Granting Wishes (3 page)

Dominic watched his mom fluttering about, cleaning up the remnants of the wedding even though there was staff that had been hired to do so. But that was how she was. After all this time, she wasn’t used to letting other people do for her. It was one of the many things he loved about her. He shrugged off his pin-striped jacket, hanging it over the rail of the stairway.

Might as well pitch in.

There wasn’t anything else to do other than remember how perfect his brother and new sister-in-law were for each other. They were lucky. They had traveled a long and bumpy road, but now they had their happily ever after.

Must be nice.

Picking up plates that had been carelessly left on coffee and end tables, Dom remembered the most beautiful woman that had been in attendance.

Chelsea.

For some reason, seeing her with her hair pulled up in a bundle of soft curls made him want to pull out the offending pins that held it tight, keeping his hands from being able to run through the silky tresses. It needed to be down and free.

Where the hell did that thought come from? Dom shook his head to clear it but it didn’t seem to help the train of thoughts that were taking over.

It was the pale yellow dress that did something t
o her emerald doe-shaped eyes; something that made his cock twitch, and his throat rumble with a growl. Maybe it had everything to do with the way the dress clung to each sweet curve of her body and showed off the spray of freckles that graced her shoulders. The shoulders that were completely bare to his hot gaze. It was fitting that the music playing was José James,
Trouble
. The funny thing was, Chelsea didn’t even know how much trouble she could be. It was endearing yet frustrating how oblivious she was to her own beauty and charm.

For instance, earlier when Chelsea and his twin Lilah were talking to that Jake guy he was looking at Chelsea like she was a piece of meat. A delicacy for sure, but it had made Dom mad enough to want to strangle him. At least the conversation hadn’t lasted long before Jake
’s little girl interrupted by throwing herself into Lilah’s arms. Jake looked pissed off that the mood had been broken, but Dom was glad for it. Chelsea no longer looked at Jake like she was about to swoon at his feet and Jake was no longer looking at Chelsea’s cleavage. It was a win-win situation.

His fists tightened around the wine glasses he was holding when Chelsea walked back in the room barefoot and smiling. She looked like a Greek goddess in her gauzy dress with its high waist. God, he’d wanted to punch Jake in his pretty cowboy face. He didn’t deserve someone sweet and pure like Chelsea. Even if she so obviously thought the cowboy was
attractive. Funny thing that timing can come back to bite you in the ass. You can know someone your entire life and not feel an intimate connection with them until another male comes sniffing around. It was bad enough he had to listen to his sister mooning over the cowboy, but having to hear, and see it from Chelsea was a kick to the ego. She had always flirted with Dom. They had a fun and playful friendship that was easy. He liked it that way. She was the only female he felt a connection with that he didn’t want to ruin by bedding her.

When you took a woman to bed, she expected things and got territorial. At least good girls like Chelsea. He wasn’t ready for that. That’s why he went for women that wanted what he did. A good time with a hot roll in the sheets
, then back to business as usual. He had enough stress with med school; he didn’t need a needy woman taking up all his time. Now, if she were the type to be friends with benefits? That would be another story. He’d jump on
that
with quickness. Hell yeah he would. But she was the marrying kind. Not the hot roll in the sheets and see you later kind. It was a damned shame. He had a feeling they would fit together just right. And the image of her fair, creamy, freckled skin pressed against his brown skin would be hot as hell.

“Dom, did you hear me?” Chelsea was waving her hand in front of his face when he finally realized she was speaking to him.

“What? No, I didn’t. What’s up, Princess?” He shifted the way he was standing and lowered his hands holding the wine glasses to cover his groin, hoping she wouldn’t see the tight fit of his suit pants over his arousal. Just thinking about her, skin on skin had him throbbing.
What the hell?

“I said your mom is sending me home and letting the staff finish up. I
wanted to tell you goodnight.” She looked so beautiful. Biting her pale pink bottom lip between pearly white perfect teeth in such a way it made him jealous. He wanted to be the one biting her lips.
Sucking them one by one until she moaned for him
. He wasn’t a gambling man, but he would place a bet that when she moaned, she was probably the sexiest woman on God’s green earth.

“Ah, goodnight,” he was at a loss for words. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He had words filling his mind, but they weren’t quite appropriate.

“Shoot me a text when you get home so I know you’re settled in for the night.” It wasn’t an odd request. They had always kept tabs on each other. But this time, this time saying it felt different.

“I will.” She arched up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, wrapping her arms around him hugging tight. “I had fun dancing earlier! My feet are killing me
, but it was worth it. We need to do that more often.”

He held the glasses in one hand, tightened his free arm around her and kissed her forehead. She smelled like strawberries and sweet champagne. It made him want to taste her even more.

On impulse, he set the glasses on an end table and took her hand in his. He danced around the room with her until she was laughing breathlessly. Giving her a final spin in the middle of the foyer, he then dipped her and grinned down at her flushed face. “I’d dance with you any day, beautiful girl. It would be my pleasure.”

This time he shocked even himself when he kissed her soft mouth. It wasn’t a long or deep kiss. It was brief
, but warm and sweet.

“Oh!” she gasped, looking surprised and blushing.

“What? A princess should always be kissed at the end of a dance.” He wondered if it sounded as lame to her as it did to him. It was a bad attempt at having a suave remark after stealing a kiss.

It was like a donkey
punch to the gut when her pink little tongue slid out and over her lips like she was sampling the taste of him. If she wanted a taste he’d be glad to give it to her. If she were any other girl he would have picked her up off her feet and kissed the sense right out of her and taken her to bed. But this was Chels. His twins best friend. His own childhood friend. She was like family and he couldn’t mess that up. Even his mom would kick his ass for that. So instead of offering to take her home and spending the night in her bed, he let her go and kissed her on the nose like he would his bratty sister.

“Now, where are your shoes? A princess can’t leave the ball without her shoes before midnight or we’d have to reenact the whole Prince Charming Cinderella story
, and who has time for that?”

That wa
s when she smiled up at him. Damn, she was even more beautiful when she smiled like that.

Like he was the only man on earth.

He couldn’t help but wonder if she smiled at Jake like that. Frankly, the thought of that pissed him off to no end. Again, he
had the intense feeling that he needed to kidney punch the cowboy for even existing.

“Yeah, we wouldn’t want that, now would we? My things are over there in the closet,” she gestured and walked over to retrieve
them, and slipped her heels back on.

He didn’t have the correct words to say so he slipped his hands in his pocket and followed her out to the porch. It was a balmy night and the moon was bright. It made her hair give off an almost angelic silver glow. Now that she was leaving he felt a strange ache. An impending loneliness settled over him and he wished she wasn’t leaving. Not that he would ask her to stay, because then she would get the wrong idea. He didn’t have time to be saddled with a relationship that would take
too much work and take away his freedom. He was too young to be tied down like his big brother was now. Wasn’t he?

“I’ll text you in a bit.”

“You okay to drive?” It was a lame attempt to get more time with her. He’d watched her all night and knew she only drank one glass of champagne and that had been hours ago.

“I’m good,” she clasped her glittery little purse in her hands and rocked back and forth on her heels as if she didn’t want to leave
, any more than he wanted her to.

If he were to reach out right now and touch her, he may never stop.

If he kissed her glossed lips and tasted her sweet mouth once, he’d be lost.

And even though he knew that, even though he acknowledged to himself those very things, it didn’t stop him from taking a step forward.

If she hadn’t looked up at him with her beautiful emerald eyes that sparkled in the moonlight he could have resisted.

At least that’s what he told himself when he lowered his head to hers and dug his fingertips into the silky
, soft hair at the nape of her neck.

And if only.

If only she hadn’t whispered his name in a breathy sigh when he pulled her tighter, rubbing his mouth down the elegant slope of her neck to taste the freckles that had been teasing him all night as they lay bare to his eyes on her creamy white shoulders.

Surely he could have walked back inside and not taken the step that would probably change their relationship forever.

But no, that wasn’t how it played out. Dom didn’t walk away. Chelsea whispered his name on the verge of a whimper that made him hard as a rock and hungry to hear more of the sweet sounds he knew she would produce.

It wasn’t his fault.

To be fair, it wasn’t hers either.

Blame it on the wedding that made single hearts ache for their other half.

Blame it on the way the moon was shining down on them basking them in a romantic glow.

Blame it on the attraction they’d fought to ignore their whole lives.

To hell with it, Dom thought as he tugged her head back far enough her back was bowed and she had to grip his arms to steady herself. Not that he would dare let her fall. No, not that at all. He wanted her helpless, gasping, hanging on to his strength, that way when he took her mouth this time he could consume her, devour her sweetness until she was weak as a newborn kitten in the palm of his hands.

That was exactly what he did.

The meeting of mouths was hot enough to make her whole body quiver and sweet enough he swore he heard angels singing. The taste of peach champagne was tart and succulent on her tongue, but her underlying flavor was purely her. Uniquely, Chelsea. White hot heat consumed him when her nails dug into his forearms and her teeth worried at his full bottom lip. If it weren’t for the sound of the screen door swinging open as the last of the guests walked outside, they may have went as far as two people in heat could go on a front porch in the moonlight. In fact, the thought of making love to her on the porch swing had its own sort of appeal. But as it were, they snapped apart and he rubbed his thumb over his mouth to remove the lip-gloss that was surely there.

Chelsea straightened her dress and promptly ran down the stairs and jumped in her car, taking off down the driveway like a bat out of hell.

“Damn it all to hell and back.”

Chap
ter 5

“I think if you were any better in the men department, you might kill me with how damn perfect you are.”

That made Lilah crack up laughing. If he only knew how little experience she really had with men, which was sadly close to none. When you grow up with a Navy SEAL for a father and two brothers built like LL Cool J, guys weren’t real brave when it came to asking her out on dates. It didn’t help matters much that she was picky. But she was raised to believe she deserved the best and she should accept nothing less, so it made for a sparse dating life. It usually ended up as a group of friends going out to dinner and dancing when time allowed.

When it came to romance, she lived vicariously through the books she read with dreamy heroes that made her swoon. Yet ever since she met Jake, she had put his blond haired, blue-eyed face on every romantic hero she read about. It was getting to the point that she thought of him first when she woke up, and he was the last thought on her mind as she drifted off to sleep at night. And here she was, cuddled side by side with him on a porch swing under the moonlight.

He smelled so good. Felt even better now that he was more relaxed against her. His hand dwarfed hers, and the way he was stroking her thumb with his held her mesmerized. Thank goodness she went with her gut and let him fix her a drink. It helped her relax enough to not be shaking like a scared girl turned mute. In fact, when he lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles, she scooted closer and lifted his arm so he had no choice but to drape it over her shoulders.

There, that was even better. Lilah rested her head on his shoulder as he rocked them in the swing. Jake’s hand curled to grip her shoulder and he held her a little tighter. It felt natural to curve her hand over his knee. It seemed to make him uneasy again though, because he shifted and made a growling sound that made her feel hot all over. His fingers moved to gently massage the nape of her neck and she knew exactly how he felt and why he growled. She was over-warm and fidgety with the overwhelming desire to rub her thighs together.

Once she looked up from his shoulder and caught the heated look in his eyes she knew he was going to kiss her again. God she wanted him too.

Thank heavens he did.

Jake held her in place by gripping her hair at the nape of her neck and crushing his mouth to hers. Somehow, she managed to put her glass on the porch rail, though when he tried to add his next to it they both got knocked to the ground below. It didn’t matter. His lips and tongue quenched her thirst in such a way her entire body felt like liquid heat.

He pulled her onto his lap and continued his drugging kisses. The hard ridge of him beneath her bottom was a tell-tale sign that he wanted her as bad as she wanted him. A rush of heat between her thighs had her wiggling on his lap, eliciting even hungrier growls from his throat. It was delicious. His hands roamed down her body, stopping to squeeze her hips and pull her tighter to him, thrusting up and rubbing his groin against her soft bottom again.

He pulled back with a pained look on his face.

“If we don’t stop this now, I’m not going to be able to, darlin’.”

Lilah bit her bottom lip, dragging her nails down the back of his neck. The last thing on her mind was stopping. As far as she was concerned, they were just getting started and she had no intention of stopping.

“I’m not ready to stop, Jake,” she whispered. Her voice was so husky with desire she barely recognized it as her own. But the look on his face was something akin to misery and white hot desire. She could tell he was at war in his mind. Leave it to Jake to try to be honorable with her when she really, really
, wanted him to make her his.

“Lilah, honey,” he hesitated.

“Shut up and kiss me, Jake.”

“Well hell.
”

She had enough time to breathe deep before he slammed his mouth to hers. Tongues met through open-mouthed, damp kisses and twined in a primal rush of lust and want. The thick muscles in his arms flexed and he scooped her up, cradling her close to his hard chest like a precious package. He carried her through the patio door and into the bedroom. It was everything she ever dreamed of. He was so gentle with her, so careful and so sexy she was head over heels in love. Or was it lust? How do you tell the difference?

Lilah shook off her wandering thoughts and focused on the man that was laying her down on the quilted blanket, looking at her like she was a delicacy he was about to devour. Jake was hovering over her with on knee on the bed.

So she opened her arms, beckoning him to join her. For a moment she worried he wasn’t going to, then he pulled his shirt over his head, tossing it to the floor and covered her body with his. He groaned her name when she slipped her arms around his waist and gripped his muscled behind, digging her nails in. She was on fire from h
is kisses yet starving for more, and more he gave. Each kiss was punctuated with a stroke of strong fingers through her hair and teasing touches down her sides.

He had a firm grip on her left hip when he
settled so he was laying half on her body with his knee nestled between her thighs. His erection was jutting against her and she wiggled her hips to get even closer to him but he pulled back and growled at her.

“Damn i
t, Lilah. I’m trying to go slow, but if you keep moving against me like that, this’ll be over before we get good and started!”

Lilah giggled with delight, licking the taste of him from her lips. Sweet cola and whiskey blended with his natural flavor in an intoxicating blend. The darkened look in his eyes as he stared down at her so intensively made her squirm. Even though she rubbed against his erection again, he didn’t growl this time, he rolled to his side bringing her with him. Much to her surprise, he smacked her bottom, then rubbed the sting away with his warm but now gentle palm.

“It’s not nice to laugh at the man you’ve been tormenting, darlin’. In fact, that’s just downright evil of you.”

She could’ve caught flies in her mouth the way it was hanging open in shock.

“Well, I…” she huffed, unable to even think of a witty reply.

He spanked her again, then kissed her deeply.

“What was that for? I didn’t even do anything to torment you that time!”

“The gleam in your eyes and your sexy lips that are plump from my kisses is one of the sweetest torments I’ve ever experienced, darlin’.”

How could she even feign playful anger over that? Lilah melted against him, kissing his chest, and smiling when he rumbled low in his throat. This was so addicting, finding out what made him growl, twitch, and grip her more firmly.

But he was getting impatient with her innocent exploration of his body. His hand was tugging her sundress over her hips and she was darting her tongue out to swipe over his nipple when he dug his fingers into the waist of her panties and yanked them from her body. Lilah yelped in surprise, but it didn’t deter him. His mouth was on hers again and he rolled with her, ending up with his hips nuzzled between hers. Moments later, her dress was gone and he was shedding his shorts, revealing his throbbing, enormous erection that she was sure was never going to fit inside of her.

She was about to panic until he leaned over her parted legs and licked her from the inside of her thigh, straight up to her damp center. At that point she no longer cared how big he was or if he’d split her in two. His lips had sealed around her cleft and his tongue was doing things she’d only ever read about. It didn’t take long before she was moaning and thrashing beneath him. It was sweet torture when he stopped and crawled up her body, licking and sucking her sensitive skin along the way.

So this is what it felt like to be devoured
, she thought to herself.

Jake’s mouth engulfed her breast when he lifted her thigh to wrap around his hip
. There wasn’t time to tell him. Beside the fact that if she did, he would stop, and she might die of embarrassment, and frustration. He reached between them and stroked his shaft through her silken lips and plunged inside of her. This time when she moaned it wasn’t from pleasure. It hurt, but only for a few moments, long enough for him to look at her in a whiskey slurred induced shock.

“Shit, Lilah,” he growled. The look on his face was pained, but his heavy sex was nestled fully in her tight sheath and it was starting to feel good to her. She wrapped her other leg around his waist and he seated even deeper inside of her.

“Damn it, stop moving, darlin’.”

“No, I want more. Give me more, Jake.”

“Ah hell…”

His mouth took hers as completely as he body was taking her now. They moved in unison, her following his lead until their pace was frantic and she was marking his back with her nails as she flew apart again. Her honeyed depths grasped at him, gripping him tight until he couldn’t hold back any longer.

And he thrust one last time, holding his hips tight to hers…and came inside of her.