OLIVIA GLANCED AT the clock as they drove, it was almost two in the afternoon. She hadn’t heard from Piper yet. At a stoplight she dialed her cell. Poor Piper probably had a hangover from hell.
“Hello.” A sleepy voice came across the car speakers.
“Piper, honey, are you okay?” Olivia asked and shot a concerned look to Dominic. “Are you still in bed?”
“My head is killing me.” Piper groaned. “Sorry I guess I just need to sleep it off. What time do you need to check out?” Olivia pictured her in the bed with her silk PJs and sleeping mask still on. Her head wrapped in a nest of drool and matted hair.
“It’s two in the afternoon, sweetie. I got called to a case. I’m sorry I had to leave. When is your flight?” Olivia suddenly felt like the worst friend in history. Piper flew all this way to spend time with her.
“Not till tomorrow. Thank goodness.” Piper yawned and whined as she stretched. “What are you doing for dinner.”
“Whatever you would like, love,” Olivia answered. She could finish her work for the day and take Piper out for one last really nice dinner before she had to head out.
“This is your town. Surprise me,” Piper answered sounding groggy again. She must have laid back down.
“Okay, get your beauty sleep. I’ll pick you up at seven.” Olivia shook her head as Piper mumbled bye and they hung up. She turned to Dominic who was smiling thoughtfully at her.
“You’re a good friend.” He noted.
“Not really,” Olivia answered and stared out the window. “I wasn’t for a really long time . . . too long.” She pinched her lips together. Olivia looked up and caught a glimpse of Grace judging her in the rearview mirror and looked away. “We’re here.”
They pulled through the gate. Olivia was thankful it was just a key code gate and not an actual guard to see the state of her passenger. They pulled into Olivia’s reserved space behind her first-floor apartment. She had lucked into this place. The upgraded one bedroom apartment had a spacious study that allowed her to set up an office at home as well. Olivia was able to work on cases into the wee hours if she wanted to. Even ten years later working was still preferable to sleeping.
“Nice place,” Dominic observed as they got out and walked up the manicured walkway. He carried the shopping tote with their dirty clothes. As Olivia unlocked the door a couple of guys that lived in the next building jogged by.
“Olivia. Love. Who is your friend?” Derrick asked with all the sass of a true drag queen. Olivia bit her lip to stifle a laugh.
“Hey, Derrick! Hey, Michael! This is Dominic. He’s a model and I think he’s single,” Olivia called back and giggled devilishly as she opened the door.
“You didn’t,” Dominic said quietly and smiled and waved at the two men. “Oh, you are going to pay for that when we get inside.” He scooped her up and carried her in the apartment shutting the door behind him.
“We have to do dinner sometime!” Michael called as the door shut.
“Was that really necessary?” he asked setting her down trapping her against the door.
“What?” she asked playfully. “I’m not the one in the Barbie shorts. You look like a seventies disco queen.”
“Not for long,” he answered and in one motion had the shirt off over his head and went for the shorts.
“Stop! My windows are open!” Olivia commanded as she ran for the shades. “Go to the bathroom and get your shower!”
“Oh no, darling, you wanted to put me on display. Just a piece of meat you could discard remember.” He slid the shorts off his hips and let them slide to the floor.
Olivia stood open mouthed at the stunning man before her. Fuck he was beautiful. The room became unbearably warm. “The . . . the bathroom . . . is this way.” She struggled to say and led him through the living room around to the bathroom. He winked at her as he went in but did not shut the door. Olivia looked up at the ceiling and prayed for strength. She turned on her heels and put their clothes in the washer. She heard the water running. She stood there for what felt like an eternity but could not walk away. The only thing she wanted was to walk in that bathroom.
“Olivia,” he called from the steamy room. “Are you just going to stand there or are you going to give in to the temptation?”
“I’m not tempted by anything, including you,” Olivia lied and gripped the molding on the edge of the bathroom door. She should just walk away. This was a dangerous game. One she was sure to lose. She could see his silhouette through the curtain, steaming water cascading over every rock hard muscle. Fuck. She closed her eyes and stepped into the room. “This will not end well.”
She took a step forward and then hesitated. Last night she didn’t know who he was. That could be forgiven. But now she had no excuses. If she crossed this line there was no going back. She was flirting with fire and there was no doubt she was going to get burned. She turned to run and a soapy but chiseled arm reached out of the shower and caught her wrist. He pulled her close water dripped down her arm and onto her chest.
“Not so fast.” He pulled back the curtain exposing his full glory. Olivia took a deep breath and closed her eyes but didn’t try to pull away. The steam enveloped her. “Let yourself go, Olivia. Don’t fight it. Give in to me.”
She opened her eyes and looked directly into his. The hunger in his wild green eyes devoured any restraint she had left. “You’re going to be the death of me.” She breathed and stepped into the tiled double shower fully clothed.
He spun her around putting her back up against the wall. “You have no idea,” he growled. The hot water poured over her drenching every scrap of fabric. His hands cupped her neck and chin and tilted her mouth to his. He closed in on her with the fury of a desperate man. “I’ve waited all day to taste you again.” He separated her feet with his and pushed her legs apart.
His kiss stole her breath and transported her into a state of bliss she couldn’t explain. There was a sort of sweet sensual familiarity to his touch like the intimacy of an old lover who knows just what to do. He laced his fingers in hers and raised her hands above her head and pinned them there.
“Do not move,” he commanded. “You are one dirty girl, Olivia Hastings.” He grabbed her body wash and squirted it on her, clothes and all. “I’m going to wash away everything before me. I want to be the first man to kiss you, to hold you. You are mine. You were always mine.”
The strong tropical smell of flowers and coconut filled the shower and rose on the steam. He massaged her into a lather of sultry bubbles; her neck, her breasts, her abdomen and tilted the water to rinse away her past. Olivia was only too willing to comply. She closed her eyes and angled her face up into the spray of the water. He was on her again kissing delicately and then hungrily at the buffet of her mouth. She let herself go in his control and just enjoyed every second of his lips on her wanton body. He kissed down her neck and chest until he reached the tank top.
“This has to go,” he said unforgivingly and ripped it off over her head. “You are here again and I am drunk on the perfection of your magnificent body. I will tolerate nothing between us.”
Olivia gasped at the sudden exposure and then the hot sensation of his mouth on her breast. Her breathing heaved with pleasure. Every part of her body reacted to the thrill of his tongue and the pressure of his mouth.
He raked his fingers down her abdomen to the waist of her jeans and dropped to his knees before her. “I worship every exquisite move you make. Olivia, when you walk in a room you exude elegance like a fine perfume,” he said quietly in that clear sultry voice that had the power to reach into your very soul. He unbuttoned her jeans slowly and let the zipper down.
Olivia braced herself against the shower wall. The sensuality of the moment had her clit throbbing and burning to be touched. Her body ached for him and he was only inches away.
“But now . . .” His voice took on the low growl of an evil Norse god. “I will possess you, taste you, claim you as mine . . . Do you understand?” The last words he whispered but they echoed in the shower and sent an uncontrollable ripple of pleasure exploding through her. She was desperate for him to take her. The need was so intense it was painful. He pulled her jeans free and took her panties between his teeth. He laughed wickedly and his hot breath invigorated her sex.
“Fuck, Dominic! I can’t take it anymore. I need you to fuck me. Goddamn!” She pleaded, and unable to restrain and keep her hands back another second Olivia wrapped her arms around his neck digging her nails into the back of his head.
He removed her panties and buried his face between her legs. Olivia let out a moan that shook the mirror. The pure fucking bliss tore through her.
“Not yet, my love.” He picked her up and pinned against the shower wall sinking fully into her as they collapsed into the tile. He groaned like a lion claiming his prize. Olivia almost screamed the sensation was unfucking believable. He filled and stretched her so that her body felt it would willingly rip apart and be remade again. She held tight to him as he moved in and out finding the perfect rhythm of the unspoken music that played between them each time they met.
“You . . . are . . . maddening . . . and . . . I . . . love . . . it.” He grunted as he thrust into her. His fingers held tight to the flesh of her ass pulling her deeper with each collision of their wet bodies. Olivia felt the delicious warm tingle building from her toes and moving up her legs like an erotic wave swelling as it reached her sex in an explosion that could shake Chernobyl. Olivia began to spasm around him and she felt him tense, gripping her with the power to move mountains. In one final motion he let go and crashed into her with all that he was as a man. The sound that erupted from his lips tore fucking space. They collapsed like sand onto the shower floor, sated in a timeless embrace.