Dark Redemption (23 page)

“Why?”
She breathed the word so softly, Kate wasn’t sure she’d even said it out loud.

“He
earned a new notch in his bedpost,” Dominic said flatly. “He did it as a
permanent reminder to me that he’d been with you. He intended to leave a mark
each time he touched you, so I could feel the sting of your betrayal both
physically as well as emotionally.” A sad, rueful smile ghosted across his
lips.  “Lucky for me, it was only once, I guess.”

“Oh,
Dominic,” Kate cried, covering her mouth with her hand as tears stung her eyes.
The pain was unbearable, crushing her beneath its agonizing weight. “I’m so
sorry. I didn’t know. If I could take it back, find another way to save you, I
would. I can’t--”

Dominic
pressed a finger to her lips, silencing her tearful apology.
“Stop.
No more apologies. What’s past is past. We’re going to heal from this and come
back stronger than ever. It’s time to move on, but before we do, there’s
something we need to consider.”

Kate
sniffed and swiped the tears from her cheeks. “Okay.”

“What
if you’re pregnant with his baby,
cara
?” Dominic asked, visibly weighted
down by the anguish caused by such a thought. He looked as though the thought
alone would kill him a thousand times over, more effectively than any silver
bullet ever could.  He didn’t move, didn’t even appear to breathe as he
waited for her response.

Kate
shook her head, thrilled she could finally deliver news he would want to hear.
A smile broke through the tears. “That’s not possible.”

Hope
and disbelief fought for dominance in his eyes, as though he didn’t dare
believe, but wanted to with every fiber of his being. “No?
How
so?”

Taking
Dominic’s hand, Kate placed it over her abdomen.
“Because I’m
already pregnant with yours.”

Dominic’s
dark, handsome countenance lit up with so much joy, he could’ve illuminated a
whole football stadium.
“Really,
cara
?”

Kate
bit her lip and nodded, a tiny smile spreading across her face. Dominic sank to
his knees at her feet, resting his forehead against her stomach.

“Our
baby,” he
whispered,
his deep voice hushed with awe
and raw with emotion. With tender reverence, he lifted the hem of her shirt to
kiss the abdomen that would grow and shelter their child for the next several
months.

Kate
stroked his hair, letting the tears stream down her cheeks with no effort to
stop them. These were happy tears, of which there’d been far too few of late.
“You’re not upset then?”

Dominic
rose to his feet and gathered her in his arms.
“Far from it.”

         
“I know it won’t be easy. A life on the run is no way to raise a child--”

         
“We’ll make do,” Dominic interrupted, covering her lips with his own and
halting all further conversation. 

Theses
kisses were tender and sweet, full of hope and promise. Kate wound her arms
around his neck and pressed into him as she begged for more. Dominic obliged
with a low growl of desire, deepening the kiss. Steam swirled around them as
Dominic dragged her shirt over her head and let it fall to the floor. Peppering
her face with kisses, Dominic unbuttoned the fly of her jeans and
shimmied
them down her hips.

Kate
hopped awkwardly on one leg as she stepped out of her pants and tossed them
into a haphazard pile with her discarded shirt. Dominic’s eyes grew dark and
ravenous as he drank in the sight of her nearly naked state like she was water
and he a man dying of dehydration in the desert. Unbuttoning his own jeans, he
dropped them and his boxers to the floor in one fluid movement. Even filthy and
wounded, he was the most beautiful man Kate had ever seen. With a knowing smile
that said he knew how much she liked what she saw, he kicked his clothes aside
and stepped behind her.

“Here,
let me help you with that,” he said, brushing his lips along her shoulder
blades as he unhooked her bra.

“Gee,
thanks. I don’t think I could’ve managed that one on my own,” Kate said dryly,
involuntarily shivering as he slowly slid the straps down her
arms.   

Dominic
grinned. “What can I say? I aim to please. Here, let me get those for you too.”

Delicious
shivers raced through her as his lips and tongue teased the skin of her neck
and his deft hands slid her panties down her thighs, letting them drop to the
floor. They stepped into the shower, shrouded in steam as the water sprayed down
on them. Squeezing light green soap into his hands, Dominic worked the soap
into
a lather
. The clean, earthy scent of mint and
eucalyptus filled the air, a scent Kate had learned to associate purely with
Dominic.

“I
don’t want anyone or anything to come between us ever again. I want to wash
away the memory of any man but me,” Dominic confessed in a low, husky whisper.
“Turn around.”

Kate
obeyed, offering him her back. She waited for what seemed like an eternity for
him to touch her, the spray of water and their breathing the only sounds. Her
every nerve ending fired to life when at last his big, soapy hands found her
bare skin.

With
gentle strength, he massaged and caressed every contour of her back and
buttocks. The soap had a menthol-like quality, leaving her skin tingly
everywhere he touched. Kate preened beneath his ministrations, aching for more.
His hands traced the lines of her waist and hips as he lathered her with
languorous strokes. Wrapping his arms around her from behind, Dominic cupped her
breasts and kneaded them in slick, soapy circles.

His
hands ventured downward, smoothing over the flat surface of her abdomen to the
junction of her thighs. Kate arched into his hand as he stroked and teased the
sensitive bud tucked within the folds of her femininity. Kate dropped her head
back to rest on his chest as she melted into him, surrendering to the magic of
his touch. Her body pulsed in time with the rhythm of her heart. His skilled
fingers teased and probed until her legs shook beneath her and she cried out in
ecstasy.

Her
body still pulsing with pleasure, Kate dragged Dominic’s mouth down to hers and
kissed him with all the passion and desire burning within her. Together they
stood beneath the spray, kissing and touching as the soap rinsed from Kate’s
body.

“Wait
a minute. I distinctly remember you being the one who needed a bath,” Kate
breathed between kisses.

Dominic
gave her his heart-stopping, grin. “But you’re so much more fun to wash,
cara
.”

“We’ll
see,” Kate said with a suggestive grin, squeezing soap into her hands. “Turn
around.”

Starting
with his broad shoulders, Kate traced the chiseled musculature of his back, her
soapy hands gliding over his scarred flesh.  With gentle patience, she scrubbed
away the layer of grime from his skin. Blood and filth gave way to frothy
bubbles as she lathered every inch of bronze skin. Following the taper of his
waist, Kate traced his lean hips and massaged the firm muscles of his buttocks.

Taking
his hand, Kate turned Dominic to face her. She worked the lather up his
powerfully muscled arms to the hard lines of his torso. Taking extra care with
his fresh wound, Kate scrubbed away the dried blood and caressed the rock wall
of his chest. Her every touch intended to heal and soothe the tortured man,
Kate tried to wash away the painful memories of the past along with the dungeon
grime.

As
Kate worked the soap into his thick, dark hair, Dominic closed his eyes and
leaned into the soothing movements of her hands. Tipping his head into the
spray, he rinsed the soap from his hair. Kate watched the rivulets of water run
down his face and body, the sight made her pulse flutter and her mouth dry.
Dominic stepped out from beneath the spray and opened his eyes to grin at Kate.
He shook his head like a dog, splattering her with water.

“Hey,”
Kate protested with a laugh. Working more soap into a rich, foamy lather, Kate
smirked at Dominic and gave him a bubble beard, complete with matching
mustache.

Dominic
gave a bark of laughter and used the froth to scrub his face, then rinsed. He
rubbed the growth of beard on his jaw ruefully. “I probably should shave this
before
we
—”

His
words cut off mid-sentence as Kate’s hands trailed down the sculpted ridges of
his abs to wrap around the length of his arousal. Kate sank to her knees at his
feet. With languorous strokes, she let the hard shaft of velvety skin glide
through her soap-slick hands. Feminine pride filled her as Dominic closed his
eyes and sucked in a sharp breath. Kate loved knowing she could make this big,
beautiful man wild with need.

Cradling
the weight of his testicles in her palm, she gently washed the textured skin of
his sac. How many times had Dominic endured the agony of their removal? Kate
shuddered at the thought. Although he surely bemoaned his regenerative
abilities on the second, third, and millionth round of castration, Kate thanked
every star in the sky for them now.  She intended to show him just how
grateful she was that he’d not been left unmanned. 

Taking
a brief detour farther south, her touch followed the strong lines of Dominic’s
legs. She washed away the grime from every inch, from the tops of his
powerfully muscled thighs to the bottoms of his big, masculine feet. Dominic
twitched and choked on a laugh as she washed between his toes. Kate suppressed
a giggle. Remembering her big, bad werewolf warrior was ticklish.  Taking
full advantage of this weakness, Kate teased the sensitive skin with her
fingers until he laughed out loud.

“Enough,
I surrender,” he protested, his eyes sparkling with mirth.

Kate
grinned up at him. “Does that mean I get to take you as my prisoner?”

The
soft warmth of Dominic’s smile could’ve melted polar icecaps. “You already did,
a long time ago.”

“Well,
I intend to take full advantage of your compromised position then,” Kate said
with a suggestive smile, returning her focus to his groin.

“By
all means,” he murmured as her hands closed around the length of him.

 With
slow, smooth strokes she caressed and pleasured him. Brushing soft, glancing
kisses along the sculpted ridges of his abdomen, Kate followed the vee of
muscle to the jut of his straining arousal. Touching her tongue to the velvety
tip, Kate teased and tasted the soft skin of his head in languorous swirls.
Dominic released a low groan as she took him fully into her mouth. Kate
couldn’t help but smile against his tender flesh, filled with satisfaction as
he urged her onward with guttural sounds of approval.

Dominic
tangled his hands in her hair. With a little growl of pleasure, Kate sucked as
much of his length into her mouth as she could,
stroking
the base of his shaft with her hands in time with the movement of her mouth.
Slowly, she let the hard length of him slide in and out of the slick suction of
her mouth, relishing the sweet, salty taste of him as he slid across her
tongue.

“I
need to be inside you,
cara
,” Dominic moaned.

Kate
smiled up at him, giving his shaft a playful lick. “You were inside me.”

Dominic
shook his head and dragged her to her feet. “Not like that. I want to make love
to you.”

Dominic
lifted her by the waist and slowly lowered her on the length of his arousal,
embedding himself deep within her. Kate wrapped her legs around his waist,
drawing him deeper as she draped her arms around his neck. With slow, measured
thrusts, Dominic moved his hips against hers, plunging forward, and then
withdrawing slowly in smooth succession. Kate tossed her head back in ecstasy
as he cradled her hips, drawing her up and down the length of his shaft.
Dominic buried his head in her neck, kissing and nipping at the skin there as
he pleasured her to the depths of her core.

         
Inhaling the fresh scent of Dominic and soap.
Breathing the thick steamy air.
Basking in
the warm cascade of water.
The feel of Dominic’s hard body
next to her, inside her.
The taste of him on her
tongue.
The sound of their frantic lovemaking, mixed with the spattering
of water on tile. The sight of
him losing
himself
inside her. Everything about that moment overwhelmed Kate’s senses, sending her
catapulting through wave after wave of pleasure.

         
Dominic worked her body as though he would never get enough, driving harder and
deeper as she reached orgasm after shattering orgasm. Kate trembled against
him, aching for more, desperate for every inch, every breath. She wanted all of
him. Dominic thrust and kissed and teased, until Kate thought she would lose
her mind from the pleasure. With a low groan, Dominic shuddered against her,
his shaft pulsing deep within her as he found his own completion.

         
Exhausted and sated, Kate rested her head against his shoulder. She could
definitely give up sleep, if
that
was the result. But now, she was
tired. Mind-blowing sex had that affect on her. Well, that and it was still day
time and she should’ve been asleep a long time ago.