by Cora Brent
“Or tea?”
“No. I don’t want tea either.”
The belt was too tight. Or the oxygen had left the room. I felt light-headed. “So what do you want, Dominic?” I squeaked out the question.
He cocked his head to the side and held my gaze. The way he stared at me made his intentions clear. “I want you, Mel. I’ve wanted you since the day we met. And I don’t care if it’s the wrong time or the wrong place or what the fuck ever. I’m tired of fighting the way I feel. Aren’t you?”
I needed to sit down. This was the stuff of my fantasies, except it was happening right in the middle of my living room in front of my cats. Since there wasn’t a chair nearby, I leaned against the wall so I wouldn’t fall over and turn this intense moment into a blooper outtake.
“Dominic,” I whispered. I looked at the floor because looking at Dominic was more than my tender senses could take right this second.
“Melanie?” he asked gently. “Do you want me to leave?”
Leave? Was he kidding? I shook my head so vigorously my hair clip came loose. “No.”
“Then look at me,” he demanded.
I looked. He hadn’t moved, but somehow it seemed like he was closer, as if the overpowering pull between us was finally going to be acknowledged as inevitable. I couldn’t resist him if I tried, and I didn’t want to try. But I didn’t want to be used as a toy either.
“A little while ago you informed me in no uncertain terms nothing would ever happen between us at work again,” I reminded him.
He advanced so quickly I gasped and instinctively flattened myself against the wall. Only inches away Dominic cupped my face in his hands, his thumbs grazing my cheeks, my lips.
“We’re not at work,” he said bluntly. “There’s no staff here, no restaurant, no moral boundaries. This is only about us, nothing else. Can you handle that?”
“We’re not at work,” I repeated. And it made perfect sense to me. What was happening here didn’t have to have anything to do with what happened during business hours.
“Can you handle that?”
Yes, yes, I could.
Slowly I reached down and loosened the knot on my belt. Dominic noticed. He was breathing hard as he watched.
“Melanie,” he said in a voice half-strangled by arousal, “be sure. Be absolutely fucking sure. You know once we start this there won’t be any stopping it.”
“I’m sure,” I breathed, letting the silky fabric slide through my fingers as I got the belt loose. “And I don’t want to stop.”
He kissed me. But it was more than a kiss. It was weeks of tension and desire and sensual dreams and flirting and resisting and long looks and jealousy and finally . . . giving in.
Dominic’s mouth made the demands, and I answered them with eagerness. His tongue explored brazenly, and a low moan escaped his throat when I reached low and cupped my palm over the hard urgency that I’d felt the other night but hadn’t gotten close enough to because we’d stopped too soon. I stroked him like that, over his pants, exploring the thick erection that I was dying to know more intimately. He broke the kiss, sucked my neck for a moment, and then pulled back. He grabbed my hand and pressed his dick against my palm even harder.
“This what you’re looking for?” he said. And it wasn’t a gentle question. It sounded almost like a dare.
“Yes,” I panted and squeezed my fingers until he inhaled sharply.
Dominic let my hand stay where it was as he swiftly pulled the belt away from my robe. “You’ve been thinking about this,” he accused. “You’ve been thinking about me a hell of a lot. Haven’t you?”
I swallowed. “Yes. I think about you all the time.”
He smiled, evidently pleased with me. “Good. I want to hear all about it. And you’re going to tell me everything, right?”
“Yes.” The word came out as a moan because Dominic’s hands were on me now, stroking my belly, teasing between my legs.
He slipped the robe from my shoulders and cupped my breasts in his hands. Then he bent down and tortured each nipple with his tongue as I clutched his head and urged him to do more. He could take me just like this, standing up in the middle of the hallway, and I would happily wrap my legs around his waist and ride as hard as a Kentucky Derby jockey.
“Dominic,” I groaned when he paused and licked the tender crevice between my breasts. I wanted him so bad I thought I would scream.
He raised his head and stood up straight, peering down at me with an expression of lust and triumph. “Don’t worry. This time there’s not gonna be any interruptions.”
He yanked his shirt over his head, proving that the flesh and blood Dominic was even better than the one who lived in my imagination. He was perfect, tanned skin and muscle everywhere I looked. Fascinated, I let my fingertips wander across the expanse of his hard chest. I wanted to taste everything I saw.
Then Dominic dropped his pants, and I dropped to my knees. My hair was already in his fists when I took him in my mouth. He was even bigger than I’d guessed, and I sucked him eagerly as he swore out loud. He said my name and bucked hard against my mouth as I licked and sucked and took him deep into my throat. Then he suddenly pulled away.
I looked up, feeling uncertain, wondering if I’d done something he didn’t like. “What’s wrong?” I asked hesitantly.
“Nothing, sweetheart,” he said, gazing down at me tenderly as he stroked my cheeks. “I’ve got plans for how this happens, that’s all.”
Dominic bent down and scooped me up into his arms. It happened so fast it was almost like flying. There was something thrilling, almost dangerous, about the sense that I was being carried away by someone much more powerful than I was. He could take me anywhere, do anything he wanted, and I wouldn’t complain.
The light was on in my bedroom. I’d always been on the shy side when it came to sex, hiding my naked skin in darkness or under covers. But when Dominic loomed over me with blunt lust written all over his face, I didn’t want to hide a thing, not from him. He laid me down on the bed gently and took his time running his hands all over my body.
“Fuck,” he muttered as his rough palms grazed my nipples and then moved lower, lingering over the surface of my belly. “Look at you, Melanie.”
“Can’t,” I breathed, still rather hypnotized by the sculpted perfection of him. “I’m busy looking at you.”
He flashed a wicked grin and massaged my hips for a moment before sliding his hands between my legs, easing my thighs apart. I let out a shameless moan when I felt his fingers inside of me.
“You don’t know how much I fucking love watching you,” he growled as my body followed the rhythm of his fingers.
“Dom,” I groaned, reaching for him, wanting more, so much more, wanting everything.
Dominic didn’t wait any longer. My legs went around him eagerly as he slid his hands under my hips and drove himself inside me without mercy. It was a triumphant invasion, and I loved it.
It was ten thousand times better than watching an old Richard Gere movie.
It was the best goddamn time I’d ever had.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
DOMINIC
In the beginning I tried to go slow with her, though it nearly killed me. I’d been thinking about this girl for weeks, and I wasn’t going to just grunt and get off. This wasn’t a fuck. This was Melanie. We fit together so flawlessly I could swear I’d been made to slide into her body. I’d wondered if she’d be shy or reserved between the sheets, but to my delight she didn’t hold back at all. And when I said dirty things, filthy things, she absolutely fucking loved it.
“What are you doing?” she whimpered when I teased her, pulling out just as she was getting to the brink for the third time since I carried her in here.
“Making you work for it,” I answered, easily offering up resistance when she tried to tighten her legs and draw me back in. Her eyes had been closed as she bit her lip and let me consume her as I pleased. Now those blue eyes opened and fixed me with a lo
ok of frustration.
“I don’t work for you right now, Mr. Esposito,” she said, but she was lying. I could feel it in the way her heart pounded and her body trembled.
I chuckled and raised myself up on my elbows so I could see her more clearly.
“Oh yes, you do, Miss Cruz.” Fucking hell, I loved the feel of her tits against my chest. Full and ripe, with a perfect mix of softness and firm perfection, they felt as good as I knew they would.
Melanie frowned up at me, those eyes that were such a rare dark-blue flashing with obvious annoyance at having her moment thwarted.
“The hell I do,” she said through clenched teeth, and I almost thrust into her hard once again. That fiery attitude of hers drove me nuts in a major way. But I was so damn close, one more push into that sweet body would be my undoing, and I didn’t want to be undone just yet.
I nibbled her neck. “Relax. We’re just gonna have a little talk first.”
“A talk?” she sputtered. “Now? Right freaking now?”
“Right freaking now.”
“Dominic,” she moaned, writhing underneath me. “I can’t take it.”
I wasn’t sure I could take it either, but the longer the buildup the better the reward. “Melanie, what were you doing right before I rang the doorbell tonight?”
She scowled. It was so damn cute. “I was taking a bath, you idiot.”
“Hmm.” I rolled my hips against her, and she let out another whimper. “A bath, huh?”
“Yes,” she said in a strangled voice. She was biting her lip and holding on to my arms so tightly her nails dug into my skin.
“Is that all?”
She glared at me, then softened and shook her head, seeming almost embarrassed. “That’s not all. I was thinking about you. I was wishing you were with me.”
I smoothed her hair away from her sweaty forehead. “I’m with you now, Mel. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good,” she whispered, and I covered her mouth with mine.
I eased into her gently this time, and when we came at the same moment, it was both earth-shattering and tender. We shuddered with the aftershocks, and I held her for a long time before I started to worry that my weight might be crushing her. Melanie sat up and watched as I rolled off and got rid of the condom. She had pulled a sheet up over her chest, and the small gesture of modesty made me want to rip off her flimsy cover and ravage her all over again.
Instead I turned off the bedside lamp and opened my arms. She let me gather her to my chest, and I enjoyed the contented sigh that escaped her lips as she settled against me.
“Are you tired?” she asked in a dreamy voice while my fingers lightly tugged on strands of her long hair.
I yawned. “No.”
“You sorry?”
I snorted. “Hell no.”
She burrowed into me and kissed my neck. “That’s a relief. If you’d said yes, I might have either cried or thrown my five-pound volume of Shakespeare’s collected works at your head.”
“Melanie,” I said seriously. “I’ll never make you cry.”
She raised her head and looked at me. “And I’ll never throw a five-pound book at your head.”
“Sounds like a fair treaty.”
She shivered once and wrapped the sheet around her shoulders. I wished I hadn’t turned off the light so I could see her expression.
“What about you?” I asked her. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” She laughed. “I’m just a little out of practice, I guess. It’s been a while. I mean, after things ended with James, I dated here and there, but nothing lasted. Maybe they were turned off by the fact that I was divorced, even though it wasn’t much of a marriage to begin with. Or maybe it’s just me. It’s just hard to trust again once you’ve been burned.” She suddenly leaned over, kissed my shoulder, and then rested her cheek there. “Don’t burn me, Dom,” she whispered.
“No,” I said quickly and wrapped my arms around her, kissing her forehead. “I may be an unholy pain in the ass, and sometimes you might want to throw that Shakespeare book at me after all, but I swear I’ll always be straight with you. No games, baby. That’s not what this is.”
She was silent for a minute. “Then what is it?” she finally asked.
I didn’t know how to answer that question. There was nothing simple about what we’d started here.
Melanie was still my employee, which, according to my own standards, meant she ought to have been automatically off-limits.
My brother still wouldn’t approve if he knew what I’d just done.
And we were still all in the middle of the highly stressful ordeal of opening a new restaurant.
But none of that meant I’d consider giving Melanie up. I’d made that decision when I rang her doorbell an hour ago. Now that I had her, I had every intention of keeping her.
“It’s right,” I told her. “That’s what it is. I think this moment was inevitable from the day you walked your sexy ass into my restaurant. So don’t question it.”
Melanie kissed me. “Blunt as ever. But there’s a romantic streak in you, Mr. Esposito, and I’m not going to let you forget that I’ve seen it.”
I smiled. “So you have me all figured out, huh?”
She traced shapes lightly on my chest. They felt like hearts. “You’re honest, Dominic. I may not always like what you have to say, but you’re always authentic.” She stopped tracing hearts and snuggled closer. “That’s why I’m crazy about you.”
At this rate I might never stop smiling. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she sighed and then let out a short laugh. “And believe me, I’ve tried not to be.”
I rolled on top of her. “Stop freaking trying,” I ordered.
She laughed again. “It’s too late anyway,” she teased.
I rolled off again and collected her against my chest once more. It felt good to hold her this way. I stroked her hair and listened to her breathing become deep and even. I thought she was falling asleep, and I would have been happy to follow. But as I sifted her long hair through my hands, she suddenly stirred and closed her hand around my dick. By all rights I should have been far too tired to manage another round of energetic sex, but my anatomy had different ideas.
“Hey, is there a showerhead in that bathtub of yours?” I asked suddenly.
“Well of course,” Melanie said with some surprise. “Wait. Where are we going?”
I had picked her up, sheets and all, and was heading for the bathroom. “To fulfill a fantasy.”
She giggled. “Does it involve the shower?”
“Yup. The shower and you and me and a variety of crude positions.”
Melanie threw her head back with a groan. “You just might wear me out, Dominic.”
I set her down on the floor and turned the shower on. “I’m sure as hell gonna try, sweetheart.”
We did sleep, eventually. It felt like only seconds passed between the moment I shut my eyes and when I opened them again to find the gray morning light filtering through the blinds in Melanie’s bedroom. She was still asleep, her head on the pillow beside me, and even though she was sexy as hell with her hair surrounding her in a dark cloud, those rosebud lips parted, and the flowered quilt only half covering her perfect body, that wasn’t why I stared at her with my heart in my throat. Melanie Cruz had managed to awaken something inside of me that I thought I didn’t possess.
The only other time in my life I’d ever felt anything even close to this was when I was also the worst version of myself, when I had started something for terrible, selfish reasons, never intending for it to mean anything other than a good time with a small dose of vengeance. In the end I’d hurt everyone, even myself, and forged a rift that even time and distance would never solve. I’d had no excuse, other than being young and stupid and furious over a bitter family war. Sometimes there were no explanations as to why those who shared your blood were the ones who wound up wronging you the most. Or why you turned around and did the same to them.
> “Good morning,” said a gentle voice, and I looked down into the sweetest sight I’d ever laid eyes on. Melanie’s eyes were open, and she was smiling shyly.
I smiled back. “Good morning, beautiful. How do you feel?”
She stretched. “Sore, but in the best way possible.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“You should.” She poked me. “It’s your fault.”
“Didn’t hear any complaining from you last night.”
“I’m not complaining now. But if you notice that I’m walking funny at work, you’ll have to keep your mouth shut.”
The mention of work sobered me. Today at four o’clock my brother and I were opening the doors to a new restaurant. But the number one thing on my mind was that I hadn’t really figured out how I was going to keep my hands off Melanie all day, every day, and pretend that the only thing between us was a cordial working relationship. If I had any common sense, I would have at least waited until we were several weeks past the opening of Espo 2.
“Dominic?” Melanie said my name tentatively, and propped herself up on one elbow. I saw the uncertainty in her face. She wasn’t sure I was taking this seriously. She wasn’t sure I was taking us seriously.
I gently touched her cheek. “I was just thinking about how I don’t know how I’m going to get through the day without kissing you.”
She smiled and grabbed my hand, kissing the palm. “You’re pretty charming when you want to be, sir.”
“Good thing that’s not very often. It might get exhausting.”
Melanie frowned, looking around the semidark room. “Have you seen my phone in here?”
“You dying to call someone so you can brag about screwing the boss?”
She made an offended noise and wrinkled her nose. “Jerk.”
I grinned. “Thought you said I was charming.”
“Only when you’re not being an asshole. I just wanted to see what time it was.”
I looked toward the window. The sun was rising.
“It’s time for me to leave.” I sighed and reluctantly left the bed in search of my pants. I didn’t want to go. Melanie followed me to the door in her robe. I kissed her hard and hugged her tight.
