“The opposite actually. I told him I didn’t want anything more than a professional relationship with him.” I pick at an invisible piece of lint on my skirt, willing to do anything for a break from the molten gaze burning into me, pulling words I don’t want to say out of my mouth with no effort. “I thought he was okay, but the temper tantrum makes me think differently.”
Dominic scoffs. “You think a man could know how your lips taste and not be mad about being told he’ll never get to have that again?”
A ghost of an emotion moves across his face, darkening his expression for a moment, but it’s gone in an instant.
“And his feelings aremyproblem? That seems a little unfair considering I never offered them to him in the first place.”
His eyebrows raise, and his expression goes from dark anger to genuine surprise. The sudden change makes me realize, not for the first time, that Dominic thought James and I were a thing. And the idea makes him—Angry? Jealous?
“No,” Dominic says softly, pushing off of the wall. “His feelings aren’t your problem at all. Men who take things from you without your permission don’t deserve their next breath let alone your consideration.”
“Does that include you?”
He takes a step toward me. Now there are only a few inches of space between us. “No, Sloane, that doesn’t include me.”
I have to tip my head back to look at him. He’s staring down at me, and this close, I get the full effect of his eyes. They always look so dark to me, black pools with the faintest hint of bronze, but now I can see they’re more of a rich, dark brown.
“It should.”
“Why is that?” He cants his head to the side. “What have I taken from you without your permission, angel?”
The nickname pings around my head, crashing into the walls of my skull and ringing with a familiar sense of déjà vu I don’t have time to fully explore because Dominic is leaning down now, mere inches from my face, and my lips tingle with the need to be kissed when his gaze falls on them.
I search my brain for an answer to his question and come up blank. There’s no way to tell him his habit of touching me has stolen my resolve to maintain a solitary existence. There’s no way to describe his role in discovering my skin hunger, and the subsequent plan to alleviate it,without sounding like a complete weirdo, so I latch on to the only real thing he’s taken from me and hope for the best.
“On Sunday at Mama’s…you touched me. You touched my mouth.”
I hate the way I’m stumbling over my words. Hate how breathless I am while I’m trying to make it sound like I haven’t spent the last forty-eight hours replaying every second of our encounter in my head. Dominic’s lips quirk.
“I did do that, but I don’t think it counts.”
“It counts. I didn’t give you permission to touch me.”Didn’t give you permission to ignite a fire in my veins no amount of time with my vibrator can put out.
“You’re right, but I think there’s a difference between me and James.”
The air between us is thick, and it’s a struggle to pull in a full breath. “And what would that be?”
“I’m your friend.”
Any other day, I’d be laughing at the declaration. The idea of being friends with Dominic has always felt impossible to me, and it feels infinitely more impossible now that his heated gaze is telling me the word “friend” might mean something different to him than it does to me.
“You are?” I sound desperate and needy. Like the one thing I want more than anything in this world is for this man to say we’re friends.
“Yes.” He nods slowly. “Now ask me why that makes what I did to you on Sunday different from the clumsy lip attack James subjected you to on Friday.”
What I did to you…Those words, combined with the finality of his command, send waves of desire coursing through my veins and straight to my clit. I shuffle on my feet as I feel the evidence of my arousal pooling in my core. God, I need to get away from this man.
I press my lips together. There’s no way in hell I’m going to obey his order. It doesn’t matter if my brain is screaming at me to do exactlythat. Dominic’s eyes glow with triumph, like even my resistance satisfies him.
“Go on, angel. You know you want to know.”
The use of his new, but somehow familiar, nickname makes my toes curl.
“Just tell me, Dominic.” I blow out an unsteady breath.
He chuckles darkly. “Well, I think you know that at its most basic level, friendship is about taking care of one another, and that’s what I did on Sunday. I took care of you.”
A shiver runs down my spine at the double entendre. “You wiped icing off of my face. Let’s not make it sound like you saved me from a burning building or something.”Or like you gave me back-to-back mind-blowing orgasms with your wicked mouth, because that only happened in my dreams.
