Serving HIM: The Complete Series Box Set Page 24

  He silenced me with a kiss and then held me close, his gaze going over my head. “If it was anybody but you, I never would have forgotten. It’s never been an issue.” He turned his face into my hair and whispered, “What are you doing to me, Aleena?”

  I didn’t know how to answer because I didn't know what he was doing to me either. I'd never thought I could feel this way about someone.

  Instead of trying to explain and risking making things awkward, I slid my hand up and down his arm. “Based on, well, that, I'm guessing things didn’t go well at your mother’s.”

  He stiffened and for a moment, I thought he’d pull away.

  But then he relaxed and from the corner of my eye, I watched as he wrapped a strand of my hair around his finger. “I guess you could say that. They didn’t go well. At all.”

  I might have said something else, but then the phone rang.

  Frowning, I glanced at it.

  It was almost eleven.

  “Ignore it,” Dominic said, tugging me back against him. His mouth brushed against mine and his arms tightened. “I’m thinking about rewarding you for doing so well on your first lesson.”

  My heart jumped a little. “Really?” I was sore, but I still wanted him.

  He smiled.

  So did I.

  And then we heard the voice coming over the answering machine as the caller left a message.

  “Dominic…it’s Penelope. I just wanted to thank you for an amazing dinner.”

  Serving HIM Vol. 4

  Chapter 1

  Aleena

  “Dominic…it’s Penelope. I just wanted to thank you for an amazing dinner.”

  The words connected, I guess.

  They made sense, I guess.

  But…

  Shaking my head, I pulled away from Dominic and glanced toward the phone, then back to him.

  It was the look on his face that did me in.

  If I’d seen any other look on his face, I might have been able to curl back up against him and laugh it off, let things get back to where they’d been heading. I’d already had my fill of Penelope Rittenour and could already guess at the mindset that woman had. She was the sort who’d just twist people up because she could.

  But the look on his face, I couldn’t ignore it.

  His jaw was like stone and his eyes were icy, a cold glacial blue when he looked at me. Without a word, he rose and walked over to the counter. He deleted the message and then turned back towards me. When he sat down, I turned so that I was facing him, but not touching him.

  “I thought you were having dinner with your mother,” I said, trying to keep the accusation from my voice.

  “She’d invited Penelope.” He sat down and reached for me.

  I didn’t want to hear anymore. I stood up, but didn’t make it three steps before he caught my wrist.

  “Lovely,” I said, giving him the smile I’d perfected for the business meetings I’d attended with him. It was all professional polish with zero emotion. “I imagine the two of them had a wonderful time telling you how absolutely exotic and low-class I am.”

  “I don’t give a damn what they think about you!” His voice was harsh, the words boomed out in sharp staccato.

  “Neither do I!” I fired back at him. Except I lied. When you’ve lived most of your life being the town freak because your skin’s too dark for one group and too light for another, you grow a thick skin. But still, under that thick skin were layers and layers of nerves longing for acceptance. I could bluster through this though. I knew it. I’d done it before. I sneered at him, hoping that if I provoked him, he’d get angry and let me go. “You think I care what some New York princess with a pedigree thinks about me?”

  Dominic lifted a hand and touched my cheek. The gentleness of it caught me off guard. I’d been expecting anger following my attack.

  And then he murmured, “Yes.”

  I jerked away from his hand, shaking my head. “No, I don’t.”

  “You do,” he insisted. “Not so much what Penelope thinks and that’s good, because she’s not worth it. She can barely hold a thought in her head that doesn’t revolve around the current trends and the current causes.”

  I felt a burst of relief at his description of Penelope, but it didn’t overshadow the rest of what I was feeling. He took a step toward me to close the ground I’d managed to gain. I took another step back and found myself up against one of the low, fat accent chairs. I braced my hands against it, curling my fingers into the leather cushions.

  “No, what you care about is how some people look through you and they look around you and they look down…and it hurts.” He cradled my face, his thumb stroking across my lip. “I see you, Aleena.”

  I set my jaw, trying to ignore the way his words twisted my heart.

  “I’m sorry.” He pressed a soft kiss to my brow. “I should have mentioned it, but it was something my mother set up and I didn’t want to upset you. I…” He looked away and then back at me, sighing. “I upset you more by not telling you.”

  No shit.

  I eased away from him and moved to stare outside. Needing air, I pushed open the curtains to the rarely used balcony and stepped outside. The wind was still bitter cold, especially this high up, but I welcomed it and lifted my face, breathing it in. The robe I was wearing was thick, warm cotton, keeping me from freezing.

  “Are we trying to make a relationship work here, Dominic?” I asked when I felt him move out behind me.

  “I thought we’d already decided we were.”

  I nodded. Then, slowly, I turned to face him. “Then don’t do this again. I understand why you didn’t tell me, but it felt like you were hiding it.”

  Chapter 2

  Aleena

  We’d spent most of the weekend acting like…well, a couple. We watched movies. We ate together. When Dominic was taking phone calls in his office, we lounged on the couch. I did some work, but not a lot.

  It was probably the easiest couple of days we’d had together.

  Then, early Monday rolled around.

  The sun wasn’t even a whisper on the horizon when Dominic knocked on my door.

  We still didn’t share a bed.

  I wasn’t entirely certain how I felt about that. Part of me was glad, but part of me felt that deliberate, thin line of separation almost too keenly. I was good enough to fuck, even to doze next to a bit, but not good enough to spend the night in his bed, even though mine was only a few feet away.

  When he knocked, I got up, tired but unconcerned.

  It hadn’t been the first time he’d woken me up early with some business emergency. A few times he’d been going out of town. Twice, I’d been expected to throw some things in a bag and join him. Fawna hadn’t been kidding when she’d said I’d need to basically be on call twenty-four / seven.

  Sleepy and knuckling my eyes open, I stood there, waiting for him to tell me what he needed.

  When he held out a hand, I stared at it stupidly for a moment and then accepted. That had been forty minutes ago.

  “That’s not the answer I’m looking for, Aleena.”

  I blinked back tears and shuddered.

  “You didn’t trust me.”

  He brought the cat down on my bottom again and pleasurable pain streaked through me. I bit my lip but couldn’t stop myself from moaning. A few months ago, if anybody had told me I’d not only let a man tie me up, but that I’d also stand there and let him whip me, I would have told them to see a doctor. Fast.

  But here I was, my hands tied behind my back, my feet on the floor, back bent, my ass in the air, exposed. I was torn between twisting away before the next blow could come down and lifting myself up in anticipation. It was both pleasure and pain, more intense than anything I’d ever felt before.

  He’d started out with the same cat o’ nine tails he’d used just a few days ago. Then he’d told me he was very upset with me and that if I didn’t apologize for not trusting him, then he’d punish me even more.
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br />   Now, face flushed with embarrassment and with heat and with excitement, I trembled on the edge of something huge.

  His hand fisted in my hair as he bent over me and I felt the hand on the whip prodding me between my thighs.

  “You’re being very stubborn today, Aleena.”

  “I’m sorry, sir,” I said it automatically. I wondered if it should scare me that I found submitting to him so easy, but it didn’t. I didn’t do it anywhere but here and like this.

  Dominic cocked his eyebrow, a faint smile curling his lips. His bright blue eyes had darkened to the deep blue of late summer sky. “And why are you sorry?”

  “For being stubborn.”

  He pushed the handle of the whip harder against me and abruptly, I realized it wasn’t accidental. I cried out as it slid easily against my sensitized flesh, between my wet lips, against my clit.

  “You should trust me, Aleena.”

  I swallowed, but said nothing. It hadn’t been a question, so I knew better than to answer.

  He straightened and I braced myself for the whipping to start again. I didn’t know if I could take much more. My ass was already on fire, but at the same time, I wanted more. I didn’t understand what this man did to me, only that he knew things about me that I’d never imagined about myself.

  Dominic turned me around, then sat me on the bed.

  I cried out at the brush of my stinging flesh rubbing against the cool, slick texture of the sheets. He had stripped the bed down, made it ready for us with black silk sheets. I flinched in pain, then shuddered in ecstasy. I couldn’t tell just where on the line I rode just then, but I wanted more.

  He held me upright, one hand cupped around my neck. It was surprisingly difficult to sit on silk sheets with my hands tied behind my back.

  With his other hand, he slowly pulled down his zipper. “I’ve decided how I’m going to punish you, Aleena.”

  The low, rough sound of his voice had a quiver running through me and I squirmed miserably. I wasn’t sure which was worse, the burn on the skin of my ass or the ache between my legs.

  “You want to come?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  He freed himself and I watched, mesmerized as he wrapped his hand around his cock and started to stroke the thick shaft. I licked my lips.

  He pressed the head of his cock to my mouth. “Open.”

  I remembered the taste and weight of it all too well. He didn’t have to ask me twice. I parted my lips.

  He fed me one slow inch, his hand steadying my head and making it clear who was going to control this. “I want you to suck on it.” He made a sound when I complied. “Now…swirl your tongue…”

  He instructed me on how to suck his cock, each word like liquid sex dripping on my skin. His hips rocked back and forth, going from slow and lazy to deep and hard.

  I flinched as he pushed too far and he immediately pulled back. I looked up, expecting disappointment. Instead, I saw the last thing I expected. Patient concern. I nodded and was rewarded with a flash of pride.

  “Take a deep breath,” he said as he eased back inside. I didn’t need him to tell me that he was going just as deep. “Now…swallow it.”

  My lungs burned and my throat constricted, the muscles spasming around the width of him. But I fought to keep him inside, fought my body saying it was too much. I focused on the way my lips were stretched painfully wide around his base, the ache in my jaw.

  “That’s it…that’s it…” he crooned.

  He pulled out and did it again and it was easier. He didn’t try to move fast, knowing I wasn’t ready for that. Then he wrapped one hand around the base of his dick and began to fuck my mouth, his hand stopping him from going too deep. I moaned, unconsciously moving with him, desperate for more friction, but knowing better than to touch myself unless given permission.

  He abruptly pulled back and I tried to follow, but he held me away with his fist in my hair.

  Dazed, I stared at him and watched as he pumped himself with hard, rapid strokes. He came and I stared, startled as it splashed on my breasts, my legs and his hand. I’d had sex, but I’d never actually watched a man come, not like that.

  “That’s your punishment, Aleena.”

  Semen clung to my breasts and I watched as Dominic picked up a towel that had been sitting on the edge of the bed. He wiped his hands, then my breasts and legs, his movements gentle, but not sexual. He untied my hands next and I rubbed my wrists.

  “You don’t get to come this time.”

  My jaw fell open and I glared at him. “You—”

  He jerked me upright and I ended up pinned between him and one of the thick pillars of the four poster bed. “This is how a relationship with a Dom works, Aleena,” he whispered, his voice a low growl against my ear. “You have to trust me. Always. You didn’t.”

  Slowly, he lifted his head and stared down at me as if waiting for my response.

  I pushed up onto my toes and stared at him. Hard. The sex was done apparently, and I was too worked up to worry about whether or not he was still supposed to be in charge.

  “You didn’t trust me either.” I barely resisted the urge to poke him in the chest.

  He frowned and stepped back. I couldn’t tell if he was surprised at what I’d said or that I’d said it at all. His voice was soft as he spoke, “I guess that’s something we’ll both have to work on.” He didn’t look at me as he walked out of the room.

  ***

  I took my sweet time showering since it involved some good old-fashioned therapy with the massaging shower-head. It wasn’t even close to the same, but at least I wouldn’t be jumping out of my skin the next time he came near me.

  Part of me was pissed off at him.

  The other part of me was still trying to catch up with the crazy turns my life had been taking lately. I wanted him to dominate me, but there were times I still resisted, feeling like I wasn’t quite as there for him as he was for me.

  “Did you enjoy your shower?”

  I yelped at the sound of his voice and spun around, glaring at him when I saw him standing outside my bedroom door. Swallowing, I lifted my chin. “What was that?”

  With a faint smile, Dominic shoved off the wall and came to me, the slow, rolling walk of a predator.

  “The shower, Aleena.” He dipped his head. “I heard you moaning.”

  I flushed. Then I shrugged. “I told you that you could teach me all about submitting when we’re in the bedroom, Dominic. Your bedroom.” I glanced around pointedly. “This is mine.” My private quarters, I wanted to add, but I didn’t.

  It wasn’t so much that I minded him being here, but the fact that he’d just come in enhanced the feeling that he didn’t see me as a person, but rather a possession he owned.

  “True enough.” He held out a hand.

  I put mine in his. I didn’t want to feel this way, but it was hard when he closed himself off so abruptly. He pushed up the arm of my robe and looked at my wrist.

  “I should have put lotion on these.” He raised my hand and pressed his lips against the inside of my wrist. “I’m sorry. I’m still getting used to the after part.”

  That mollified me a little. Not much though.

  “You never answered me,” he said. “About whether or not you enjoyed your shower.”

  “It got the job done.” I scowled at him, hoping he’d get the very intentional double meaning.

  I saw a glimpse of anger flash across his eyes and then it was gone. He took a step back and I knew the personal part of our discussion was over.

  Shrugging it off, I thought about the agenda. “The morning is fairly light—”

  He lifted a hand and I fell silent.

  “If you don’t mind, I have an interior decorator coming by. She’s a friend. Her name is Annette. It’s been a while since I’ve had my penthouse decorated and I’m ready for a change. I’ll need you to deal with her. I’ve got a morning of phone calls to deal with.”

  I frowned. “You were suppo
sed to be talking to Mr. Kim today.”

  “We’re rescheduling until his translator is feeling better.” He rubbed at his jaw. “They’re looking to talk again later in the month.”

  “Okay.” I picked up my phone from my dresser. “Did you have anything in mind for the decorator?”

  “Annette knows what I like.”

  I tried not to read anything else into that, but I was picturing the couch in the living room and I wondered if his thoughts had gone where mine had. And then I wondered if his comment had meant that Annette had been bent over that same couch. I pushed it away and tried to focus.

  “Understood,” I said. “Is…ah…would you like me to get anything else done while you’re in the office?”

  He glanced back at me and then nodded. He made mention of a name I’d heard before and after a few seconds, I placed it. “Start digging up as much as you can on them. How much money they pull in, what their debt is, any notable clients.”

  I made a note on my phone, frowning absently as I did so. “This company—it’s not local.”

  “No. It’s a matchmaking company down in Philadelphia. I’ve been thinking of branching out and there’s a small company there, owned by a friend, Edward Hall. Eddie’s been planning to retire in a few years and when he heard about Trouver L’Amour, he asked if I had plans to expand.” Dominic shrugged and said, “I told him I wouldn’t commit to anything until I had an idea on how things were going here, but if it went well I wouldn’t object to expanding.”

  He flashed me a wide smile. “But I plan for things to go well and he knows it. So Eddie told me to keep him in mind, because he spent a long time building his company and he’d like to pass it on into good hands.”

  His smile faded and he now simply looked grim. “Devoted must have heard about him retiring because they’re moving in on his clients, talking to other people. It looks like they’re pressuring him to sell, staking their claim.”

  I waited.

  Dominic smiled as he looked away. “I wasn’t sure I’d want to branch out so soon, but I like Philadelphia.”