“What’s that?” I ask. Dom scoots up so he’s practically sitting in my lap. “Every time you want to say something, run through it in your head and stop after the first part.”
He tilts my neck so we’re sitting with our foreheads touching. I desperately want him to kiss me, but I want Dom to be the one in control right now. “Because when you say everything that’s running through that pretty little head, you tend to ruin the moment.”
“I’ll try to take that under consideration,” I tease. “But knowing me, I’d say it’d be better if you get used to me running my mouth too much and stop listening after you hear what you think I want you to.”
Finally, Dominic presses his lips to mine. He nips at my lower lip, never taking it any deeper. It’s sweeter than just about any kiss we’ve shared to this point, but it’s also one that’s overflowing with promise.
I push Dom off of me just long enough that I’m able to spread out with my head on one arm of the couch and my legs hanging over the other. Dom lies down, half on top of me and half between me and the back of the couch. We stay that way, watching the glowing heat of the fire and the cold of the falling snow until we both drift off to sleep.
Chapter Eighteen
Dom
Rather than fightthe post-New Year’s traffic, changing my flight and a swarm of crabby holiday travelers, we decided to rent a car two days after Christmas to drive back to Virginia. It seemed fitting, given how we originally met. This time, the trip was much less eventful because I was driving and Tony sucks at being the co-pilot. We weren’t even into New Jersey before he was snoring in the passenger’s seat. If not for GPS, we’d probably be somewhere in the Ohio River Valley at this point instead of pulling into a quaint subdivision. I check the address Tony input before crashing because this can’t possibly be right. If it is, Tony and I definitely have to have a talk about what constitutes an ‘adequate’ place to live.
“Baby, wake up.” I nudge Tony and he scrubs his eyes as he looks out the window.
“Holy shit, did I sleep the whole way?” he asks. I’m tempted to tell him that he drove part of the way, just to see what he’d say, but I don’t. But then it dawns on me that he’s not confused about our location, which means the two story colonial house with a wooded lot is our destination.
Although I’m not hurting financially, I don’t even want to think about what he’s paying per month for this place. And with the future of my company in limbo, I’m more than a little worried about whether or not I’ll be able to afford my share. Then again, maybe that’s his hope and he plans on letting me work off my debts. There are worse things in the world than living off the barter system.
“You know, if this is your idea of just okay, I’d hate to see what qualifies as posh in your mind,” I huff. After turning off the car, I grab my bags out of the back seat and follow Tony up the driveway.
“The code is 5285,” he informs me as he’s punching in the code to open the garage door. “When you get inside, the code is reversed to disable the alarm system.”
The garage door lifts, slowly revealing a new Dodge Charger as well as a matte black motorcycle of some sort. Even with my moderate success in life, I could never dream of living this type of life and thinking it’s normal.
“You okay?” Tony asks when he realizes I’m frozen in place. Somehow, I had an image of a crappy little house with weeds where the grass should be and a car almost old enough to be considered a collector’s vehicle in the driveway. I’m not one to dwell on material possessions, but all of this serves as a reminder of how little time Tony and I have spent getting to know more than the best ways to make one another writhe in pleasure. “Dom, you’re kinda freaking me out here.”
I shake the doubt from my mind, taking the first steps into Tony’s home. Well, I suppose it’s technically my home as well, but only time will tell if it’s more than just a place to crash for a while. “Sorry, just stuck in my own head. You’re not some sort of dirty firefighter taking bribes from the corrupt government, are you?”
Tony lets out a roar of laughter. He quickly turns off the alarm and reaches for my bags. “Where in the hell did that come from?” he asks, still chuckling. You can almost see the light bulb over his head when Tony catches the reference. He drops the bags, spinning around to take me in his arms. “Please tell me you don’t have some weird crush on Stephen Baldwin that you’re hoping I’ll fulfill.”
“First of all, it was William, not Stephen,” I inform him. Tony’s managed to pin my arms behind my back and has me pressed up against the wall. Feeling him getting back to the more forceful man I met that night on our way up I-95, I decide to forget about my worries and just enjoy the fact that the stars aligned so we didn’t have to say goodbye. “And second, you aresonot on the same level as the Baldwin boys.”
“I stand corrected,” he laughs. “But you’re also wrong because Scott Glen wasn’t doing it for money, he was trying to expose the corruption of a few city council members. It backfired on him horribly.” Tony’s mouth crashes against mine. The bags are forgotten somewhere in the lower level of the house as he backs me toward the stairs. I struggle to free myself from his embrace when my ankle hits the bottom stair, but Tony’s grip tightens, refusing to give me a moment of separation.
By the third stair, Tony realizes that we’ll get wherever he’s taking me much quicker if I’m not blindly backing up the carpeted staircase. At the landing, he pushes me against the banister, yanking at the hem of my shirt. “Fuck, it’s good to have you here,” he groans. I lift my arms, allowing him to pull the shirt over my head. “Want you in my bed, Dom.”
I take the last set of stairs two at a time. I have no clue which room is his, but the sooner I get to the second floor hall, the sooner I’ll find out. Tony presses his body against my back, making me aware of just how badly he wants this. We awkwardly make our way to the last door on the right, not bothering to turn on the lights.
Tony pushes me to the edge of the bed, instructing me to wait where I am. It doesn’t matter that I’ve tried to tell myself that I can’t allow him to have this kind of control over me, I’ve missed it. Ever since I came back from my little freak out to Rhode Island, he’s been sweet and loving and has done everything he could think of to make me feel special. The problem with that is there’s no denying how my body reacts when Tony issues his demands.
A few minutes later, I hear water running in the bathtub and curiosity gets the best of me. The way I see it, the worst he’ll do is spank me and that’s something he’s taught me to enjoy. As I carefully walk through the dark bedroom to see what he’s doing, I realize that part of the reason I’m falling in love with Tony is because he’s forcing me to step outside of my comfort zone. It’s something I’ve learned to do in other areas of my life, but sexually it’s been about getting the job done and getting out without the other guy trying to attach labels or strings to the situation.
I yelp when my toe meets the corner of Tony’s dresser. I reach out to steady myself, biting my lip because it hurts like a bitch. Tony rushes out of the bathroom, chuckling when he sees my discomfort. “If you’d stayed where I told you, that wouldn’t have happened.”
With my free hand, I show him that I think he’s number one in my book and gingerly put weight back on my foot. Yes, I’m probably being a big baby, but it wasn’t a light brush against the hardwood leg, I managed to catch it so the corner of my big toe met the corner of the dresser. “I’ll try to remember that next time,” I respond sarcastically.
Tony reaches for the buttons on my jeans, slowly stripping the fabric down my legs until he’s kneeling in front of me. He stares up at me with those light blue eyes and I’m a fucking goner. I don’t care if we never get beyond the basics as long as he keeps staring at me as if I’m the best thing to come into his life. Conceited? Yeah, a bit, but he’s the one giving me that look, so I’ll go with it for now.
He stands, dragging his body slowly against the length of my body. I’m so aware right now that I swear I feel every hair on his chest brush against my erection. His hands trace every line of my body as he nips along my neck to the sensitive hollow behind my ear. “Going to take care of you tonight,” he whispers.
One hand wraps around my cock as Tony kisses me. I fumble with the button on his jeans, jerking the fabric over his hips so I can feel him. Tony stops me when I try to lower myself so I can taste him. “Not yet,” he scolds.
Taking me by the hand, Tony leads me into the bathroom and my eyes are immediately drawn to a claw foot tub on the other side of the room. “Get in,” he instructs me and I do as I’m told, assuming he’ll be right behind me.
Instead, Tony shimmies his way between the tub and the wall, coaxing me back until my overheated skin meets the porcelain. His hands dip beneath the water, pulling back a trail of suds, massaging the soapy water into my shoulders. He starts kneading at the muscles there; I didn’t realize how tense I still was from the drive, or from allowing my mind to fill with doubt for what we have building here.
