Chapter Fifteen

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Leah

 

 

 

One day my friend Abigail back at school went on for close to an hour about a new guy she was seeing, and I listened while picturing hearts in her eyes like the emoji, because that’s what she’d reminded me of. She talked about how this guy made her skin buzz like she was on speed and she couldn’t focus on anything else and was pretty sure she was going to flunk her European history exam but she didn’t care, and the whole time I’d just looked at her like she was describing some foreign custom I didn’t understand. Like, I was happy for her, but I didn’t get it. At all. The guys I’d made out with had been, at best, sort of pleasant but nothing I’d given a lot of thought to afterward.

Now, I got it. Oh, shit, did I get it. Every nerve in my body was alive and buzzing. My lips were swollen and still tingling. I couldn’t catch my breath, and I was hot and throbbing between my legs. It had been over almost before I could catch up with what was happening, but now I was left with sensations that felt like they would never go away. Like they were just a part of me now. Trying to steady my breathing, I watched him curtly answer his phone and it looked like every day for him. Like nothing had happened. If he was feeling any of the flood of things I was feeling, he wasn’t showing it. And, yeah, that started to dampen my high, just a bit. What if it was all one-sided? I mean, thinking back, I’d practically thrown myself at him.

Okay, not practically. I had. I’d completely thrown myself at him. Oh, God.

Dom hung up his phone and stuck it back in his pocket. I met his eyes and tried for a cool smile that probably came out a panicked grimace.

“I gotta go,” he said quietly. “Davis is dying to lecture me right about now.”

“Okay.” I didn’t know what else to say. What did you say to someone after you’d just jumped all over them? He wasn’t moving toward the door, just looking at me with those dark eyes that always pinned me down and held me captive, and it felt like he expected me to say something. “That was…”

He took a step closer. “A bad idea,” he finished for me. “A huge potential mess.”

Flushing, I nodded. “Oh. Yeah. That’s…what I was going to say.”

His lips quirked as if he knew I was full of bullshit, and I couldn’t help when mine followed suit. He came closer, reached out to grab my belt loop and pulled me in the rest of the way, until I was flush up against him. A gasp escaped on a surprised exhale, and my hands came to rest on the thick muscles of his biceps. And then he slowly leaned in, maintaining eye contact the whole way, and it was a direct opposition of the way we came together the first time. His lips opened over mine with a slow, deliberate pull, moving as if he was memorizing the taste and feel of me. I was actually the one who tilted my head to deepen the kiss, taking his lead on the slow speed but introducing tongue, and he gave an approving groan as I stroked his tongue with my own, and the kiss turned wet and hot and carnal, in an instant.

“Fuck,” he breathed as he broke away, burying his face in my neck for about a second before standing back. “I’ve got to go.”

You could come back, I wanted to say as I watched him back away. After Davis is asleep. But some stupid sort of fear kept me from making the offer. Some fear of not knowing if I was prepared for everything that would entail. Some fear that he would say no.

“Don’t let Audrey in unless she has her key, alright? Call me if you need anything.”

I nodded and he stood there in my doorway for a second, but when I didn’t say anything else, he just said, “Good night,” and then he was gone. I don’t know how long I stood there staring at the empty space where he had been. I was so fucking confused. What did that mean? What would it be like tomorrow between us? Would he be back to my professional, aloof bodyguard? After what we’d just shared, that was something I didn’t think I could stand. And I couldn’t stand the state he’d left me in, my body practically vibrating with need. Yeah, I could get in bed and take care of it myself, but I wanted it to be with him. I knew that then with a certainty that had escaped me in the moment before he left.

I wanted it to be him.

 

 

Audrey didn’t get in until late, and I had to drag her out of bed at ten in the morning. But then she took a quick shower and popped an Adderall and was ready for Day 2. I declined to take one of her pills; I was on edge enough as it was.

Today I went a bit more daring with my wardrobe in just a bikini top and cutoff shorts, and I wore a loose fitted tee over it that I would take off as soon as we were in the park. When Dom and Davis came in through our connecting door, I met Dom’s eyes and gave a quick smile. He merely nodded at me, and I felt a little disappointed. Then I met Davis’ stare and frowned, because it seemed almost reproaching.

“Sooo, you guys are still going to be cool today, right?” Audrey asked, sipping her energy drink through a straw.

“I don’t know how to be anything else,” Davis replied with a straight face.

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go!”

It was cloudy with spots of rain as we drove to the park, but my weather app said it should stop by noon. My hair became a frizzy mess as soon as we stepped outside, so I twisted it into a messy bun. On the way to the park, Audrey wouldn’t stop talking about the previous night. “Things got crazy after you left. I went back to Mick and Sasha’s hotel room and, oh my God. Those two are freaky. They say they’re not together and they’ve been friends forever, but we all started fooling around and there were absolutely no boundaries. It was the raunchiest threesome I think I’ve ever had.”

My mind was spinning as I considered which question to ask first. “How many threesomes have you had?”

She laughed. “I don’t even know. A few. It’s best when it’s boy, boy, girl, but I’ll do boy, girl, girl if the other girl is hot enough.”

“Okay,” I said with a laugh, trying not to blush. Sometimes the things she said made me so uncomfortable. “Sounds like a good rule.”

“Is that what you got up to?” she asked. “After you guys went back to the room?”

It took me a few seconds to realize what she was implying, and then I nearly choked in disgust. “You mean me and Dom…and Davis?” Ew. Not that there was anything wrong with Davis, but I’d known him practically my whole life.

She almost cackled at that. “No, I know you’re not freaky like that. I just wanted to see what your reaction would be. It tells me everything I need to know.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just that you really didn’t like the idea of me bringing Davis into the equation. Dominic, though, you didn’t seem to mind.”

“What…no. No. It’s just that I’ve known Davis for way too long, he’s one of my dad’s employees, that would be like incest.”

She leveled a look at me. “Girl, I wasn’t born yesterday. You’re about dying for a piece of that. And I don’t mean Davis, just so we’re clear.”

I shook my head, glancing over to the window that was closed between us and the guys, paranoid that they could somehow hear us. “No. It’s not like that.” Of course it was like that, but I didn’t want to share that with her, or with anyone. For now, I loved that what had happened between us in my room was just between him and me. I didn’t know what it all meant or where it would go, but I wanted to keep it just for us.

The sun came out by noon, but the grounds were already pretty muddy by then. The lines for the public showers were out of control because everyone was dirty, but we skipped them and let the dirt happen. It was still early, and there was no point in showering when we’d just get dirty again. We stopped by some vendors and got our faces painted, picked up some frozen cocktails, browsed through a rack of handmade dresses, then headed over to the main stage to watch one of the bands. The crowd was rowdy and we didn’t attempt to make our way to the front, content to dance in back while sipping our drinks. It was around this time that I accidentally bumped into someone behind me, and I felt a hand on my back just before I went flying to the wet, very muddy ground. My breath escaped me in a surprised, “Oomph.” I tried to get back to my feet but then slipped in the mud and the whole situation became even worse. Meanwhile, Audrey stood above me, laughing.

“That girl pushed you!” She said it like she thought it was the funniest, most unbelievable thing ever. “You got pushed. I thought people were supposed to be nice here.”

Davis and Dom had both stepped in as soon as it happened to get the offender away from me, but Audrey’s laughter was contagious and I soon joined in, laying back and letting myself lose the battle.

Dom’s hand appeared in my line of vision, and I reached up to take it. I was pulled to my feet like I weighed nothing at all, so quickly I became disoriented for a second. He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Wow. You are filthy.”

It was true. Mud was all over me. I could feel it weighing my hair down and caking on my face. “Well, it was bound to happen.”

“Hold up. I need a picture of this.” Audrey aimed her phone at me and I gamely smiled, holding my arms up proudly. Secretly, I was starting to feel a bit gross, though. It may have been time to take advantage of the showers.

“I’m gonna go find a shower,” I told them, scraping mud off one arm.

Audrey’s eyes lit up. “Go use the VIP ones. You’ll thank me.”

“You’re not coming?”

“No, I really have to pee.” She pointed at some porta pots a short distance behind us, then turned to Davis. “Can you come with me?”

“Nice try, but no. You can stay here, or hold it until we all get to VIP.”

She groaned but came with us, shooting me a look that spoke volumes. She’d clearly been trying to separate me and Dom from Davis.

The VIP showers were set up under a large blue tent, and there were no lines. Girls’ showers were off to one side and guys’ to the other, but no one was really keeping watch and Dom tagged along behind me. The shower stall was bigger than it appeared from the outside, with a benched changing area in front and the shower in back, and it was relatively clean. Dominic tried to wait outside the stall, but I was feeling bold and tugged him in with me.

“You can’t watch me out there. Something could happen to me if I’m left alone.”

“You know, that really doesn’t say a whole lot about you if you can’t be trusted alone for five minutes.” But he came in without a fight, looking around as he locked the door behind him.

“Did you get in trouble last night?” I asked, pushing my shorts off and letting them fall to the ground. His eyes returned to me and became heated just like that, just from me stripping down to my bikini and still covered in mud.

“No. He actually didn’t say anything about it, just gave me a significant look. I think he was too tired to bother with it.”

“He gave me one of those looks this morning.” I approached the shower and saw there was a soap dispenser mounted to the wall. Perfect. VIP was worth it just for the bathrooms and showers alone. I turned on the water and let it wash over me for a second before I started trying to work the mud off my face and out of my hair. I was very much aware of Dom behind me, watching my every move. There was actually a thin cloth curtain I could use to section off the shower area, but I didn’t. I heard someone enter the stall next to mine and that made it feel even more forbidden that he was in here with me, that we were locked in this tight little space together. With my back to him, I untied the string of my bikini and slid it off to I could rinse the mud from it. Even over the sound of the spray I heard Dominic give a rough exhale.

“You did not just take that off.”

“There was mud in it. If nudity offends you so much, you might want to look away.” I paraphrased what he’d said to me that first night in the hotel room in LA, and smiled when I thought about how pissed off I’d been. It felt good, finally getting a bit of revenge for that night. And, well, I’m not going to lie. It felt good for other reasons, too. I mean, he could look away or even close the curtain if he really wanted to.

I heard him step closer and I turned to face him, still clutching my bikini top at my side. His eyes ran over me in a slow, heated perusal that sparked every nerve inside me and made my skin sizzle.

“Yeah. Not happening.” His eyes hit mine. “Fuck, you are…” He stopped there and it was like he was considering words in his head and dismissing each one. Like there were no words. His phone buzzed loudly from his pocket and he didn’t break eye contact even as he slowly pulled it out, looking away only to read the message. “Davis said Audrey hurt her ankle coming out of the bathroom. He’s taking her to first aid.”

A smile hit my face, which then morphed into a laugh. He gave me a funny look.

“What?”

“Nothing.” I tossed my top onto the little bench outside the shower space, then hooked my thumbs in my bottoms. My amazing new friend had bought us time, and I was going for it. When I went in, I went all in.

And when he didn’t look away or turn around, just crossed his arms and slightly clenched his jaw, I slid the bottoms down my legs and stepped out of them. His gaze ran over all of me and my heart pounded in my chest. I’d never stood naked in front of someone like this before while they boldly looked over every inch of my skin. I’d never wanted someone to see me like that until now.

I wanted Dominic to see me. I wanted to see him, too, but he was wearing a lot more clothes than I was and so that probably wasn’t happening. Besides, we could get booted out of the showers any minute if someone complained about him being in here.

This was so crazy. I didn’t care.

He came closer, right to the edge of the shower. “Turn around. Finish your shower.”

I followed his instruction, facing the spray and continuing to wash off, though I was mostly clean by that point. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt his fingers brush my sides at the waist. His fingers pinched in gently and then stopped.

“You want this?” he asked quietly.

“Yes.” There was no hesitation in my answer. I might as well have dropped to my knees and begged.

“Brace your hands on the wall.”

I did, and my teeth bit down into my lip as his fingers ran up my sides, over my ribs, until they were splayed over me with his entire palm laying flat. His hands continued their journey up until they reached my breasts, and I moaned and pushed into them with no thought behind the action. The warmth from his skin over me was shocking in how good it felt. My back arched out toward him, mindlessly seeking more contact but coming up empty. So my fingers clenched the wall of the shower and it was all I could do to hope the portable, feeble structure didn’t come tumbling down under the desperate force of my grip. Dom’s thumbs brushed my nipples and he spoke low, from such a short distance behind me.

“You’re so fucking evil. The things I want to do to you, and can’t…”

I attempted to twist my neck to look behind me. “Why can’t you?” My voice sounded breathless, like I was caught in a current, trying desperately to swim to shore.

“Reason number one? We’re in a public shower.”

I groaned and I couldn’t tell if it was in frustration or want.

“Then again…”

His fingers tugged my nipples and my eyes popped back open. “What?”

His hand left my right breast and drifted lower. “You going to be quiet?”

Wordlessly I nodded, as if to show him how quiet I could be. And then my mouth came open in a silent gasp when I felt his hand slide down to cup me between my legs, and need uncurled in my belly with a slow, twisting heat. His fingers dipped in slowly at first, like time was no issue, gliding up and feeling me out, learning me by touch. I moved with his hand and gave a sharp inhale when I felt his thumb graze my clit, giving just enough tease to make me burn, and then his fingers moved back down and one sank inside me. The way he did it, stroking with his finger and pressing his palm against me, combined to hit nerves I didn’t even know I had, and I knew then that it wasn’t going to take long. The pressure in my stomach was almost unbearable and my breaths became stilted like I couldn’t inhale oxygen, and somewhere I was aware that his breathing was also different, coming in short, raspy exhales like this was affecting him as much as it was me. But then my thoughts scattered as he reached down with his other hand to rub against me while his finger was still moving inside me and I came so hard it burst through my entire body in fast, violent waves. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t speak or make a sound. All I could do was ride it with a single minded greed I never knew I was capable of, and when it passed through it left me panting and completely stunned.

His fingers pulled from me slowly and I was still trying to get my thoughts together so I could remember how to speak. I felt him drop a kiss onto my shoulder just as his hands separated from me completely, and at that I turned in his arms and caught his mouth with my own. If I couldn’t put these feelings still coursing through me into words, I could show him. Like this. Pressing my naked and wet body against him and kissing him, hot and open and holding nothing back, tongue tangling against his and swallowing his hungry groan as he kissed me back.

He pressed into me further and I felt him hard against my belly. Without breaking the kiss I reached between our bodies and stroked him with my palm, and that was when he broke away with a rough exhale. Pushing my hand away, he said, “Fuck, no. We’ve got to get out of here.”

“But I want to.” I could speak, after all.

“And, believe me, I want you to. But not here. Come on, get dressed.”