6. Charisse
Charisse
I wake up disoriented when I pry open my eyes to see I’m in Dominic’s bedroom and not the guest room. My body is sore and achy after a night spent as the sole focus of Dominic’s desire, and I gently stroke the arm he’s wrapped around my belly in a possessive embrace.
I’m not sure what I expected when I hatched the plan to bear my best friend’s baby, but I know I didn’t expect to feel a surge of warmth and connection pulsing between us the way it did when he moved inside me. I didn’t expect to be filled with raw want and need, or to be able to trust someone else to show me that my body can be a playground of discoveries.
And I sure as hell didn’t expect to feel as if I’m in real danger of falling for my best friend.
Considering how all my previous relationships fell apart, I can’t risk that happening here. Not with Dominic. Not when it matters— he matters—so much to me.
Kind, funny, protective… Those are all things I’ve known Dominic to be as my friend.
But last night, I saw a different side to him.
As a lover, he’s dominant, demanding, and devoted . Just thinking of the way he touched me, teased me, and spoke to me has my body heating and my core clenching. Daddy Dominic, who knew that’d work for me?
I thought things between us would be transactional or perfunctory. A lot like my previous experiences with partners have been, but it’d been playful. Not rushed, not rote, not focused solely on chasing his own pleasure but on helping me find mine.
He’s a revelation, and if I’m not careful, the thin line between friends with benefits and friends with feelings might disappear entirely. I can’t risk our friendship, not when we’re here trying to make a baby that we’ll both be tied to for the rest of our lives. It’d be too messy if I wound up with yet another failed relationship.
No. Better to play it safe. Keep it casual.
Take a page from Dominic’s playbook and enjoy the spectacular sex for what it is.
No big deal.
I roll out of his grasp, resist the urge to plant a kiss on his scruffy cheek, and hit the shower. When I emerge, Dominic’s awake and looking deliciously rumpled with his dark hair in disarray and the white sheet sliding off his hips, barely concealing the stiffness of his morning wood.
“Your phone was ringing,” he says, nodding at the nightstand.
I tuck the twisted ends of the towel between my breasts and rush to grab my phone. There’s a missed call and several texts from Gerald, my agent, asking where the hell am I and instructing me to call him back ASAP. When I do, I’m shocked to hear that one of my original songs has been picked up by a major Hollywood studio seeking unique voices to add to a soundtrack.
This news is major, and while I’m fighting hard to maintain my professionalism, Dominic’s hands skim over my bare shoulder, and his eyes are intent on my face.
“You need me in the studio today?” I ask, jabbing the speakerphone button. This wasn’t the plan. I’d expected to have at least a couple weeks of downtime to rebound after the tour wrapped before having to work again. My eyes drift over to Dominic’s quirked eyebrow and questioning eyes. “I’ve got plans today.”
Immediately, Dominic’s mouth flattens and he shakes his head at me.
“Charisse, this is the breakthrough you’ve been waiting for. This could take you mainstream. You could step out of the shadows with this opportunity, right onto center stage.” Gerald’s tone is firm. “Isn’t this what you’ve been working toward? What’s changed?”
My gaze flits over to Dom, the expanse of his broad chest and smattering of fine, dark hair dusting his pecs.
“Nothing, I—”
“She’ll be there,” Dominic calls out, flinging off the sheet and rolling out of bed. “Give us two hours.”
“ Ay nako! ” Gerald’s surprise causes him to flip into Tagalog, and he lowers his voice, but it echoes in the room through the speakers anyway. “ Sino yan? Ang bagong nobyo? ”
Who’s that? A new boyfriend?
Dominic strides into the bathroom, and I watch his sculpted, naked body disappear behind the door.
I gulp and wish it were true. But I keep my voice level and feel the lie stick in my throat when I simply say, “An old friend.”
“You really didn’t have to do this,” I say, trailing after Dominic’s long strides as he tosses a bag into the trunk of his top-down convertible. “This weekend was supposed to be about you. We were meant to be bingeing on pancakes and lining up to see which one of us will puke first after riding the Screamer roller coaster for the umpteenth time.”
“Didn’t I have you doing enough screaming last night?” Dominic winks, and heat flushes my cheeks as he opens my door and I slide into the passenger seat. “Besides, I think we both did enough puking in our twenties, don’t you?”
I laugh, trying to cover up my nerves. “But it’s for old times’ sake!”
He buckles up next to me, then surprises me by capturing my face and leaning in for a quick kiss. “I hear you. I appreciate your efforts to make me feel sixteen again, but Reece, like I said before, we’re twice as old now. I have to be honest. The only vehicle I want to be in that zooms at the speed of a slapshot is the one I’m driving.”
“Are you sure?”
Dominic shoots out of his parking space. “Look, when life gives you a chance to take a shot at something you want—I mean something you really want—you have to go for it. Haven’t you been talking about wanting to strike out solo for years now? Haven’t you always dreamed of seeing your own name in lights?”
“Yes, but—”
“There’s no but about it, Reece. Your time can be now. The life you want can be yours. All you have to do is reach out and grab it.”
I study his handsome profile, the dark sunglasses perched on his head and the smooth, just-shaven jawline stubbornly set. Dominic has always been the biggest supporter of all my dreams.
Even my family scoffed when I told them I was going to study music and move to Los Angeles to try to make it in the business. Oh, they wished me luck, but they tempered their comments by urging me to study something practical. That way, if I came crawling back home jobless in a few years, I’d have something useful to fall back on.
I didn’t listen then because I loved music too much, and thankfully, I’d made a career of it.
“You really believe that, don’t you? You believe in me.” I say it as a statement, because it is. Something quivers inside me, a deep, foundational, seismic shift that has me looking at him and seeing him. Seeing past the fun-loving persona to the enormous heart beating inside that solid muscular chest of his.
He doesn’t hesitate.
“Yes, I do. I always have. I’ve been waiting for you to shine like the superstar you are, and I’m not letting you waste a career opportunity to scream away that million-dollar voice on a roller coaster with me.”
“But you’ll let me scream out Daddy Dominic half the night?”
“That’s different.” He flashes that smile that makes me wish for things I shouldn’t as he pulls dark shades over his eyes.
“How?”
“That’s just us making a different kind of music together.”
Then, he signals for the on-ramp, shifts into a higher gear, and we’re speeding down the freeway with the wind roaring in our ears and no easy way to continue the conversation.
In the studio, I insist on Dominic coming with me to the introductory meetings and to hear the pitch. My agent purses his lips together and doesn’t like it but relents when he decides Dominic could pass as my muscle.
Appearances always matter so much in this town.
And as the business of hammering out a deal gets discussed, I find myself feeling anxious about the possibilities before me.
If this deal goes through, I’ll be on a major film soundtrack.
If this deal goes through, my song will be in rotation on pop radio stations all around the world.
If this deal goes through, my life might change entirely.
Until now, I’d been happy enough to stay in the shadows, propping up others and supporting their dreams while only trying to chase my own. That half-commitment hasn’t quite gotten me where I wanted to be. So why is it now, when I’ve refocused my hopes on motherhood, that the stars begin to align in all the ways I’d hoped for?
Can I handle balancing the hustle of trying to climb up the fame totem pole while also running the gauntlet of new parenthood?
Was I settling all those times before? Settling for good enough and good-on-paper, never daring to dream that maybe, just maybe, things could be great ?
Dominic’s large, warm hand covers my bouncing knee and gives it a reassuring squeeze as if he knows what’s rattling around in my head. Or maybe because my shoe had been squeaking rhythmically under the table, the rubber soles squeaking against the polished tile like an annoying metronome.
“I’m sorry,” I say, cutting off the exec’s back and forth with my agent. “I need a minute.”
Then I push away from the table and hurry out of the room, not bothering to look behind me.
A chair scrapes back, and I know Dominic is hot on my heels. Like every single time I’ve ever needed him, he’s come running to catch me before I fall. How have I never noticed before? How have I taken it all for granted?
Slamming through the unisex bathroom door, I turn around and yank him in after me. Behind him, I can see Gerald’s eyebrows shoot skyward, and the panic is already clawing at my throat, already bowing my back and convulsing in my belly.
“I need a minute.”
Then I close the door, flip the lock, and fling myself into Dominic’s arms. The control I’ve barely been holding onto slips, and I choke on a sob.
His hand strokes my spine in that easy soothing way he’s always done whenever I’ve gotten overwhelmed.
“This is… This is everything I’ve wanted.” Tears prick behind my eyes, and I feel like a total idiot.
He tips his head to the side, waiting for me to say more.
“But?”
Has he always anticipated my needs so easily?
“The timing’s all wrong, Dom. How am I supposed to do all the things?” Terror vibrates through my body, and my fingers flex over his biceps. My breath comes in short, rapid puffs making my chest heave and my throat constrict. When I speak, it comes out in a whisper. “I’ve spent my whole career without the pressure of being a frontliner. What if I’m not ready?”
“You’re ready.” Dominic grips my chin and waits for me to meet his gaze. “You can do this. If you want to, that is. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Got it?”
I can’t speak. I can’t think. I can hardly breathe.
My gaze locks with his, and those clear, gray eyes are so steady. Pupils large and mirroring me, and not betraying a single ounce of doubt.
“Deep breath, baby. In. Out. Again.”
He demonstrates and I follow suit, drawing one ragged breath after another until the adrenaline closing my throat subsides.
“That’s it, sweetheart. Now tell me,” Dominic’s eyes fall to my parted mouth, and his thumb brushes against my bottom lip. “What do you want?”
My heart thuds in my chest as the adrenaline coursing in my veins pulses with awareness, and everything crystallizes in that moment. Dominic’s hands on me, supporting me, anchoring me. His voice, soothing me. His gray eyes seeing me—seeing all of me. And never once flinching or laughing, or wanting me to be anything other than who I am.
The swirl of emotions inside me builds like a crescendo, and my ears ring with one blinding, horrifying truth.
“I want it all,” I croak. “The career, the baby, the whole shebang.”
And I want it all with you.