Sweet Seduction Sacrifice (39 page)

Holy crap. I realised I'd turned my body towards him as he'd been saying all of this in a soft, even voice at my ear. He'd moved to accommodate my new position, no longer stroking the material beneath my breast, now he was stroking my arm instead. Skin directly on skin, and I got the impression he needed that.

"I had Nick look into her past, to see if she'd done anything like this before. I was about to cut her loose, file a restraining order, but I wanted to make sure she got the help she needed - if she needed it - first. What he found was not good." His face nestled into the side of mine, he inhaled as though he needed to ground himself in my scent to continue. "She'd suffered, Gen."

That was the first time he had ever shortened my name, it sounded nice on his lips, but also alien. I understood he could hardly call me "sweetheart" or "lovely" whilst telling me all of this, but that didn't stop me from missing it. I really was a pathetic case.

"She'd been abused, seriously abused, by her stepfather. In and out of foster care since then, mental health facilities as an adult. She'd hidden it all well. She functioned, on the surface, appropriately. Had a good job, made good money, nice flat and car. I had no idea." He sighed. "I tried to talk to her about it and she flipped out. Took a knife from the butcher's block in her kitchen, threatened to slit her wrists. I had her hospitalised after that. They put her on medication, it worked. Or seemed to. Then I came home to my house having been totally trashed. And I mean totally. Nothing was salvageable." He fell silent then, as though that was all he had to say about that, but he was only part way through the story I was sure.

So I decided to help, or at least my mouth did.

"That's why you're in this new house. Katie said you had to move in quickly, before you could have the interior altered to suit you."

His head twisted so he could look me in the eye, a hand came up and brushed my hair from my eyes, then trailed a delicate path down my cheek. Directly over the bruise Brett had given me, but so light it felt like a feather, soothing rather than aggravating the wound.

"Do I look like a white on white person to you, sweetheart?" You have no idea how good it was to hear him call me that. I smiled, a crooked smile and gave a minute shrug. How was I to know if he wasn't? And then I thought of his car museum downstairs, the red Ferrari, the green MG, the silver Aston Martin, the steel grey Jag. Hardly boring. Hardly a white on white kind of theme. Even his offices had more life than his home did.

"I'm relieved," I admitted softly as his hand cupped the back of my neck. We were on our sides facing each other now. I could feel his hot breath washing my cheeks. "I always thought white was for pure. You didn't come across as pure to me."

He raised his eyebrows at me, a look of mock shock on his face.

"And you, my lovely, are definitely a black-with-hot-pink kind of girl," he said, then leaned forward and kissed the tip of my nose.

"What does
that
mean?" I demanded, pulling back slightly. His arm over my waist stopped me with a gentle tug.

"Adventurous, wild, courageous, full of passion. That's you, Genevieve. You grasp life and you live it. You have dreams that mean more to you than most people care for their loved ones. You are the most beautiful soul I have ever met."

Oh my God. I blinked a couple of times and watched his lips curve in a smile.

"And you are crazy good in bed," he added with a slight wink.

I shook my head softly, realising how intimate we were lying, how wonderful it felt, despite the topic of before.

Talking of which. "What happened to her? To Caroline? That picture was today?" My lip found its way in between my teeth. Dominic watched the movement.

"Yes. She's been in a care facility and they've recently just let her out. Back into society. I've kept tabs on her, to make sure she was getting all the help she needed. For the past fortnight I've been trying to help her settle, but things have headed south again. Demanding phone calls. I'm afraid, sweetheart, I am not a particularly patient man. Her interruptions were contrived. She knew I was on a date with you when she phoned that time. It was then I realised she was regressing again. I lost my temper, but felt obliged to check on her. She mentioned she'd purchased some knives."

Oh wow. That was manipulative, especially if...

"She hadn't. It was a ploy and I walked into the trap again." Yeah, especially if it was a ploy. I let a long breath out.

"And the cuddling?" Because that's what it looked like to me.

"It wasn't a cuddle, but I will admit it was an embrace. And the
only
one she has received since she came out of the care facility. Elliott got lucky with his timing on that. Caroline had just agreed to go back into care, I was handing her off to her psych nurse at the facility this morning. The photo is right outside the building she'll be spending the next six months inside."

Could I believe it was that simple? Well, not exactly simple, he'd been harangued and stalked by an unstable woman who had suffered for most of her formative years. I looked into his eyes, I wanted to believe the honesty there. He was open, his eyes held mine without any hesitation, his embrace one of such tender care. I decided I could believe. All I had to do, was let myself do it.

"I'm still scared," I whispered, blinking at the admission that left my lips.

"I know," he said softly. "And I'm thinking you may find another reason to doubt me again in the future and I'll have to lay my heart on the floor at your feet to prove how much I love you. But I'll do it. Every single time you think to run. I'll put it all out there, sweetheart. Because I have no doubts. Not a single one." I stared at him stunned to my very core. He just said he loved me. One week after meeting me. He used the L-word and not just to admit he loved something I did or said, but
me
.

"You love me?" I asked and didn't even have the wherewithal to question my runaway mouth moment.

"Absolutely. And Genevieve?"

"Yeah?"

"You love me too, sweetheart. You just don't realise it yet."

No. He was wrong. I realised it two days in, I just chose to ignore it.

I leaned closer, watched his eyes widen, felt his arms pull me even further to him, and ran my tongue along his bottom lip. He groaned, an entirely too sexy sound, and parted his lips for further exploration. All my aches were momentarily forgotten as our tongues tangled and my body wrapped around his. His hands - one up into my hair, entwined in the strands, directing my head to exactly the right angle for him to deepen the kiss. The other down my back, cupping my butt cheek,
under
the hospital gown I wore - and his hips pressed firmly against mine.

It was delicious. It was heaven.

It was paradise, because I knew he loved me and I accepted it, even if it frightened me, even if I knew he was right and I'd probably doubt again at some future time, right at that second I believed. And it was paradise.

This was what he meant when he told me I was his paradise after we made love. He had no doubt about how he felt, about our future, and because of that, when we kissed, for him, I was paradise.

Right now he was mine. And I realised that nothing in the world could touch the feelings he evoked inside my heart. Not even my Sweet Seduction dream.

And didn't that just surprise the hell out of me.

For so long Sweet Seduction had held a special place in my heart, had protected me from the loneliness Brett had made me feel, had sealed away a part of me that he couldn't hurt. It was my haven, my dream, the one place I could run to and forget the rest of the world. But wrapped up in Dominic's arms, feeling his heat, the taste of his tongue on mine, the press of his lips against me, I knew he had discovered another piece of my heart. Something that would always be his and surpassed anything else I'd ever harboured love for in the past.

But unlike Brett, Dominic didn't feel jealous of Sweet Seduction. Katie had said he was in fact impressed with what I had done. So maybe, just maybe, both pieces of my heart could coexist together. Sweet Seduction and now Dominic Anscombe. One a dream come true, the other a dream-like man.

My man.

I think I moaned at that thought, or at his touch and entirely inappropriate for a hospital bed kiss, but whatever reason it broke the spell. Or at least made Dominic pull back with a groan and eyes full of lust.

"Christ," he murmured, his eyes flicking over my, no doubt flushed, face. "I want you so much right now."

I nodded, because clearly I was on board with that plan. He made that cough-which-could-have-been-a-laugh sound, brushed his lips over my temple, in amongst my hair and whispered, "There'll be time, sweetheart. I can take you home tomorrow, the nurse said. I had to promise to look after you. I told her she needn't worry, your wish was always my command."

I let a huff of breath out on a laugh at that.

"Since when, Mr Control Freak?"

"Oh, Genevieve," he said smiling, "you have no idea."

And then he kissed me again, deeply, wetly, with tongue and hands and teeth and lips and both of us emitting decidedly sexy moans.

Only to be rudely interrupted by a clearing of a throat and Nick saying, "Is this a bad time?" from over at the door.

Dominic pulled back lazily, giving my lips a gentle tug, and lifted his eyes over my body to his brother.

"You better have good news, Nick. Otherwise you can bloody well leave so I can get back to my task."

"And what task would that be, Dom?" Nick said, walking further into the room so I could see him. He placed a lovely bouquet of pink Gerberas on the end table of the bed. It was that which held my attention for a moment, so Dominic got to answer before my eyes had a chance to flick up to Nick's face.

"Keeping Genevieve's mind on me and off anything else."

"Really?" I said looking back up at Dominic.

"Really," he said dipping his head down to give me a quick kiss on the lips.

"Yeah, I bet that's the only reason," Nick offered, causing me to look back at him and that's when I noticed his cut lip and bruised eye.

"Oh my God!" I breathed. "What happened to you?" I had visions of Brett hitting Nick. Of all the possible terrible things he could have done. Then those quickly fused with images of Katie's unconscious body outside the Events Centre in Manukau. I started to chew on my bottom lip.

"It's all right, Gen," Nick said, noticing my declining mental state I was sure. "Nothing I didn't deserve or expect."

My head had tipped down with all the images - both real and imagined - flashing through my mind. At his words, it shot back up so I could look at him.

"What do you mean,
nothing you didn't deserve or expect?
" I had a bad feeling about this.

Which intensified when Dominic shifted at my side.

"Did you do this?" I demanded of Dominic. He just shrugged.

Just shrugged.

"Oh, hell no!" I declared and promptly pushed him unexpectedly off the side of the bed.

He made a strangled sound as he went over and then a rather nasty "oomph" as he hit the hard floor. And then he was on his feet, upright and staring down at me incredulously, within a fraction of a second. It was impressive to say the least. But Nick just thought it was hilarious and bent over at the middle to let his laughter out.

"Can it, Nick," Dominic demanded and then leaned in, one hand fisted on the top of the bed on either side of my - now sitting - frame. "Courageous," he announced. His mouth spread in a wide smile. "It's sexy as hell, sweetheart. But push me off a bed with you in it again, and I'll be tanning your beautiful rear."

I snorted, incredulously. He just cocked an eyebrow as if to say,
you don't believe me? Try it and see
. My snort died and I licked my lips holding his gaze. He wouldn't.

He leaned forward and brushed his lips against mine, nipping my bottom lip from between my teeth and releasing it.

"I would," he answered my thought with a smug smile.

"You are crazy," I declared in a mock huff, crossing my arms over my chest and flouncing my hair to emphasise said huff.

Nick chortled to our side.

"Brother, you are so screwed," he announced and for some reason that made Dominic smile even more.

"The meet is set up for later tonight," Nick was saying, but my mind had stalled on the fact he had arranged a get-together with one of Auckland's most prominent criminal leaders. "Pinning King down took longer than expected, but we're finally making headway. By this time tomorrow, you'll no longer feature on their radar."

"Are you sure you can pull it off?" Dominic asked from next to me, legs outstretched on the hospital bed down the side of mine, arm around my shoulders snuggling me comfortably into his chest.

"I've spent the past decade building a reputation in this city. King knows me, or at least knows of me, he respects how I work. He'll see it our way."

"How?" I asked, because quite frankly none of this made any sense at all. Nick was a private investigator who ran a firm that also provided security detail on request. He worked on the right side of the law, and this King character definitely worked on the other. How King could respect Nick and
see it our way
was beyond me. Two different worlds, or two opposing worlds more like it. How did this work?