Chapter Three
Dominic
Son of a bitch.
I was late to meet up with Maria. I wouldn’t have been had my agent, Jeff, not insisted on talking my ear off about industry gossip like a teenage girl. I would’ve hung up on him, but I’d already done that recently and didn’t want to come off as an ass.
Now I thought he was an ass for holding me up from seeing Maria.
I leaned a hand against the frame of the door when she opened it, disappointment coloring her expression. “You’re late,” she noted, walking back in the house, leaving me to follow. Which I did with pleasure.
When the door closed behind me, she spun around and cupped my cheeks. “I know.” She laid a kiss on my lips, and I knew she was keen on more of those benefits we had going on for the past three years—on and off, of course, when we were both single and horny.
“I was on the phone with Jeff, but I’m firing him tomorrow,” I rushed out, hoping I got the point across that I would have been here sooner if I could have helped it.
She brought her arms up and threaded her fingers in my hair and pushed my mouth to hers. Without a moment’s hesitation, I parted my lips, dragging my tongue along the seam of hers so she would do the same. I loved how she tasted—sweet—from head to toe. To clarify, that meant lips and pussy. Unless you knew that already, in which case let’s get back to the kiss at hand. I angled our heads so we could deepen the kiss, her tongue gliding over mine before we began exploring each other’s mouths.
The corners of my lips curled upward, and I smiled against her lips as the most beautiful sound escaped her—a moan. “I’m addicted to that sound. Your moans are my favorite melody,” I said, parting only for a moment before our lips were connecting again.
Fuck, I loved how greedy she was. How she wasn’t afraid to take more of what she wanted, of what she needed . Had you asked me three years ago if this was how I expected Maria to be, I would’ve given you a straight-faced no.
It wasn’t always like this. It had taken Maria a minute to warm up to us being more than frantic, urgent fuck buddies who completed the task laid out and said until next time . Now we actually slowed down for things like kissing and foreplay.
And while Maria had changed, so had I. For one, somewhere along the way, I broke one of the rules. Yeah, remember that one about keeping emotions out of the equation? That one. So while she still dated, and we had lulls because she was with another man, I gave that shit up myself. It just felt wrong to string a woman along when my heart was always with Maria. Not that she had a clue. Thanks to my, ahem, skills. Oh, yeah, I could be an undercover agent, that was how good I was. I didn’t want to toot my own horn or anything, but come on, how many guys did you know who could continue to have sex with their best friend, have feelings for them, and not blurt it out in the middle of sex? I’d take a bow if you were willing to give me a round of applause. All right, fine, no round of applause, but I did a damn good job of making sure she didn’t find out, and I was proud of the achievement.
Before I knew it, my brain had nearly short-circuited at the sensation of Maria palming my hard-on. I groaned, trying to signal that her hand was going to be the death of me if she did what I thought she was going to do.
And I was right about her intentions because as we continued kissing, my tongue plunging deep, nearly reaching the back of her throat, her hand was stroking— stroking! —my cock. What the fuuuck? Okay, so she clearly hadn’t understood my groan-slash-warning.
This time, I grunted. If I was being honest, I never wanted her to stop. I wanted her to keep going. Damn it, her hand with those long-fucking-nails was a thing of wonder. But if she didn’t stop, I’d never make it balls deep inside her. Honestly, I wouldn’t make it much longer with these pants on at all. My cock was going to have a zipper-shaped mark on it if I didn’t bust it out.
“Maria,” I rasped.
“Come on, Dom,” she begged and dipped her thumbs into the sides of her pants to draw them down. In one motion, she had her pants and panties pooling around her ankles.
My eyes on her pussy, I knew she wanted me as bad as I wanted her. There would be no time for a slow pursuit tonight. “Soaked. Just for me,” I praised, wanting nothing more than to enter her with my fingers, to feel her stretch around me as she took multiple digits like she did so well. But there was no way in hell I was lasting long enough. I wanted to be so deep inside her that when I left she felt the chill of emptiness without my cock there.
Her mouth formed an O as she peered down at her naked bottom half and then flicked her gaze at me. “It’s your turn. Take him out so the real fun can begin.”
I didn’t waste time pulling my pants down and freeing my cock. If my cock could talk, it would have been screaming yesss, freedom is mine, and I want in that pussy. Mmhmm, that one that I just bobbed at. It feels like home there and Daddy wants to come home.
She raked her teeth over her bottom lip and chewed on the corner as she pointed to the bead of pleasure glistening at the tip, as though waiting for my approval. The delicate way she’d looked at me practically had my cock jumping for joy. I didn’t think she understood the visceral reaction her words—the prospect of that mouth of hers—had on me.
I nodded my agreement and tangled my hand in her hair as she lowered herself. I was frozen in place, absorbing and committing to memory every damn thing that was happening as if it was the first time. The way she licked her lips, her tongue darting out to wet them. How she opened her mouth wide to take me. Her hands on my thighs as she sucked the tip of me in.
She didn’t take me further, only swirling her tongue around my head in a move to torture me with her slow, methodical tease. It was almost too much. I didn’t want to come in her mouth, though. I wanted to be inside her. To claim her in that way. Again. And again. And again.
Forget the ledge. We’d jumped straight off the damn thing. We were dead in the water.
No turning back.
And I didn’t give one single fuck.
Before her tongue could swirl around my head again or she could take more of me, I gripped her hair and nudged her off me. Not enough to hurt her, but enough to pull her back. Maybe, just maybe, with her tongue off me I could function properly. Not that I was sure that would ever happen around Maria again. I wanted her. Plain and simple. My feelings for her were as raw as a steak from the butcher.
“I want you inside me,” she said, her cheeks red as her eyes studied mine.
“I want that, too.”
I scooped her up in my arms, and she giggled, her body cradled against mine. “This must be taking a lot of restraint for you,” she teased, her eyes glimmering with mischief.
Shaking my head, I carried her upstairs to her bedroom. “You’re right. Having your nipples that close to me and not having them free so I could easily pop one into my mouth, or feeling your pussy practically vibrating with excitement is a form of torture. Next time we do it against the wall and call it a damn day.”
“How romantic,” she replied, chuckling.
She should only know things were so romantic that I loved her. Yeah, it didn’t get more romantic than that, did it? Go ahead. Think of something more romantic than a man wanting nothing more than to get on his hands and knees and confess his feelings to his best friend. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t put you on the spot. Nothing was more romantic. We all knew it.
“No emotion, remember? Just sex.” I was telling Maria this, but really having it serve as a reminder for my dumb ass.
I unhooked her bra while her shirt was still on, set her down on her bed, and instructed her to take off her shirt. “I remember,” she replied, doing as I said, her tits staring back at me as her nipples perked up immediately.
I took mine off, too, tossing it on the floor somewhere, but my eyes couldn’t be peeled away from the beautiful sight. Her tits were a thing of goddamn beauty. Her perfection couldn’t be legal. At least, it shouldn’t be. Maria was stunning with or without makeup, her figure a voluptuous hourglass shape.
I bent down and covered her tits with my hands. I was absolutely obsessed with them. The size of them was perfect, no question about it. I squeezed them ever so gently before relaxing my grip and letting them just sit in the palms of my hands. The weight of them felt like heaven. Everything about being with her felt that way. If heaven was a place on earth, it was here, in these moments, with Maria.
“You know, I don’t think I ever told you this, but I’ve been thinking about getting a boob job,” she admitted, her chest rising and falling as she obviously got something that was weighing on her off her chest.
I did a double take, furrowing my brows. A boob job? “Why on earth would you think you need a boob job?” She didn’t need work done. Now or ever. Just being able to explore and touch her body in this way felt like a privilege. Anyone who made her feel otherwise was a fool.
She sighed, moving her lips from one side to the other as she got ready to speak her truth. “I’m just not sure they are what they used to be. They’re old, tired, mom boobs. You’ve never said anything, and I know you didn’t see them before I gave birth, but they were much perkier, and as the years go on, they’re just not the same.” She peered down at her tits and looked unhappy with herself, like she was degrading herself in her head. I didn’t like that. She shouldn’t do that. She was feeding herself lies if she was telling herself she was anything but perfect.
I looked at her tits—really looked at them—and still didn’t see it. I didn’t think I would, if I was being one hundred percent honest. There was just no way. Like I said, they were perfect. Sorry, there wasn’t another word for them. “You don’t screw with perfection,” I responded, shaking my head and reaching out to touch them, to give them the love they obviously needed. “And that’s exactly what these are.” That was what everything about her was.
She had to know that.
Had to know that there was not a single thing I would change about her.
That no man should want to change about her.
And she shouldn’t want to change anything, either.
She sighed and spoke before I could say another word. “Thank you, but I have another body part craving attention,” she said and cast her eyes down. She wet her lips, parting her legs in an effort to open them as much as she could. “Do your worst to me, big boy.” Her hands wrapped around my back as she tried to drag me closer so that I was hovering over her.
Damn, she turned me on.
I positioned my tip at her entrance but didn’t pause, instead thrusting inside of her all at once. She tossed her head back and moaned, the sound reverberating off the walls. I’d be damned if I didn’t want to record that sound, so I could play it on repeat every chance I got.
I didn’t know what was better—her cries, her heat sucking my cock inside like she couldn’t get enough, or her nails digging into my flesh as she scraped them down my back in a way I knew would leave marks. Marks that I would proudly wear.
I didn’t let up on pumping, though, thrusting in and out, in and out. Not losing my rhythm, I praised her. “Look at how good you’re taking my cock. You want me to flood you with my heat? Would that make you happy?”
“Yes,” she cried, dragging out a ragged breath.
I brought my mouth to one of her tits and swirled my tongue around her nipple. She moaned, so I grazed my teeth over the sensitive skin before taking her nipple in my mouth and sucking on it.
“Oh, God,” she exclaimed, her voice hitting a new high.
I gripped her other tit with my hand, giving it a nice squeeze as I thrust harder into her.
“Will this work?” she asked, her breath catching.
I knew exactly what she was talking about—whether it’d work and she’d orgasm this time. I lifted my mouth off her nipple with a pop and shook my head. “Not if you don’t stop thinking about it.”
She didn’t respond, only lifted her hips off the bed, allowing me to thrust even further inside her. Her legs tightened around me, her heels pushing firmly into my backside. I was hoping she’d come, but when it was obvious that wasn’t happening, I was a fucking goner. Again. Unfortunately.
All I saw was darkness as I came harder than I’d ever come before. Just when I thought I was done spilling inside of her, there was more. I pumped in again and again and again until I came down from my high.
Lazily, I brushed my lips over hers, too spent to engage in a mind-blowing kiss as I pulled out of her and rolled off onto my side. She instantly curled into me, peering up at me.
“Sorry,” she said, knowing I knew what she was talking about—another fuck and still no orgasm. But no one felt worse than me, because I just kept trying to no avail, but even the strongest will for her to come couldn’t seem to stop my own body’s reaction.
“Next time,” I said, hoping she knew I wasn’t giving up on her anytime soon.
* * *
Maria
Lying next to Dom, I let my body relax, my heart slowly beating, my eyes closed. Honestly, after that—what could I call it?—workout (yeah, that was what we’d call it), I could have used a nap.
“That’s one way to celebrate your promotion,” Dom joked.
Laughing, I pulled the sheet around my body and stood up. “Yeah.”
“You’re going to make a great editor-in-chief. You’re so deserving of this.”
I sighed and walked carefully without tripping on the sheet. I wasn’t the greatest at taking a compliment. For some reason, I just didn’t see myself the way other people did. Especially Dom. He had always been very supportive of everything I did. He was my number one fan, and I was his, don’t get me wrong. But that made sense because Dom was great. I was a whole other ball of wax. “I can’t help but wonder, though, if I’d still be getting it if my mom were here.” It seemed only natural the thought crossed my mind. It wasn’t easy to think about, but it was the truth. I wished life was so easy that I could trade this promotion to have her here with us again, that way she could be the editor-in-chief, and things would go back to the way they had been.
“Hey.” His voice was deep and loud, as if he spoke with certainty. “It’s not going to do you any good to think like that. You need to learn to be happy and accept that some things are good, period.”
“I suppose I’m used to the other shoe dropping. Look at our family.” I spoke with my hands. “We had it all until Mom’s car accident. In the blink of an eye, everything changed. You move on, sure, because you don’t have any other choice, but I still think about her and feel a sharp pain in my chest.”
“I know,” he whispered.
As I got to my closet, I pulled out a robe and slipped it on temporarily. I saw Dom was also picking up what clothes of his were in here and slowly getting dressed. “Then there’s part of me that’s still annoyed with Mom for what she did to this family. For the secrets she kept.”
“You’re talking about Jade?”
I nodded. See, Jade Logan (she wasn’t a Morelli, not technically) was my half sister. She was also my older sister. Yes, apparently, I was not the oldest sibling. I’d been kicked out of that role by a woman I didn’t even know existed until more recently when me and my sisters (excluding Jade) had taken a jaunt to my dad’s attic where we’d found Mom’s pregnancy journal. The journal was from the time she had been pregnant with Jade, by the way. So no skeletons in the attic, necessarily, unless you counted age-old secrets that I’d rather have stayed buried.
Truthfully, I hadn’t fully discussed my feelings on the Jade situation with anyone. That was what I was referring to it as for now, by the way—a situation—because I didn’t know how else to describe it or what to make of it.
Perla, Allie, and Bianca had all accepted Jade. Allie almost immediately, and Perla and Bianca more recently. I was still. . . skeptical, we’d say. And I felt I had every right to be because we didn’t know squat about her. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but the point was that we don’t know much more than the bare minimum.
I was about to tell Dom just how the whole secret sister thing really made me feel when the doorbell rang, followed by a rapping knock that echoed in my ears. My entire body went rigid, and Dom froze.
Another knock. Shit!
“Are you expecting someone?” he asked.
“No,” I answered earnestly. “I don’t know who it is.”
The doorbell sounded again before I heard a loud, muffled voice. I could only assume they were calling my name and that it was one of my sisters.
I gave him an apologetic look and tucked my hair behind my ears. Where the hell were my clothes? I couldn’t seem to find anything but went to the door just the same.
“That’s what you’re wearing?” he asked, sincere curiosity lacing his words. “Don’t you think they’re going to suspect something?”
Another shout of my name. Ugh! Couldn’t whoever it was get a clue and leave? Clearly, I was busy. Very, very busy and couldn’t answer the door. “It’s fine. I’ll just get rid of whoever it is.”
“Sounds ominous.”
“Stay here.” Then I couldn’t help it, I had to add to the ominous comment. “That way you can’t testify against me because you didn’t see it happen.”
He cocked a brow. “You’re officially freaking me out.”
I rolled my eyes before exiting the room. Like I’d hurt a fly.
By the time I got to the door, my robe was tied in the front, and I’d fixed my hair the best I could so it didn’t look like I had just been thoroughly fucked. I kicked the clothes we left out here behind the couch and hoped it wasn’t Bianca or Allie because they would definitely notice. I could just see one of them saying, “You look freshly fucked.” Geez, they knew me so well.
Although, when I opened the door, I was surprised to see Jade standing there, her hands pulling frantically through her hair.
Was this because we’d said her name?
Note to self: don’t do that anymore. It apparently summoned her. Weird.
“Ohmigod, Maria,” she nearly yelled. That’s one hell of a greeting. Thank goodness she doesn’t work for a card company. “What took you so long? I was about ready to call the cops. I was afraid something happened to you. You really should answer the door more promptly.” Seems overly dramatic. Or responsible, depending on how you looked at it, but I was choosing to go with the former on this one.
I arched a brow and placed a hand on my hip. “What brings you by, Jade?” I asked in a no-nonsense tone. And it wasn’t just because she’d interrupted my time with Dom. It was because Jade and I were, well, we were what we were, which was not friends.
She twirled the bottom of her dark brown hair with her finger, smacking the gum in her mouth and extending her arm, a bag dangling from her wrist. “I was just at Allie’s, and she asked me to drop this off.” She wiggled the bag, and I slipped it from her wrist, not having the foggiest clue what it contained. “Said she didn’t want to put Gina in the car because she finally fell asleep, and Brady’s at work.”
“Thanks.” I eyed the bag, wondering if I should inspect its contents, but dropped it on the floor just the same. “Well, I appreciate it. Thanks for stopping by.” Now on a scale of one to ten—and I needed you to be honest with me—how obvious was it that if I could’ve turned her around and forced her to leave, I would’ve?
Although, much like the mouse Isabella stumbled upon in our house the other day, Jade didn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon. In case you were wanting a final update on the mouse front, though, I did get the rodent. It was now safely outside, where it belonged and needed to stay.
She narrowed her eyes and rolled her lips as though she was contemplating something. If it was whether she should leave, yes, yes, she should. “I think we should talk. Something’s off here,” she blurted out, clearly done thinking on it.
I scrunched my nose and furrowed my brows. “I don’t know what you—”
“I know you don’t like me,” she cut me off. Rude.
Not that it wasn’t rude what I was going to do, which was lie through my teeth, by the way. I didn’t have time to shoot the breeze with her. Especially not now. I’d been having secret relations with Dom for around three years at this point, and we’d never gotten caught. I know, I was patting myself on the back just thinking about it. Well, there was that first time when Rocco had almost caught us, but that didn’t count, right? We were newbies at sneaking around. Now we were practically professionals. Professional sex sneakers. . . had an odd ring to it. I didn’t hate it. I didn’t like it, either.
Finally, I shook my head, clearing my thoughts and getting back to Jade. “That’s not true,” I lied.
Not that she heard a word of what I said anyway, and if she did, it went in one ear and right out the other because she continued, “I get why. I really do, but I—” She cut herself off and pointed inside, angling her head. “Can I come in? This feels strange, having this conversation on your doorstep.”
This was my opportunity. I could say no. Something told me she wouldn’t take that for an answer, though. So I nodded—begrudgingly—and invited her in, closing and locking the door behind her. One unexpected visitor is enough for tonight. “It’s not that I don’t like you, Jade. Truth is, I don’t know you well enough to have feelings one way or another,” I explained, finally leaning into this whole talking business. I mean, why not? She wasn’t going to leave until we did, so I’d play along.
She moved toward the kitchen, placing her purse on the counter beside my phone and slouching into a barstool as she blew a bubble with her gum and then promptly popped it. “I know,” she said as I came around and stood opposite of her, my arms crossed as I listened to what was on her mind. “That’s why I think this is necessary, and I offered to drop off Allie’s. . . whatever’s in there. We need to remedy that. Because, believe me, I understand where you’re coming from. Really, I do.”
I scoffed. Why wasn’t I buying that? “I’m sorry, but I find that hard to believe.”
She gave me a doubtful look, narrowing her eyes. “Let’s see. You were the oldest sister. You thought that you were your mother’s firstborn child. From what I’ve gathered, your family is immensely close, so this was not only shocking for you, but it made you feel like the ground beneath you was crumbling. I don’t know you too well, but I’m pretty perceptive, and you like things just so. Surprises aren’t your friend.” She sighed. “Am I off base?”
All right, so she wasn’t wrong.
Annoying because she knew all of that about me? Yes. But wrong? No.
Not that I was about to tell her that she was right. That would only further inflate her already obviously big ego. I’m pretty perceptive. Well, congrats, Jade, truly. The only problem was that none of that changed the fact that she was a stranger. Sue me, but I didn’t welcome people into my life with open arms easily.
My last boyfriend, Pedro, for instance, had wanted to meet Isabella. We hadn’t been far enough along in our relationship, though, for me to feel comfortable with that. So I’d had to make a tough choice and ask myself if I even saw a future with him. Short answer: I had not. It’d ended as quickly as it’d started.
Because, at the end of the day, I felt it was my job to protect this family. So that was what I’d do until my last dying breath. Mom had done it. And, sure, Dad did it, but he had his own struggles (unexpectedly losing his wife) and now it was my turn to step up in more ways than one.
“Why does this mean so much to you?” I asked, drawing my brows together as I tried to figure her out. Honestly, she was one of the hardest people to read. People were complicated, that was just a fact. Jade, though. . . well, she was a whole other level of complicated. Something told me she was more complicated than most. But that was merely a hunch.
She rolled her lips, studying my expression, and scratched the skin on her exposed shoulder, courtesy of her racerback gym tank top. “Because I don’t have a family,” she replied simply, her brown brows furrowing. And just like that, my arms dropped, and I tried to see things from her point of view. “I never envied people like you with big, close families that share quite literally everything. But then I got to know you all, and I see how you guys are together.” She smiled. “I didn’t know how much I was missing until now, you know?”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “I’m not going to pretend to understand where you’re coming from, but I would like to try to understand.” I remembered what our mother had always said— family is the most important thing . And it really was. That was how I was raising Isabella. I was raising her to believe the same thing. Because at the end of the day, people came and went, and sometimes it was that way with family, but with my family I knew that even in the darkest moments, I’d make it through. They were my beacon of hope, ray of light at the end of every damn tunnel.
No matter how mad I got at my sisters, they were always—and I mean always —there for me. They showed up. Besides them, Dom was the only other person in my life who I could depend on in more ways than one—and he wasn’t blood. Oh, shit, Dom.
Jade went to speak, but I cut her off, giving her a sheepish look as I tugged my robe tighter around my frame. “Listen, why don’t we meet up for coffee or have breakfast or something? Hmm?”
“That sounds nice,” she replied, smiling. “Truth be told, I had no idea what was going to come of this. I had no expectations. But I’m really happy I did this. And I have Allie to thank for coming here today and—”
A phone rang, the noise so loud it couldn’t be ignored. “I’m sorry about that,” she said, clearly thinking it was hers. She dug into her purse and pulled out her phone, only it wasn’t ringing.
Holy hell, Dom, couldn’t you put your phone on vibrate?
“Whose phone is that?” she asked, looking around before her eyes landed on mine.
I cleared my throat. “It must be mine,” I lied, my eyes shifting to my phone on the counter. Maybe she didn’t notice it. . . right next to her purse. Darn was I up a creek without a paddle.
“No,” she replied slowly. “No. It’s right here, and it’s not ringing. It’s loud as shit, but it sounds like it’s far away, like it’s upstairs.”
I puckered my bottom lip and shook my head. If I kept denying it, she’d leave it alone, right? Plus, it wasn’t like she’d ever figure out that Dom was here. It wasn’t possible. “I don’t know what you—”
Then the ringing phone was the least of my worries. A deep, masculine voice boomed as Dom must’ve stumbled into something getting to his phone. I closed my eyes as Jade stared at the stairs, raking her teeth over her lower lip. “I’m sorry,” she immediately said, grabbing her purse and getting up. “You have company. Wait”—she signaled to my robe—“isn’t that your friend Dom’s car outside in your driveway?”
I didn’t say anything. What could I say? I couldn’t very well deny it. Unless I said the television had automatically turned on in my bedroom. Which wasn’t plausible. And didn’t address the car question.
Before turning on her heel, she looked at me, a silly grin on her face. “Oh my—”
“It’s not what you think it is,” I said, trying and failing miserably. I knew I had failed almost as soon as the words left my mouth.
The look on her face said it all. “I take it people don’t know about you two?”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. So much for keeping it our little secret. “No, and we’d like it to stay that way.”
She mimed zipping her lips and throwing away the key. “You have my word.”
I had no choice but to take her at her word. So I nodded.
“I should have put two and two together sooner.” Then she turned and walked to the door, her hand on the knob as she threw over her shoulder, “If you ever need someone to talk to, Maria, I’m here. I can’t imagine it’s easy fooling around with your best friend. No judgment here, though. Honestly, I think you and Dom would be great together.”
Before I could respond, she was gone. Which was just as well because I exhaled sharply, releasing the biggest breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. I placed my head in my hands as I leaned on my elbows on the counter. Now what?
Walking upstairs, all I could think of was how I was going to tell him. Then, after opening the door, I saw him sitting on the bed, looking so stinking handsome as he smiled at me. “I’m so sorry,” Dom said immediately. “Jeff called, and I tried to get it to stop ringing, but—”
“Doesn’t matter.” I gave him a shaky smile. “That was Jade.”
“Does she suspect anything?” he asked, coming to stand in front of me, his hands on my arms.
I shook my head because there was no suspicion about it. “Suspect? No. She knows.”
The irony of the situation was what blew my mind the most—all this time and nothing. No one found out. One night. One single night and Jade of all people had to figure it out.
Life.