Chapter 40 Emily
Emily
Dominic’s ridiculously handsome face is buried between my legs again, and I swear if I have one more orgasm, I’m going to keel over and die. This man eats pussy like it’s one of his favourite pastimes.
He made good on his promise when he said he’d bring me back to his room and worship every inch of my body. He’s relentless and I’m certainly not complaining.
Nobody has ever worked my body over as thoroughly as he has.
My ex wasn’t always a terrible lover; it simply came down to his mood or how inebriated or high he was at the time.
But when the violence escalated, and my feelings turned to resentment, I did everything I could to avoid intimacy, even going as far as moving into the spare room.
Thankfully, Mick’s depravity never went so far as forcing himself on me.
At least there was one boundary he respected in our relationship.
When I feel like I can take no more, I reach down, grasp either side of Dominic’s head, and attempt to drag his face up to mine.
He stops, glances up and asks. “You okay?”
“Come up here,” I plead.
“Are you aching for my big, fat cock again, mia tortina?”
Big and fat is an understatement. I’ll be lucky if I can even walk once we’re finished.
He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand as he moves, not stopping until his enormous frame is hovering over me. I swear his shoulders are so wide they could block out the sun.
My eyes drift from his handsome face, trailing over his broad, inked chest, down the hard lines of his abs, until they settle on the sharp cut of his sinful V. Every inch of him is more distracting than the last. Dominic Rizzo is the cat’s meow, if you know what I mean.
I pause once I reach his impressive length. I can’t believe he’s hard again. I’ve witnessed him working out on more than one occasion, but his stamina in the bedroom knows no bounds.
I get the impression he doesn’t see his own worth, but to me, he’s the complete package. His life hasn’t been easy, and somehow that only makes me admire him more.
He may be a ruthless mobster, but beneath all that roughness is a side most people will never get close enough to see. There’s a fire in him that makes you want to be better. Dominic is fiercely protective, loyal, sharp, and, at times, surprisingly gentle. His softness always catches me off guard.
He balances himself on one elbow as he uses his other hand to tip my face until our eyes meet. Closing the distance between us, he crashes his mouth against mine, kissing me with a fiery passion that curls my toes.
“As much as I’d love to sink back into that sweet little pussy of yours, cupcake, I’ve burned through the last three condoms I had,” he mutters, his voice rough.
“You did?” When I pout, he leans in, sucking my bottom lip into his mouth.
“If you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to have to make a late-night run to the store.”
“I’m on birth control,” I tell him.
“I’ve never fucked bareback before,” he counters.
“Neither have I,” I admit.
He arches an eyebrow. “Not even with your ex?”
I shake my head. “He’s the reason I started taking the pill in the first place.”
“He is?”
“Yes.” I hold his gaze as I speak. “I felt trapped with him, like there was no way out, and I wasn’t stupid enough to bring a baby into that shitshow.
He often talked about starting a family, like it would fix things.
As if it was the answer to all our prayers, so I took the necessary precautions to make sure that didn’t happen. ”
“Devious,” he replies with a smirk.
“That man should never be allowed to reproduce.”
I’m taken by surprise when he barks out a laugh. It’s rare to see this growly man let anything slip through the cracks. “I agree,” he says, but then his expression turns deadly serious. “What if the pill fails and I knock you up?”
I reach up, brushing my fingers over the scar on his cheek. “I think Lil’ Peach would make a great big sister.” His brows shoot up, and when he buries his head in the crook of my neck with a low groan, the regret instantly hits. “Too much, too soon,” I murmur as heat creeps up my neck.
He lifts his face, and smiles. Not the usual restrained version, but a rare, full, unguarded grin. “Having a family of my own is not something I ever thought I’d want, but with you, Emily … I find myself wanting it all.”
This time when he slips inside me, there’s no urgency, no raw, unrestrained need. His movements are slow and meticulous. His kisses are soft, deep and sweet. And if I’m not mistaken, this doesn’t feel like sex. It feels like he’s making love to me.
The sun is beginning to rise as the first light slips through Dominic’s bedroom window. Neither of us have slept.
I’m lying in his arms, wishing the world would pause for a few more hours so I can stay right here, with him.
Even though we’ve taken things to the next level, I still don’t know what awaits us when we leave this room. Are we something now? Or does it all fall away the second we step back into reality, like it did the first night in his kitchen when he had me coming apart with his hand?
The thought stings because there’s something real happening between us. I can feel it building. Maybe he doesn’t see it yet, but I certainly do. He admitted he hasn’t done relationships in the past, but I have. I know a connection when I see it, and this is something I can’t ignore.
It’s like I’ve been waiting my whole life for him. As if he and Lil’ Peach are somehow tied to my happiness. It’s crazy to feel it this fast, but from the moment Dominic brought me into his home, it was like I belonged.
“Have you ever wished for something?” I ask, letting my words drift around us as the tips of his fingers gently massage circles in my scalp.
“What do you mean?”
“If you could have anything, anything in the world, what would it be?”
I’ve spent countless hours getting to know his body, but the man himself is still a mystery. I know what I see on a daily basis, but there’s so much I don’t. I want to know what makes him tick. What makes him … him.
He’s usually a closed book, so I’m honestly not expecting anything profound, but then he surprises me by saying, “I wish that my mum hadn’t died the way she did when I was a kid.
” His fingers pause in my hair, but his gaze remains fixated on the ceiling.
“I wish that my dad would face retribution for everything he’s done, and I wish my sister would get her fucking shit together. ”
“You said the day your dad left, you found your mum floating face down in the pool. Do you think your dad had something to do with that?”
“I know he did.”
“And he was never convicted for it?”
“He disappeared like a damn coward.”
“Oh,” I whisper, because I’ve got nothing else to add.
I thought my family was messed up, but my parents’ dysfunction doesn’t even come close to his.
My chest aches for what he and his little sister went through.
It also helps me understand why Dominic cared so much about my relationship with Mick, and how he saw it for what it was, even when I didn’t.
“I can’t believe he’s gotten away with it for all these years. ”
“His time will come,” Dominic growls.
I lift my face from his chest and meet his eyes. “What does that mean?”
“Exactly that. I hired a private detective years ago to track him down.”
My eyes widen. “You know where he is?” He grunts in reply. “Why hasn’t he been arrested? Have you told the police?”
“He’s not in Australia anymore, Emily. He ran off to Italy not long after he ended my mother’s life and abandoned my sister and myself.”
“Oh, Dom,” I say, tightening my grip on his waist. “I’m sorry for what he did to your mum and everything you and Violet have suffered through.”
When I sniffle, Dominic lifts his head off the pillow and places his lips on my hair. “Don’t cry for me, Em. Every dog has their day, and his time is running out. If I didn’t have the responsibility of caring for my niece, I would’ve ended him a long time ago.”
“Can’t you just have him extradited to Australia?”
“I could, but I won’t. This is personal for me, and I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.
” I grimace because, as much as I understand why his father needs to pay for his actions, I wish he’d do it legally.
The room falls silent for a moment before he changes the subject.
“What about you, cupcake? What does Emily Ashford wish for?”
To meet my half-siblings is my first thought. A permanent life with him and his niece—a real family—would be at the top of my list, though, but I don’t want to scare him off, so instead I say, “An RV.”
“A motor home?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes,” I reply, playfully slapping his chest. “You make it sound like it’s a ridiculous wish.”
He moves me off his chest and sits up. “Why wish for an RV?”
“I want to travel Australia.”
“Are you planning on leaving us?” When I don’t answer immediately, he shakes his head and shuffles to the edge of the bed, flinging his legs over the side.
“Un-fucking-believable. I finally put myself out there. I finally gave in to everything I’d been fighting, convincing myself you wanted this too, and you’ve been planning to take off all along. ”
“No,” I say, the word with assertion, as I scramble across the mattress and quickly wrap my arms around his waist, stopping him before he stands. “It’s not what you think. I don’t want to leave, I love being here with you and Peach.”
“Then why would you wish for an RV, Emily?” he growls, scrubbing his hand down his face.
I rest my backside on my haunches, but I don’t release my hold on him. Instead, I double down and tighten my grip.
“When I got my first part-time job, I started saving. I wanted to travel the world. Then my parents split, and my dad moved away, so my plans changed. I wanted to visit Hong Kong to see my dad. He kept finding reasons for me not to come, and after a while I stopped trying. So I changed the dream. That’s where the RV came in.
If I couldn’t go overseas, I’d travel my own beautiful country instead.
I used to see all the backpackers come through Griffith during fruit-picking season, before I moved away.
They weren’t much older than me. It looked like freedom and fun. ”
Dominic turns, angling his body toward me. There’s a lot he could say, but he picks the one thing that hits hardest. “Your dad made excuses so you wouldn’t visit him?”
I let go of him as I drop my gaze. “Yeah, he did, and still does.”
Tears sting my eyes when Dominic grasps my chin and brings my face back to meet his. “When was the last time you saw him?”
“When I was sixteen,” I answer, my voice sightly cracking. “He remarried. I have two half-siblings I’ve never met.”
A tear slips from my eye, slowly cascading down my cheek.
Deep lines form on Dominic’s forehead as he leans in and captures the tear with the tip of his tongue.
“I don’t like seeing you cry, mia tortina,” he murmurs as he rests his forehead against mine.
“I like people hurting you even less. One day soon, I plan to fly to Italy, hunt down my father, and seek revenge for my mother’s death.
I may need to make a stopover in Hong Kong on the way home. ”
A small, sharp gasp passes my lips. “Please don’t kill him,” I whisper.
“My father?”
“No mine.”
A smile tugs at his lips as he draws back to meet my eyes. “You have no problem with me killing mine, just not yours?”
I lift one shoulder. “I’d rather it all be done legally, but if this is what you need to find peace, I’ll back you all the way.”
His eyebrows jump so high, they almost reach his hairline. “You will?”
“It sounds like your dad deserves it,” I admit. “Mine just needs a sharp right hook, or a swift kick to the balls.”
The loud, boisterous laugh that breaks free from Dominic is so unlike him … so unexpected, that it startles me for a second.