Chapter Eight
IT WAS RAINING in London.
Just as it had been raining in Sheffield, the sublime second time that they had made love.
‘Wait there,’ Dominic said. ‘I’ll bring the car round.’
Rachel stood in the ambulance bay while he dashed through the rain. He had always taken care of those details, Rachel thought. His silver sports car didn’t impress her a jot, but the driver certainly did.
He was soaking from his run in the rain. Just as he’d been that time with the stupid golf umbrella when he’d thrown off his parents’ warnings about her and made his way to her father’s house, Rachel thought as she climbed in.
The wipers swished a little more smoothly than the thump, thump of her heart. At a set of traffic lights she turned to look at him, and Dominic turned at the same time, and they smiled their private smile for the first time since they’d met again.
Dominic lived a fifteen-minute drive from the hospital, she found, as the gates opened to a very plush apartment block where they parked in the basement.
They took a lift up to his apartment, but she noticed little about it as she stepped in—just that it was neat and rather large. Because she cared not for the view from the windows...only for the man who took her straight to his bedroom.
He didn’t kiss her, and he didn’t bother with any preamble. Dominic simply went for the hem of her top and she lifted her arms, compliant and willing.
She wore a rather tired white bra that he deftly removed, and her skin was so pale that you might almost miss the pale pink of her areolae, already gathered and taut at the prospect of his return...
* * *
Dominic did not miss them.
Her nipples were awake, and he stroked them with unending fascination, but there was more he wanted to see.
He drew down her trousers and was pleasantly surprised by the tiny silver knickers and the jut of gold beneath.
‘God, Rachel,’ Dominic said, and paused in the undressing just to stroke and admire.
He slipped his fingers in and felt her for a moment, before stripping off himself. And there, in his bedroom, her mask slipped too.
It always had.
So much so that when he retrieved some condoms from his jacket her nose did that pinched thing, and this time her eyes narrowed too.
‘Rachel,’ he said. ‘I bought these with you in mind.’
‘Liar.’
‘Nope,’ he said. ‘I lied to myself, but I was always hoping to have you last night—if you’d deigned to show up to the staff do.’
* * *
She peeled a condom off with a reluctant smile, for here in his bedroom they could admit to their jealous natures where each other were concerned.
Here, standing naked before him, Rachel could forget her own rules and drop her guard. There was so much desire between them, so much want blazing in their eyes, that she felt safe.
She reached out to touch his body. The strong arms, the broad chest, the toned stomach and the swell of his erection had her trembling with want.
‘What’s this?’ She ran a slender finger over an old white scar, low on his stomach, and watched his muscles jerk tight at her touch.
‘I had my appendix out a few—’ Dominic started, and then stopped explaining as that same slender finger ran up his thick length.
For Rachel it was like the dessert trolley coming round and having to choose. It was either sink to her knees and taste him, or step towards him and have him inside her.
But he made the choice for her and pulled her in.
Their naked bodies met again, and with the feel of his hard, taut skin against hers, his soft mouth was an exciting contrast. Unlike their kiss in the car park, which had been desperate and urgent, now his mouth was gentle on hers, savouring this reunion.
He had a scent, and a taste, and it was like coming home after a long time away.
His hands were warm on her skin, holding her waist and then moving down and cupping her buttocks, pressing her against him.
Her hand was between them, and he moaned into her mouth as Rachel held him again, strong and velvet beneath her fingers. His kiss roughened as tears stung her eyes at the delight of again being naked and close and intimate with Dominic.
She paused only to slide on the condom, the way they had taught each other so many years ago. Except her hands were shaking even more now than then, as a lick of desire stroked low in her stomach. She thought she might come just from touching him...
His kisses became more demanding, guiding her towards the bed, and they toppled onto it together.
His hand reached between her legs, impatiently parting her willing thighs, both of them desperate for him to be inside her. She guided him greedily, crying out as Dominic seared into her tight oiled space.
They were a knot of limbs and hungry, desperate kisses. He held her face and kissed her cheeks, her lashes, then released her and moved up onto his forearms. It was not a gentle coupling for either of them after all this time, and her legs wrapped tightly around him as he thrust into her.
They had been toying with each other all night—the looks, the food, the pauses, the laughs, the warnings, the nudge of memories... All of it had led them here.
He made the air in the room impossible to breathe. He made the thoughts in her head turn off. He consumed her completely.
And then, when she shattered, when she felt the utter relief of crying out his name as she came, he gave that breathless shout she would crave for ever and released himself into her, collapsing on her in the giddy space they’d made.
Here she was, Rachel thought. The woman she’d lost.