I closed my eyes and drifted back to sleep.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Ummm…Santiago,” I groaned.
He’d removed his shirt, jeans, and hovered over my body. His feral, dark eyes drilled into me. “Are you sure, Dakota?”
I nodded, biting my lips.
He gripped my panties and tugged them down, gazing hungrily at the valley between my legs. “Have you…?”
Did he mean been with someone? As in was I a virgin?
I slowly shook my head. “No. I’ve never…”
He tilted his head, and his dark hair fell to one side. “Then I’ll take it slow.”
He slid down his boxers and allowed me to take in the impressive view. The thickness was not what I’d expected. Neither was its length. He was much larger.
He flashed that charming, arrogant smile and lay over me.
“Don’t move an inch,” he said. He rubbed the silky soft head of his penis against my throbbing bud.
“Dakota?”
“Umm…Yeah?”
“Open your eyes. Look at me.”
I did as he asked.
“You were dreaming, weren’t you?”
I took a moment to digest.
Santiago and I were facing each other, fully clothed, my legs woven between his, his between mine.
My eyes scanned the room. It was furnished with simple, sleek modern furniture, white walls, a large walk-in closet.
“Where are we?” I whispered.
“My place. And if you don’t take your hand off me, I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
Hmmm…Yes. In fact, my hand was gripping a very large, hard, and warm object.
Horrified, I quickly let go. “I am so, so sorry—”
“Not as sorry as I am.” He grinned.
“Get the fuck away from my daughter.”
I looked up. “Daddy?”
~ ~ ~
Yeah. If I could pick the top three situations a girl could live without, having your father catch you in bed with a guy while gripping his raging hard-on would be number one. Not sure what number two or three would be, but who cared? They were distant runners-up.
“I said, get the fuck off her.” My dad’s steel-gray eyes glowed with fury.
Santiago, calmly and slowly, slid from the blankets holding up his palms as if he were a 7-Eleven clerk being held up at 3:00 a.m., with no hope of survival.
“Dakota, go back to your dorm,” my father said. With his cropped silver hair slightly disheveled and his dark gray designer suit excessively wrinkled, I knew he’d just gotten off a plane. From where? Who knew.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
My father gave me a look that could send a person straight to hell. “Dorm!” he barked.
“But my room is—”
“Fine!” His face turned bright red. “Your room is fine. The fire damage is next door.”
“But why are you he—”
“Go,” Santiago growled. “Your father and I need to talk in private.”
I knew better than to argue with my father, but what the hell was Santiago thinking? My father was a large man, almost as tall as Santiago, and certainly as intimidating.
I got up from the bed, thankful to see my nudity had only been a dream, but unthankful to leave my ghost behind with a man who looked like he might make him a ghost for real.
I glanced back at Santiago, who gave me a nod. “It’s fine.”
Yeah. But he didn’t know my father. Dad hadn’t built his thriving company on kindness or warm fuzzies.
“Wait.” The fog of sleep lifted from my head, and my thoughts skidded to a stop. “You two know each other?”
My father glared at me. “Yes. And I’ll explain everything later.”
Oh hell no! “So it is you? You’re behind all this? You’re this…man with the answers?”
I glanced at Santiago, but his ice-cold gaze gave nothing away.
My father grumbled under his breath. “Dakota, honey. I promise everything will make sense.”
“But I—”
My father held up his hand. “Go to the dorms, pack your things. I’ll be right behind you.”
“You’re taking me home?” I asked, unsure if this was a good or bad thing. Home sounded kind of nice right about now.
“I’m taking you to an apartment off campus.”
I guessed he wanted to do that because of the fire, but I wasn’t going anywhere. “Hold on—”
“Now!” he screamed.
I stared for several moments, thinking through the options. There was no use in talking to the man when he was pissed. Anyone who’d spent more than five seconds with him knew that much. But did he honestly believe that a little bullying would frighten me away? After everything I’d been through?
“I’ll wait outside. You’re coming with me to the dorms, right?” I said to Santiago.
My father looked at me. “Santiago won’t be joining us.” His gaze bounced back to Santiago. “Will you?”
What the hell was going on? I looked at Santiago, then at my father, and then back again.
Santiago’s expression was as cool and deadly as a morgue freezer. “Guess not,” he said to my father.
“Best say your good-byes now,” my father said to me.
Good-bye? Good-bye?
I looked at Santiago once again, but he ignored me, and it stung. I wasn’t really sure why, but it did.