CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
MELANIE
The apartment where I’d lived with James had a boxy shower that required serious acrobatic skills whenever I shaved my legs. Considering everything that was wrong with that marital misstep in the first place, a lack of bathing space should seem like a small thing. Yet whenever I thought about that confusing and ultimately lonely time in my life, I could still feel the painful strain in my hamstrings when I propped my foot up on the soap dish and scraped away at a hairy ankle with a dull razor.
Anyway, when I was newly single and apartment hunting, I figured that escaping a bad marriage ought to entitle a girl to a comfortable bathtub. And tonight as I eased my body into the hot water, that tub officially became my favorite inanimate object. I allowed my tense muscles to relax an inch at a time as I settled into the lavender-scented bubbles.
Dominic Esposito had been sincere and earnest when he apologized. He swore he’d never touch me again. Maybe he was afraid of a sexual harassment suit or something.
Maybe he just doesn’t want me.
Feeling frustrated in more ways than one, I dipped a fluffy, white washcloth in the perfumed water and then wrung it out slowly, watching the water dribble over my bare breasts. What did I expect Dominic to do, sweep me up in his absurdly well-defined arms and carry me out of Esposito’s restaurant like he was Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman?
Nope, I hadn’t expected that at all. The idea had never entered my mind. Not once.
“Mommy’s so bad at lying to herself,” I grumbled to the cats. Luke and Lando had crept through the open bathroom door and were crouched three feet away from the tub. They watched me warily, two pairs of ethereal, yellow eyes blinking in unison at their batshit crazy human.
On the drive home I had thought briefly of quitting. I pictured confronting Dominic first thing tomorrow and handing over my resignation letter with a flourish. He would be shocked. He would be stunned. His handsome jaw would drop, and his sinful, dark eyes would cloud with dismay. He would probably blurt out something like, “Dear god, what have I done?” or “Don’t leave me, Melanie. I can’t live without you!” as he groveled at my feet.
Or he might just smile with relief and hand me a box so I could pack up my office.
No, I wasn’t quitting. And it didn’t have anything to do with Dominic. I wasn’t quitting because I liked my job. I was good at it. The whole experience had been a welcome confidence boost after being fired from the resort. I believed in the Esposito brothers, and I was proud to be part of their team. Dominic had made it clear enough that he regretted touching me and wasn’t about to let it happen again. I could deal with that. I could be professional. The whole thing was just as much my fault as it was his. Hadn’t I moaned like a porn queen right there in the kitchen?
Fresh waves of lustful humiliation gripped me as I remembered it all. I groaned out loud and sank down farther into the bathwater. The heat felt so good, too good. My body betrayed me, nipples hardening, core throbbing as I conjured a vision of Dominic at his sexiest, when he was sweaty and serious and unshaven. My hand strayed over my belly and then lower, dipping two fingers inside.
Dingdong.
The ringing of the doorbell caught the cats’ attention. They strolled out of the bathroom, probably to go stare at the door. I didn’t know who could be out there at ten thirty at night, and I didn’t care. I was in the middle of something.
Dingdong.
“Go away!” I shouted, gritting my teeth and giving up on pleasuring myself until my unwanted visitor disappeared.
Dingdong.
“Son of a bitch,” I muttered. Chances were my needy neighbor, Mara, had suffered another dating disappointment and was standing out there with a bottle of wine, searching for someone to commiserate with her. Since I didn’t have any advice for the lovelorn, I stayed right where I was in the bathtub.
Then my phone buzzed over on the bathroom counter. What was this, some kind of damn conspiracy to keep me from enjoying myself for two minutes? It certainly seemed that way. All I wanted to do was get myself off and go to bed. That shouldn’t be too much to ask. But usually the only person who called me this late was my sister.
I sighed and grabbed a large turquoise towel, wrapped it around my body, and dried my hands before irritably picking up my phone.
There was a text. It wasn’t from Lucy.
Are you home?
I stared at the words sent by Dominic. Of course both he and Gio had my number for work-related reasons. Gio would often communicate via text if he had a quick question or some brief news to share, but Dominic never did. Until this moment I didn’t even know if he knew how to text. I hesitated and then answered.
Yes. I’m home.
The air left my chest and my heart stopped when he responded immediately.
Then come to the door and let me in.
My heart resumed beating. Furiously, like a hummingbird’s. It was a good thing the toilet seat was closed because I plopped down and stared at my phone in dumbfounded disbelief.
Dominic Esposito was the one ringing my doorbell.
Dominic Esposito was standing out there in the cool night air, waiting for me to let him in.
I yanked my orange terry cloth robe from the door hook. It was a nice robe, cozy and warm and utterly unsexy. I replaced the robe and selected the one that had been hanging beneath it. Short, light-pink, and satin, it wasn’t my favorite loungewear. I’d bought it on a whim last year at a post-Christmas Victoria’s Secret sale and kept it hanging on the hook ever since because there’d been no excuse to do anything more exciting with it.
Before I left the bathroom, I wiped the mirror clear of steam and scrutinized my reflection. The thick black hair I’d inherited from my father had the slightest hint of red and it was damp, so I hurriedly secured it with a clip, pulling a few wavy tendrils down to frame my face in what I hoped was semiexotic fashion. The blue eyes that peered back at me were a gift from my mother’s side of the family, the Irish side. Despite my olive complexion, I had always managed to blush easily—and I was blushing now. My phone buzzed again with an impatient message from Dominic.
You coming?
Now I was vaguely annoyed. Who did he think he was? What the hell did he want anyway?
I tossed my phone aside and took my sweet time walking to the door in my sexy robe. My hand was still on the knob of the closed door when I blurted out the question.
“What do you want?”
Then I flung the door open dramatically. Dominic stood there on the other side. He stared at me.
“What was that?” he asked.
“What was what?” I answered.
He cocked his head. “You said something before you opened the door.”
“Did I?” I stammered, standing on the threshold with my arms crossed, wondering why my IQ tended to dissolve at inconvenient times.
Dominic wasn’t even slightly discreet, looking me up and down as I stood there in my skimpy robe. Then he put a hand to the back of his neck and gave me a rather sheepish grin. “You’re probably wondering what I want, coming here so late.”
“No.”
He raised an eyebrow. “No?”
“No. I wasn’t wondering that. I wasn’t wondering anything. I wasn’t thinking about you at all, Dominic.”
He stared at me. Then he laughed. It was a nice sound. Often I’d thought that Dominic laughed too infrequently. “Melanie,” he said with a chuckle as he shook his head. “You are one of a kind.”
Why did he have to go and say something like that mere hours after he told me he wasn’t ever going to touch me again?
“Well?” he said.
“Well, what?”
“Are you going to let me in?” he asked gently. I wavered and took a step back so he could fit through the door.
Dominic entered my apartment, and immediately the place felt smaller. Whenever we were in the same room, I was always so aware of him; the width of his shoulders, the minty pine scent of his aftershave. As he casually stood in the middle of my living room, his presence seemed overpowering.
“Nice place you’ve got,” he said, looking around with the frank curiosity of a visitor to a foreign land.
I shut the door so the cats couldn’t escape. “How did you know where I live?”
He flashed one of his knowing, sexy smiles. “Rocket science.”
“You mean you raided my HR file?”
“Precisely.” He took a knee in front of the cats and made a friendly clicking noise in his throat as he held his right hand out. They went right to him, and he petted them affectionately. Lucky cats. They purred and rubbed against his legs when he stood up again. “What are their names?”
“That’s Luke on the left and Lando on the right,” I informed him.
Dominic raised an eyebrow. “Star Wars fan, huh?”
“Along with half the planet.”
“Then you’re in good company.”
The conversation stalled, and we just stared at each other. He looked as gruff and sexy as ever. Meanwhile, I was barefoot, and the robe clung to wet patches on my body. Even though the robe technically covered everything, I had never felt more naked than I did as those dark eyes slowly swept over me with obvious hunger.
I cleared my throat and pinched the belt of the robe a little tighter. “I could make coffee if you want. Or tea.”
He smiled briefly, and then his face grew serious again. “Thanks, but I don’t want coffee.”
“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.