down facing him. Her eyes were stained red, a clue to the tears she had shed nonstop after visiting her childhood home.
Dominic bent down by the edge of the bed so that his eyes aligned with hers. Gently he reached out and caressed the wisps of hair by her ear.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?” he asked softly. But even his whisper seemed too loud in the space.
Adaline’s eyes closed momentarily as he rubbed his thumb against her tear-stained cheeks. He felt her lean into his caress as she shook her head. “You should go first.”
Dominic found himself tongue-tied. He had contacted her to relive those moments when she had been his confidant. Ever since they had met again at Carla’s wedding, they had so easily fallen into the former dynamics of their relationship. Adaline had been there for him despite his stubbornness and overall jackass-ery as he mourned his lost relationship with Dina. And he needed her again when the insecurities he had toward his father resurfaced out of the blue.
But, as he sat in front of her now, Dominic found that he couldn’t speak. He didn’t want to. “Let’s talk about it in the morning, shall we?”
Her eyes opened when the warmth from his touch disappeared. She looked up and watched as he removed his shoes and jacket before crawling over her to the other side of the bed. For just a moment, he was straddling her and Adaline felt a tug in her loins at their position. He lay down beside her however, and with a gentle pressure on her waist, he maneuvered her to turn to face him. As if they had been doing it all their lives, Adaline rested herself against his side. Every inch of her pressed up against him at the urging of his arms around her. She could feel the steady beat of his heart and the rise-and-fall of his breath against the open palm of her hand on his muscled chest, and her heart soared when his soft full lips momentarily came down to her forehead as if to offer assurance.
There was no need though, Adaline thought to herself. Because she had no intention of moving out of his arms. As the warmth of his body became intermingled with her own, Adaline’s eyes grew heavy. She fell into a deep sleep, comforted by the feel of him against her because even after the emotional day, she found that there was nowhere else she wanted to be.
Dominic looked down at her, asleep in his arms. While his body was definitely affected by her nearness, the warmth growing in his heart outweighed the desire he felt to consume her with the passion that had previously lay dormant. He was steadily becoming more and more aware of just how much she meant to him, but while he expected to feel the familiar stirrings of fear and discomfort at this knowledge, Dominic instead felt exhilaration. He welcomed the fiery, passionate, and powerful emotions she wrought from him. He could only hope to convince her to feel the same.
Chapter Sixteen
When she awoke, Adaline had a moment of confusion. Her legs were entangled within someone else’s and boy, were
they muscular and long! The same could be said for the chest her left hand rested on. But there was nothing to say for the wetness seeping from her sex in response to the hardness pressing against her. Adaline could feel the stranger’s calloused and large hands palming her behind as if to pull her closer.
A guttural moan sounded in her ear as a gentle thrust of hips pushed her deeper into the fiery heat simmering between them. His face nuzzled into her chest and pressed kisses along the line of her neck. For a moment, after remembering who exactly was lying next to her, Adaline wanted to become a willing participant. Eventually, however, she was able to gather enough strength and willpower to push him away. There was a groan of protest as her hands shoved at his muscular chest, but Adaline saw Dominic’s eyes finally begin to open.
A look of confusion passed across his face at the feel of her hands pushing him away. But when his gaze finally touched upon the indecency of their position, Dominic moved away from her albeit reluctantly.
“Sorry about that,” he mumbled before falling immediately back to sleep.
In contrast, Adaline was unable to return to the same peaceful bout of sleep. Instead, she took the opportunity to truly admire the gorgeous specimen beside her. She had never had the privilege of seeing Dominic in such a state, but she couldn’t help the grin that spread across her tired features at the handsome boyishness he exuded. His long locks were in disarray atop his head but he looked so peaceful sleeping next to her.
During the night, he seemed to have taken off his shirt because she could now lay witness to his defined pectoral and abdominal muscles. There was an itch at the tip of her fingers to touch him that she tried her darnedest to ignore. Dominic had no hair on his chest except for a dusty trail leading into his loose pants, and she noted a beauty mark on his hip giving greater attention to the V-shape of his pelvic muscle. Adaline felt the heat in her lower abdomen and sex increase exponentially as she perused him. To add insult to injury, the massive erection tenting his pants made her release an uncontrollable moan of desire.
Adaline (The Wallflower Series Book 3) Page 17
