Not a Fairy Tale: HarperImpulse Contemporary Romance (12 page)

“Wanna bet?” Vicki smiled. “She’s just had a very public break-up. What she needs now is a gorgeous sex object who can make her feel like a desirable woman again. And if there’s one thing you’re good at, that’s it.”

Yeah, that was him: the sex object.

Vicki leaned in close to whisper in his ear, and Dom didn’t miss the quick sidelong glance Nina sent them. “Besides, you’re not 20 anymore. You might want to try regular sex in a bed sometime.” She slid her arm out of his. “I’d better get back to my husband before the famous movie actress claws my eyes out with her bare hands.”

With a laugh she moved away and he frowned after her.

Vicki was right. He was getting old.

He had to admit, as much fun as he’d had in his life, the novelty was wearing thin. Most women tended to have their fun with him, then they moved on as soon as they found Mr. Right. Like Vicki and Ben. From the day he’d introduced them, neither had even looked at anyone else.

One day Olivia would meet someone too and stop calling. That was always the way it worked. They were grateful to him for being there when they needed him, but as soon as they no longer needed him…

Nina would be just the same. And her attention span wouldn’t last as long as Olivia’s had. Like every other actress he’d known, Nina wanted him only because he hadn’t dropped at her feet. But as soon as that changed, she’d lose interest and be gone.

He rubbed his face.

He knew the score. Because he was just the same. But just once it would be nice to find a woman for whom he was the end result rather than a means to an end. For whom he was more than just a plaything.

A week ago he’d told Nina in no uncertain terms he only wanted women who weren’t looking to settle down, women who wanted nothing from him but uncomplicated sex. And here he was contemplating something very, very different.

And with completely the wrong woman. There was no way a successful A-list actress would even consider a washed-up stunt man like himself. A man like him would never fit in with her ambitions.

Across the circle Jacob now had his arm around Nina’s waist. She didn’t push him away and Dom scowled at his empty beer bottle. He had no one to blame but himself. He’d known the mood she was in. He’d been there himself often enough. How many times had he stood at this same bar, revved-up on the high of a stunt gone well and picked up a convenient woman to help him burn off that excess adrenalin?

And after a week of pushing her away, he could hardly blame her for turning to someone else to burn it off. But it didn’t mean he had to like it. And it didn’t mean he had to stand here and watch.

He needed something a whole lot stronger than beer tonight.

Nina resisted the urge to stamp her foot in frustration as Dom turned and walked away to the bar.

What more did she have to do? She’d thrown herself at him over and over again, she’d dressed to kill, and now she’d spent an hour flirting with his friends in the vain hope he’d stride on over and take her away from here. Preferably to his bed.

What did it take to bring out the Neanderthal in a man these days?

Jacob’s hand slid from her waist to her butt. She should push him away. He was good looking, and she had no doubt he knew how to please a woman, how to ease this buzz in her blood, but she didn’t want him. Any more than he wanted her.

Jacob liked the idea of her, the idea of scoring with a famous actress, but she could have been any one of a dozen nameless actresses and it would have made no difference to him. And he
would
be disappointed if he learned that beneath the larger-than-life image she was just an ordinary girl with ordinary weaknesses.

But Dom was different. He’d seen her first thing in the morning and without make-up. He’d even seen her sweat. And still the undeniable sensual tension sizzled between them.

Right now she couldn’t take that unrequited sizzle another moment longer. She needed a moment alone, a moment to regroup. She pulled out of Jacob’s grasp, “Please excuse me.”

The restrooms were behind the bar, down a long, dark passage that smelled of stale beer and detergent. She locked herself inside the tiny cubicle and stared at her reflection in the streaked mirror.

A stranger stared back.

A wild-eyed stranger with platinum-blonde hair.

She couldn’t splash her face without messing up her make-up, so she let the cold water run over her wrists and rubbed wet fingertips over the back of her neck.

It didn’t help. She still felt feverish and excited. Alcohol zinged in her veins along with the residual adrenalin high.

Who was she kidding? This wasn’t entirely alcohol or adrenalin. This was Dominic Kelly, the man who’d been bringing out wild urges in her and making her want to do bad, bad things from the day they’d met.

But what if he rejected her again? Stardom was no guarantee against rejection. If anything, it made rejection worse, because who could she turn to without the risk of her feelings being splashed out there for the whole world to see, as if the public had the right to her mortification?

She met the wild-eyed gaze in the mirror again. She’d faced water obstacles, fired guns, learned to skid a car, and flown on a trapeze. So why the hell was she hiding out in the restroom, afraid?

She should be out there going after what she wanted. The same way she’d done with her career, with every activity Dom had set her these last ten days. All or nothing.

To hell with Olivia and every other woman he’d ever been with. To hell with a bar full of strangers. To hell with the possibility of rejection. She was going to go out there and she was going to take what she wanted. And if she had to, she’d do it in front of everyone. She would kiss Dominic Kelly until he couldn’t say “no” any more.

Swinging open the door, she charged out into the dimly lit corridor, colliding with an obstacle she was sure hadn’t been there before.

Dom grabbed her arm to steady her.

“You were gone a long time,” he said.

“You came looking for me?” She made her eyes big and round. It was a look most men couldn’t resist.

Dom’s expression didn’t change at all. “It’s time I took you home.”

Home to
his
bed, or to the big, cold, empty bed in the guest room?

“Did you know that Jacob is a parkour
traceur
?” She was proud of that word. Even prouder that she managed it without slurring.

And that was definitely a reaction. Dom’s eyes narrowed.
Yes!

She reached up on tiptoe, pulled his face down to her, and pressed her lips to his.

Taken by surprise, he didn’t respond for a heart-achingly tenuous moment. Then he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her clear off her feet, deepening the kiss as he did so. She clung to him, her hands sliding to the back of his neck and she opened her mouth to him, sighing her pleasure.

He tasted of whiskey, dangerous and foreign, and oh-so wickedly sinful. She drank him in, his kiss, the feel of his hands on her, one curved beneath her butt, holding her up, the other on her thigh, sliding beneath her skirt that had ridden high. He backed her against the cold, hard wall.

She moaned, writhing into his touch, grinding against him, wanting so much more, needing so much more than even this overpowering, intoxicating kiss could satisfy.

His free hand stroked the sensitized skin of her inner thigh, moving higher, to the edge of her panties, rubbing over her clit through the sheer fabric.

She moaned again, desperate, pleading, and his hand stilled.

He broke the kiss and pulled his hand away.

“Don’t stop!”

He dropped his head to her shoulder. “That’s the alcohol talking. You’ve had more than you’re used to.”

She shook her head. “I’m not drunk, just fuzzy. It’s nice to be fuzzy. Please? I’ve wanted this for longer than you can know.” She wasn’t above begging.

“Not here.” He drew in a ragged breath. “I don’t want our first time to be like this, hurried, in a place where anyone can find us and interrupt. I want to take my time and enjoy you.”

First time. Meaning there would be more?

Her already frenetically beating heart sped up. “Then take me home.”

Slowly he eased her back down to her feet, righted her dress, then he held her face between his hands. The skin of his hands was deliciously rough against her cheeks.

“Are you sure about this? Because I’m not such a gentleman that I’ll be able to hold back once we start. I am
very
good at following through.”

She moistened her lips and his grip on her tightened, sending another rush of dizzying lust through her. Her mouth quirked, just the teensiest bit. “Then prove it.”

He pulled her down the passage to the main room of the bar. Very reluctantly, she let go his hand before they entered the room, terrified that if she let go he would change his mind and she would lose this moment and her courage.

The live band was only just setting up on the low stage. Dom dropped a few bills on the table where the others sat, grabbed her bag and his jacket, and with the most hurried of farewells he hustled her out of the bar.

Caught up as she still was in the spell of his kiss, she managed to catch the look of approval on Vicki’s face, the bewildered look on Jacob’s. Olivia’s disappointment.

She couldn’t help gloating a little.

Then they were outside on the sidewalk and the sea breeze whispered around them. He pulled her against him, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and holding her tight as he bent in for a quick, rough kiss.

When he let her go, he handed her his leather jacket against the cooler night air, and pulled his cell phone from the back pocket of his jeans. “I need to call us a cab. I don’t want to risk walking you home again.”

She shook her head. “As much as I hate the intrusion, I’m not going to stop living my life the way I want out of fear of a few fans. I want to walk on the beach with you.” The way they had that first night. “Please?” This time when she rounded her eyes, Dom caved.

Avoiding the bright lights of the boardwalk, they headed straight to the cover of the beach’s darkness, walking hand-in-hand along the sand, just another couple out on a Saturday night.

When they arrived at Dom’s yard gate, her ardor hadn’t cooled any, and clearly neither had his. He pulled her up the stairs to the deck, through the glass door and into the living room.

Then he crushed her against him and claimed her lips in a mind-blowing kiss that stole her breath and made the world tilt on its axis. She bunched her hands in his t-shirt, pulling him close and holding tight. There was no way he would back out of this now.

He’d promised her he would follow through and if there was one thing she knew about Dominic Kelly, it was that he was a man of his word.

When he broke their kiss it was only to pull his t-shirt over his head. She sighed greedily at the sight of him, ran her hands over his shoulders, his chest, his arms, glorying at last in the freedom to touch him, to explore the tiny nicks and scars that were the marks of his profession His nipples were hard and dark against his skin, and she licked at them, reveling in the shudder that passed through his body.

His hands slid down her back, to rest on her butt, exactly where Jacob’s had been not so long ago, but this time she had no thought of brushing them away.

She trailed her tongue down over his skin, over his abs and down towards his stomach, and he stiffened.

“Slow down,” he said. His voice sounded rough and unsteady. “I want to get you upstairs, to my bed.”

She took the hand he held out and followed him up the stairs to the master suite, to the one part of the house she had never yet seen.

Light filtered through from the master bathroom, casting a mellow glow over the enormous room, understatedly decorated in beach-house whites and blues.

Sandy lay on a large cushion in a corner of the room. She lifted her head off her paws as they entered, tail wagging furiously.

“Out, girl,” Dom said softly, holding the door open. “You’ll have to sleep downstairs tonight.” With a woebegone expression, the dog trotted down the stairs and Dom shut the door, turning to face Nina.

He didn’t switch on the lights. Instead, he left her standing in the middle of the floor of the vast room as he crossed to the glass doors and opened the shutters. Moonlight spilled into the room. Beyond the doors lay a wrap-around balcony and beyond that, over the rooftops of his neighbors, lay the Pacific.

He turned and looked at her, and the moonlight illuminated his face and the gorgeous contours of his body. No crooked grin now, just a slow, heated smile that set her blood boiling.

“Undress for me,” he ordered, burning eyes watching her from across the room.

There was a reason she always insisted on body doubles for sex scenes. She wasn’t comfortable being seen naked. But the alcohol seemed to have blurred the edges of her usual fears, because instead of trepidation, his command made her feel powerful beyond measure.

She unwrapped the ties at her waist, opening the wrap-around dress to reveal first one breast, then the other. Then she dropped the dress to the floor. No granny pants tonight. No bra tonight, either. Beneath the dress she wore nothing but the sexiest, tiniest black-lace thong she owned. She really owed Wendy for packing her bags with such foresight.

Dom wetted his lips. “And your hair?” he prompted.

She slid her hands into her hair, undoing the careful work of a few hours ago, shaking out her tresses so that they fell loose about her shoulders.

Dom’s breath hitched, but still he didn’t move.

“Your shoes…”

She stepped out of the shoes. Far from feeling the loss of height, power surged through her. He did nothing but look for a long moment, and the look in his eyes made her feel like a goddess. Now she understood what all the fuss was about. The gift that Dom gave every woman he slept with.

She held her chin high and basked in the glory of being desired.

“Come here.”

She crossed the room to stand before him. Dom placed a hand on her hip and pulled her close. His other hand stroked over her bare breast, the roughness of his palm stinging her skin to life beneath his touch.

“Do you know how beautiful you are?”

She managed to nod.

“And can you feel what you do to me?” He placed her hand over the bulge in his jeans. She shuddered. That made at least three times she’d felt the size of him. But now this was real. This was truly going to happen.

She rubbed her hand over the bulge and he moaned, stilling her fingers. “You first, sweetheart. I want to see you come first.”

She shivered. Her orgasm had always been elusive. But if Dom couldn’t get her there, with the way her body felt right now, on the verge of combustion, then no man could.

He backed her up against the bed, laid her down on her back. Then he knelt over her and kissed her. The tension inside her melted, his kiss wiping away all thought and all fear.

His hand was on her breast again, pinching, kneading, circling. A spasm of desire shot through her, straight to her core, and she pressed herself up against him. His hand slid lower, over her stomach and down to the lace between her legs, as his mouth replaced his hand on her breast. He sucked, drawing her nipple into his warm, wet mouth, and she arched into him.

His palm pressed down on her clit, through the lace. She pushed against it, the rough scratch of the fabric adding to the pleasure building between her thighs, starting to coil outwards like the first lazy smoke from a fire.

She parted her legs, opening herself up to him. Hooking a finger beneath the lace edge, he lifted the fabric clear away and cool air rushed in, caressing her tender, inflamed skin. He brushed his thumb over her clit, stroking, teasing, and she moaned, louder now, more needy, more desperate.

Her head rolled back and she closed her eyes, her entire attention focused on that insanely slow, gentle brush of his thumb over the bundle of nerves so primed for him that she could see nothing else, hear nothing else.

With a gentle nip at her breast, he removed his mouth and slid down her body. His tongue grazed over her clit and she cried out.

No worries that she wouldn’t reach orgasm tonight. With just that slow, sensual slide of his tongue she was already on the edge.

He licked and teased and sucked, and she writhed against him, her body riding the growing wave that built, built, built, then crashed over her, engulfing her. Then her body spasmed, incredible waves rolling through her as she lost herself to the sensations.

His tongue stilled. He placed one gentle kiss on her still-throbbing clit before he pulled away.

Through the daze of her afterglow she felt the bed dip and rise as he moved away. She raised her head, swallowing as she watched him strip off his jeans.