The Shy Dominant (12 page)

His mouth was still a grim line, but his eyes were so alive, eating her up.

“And tonight… I never wanted to go to a club like that. I have no interest in Taz, or those other two guys, whatever their names were.”

His lips curled at this.

“But you made the difference. Everything I experienced was because you got me so hot, so out of myself that I could…be free somehow.”

“Oh, you were free, all right.”

“Can we do it again sometime?” she asked wistfully.

Fred looked both proud and like he wanted to bang his head against the wall. The line between her heart and her actions was reconnecting. He’d set her free, and now he anchored her, brought her back to him because he needed her. “I really want you inside me now,” she said.

“Dharma.” He laughed, a broken sound, a sound of exasperation and surrender. “You could have been hurt.”

“No.” She squeezed his arm. “Never with you. We just didn’t know how high you could take me.”

He squeezed his eyes shut.

“Lover,” she whispered, kissing his chin. “BMF.”

That got his eyes open. “Huh?”

“Best male friend.”

“Of course.”

She kissed his ear then whispered directly into it. “Master.”

He shuddered and she knew she had him.

“I’m wet. I can still feel that I’m wet.”

“You came so hard, so long… I thought it would kill me. I nearly came, watching you,” he groaned. “And I’m too old for that—”

“Excuse me, but you had better start redefining the age thing,” she interrupted. She took his hand and placed it very deliberately between her legs. When he felt how sodden she still was, how she throbbed against his hand, his eyes widened. “This is what you do to me.”

His eyes flared. “I wouldn’t leave you in need. A good Dom would never do that.”

“Mmmm, let’s hear it for good Doms.”

He shoved his clothes off then he parted her thighs, touching her, exploring her as if he couldn’t believe how ready she was. She was tender too, so she sucked in her breath, her nerve endings sparking.

As if he read her, he gentled his touch, stroking her until she moaned, lifting her hips wantonly for his caresses.

“There’s no one here tonight?” she asked.

He blinked. “Ah, no. Just us.”

She leaned close to him and whispered a special request.

Two minutes later, Fred laid her on her back on his kitchen island. They were shadows in the darkened kitchen. Dharma felt like another woman in the softened light, ripe and primitive.

Perspiration slicked Fred’s face. His erection was huge and swollen.

He tugged her ankles until her ass rode the edge of the counter then splayed her wide. Holding her gaze, he palmed himself. “Should I cover myself?”

It hit her, that they were at this precipice again. How had they got here again so fast? Then she accepted that every time they made love, there would be this need, this want, to not use protection.

“It’s selfish and irresponsible to just do this without you moving in first, without a period of adjustment for the girls to get used to you, without—”

“No,” she said, gripping his hand and squeezing it. “If they don’t have to go to a wedding they don’t want to attend, why should we put our lives on hold? I want this. I don’t know why, and it doesn’t make any sense, but I want you to make me pregnant.”

“You’re moving in,” he growled.

She felt a brief pang for her little apartment, but maybe she could still keep it as a studio. “All right.”

When he pressed against her it was Nirvana again and she felt so peaceful. Not floaty and out of this world, but her heart was quiet.
This was right.

He thrust into her, massive. He grunted as he began to fuck her and she kept her feet flat so she could savour it even as her bobbing breasts seemed to madden him so he cupped and squeezed and ran his open mouth against them.

She squeezed him with her inner walls and felt her pleasure increase. He lifted her, rubbing her open body every time he pounded her, so that she had no choice but to come while he spurted hot and deep inside her.

He collapsed on her and they both fought for breath. His whole body was trembling…or was that hers? Finally he hefted himself onto the island and spooned her.

“This is not the bed I hoped to share with you tonight,” he grumbled.

“We’ll get up. Two minutes.”

“You are so falling asleep.”

She yawned hugely.

His hand cupped possessively over her sex, one finger gently penetrating her, stroking little delightful aftershocks.

He lifted her leg.

“Again?” But she wanted him, despite being sore and swollen, she couldn’t get enough of the white heat of his fucking her.

“Again,” he said. “And again.”

Chapter Eleven

“So what did you want to talk to me about?” Dharma asked Stacy over a pumpkin spice latte in
Coffee Dreams
the next morning.

She was trying to cover for the fact she was feeling incredibly self-conscious. Stacy and Mattie had returned home to find Dharma climbing out of their Dad’s shower. Then she’d discovered Fred had gone through his eldest daughter’s clothes in search of something for her to wear to work since she didn’t have time to go home first.

She was opening and Sian didn’t come in until ten lately because her pregnancy could leave her exhausted mornings—but full of life at night. Go figure with hormones.

Dharma wondered if she were going to get up close and personal with them herself the way she and Fred were carrying on… He’d had her on the stairs, in the shower and finally in bed just before dawn, all without any protection.

Which brought her back to this kid who was giving her a direct look, as if to tell her to knock off with the chipper act.

Okay, so she would. She sat down beside Stacy, exhaling in relief.

“Do you often sit with the customers?” Stacy asked, the superior act back. Oh, goodie.

“Nope. But we’re not officially open yet.” Dharma narrowed one eye. “Are you sure you want to be here today?”

“It is ‘Take your Daughter to Work’ day,” Stacy said. She bit into a raisin scone. “And since your my Dad’s GF, you qualify.”

“Okay. Look, I’m sorry about the clothes. I’ll have them dry cleaned and I will never, ever allow your Dad to do that again. He doesn’t understand what a boundary he crossed.”

“He didn’t know I had Victoria’s Secret P.J.’s until this morning,” Stacy grumbled.

Dharma had to grin, that would have been an eye-opener for a single dad.

Stacy traced a pattern on the counter. “So are you, like, going to be around all the time?”

Dharma sighed. If she were dating a single man, she could just bliss out and enjoy, but she wasn’t. Fred was a package deal. “Probably. Are you going to hate that?”

“You’re not my mother.”

“Please!” Dharma laughed. “You’re almost all growed up.”

Stacy seemed to relax. “I might be cool about the occasional night—without the closet sharing—if you talk to my dad about Jeff.”

“
Oh.
” So that’s what Stacy’s secret was. And Dharma had a feeling it was going to give Fred another heart attack. She knew that if Stacy had a boyfriend and he’d known about it, he would have shared before this. “You are so using and abusing whatever power I have over your Dad.”

“Get used to being manipulated.” Stacy smiled.

Dharma laughed. “You’re all right, kid.”

* * * *

Flames shot across the valley as if shot from a scatter gun. Fred saw another truck arriving on the scene, the red and blue revolving lights adding to the haze of hell in this burned out part of the landscape. Shouts came from his people desperately digging a fire break, trying to make a stand.

“Where are those goddamn water drops I ordered?” he growled.

The wind was picking up, playful and deadly, straight off the ocean.

He knew in his gut they were going to lose more ground…and on the hill below this valley was the beginning of their little part of town. The houses, the fire hall and the strip mall containing Coffee Dreams.

His woman was there. His child.

No, they weren’t. Dharma would have got his message. She’d clear out, keep Stacy safe.

Fire leapt like a merry bonfire, igniting brush so they exploded like puffy matches.

Losing it.
“Fall back!” he yelled into the radio. “Fall the hell back!”

Way out in the field, Fred saw Taz tackle Luke. They went down in the trench.
Verooom.
The acid fire breath of the dragon. Sparks and debris whistled past.

Fire everywhere, unstoppable.

But somehow he would stop it.

“We have to get you out of here, now!” Dharma dragged Sian away from the spot fires erupting all around the little strip mall. There was a crazy wind, hot and full of sparks that tore at the women’s clothing and hair.

Oh, Goddess, they were going to lose the coffee shop.

“But Luke’s here somewhere. I feel him!”

Sian was ice cold and shaky in Dharma’s arms, tears running down her cheeks. “He’s hurt. I can feel he’s hurt,” she moaned.

“Listen to me, if he is, there is
nothing
you can do. You can’t stay here!” Dharma shoved her best friend into her car next to Stacy, who was pale and saucer-eyed, one hand pressed against the closed window. “We have to go. Now!”

She threw the little car into drive and they fishtailed out of the familiar parking lot. She heard the roaring sirens of approaching sirens. A fire truck past them, charging up the hill beyond Dharma’s little car.

She knew Fred was up there.

“Be safe,” she whispered.

* * * *

“How did the fire start?” Stacy asked Dharma hours later as they sat in the hospital waiting room. Sian had begun early labour pains so Dharma had taken her straight here from the coffee shop.

“Some orderlies were saying robbers ignited it deliberately to hide their escape from a convenience store.”

“Someone started it deliberately?” Stacy looked like she was going to cry. “We might lose our house.”

Dharma put her arm around the girl. “At least your sis is with her mother.”

“Shopping. Mom’s totally trying to buy our love.”

“Hey, don’t knock it, it’s a time-honoured tradition.”

Just then the swinging doors opened and Taz walked in. His face was blackened so his green eyes stood out like bleak emeralds. He walked as if he was caught in a nightmare.

Dharma leapt to her feet. Fred! Oh, God, had something happened to—

“Taz!” She snatched his arm.

He looked at her as if she was a ghost, barely visible to him before he shook her off, continuing to head down the hall. She watched as he talked to a nurse then collapsed in a chair.

“What is it, Dharma?” Stacy asked. “What’s wrong with him?”

“I don’t know, but it’s not your dad, honey.” Somehow she had to believe it.

A second later the door swung open again and Luke appeared, looking more exhausted than Dharma had ever seen him. His eyes darted frantically, found her.

“She’s all right!” Dharma called. “She and the baby are fine.”

Luke squeezed his eyes closed. He had a bandage on his forehead. “The coffee shop is gone,” he said hoarsely. “Sorry. I’m…” His voice was hoarse from smoke inhalation and a chill ran down her back. It was easy to forget sometimes that the men and women of Station 57 risked their lives. Every day, they did this, putting themselves on the line.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “Sian created Coffee Dreams and she can do it again.”

Faint light sparked in his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, we can do it. Where is she?”

“Next room to the right. But Luke, is Fred—?”

“
Dad!
” Stacy was suddenly crushed against Fred’s heavy fire retardant coat. A second later so was Dharma. She breathed in man and sweat and smoke and felt him, solid and exhausted and filthy. But alive.

He pulled back, looking them both over with bloodshot blue eyes. “Marilyn’s just behind me. She’s going to take you back to her hotel room, Stace,” Fred said. “I’m going to be on call through the weekend.”

Stacy nodded against his chest. Dharma guessed she was used to the tough side of being a firefighter’s kid.

“Come and sit for a moment,” Dharma said, guiding Fred carefully to where they’d been waiting. “Stace, can you get your Dad a glass of water?”

The girl raced off in the direction of the nurse’s station.

“You’re all right?”

He closed his eyes, sucked in a breath. “Yeah, but I’m afraid you’re out of a job for a while, honey.”

“I heard.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, as long as no one was hurt.”

“Just the poor folks the robbers held up in that store.” Fred looked over at Taz, who was slumped in his chair, head cradled in his hands. “They hurt someone he knows, a neighbour lady.”

“Oh, Fred.”

Fred looked deeply into her eyes then kissed her, a man to his woman kiss. She returned it. “I love you, I love you,” she whispered. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”

His lips quirked. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Now…go talk to Taz. I think you might be the only one who can reach him right now.”

“You’re a tough broad, you know that? I knew you’d take care of everyone on the home front.”

Dharma crossed her arms, forcing herself to let go of Fred, to let him do what he needed for his men. “Apparently I’m going to have to be, living with you.”

“Try married to me, honey,” he said then laughed when her eyes popped.

* * * *

Fred had never felt more his age than he did walking down the corridor towards Taz. When he reached him, he didn’t speak. He just settled next to him.

Stacy appeared with a glass of water. Fred drank gratefully and pulled his daughter in his arms. She complained he was holding her too tightly. “Sorry,” he said gruffly. “Look, here’s your mother.”

Stacy grimaced. “Maybe she’ll take me shopping and make everything better.”

“Stace—”

“Don’t worry, I’ll let her have her shallow way with me.” Stacy gave him a level look. “One more thing—I like your girlfriend, but lend her my clothing again and you die.”

Before he could deal with what she’d said, Marilyn was there. Stacy let herself be led away with her sister and all he could feel was a rush of relief that his girls were safe. The fire could have raged longer, taken more homes, taken lives, but somehow his people had helped stop it.