Page 11 of Dominic

Chapter Eight

Cassandra could feelDominic study her while she ate. He’d given her another one of his shirts to put on. It covered her completely, and there was no one around since it was late evening. Most of his staff had gone home.

She’d never thought she’d be in this house again. She’d loved it then, and still loved it now, a French Colonial style in the outskirts of New Orleans. Large windows framed the huge yard and garden and allowed massive amounts of light through during the day.

How many meals had she and Dominic eaten here at this table together seven years ago? Eight months’ worth. Meals over which they’d talked about their dreams and plans and desires.

He’d been her mark. She’d been supposed to gather intel about the Rinaldi family, find out where they could most quickly and easily be fleeced, then get out.

Instead Cassandra had fallen in love. She’d been twenty years old and naive enough to think that she could get out of the life her stepfather had raised her into. That when she explained she’d fallen in love with Dominic — that she’d gotten married and was going to be a mother — that Gordon would let her go.

When Cassandra had woken up in a hospital five days later from the beating Gordon and his son had given her, she’d lost the baby. When they’d told her that Dominic had found out who and what she really was, and had put a hit out on her life, she’d just sunk into a shell of the woman she’d been before and did whatever Gordon had told her to.

By the time she’d found out the hit had been falsified by Gordon, it was too late. Dominic may not have been trying to have her killed, but he definitely wasn’t interested in keeping her as a wife.

“Why did you come back to New Orleans?” His question dragged her from the past. He was sitting across from her at the kitchen table, both of them eating a delicious Palermo-style baked anelletti pasta and fresh salad his cook had made.

“What Tambour said was the truth. Gordon, my stepfather, traded me to him for the debt my family owed.”

“Because you released some women Tambour was holding in his human smuggling ring.”

Her eyes flew up to him. “How did you know?”

“The way he said it. I know the Russians deal in human trafficking. We don’t do anything like that because we don’t agree with it.”

“Yes.” Cassandra nodded. “Those women were young. Teenagers. I don’t know if they got away, but I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. I don’t care what it ends up costing me. I would do it again.”

Roman studied her. “So your father gave you to Tambour.”

“My stepfather. And he tried, but I ran. I had to get away from Chicago—” had been broke and completely alone “—and ended up here.”

“I guess you weren’t afraid you’d run into me. Since I didn’t know your real last name or how to find you.”

“I honestly didn’t think you’d even care.”

“Oh, I cared.” He crossed his arms over his large chest. “I cared about the woman who married me, giving me a false name. The woman who ran off completely out of the blue and I never heard from again. The woman who I later found out had been using me from the beginning.”

Cassandra put her fork down on her plate. She was glad she had already finished nearly all of it, because her appetite was completely gone now.

There were aspects of their past Dominic didn’t know, didn’t understand. But still, large chunks of what he said was true. She had gotten together with him, slept with him, because he was a mark. Had lied to him completely and then gotten caught up in those lies.

“What are you thinking right now?” he asked, staring at her with those whiskey-colored eyes.

“That I didn’t want to leave you before. Things happened that were… out of my control.”

“I don’t believe a word that comes out of that pretty mouth of yours. Never again.” His eyes turned colder. “As a matter of fact, I think it’s time to put those lips of yours to better use. Get under the table and suck me off.”

The command in his voice already had moisture gathering between her thighs. She stared at him, licking her lips.

One of his eyebrows raised. “Is that hesitation, Cassandra? You’ve had nearly twenty-four hours for your ass to heal. Maybe I should grab the riding crop or cane to give you proper incentive.”

Cassandra immediately pushed her chair back, dropped to the ground, and crawled under the table to Dominic, who had scooted his chair back so he would be able to watch the show.

He’d always loved to watch her suck his cock.

She made short work of unbuttoning and unzipping his jeans and easing his length out of his boxer briefs. God, his cock was gorgeous. Thick, hard. Long enough that sex had often bordered on pain, feeling like he speared her to her womb. Sucking him off had required that she learn how to deep throat.

He’d taken great pleasure in teaching her how to do that seven years ago. She hadn’t forgotten.

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