17. Corey
17
COREY
W hy had Dom let himself be miserable? “That doesn’t sound like a very fun way to live.”
“When your family’s in this business, it’s the only way to live.”
I was sure he meant that literally. “Tell me what else she did to you?”
It was several moments before he looked at me. “I haven’t told anyone the whole story. Not Lucien, not X, not even my sons. No one.”
“Maybe it’d be easier to tell me because I’m not family. I’m not anyone special to you.”
He frowned. “You’re incredibly special.”
Fear raced through me. I wasn’t even sure what I was afraid of: What I was feeling? What he might mean by that? What he had to say about Lisa? All of it? “Thank you.”
He waved a hand as if dismissing my appreciation. “It’s simply a fact. And you are important.”
“Because I can testify? Because I’m a trustworthy witness?”
“You’re a hell of a lot more than that.”
The air felt heavy, thick. I could barely breathe. Finally, I managed to break the spell and look away. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“You need to know, but whatever you think of me now, that’s likely to change.”
I frowned. “Is it? Will you change fundamentally? Will the person you are be any different?”
“Are you always this challenging?”
I gave him a coquettish smile. “I’m usually quite compliant. People are often amazed by how well I can do what I’m asked.”
“Hmm, maybe we can see about that later. I like that idea.”
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tensed. Was I ready for what he was going to tell me?
“On the rare occasions when I was home, Lisa kept her distance. She went out to a lot of meetings, but I assumed they were the standard fare of a rich wife—appointments at the salon, meetings for a charity board. I was wrong. So wrong. And I never thought to check up on her, never knew my worst enemy was right there in my own house.”
I reached out and took his hand. He squeezed my hand back but then let go. He didn’t know how to let anyone comfort him. I wanted to teach him how to stop pushing everyone away. He wasn’t really cold. He just retreated so far inside himself. To have your spouse betray you like that, even if it hadn’t been a marriage of love, would hurt anyone. And for it to happen to someone who prided himself on being aware of everything going on around him, ready to defend himself at any second…that had to be horrifying. No wonder he was like he was.
“At first, when I saw Lisa in the cabin she’d lured me to, I thought she was a victim, that my enemy kidnapped her to get to me. The truth was, he was already dead. He’d served his purpose, bankrolled her endeavors, and now she just needed to get rid of me so she’d be free.”
I sucked in my breath. “She…she killed him?”
Dom nodded. I could see his tension in the tightness of his jaw and the way he held himself. Was he reliving all of this in his mind? “You don’t have to tell me more.”
“Yes, I do. She shot me, then set the cabin on fire and left me for dead. But I managed to crawl out, to save myself—or what was left of me.”
“Dom, no. You are the same man you were.”
He shook his head. “I’ll never be whole again.”
“That’s not true. You are a whole man, and a good one.”
“No. I should have seen through her. If I hadn’t been wearing Kevlar, I wouldn’t have survived. Her first bullet knocked the breath out of me. I hit the floor and before I could get up, she shot me again in the leg.”
Now I was sure he was reliving every moment. His eyes were glazed, no longer seeing what was in the room.
“I reached for my gun, but she made clear the next bullet would go right through my head, so I stayed there. At that point, I figured I deserved to die. How could I have been so stupid? How could I not have seen her for who she truly was?”
Tears were running down my face. I couldn’t stand the thought of him lying there, injured and hating himself. I slipped off my chair and knelt in front of him. “I’m so sorry.”
He absently ran a hand through my hair as he kept talking.
“I heard someone enter through the door behind me. At the time, I assumed it was the man I’d been hunting, but it was some fool she’d seduced into helping her. He began pouring gasoline around me in a circle. Lisa grabbed the can from him and slung some on me.”
“No!” I shook my head, not sure I wanted to hear anymore.
“I can stop if you need me to.” He looked out the window and blew out a breath. “You’ve seen enough of me to know what happened.”
He needed to tell me everything I was sure of that, and I wasn’t going to keep him from talking. I would do anything to help him heal. “Go on. Tell me the end.”
“She smiled at me as she lit the place on fire, then she and the man walked away. I dragged myself toward the door. She’d shot me in the left leg, so I lay on my right side as I made slow progress. My left side caught fire as I moved through the flames. I rolled over and over once I made it through the door, trying to extinguish the flames. I was barely conscious when the men I’d called for backup arrived. Lisa and her minion were long gone.”
When he’d told me the basics the night before, I’d never imagined anything that horrific. That she’d been the one to cause his injuries. I took his hands in mine. “How could anyone do that to another person?”
Dom sighed. “Don’t imagine for even a minute that what she did makes her worse than me. I’ve done things just as gruesome.”
“To someone you were married to? Someone you were supposed to care about?”
He shook his head. “She didn’t care about me.”
“But would you… Could you have done that to her?”
“No. Even if I’d known, I would never have left her like that. I don’t want to draw things out. I don’t want to torture her. I just want her dead so it will all be over.”
He took a deep breath. “I spent months in rehab, getting myself to where I could function. It was days before I could even tell anyone what happened. At first, I only remembered pain. By then, she’d disappeared. Other people were running her business interests, but they weren’t the ones I cared about. She’d gotten a huge payout, and I stupidly assumed she was gone for good. I could barely think, and I didn’t have my sons to defend me then. My brother Frank, Lucien’s father, made sure I was physically taken care of, but he was busy, and I wasn’t close to Lucien yet.”
I shuddered at the thought of how much pain he’d experienced, and to do that without anyone to comfort him was unbearable. “I can’t imagine the hell you went through.”
“My family did search for her while I recovered. Frank put his best men on it, but they didn’t find a trace. I might have if I’d been in shape to, but by the time I could walk again, the trail was cold.”
I’d never been a violent person. I’d wanted to save people from violence—that was how I’d ended up going to law school. But if I could find Lisa right then, I could kill her myself for what she’d done. She was hurting children who needed medicine, which was vile in and of itself. She had put contaminated drugs on the streets, and she’d hurt Dom. She literally left him to burn.
I laid my head against his thigh as I wiped away tears. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to express how horrified I am that someone would do that. I know you say you’re not any better than her, but you’re wrong. You wanted to stop her from selling weapons then and you want to get these drugs off the market now. You don’t hurt good people.”
“I can’t promise you that. I can’t promise you there hasn’t been collateral damage from what I’ve done.”
I looked up at him. “Lisa is a monster.”
“I’m a monster, Corey. Don’t you get that? And now I even look like one.”
I shook my head. “Do you know what I thought the first time I saw you?”
“What?”
“I thought, ‘Damn, I didn’t expect my bodyguard to be a Zaddy.’”
He rolled his eyes. “You’d only seen the scars on my face.”
I lifted my hand and rubbed my thumb over his cheek. “None of that matters to me. I thought you were sexy as fuck, and I was sad when I thought you were straight.”
“But I am straight. Or….”
I raised my brows.
“All right, fine. I guess I’m not. I just don’t know how to process this.”
“Do you need to right now? I won’t tell anyone about what happened last night if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“No. Yes. Fuck. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
I tried not to take that personally. He was trying to be my protector only, and I’d begged for more. “I pushed you into it, but I’m not sorry. Are you?”
“No.” He answered immediately, and the pain I’d felt dissipated.
“I don’t regret anything except how hard I took you. I meant to be more gentle.”
I shook my head. “I loved the way you lost control. I want that. I wanted to see the heat I knew was inside you.”
Dom frowned. “I’m more dangerous when I’m not controlled.”
“Are you really?” I rose and straddled him in the chair. There wasn’t really room, but I made it work, and he didn’t protest. His hands went right to my hips, holding me there.
He smiled. “I’m deadly no matter how controlled I am.”
I worked my hips against him. “Not to me.”
“You shouldn’t be mixed up in all this.”
I tilted my head as I considered that. “I never wanted to be involved in anything like this. But now…? I don’t regret meeting you or fucking you.”
He slid his hand into my hair and yanked my head to the side. “More,” I begged.
“Jesus, you’re too much.”
“Maybe I’m what you need.”
“I’m afraid you are.”
“Don’t be afraid. Just enjoy me.”
He ran his lips along my neck, making me shiver. I whimpered when he nipped at me. He kissed the outer edge of my ear, then whispered, “You really want this, don’t you?”
I nodded. “Do you?”
“Yes. I want you back in my bed. I want to bury myself in you. I want to know what it’s like to take your ass.”
I tried to move my hips, desperate for friction. My cock ached, and I needed more—needed his hand wrapped around it, needed to know he really would take what he wanted.
“You don’t care that I’m a guy? You want to fuck my ass? You think you can handle that?”
“Don’t think I haven’t given a good ass fucking before.”
I opened my eyes, fought against his grip so I could look at him. “It’s not the same. I mean, mechanically speaking, sure. But I don’t want you pretending. If you’re going to fuck me like this, I want you to know that I’m a man, that this is real—that you want me. I want you to wrap your hand around my cock and jerk me off. I want you to touch me everywhere. Don’t close your eyes. Don’t play games with me.”
He gripped my hair even harder, pulling it so hard I cried out as he drove his hips against mine. “Do you feel that?” He held my gaze as he spoke, his eyes dark as polished onyx. “Do you feel how hard I am?” He slid his cock against mine, and I sucked in my breath.
“Yes.”
He raised a brow, and I realized what he was waiting for. “Yes, sir.”
He smiled then. “You know I like when you say that. I’m hard for you. I don’t know why this is happening, but I’m not pretending. I want you—not as a substitute for anyone else, but because you’re beautiful and annoying and talkative, and for some reason, you have seduced me completely.”
“I guess I’m just good like that.” I loved the look on his face when I teased him, when I flirted outrageously. But inside, I was questioning everything. Why me? If he’d never liked men before, why was he attracted to me? I was nothing like the men he was around, nothing like what he would’ve chosen for himself. Unless what he really wanted and what he let everyone believe wasn’t the same at all. Did anyone know the real Dominic Marchesi? I would be honored to have that chance.
I looked into his eyes, holding his gaze as I stroked his cheek. “I would love for you to fuck me any way you want to. But I’d also just like you to kiss me again.”
I could tell it was the right thing to say by the way his eyes flashed. He pulled me to him, slower than I expected. He nipped at my bottom lip, and then he took my mouth fully, his tongue pushing into me the way I wanted to feel his cock pushing deep into my ass.
Finally, he eased his hold on my hips so I could work them against him. “Feels so good. I love having your cock against mine. I want you to fill me with it in every possible way.”
He growled and pulled me tighter against him. I kissed him again as he pushed his hand into the opening of my robe, running it up my back, then caressing my chest and making me gasp as he pinched my nipples. He seemed desperate to explore every inch of me, and there was nothing I wanted more.
“Off,” he snarled against my lips as he shoved the robe from my shoulders. I let it drop to my wrists, then pulled it off and dropped it on the floor.
Dom’s eyes widened as he stared at my body. “How are you so fucking beautiful? What is it about you?” He wrapped my hair around one of his fingers. I watched as he studied it, slowly stretching the curl and then letting it go. “You’re fucking bewitching.”
“Would you believe me if I told you no one has ever thought that before?”
He raised his brows.
“I swear. It’s not like I’ve never dated or anything, and I mean, you know, I can get a hookup whenever.”
His voice was low and gravelly. “I don’t like to think about anyone else touching you. You’re mine.”
I shivered. I wanted that to be true. And that was very, very dangerous.
“Up,” he ordered. I steadied myself on his shoulders and rose up on my knees so I could look down at him. He gripped my ass, squeezing my cheeks. “You like that? You know you’ve got a great ass.”
“I work hard for it.”
His grin nearly melted me. “I know. I’ve seen you.”
“Have you been spying on me?”
“And what if I have?”
“It’s fucking hot.” I ran my thumb along his scarred cheek and felt him shiver.
“Does that hurt you?”
He shook his head. “No, I just…” He took my wrist and pulled my hand away from his face. “I’m not ready for that.”
“Okay. What are you ready for? Watching me ride you?”
He made a strangled noise as he stared at me.
“Did I surprise you?”
“Hold on,” he ordered me as he gripped the sides of the chair and lifted himself to standing, keeping me wrapped around him. Once he was on his feet, his hands grasped my ass as I crossed my legs behind him. His leg threatened to give, but he straightened and began to move.
“You can’t carry me.”
He snarled. “Don’t tell me what I can do.”
When he tossed me on the bed, I stretched out, showing off my naked body. His intake of breath made me smile. Once again, he gave me a slow once-over. “You like watching me.”
“I do. I like carrying you too.”
“Mmmm. You’re so fucking strong.”
“I am. I will never let myself be weak. Those weeks I spent in rehab were hell. No one is going to fuck me over like that again.”
“You made one mistake, Dom. Think of all the times you didn’t fail, all the times you hit your mark.”
“It doesn’t matter. That one time could’ve been the end. It almost was.”
“I’m really glad it wasn’t. Are you going to undress for me?” I gave him a slow once-over, letting my gaze rest extra long on the bulge in his pajama pants.
“No. I told you that’s not an option.”
“Okay, then.” I stretched out and patted the bed beside me. “Come lay down so I can ride you. Oh, and do you have some lube around here somewhere? I sure hope so. I’d hate to have to run to my room.”
“In the drawer.” He gestured toward the nightstand. I leaned over, opened it, looked inside, then a big sigh of disappointment. “No toys in here with it. I mean, a boy could always hope.” I winked at him. “I suppose riding you will have to do.”
“What if I want to fuck you from behind? What if I want to pin you down and hold you by the throat?”
“Jesus, that sounds hot, but I don’t want you to hurt yourself. I want this to be relaxing for you. You don’t have to keep proving yourself to me.”
He didn’t say anything else, but he started to help. I laid the lube beside him, straddled him, and pulled his pants down enough to free his cock. I ran a finger along the hard ridge. “Fucking beautiful.”
Dom studied me with a hungry look. “Just because you’re riding me doesn’t mean you’re in control. You will do exactly what I say.”
“Are you always this bossy?”
“Yes, I thought that was obvious.”
“There’s a lot of things about you that are obvious. You just don’t like to admit it.”
“Shut up and come here. I’m ready to split you open. I want to hear all the little sounds you make. I want to hear you whimper.”
“You like to talk in bed.”
“I do with you. Usually, I just give commands. I don’t know what you’ve done to me.”
“I know what I will do with you.” I straddled him, took the lube, and squirted some on my fingers. Then I braced myself on one arm while I reached behind myself with the other, rubbing the lube over my hole, closing my eyes and letting him know how much I enjoyed it.
“You better open yourself up good and wide. I don’t promise to be gentle.”
“I want it rough. I want you to lose control like you did last night. You need to let go more often, and if that’s something you can do with me, then I’m happy to serve.”
“Fuck yourself harder,” he ordered. I did, making a show of sliding down onto my fingers, working up to three, driving them into me as I ground down and worked my hips.
“Jesus Christ, that’s enough.” Slowly, I pulled my fingers from my ass and positioned myself right over his cock, gripping him firmly at the base. He sucked in his breath. “Fuck, your hand feels good. I can only imagine how incredible your hot, tight ass is going to feel.”
I gave him a smirk. “Are you sure you can last?”
“Long enough to make you beg. You’ll be so ready to come, you’ll do anything for it.”
“I’m almost there now.”
“Lower yourself, but only until I tell you to stop.”
I held his cock, working it against my slick hole until he growled at me. I began to take him into me. Fuck, he was big. He stretched me, and it felt so good. I’d only taken his cock head in when he told me to stop.
“Dom, please. I need this. You need this.”
He scowled at me. “You need to understand how this works.”
“Why do you want to fucking torment me?”
“Because you’ve been tormenting me from the moment you walked into the house.”
“I…I didn’t do anything.”
“You existed, and you talked.” I squeezed my ass, tightening it against his cock, and he growled at me, seizing my hips and squeezing them hard, lifting me off of him.
“No, please. We both need this.”
“You take it at my pace or not at all.”
“Fuck, you’re so hot like this, so demanding.”
His glare made me smile. He released me with one hand and took hold of his cock. He guided me back onto it, allowing me to sink a little lower.
“Fuck, that feels good.”
He smiled—genuinely smiled—at me.
“You like that? You like stretching me open, making me feel every inch?”
“I do.”
“I like it too, and I like when you smile.”
He held my hips again, and this time he lifted up, pushing himself deeper, making me gasp.
“You’re so fucking thick. I knew this was going to feel incredible after the way it felt to have my lips stretched around you. Please. I want all of it. Let me ride you.”
“Not yet. Slow, little by little. Because once I’m all the way inside you, it’s going to go hard and fast.”
“I like hard and fast.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I can take it.”
“Can you?”
“Yes. I may not be tough like you and your family, but in bed, I can handle whatever you give me.”
“Slowly, lower yourself,” he demanded. My thighs were shaking at this point, but I lowered myself just a little more. “Stop.”
“Please,” I begged. “Please, let me have all of you.”
A bead of sweat tickled me as it rolled down my neck and over my collarbone. I was hot and desperate, my cock dripping pre-cum.
“This is too much.” My muscles screamed as he let me have just a little more.
I squirmed, fighting his hold.
“Dom, just let this happen. Just let go. Lose control like you did before. Just fuck me.”
That did it. He grabbed my ass, pulling my cheeks apart. He lifted his hips and drove into me, finally giving me everything. It hurt like hell. My ass burned. I felt so fucking full. It really felt like he would split me open.
“You want me out of control? You want me showing you how much I want you? You want to know for sure that it’s you? I’m looking at you right now.” He wrapped his hand around my cock. “I’m jerking you off, working your cock while your ass swallows mine. I know who you are, and I know that I want you. I know that I need to fuck your ass so hard.”
My head was spinning. I couldn’t catch my breath. My cock ached, and I was sure if he kept stroking me, I was going to come any second. The feel of his cock driving into my ass was intoxicating, but I also knew he was hurting himself by holding me up, working his hips.
I fought against the cruelly tight grip of his hands. “Let me go. Let me ride you. Let me show you how good it can be if you just fucking relax. Don’t hurt yourself. You don’t have to hold me here. I’m not going anywhere. You don’t have to fucking prove anything to me.”