Dominic: Her Warlock Protector Book 1 (3 page)

The burger was far and away the best he had ever tasted. It was simply meat on a pretzel bun, garnished with bacon and cheese, but there was a rich complexity to the flavors that belied its straightforward presentation.

“That was my guess, but then I started talking with Roberto one day. George, that's the guy with one eye, his dad owns a bison farm up north. They bake all the bread, they get the cheese from some secret place they won't tell me about, and they make all of the condiments by hand.”

“Jesus.”

“I know.”

They ate in companionable silence for a while, and Dominic found an easy restfulness in the meal that he hadn't had in a long time. He found himself being grateful that he hadn't gone home with one of the women he had seen close to the river. They might have been beautiful, and they might have had inviting smiles, but this girl was something else. Even if all he gained out of the encounter was one of the most amazing burgers he had ever eaten, it was enough.

Dominic finished his meal before Sophia did, and when she saw that he was watching her eat, she set the remainder of her burger down nervously.

“I...what are you looking at?” she asked

He shook his head. “You. You're...you're adorable, you know that?”

She laughed a little. “Story of my life. Hot guy calls my cat gorgeous, and I'm just adorable.”

“I also called you beautiful,” he pointed out, and she blushed.

Dominic couldn't remember the last time he had seen a woman blush, and instinctively, he leaned in towards her.

“I could call you a lot of things,” he said softly. His tone was teasing, but there was an edge to it that was anything but playful.

“Could you?”

She looked up at him, and in that moment, Dominic was the one who could feel his breath grow shorter. Her eyes were wide and dark, and before, he might have said that they were a plain dark brown. However, this close to her, he could see that they were nearly black, but around the iris there was the finest rim of pale blue, shocking against the darkness beside them.

“Beautiful is just the start,” he murmured. He had to clear his throat because his voice was suddenly rough and hoarse. “I could say that your eyes were deep and full of secrets, and I could say that you have a face that would have made the sculptors of the Renaissance cry to sculpt you.”

She made a noise as if she didn't believe them.

He chuckled. “Don't believe me? Take it from one who knows. If you had stepped out of your villa,
donna
, they would have fallen at your feet, or chopines, I suppose I should say, back then. They would have wanted to cut your hips from marble, chisel the point of your chin from wood. Titian himself would have used a dozen shades of brown to do your hair justice.”
 

“Most men just notice the breasts,” she said, and he could detect a shakiness there, old hurts perhaps, or something deeper and darker.

“The breasts are amazing, don't think I haven't noticed,” he said reassuringly, “but without the rest of you, well. I've always been a whole-package kind of guy, and
donna,
you are the whole package.”

She sighed, soft as a summer breeze. He brought his hand up slowly to her face. When she didn't flinch, he brushed his knuckles against her cheek. Her eyes were wide, and she shivered at his touch.

“So beautiful,” he said, “and so brave too. You weren't going to give that mugger a single thing, were you?”
 

She jumped a little, and he cursed himself for bringing up that frightening incident.

“It's over now, and you are home and very safe,” he murmured.

She leaned in closer, swaying towards him. He could smell her, something sweet and spicy, and underneath it, her natural womanly scent, darker and sensuous. Sophia sighed, leaning against him, a soft weight against his side, as he set his arm around her. He was half-hard from her closeness, but there was something so tender about the way that she rested against him that he didn't want to disturb it. The low heat in his body curled into something finer, something sweeter, and he stroked his cheek against her head, making her laugh.

“Zora does that,” she murmured, and he nodded.

“Your cat loves you very much.”
 

They rested that way for several long seconds, letting the moment stretch between them. It was sensual, but more than that, it was kind, and finally, Dominic realized he had to break it. She murmured in protest when he stood away from her, and though her surprised expression made him regret what he was saying immensely, he stepped back.

“I'm sorry,” he said, a wry smile on his face. “You just had... a rough experience, and I'm not sure I am making it better. You're injured, and you are probably feeling not quite yourself. I am afraid that I would dearly love to take advantage of that, so…”

“So?”

“So perhaps it is best if I leave? Or, if you would like someone around to help you sleep, I can take the...” He looked around her small apartment, where the living space consisted only of a narrow bed, a desk and a wing chair, and finished lamely, “The floor?”
 

She looked at him, and he blinked because now there was a frank, challenging look in her eyes.

“What if I say I want something different?” she asked.

There was a daring sharp note in her voice that hadn't been there before. It made something inside him respond. His heart beat a little faster, and he had to swallow a bit before he replied.
 

“Then because you're obviously in charge, I would accede to your judgment.”
 

“
Am
I in charge?”
 

“Yes. Absolutely.”

She sat as still as one of the marble statues he had compared her to, and the electricity between them crackled.

“I'm tired of being cautious, I think,” she said, almost to herself. “I'm tired of hiding, and I am tired of tucking myself away.”

“You never should,” he whispered, and though he might have been referring to her beauty, he realized with a soft ache that it wasn't just that. There was a fire to her that should never be hidden, no matter what was out there.

She stood up, and the folds of her skirt swept down, outlining the curve of her hips and making him all too aware that her legs were bare underneath.

“Your ankle,” he murmured, and she laughed a little shakily.

“Can barely feel it,” she assured him, and with one shaky step, she was pressed against his body, in his arms, and tilting her face up for a kiss.

“I'm in charge, and I want you,” she murmured, and he was lost.

SOPHIA COULD BARELY believe what she was doing, what she was feeling, and yet here it was. She suddenly ached for the feel of his body against hers, and she wondered if that was the way she had felt ever since she had seen him. She wondered if this was what she had been waiting for without knowing it for years. The moment she stumbled into his arms, there was something so right about it, so perfect, that her brain tried to stop her.

You've only known him for a few hours,
it tried to tell her.
He could be anyone. He could do anything to you!

I want him to,
she thought fiercely, and knew it was true.

She twined her arms around his neck, bringing his head down for a fevered kiss. The first touch of their lips was electrifying, and it was more than just an expression.

“Oh!”

Sophia pulled back blinking hard. The spark of static electricity that had jumped between them was enough to startle her, but Dominic gathered her against his body again reassuringly.

“Just the static in the air,” he said.

For a moment, she looked down at his boots and at her plain, hardwood floor. Suddenly his mouth teased the tender curl of her ear, and it made her squirm. The electricity seemed to have discharged, his mouth nothing but softness, nothing but heat and passion. She stood stock still, eyes fluttering closed, while his skillful mouth lapped at her lobe and then nibbled at it. He chuckled at her soft exclamation, and when she would have said something, he dropped his mouth to her neck, making her melt against him.

Sophia gasped a little in surprise when he sat down suddenly on the bed and brought her to sit on his lap. In that position, she could clearly feel how strong and muscled his thighs were underneath her. She shifted experimentally, and now it was his turn to gasp.

“You feel good there,” he said, looking up at her, and the sheer awe she saw in his eyes made her bold—far bolder than she ever had been before.

“I bet I know how I might feel better…”

Before he could respond, she turned and straddled his lap, letting her skirt ride up to her thighs. She followed his gaze, and smiled, because she knew what he was seeing. Her thighs were long, pale and muscular. When he reached to curl his hands around them, she purred with pleasure. She knew he could feel the muscle there, and from the stirring between his legs, she knew that he liked it.

She trailed her fingers through his blond hair, enjoying how thick and shaggy it was. It was a touch long for fashion, and she suspected that he was the type to simply run a brush through it and head out in the morning. He made a pleased sound deep in his throat when she carded her fingers through it. When she gave it a gentle yank, his voice dropped down to a growl.

His hands gripped her thighs a little tighter, and in response, she rocked against him longingly. Now she could feel the rough denim against the sensitive skin of her inner thighs, and it made her breath come a little faster, made her press her face to the crook of his neck.

“Do you know what you want, honey?” he asked, his voice rough and intimate. “Do you know what you want with me, hmm?”

She did. She wanted the strength of his body around her, on top of her, filling her up, making her cry out the way that she dreamed of late at night. She wanted all of him, but the words were too hard to say, especially when one hand was tracing maddening patterns on her thighs and the other had found its way under the hem of her tank-top and was stroking the sensitive skin at her lower back.

“I want that…” she whispered, and his soft laugh raised goosebumps on her skin.

“Just that?” he asked. “I'm for you, Sophia, and whatever you want tonight, that is what we're going to do.”

“I want all of you,” she said, and a moment of shyness made her press close to him.

His arousal was plain against her, but she could also feel the restraint in his large, muscular frame. There was power there, but it was bent towards pleasing her, to protecting her, and in that moment, she knew that it was true. She did want all of him, and right now, nothing else would do.

He groaned and pressed closely against her. His fingers sought and found the hem of her tank-top. Slowly, surely, he pulled it over her head. She blushed a little. It wasn't like she had been expecting anything even vaguely like this to happen, and the bra she wore was tan and dull. He grinned at her, and he showed her that it made no difference at all by unfastening it with swift sure motions.

Her breasts were round and heavy, resting against her body. She had always thought that they were too big, too boxy to be sexy, but it was clear that Dominic didn't feel that way. He lifted one up with reverence, cupping it in his hand. His calloused thumb caressed the skin by her nipple, bringing it to a hard point. Sophia sucked her breath in with surprise when he brought his other hand up to lightly touch the side of her breast. He ran just the edge of his nails over it again and again, until she was squirming in his lap, needy and wanting more in a way that she couldn't explain.

“My breasts aren't that sensitive,” she said in surprise, and his grin was devilishly sexy.

“I think you're wrong on that one,” he said. “It just looks like you never took the time to find out before now.”
 

She couldn't help but agree. After the disaster that occurred the last time she had tried to do something like this, there had been precious little time for anything that looked or felt as good as what Dominic was doing. She closed her eyes and let his touch set fire to her.
 

The only word that she could think of as appropriate for it was
worship.
He was worshiping her shoulders, her breasts, her belly, and he was bringing her to life in a way that she had never experienced before. It felt like the walls of an ancient and guarded place were coming down, and she welcomed every part of it.

“Gods above, you are so beautiful to me, darling,” he whispered

He bent his mouth to her collar bone, tracing the skin there with the tip of his inventive tongue. By the time his mouth drifted to one brown nipple, she was twisting, pressing herself against his thighs. She rocked against him, and when that made him moan, she did it again.

“You want me?” she found herself whispering. “Do you want me, Dominic?”
 

“How can you even ask that?” he said, half-laughing, and he squeezed one breast gently, making her sigh.

“Here, let me…”
 

She was surprised to feel him lift her up, and for a moment, she thought he had remembered she was too small, too plain, too dull. The moment passed, however, and she found herself turned around and settled on his lap again. This time, her legs were draped to either side of his, and her back was snugged against his chest. She blushed when he drew the skirt up her thighs, and fingered the edge of her worn cotton panties.

“How attached are you to these?” he asked her, and she shook her head.

“Not at all.”

That was all the warning she got before he knotted his fist in the elastic and ripped them right off her hips. The rasp of the fabric against her flesh stung for a moment, but then her underwear was in tatters and her flesh was spread and bare to the world.
 

“Oh god,” she whispered, and he paused.

“Good?” he asked, and she nodded fast.

“Oh yes, please…”

His clever fingers stroked the dark, curly hair between her legs, sliding along her lips until she was squirming with pleasure and they were slick. Only then did he open her slightly, revealing her sensitive clit.