Craving HIM Read online

  On the way over, I’d asked why this was happening. Who could do something like this? I truly didn’t understand that kind of mind that would set out to torment people like this, play those kind of games. That had been when it had hit me.

  Mitchell wasn't a game kind of guy. Yes, he was a lecherous, horrible, bastard of a man, but he didn't play games. He was about as subtle as...well, I wasn’t able to think of anything even close to describing just how not subtle he was.

  Dominic was speaking quietly on the phone, and I tried to block the conversation out of my head. He'd already been talking to whoever it was when I'd gotten out of the shower. That had been the first thing I'd done when we'd gotten here. Taken a shower as hot as I could stand and scrubbed my skin until it was red. Now I was wrapped in a soft cotton robe, smelling like soap and shampoo, but I still didn't feel clean.

  I kept asking who and why, and I kept coming back to only a handful of people. Logic narrowed it down even further. I was trying to be objective. While I had my fair share of people who weren't exactly fond of me, it was entirely possible this was all about Dominic and had nothing to do with me.

  But that didn’t feel right.

  The people who disliked me enough to do something this vicious was, thankfully, a decidedly small list. One person I could immediately remove was Dominic’s mother. She might not like me, but she adored her son, even if their relationship was strained. There was also the fact that this seemed too…crude. Jacqueline St. James-Snow might do a lot of things, but I doubted she’d snoop to recording her son having kinky sex. It would hurt him too much. Also, gross.

  I briefly considered Maya, but she fell off the list when I thought of the glint of hurt I’d seen in her eyes when she realized Dominic and I were serious. Plus, she spent most of her time in the Hamptons, which meant if it had been her, she probably would've put cameras in there rather than the penthouse. Besides, I didn't really see her as vindictive. She'd been hurt and angry, but she hadn't struck me as the revenge kind of person.

  That left only two people left to consider if I was certain Pence hadn't done it alone. Aside from my personality observation, I didn't think Pence was bright enough to have managed the sort of maneuvering this would've taken. That meant it was most likely Penelope Rittenour or Koren Norseman.

  I didn’t know if she really cared about Dominic or had just enjoying subbing for him, but she'd struck me as cool enough to get back at somebody for any imagined slight. But Koren had just found out about us. Or at least, she’d just discovered that the door to Dominic’s bedroom had been permanently slammed shut as far as she concerned. Judging by the things Pence had said to Dominic, at least some of what had been recorded had happened before Koren had seen Dominic and me together.

  I heard Dominic end the call, his voice brusque and I turned my head to look at him. He'd sat down on the edge of the bed, facing away from me, but I didn't need to see his face to know how upset he was. His entire body was slumped. I'd never seen him like this before.

  “I think it was Penelope.”

  I hadn't planned to just say it like that, but now that I had, I couldn’t take it back, so I prepared to explain myself.

  Dominic’s spine went rigid. He lifted his head and slowly turned to look at me. “Why?”

  “It fits. This is…personal.” My stomach churned yet again as the reality of what was happening settled in.

  Dominic cocked an eyebrow, clearly waiting for me to continue.

  “Koren came to the penthouse this afternoon while Molly was there,” I said, bracing myself for his reaction. I hadn’t told him. It wasn’t that I’d deliberately planned to not tell him, but this had sort of taken priority. “She tried to pick a fight, tried to get me mad, but it didn't work. I meant to tell you but it slipped my mind with everything else going on.”

  I was babbling and making excuses and Dominic held up a hand. “I’m not angry. I trust that if you'd needed me to handle it, you would've called. But what does Koren have to do with Penelope?”

  “I think Koren gave Penelope...details.” I waved a vague hand in the air and watched his eyes narrow. “Penelope knew way too much for it to have been only from what you'd said to her before.”

  He blew out a harsh breath. “They do know each other.” A derisive laugh escaped him. “Koren moves in some of the same social circles as Penelope, although I wouldn’t really call them friends.”

  “Well, maybe they bonded over their mutual dislike of me,” I said, trying to sound light.

  Dominic came to me and scooped me into his arms. He settled in the chair with me on his lap and I snuggled down against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me as I rested my cheek over his heart. It didn't matter that I'd seen him furious and throwing things a little over an hour ago. I knew he'd never hurt me.

  “I hate this,” I whispered, tears pricking at my eyelids. They were more from anger than anything else this time. “You can’t pay Mitchell. He’s a weasel. He'd probably release the tapes anyway.”

  “I’m not going to pay him.” Dominic stroked my hair.

  In the reflection of the window, I could see his face, vaguely distorted as he stared outside. There was something in his expression that I was having a hard time reading.

  “I’m going to find out who is behind this and they’ll suffer for it. If they wanted to fuck with me, that’s one thing. But they hurt you. And I'm not going to let that go.”

  Miserable, I curled in closer to him. “This hurts us both.”

  Long moments of silence passed, but it wasn’t the calm, companionable quiet that I was used to sharing with Dominic. We were both on edge, both angry and while he wasn’t showing it, I knew he was hurting inside too.

  Finally, he broke the silence. “I called Kowalski.”

  It took a moment for the name to register. Back in April, Dominic had hired a private investigator to help him track down his mother. Stanley Kowalski. He was a nice guy, a former cop, and a damned good investigator.

  “He’s going to find out who’s behind this. I’ve also spoken with my security teams. They’ll be sweeping for bugs and upping security in general at the penthouse, the house in the Hamptons, as well as all of the businesses. I gave them Kowalski's number so they can give him all of the same information they give me. Hopefully, any bugs will lead us to whoever's involved.”

  I tried to tell myself to feel better, that he had a plan, that we could get this under control. We were safe now and our people would make sure we stayed that way.

  But I still felt unsteady. Dirty.

  “Will you make love to me?” I whispered against his neck. The hand on my back stilled and I lifted my head to look at him. “Just us,” said. “No rules, no orders. No Dom or Sub. Just you and me.”

  “Aleena,” he murmured my name as he ran his thumb along my bottom lip.

  “I feel...dirty.”

  He stiffened and I hurried to explain.

  “Not because of anything we've done, but knowing that something so special...” I closed my eyes, struggling to find the words. “I need you to make feel clean again.”

  His hands slid beneath the robe and I sighed at the warmth of his palms on my thighs, my hips. He helped me move until I had a knee on either side of him. He tugged at the belt of my robe and I shivered as it came free. He didn't push it off me, but parted it enough to bare my body to him.

  The skyline of New York City spread out behind us like a jewel-strewn field and I could see our reflections in the window.

  “Can anybody see?” I asked as he slid his hands up to cup my breasts.

  “No. Treated glass.” He managed a faint smile when I moaned. “Privacy and respect is key at all Masque Hotels after all.”

  I leaned in and kissed that smile, tracing the curve of his lips as his thumbs made lazy circles on my hardening nipples. I let our tongues touch for the briefest of moments and then sat back.

  I reached for the buttons of his shirt, staring into his eyes. “I want to see you.
Touch you.”

  “I’m yours,” he said, voice ragged. He cupped my cheek and dragged one thumb over the curve of my lip as I ran my hands over his chest.

  “Yes. Mine.” I kissed a trail of kisses from his mouth down to his neck. He groaned as I lightly scraped my nails over his nipples and I could feel him hardening under me.

  Slipping out of the chair, I knelt in front of him and tugged on his belt. The button and zipper of his pants went next and then he was lifting his hips so I could slide off his pants and underwear. I wrapped my hand around the base of him, my fingers not able to meet until I slid my hand up his swollen shaft. I loved the feel of him in my hand, but I wanted to taste him more. He swore as I lowered my head and took him into my mouth. He tangled a hand in my hair, but didn't push or pull, instead letting me do the driving. I sucked and nipped at the head, the flavor of him hot and salty on my tongue. His thigh muscles tensed against my arms, his hips twitching as he fought to keep them still.

  “Come here,” Dominic growled the words. He was close.

  I slid him a look up over the expanse of his body. Damn, he was beautiful. And he was mine. “No orders tonight, remember?”

  His fingers tightened in my hair, but he wasn't taking control. A surge of pride and love went through me. I didn't need him to tell me that I was the only one who'd ever gotten to be this to him, to do this with him. I was the only one he trusted enough.

  “A request, then?” His voice was rough. “I need to be inside you.”

  The hunger and raw need in his eyes was an echo of what I felt twisting in my stomach. I let him help me to my feet and then back onto the chair, straddling his lap again. I held him steady in my hand, looking down to watch as our bodies joined. I was far too tight and not nearly wet enough, but I welcomed every pang. He stretched me and I arched my spine, sinking deeper onto him. This was what I needed, this total possession. And he did possess me. And I him.

  When I started to move, he shifted in the chair, throwing me off balance so that I fell against him. He caught my left nipple in his mouth and sucked, tugged, using the edge of his teeth and his tongue to drive me towards climax.

  Time fell away and lost meaning. Nothing mattered but the pulse of his cock inside me and the hard desperation in our hands as we clung to each other and moved. He drove up inside me, hard and high, thigh muscles straining and I pressed down harder until he couldn't go any deeper. He licked and bit across my neck as I rocked in tiny little motions that had him grinding against my clit.

  The climax swept up and grabbed us both. I squeezed my eyes closed as I rode it. I could feel the heated wash of his cum deep inside me and I whimpered. He caught me in his arms, holding me as he thrust into me even as his cock pulsed and emptied. Impossibly, I came again, harder.

  Panting and gulping air, I dropped down to curl against his chest. He was still inside me and I wanted it that way. I wanted us to be together like this forever.

  His lips moved against my forehead.

  “I love you,” he whispered.

  I caught his hand, tangled our fingers. “I love you.”

  Chapter 14

  Dominic

  She came awake with a sigh, her lashes fluttering as she stretched her arms out over her head. Spine arched, lifting her breasts to the ceiling, she lay there with a faint smile on her lips as she flexed her body. Before her, I'd never fallen asleep with anyone, let alone woken up next to a woman.

  I felt like I could wake up next to Aleena every morning for the rest of my life.

  I saw the exact moment when the fog of sleep cleared from her eyes and she realized we weren’t at the penthouse. She bolted upright in bed, her full lips parting as she groaned.

  And it wasn't the good kind of groan.

  “It wasn’t a dream.” She wasn’t really asking me anything, simply voicing her now-dashed hopes that the past day had been nothing but a bad dream.

  Instead of stating the obvious, I leaned forward, weight on my elbows to study her. I'd been awake for hours. I had gone over this in my head a dozen times, more.

  It had all been a waste of time because nothing I could say would change the simple fact that I’d failed her. Anything and everything I’d thought to say, to tell her, came off as nothing more than what they were: excuses. Lousy excuses for failing her.

  Aleena didn’t think I'd failed her, but she didn’t understand how important it was for me to protect her. Out of all the women I had been with, out of all the 'relationships' I'd had, every single last one of them had been casual and based on nothing more than compatible sexual needs. Then, when it had mattered the most, I hadn’t been good enough.

  I would have been angry even if this had happened with Maya or any number of other sexual encounters, but for it to have happened with Aleena, the woman who owned my heart?

  Rage didn’t even begin to touch what I felt.

  “You’re brooding.” She lifted an eyebrow as she lay back down and rolled onto her side so she could look at me

  I eased out of the chair to sink onto my knees by the bed.

  Only one woman could ever put me in this position. Only one woman made me willing to kneel. She lay there staring at me, our gazes locked. I reached out and brushed her hair back from her face.

  “I’m sorry.”

  She wanted to argue. I could see the words forming, but I shook my head and reached up to press one finger to her lips. She had to understand.

  “I failed you, Aleena.” Even I could hear the urgency in my voice, but I couldn't seem to pull it under control. “When you agreed to be my Submissive, when you took my collar, there were promises involved. Yours to me, mine to you. I was supposed to protect you and I didn’t.”

  Fire sparked in her eyes and she pushed herself up onto her elbows, leaning closer. “This isn’t on you. And Dominic, somebody betrayed you too.” She lay a hand on my cheek. “This isn’t your fault.”

  “It is my fault! It feels like my fault!” I ran my hand through my hair as I struggled to keep my voice down. “For fuck’s sake, just let it be my fault!”

  I surged up, pacing the floor as I struggled to put my tangled emotions into words. I had to take the blame for this. I needed to, but she wasn’t going to let me. Which wasn’t the big issue in the long run because I was already blaming myself.

  “Look,” I said after a moment. I picked my way through the words slowly. I had to make her see. “I did fail you. I need you to understand that it won’t happen again. I will find out who did this and I’ll make it right.” I stopped for a moment and took a slow breath. “The thought of you going through what...” I snapped my jaw shut.

  But it was too late. It probably wasn’t even just the words. It was something she’d seen in my eyes. She slid to the edge of the bed, reaching up to touch my cheek.

  “We should talk,” I said quietly, covering her hand with mine.

  “Aren’t we doing that?”

  I shook my head. She had no idea. “Come on. Let’s order breakfast and we’ll…talk.”

  ***

  While breakfast was being set up, I brooded and stared out over the city.

  Aleena wasn’t angry.

  No, that wasn’t right.

  She was pissed—and damn was she beautiful that way—but she wasn’t mad at the person she needed to be.

  I hadn’t protected her.

  “Will there be anything else, Mr. Snow?”

  I looked behind me at the server and shook my head. Shoving off the wall, I pulled a bill out of my pocket and passed it into his hand. He gave me a polite nod and I settled at the table, but I didn’t see any of the food.

  I kept seeing her face when I told her, how shattered she’d been. Feeling the tears soaking into my shirt as she'd cried in my arms. I kept hearing her voice.

  I feel dirty.

  She’d asked me to make love to her, no rules, no orders. Nobody else had ever gotten that from me, but Aleena could have had anything from me she wanted in those moments. In any moment,
really. She was my Sub, but I knew I was her slave. That simple fact should have pissed me off, infuriated me, freaked me out.

  But it felt good, felt right. Because I knew I owned her as much as she owned me.

  I’d fucked up, though.

  It was my job to protect her and I hadn’t.

  The door to the bedroom swung open and Aleena slipped out. She'd changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She'd never looked more beautiful. I watched as she went to her purse and pulled out a bottle, popping back one the antibiotics the doctor had put her on.

  “Is your ear feeling better?” I asked. I sounded like a polite stranger.

  She gave me a funny look. “Yeah. It doesn’t take long. I just need to remember to keep taking them. Normally not a problem, but…” She sighed and shook her head. “My head isn’t really normal right now.”

  I held out a hand to her.

  She came to me and I tugged her into the chair next to mine where her breakfast waited. I watched as she picked at her food for the first few minutes before she finally started to scoop up some eggs. Her eyes slid toward me and then moved pointedly to the plate I hadn't touched.

  “Not eating isn’t going to help you focus any better today,” she said matter-of-factly. “You get grouchy and short-tempered when you’re hungry.”

  “I’m grouchy and short-tempered even when I’m not hungry,” I pointed out.

  A ghost of a smile danced around her lips. With a shrug, she said, “Well, it’s worse when you’re hungry.”

  To satisfy her, I picked up a piece of bacon and took a bite, then another. While she was sipping her water, my belly grumbled demandingly. It apparently hadn't gotten the memo that I didn't want to eat. Aleena didn’t even bother to hide her grin when I picked up another piece of bacon.

  By the time we were done, I’d eaten my breakfast and some of hers, because she’d ignored the bacon and half the hash browns. She usually loved breakfast and preferred the basics over anything fancy. The fact that she'd left anything told me how upset she still was. She pushed back from the table and wandered over to the same window where I'd been standing not too long ago.