Dominion (Alpha Domain #1) (8 page)

“
S
he up yet
?” I asked as I entered the kitchen and saw Allen sulking at the table over a cup of coffee.

He shook his head. “Not yet. She was up pretty late last night.”

I couldn’t stop the short burst of laughter that came out. “
Damn
. You got her already? You
dog
!”

Allen looked up from his coffee and shot me an unamused glare. “I didn’t
get
her. I heard her moving around a lot last night. Hanging up her clothes, I guess.”

That was understandable. After everything that happened yesterday, I would’ve been surprised if she had been able to fall right to sleep.

“She was probably just wired. Adrenaline rush, you know how it is.”

“Yeah but... I don’t know. I just wished she wouldn’t have acted like she was going to sleep. I would’ve stayed with her and—”

“And what?” I asked with a scoff. “Made love to her until she fell asleep? You know as well as I do how well that would’ve gone over.”

He snorted. “Like a lead balloon.”

“Exactly.”

Before either of us could say anything else, the sound of Amber’s footsteps moving down the creaky stairs hit our ears. Allen straightened in his chair and looked to the doorway, silently waiting for her to appear.

When she finally did, I glanced over and had to do a double-take. And I was man enough to admit that my jaw dropped as I scanned her body from head to toe.

“What in the—”

“Fuck? That’s
exactly
what I was thinking last night. What the hell, Allen?” Amber demanded angrily as she gestured down to the skintight dress she was donning. “You bought me nothing but short skirts and mini-dresses!”

My eyes widened and I turned to Allen. “You did
what
?” I asked disbelievingly, just barely resisting the urge to high-five him in front of the increasingly irate Amber.

Even though she was clearly pissed off with him, I really wanted to commend what an excellent choice it had been on his part. Not that she hadn’t been hot in her jeans and sweater, but to have all her goods on display like this was...

Well, there was a stiffening in my pants that was becoming rather difficult to ignore. I shifted to aim it towards the counter, hoping neither of them would notice how my cock was beginning to strain against my jeans.

“I told you that you don’t have to wear anything you don’t like, “ Allen said evenly and I wanted to pat the man on the back for sticking to his guns.

But I kind of wanted to chuckle at the same time. He was just
begging
for a bitch-slap.

Amber crossed her arms over her chest which only served to push up her already pronounced tits. I bit back a groan at the sight, wondering how in the hell she didn’t realize what she was doing to me with such a simple movement.

Make that
us
, I thought as I noticed Allen squirming around in his chair, obviously suffering from the same problem that I was.

“You couldn’t have at least bought me some underwear to wear with these?” Amber ground out and I nearly lost it.

“I did. They’re in the bag that—”

“Those aren’t underwear! They’re tiny scraps of fabric that cover
nothing!
” she shouted.

Fuck, the mental image alone was going to be the death of me. I turned fully away and tried to reign in my hormones, on the verge of just saying ‘
fuck it
’ and outright seducing her right now, whether Allen was on board with it or not.

Besides, Allen was obviously playing his own game here, which in my book meant that I was free to play one as well.

“Sorry to interrupt this little feud, but what do you want to do today, Amber?” I asked, adding a touch of sweetness to my tone before giving her a flirty smile. “I’ll be your jailor while Allen takes care of some business.”

She looked bashful for a moment and I saw a slight blush stain her cheeks, the image somehow making me want her even more. From the corner of my eye, I watched as all the color drained from Allen’s face as I staked my claim on his girl for the day.

“Don’t you need sleep? I don’t know how late you were out.”

I shook my head while I did a full-body stretch, lazily smiling when I saw her eyes briefly dash down to look at the bulge in my jeans.

“Nah. I had a nap when I got in, I’m good for the rest of the day at least. Probably for the night as well,” I added with a wink.

Allen stood up abruptly, his chair scraping loudly against the floor as he pushed it back. “I need to get ready for work. John, a word?”

I coughed a little and shook my head, trying to dislodge myself from where Allen had tightly gripped my forearm and started to drag me behind him.

“Can’t this wait?”

“No, it can’t,” Allen ground out as he pulled me out of the kitchen.

He waited until he heard the sound of Amber mulling around the kitchen looking for breakfast before he turned to me and spoke.

“You
will not
touch her. Are we clear?”

I rolled my eyes. “What happened to our agreement?”

“The
agreement
,” he ground out between his clenched teeth, “Still stands. But if we’re doing this— we’re starting it together. And
I’m
having her first.”

Even though the thought of spending an entire day with her in that tight little dress made me so hard I was ready to burst— I knew that Allen would murder me if I made a move without him present.

Of course, that didn’t mean that I couldn’t spend the day pushing her in the direction I needed her to go in hopes of making something happen tonight.

“I won’t touch her, I promise.”

He looked mildly satisfied by my answer and nodded sharply. “Good. Thank you.”

“No problem. I’ll see you later on, yeah?”

“Yeah, probably around six or so. I’ve got a lot of shit to get done.”

“Good luck.”

Allen snorted as he walked away.

“I don’t need luck.”

A
fter I finished arming
myself with a few emergency weapons and getting dressed for the day, I took the stairs down two at a time just to poke my head in the kitchen and make damn sure that John was sticking to his promise of keeping his hands off Amber for the day.

The two were sitting at the table chatting amicably over two cups of coffee and the sight made my heart clench. Even though I had forbidden him from touching her, I could already foresee him finding other ways to win her favor just by speaking to her.

Charming bastard.

Why couldn’t I have that? Why couldn’t Amber and I just sit together and talk like a couple of normal adults? It was another painful reminder that my past would always come back to bite me in the ass.

Then again, I never expected to have her back in my life at all.

So— glass half full.

“I’m off. See you two later,” I called from the doorway.

“Later, man,” John called back with a wave before turning his attention back to Amber, who was pointedly ignoring me.

I swallowed the sting of rejection and stalked out of the house, knowing that her frosty behavior was only because of the whole clothing fiasco.

Truth was— it really hadn’t been my intention to go out and buy slutty clothes just to see her walking around my house like that. Not at all. I had originally intended to pick out a few totally neutral items— like jeans— until a shop girl asked me what Amber’s inseam was.

I had no fucking idea, so I changed my tactic to dresses and skirts. I figured since I didn’t need measurements for those, I’d surely have better luck.

Or at least that’s what I thought right up until I stepped into a store for younger women and spotted all the mini-skirts and strapless dresses and started mentally dressing my sexy-as-sin stepsister in every article of clothing I laid eyes on.

And that was where the trouble began.

Because from that moment on, I went totally nuts. It started with the skirts and low-cut tops, then the dresses, then the nighties, then finally the frilly underwear that I wanted to tear off with my teeth.

Ultimately, I had set myself up for a week of blue balls unless John could somehow sway Amber into this twisted ménage he had proposed. Because I wasn’t enough of an idiot to think she’d come to me on her own, or to me by myself. It was going to be all three of us or nothing.

I tried to summon back my anger at the thought of sharing the woman I loved with another man, but was surprised when I realized I no longer could. At all. It was just... gone.

Maybe it was the direness I felt over my chances of scoring her alone or maybe it just all came down to the fact that John and I already shared far more than most people did any ways.

Or perhaps I’m going insane.

That sounded like a winner. Either way, I prayed that John would make some headway with Amber today. He promised not to touch her, but I knew him well enough to know that his promise didn’t mean he wouldn’t be working her in other ways.

The thought raised my hackles and I gripped the steering wheel so tightly, my knuckles turned white. Not at the thought of Amber and John together, but at the thought of them together
without me
.

Before this is all over, I’m going to go batshit crazy. Assuming I’m not already there.

“
S
o
…”

“So….”

We both trailed off and just stared at each other for a painfully long moment before John finally broke out in a grin. The air was still awkward, but it lightened the mood enough to make me feel more comfortable.

John and I had chatted back and forth for at least an hour before we ran out of totally neutral topics to discuss. We didn’t really know each other, so it was hard to continue the conversation after a certain point without the risk of offending one another or diving into a conversation we really shouldn’t be having in the first place.

I thought about asking him about his taste in movies or music, but quickly shook the idea from my head. It was such a cliché thing to ask and judging by his appearance, I doubted we had similar tastes.

Really, the only thing that we had that bonded us together was—

“So how’s Allen been?” I asked with faux-casualness as I clutched my coffee cup between my hands. “And don’t bullshit me, please. I think I deserve the truth.”

John leaned back in his chair and studied me closely. I felt an uncontrollable blush rise to my cheeks and I cleared my throat, unsure of why his stare was so intense.

Then, another grin spread across his devilishly handsome features.

“How about a trade?”

“A trade?” I questioned as my eyebrows drew together with confusion. “What kind of trade?”

“A truth for a truth. I’ll promise to answer your question with total honesty, if you’ll offer me the same in return.”

“What’s the question?”

John pinned me down with a smug stare. “Does it matter? How badly do you want an answer to your question?”

The idea of offering him a totally honest answer to a question I didn’t know made something in my gut twist. I wasn’t entirely fond of his proposition, but I wondered if I could make it a little more enticing.

“Counter-offer.”

His eyebrows raised with surprise. “Go on.”

“I’ll agree to the trade—truth for a truth—if you agree to go back and forth with me.”

This time, it was John who drew his brows together and a cute, puzzled frown appeared on his chiseled features. “You mean multiple questions? Rapid fire style?”

I nodded solemnly. “Unless it’s a complicated answer, then yes. Rapid fire.”

John tilted his head to the side and considered it. “So we’re basically playing truth or truth.”

“Precisely!”

“Well, that sounds good to me,” he said with an absentminded nod as he crossed his arms over his chest. “But we’ll need to add some stakes. Can’t have you refusing to answer something without consequences.”

“Me?” I asked incredulously. “I would think that out of the two of us, you have far more to hide than I do.”

John lifted a single eyebrow as he said, “Perhaps, but who says I’m going to ask questions about your secrets?”

There was something about the way he said it that made a bolt of desire shoot through me and I knew, without a doubt, that the majority of his questions were going to be sexual in nature.

I wasn’t a prude—far from it actually. But I didn’t exactly go around sleeping with a ton of men nor did I openly share my sexual likes and dislikes. At least not without the aid of good vodka.

But the way his tongue curled behind his front teeth as he watched me with a smug sense of satisfaction along with the reminder that I had a chance to get honest answers from him as well was enough to embolden me.

“Fine. What are the stakes?”

He tapped his chin thoughtfully a few times, pursing his lips together like he was considering the possibilities even though I damn well knew he already had something in mind.

“How about we make it a strip game? For every question we don’t answer, we lose an article of clothing.”

I stared blankly at him for a moment before I dryly reminded, “In case you haven’t noticed, I only have one article of clothing on.”

“Exactly.”

My bottom lip stuck out in a pout—his stakes were hardly fair—and I saw his eyes track the movement before he slowly licked his own lips. I drew my plump lower lip between my teeth and gently bit down, watching with fascination as his eyes darkened.

“No. If my entire outfit counts as one article of clothing, so does yours. So if either of us refuse a question—the penalty is getting naked,” I offered, knowing that I was likely going to regret it but unable to stop myself.

I would either get answers to my burning questions or I’d get to see him nude. They both seemed like a win in my book.

Then again, the same was true in reverse. If I refused, I had to get naked for him. I swallowed hard when he nodded in agreement.