He made a pleased sound around the rigid flesh in his mouth and I couldn’t watch him anymore. I theoretically should have been the one in power, in control, as I stood over him, as he swallowed me back as far in his throat as he could. But it was all Dom. He was the one in charge as he worked me over and handled me like I was made of clay. I was pliable in his hands, willing to let him do whatever he wanted, and what he wanted was to make me come undone as quickly as possible.

I swore again as his free hand, which had been hovering over his own reawakening erection suddenly appeared between my legs and wrapped around my overly sensitive sack. The caress had my eyes flying back open and my fingers digging into his scalp. He rolled his palm over the delicate skin and pleasure throbbed so hard at the base of my spine, at the skilled touch, it almost hurt.

“Dominic …” I gasped his name out as a warning that I was close to the point of no return and he made a humming noise that shot all the way through my dick and into my gut. I groaned and then jolted as his hand left my balls and skipped up between my legs, along the curve of my ass and dipped into places I wasn’t sure I was ready to let him touch yet.

Whether I was ready or not didn’t matter to Dom as the tip of his finger teased the tight and hidden place.

I said his name, but it was broken and torn from my throat. It was all the warning he got before my body rebelled and gave into the rampaging pleasure he was coaxing from it. I panted, shallow and ragged breaths as I curled both my hands around the sides of his head and held him still as I danced and dripped desire all across the surface of his tongue.

His eyes were alive with self-satisfaction and pride as he wrung me out to dry and left me slumped, weak and boneless, against the door. It was an unfamiliar feeling. I’d never handed myself over to someone else like that before. Not even with Remy. With him, everything had been a gentle exploration, a discovery of what love and forever should feel like. With Dom, it felt like I was already at the top of the mountain and ready to jump off. It was the exhilaration of the battle won and the fear of the unknown crashing that amplified every touch and every shared breath. He pulled back and kissed the center of my stomach, which had the muscles pulling tight.

He went to get back up to his feet and halted before he got halfway up as his bad leg betrayed him. His face pulled tight in a wince of pain as I reached out and helped him up. We stood facing each other naked and as exposed as we could be.

He lifted a hand and rubbed it over the surface of his short hair and gave me a rueful grin. “Maybe I should have let you focus on the other muscles that needed your attention after all. Those aren’t such an easy fix.”

I cleared my throat and situated myself back inside my shorts. “I’m not sure anything about any of this is easy.”

He rolled his heavy shoulders and turned to walk over to the hooks on the wall that held his discarded clothes. “Most things that are easy aren’t worth much. It’s the things you have to work for that matter the most.”

I cleared my throat again. “I’ll keep that in mind.” And I would, because “easy” was not a word that I would ever associate with Dominic Voss, and how I was starting to feel about him was anything but.

Chapter 7

Dominic

The call came in as I was headed out the door to go to my first physical therapy session with a trainer that wasn’t Lando. I was walking down the stairs of my apartment building and headed towards my car when Royal’s boyfriend’s name flashed across the screen of my phone. I contemplated ignoring it and him but figured he wouldn’t be calling me unless it was something important, like our girl had locked herself out of somewhere again and I was closer to ride to the rescue.

I was so used to Asa’s slow, mellow southern drawl that when his words came out in a rush I had a hard time deciphering what he was trying to tell me. The bits and pieces I did pick out, like “accident,” “hurt,” “emergency room,” and “unconscious” made my heart lodge in my throat and the world tilt dangerously off-kilter. I had to grab the handrail on the stairs because I momentarily lost my balance and almost ended up on my ass.

I asked Asa if he had called Royal’s mother and he just grunted at me and bit out a harsh “No.” I told him I would make the call since there seemed to be some kind of hostility on his end toward my best friend’s flighty parent. Royal’s mom wouldn’t ever be inducted into the parenting hall of fame, but they were close and she was going to want to be there if Royal was hurt, even if it meant facing the silent scorn that seemed to emanate off of Asa when she was around. He told me what hospital they were at and I jogged the rest of the way down the stairs calling not only Royal’s mom but my own as I did so. She would want to know what was going on with the young woman she loved like one of her own as well.

The call to Royal’s mom was exhausting and frustrating. The woman was as dramatic as they came and since I didn’t have any details I couldn’t ease her fears or hysterics as she started screaming, “My baby! I told her she was going to get hurt!” over and over again. Finally, I couldn’t handle it anymore and just hung up on her. She was going to have to pull her shit together before she showed up at the hospital. I had a feeling Asa wouldn’t let her anywhere near Royal unless she showed up in full-on mom mode, something that was always a struggle for the woman.

My own mother took the news more stoically and asked if I wanted her to meet me at the emergency room. I told her to hold off until I had more information and promised to keep her updated when I knew more. She was worried but not one to fly off the handle like Royal’s mom, and the calm assurance did wonders to slow my rapidly thundering heart. I wasn’t going to assume the worst. I couldn’t.

When I got to the hospital, I moved as fast as I was able to since my own accident. I was intimately familiar with the emergency wing of the hospital, so it took me no time at all to maneuver my way through the sterile halls and around scrub-clad staff. Asa was easy enough to spot as soon as I hit the waiting room and intake area. He was standing by the desk talking to a lovely redheaded woman dressed in scrubs. Asa was a charmer and a stupidly attractive man. He seemed to attract female attention wherever he went, but the time and the place were not right for him to be flirting. It made me narrow my eyes at the scene before me.

The nurse had a hand on the outside of his arm and was looking up at him in a way that seemed way more personal than professional. There was concern and sympathy stamped on every line of her expressive face and I could see that she was trying to comfort the tall, blond southerner the best she could. He would nod occasionally at whatever it was she was telling him and at one point he reached down and enfolded the woman in a hug, which made my back teeth clench together. His girlfriend was injured, supposedly unconscious somewhere in this hospital and he had the nerve to have his hands on the first pretty face that wandered by? I wanted to choke him and then kick him.