ISABELA CALLED ME THE DAY AFTER WE LEFT UTAH FOR BOISE, Idaho. She caught me in a rare moment alone in my hotel room while Dominic was at the gym and Marta was off doing something for him.
“Hello,” I answered.
“Claire. How is the tour going?”
We’d kept in constant contact, emailing every other day. She’d called a couple times, but not often. She wasn’t especially chatty, so I doubted she was really calling to have a friendly conversation.
“Really well. I’m surprised by how fast it’s breezing by.”
Isabela took a deep breath. “Good, good. Have you checked Dominic’s socials today?”
Part of my job was to be on top of Dominic’s social media. I scanned for his name over all the platforms, checking for any stories we needed to spin or pictures we could use. He had people who ran his accounts, but I flagged anything for them I thought they should give special attention to.
“No, not yet. We flew in late last night, so I—”
Isabela cut me off. “That’s fine. One of my interns—you remember Marley, right?—alerted me to a picture posted on a young woman’s Instagram account. She’s a waitress in Salt Lake City.” She paused, and my stomach sank. “You see where I’m going with this?”
“Am I in the picture?” I asked.
“I didn’t notice you at first—not until Marley pointed you out.” So much for loyalty among underlings. “Do you remember why I hired you for this job, Claire?”
I sighed. “Nothing inappropriate has happened. Dominic wanted company, Marta was out with other people, so I went along with him.”
None of that was a lie. Technically. I shouldn’t be sleeping with Dominic, but I’d already made that choice, so I couldn’t take it back. I’d found I was perfectly capable of doing my job anyway. I wasn’t a jealous woman, clinging to him when I should have been working. So far, I’d been able to compartmentalize and keep each side of our relationship separate.
Dominic was the one who kept grabbing my ass and biting my neck the second we were alone. Maybe I should have Isabela call him.
“I want you to know you’re nothing special,” Isabela said without venom. In fact, her tone was soft, almost comforting. “That restaurant Dominic took you to? He took me there before we slept together the first time. It’s where he takes women he has to work a little bit harder to get. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time. I thought it was a sweet little place, with the Ball jars and twinkle lights. So, if you truly haven’t slept with Dominic yet, don’t. It would be a colossal mistake for you and mean absolutely nothing to him. Don’t spoil your potential for a man who will never care for you.”
I sat down on my neatly made bed, slack-jawed. I couldn’t quite figure out what to say. Isabela was so far out of line, but in a way, she wasn’t. She probably thought she was doing me a favor, as awful as her delivery was.
So, I said the only thing I could think of. “Thank you, Isabela. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You should.” The clicks of her pen echoed in my ear. “I know this entire arrangement has been unconventional, but I really am looking out for you, Claire.”
After a few more awkward niceties and platitudes, Isabela rushed off the phone with barely a goodbye, and I scrolled through Instagram to find the pretty waitress’s picture of us.
My breath caught. It had clearly been taken from afar, but Dominic’s expression was illuminated by the lights on the table. He’d been looking at me, frustration pulling on his mouth, fierceness pinching his brow. I was in the corner of the picture, smiling back at him with my fork at my lips.
If I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have even noticed me in the picture. I was surprised Marley had. The caption—“Guess who was a lucky girl and had the silver fox himself, Dominic Cantrell, seated in my section tonight? Total Daddy vibes”—didn’t mention me either.
I scrolled through the comments, laughing to myself. There were so many “Daddy” references. Dominic would probably hate the hell out of that. I only felt a twinge of jealousy and possessiveness. Dominic wasn’t mine, but he kind of was mine for right now. More than anything, I got a kick out of how many girls claimed they would dump their boyfriends for him, and maybe a sliver of pride for being the one he had chosen.
Dominic barged into my room, kicking the door shut behind him. His silver hair was dark from showering and his eyes were black with hunger. He took my mouth before I could say one word and had me stripped and facedown on the bed within minutes. I didn’t have a second to feel self-conscious at being so exposed with the morning light streaming through my sheer curtains.
Rough hands clamped down on my thighs, spreading them. His warm, wet tongue pressed against my clit from behind. He growled and sucked at my flesh like I was his favorite flavor. Sometimes I thought he got off on going down on me almost as much as I did. Knowing he loved it, wanted it, craved it, only made me wetter. I writhed in the sheets, clinging on like they were my only tether to this plane.
His thumbs spread my cheeks apart so he could get to every part of me. He laved me all over, from end to end. The wet, sucking sounds his lips made were so obscene and carnal, I could have flown off the bed had Dominic not been holding me down.
He hummed as he sucked my clit, and the pure pleasure in that sound rocked me out of my head and into a soul-shaking orgasm. I pressed my pussy against his face, needing more, less, everything. Dominic gave it to me, riding out one wave and bringing me over again, this time with his fingers thrusting deep inside me.
“Dominic,” I cooed desperately.
His teeth clamped down on my ass, sending a jolt of the sweetest pain down my spine. Then he slapped me in the same spot, making me cry out his name again.
“One more,” he rasped.
His hand came down between my thighs, connecting solidly with my clit. I bucked beneath him, mewling. In that moment, I couldn’t decide if I liked what he did or hated it. Dominic didn’t give me time to think. He hauled me to the head of the bed, flipping me onto my back. Sheathing himself with a condom, he sank into me in one slow, fluid thrust.
His body moved at that languorous pace, sliding in so deep, I saw stars, then pulling almost all the way out. Some of the desperation he’d had in the beginning had burned off, and now, he took his time.
“Claire.” He brushed sweaty hair off my forehead, eyeing me everywhere. The fire in his gaze hadn’t gone out. It was there, flickering, waiting for a chance to rage.
Once he’d gotten his fill of looking at me, his mouth left trails of bites and kisses everywhere he could reach. I wrapped my legs around his narrow waist, arching into his movements, letting him dictate our pace.
I was getting addicted to this. The weight of him pressing me into the bed. The rapture in his expression when he finally got inside me. The explosive chemistry and wildfire passion between us. How he worked my body like he’d known me for years, like he’d studied me and knew without asking what got me going faster than anything else.
More than anything, I couldn’t get enough of the way he took control. He allowed me to shut my brain off and feel. When he cuffed my wrists with his long fingers, I let go of everything except the slide of his cock against every one of my singing nerve endings.
Fingers closed around my jaw, tilting my face up to meet his searing gaze. No words were spoken between us, but a thousand things were said.
You’re mine.
I own you.
How can this be so fucking mind blowing?
Why can’t I get enough of you?
I’m going to break you, and you’re going to love it.
I’ll put you back together better than before.
This’ll be over so fast.
I’ll miss it when it’s gone.
I came with a sigh, and Dominic followed me over with a growl from deep inside his chest. The fingers cuffing my wrists tightened to the point of pain. His eyes ignited with black fire, burning into mine as he spilled his pleasure in my body.
He stayed like that, panting, holding me down until I squirmed beneath him. He snapped back from the far-off place he’d fallen into, looking down at me like he hadn’t seen me in a while.
His mouth twitched, almost turning into a smile, but my flexing fingers distracted him. With a grunt of surprise, he released his hold on me, placing his hot palm on my cheek.
“Such a good fucking girl, Claire.” He lowered his face into the crook of my neck, his breath warm against my already-heated skin. “We’re in Idaho.”
That made me laugh. “We are. You’re also inside my pussy.”
I felt his slow chuckle rather than heard it. “I like when you talk dirty. Seems so wrong, yet so right coming out of your sweet mouth.”
“You’re a bad influence.” I rubbed my feet along the backs of his thighs, telling him without words that I liked where he was right now and he could stay for as long as he wanted. “Was there a point to your Idaho declaration?”
“Just thought you knew Idaho is the state where I stay in bed all day fucking my PR assistant named Claire. It’s an age-old tradition.” His teeth scraped along my skin, teasing the places he’d no doubt left his mark.
“I think Marta forgot to put that on the schedule.” My nails scratched along the sides of his head, which made him sigh and his bunched muscles loosen slightly. “I do like tradition, though.”
He nodded. “It’s important to keep it up.”
“I do have some work to do, so you might have to entertain yourself for a while, but I don’t think I have to leave this room or this bed until tomorrow.”
Dominic finally lifted his head. The smile on his face wasn’t in full bloom, but it was enough to send my pulse racing. Sometimes I wanted to ask why his smiles were so precious and rare, but I knew he wouldn’t tell me. If we were something more, or even had the potential to become something more, I’d ask him directly. But since this was all we’d ever have, I’d eat up those few smiles he gave me and live in the moment like I had promised myself at the beginning of the tour.
