Forever with Me (With Me in Seattle, #8)(38)

“Ignore you?” I can’t help the tightness in my voice.

“Yeah.” She sighs. “He knew that ignoring me was the best way to hurt me. I’d been ignored most of my life.”

“So, he ignored you as a punishment.”

“He did. And as time passed, it got worse. He would sleep on the couch, which he knew made me crazy. Wouldn’t speak to me for days, sometimes weeks at a time. When I started the business, and completed my first wedding, I asked him to take me out for a fun dinner to celebrate.”

I hug her closer to me.

“And he said, ‘Why? It’s just a f*cking job.’” She chuckles and shakes her head, then glances over her shoulder at me.

“He was an *,” I mutter.

“Yeah. But—”

“But?”

“Well, I’m not going to say I deserved it, because that’s ridiculous, but he was right. It was just a job.”

“It was something you worked hard on, and you wanted to celebrate it. It wasn’t just a job for you. And if he’d loved you the way he should have loved his wife, he would have seen that.”

“Hmm,” is her only response. “So, back to the love thing.”

“The love thing?” I ask with a laugh.

“It’s just not in me,” she replies and shrugs a shoulder, but then plants another kiss on my hand. “So, I’m comfortable with pursuing a physical relationship, if you’re still interested in that, but don’t expect much more from me, because you’ll just be disappointed.”

Her voice is perfectly matter of fact and reasonable and I want to just…shake her.

What?

She leans her blonde head back and gazes up at me. “Dom?”

“Ah, tesoro,” I murmur and glide my wet knuckles down her cheek softly. “Let’s table this discussion for now, okay?” I grip her hips in my hands and lift her to her feet, then pull myself up behind her, help her step out of the tub and reach for a towel. I wrap it around her shoulders, and gripping each end in my hands, I pull her against me, making her grin shyly.

“No more talking?” she whispers, her eyes pinned to my lips.

“Maybe less talking.” I lower my lips and gently brush them over hers, barely touching her skin, before nibbling the corner of her mouth and then gliding my tongue along her bottom lip to the other side, where I can nibble some more.

She shivers, so I let my hands roam over the towel, drying her off. When we’re both dry, I lift her in my arms, snag her bottle of lotion from the sink and carry her into her bedroom.

It’s dark now. With Alecia cradled in my arms, I pull the linens back on her bed, switch on the sidelight and gently lower her onto the bed, laying her on her back.

She’s watching me through dreamy eyes, relaxed from the warm bath.

“You are sure handsome to look at,” she murmurs, and lifts my hand to her lips.

“You have such a sweet heart,” I whisper, as I lean in and kiss her forehead. “Close your eyes.”

“It’s too early to go to sleep,” she replies.

“I’m not trying to put you to sleep.” I rub lotion between my hands, warming it, then begin to massage it into Alecia’s soft, smooth skin. I run my hands over her arm, her shoulder and her hand and grin when she sighs deeply and closes her eyes.

“You’re good with your hands,” she says.

“They enjoy touching you,” I reply, as I move to the other side, then add more lotion and glide my hands over her upper chest, between her breasts and down her sides. “You have the smoothest skin I’ve ever seen.”

“The skin is the largest organ in your body. You should take care of it,” she says primly, making me chuckle.

“Brains as well as a beautiful face.” I work my way down her legs and give her feet another good rub, earning a long sigh of contentment from her. “Don’t the shoes you wear kill your feet?”


“No,” she replies immediately, then bites her lip and squints one eye open to gaze at me warily. “Okay, can you keep a secret?”

“Anything you ever say will stay between the two of us, cara.”

“They f*cking kill me,” she says, and closes her eyes again, but the corners of her lips tip up in a smile. “But I love them too much to ever wear anything else.”

“You look f*cking amazing in them,” I reply, as I urge her to turn over onto her belly. She cradles her head in her arms and sighs deeply as my hands glide up and down her slender back, kneading and stretching her muscles. “You have great legs.”

“That comes from walking in four-inch heels every day. Sweet Jesus, that feels good.” I move over the spot on her right shoulder again, and if I’m not mistaken, she purrs. “Don’t ever stop touching me,” she whispers with a blissful sigh, and my heart catches.

“That’s the plan.” I lean in and kiss her neck, right in the spot behind her ear that drives her mad. She sighs again, and her hips tip up, brushing her ass over my already hard cock. Her lips are still curved at the corners, and a blush creeps up her cheeks as she rotates her hips once again, feeling the heavy weight of my dick against her ass.

I grin and kiss her neck again, then drag my lips down to her shoulder and over between her shoulder blades. Her hand grasps the pillow, but I whisper in her ear, “Relax, babe,” and she lets go, then frowns up at me.