The Shy Dominant (6 page)

“Tell me what happened?”

“I thought we were going to have sex on his kitchen counter,” Dharma admitted defiantly. “This is me, remember? So I offered and he, uh, turned me down.”

“Kitchen counter?” Sian flushed. “What is it with the men of Station 57 and kitchens? Maybe it’s the thing about the hearth being in the kitchen. Hearth equals fire…”

“You’re trying to distract me and it’s working.” Dharma put her chin in her hand and stared at her friend. “Do share, girlfriend. Is that where my future painting student was conceived?”

“Never mind. Okay, so you didn’t have sex. Big deal.” Sian sucked in a breath. “Oh, shit, it is a big deal. I’m sorry.”

“After he rejected me his ex-wife showed up,” Dharma related with brittle humour. “Ouch.”

“I shouldn’t want him because he’s a straight-laced fuddy-duddy, thinking he needs to protect me.”

“With an extremely gorgeous non fuddy-duddy body,” Sian put in, smiling.

“Very. I only wish I’d seen more of it,” Dharma moaned.

Why couldn’t Fred have a younger, spirited girlfriend? If he’d married a free spirit, then it seemed to Dharma he was attracted to
her
kind of woman. Opposites attract. Put opposites together and you had fire. And controlling fire was what Fred was all about.

Her toes curled at the thought.

* * * *

“I just need some, ah, pointers on dating a young, hip woman,” Fred said.

“So you want me to mentor you on how to dominate Dharma sexually? Shit, boss.” Taz ran a hand through his hair, more agitated than Fred could remember seeing him. Normally nothing shook Taz, though Fred had his own ideas on that. As a commanding officer he had worked with a lot of younger men. Some were messed up because their parents had taken their own shit out on their helpless kids, and Fred had always had the feeling this was the case with Taz.

In the workplace, Fred was used to doing the mentoring, to being someone his people could look up to, learn to trust. And in trusting him, they learned to trust themselves. They became better people and better fire fighters as a result.

But asking Taz to mentor him because it was rumoured Taz was an experienced Dom was totally different. But what else could he do? He couldn’t get his woman out of his head, yet at the same time he was out of his league. He had all these fantasies, this hunger. Would he repulse Dharma? He felt so clumsy.

He’d already blown it once.

Fred said tersely, “I don’t know how to do this, to romance someone like Dharma.”

“Romance?” Taz’s lips curled.

“Yes, romance. Sex begins in the brain and the heart. If you ever dated smart people, you’d know this.”

He hated remembering the look on Dharma’s face when he’d rejected her.

It was killing him.

When he’d visited the coffee house this morning Dharma immediately went into the back, leaving Sian to serve him. It had made him ache. Damn, he needed to talk to her. Just needed her…

Somehow he had to win her back, give her what she’d asked for when she’d made herself so vulnerable to him on his kitchen countertop.

“Will you teach me how to enthral her?”

Taz blinked, then his eyes narrowed.

“What?”

“Just…the best Doms are obsessed with the needs of their subs.”

Taz grinned, but then his expression became instantly impassive as a slender brunette crossed from her garden to his, carrying bulbs and soil.

“What are you doin’?” he demanded. “I told you to stay off my property, Jenny.”

Hurt moved through the young woman’s large vulnerable eyes. Fred felt instant annoyance with Taz. “You are such an asshole,” he muttered, going to the stranger.

“Hi, I’m Fred. Are you Taz’s neighbour?” He stuck out his hand and Jenny flushed, putting down the bulbs and taking off her garden glove so she could shake.

“I’m Jenny Ann Green, and yeah, I am.” Her accent was Southern, which went with her old world Laura Ashley style of dress. Christ, she was about the same age as Dharma but they couldn’t have been more different. This girl was shy and uncertain. Fred felt an instant kinship with her.

“My condolences on having Taz as your neighbour.”

“What are you doing here?” Taz crossed his arms, looking big and scary.

“I…I forgot I’d cut these bulbs out for your yard. My grandma taught me to share—”

“Take your bulbs and get lost.”

Jenny paled, but then with cool dignity, turned her back on Taz and retraced her steps.

“How could you be such an asshole?” Fred demanded. “She’s obviously a sweet person.”

Taz stared after Jenny, face hard.

“Taz?”

“She needs to stay away from me.”

“I’m sure she will since you’re acting like such a jackass.” Fred headed back to his SUV. No way could he ask Taz for help now. No way. Not after witnessing how cruel he’d been to someone innocent. He needed someone with heart to give him advice on Dharma, not just an unfeeling sex manual.

“Wait…”

Taz was at Fred’s door. He didn’t meet Fred’s gaze. In a voice so soft, Fred could barely catch his words, Taz said, “Jenny scares me, all right?”

With that, Taz strode back to his house.

Fred shook his head. “Who the hell are you, Taz?”

* * * *

“She’s very pretty.”

Fred pretended not to hear the comment. “The girls are thrilled you’re coming to the dance recital.” He turned the SUV onto the side street that offered the best chance of finding parking at the busy community arts centre.

Marilyn shrugged. “Least I could do since I’m in town.”

“How long are you staying?” He had offered her the guest room in the house, but he didn’t want her there.

“Just until the wedding. They grew so fast,” Marilyn noted as they walked towards the centre. “I never thought… The years just went by so fast.”

“You need to respect their home, their routine. I’ll fight you to keep them, Marilyn. You’ll have to take the time to know them before I’ll let you make off with them for half a year.”

“The voice of the man in command. I always found it very sexy.” She sighed. “I also forgot how influential you are in this town. Judges, lawyers…”

“I’m telling you I won’t let you play with their feelings. I protect them. Always.”

Marilyn bit her lip. “What if I…really want to try to make a new connection with them?”

Fred wanted to shut her down, but he couldn’t do it, not if she was sincere. Even if it killed him. “We’ll see,” he muttered. “But no more talk of taking them from me or all you’ll get is a handful of cactus.”

“All right. Is your friend Dharma going to be here?”

“No.” He wished Dharma was. He couldn’t sleep, he was having trouble eating and he was grumpy with the girls at home.

“I like her name. It’s means good destiny, the opposite of karma.”

“I know what it means.” Now that he’d handled this crisis with Marilyn, he could reach out to Dharma.

He wanted to make her his woman. And he was through waiting.

* * * *

Dharma was exhausted.

It had been a long night working at the bar. Her feet ached since she’d become unaccustomed to high heels in no time. Her back ached from a peculiar tension—all night she’d felt as if someone were watching her, stalking her.

And she was depressed.

She’d gone to work just like she’d told Fred she would. Go her.

But she’d felt even more of a loser than she had when he’d rejected her on his kitchen island. Why? It was stupid to feel that way.

Men found her gorgeous. They wanted to touch her, she could see it all night in their lust-glazed eyes as she flirted and served drinks. But something was missing. She used to enjoy the job in a light way. Now she was close to tears after a single shift.

“I’m driving you home.”

The soft voice behind her made her screech. She grabbed her chest, panting. “Are you trying. To kill me?”

“Nope.” Fred’s expression was grim. He was wearing a T-shirt and jeans with a plaid shirt. His features looked stark, all tired, mouth-watering man with a capital M. And she’d missed him this past week. Goddess, she’d missed him.

“What are you doing here?” she sighed.

He shrugged. “I told you I needed to look out for you.”

“Look out for me?” she repeated.

“Said it clear enough.”

She saw dark fire in his eyes. Oh, he was angry, was he?

“You don’t want me, remember? You…” She sucked in a breath so she didn’t do something stupid, like start crying. “You made it clear.”

“I want you.” His voice was soft. “I’m just so scared and intimidated by you that—”

She blinked. Was she hallucinating because she was so weary herself? “Hey, you just need some practice. Just think of how you are on the job, all take-charge and confident. I know
I
do. It’s incredibly sexy.”

Colour darkened his cheeks. He shrugged again. “Thank you.”

“Why are you scared?” Despite herself she’d walked closer to him so they stood face to face, her arms wrapped around herself while his hands were in his pockets. But she could feel the yearning sparking between them like a force field. If they got too close, they’d burn up.

“Because you make me want things I told myself I can’t have.”

She wanted to reach out and touch the side of his face, stroke him, soothe him. Crazy. “And what is it you think you can’t have?”

He avoided her gaze. “For one thing, it kind of turns me on to see you working in that place, to see men looking at your beautiful tits. Only thing that would make it better was if they knew who you belonged to.”

Her mouth opened, closed. “Really? I thought you hated me working there.”

“I do, when I’m not around to protect you and…to watch you.”

His gaze was on his scuffed cowboy boots.

“You’re into voyeurism?”

“I… Ah…”

“Because there’s nothing wrong with that, even though I don’t need you protecting me.”

His jaw bunched. Now he looked at her with flaming blue eyes. “I need to do it. And I don’t care if you like it.”

Shock punched her. Because what she was seeing was not a man who didn’t care about her—Fred cared too much.

Tentatively she reached up and brushed his cheek. His eyes flashed to hers, burning her. He was shy, awkward, on
fire
.

“What if I told you I don’t mind you showing me off?”

“I… You
don’t
?” His tone was all
what-the-hell
?

She had to grin.

She wanted to curl one of her legs around his thigh. But what if he pushed her away again? It would hurt so much. It would smash her pride in the dirt.

Holding his gaze, she still couldn’t stop herself from moving closer, from rubbing her red high heel against his boot. The scraping sound it made echoed between them, heavily suggestive in the still night air.

He groaned, shuddering as if she were touching him somewhere much more personal. He caught her arm, holding her firmly. “Don’t play with me.”

Humiliation rose, but she shoved it down, determined to
see
him this time, to not make assumptions. Fred was subtle, almost as if he needed her to draw him out.

To help him with his confidence.

But at heart she could feel he was steel and fire.

“I wish you would play with me.” She was being totally honest, leaving herself emotionally bared to him. “What do you want, to tie me up? To put a leash on me for the night and parade me around in front of other men?” His eyes flared even hotter. “To spank me? I get wet thinking of you doing
all
of those things, sugar.”

“You…can’t.”

She cocked a brow at him then took his big callused hand in hers, dipping it under her short skirt and up to her panties. He gasped when he touched her, felt how hot and wet and ready she was.

Never taking his eyes off hers, he delved under her thong, stroking her with one long finger before suddenly impaling her on it. She grabbed his arm in shock, her body quivering on the edge for him already.

“You like that?” His voice was hoarse, but commanding. “Take off the panties.”

Then, as if remembering they were standing just outside the bar, he took her wrist and tugged her into the deep shadows of the woods where his SUV was parked. She leaned against the passenger door and he caged her with his arms.

The only sound was their ragged breathing as she reached down and tugged her thong free so it fell onto the unpaved dirt. She stared at it, finding it somehow weirdly significant that this was the second time she’d done this for him. Would she be stripping at a word from him in future? She suddenly craved it.

“Now lose the skirt.”

She moaned, squeezing her thighs together. His no-nonsense tone was turning her on so much. What would he do to her?

She pulled the hook free on the pink leather and it fell in a rustle at her feet.

Fred kicked it away, along with her panties, leaving her lower body totally exposed to his gaze. He didn’t touch her, he just
looked
at her.

Then he reached out and cupped her pussy, squeezing it possessively.

When he met her gaze, that hint of colour was back in his cheeks. He was bashful and yet totally in control. It was a hot combination that completely enthralled her.

“Is this mine?”

“Yes,” she whimpered.

He cocked his head as if he was considering just what to do with her. Her pulse thudded in her ears. She couldn’t help pushing herself wantonly into his hand.

He flicked his fingers sharply against her in dismissal and she gasped at the splinter of pain and pleasure. He wasn’t shy in how he handled her.

“You look like you’re doing just fine, boss,” a deep voice said.

Taz
.

Dharma swung her head around in shock, seeing the other firefighter watching her with Fred. As her gaze flew to Fred’s, she sensed this wasn’t an accident. For some reason her shy older man wanted Taz here.

Taz made no secret of studying her partial nudity, giving her a considering and appreciative look. That look did not discomfort her. If she hadn’t been so crushed on Fred, she knew she’d probably have slept with Taz by now. He
was
sexy.