With Me In Seattle: Bundle Two (110 page)

“My mother never made it a secret that she didn’t want children.”

“Are you an only child?” I ask quietly, casually.

“Yes. My parents didn’t plan to have kids, and I was a mistake.”

You’re not a motherfucking mistake.

“From the time I was small, it was clear that I was an interruption. They loved each other, very much, and intended to always be a couple.” She pauses and bites her lip, a small frown between her eyebrows, as though she’s choosing her words carefully. “It wasn’t that they didn’t love me, in their way, they just weren’t interested in me.”

I rub my hands up her calves, massaging the muscles in her slender legs and concentrate on keeping my breathing even and face calm.

“From the time I was old enough to eat by myself, my mom would fix me a plate and set me up in front of the television to eat, so she and dad could eat together in the kitchen. That was
their time
. It still is.” She shrugs her shoulders, making her nipples surface above the water line and pucker from the cold air. Her cheeks are flushed pink from the warmth of the water. She’s pink everywhere.

Gorgeous.

“They kept me busy in school,” she continues. Her voice is perfectly calm. There’s no anger, no sadness. Just composure. “I also play the piano. I had lessons twice a week from the time I was four until I graduated from high school. Then, when I wasn’t involved with piano, they had me in soccer, basketball, and softball.”

She cringes and then laughs. “I fucking hate to run.”

“You hate to run?” I ask with a smile.

“I do. I hate it. And they always signed me up for things that involved running. I asked if I could do cheerleading or
anything
else, but those sports were on a regular rotation, so I was always doing something after school.” She sighs. “That’s probably why I don’t like to exercise much now and my ass is too big.”

“Your ass is not too big,” I reply calmly, but inside I want to beat the shit out of her parents. Who the fuck treats their child like they’re an imposition? “Besides, you run around plenty for your job. In heels, no less.” I drag my thumb along her arch, earning a groan from her.

“I’m used to the heels,” she replies and smiles at me, then leans her head back again and continues her story. “So, I was in school all day, practicing
something
each afternoon, then doing school work until bedtime each day.”

“Surely your parents attended your games. Your recitals?”

“No, those were their date nights,” she replies quietly. “I don’t recall them ever going to an event.”

My hands still on her foot, and tighten just a bit as pure rage seers through me. Alecia’s head comes up and she frowns at me. “What’s wrong?”

I shake my head and resume rubbing her foot. “Nothing. Go on.”

Her eyes narrow on mine for a moment, then she shrugs and leans her head back again. “You’ve got good hands.”

“You’ve got good feet,” I reply, waiting her out.

“So, when I was a senior in high school, I met Jonathan. He was…attentive.”

“Attentive?” I ask.

“He paid attention to me. I was always kind of shy. I didn’t make a lot of friends, mostly because I was always too busy to spend time with them after school. But Jonathan paid attention. He was also a senior. He used to say he liked the looks of me.” She giggles.

“Why wouldn’t he like the looks of you?”

“It was the turn of phrase that made me laugh. He could be charming. And he was interested in me.”

And you soaked that up like a sponge in the ocean,
fiorellino.

“My parents happily sent me off to college. They didn’t care which one, as long as I went away.”

How in the fucking hell can she be so calm?
My heart is aching for her, and she’s as cool as can be. I continue to rub her, sure to be quiet, so I don’t spook her. I have a feeling at this point she’s just relaxed and talking on autopilot.

“So, Jonathan and I went to the same college, and eloped to Vegas our junior year.” She chuckles and shakes her head. “I thought he was the sexiest, funniest person in the world. I was a stupid, young girl.”

“How long did it last?” I ask quietly.

“Longer than it ever should have,” she replies with a sigh. “Jonathan made it clear from early in the relationship that I was a huge disappointment.”

I can’t take it anymore. I grip her foot tightly and pull her toward me, turn her around, and settle her between my legs, wrap my arms around her and plant my lips on her head.

“Go on.”

“Are you okay?” she asks with surprise.

“I am now.”
No, I’m not fucking okay.
I have to take another deep breath, inhaling in the sweet scent of her, feel her against me, warm and strong and whole, to calm myself. “How did he make you feel like you were a disappointment?” My voice is deceptively calm.

“I
was
a disappointment, Dom.”

“Why?”

She shrugs and laces her fingers through mine, then hugs our hands to her chest.

“I didn’t like the same things that he did.” She falls silent for a minute, and then swears ripely, surprising the hell out of me. “He liked to go to sex clubs, shows, places where clothing was optional. I didn’t feel comfortable going to those places.”

“Okay.” I’m clearly missing something.

“No, not okay.” She kisses my fingers. “He wanted me to wear skimpy clothes that I wasn’t comfortable in. I know I’m not horrible on the eyes, but I do have curves, and I don’t feel that it’s appropriate to walk around half naked in front of people I don’t know. Hell, I don’t particularly like walking around half naked in front of people I
do
know.” She chuckles, but I don’t find it fucking funny. “It would make him angry. He wouldn’t yell at me, though. No, he would just ignore me.”

“Ignore you?” I can’t help the tightness in my voice.

“Yeah.” She sighs. “He knew that ignoring me was the best way to hurt me. I’d been ignored most of my life.”

“So, he ignored you as a punishment.”

“He did. And as time passed, it got worse. He would sleep on the couch, which he knew made me crazy. Wouldn’t speak to me for days, sometimes weeks at a time. When I started the business, and completed my first wedding, I asked him to take me out for a fun dinner to celebrate.”

I hug her closer to me.

“And he said, ‘Why? It’s just a fucking job.’” She chuckles and shakes her head, then glances over her shoulder at me.

“He was an asshole,” I mutter.

“Yeah. But—”

“But?”

“Well, I’m not going to say I deserved it, because that’s ridiculous, but he was right. It was just a job.”

“It was something you worked hard on, and you wanted to celebrate it. It wasn’t
just a job
for you. And if he’d loved you the way he should have loved his wife, he would have seen that.”

“Hmm,” is her only response. “So, back to the love thing.”

“The
love thing
?” I ask with a laugh.

“It’s just not in me,” she replies and shrugs a shoulder, but then plants another kiss on my hand. “So, I’m comfortable with pursuing a physical relationship, if you’re still interested in that, but don’t expect much more from me, because you’ll just be disappointed.”

Her voice is perfectly matter of fact and reasonable and I want to just…shake her.

What?

She leans her blonde head back and gazes up at me. “Dom?”

“Ah,
tesoro
,” I murmur and glide my wet knuckles down her cheek softly. “Let’s table this discussion for now, okay?” I grip her hips in my hands and lift her to her feet, then pull myself up behind her, help her step out of the tub and reach for a towel. I wrap it around her shoulders, and gripping each end in my hands, I pull her against me, making her grin shyly.

“No more talking?” she whispers, her eyes pinned to my lips.

“Maybe less talking.” I lower my lips and gently brush them over hers, barely touching her skin, before nibbling the corner of her mouth and then gliding my tongue along her bottom lip to the other side, where I can nibble some more.

She shivers, so I let my hands roam over the towel, drying her off. When we’re both dry, I lift her in my arms, snag her bottle of lotion from the sink and carry her into her bedroom.

It’s dark now. With Alecia cradled in my arms, I pull the linens back on her bed, switch on the sidelight and gently lower her onto the bed, laying her on her back.

She’s watching me through dreamy eyes, relaxed from the warm bath.

“You are sure handsome to look at,” she murmurs, and lifts my hand to her lips.

“You have such a sweet heart,” I whisper, as I lean in and kiss her forehead. “Close your eyes.”

“It’s too early to go to sleep,” she replies.

“I’m not trying to put you to sleep.” I rub lotion between my hands, warming it, then begin to massage it into Alecia’s soft, smooth skin. I run my hands over her arm, her shoulder and her hand and grin when she sighs deeply and closes her eyes.

“You’re good with your hands,” she says.

“They enjoy touching you,” I reply, as I move to the other side, then add more lotion and glide my hands over her upper chest, between her breasts and down her sides. “You have the smoothest skin I’ve ever seen.”

“The skin is the largest organ in your body. You should take care of it,” she says primly, making me chuckle.

“Brains as well as a beautiful face.” I work my way down her legs and give her feet another good rub, earning a long sigh of contentment from her. “Don’t the shoes you wear kill your feet?”

“No,” she replies immediately, then bites her lip and squints one eye open to gaze at me warily. “Okay, can you keep a secret?”

“Anything you ever say will stay between the two of us,
cara
.”

“They fucking kill me,” she says, and closes her eyes again, but the corners of her lips tip up in a smile. “But I love them too much to ever wear anything else.”

“You look fucking amazing in them,” I reply, as I urge her to turn over onto her belly. She cradles her head in her arms and sighs deeply as my hands glide up and down her slender back, kneading and stretching her muscles. “You have great legs.”

“That comes from walking in four-inch heels every day. Sweet Jesus, that feels good.” I move over the spot on her right shoulder again, and if I’m not mistaken, she purrs. “Don’t ever stop touching me,” she whispers with a blissful sigh, and my heart catches.

“That’s the plan.” I lean in and kiss her neck, right in the spot behind her ear that drives her mad. She sighs again, and her hips tip up, brushing her ass over my already hard cock. Her lips are still curved at the corners, and a blush creeps up her cheeks as she rotates her hips once again, feeling the heavy weight of my dick against her ass.

I grin and kiss her neck again, then drag my lips down to her shoulder and over between her shoulder blades. Her hand grasps the pillow, but I whisper in her ear, “Relax, babe,” and she lets go, then frowns up at me.

“I prefer the Italian.”

I raise a brow. “Is that so?”

“You know it is.” She purses her lips in a pout and closes her eyes again as my fingertips trail lightly down her back and up her sides, making her squirm.

“That tickles.”

“You’ll learn,
babe
,” I begin, and continue to make her skin tingle, “that you won’t top me in bed.” I nip her shoulder as she takes in a quick gasp of air and bites her lip. “I know what you prefer, and I plan to continue learning. Your body is expressive.” I straddle her legs and sit back on my haunches, grasp her ass cheeks in my hands and squeeze gently and she shivers and lets loose with a low moan that shoots energy straight through my cock, making it slap the crack of her ass. “See, you like that.”

“I do,” she agrees with a whisper.

“And you like this.” I cover her body again, nip at her neck and slip a hand between her closed legs, pushing on her clit with my fingertips, spreading her juices through her lips.

“Oh, God, I so love that.”

I grasp her hand in mine, and she quickly links our fingers and tucks my hand under her face. I grip my cock and guide it down her crack and inside her, and we both groan at how amazing she feels wrapped tightly around me, tighter still because of her thighs pressed together between my own.

“Fuck, you feel good, Alecia.”

“How is it possible that you grew since this morning?” she asks in awe.

“It’s the angle,” I reply with a chuckle, and then feel my eyes roll up into the back of my head when she clenches around me. “God, do you have any idea what you do to me?”

“I have a fairly good idea,” she replies smartly and rolls her hips. “It’s inside me as we speak.”

“The fact that you can speak means I’m not doing my job,” I reply and with my free hand I brush her hair off her face, then drag it down her back, her side, and hold onto her hip firmly, keeping her from moving, and begin to thrust my hips in earnest, loving her long and slow, just slower than I know she wants me to. She growls and turns her face, resting her forehead against my hand.

“Harder,” she moans.

“Not yet,” I reply and keep up the long, slow pace. “I’m going to eventually make you understand how amazing you are,
tesoro
,” I whisper into her ear. She frowns in surprise, but is pinned beneath me. She can’t do anything but feel and hear me all around her, and I take full advantage of her vulnerability. “You are
not
a quick fuck for me. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have followed you here today.” I adjust my grip on her ass, spreading her cheeks further apart so I can plunge in even deeper, but not faster. “You are sexy, yes, and God knows I want you so bad I’m blind with it, but that’s not all you are, Alecia.”

“Dominic.”

“I didn’t say you could talk.” I nip at her earlobe. “It’s your turn to listen.”

She bites her lip as I seat myself as far as I can and pulse my hips, hitting her G-spot and her clit at the same time. I can feel her about to lose it.

“Yes, this is scary,” I whisper. “It’s not exactly in my comfort zone either, but the thought of not having you terrifies me. If you thought you’d scare me off earlier, you were wrong. I’m not going anywhere.”