Chapter 22
Harry
We’d been at brunch for two hours, and I was exhausted from ping-ponging between Mrs Devereaux to my left, Lord Hastings directly in front of me, with Theodore Collins beside him.
All board members, all people I needed to entertain.
We were catching up on family and business affairs while getting into the real matter of what their votes meant to The Foundation.
There was finally a break in the conversation.
I sat back in my chair, taking a brief second to gather myself enough to turn to my left.
I was thankful I could be quiet, even if it wouldn’t last. Mr Collins had pulled Lady Devereaux into a conversation about war orphans, leaving me free to speak to one of the few people at the table I actually wanted to talk to.
My gaze slid to Dom, only to find him staring straight back at me with a wide grin on his face.
At moments like this, I usually felt a sense of ease to know he was with me rather than heat fluttering through me at the warmth coming from him.
I passed it off as my own weakness. Today was especially hard, considering we hadn’t only gathered for brunch, but that my mum was hosting it to celebrate my grandmother’s passing.
Or commemorate.
What Mum actually wanted to do was use the Fischer Summer Gala next week as her stage to make a stand against me, but it was already reserved for the announcement of the vote.
So she hijacked her own brunch to use it as an excuse to laud about all the good she had done since she’d taken over The Foundation from my grandmother, before my wicked attempts to rip it from her grasp began.
Dad sat next to her, thin-lipped. He wouldn’t openly chastise her for using his mother’s name for her own benefit. He did it every year at home after brunch, and it never had any effect. Mum had grown immune to his criticism.
“Alright?” Dom asked, cocking his head, his eyes lit with amusement. He enjoyed these meals far more than I did. “Still holding out?” He kept his voice low to prevent any eavesdroppers. The guests were awful for gossip.
“Mostly.” I shot a look down the full stretch of the table, taking in all the faces, most of them chatting and murmuring, soaking up the atmosphere.
The head of the table where the real business took place.
“Though I wouldn’t say no to something fruity right about now.
I’d love to see Mum deal with me asking for a cocktail. ”
“Harry! It’s only 11AM.” He grinned, lifting his flute of champagne in a mock toast, taking a long sip as I smiled in return.
“I’m still surprised she put you next to me,” I said, unable to ignore how his lazy smile tremored through me.
“Well…” Dom sneaked his arm forwards to swipe his place card between two fingers, flicking it upwards. “I might have done some rearranging during pre-drinks.” He threw me a wink, and I tempered my laugh so we didn’t attract any onlookers.
“You’ll get in so much trouble for that. You know how precious Mum is about her seating arrangements.”
“What am I? Five?” Dom rolled his eyes. “Come on, the worst Mallory will do is give me the evil eye and then shove me at the bottom of the table with the B-listers. I’ll be fine.”
“And what about me? How will I cope without you?”
All of a sudden, the air around us shifted.
My breath trapped in the back of my throat, my heart jumping as a dark heat surged from him. I froze, left stranded as he caught me.
Seconds passed as my body tightened, my eyes wide as his gaze reached into the depths within myself that had only awoken a week ago. It had been dancing at the edges of my thoughts, a hungry need that hunted me, asking to be fulfilled. And it was rearing its head as the world disappeared around us.
But it wasn't meant to be for him.
Dom was supposed to brush it off, maybe flirt a bit. Instead, he captured me. My racing heart was all I could hear as Dom let out a shuddering sigh. I’d only seen him look like that once before, directly after I choked in the pub and looked to find his cock straining against his trousers.
My breath flooded into my lungs, the room shimmering back into focus as I went to ask him why he'd suddenly become so serious. But, by the time I opened my mouth, his shining smile had returned, and he gave me a playful look.
“I’m sure you’ll be fine. You’ve got lovely Lady Devereaux to keep you company.”
Dom bent forward, and nodded to her. I turned just as she shot him one of her wicked grins from my other side.
“That’s exactly what I need.” She chuckled. “A nice, strong man like Dominic Outrem to keep me entertained at night.”
“Oh, Miss Devereaux, you already know I can’t handle you. I’m far too pretty for your tricks.” Dom laughed.
“Hush, boy.” She giggled like a young girl. “You have no idea what I was getting up to when I was your age,” she said wistfully. “Oh, the parties we had.”
“Do you remember the Hamptons in ‘76?” Lord Hastings cut in from across the table to grab her attention. Her gaze flicked to him, and we were freed as the two of them fell into another round of reminiscing about the old days.
“Good,” I whispered to Dom, “I thought I was going to end up in another one of those conversations about the pool boys at Bad Ragaz or the waiters at The Ivy.”
“But those are the best conversations.” He smirked, and I relaxed again. The dark look was gone, and I didn’t want to address it, at least not now. It had been so intense that I was left shaken.
Dom pushed his back against the chair as he dipped his head. “Ah, one second,” he said. He moved towards me, and I leant back instantly, half giving him room, half unsure of what would happen if he touched me. Because that feeling was still wavering in me. A want, a need… for Dom.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Your napkin,” he replied as he knelt on the carpet.
“Sir.” A waiter stepped forwards from his place against the wall, disapproval clear in voice.
“Why don’t you—” I started.
“It’s alright, don’t worry about it,” Dom said, waving us both away.
I threw a glance to the head of the table. Mum would be horrified if any of her guests were seen doing something as menial as picking up their own napkin from the floor. Which was probably why Dom was doing it. He loved the drama.
But she was busy holding stage with Damien Priestly, another high-class family friend, and so she wasn’t partial to Dom’s transgression.
I didn’t think anything of it, until Dom’s head disappeared under the table. He dropped to all fours, swiping up the napkin from the royal blue carpet a foot away from us.
I wanted to make sure he was okay. That was what I told myself as I widened my legs.
His blond hair ruffled, his palms flat on the carpet, I was suddenly fascinated with his position as his hips rocked, bringing back a reminder of one of the texts I’d read and reread too many times.
How would you feel if I licked your asshole?
Lust shuddered through me, and I couldn’t stop my gaze from landing on his ass. I was completely fixed on him as he spun back to face me. The table was high enough that I could see him pause between my legs.
He stilled below me, his eyes glued to my feet. His chest heaved before he reached out a hand.
My heart stopped as his fingers wrapped around my calf, his thumb pressed to my shin, and a shiver ran through my body. He edged closer, using me for support as he moved. But not towards his own seat.
He was there, right in front of me. And time slowed. I couldn’t hear or see anything else but Dom.
I took in the way his burgundy jacket tightened over his chest, and the way he casually rose, almost sliding himself between my knees. I’d only have to squeeze them closed and he’d be trapped between them.
“Do you like what you see, handsome?” Dom murmured, capturing me again with his dark gaze, his voice curling around me.
I swallowed my gasp, all of my senses stolen as I looked into his eyes. There wasn’t the usual playful spark that appeared when he teased me. It was heat; pure and simple. Lust fired in my body as every single thing that made Dom gorgeous bloomed to life in front of me.
My hand trembled at my side, fingers tapping as his gaze danced across my chest, running along the curve of my stomach until he found my cock.
His smile deepened, hidden away from anyone else who might see what was happening.
Need hit me so powerfully that my body loosened.
It was only the chair that stopped me from falling towards him.
And, like an idiot, instead of pulling my leg away, I eased my hips forwards. I buried the noise that threatened to escape me as Dom’s grip tensed, his fingertips denting my skin, his eyes burning with desire—for me.
It was just some game, flirting with me to get me to crack. Like he always did.
“Harry, I’m not going to come up for air if you keep looking at me like that,” he said with a low hum. His hand crept up my leg, my trousers riding up as his hand moved to my knee. I knew he was enjoying every slow inch of it as much as I was.
His gaze jumped between my cock and my shocked face. No matter how strong I was, no one could resist Dom when he looked like that. I just hoped he couldn’t see how my cock was responding to him.
Though from the way his smile morphed from a deep grin to a sultry smirk, I thought I’d been discovered.
In the wild part of my mind, the place I would never show anyone, I had the urge to bring my hand forward and cup my cock through my trousers. I wanted to see his face as I showed him what he was doing to me.
I didn't care if people noticed he'd been under the table for too long; I desperately wanted his mouth on my cock. Even the sharp stab of guilt that pierced me as Molly floated through my mind didn't shake away the thought.
Because it wasn't a thought. It was a need.
One short breath was all it took for the tension to snap. His smile vanished as he released me, dipping his head to hide his face, and disappointment settled into me like an uncomfortable blanket. Because I'd been sexting my fiancée only last night, and suddenly I was…
Clutching the napkin in his other hand, Dom emerged from the table and slid back into his seat. With him sitting right before me like that, it wasn’t hard to imagine how easy it would be for me to lean in and pull him into a kiss.
And the thought made my stomach churn.
“Here. Lucky find, eh?” he said as he handed it over. I looked down at the white cloth, numbly taking it from him as shock pealed through me.
His fingers brushed mine through the fabric. There was a pulse in my body. Dom’s gaze lightly flicked to my lips, and I watched in disbelief as his brow hitched, surveying me with that lazy relaxedness of his.
But it all disappeared in an instant. He gave me a clipped nod before he turned away. His elbow dropped to the table, creating a clear barrier between us as he picked up a new conversation with his neighbour.
The noise of the party flooded back in around me. Rowdy conversations underlined by casual chitchat. But the light was too bright, the sound too intense, and the distance between Dom and me was suddenly so vast that it left me reeling.
I wanted to grab him, to make him look back at me so I could be sure that what had just happened was real.
“What do you think, Harry? Will you get involved in the elections this year?” Theodore Collins asked me from across the table.
My body was so numb that it took a deep breath to bring myself fully back into the room. I steeled myself, returning to my Fischer persona, the one that said nothing of how deeply I wanted to be touched.
“Not a chance,” I laughed, giving him my full attention, even though my whole body was acutely aware of Dom right beside me. “I thought politics was your area of expertise?”
I squeezed my hand under the table as I continued to tap my fingertips against my thumb to clear the tension built up by that look of Dom’s.
“Well, I have to confess it has crossed my mind. How do you think I would fare?” Mr Collins rubbed his chin.
“Pah! Nonsense, as if anyone would vote for you!” Lady Devereaux cut in with another one of her sly grins, and I eased myself into more social wrangling.
But my body pulsed as if Dom had struck me with electricity.
I didn’t know how I was supposed to simply sit there and act like nothing had happened.
Because I needed so badly to ask him what was going on.
Though he never gave me the chance.
The brunch ended, and Dom fled before I could say a word to him. By the time everyone had filed out, he was gone, and uncertainty crowded me again.
After everything I’d said and done with Molly last night, the heat that beat in my stomach for Dom shouldn’t even be there. It was just a moment. I might have even imagined it. It was probably my unmet need for Molly shaking me up and it had nothing to do with him.
I had to keep reminding myself I was marrying Molly. I was solidly with her, and I needed it to stay that way so we could start again when she came home.
But that didn't quiet the pulsing desire in my body, or stop me spending the rest of the day looking around the room for Dom.