House of Paine - (A Romantic Suspense - Book 2) (17 page)

“My mother,” he told her. “She taught me how to dance before my first prom.”

“Wow! Well, she did a great job,” Paige told him. “You haven’t stepped on my toes one time.”

A lump rose in Damien’s throat when he thought about his mother lately. He couldn’t help but wonder sometimes how different his life would be. He could remember the day they’d had their first lesson. He was as tall as he is now but only fourteen years old so nothing but arms and legs. She patiently led him through the steps over and over as he stumbled along after her until it was perfect. God, he missed her, but he had to be glad that she wasn’t there to see how he and Alex had turned out. What would she think of them?

“You okay?” Paige asked him, bringing him back to the present.

He smiled. “I’m fine,” he said, “I was just remembering her.” He pulled her in tighter and breathed in her scent. Paige is the only thing that brought balance to a world his mother no longer lived in. Once again he felt his lips aching for hers. He drew her closer and she melted against him and arched up to meet his kiss. He used his tongue to ease her lips open, licking into her mouth as she did, seductively exploring her depths. She suddenly becomes the aggressor, pulling him tightly against her and biting down on his lips...gently but seductively. She had her hands in his hair now and he shivered each time she dragged her fingers through it.

Damien groaned, once again feeling the heat flare up in his core. His kiss turned demanding then. He began to devour her. He heard her make a noise of pleasure and he growled and gripped onto her hips with both hands as his tongue plunged in deeper, claiming her sweet mouth. He suddenly wanted to rip her clothes off again. He wanted to unravel her completely and see her come undone...but not yet.

He stopped dancing and said, “Lunch!”

Breathless, but with a giggle Paige repeated, “Lunch?”

“Yeah, you eat on dates right? It’s way past lunch time. What do you want?”

She giggled again. “You?”

“Nice...but later. Really, what do you want?”

“A hot dog,” she said.

He laughed. Damien thought she was kidding. “A hot dog? I bought out a club to dance with you in. I bought you a designer dress...I’m offering steak, lobster, shrimp, sushi...and you want a hot dog?”

“Mm hmm. A greasy one. With lots of relish.”

Still laughing, Damien had to admit that sounded good. He took her hand. “Okay, a hotdog is what you’ll get.” He led her back to the limo and he had the driver take them to Brooklyn. There was something there he wanted to show her anyways. The limo dropped them off near a dumpy little bar that was almost hidden in the middle of a run-down strip mall. He led her down a narrow stairwell into a dark little place with vinyl booths crammed together and a floor that stuck to your shoes as you crunched across peanut shells.

“Are we here for a hot dog or some crack?” she asked with a nervous giggle. So much had been going on since he met her that he’d never gotten a chance to show her his New York. Today was the day. Damien held on tightly to her hand so that she would know she was safe and led her to a table in the corner. There were only five or six other patrons in the bar and although we were way overdressed, nobody even looked up at us as they walked across the floor. 

“Is beer okay?”

“Mm, yeah. Beer and a hot dog,” she said.

Damien went and ordered their beer and hot dogs. When he got back he was carrying two bottles of beer and four hot dogs. He handed her one, smothered in relish. Paige took a bite, closed her eyes and moaned like she did when they had sex. Damien’s cock twitched again and when she opened her eyes she realized how he was watching her and blushed.

“So good,” she said. He grinned. She ate the whole dog in three bites. He loved that she wasn’t one of those women who put on a show of being on a diet all the time or who only ate things that came from a gourmet restaurant with a pure silver knife and fork.

“I see that. I can’t wait for you to eat another one,” he said. Then unable to resist, he leaned across the table and ran his tongue across her lips. She tasted like mustard and relish and it was surprising to him how much that turned him on. Maybe it was just that everything about her turned him on, no matter what it was. She took a long swig of her beer and then leaned in to meet him. He kissed her, long, slow and deep. Now she tasted like beer and he felt it penetrate his blood stream like a warm glow. He wanted to savor it...stay in the moment forever. He broke it however to get up and go over to her side of the booth. He sat next to her and pulled her against his body. She leaned into him and for the two of them at that moment; nothing else existed there in the dark except for them. He kissed her again and as it deepened he lost himself in the sensations. He kissed her greedily like a kid in the backseat of a car at a drive-in, all tangled up in hands and mouths and tongues.

Paige broke the kiss first, gasping and panting for air. When she did, Damien went for her throat. He put his mouth on the hollow of her neck and kissed along the sensitive skin there, scraping occasionally with his teeth and causing her to shudder. His hand was resting on her upper thigh and he let it slide underneath the edge of the silky dress. Paige had her back arched and her neck hyper-extended as Damien made love to it with his mouth. Time passed...he wasn’t sure how much, when suddenly she said, “It’s so hot in here.”

He pulled his head up and looked at her. His eyes felt like they could barely focus. He wanted her so badly. His breaths were coming fast and he needed air too, but he needed to kiss her again first. He pulled her head lower and claimed her lips, sliding his tongue into her mouth as she melted into him once more. His arms were wrapped tightly around her and his hands were now playing across her back sending goose bumps shooting up her spine. This time when he broke the kiss, Paige was the one who looked completely undone.

He gave her a few minutes to recover and as her eyes began to refocus he said, “You still need that air?” She nodded, picked up her beer, drained the bottle and said,

“Yes, definitely.”

Damien drained his own bottle of beer and then took her hand and led her back through the bar and up the stairs. They both stopped and gulped in a lungful of the fresh evening air when they hit the sidewalk. The sun was beginning to go down and the air was cooling off. Damien led her over to the limo and leaned into the passenger seat. He stood back up with a shoe box in his hands and handed it to her.

“What’s this?” she asked with a laugh. “Another gift?”

“I have time to make up for,” he said. She smiled and opened the lid. It was a pair of walking shoes. She looked at him with eyebrows raised and he said, “I want to walk with you while the sun goes down. If you’d rather not, we can take the car.”

She smiled one of her genuine smiles that melts his heart and said, “I’d love a walk.” She sat down on the curb and changed out of her heels and into the tennis shoes. Damien took her heels and tossed them back into the car.

“I’ll text you later when we’re ready,” Damien told the driver. Then he took Paige’s hand and they began to walk. The previously blue sky was already streaked with the colors of a beautiful sunset. The oranges and crimson combined to give the sky a blood ret hue with hints of the bluish gray of the night sky peeking through here and there.

“So, what is it that you like to do,” Paige asked him, returning to their much earlier conversation.

“I’m good with numbers and money,” he said.   “Maybe something in finance...”

“I can see that,” she said, looking him over as if she’d never seen him before. Her pretty eyes left a trail of heat everywhere they went. He dropped her hand and draped an arm across her shoulders.

“You can huh? Can you see me with a bag of lunch in the company refrigerator...or competing in the three-legged race at the annual barbecue?”

Paige laughed. “That’s all a bit of a stretch,” she said. “I see you more as the executive type, dressed in your nice suits and eating lunch at the city’s best eateries.”

He grinned. “I’m thinking for anyone other than family, they’ll expect me to start small. But that’s okay,” he said, pulling her into him once again. “I’m craving normalcy. I need it. I’ve had too much of the other.”

She rolled herself into him and said, “Me too.” She initiated another kiss and he met it enthusiastically. Her lips parted wider and he drank her in as their tongues caressed in a sexy, dangerous dance. Once again he lost track of everything but the wild, reckless fire that burnt between them. When they came back up for air, he stood there for a few moments with his forehead pressed into hers. Once again he had the words he wanted to tell her on the tip of his tongue...but this wasn’t the place. He reached down for her hand and said, “Come on, we’re almost there.”

––––––––

T
hey walked for another five blocks and he turned onto a street in the business district of Brooklyn and stops in front of a building that looks like it was in the middle stages of being erected. There was construction equipment all over the place and the entrance to the building was blocked off with caution tape.

Paige looked up at the tall building that didn’t have any glass in the windows yet and said, “What is this place?”

He unlocked the door that obviously wasn’t going to keep anyone out if they wanted in and told her, “It’s mine. Before all of this stuff happened Jackson was going to set me up in a business...another business to launder money through. The building has been under construction for over six months now. There was too much going on to worry about it for a while.”

“So is it in your name, or will you have to relinquish it to the government when he’s convicted?”

“It’s mine. He wanted to start doing more of this to keep out of the reach of the IRS and the DEA, etc. Do you want to see the inside?”

“Sure.” He pulled her into the building and towards the construction elevator there. They got on the elevator and Damien pressed “R.” The elevator stopped on the roof and when Paige stepped off she sucked in a breath. The roof was covered with plants and flowers and it smelled like perfume as the air wafted through it. 

When they stepped off and Paige saw the view she gasped. “Wow! This is gorgeous.”

Damien smiled. Next to the construction mess and the plants that needed watering desperately she looked like a diamond in the rough. She sat down on top of a stack of wooden pallets and Damien went over and sat down next to her. He put his arm around her and guided her down so they were lying back side by side, looking up at the stars that were just beginning to appear in the sky. “Someday I’d like to finish this and have my own business doing...something,” he said with a grin.

“I could see you here on the top floor, looking hot in one of your suits and commanding respect in a much different way than Jackson ever did.” Paige was staring up at the stars, watching them appear slowly in a blissful way. Her long hair was fanned out all around her and Damien knew then if he didn’t before that she was the view he wanted to look at for the rest of his life. He was about to tell her so when she said, “Look, it’s the big dipper.” She leaned her head against his chest and pointed up at the sky. Damien looked at what she was pointing at and then back at her. There was no contest as far as beauty was concerned. He would choose her.

He turned enough so that he could once again take those tempting lips of hers into a hot kiss. She rolled her body into his and rose up to meet his mouth. Her hands slid around his neck and pulled him in closer. He could kiss her forever...right here in the middle of the night on top of an unfinished building.

It was perfect...she was perfect. His hands were finished being good and now they roamed freely across her body feeling every curve underneath that clingy, sexy dress. She arched into him as hungry and impatient as he was. He tore his lips from hers and let his travel down across her chin and back to that delicious neck. He wanted to ravish her...but he made himself slow down and savor the moment. He still had plans for the night and he wanted her to remember it as soft and sweet.

He could feel her shiver underneath him and her breaths were coming in short pants as her fingers dug into his back and his hands guided the shoulders of her dress down her arms enough to expose the tops of her breasts. They looked even more gorgeous than usual here in the starlight. He exhaled and his breath brushed across her nipples making them instantly hard. She moaned and arched up. Damien knew what she wanted and he didn’t intend to disappoint. He teased her at first, letting his tongue brush lightly across the sensitive nipples. She had her hands in his hair now, pushing his face down, urging him forward. He finally sucked one into his mouth and he continued to suck as she writhed up against him.

Adrenaline raged through his bloodstream with each whimper or moan. He paid a lot of attention to that breast before switching over to the other. She sucked in a breath as he moved his mouth and the cool air brushed across her nipple...wet with his saliva. She was getting squirmy underneath him as he licked and sucked and suddenly she surprised him by wrapping her strong legs around him and rolling them over so that she was poised above him, straddling his torso. Her dress was up around her waist and her long hair was everywhere. The lights of the city were in the background...and the look in her eyes was pure hunger.

She bent forward and brought her hot, demanding lips to his. As they kissed, she rocked her body against his and slid her hands up underneath his shirt. Biting down on his lower lip, she moaned and any self-control Damien was clinging to was gone. He sat up and pulled her body down into him so her breasts were crushed against his chest and her pelvis against his rock hard cock. She gasped and ground down into him as he sucked at her lips and tongue.

He rolled them again as they kissed and pinned her down to the crate with his arms. He slid her dress the rest of the way off of her as he kissed his way down her body. He let his mouth devour every inch of her, sucking hard and licking every exposed surface. He sucked a nipple in again and bit down on it before moving on down to her flat stomach. He licked and sucked his way down to the strip of black lace between her thighs. Paige was gasping and panting and arching her back to meet his touch.