12
DOMINIC THREW BILLS ON THE BAR TO COVER BOTH
THEIR TABS, then gathered her coat around her.
“You’re a very lucky man,” Shane said.
“Yes, I am.” He didn’t press for more, but he
figured the bartender knew he was the husband. He wasn’t sure what
had given them away, didn’t care.
“When she’s ready, come back.” Shane tipped back
a shot of whiskey he’d poured himself.
No one else had noticed what Dominic had done to
Erin, not even the guy who’d tried to pick her up earlier. Dominic
settled her lapels, tightened the tie of her coat. Her climax had
been so fast, taking him by surprise. She’d been primed, ready, hot
and wet when he’d touched her. With only a few more words, his
fingers in the perfect spot, a sultry exchange of glances with the
bartender, and she’d gone off. She’d bitten her lip, clenched her
fingers on the bar, and sighed. But beneath his hand, she had
trembled, and he’d felt the quiver of her body deep inside his
own.
Nothing had ever felt so exciting and over the
top. She had wanted the evening with
Winter, the one she’d denied herself. She’d wanted it badly.
Somehow, Dominic would give it to her when she was ready. He hoped
to God he recognized the moment.
With a glassy, unfocused look, she let him lead
her out. He tucked her under his arm as they hit the street
outside. “Where’s your car?”
“I can’t believe you did that,” she whispered, a
note of awe rather than anger in her voice.
He hadn’t intended it. “I was just stroking your
thigh.” Then he’d let her carry him away.
Half a block down from Rudolpho’s, she stopped.
A couple skirted around them. “I don’t know what happened. I was
suddenly—”
He planted his lips on hers, kissed her hard,
backed off to breathe. “Zero to sixty, baby.” She gotten off on
telling Shane what they’d almost done. They’d been so close, a yes
versus a no from her lips, and Christ, the fantasy-telling had been
sexy. He was so hard right now, his balls ached. “Come on, where
are you parked?”
“In back.” She pointed. Street parking had
probably been full when she arrived, but there was space in the
overflow lots behind the stores.
He folded his fingers around hers and turned the
corner with her. “Tell me how good it was.”
She shot out a breath. “I don’t know.”
He thought of the things she’d told him. “You
said you felt free. And in charge.”
She seemed to think about that for a few steps.
“I felt completely in control of the whole thing. Until you made me
come.”
He put his arm around her shoulders. “I didn’t
make you, baby, you just went off.”
“It was kind of nice, Dominic,” she said softly,
almost in wonder.
Nice? He wouldn’t have used that word. Hot,
dirty, sexy, but not nice.
“He wanted me, but he let me play the game. He
didn’t push. He let me call the shots. He could have gotten mad
that I was teasing him, promising stuff I wasn’t going to deliver
on, but he didn’t.” She tipped her head back to look at him. “But
the whole time you were there in case things went wrong.”
He’d been there to protect her. If Shane had
gotten out of hand, Dominic would have beaten him down. She was so
selfreliant, handling her responsibilities, her guilt, her grief on
her own, for better or worse. She had never let him take care of
her. Except tonight when she allowed him to be her enforcer. It was
sexy. Endearing. She’d let him share her control.
She frowned and put her hand on his chest. “Stop
analyzing. It was good. Fun. I liked the surprise, not knowing
exactly what you were going to make me do tonight. I thought about
it the whole time I was getting ready, and I was wet and excited
before I even got there.” Then she turned, grabbed his hand, pulled
him into the parking lot. “And right now, you’re going to get in
the backseat of my car, and I’m going to suck you until you can’t
remember your name.”
Until he couldn’t remember anything. That was
what this was all about, forgetting, pretending, being other people
with other lives, a couple who hadn’t lost the glue holding them
together.
He let her seduce him into the backseat. He
wanted to forget as much as she did.
DOMINIC FOLLOWED HER HOME IN HIS CAR. THE SALTY
SWEETNESS of his come still lingered in her mouth. Her body still
vibrated with that incredible silent orgasm in the bar. It hadn’t
been powerful in and of itself. Physically, she’d had better
orgasms, harder, longer. But it was different, exciting because of
the time, the place, the strangers around them, the kinkiness of
letting him touch her in public, the unexpectedness of it. And
Shane, of course. Knowing Shane wanted her was a huge part of the
high. It was almost like having two men at once. She’d been seated
next to the wall at the end of the bar, and really, no one could
have seen exactly what Dominic was doing except for Shane. But some
of the patrons probably guessed.
It was the combination that made it explosive,
that she’d have liked Dominic to tell Shane to come back to the
house. And it was the way Shane had said, “When
she’s ready, come back.” The promise in it, the possibilities.
And all her choice, no one else’s. Then she’d sucked Dominic in the
backseat of her car beneath the parking lot lights. It was risky,
and sexy because of the risk. Yet even as she pleasured him,
Dominic was watching. If anyone had come close, he would have
stopped her.
She’d been totally in charge of what she was
doing, yet totally out of control, a delicious dichotomy she
couldn’t have explained to anyone. It was doing what she wanted
even when she knew everyone else except Dominic would tell her it
was wrong. And God, she loved it.
What would his next plan be?
Oh, but wait. Why not come up with a plan of her
own?
ERIN COULD BARELY CONTROL HER SHAKING HANDS. “WHY
DIDN’T you tell me yesterday?”
Dominic closed the lab door when he heard her
voice rising, and that pissed her off, too. “Because we had a date
last night,” he said, “and I knew if I told you, you’d freak out
and call it off.”
How could twelve hours bring such a radical
change in emotion? Erin’s whole body trembled with anger. He’d
wanted to get fucked so he lied. She was so pissed she didn’t even
give him points for being honest about it. “Of course, I would have
cancelled. This is huge, Dominic.” She shook the WEU letter at him.
“And they want royalties in arrears? Can they even do that?” It
didn’t matter. It was in writing; now they’d have to fight it.
“That’s a year’s worth of sales, and the through-coat gauge has
been our biggest seller this year.” That gauge, that goddamn gauge,
the bane of their existence. She wished they’d chucked the
prototype in the bay and let it sink.
“I’m aware of that,” he said.
“How can you be so calm?” Irritatingly calm. As
if she were the one who always had hysterics.
“Because it’s bogus.”
She threw the letter on the lab counter. “They
have the patent.”
“I told you the patent should never have been
issued. We’re fine.” He blithely dismissed everything.
She wanted to scream at him. God, she’d felt so
good last night. But today came the inevitable flameout, as if she
just couldn’t maintain a good feeling. “You should have told me all
about this up front when we first started working on that gauge. We
should have hired the patent attorney then.”
His lips thinned. She’d gone too far, criticized
his business capabilities. But damn it, they were talking about a
hell of a lot of money and all the lawyers’ fees it would cost even
if they won in the end.
“I’ll take care of it,” he said flatly.
Just like a man. I’ll take
care of it. Fuck that shit. Last night she’d trusted him to
take care of her. What had it gotten her? Just this. A lie.
Jesus. She couldn’t think straight. Her heart
was racing, head aching, it was hard to breathe, and honestly, she
was seeing stars, too. Like a panic attack. She leaned her fists on
the countertop and struggled to calm down.
“Erin.” Dominic touched her shoulder.
She shrugged him off because if she wasn’t
careful she’d say something they’d both regret. Yet she wanted to
strike out with words, vent all her frustration. Like that day with
Jay, before she knew he was sick, when she hadn’t know his behavior
was a symptom of what was eating him alive. Instead, she’d been so
angry and frustrated. And she’d let it out. Then Jay was gone and
she could never, ever make it up to him.
Oh God, the things she’d said. How could she
have gotten so angry with a little boy? A
bad day? She couldn’t remember. There were so many bad days after
that she couldn’t separate them all.
But dammit, if Dominic had done his part, if
he’d taken Jay on the outing the way he was supposed to, she never
would have had to say those things to Jay. She wouldn’t have needed
to. But Dominic had made that decision without consulting her,
too.
She had to stop, needed to stop. Because if she
let herself go, everything inside would come tumbling out. And
she’d never survive it.
She pulled back, tried to keep her voice
neutral. “Just fix it, okay.” The way he hadn’t fixed anything else. She barely kept herself from adding
the last bit, but it was there, so close to the surface.
“Sure, whatever you want,” she heard him say,
his voice dripping sarcasm, as she headed out of the lab. It was
all she could do not to slam the door behind her. Obviously he’d
seen through her neutral tone.
She stormed across the roundhouse to her
office.
“Omph.” Rachel bounced back after colliding with
her.
“What are you doing there?” Erin snapped.
“Wa-alking,” Rachel stammered. “I’m
sorry.”
Erin merely growled and marched into her office.
She hated this place. She was buffeted
around by what other people did, what other people wanted.
She crossed to her desk, slumped down into her
chair. She’d felt good when she got to work this morning. Then it
had all gone to hell. And she still had to do mediate with Atul and
Cam about their language barriers. If she didn’t get some semblance
of control, she’d blast one of them. Or both. Plus she had to
confront Matt about his failure rate and his girlfriend troubles or
whatever the hell was going on with him this time. Why did
she have to do it? Why couldn’t they act
like adults? God. She’d just treated Rachel like crap again. The
thought made her inexplicably close to tears.
If only Dominic hadn’t lied to her.
She was losing control, going totally ape. She
closed her eyes, wanted to cry, just let it all out. Was a day’s
delay in telling her about the WEU letter really that much of a
crime? Of course not. She’d gone overboard. And she didn’t even
know why. A delayed reaction to Orlando? Or last night? Because
they’d both gone overboard last
night?
She put a trembling hand over her mouth and
breathed deeply. Okay, get a grip. She
wasn’t going to take her crap out on her people. That was for sure.
Leaning over her phone, she hit the intercom button. “Rachel, can
you come in a minute?”
She opened the door before Rachel even had a
chance to knock and motioned her in. “That was my fault out there,
and I’m sorry I was rude to you.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I know you’re busy and
all.”
“No, it’s not okay.” Rachel let her get away
with too much. “I was wrong.”
Rachel tapped her fingers on the doorjamb. “You
know, Erin, you have this habit of taking the blame for everything.
You’re always apologizing. It’s okay to have a bad day
sometimes.”
It was not okay. But she
took another deep breath instead of shouting again. “That’s the
kettle calling the pot black. You always apologize, too.”
Rachel shook her head ruefully. “We both need to
stop.”
Erin gave a soft snort. “Agreed.”
Having turned on her heel, Rachel stopped just
outside the door. “I promise not to apologize anymore if you run
into me, or if your husband makes arrangements behind your back.”
She smiled, not too bright or phony, just genuine, and fluttered
her fingers genially as she left.
Erin picked up a pencil, then threw it back down
on the desk. Shit. She probably owed Dominic an apology, too. Why
was it so much easier to apologize to her employees than to her
husband? True, he should have told her about the letter yesterday,
but he’d done his due diligence on the patent issue, and they
had discussed it. She’d agreed with moving
ahead. WEU coming after them wasn’t his fault. But with an apology,
he’d want to know why she’d flipped out, and if she couldn’t
exactly explain it to herself, how was she supposed to tell
him?
FUCK. HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN LAST NIGHT WAS TOO
GOOD to last.
Dominic ground his fist into the letter on the
countertop, then crumpled it and threw it viciously at the wall.
Goddammit. He had checked it out with their patent attorney before
they started the design on the through-coat gauge. There was prior
art, and in theory, nothing should have gone wrong. But if anything
ever got fucked up, he was the one to blame.
WEU was playing hardball with them. Just fix it. Erin was so good at issuing orders.
Sometimes he was just another one of her minions, like Rachel, or
Yvonne, or Steve. He could not fix everything for her. He could not
go back and change what he had done. There were so many goddamn
things he couldn’t undo. If he could, then when he got home
tonight, Jay would be in his room doing his homework.
He scrubbed a hand down his face. He should have
called Hansen yesterday. He’d chosen a local patent attorney, not
one of the big guys but someone who charged reasonable rates, yet
nevertheless knew his stuff. He made the call now.
Hansen wanted the letter faxed. He’d have to
smooth it out.
“I’ll send the bastards a response and tell them
to take a flying leap,” Dominic said. He’d tell Garland Brooks to
shove it up his—
“Leave it to me, Dominic. I’ll handle everything
as your attorney. We’ll have to do some searches, find the support
for your case, and hopefully make this all go away.”
He hated leaving it to Hansen. But the man was
right, this thing needed to be handled methodically and documented
all the way. That was the part he’d skipped. “Fine. Thanks. I’ll
send the fax. Give me a call when you’ve got something.”
It was as Erin said, time and money, how much,
and whether they could afford it. But his blood pressure had eased
in the time it took to talk to Hansen. He saw things from a new
perspective. Erin’s moods had been bouncing all over the place
since he’d first arranged the trip to Orlando. It was the holidays,
the memories, everything, but after having been almost completely
emotionless for a year, maybe her new emotionalism was actually an
improvement, a good sign. Maybe it would force her to deal with him
on more than a superficial level, to deal with Jay, and after that,
maybe they could find a way to deal with each other without sex or
anger as an excuse.