Part of the Family

by Cristina Grenier

  It was there that Dominic had encountered his first set of actual problems: Despite being told all his life that he was an incredible mathematician, numbers gave him no pleasure. He pursued accounting because he was good at it, but by the time he got his degree and settled down at a firm, all he knew was how miserable he was.

  Starting his company had been a way out of that misery.

  Of course, he had no idea what the hell he was doing. He knew he had ideas, and he hoped people might appreciate them, but he hadn’t the faintest clue about how to mass produce a project or how to get investors on his side. All Dominic had was a drive to keep moving forward and his mother’s unerring faith in him.

  “So she wanted you to leave the accounting firm?” Kayla ventured incredulously. “That’s insane.”

  “I can imagine it’s a bit hard for you to understand,” Dominic replied neutrally. “You’ve loved medicine for as long as you’ve known about it, and you’re lucky enough to be good at it too. I had to start all over, in a field that I knew relatively little about - and I was pretty sure I was going to fail.”

  “But you didn’t!” The young woman piped up enthusiastically. She’d been listening to every word he said, her attention completely rapt. “We’re in your private jet for God’s sake.”

  “We are,” he acquiesced, his expression solemn, “But it took a hell of a long time for me to get here. He sighed, picking up his champagne again before he thought, really thought, about what had gotten him to this point. “I made some foolish decisions.” It was all he could reveal without going intimate detail. “I hurt people. I was reckless. I fucked up as many good business deals as I made until I learned enough to be more careful. It was a long, exhausting road, and I’ll be damned if I’ll just roll over now.”

  His last statement slipped out before he could stop it and Dominic quickly sipped from his drink, hoping that Kayla hadn’t really heard him.

  He should have been so lucky.

  She had finished her champagne and merely pulled her legs up into the seat to stare at him over her knees in inquiry. “What do you mean ‘roll over’?”

  Fuck.

  He hadn’t meant to go so far. The last thing he needed was someone hearing he’d been complaining about his stockholders.

  But it looked as if the damage was already done. Dominic worried his lower lip with his teeth briefly before he allowed himself to tell her what had been on his mind for the past few weeks. “My stockholders seem hell bent on getting me to take on a more passive role in the business - I think I’m a little too hands-on for their liking.”

  Makayla’s eyes widened in surprise. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? You’re the backbone of the company, aren’t you?” The insistence in her words surprised him somewhat. When the young woman let her legs down from the chair to scoot to the edge and make her point, he found himself fixated on the gleam in her hazel eyes. “They can’t tell you what to do with your own damn firm. If you want to work, you do what you please! Besides, isn’t it better for the face of your company if you’re not sequestered up in some high tower somewhere? People like to put a face to a name.”

  Dominic stared at her - his quiet little houseguest who could be just as passionate as any preacher at the pulpit when it came to something she believed in. She just kept on surprising him.

  “My sentiments exactly.” He graced her with a small smile, gratified when she smiled back. Raising his empty flute, he nodded in her direction. “More champagne?”

  Makayla’s smile grew to a full-blown grin. “I’m always for more champagne.”

  After three more classes of champagne - and more idle conversation than Dominic would have thought himself capable of, they finally arrived in France. Though they had shuffled through their fair share of media to get out of New York, reporters were waiting for them at the airport in Paris in droves, and the moment they stepped from the airport, cameras began to flash.

  As usual, Makayla’s grip tightened on his hand and her face paled - but she didn’t try to run away from him. On the contrary, she shifted closer to him - almost as if she expected him to shield her from the chaos around them. He responded automatically, drawing her in even closer to him as he staved off all the questions the french media threw at them. Within minutes, they were in the car that would take them to their hotel - and even when it pulled away from the curb to start towards the city, Makayla was still clinging to him, her face buried in his shoulder.

  “Hey.” He glanced down at her, shaking the arm she clung to slightly. “It’s over. You can relax now.”

  Kayla merely made a disbelieving sound against his bicep. “I can never relax with you.”

  Surprisingly, the statement drew a smile from him. He liked thinking that he kept her on edge - it was at least as much as she did to him. Before she could protest, he wrapped his free arm around her waist, tugging her into his lap so her head jerked up to look at him in a mixture of alarm and embarrassment. “Calm down.” He growled, startled that the look aroused him so flagrantly. “I’m not going to kiss you.”

  But he wanted to. Damn if he didn’t want to. Kissing her was almost all he thought about since the first time it happened. Dominic had even thought of making up an excuse for kissing her in public just so he could taste her again - but that was beneath even him. Part of him wanted her to come to him - to prove that the desire wasn’t just one-sided. After all, she had stopped him the first time, insisting that she was overwhelmed.

  But was that really it?

  He expected her to try and struggle out of his grip, but Makayla merely sat complacently on his lap, and Dominic found himself indulging in her closeness when she finally leaned back against him. He fought the urge to let his hands wander, to explore the line of her waist and nip at the long, elegant stretch of her neck. Why, he wondered, why the hell had he put her on his lap again? He was only torturing himself. Having her like this was nowhere close to how he really wanted her - underneath him and writhing in pleasure in his bed.

  In their bed.

  Jesus Christ, when had it become their bed?

  The thought was enough to occupy him all the way to the hotel - it swirled around his head as they checked in and while he watched her scamper around the large suite with wonder in her eyes. When she finally settled down, however, he merely told her that he had some business to take care of and that he would be back soon. Was it his imagination, or did her face fall a bit when he told her that he was leaving her alone?

  That didn’t change anything. He had to go - business always came first. Even if things might have gotten a little muddled since she had become a part of his life, he made it a point that one thing, at least, remained clear: business was first. And no matter how much he wanted Kayla, at the end of the day, she was just another business investment for him.

  ...But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t acknowledge that particular mindset made him an unmitigated asshole.

  **

  She was not disappointed.

  She was not disappointed.

  How on earth could Kayla justify any disappointment when she was in one of the most fabulous cities in the world, finally putting the passport she had used to admire longingly to good use? There was no rule that said she needed Dominic to explore the city with her…

  ...But part of her had hoped he might.

  Instead, the moment they touched down, he rushed off to attend to business, leaving her to her own devices.

  The young woman immediately resolved that she would not stay idly in the hotel room, waiting for his return. She could only imagine how disappointed Melody would be in her if she didn’t have lavish tales to tell about her first day in Paris.

  And so, she had ventured out, armed with some information from the helpful people at the front desk, to explore the city.

  It was absolutely beautiful - from the architecture and the wide avenues to the smaller alleys packed with cafes and chicly dressed people on the way to fabulous places. Not for t
he first time since Dominic had taken her on her little shopping excursion, she was grateful for her posher wardrobe. She felt almost as if she belonged in her long-sleeved, red peplum dress and knee-high boots.

  She ventured first to Notre Dame, where she marveled at the gorgeous cathedral and listened, in awe, as they sounded the lilting music of the bells around two in the afternoon. Then, she headed to the Latin Quarter, which was just across the street and, with no small amount of guilt, purchased a hefty bag of artisan chocolates with one of Dominic’s card. Though he’d told her more than once that the cards were hers to use, and that she should take advantage of them more, she didn’t think she’d ever get used to spending someone else’s money.

  But, Kayla had to admit that she was tempted several times. There were several Paris shop windows displaying some of the prettiest things she’d ever seen, from handbags to gorgeous underwear and perfume bottles shaped like roses and orchids. But still, she didn’t dare buy anything. The price tags alone were intimidating enough.

  She wandered down long, winding roads until she all but stumbled upon the Eiffel tower and took the elevator to the top, where she snapped a handful of breathtaking shots of the city. Idly, she wondered if Dominic ever had the time to do this. She was sure he was incredibly busy, and she knew this was supposed to be a business trip, but she couldn’t help but be saddened at the thought that he never got to see any of the wonders of the world from his office.

  Quickly, she snapped herself out of it. Where did she get off worrying about Dominic? She wasn’t his real girlfriend, after all. This was just an act - a sham, really, to improve people’s perception of him. That was all.

  Try as she might, however, Makayla couldn’t stop thinking about him. She skyped Melody from the Arc de Triomphe, making the blonde squeal in excited glee and promise to buy her a ton of souvenirs. She wandered around the Louvre until her feet hurt before having dinner in one of the restaurants in the adjoining mall and people watching on the street outside. But no matter how busy she kept herself, her mind always returned to the man she was travelling with. Was he still in his office, she wondered? Still sweating over his workload?

  She returned to the hotel at nine in the evening, tentatively hopeful that he would be there when she arrived, but she had no such luck. Kayla checked her phone in vain, wondering if she had somehow missed a call from him, but there was nothing there either. She was just as pissed at herself for wanting to hear from him as she was at him for neglecting her.

  Neglect. Ha. How were you supposed to neglect someone who didn’t owe you their attention in the first place? Wasn’t it enough that he paid her school bills and all but sponsoreod her lifestyle.

  Frowning, the young woman put her chocolates in the small refrigerator in the room and decided to take a bath. If nothing else, it would help her sleep - calm her mind. She ran the immense marble tub full of hot water before adding a few salts and a generous dollop of scented oil before she slipped from her clothes and sank into bliss.

  Her eyes slid closed, and she did her best to let the stress of the day leech from her.

  About five minutes passed before Dominic’s deep green eyes popped into her head, and a low groan escaped her. It was his fault, really. No man was supposed to be that attractive. How could any woman put him from her mind? Especially when he had just finished working out, droplets of sweat sliding over his bare chest, his hair damp and the tang of salt in the air…

  Kayla sighed deeply, allowing her hands to wander over her body. She was surprised to find her skin overly sensitive, and wondered if there was some sort of stimulant in the bath salts she used. She drew her lower lip between her teeth as she remembered the first time Dominic had touched her - really touched her. He had been surprisingly gentle - his touch igniting fire wherever his fingers contacted her bare skin...and then that kiss…

  Without even noticing, Kayla had cupped her breast and found herself toying with the rapidly hardening peaks almost absently.

  She wasn’t the type of girl that liked to hop on the self-pleasure train. After all, she hadn’t thought very much of sex and sexual pleasure up until she met Dominic, and her experience was still painfully limited. All she knew was that when the dark-haired man touched her, she wanted with a raw lust that was so intense that it was almost painful.

  Maybe it would be better if she tried to alleviate some of the pressure?

  She might not touch herself often, but she knew enough about her own body that she knew, at least, what felt good. She adjusted herself slightly in the bathtub, still toying with a single nipple as she allowed her opposite hand to snake down over the flat expanse of her belly.

  She wondered what it might feel like if Dominic touched her where she needed it most...if he put his large, deft hand between her legs and slid two fingers high up inside her...The very thought was enough to make her moan; and Kayla had to wonder what had gotten into her. It wasn’t as if her boyfriend had never fingered her, and she’d never been terribly impressed with his technique. Somehow, she suspected that Dominic would be more giving...that he would be more careful with her, slowly bringing her pleasure until all she could feel was him inside her.

  She couldn’t make excuses for herself now. Kayla was stroking the engorged bud of pleasure between her parted lower lips gently, all but trembling as lightning bolts of sensation shot through her, one after the other. It had always been hard for her to find a subject upon which to focus her fantasies, but it seemed that issue had disappeared with the arrival of Dominic.

  The man allowed her, if only in the deepest, most private corners of her mind, to imagine what it might be like to give herself over to him - to have his body bearing down on hers as he edged inside her. To feel him groaning against her throat as he made her his, whispering how glorious she felt in his ear. She knew he wanted her, of course - he’d all but admitted it; but she liked to tell herself she wouldn’t permit things to go so far between them. It wasn’t what they had agreed on.

  But she could fantasize, couldn’t she? Here, alone in the bathtub, as she stroked herself firmly between the legs, shuddering gasps spilling from her lips in grand profusion. Keeping her thumb on her clit, she rubbed two fingers over the seam of her entrance before dipping them inside, choking back a cry at the ensuing sensation.

  Christ. It had never felt this good before...she had never managed to suspend enough disbelief to imagine that it was...that it might be….”Dominic…” She moaned almost deliriously, the sound echoing around the bathroom. “God, Dominic…”

  At that precise moment, the door to the bathroom burst wide open and, as if ripped out of a scene from her worst nightmares, Dominic was suddenly there, clad in only a t-shirt and his unbelted slacks, his green eyes frantic. “Kayla? What is it? Are you alright?”

  The young woman immediately bolted upright in the bath with a shriek, her face flaming cherry red as she made a mad, insubstantial attempt to cover herself.

  He was here? When the hell had he gotten back? How hadn’t she heard him come in?

  In that second, Kayla well and truly wanted to disappear. Dominic was staring at her very naked form, clearly visible through the water, and it couldn’t have been more obvious what she was doing. She didn’t know what he’d thought, but she watched his face with mounting horror as he quickly put two and two together.

  His expression quickly faded from one of worry to understanding. Kayla found she couldn’t breathe as his gaze swept over her, from the tip of her toes all the way to her wide eyes. It occurred to her that she should make him get out - that she should banish him with an enraged yell, but she found she couldn’t. All she could do was stare at him as his eyes gleamed primal hunger - hunger that she found spoke to her more than she was willing to admit.

  “You’re alright, I assume.” He finally spoke, and her face burned so flagrantly that she thought it might implode.

  “Fine.” She managed, in a breathy tone, her hands still over the choicer parts of her. For a split
second, she suspected he might leave of his own accord - suspected it and lamented at the prospect.

  But then, Dominic reached behind him and pushed the door shut in a smooth motion.

  Kayla swallowed thickly, her eyes never leaving his as he advanced on the bathtub to stand over her. The young woman had never felt so vulnerable in her life, and she realized dimly that, a mere two months ago, such a feeling might have sent her running for the hills. But with Dominic, she wanted to pursue it...she wanted to know everything he could make her feel.

  She wanted him to make her forget everything that made her afraid.

  “I…” She took a deep breath, trying her best to sound calm and level-headed. “You’re making me nervous. Staring like that.”

  Dominic merely slid his hands into his pockets, the muscles of his bare arm rippling powerfully. “Well, you’re doing a hell of a lot more than that to me.”

  Kayla swallowed thickly. From where she was, the prominent bulge in his slacks was quite visible - there was no question that the sight of her naked was the cause. “I missed you today.” She blurted out impulsively. “I went to Notre Dame, and I saw the Arc de Triomphe. I visited the Louvre and had a really amazing meal at this restaurant in the Latin quarter...but I missed you.”

  Taking his hands from his pockets, Dominic sank to his knees beside the tub so they were almost eye level. His lake-hued gaze burned into her as he rested his elbows on the edge of the tub, chin in one hand. “If you missed me, I suppose there’s no greater compliment you could pay me than touching yourself.”

  Kayla’s stomach did a little twist and her breath caught. Slowly, she moved her hands from where she was shielding herself, revealing her breasts and the most intimate part of her, sunk in gallons of steaming, sweetly scented water. She wasn’t very versed in seduction, but she could assume, by the tightening in Dominic’s jaw, that she had done the right thing.

  The young woman had long admitted to herself that she was averse to people touching her - that what her parents had done to her damaged her beyond measure. But right now, in this moment, she wanted nothing as badly as she wanted Dominic’s hands on her.