Page 58 of A Bond with the Dark

“That’s more than me,” Anna says dejectedly, her eyes sloped down at the corners. “I have only ever been out of Colorado. I have never been out of the country.”

“You will get to someday,” Dominic encourages her as she pops the cherry from the drink into her mouth. “What about you, gorgeous?” he asks me, his dark eyelashes fluttering toward me, the mysterious curtains of mystery guarding his chartreuse eyes.

“I’ve been to Mexico and the Virgin Islands. Went on a cruise once and stopped by Venezuela, Curaçao, and Puerto Rico. That’s really it, though. Nothing big like Europe.”

“Well, maybe I can change that,” he whispers, kissing me on the tip of my nose.

Those flutters arise like a bird in the wind, as if a hummingbird creates a monsoon in my stomach. The subtle thunder that awoke in me once has risen again, chasing away all the clouds of doubt I once had before with him.

Maybe the hesitation I initially felt was just me guarding my heart and keeping him at arm’s length. Because right now, there’s nothing that I want more than to go on adventures with this man.

The sun’s heat from the afternoon still clings to the humidity of the evening long after the sun finishes its descent. Standing guard of the glorious city, the moon’s imperial watch has just begun. Interlocking patterns of blinking lights illuminate the metropolis, buzzing and alive with activity. Down below, the fountain dances its balletic gait to the music that plays; however, we are too high up to hear the song.

I sit on the patio couch by the pool, slipping out of my heels and rubbing my feet. I don’t wear heels often, and this is the reason.

Claire had successfully flirted with the waiter at dinner and got herself and Anna invited to a staff party after his shift, which gave Dominic and me the evening alone at the suite.

Dominic is fixing himself a drink before he joins me.

“Can I get you anything, love?” he calls from inside the hotel suite.

“Just some ice water, please. Thanks.”

“I really like your friends,” he says as he joins me on the balcony a few minutes later, handing me the ice water.

“Yeah, they’re amazing. Especially Claire. I’ve known Anna a long time, but not as well as I do Claire. But they’re really getting close lately.”

He appraises my eyes. “Does that bother you at all?”

I swallow my drink of water. “No, Claire and I have always had a relationship like that. We’re inseparable, close for a few years, and then we drift but never apart. Just to new, everyday kind of friends. It’s hard to explain.”

“I get it. I’m the same with my brother Ollie,” Dominic says as he sips his drink, the ice chinking along the side. Setting it down on the table, he continues. “He and I are in that ‘we don’t talk every day’ phase, but we’re still there for each other.”

His fingers interlace with mine, and I feel that strange magic at his touch. I lose focus on the conversation as he does, looking at his manly wide and not-so-calloused fingers, the longing for them to touch me inplacesextinguishing the desire to keep talking.

His commanding gaze deploys a heated rush that devours our words with a seductive silence. His green eyes turn hungry; I want to ruin his body with mine and have him taste my darkness.

“I just have to tell you,” he breathes, the scent of whiskey flirting with the earthfire smell of him, “you look so good in that dress.” Inching closer to me, he whispers, “Good enough to eat,” to the shell of my ear, erupting pinpricks of goosebumps all over me.

“So do you,” I answer as his fingertips trace a path down my right leg.

It almost feels like we’re about to have our first kiss again; the nervousness paired with excitement has me feeling woozy. He’s slow, methodic, edging closer to me, and I want him to kiss me, feeling my body respond to him immediately. Anticipating his lips on mine, I wet my bottom lip, but he doesn’t kiss my lips at first. He tilts my head sideways by my neck, diminishing the space between us.

His breath is hot against the curve of my neck where it meets my shoulder, chilling me yet heating where he kisses. Fire flushes to my face and spreads down between my legs as he sucks my skin. My clit tingles in response as he nibbles along my jawline and chin, claiming my lips at the end of his expedition.

It’s been so long since I have been with a man. I’m drenched wet the instant his tongue glides into my mouth. His rhythmic kisses match his movements. The heat is so intense on my lips—the lips on my face and those that hide beneath the surface of my panties. His hands wander slowly to make sure I’m okay with the touches, and when I release a low, tortured breath, he removes the straps from my shoulders and takes hold of my plump, bare breast. Feeling myself slipping off a ledge, I fear I may cum the moment he pinches my pebbled nipple. His mouth moves down my neck again, and when he takes my breast in his mouth and bites down softly, I’m brought to the very boundary of that ledge.

“Harder,” I breathe, the tingle of the bite traveling from my nipple to my clit in a glorious and torturous electric shock.

Arching my back so he takes my breast deeper into his mouth, the glass slips from my hand, and I can’t bring myself to catch it. It falls from and crashes to the cement below, shattering. The sound should’ve awoken us from our lustful encounter, but it does not. We need to feel each other so much that nothing can cause us to abandon this moment.

His left hand brushes the sensitive skin of my inner thigh, ascending higher until he reaches my panties, the wetness proof of my arousal. He claims my lips while he gently plays with my clit the way he had my nipple, and the sensation electrifies me down to my toe tips. He gently rolls the swell of my clit back and forth, flicking his finger side to side until I’m about to scream with pleasure.

His breathing is erratic and urgent. I let my hand wander to his shirt, pulling at the buttons and accidentally snapping a few of them off as I set the ripples of his abs free.

The corded muscles of his stomach greet my hand, and I grow even wetter at the feel of him. I need him inside of me, and when his finger plunges into me, I moan, but it isn’t enough. It makes me hungrier.

He leans back from me, his wanton eyes pools of desire and lust, maybe even a little hunger. He watches me in awe as he immerses his finger deeper, curling the tip of it to massage my inner wall. I tilt my head back and close my eyes, gripping the cushion as euphoria consumes me.

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