The Price Of Secrecy (9 page)

Chapter
Thirteen

Dominic
reached for the soap and bath scrunchie, working up a nice lather on the nylon
before placing the soap back in the dish. He began with Angela’s arms, moving
the scrunchie up and down them slowly. Her soft moans made his dick hard again
within minutes. This woman could take something as innocuous as soap and water
and make it a sensual, decadent experience. Everything delighted her as if it
was brand new.

He
washed her back next, and then reached around to lather her abdomen and legs.
He saved her breasts for next to last, and nearly lost it as she moaned loudly
and writhed against him. When he moved the scrunchie between her legs, she
panted softly, and he couldn’t take anymore.

“Sit
on the edge of the tub.”

She
did as he asked, and then he held her gaze as he spread her legs. “That blowjob
you gave me was so damn magnificent that you deserve the same thing done to
you.”

She
leaned forward, grasped his face in her hands, and kissed him until he could
hardly breathe. When she released it, she lay back on the tiles and spread her
shapely legs wide. Oh, how he loved a woman without inhibitions! He’d never
expected her to be this way. He had truly unleashed something inside her, and
he was thrilled.

When
she reached down to touch her pussy lips and clit, he groaned loudly. “Oh, baby,
yes. That’s it. Play with yourself. God, that is so fucking sexy to watch!”

Her
soft whimpers sent his arousal to a frenzied peak, and he knew he was close to
coming again, but first he intended to make her come with his mouth. Dominic gently
moved her fingers aside and thrust two of his into her wetness. She cried out
in pleasure, and then he sucked her clit, hard.

“Oh
my God!” She bucked her hips into his face, but he didn’t mind. That only
spurred him on more. She came within seconds and clung to his hair, tugging at
it. Before the contractions ended, he pulled her to a sitting position, and
then remembered he didn’t have a condom on.

“Fuck.
Wait here, baby.”

He
had some in a drawer in the bathroom, so he put one on as quickly as possible,
and then he sat down next to her on the tiles and cupped her face. “Sorry.”

“You
don’t have to apologize.” Her eyes were all soft, and his heart gave an odd
lurch at the look of desire in them. What had he done to earn such trust from
her so soon? This was moving quickly, but it didn’t feel wrong. Not even close.
He’d never had such an emotional connection to any woman this early in a
relationship, but he liked it. He liked it a lot.

He
had intended to take her into the bedroom, or even stand her up and lean her
against the bathroom counter, but she lay back on the damn tiles and held out
her arms. “Fuck me, Dominic. I need you inside me again.”

“Jesus,”
he whispered. “Are you sure? Here? On the floor?”

“Yes.”

How
could he say “no” to anything this woman asked of him? He covered her body with
his and kissed her again, and then he sank his cock into her soaking wet pussy.
She cried out and wrapped her arms and legs around him. It was damn
uncomfortable on the floor but she didn’t seem to mind, so he sucked it up and
thrust inside her like a runaway train.

She
came again, which shocked him, and then he couldn’t hold back any longer. He
pumped into her until he’d squeezed every damn drop of his seed out, and then
he held her for long, luscious moments, stroking her thick hair. When he lifted
his head to gaze into her eyes, she had the most peaceful, fulfilled look on
her face. It tore at his heart.

This
woman was going to be his undoing, and he didn’t mind. Not even close. He
wanted it that way. He’d waited a long time to be this close to someone again,
and this time he wasn’t going to let anything ruin it. He wanted Angela in his
life.

****

Angela
felt like she’d walked into a fairytale during the next two weeks. She and
Dominic worked together on setting up the department parameters, and on a
database where they could track IP addresses and machine IDs across the
country.

She
learned that Liane Peyton had been hired by Emmett Radcliffe to build a
database where all the Weathermen were keeping track of the names they found
that were possibly linked to the hacking of The Madeline Project, so she sought
Liane’s help in making sure the two databases could interface seamlessly.

Liane’s
database contained masking properties that would keep it hidden in case anyone
hacked into one of the companies’ systems, and they agreed that Angela’s
database needed to be masked as well. Dominic thought that was a smart idea,
and had Trish work with Angela on writing standards of practice for the new
department that included that parameter.

Dominic
hired three more people, in addition to the three he had hired before
interviewing Angela. He also finally replaced Merrick, so while Merrick trained
the new members of the team, she and Dominic continued to work closely together
each day on the database, and on setting up the day-to-day work for the
department. They were professional and discreet at work, and if any of the
others knew they were lovers, no one said a word. Trish had never mentioned the
fact she’d spotted them holding hands when they came back from lunch on
Angela’s first day, and Angela wasn’t about to bring it up.

She
asked Dominic one day what would happen if the others did find out, and he rose
to close her office door. He fixed her with a molten gaze. “I don’t care who knows,”
he said quietly, but with conviction. “I want to shout this to the world,
Angela. As long as we each do our jobs, I dare anyone to say shit to me about
seeing you outside of work.”

Trish
was out on an errand, and Angela knew the others were hard at work with
Merrick. She reached underneath her skirt and pulled off her panties, leaving
on her heels. She wore a skirt nearly every day now because she knew Dominic
liked them on her, and because they offered him easier access once they got
back to his apartment after work. Most afternoons they didn’t wait to eat
dinner first before they made love.

“What
are you doing?” he asked, his eyes filled with lust.

“What
does it look like I’m doing?” She moved toward him, slowly, letting him think
about it. When she reached him she put her arms around him and kissed him,
grinding her body against his. He reached underneath her skirt and slipped two
fingers into her pussy, forcing a loud moan into his open mouth.

He
broke the kiss and nuzzled her neck. “Is that what you wanted?”

“For
starters.”

Dominic
slapped each ass cheek, hard, and Angela gasped as arousal flooded her senses.
He turned her around roughly and bent her over the desk, lifting her skirt. She
heard the sound of a condom and glanced over her shoulder, laughing. “Where did
you get that?”

“I
carry them with me.” He unzipped his pants and donned the condom, and then he
smacked her ass cheeks again several times in a row. The sting was hard enough
to cause her to bite her lip to keep from crying out in pleasure. “You love
this, don’t you?”

His
voice was rough and gravelly, and it was all she could do to keep breathing. “I
love it.”

Without
warning, he slid his cock into her soaking wet pussy and fucked her hard and
deep. She clung to the edges of her desk and tried not to cry out too loudly,
but it felt so damn fantastic she could barely think let alone control her
vocalizations. She came within seconds, and still he thrust in and out. When he
finally came, she was breathless and panting.

He
pulled out and ripped off the condom, tossing it onto the floor. Then he
wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed her neck until she was ready
to beg him to fuck her again. “Oh, Angela … that’s a first for me. Fucking an
employee at work.”

“Good
to know.”

“Baby,
I told you I wasn’t nearly as ‘bad boy’ as everything thinks I was.”

“It
doesn’t matter to me if you were. It’s in the past.”

He
straightened her up and turned her around, cupping her face with one strong
hand. “That’s true. We all have things in our past we wish weren’t there, but
they can’t hurt us. Not if we don’t let them.”

Her
pulse raced, but not from the crazy desk sex they’d just had. Did he know? His
dark gaze bored into her, and she had trouble catching her breath. There was no
way he could have found out, but his eyes were so damn intense it almost
frightened her. “That’s true,” she whispered.

He
let out a loud sigh and released her, then retrieved his condom and wrapped it
in a tissue he plucked from a box on her desk. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t
be. Dominic … I’m not even sure what I want to ask. What you said just now,
about things in our past that can’t hurt us—were you talking about the woman
you told me about, or something else?’

He
tucked the tissue into his pants pocket, frowning as if confused for a second,
and then he nodded. Had he forgotten he’d told her that?
Maybe it’s the fact he has no blood in his brain right now, genius.

He
picked up her panties and handed them to her with a grin. “You’d better put
these back on just in case.”

She
took them and slipped them back on, feeling strangely unsatisfied. “Thank you,
but are you going to answer my question?”

 
He ran his hands through his hair as he
averted his gaze. She rarely saw him so caught off guard. What the hell was
going on? “Forget I said that, okay? You have me so bewitched I don’t know if
I’m coming or going.”

The
words were sincere enough, but his tone, coupled with the haunted look, deep in
his dark eyes, told a different story. She was about to ask him another
question, but Trish’s voice plus Merrick’s, just outside her door, stopped her.
This discussion would have to wait for a more convenient—and private—place and
time.

****

Each
time Dominic looked into Angela’s eyes, whether they were in his office, in her
office, or in another part of the building together, he wanted to take her to
his apartment and keep her there. This overwhelming urge to hold her close and
protect her was nothing new to him, but he’d never felt it so keenly before.

Her
question had caught him off guard, but it shouldn’t have. He’d let down the
wall for only a second, but it had been long enough for her to pick up on the
fact that he was hiding something huge and long-buried.

Then
again, so was she, but what was it?

She
was a loyal, hard-working employee who not only had already built a database
that was perfect for their needs, but had taken the initiative to seek out
Liane Peyton’s expertise in making sure that tool interfaced with hers.

All
twelve men needed both databases to get to the bottom of this issue. They’d
danced around it long enough, and no one was sicker of it than Dominic. He
wanted his planet back as much as any of them, but his reason for pushing so
hard had to do with the suffocating feeling of being stuck underground. It was
easier to get to someone, in his opinion. There were fewer places to hide since
no one could cross an ocean from any of the cities beneath the USA.

They
could flee to a city beneath Canada or another country, but it was difficult to
do. It meant using passports and enduring long lines with tight security
checks. Dominic couldn’t afford to deal with something like that should his
family find him, and he wasn’t going to chance running on the surface.

The
sooner they could find the hackers and take back control of The Madeline
Project, the safer he’d feel. He missed the wide open spaces and endless
possibilities of places to disappear.

While
his identity might be safe for now, if he was found, there were only so many
places to go. Aside from that, how could he simply start over somewhere else?
It wasn’t possible.

He
hadn’t had thoughts like this in five years, and he had tried to tell himself
for nearly three weeks now that Angela wasn’t the cause of them, but he knew
she was. Not because she’d said or done anything overt to give him reason to
suspect her. Far from it.

She
was amazing, in and out of bed. He hadn’t had this much fun with any woman. But
he simply could not shake the feeling that something lurked underneath the
surface, ready to strike them both. It wasn’t like him to experience
premonitions or anything that could be construed as supernatural, so Dominic
didn’t enjoy feeling this way.

He
also realized his feelings for Angela ran far deeper than any he’d had for
another woman. He was falling in love with her, as impossible as that seemed.
How could he have let her into his life so far while the past hung over his
head in this way, and without knowing whether whatever had her so timid from
her own past could rise up one day to ruin him?

The
answer was simple. He couldn’t. Dominic wanted to share the rest of his life
with Angela, but until he knew the truth, and until he figured out how or even
if
to tell her what he’d buried in his
own past, he could do nothing more than they were now doing. And he hated that.