Chapter 17
17
C hloe got off the couch and moved toward him, dropping to her knees in front of him. Dominic lifted his head and looked at her. She clasped her hands around his, and then just stared at their entwined fingers, marveling at how much bigger his were. Several scars littered the tanned flesh. How she wished she could wipe them away.
“Chloe.”
She shook her head and dragged her gaze up, looking into his face. He had a defeated expression on his face, like he was scarred not just on the outside but on the inside as well.
“What happened eight years ago is not something I regret,” she said softly. “I've thought about it every day, wishing things had gone differently afterwards, wishing I could have told you that everything would be okay because I wanted it to be.” Her heart was racing. “I know why you reenlisted, and I know it was because you couldn’t stand yourself or the guilt you felt.” He opened his mouth to speak, but she slowly shook her head. “Please, let me get this off my chest.” He stayed silent, his eyes so full of pain and anguish. “I know you, Dominic. I know you're an honorable man who thinks only of others. You have no guilt to feel over what we shared that night. I know I don’t.”
Rising so that she was face-to-face with him, Chloe knew she had to be honest if she was going to have them get through this. This scene had played out in her head over and over throughout the years.
“I love you.” Her throat felt so tight. “I’m in love with you, and I don’t expect anything in return, don’t expect you to feel the same way, but I want—need—you to know.” She let that sink in, let those words move between them. “When I gave myself to you that night it was because I wanted to, because I wanted to share that part of myself with only you.” She took a calm, steadying breath and gauged his reaction before she continued. “It wasn’t just a coincidence that you saved me from Jake that night. I don’t believe that for one minute.” Chloe cupped his cheek. She could feel the stubble of a day’s worth of growth scrape across her palm. “I’ve loved you from the moment I knew what the concept was. I may have been young, but my heart and body knew that you were what I wanted as my forever.”
The fact she was finally telling him this, spilling those words she’d kept inside of her for all these years, felt liberating. It felt right.
Chloe shook her head. Everything she’d ever done in her life slammed into her mind, and all of it didn’t seem as important as this one moment.
“Chloe,” he said in a gruff, pained voice.
“I just had to tell you so you knew the truth. I knew what I wanted then, and I know what I want now. You may think this is wrong because you married my aunt, because for all these years you were known as ‘Uncle Dominic,’ but what we shared was not taboo or wrong. It wasn’t forbidden. We were two people who were alone and needing that connection. And we found it with each other.”
And then there was silence.
Just as she went to stand, he gripped her wrist in a gentle hold. Chloe’s breath stalled in her lungs. She could hear him swallow, saw the way his throat worked from the act.
“I went back into the service because of what you said. I couldn’t stand to even look at myself in the mirror. I saw a man who had done something forbidden and wrong. I took something from you that I shouldn’t have.”
His words stung, not because she thought they were remotely true, but because he had felt that way, because she heard the pain in his voice.
His grip on her wrists slowly loosened when he clearly realized she wouldn’t leave.
“These feelings I have for you have been my downfall, Chloe. I've watched you grow into a beautiful, intelligent woman. But despite trying so fucking hard, I haven’t been able to steer my thoughts away from feeling you, touching you, holding you.” Dominic pulled her closer to him. “I tried to punish myself for what we shared, tried to erase the guilt and disgust that swallowed me whole. I tried to drown myself in violence and anger, but nothing I did could erase how I felt for you.”
When the lone tear slipped down his cheek, Chloe’s breath halted in her lungs. She had never seen Dominic cry. He’d always been this strong, invincible man in her eyes, but watching him shed tears showed her how utterly human he really was.
“I love you, Chloe. God help me, but I love you. Maybe I’ll always think it's wrong. Maybe I’ll never be able to get rid of the guilt, but I can’t let you go. I’ve tried, and I’ve failed. I’m too selfish where you’re concerned.”
Not wanting to lose another minute, Chloe leaned in the rest of the way and pressed her mouth against his. “I’m here, and I am not going anywhere.” Tilting her head, she opened her mouth over his and slid her tongue along his lips. Fortunately, he didn’t push her away, but instead caressed her tongue with his.
Chloe wrapped her arms around his neck, and the deep groan that came from him had every part of her heating. She’d been waiting so long for this moment.
Her heart skipped a beat when his hands speared into her hair and pulled her closer. She climbed onto his lap, never breaking the kiss. Breath mingling together, Chloe kissed Dominic like it was the last thing she’d ever do.
He broke the kiss only momentarily. “All these years I thought about this. All these years I’ve imagined how your mouth would feel on mine, remembered how it felt against mine,” he murmured against her lips.
“Just love me, Dominic. Make the past eight years of loneliness disappear.” The hands in her hair suddenly tightened, and she gasped as he pulled her head back. He made a slow path down her throat with his lips and tongue. The sting from his hands in her hair didn’t deter her from feeling the intense pleasure of his mouth on her neck.
“I’ve ached for you, Chloe.” He stood abruptly with her in his arms. Chloe wrapped her legs around his waist and tightened her hold around his neck. The feel of his big dick between them, digging against her legs, had her wetter than she’d been in the last eight years … when they’d been together.
He brought his lips back to hers, and she sucked on his tongue as he walked them out of the living room and up the stairs. His arms were wrapped around her tightly, his strength insurmountable. His thighs, like twin tree trunks, carried them up the flight of stairs with ease. The feelings that washed through her at being so close to him again, after all these years, had her remembering this feeling of security and protectiveness she found with him.
When she opened her eyes and broke the kiss, she saw he was standing in front of his bedroom door. Her heart sped up.
“Dominic?” she whispered, not knowing what she was asking him.
Was she saying his name to drag him out of his hazy look, or was she saying his name because taking this into the bedroom meant they were actually going to do this?
“No going back,” he murmured, and Chloe shook her head.
When he stepped into his room and walked toward the bed, she stared into his hard-set face. He let her body slide down his, and she could feel the defined, hard length of his cock nudge her belly.
He moved away to shut the door, and then made his way toward her again, stopping in front of her. This seemed wrong on more than one level, not because of who he was to her, but because this was the room he’d once shared with her aunt.
“After Clara left, I got rid of everything she’d ever bought, everything we’d ever shared. That included the bedroom furniture.”
She wondered if her thoughts had been that transparent. It had been eight years since Clara had lived in this cottage, eight long years since she’d betrayed Dominic well after their marriage had already been over with. And although it all looked different now, the furniture changed, the décor sparse and masculine, it was still the same structure.
But did that really matter anymore? Did a house deem what a relationship could be?
“Come here, Chloe.”
She licked her lips and did as he asked. Those three little words held a touch of dominance that she couldn’t deny made her even wetter. The alcohol she’d consumed, as little as it had been, coursed through her veins and seemed to make her lightheaded. Or maybe it was her arousal that made her feel that way.
She could smell the whiskey on his breath, and it made her hotter, more aroused. She wanted to feel his breath coasting over her nude flesh, causing it to pebble with awareness and tingle with want.
“Take your clothes off, slowly.”
Oh God. He was using that voice she was sure he reserved when he was commanding others, that same deep tone that brooked no argument. She shivered from the intensity.
Chloe went for the buttons of her shirt. She slowly plucked each one out of its hole, then finally pushed the material off her shoulders and felt it flutter to the ground beside her feet. She didn’t wear a bra, a habit during the summer months.
When she went for the button and zipper of her shorts, Dominic shook his head and took a step forward. He ate up the distance until all she felt was the raw, hungry passion that sizzled between them.
Dominic cupped both of her breasts. He did nothing but hold the twin weights in his palms for so long that Chloe started to breathe harder, heavier in anticipation. Who would have thought that one, light touch would drive her crazy with lust?
When she didn’t think she could stand another minute, Dominic ran his thumbs over the engorged peaks. She arched her back as pleasure washed through her. Her nipples, those two, small beads of tissue, tightened up further. She could actually feel the blood rush to them, filling them, heating them, making them even more sensitive.
Chloe opened her eyes, not realizing she had even closed them. The only thing she could see was Dominic’s dark head descending, and then she felt the warm, wet cavern of his mouth closing over one of her nipples. He tugged and sucked on the tip until she was pleading, begging him for more.
He alternated between her breasts, unrelenting in his onslaught.
When he lifted his head, he didn’t give her any time to think. He captured her mouth with his, speared his tongue inside and stroked it along her own. Chloe moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck. She tried to rub herself on him, trying to create friction to ease the ache that settled between her thighs.
He broke the kiss and curled his hand around her hips, stopping her movements. And then he moved those digits to the waistband of her shorts, slowly pushing them down her legs until she was forced to kick them off.
Dominic surprised her further by dropping to his knees in front of her and burying his face against her mound. Instinctively, she speared her hands through his hair, tugging at the short, dark strands, the pleasure of his mouth on the most sensitive part of her body enough to have her nearly coming right then.
“Oh God. Dominic.”
His snaked his hands up the back of her legs and cupped her ass cheeks, squeezing the mounds. That sting of pain accompanied the pleasure. Chloe wanted more, needed more. She spread her legs a little wider and pressed her cunt to his face. She could hear him inhale and then groan gruffly.
Chloe took that moment to really look at him. Although he hadn’t changed much in the past eight years, he did seem harder, emotionally and physically. His dark hair was still short, slightly mussed as she ran her fingers through the strands. Although she’d thought—fantasized—about this moment for the last eight years, she honestly didn’t think she’d be in this position again, literally and figuratively.
He gripped one of her thighs and lifted it so it rested over his shoulder. She was spread so wide now that she could feel her pussy lips pull apart. He buried his face deeper into the valley between her legs, and the feel of his hot, humid breath fueled her lust and pleasure even higher. She knew her panties were soaked.
She was holding on to him as if her life depended on it, and he used his other hand to peel her panties to the side, baring her pussy. For a second he just stared at what he’d revealed. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even think straight as she watched him watch her.
“Christ, I’m going to devour you,” he said and then leaned in, running his tongue up her slit and moving it around her clit. He ate her out ferociously. He was merciless as he ran his tongue up and down her cleft, teasing her clit until the little nub was hard and swollen, before moving the muscle back down and pressing it into her clenching hole.
Over and over he did this, never stopping until she sucked in a harsh breath and tensed as her climax crested. She cried out his name continuously and felt as if she were falling. He had his hands on her inner thighs, keeping her spread for him as he devoured her … as he did exactly what he said he would.
“Chloe, my sweet Chloe.” His voice by her ear dragged her back from oblivion. “The things you do to me. The way you make me feel…”
It was almost like he was speaking to himself.
He had her in his arms only a second later, carrying her to the bed, setting her in the center of it. And then she watched in rapt awe as he moved away from her and removed his pants, his focus on her the entire time. Even in the darkness of the room she could see how hard he was, could see the dark thatch of hair that surrounded the massive cock between his legs. God, her pussy clenched from the sight alone, and she remembered how it felt to have that thickness stretching her virgin pussy.
It would surely feel the same way all these years later, given the fact she’d never been with a man since.
It had only ever been Dominic. It only ever would be him.
She pushed to a sitting position and fought the wave of dizzy arousal that threatened to control her. Reaching out until her hands brushed along his thick, muscular thighs, she pulled him forward until his dick was no more than a few inches from her face. He smelled so good, a wild, masculine scent that had her pussy clenching and a fresh gush of moisture leaving her.
She was so ready for him.
Chloe could see raw desire in his eyes. It’s what she felt as well.
Jaw clenched tight and eyes half-closed, he looked like the soldier she knew him to be. She wanted to break his control, to have him so frantic and aroused that he couldn’t think straight. She wanted them back together like it had been all those years ago.
Right now was about them. Only them. That’s all that mattered.