“Damn it. His ego is already huge, and now he’s going to brag about dating a model.”
The laugh I gave was involuntary. “Not a model, and again, we’re not dating.”
I’d swear I could feel that penetrating gaze of hers all the way from across the Pacific. She was protective of her younger brother. We sat in silence, evaluating each other, for a long moment.
“Where the fuck’s my morning blowjob?” Dominic teased from the doorway, one hand buried beneath his boxers. He couldn’t see the computer screen, but he heard the sharp gasp come from the speaker.
“Oh my god, Dominic!” Horror splashed on his sister’s face.
“Meredith?” He snatched up a blanket off the couch and banded it around his waist, then thundered over to the laptop to confirm. He gave me a ‘WTF?’ look.
“She was trying to call you,” I said. “I didn’t mean to answer it.”
That look faded and was replaced with amusement. The couch jostled as he dropped down beside me, throwing an arm casually over the back. Around me.
“Seriously, I’d smack Mike if he talked to me like that,” Meredith said. It looked like she hadn’t quite recovered from the comment.
He brushed it off. “I see you’ve met Payton. What’s up?”
“Not much. Mom’s been guilting us all in to calling you more often, and I saw you were online.”
I climbed off the couch, pretending to want to give them privacy, but all I really wanted was to get the fuck away. Because I liked Dominic. I was exclusive to him. Living with him. Now I’d met some of his family. If that wasn’t the definition of an acting girlfriend, I didn’t know what was.
My shower was almost over when he came into the bathroom and stepped into the tub beside me.
“That was informative.” There was a sharp edge to his words. I turned to face him and was greeted with a scowl. “Not dating, huh? What the fuck are we doing then?”
I wished I hadn’t answered that call for the millionth time, and put my hands on my hips. “I told you, from the very beginning, I don’t do relationships.”
“Just like you don’t do conversation.” The aqua eyes flared with accusation. “Like you don’t do kissing.” His voice rose steadily as he closed the distance between us. “Like you don’t sleep beside me.”
“That’s all you. You ignored my rules!”
“Yeah, I did. And get ready, because I’m gonna ignore this one, too.” His jaw tightened and his eyes were pure and determined. “Go and put up your walls, Payton. They don’t stop me.”
They didn’t even slow him down.
His kiss was wild and ferocious. An assault that I couldn’t defend against, even as the panicked voice in my head urged me to. His touch lit me on fire. Made me come alive.
“This is more than just fucking,” he said, his kiss traveling lower. “I know you feel it. C’mon, tell me I’m wrong.” His challenge was issued at the base of my throat, his hands cradling my head.
I was unraveling like a pulled string on a sweater. If Dominic kept tugging, I was going to come apart completely. His kiss carved a path toward my lips but he pulled back at the last second. His expression was intense and inescapable. “Is this just fucking?”
There was no point in lying. My voice was breathy. “No. It’s more.”
He squeezed me to him so tightly I could barely breathe, and dragged me back under the stream of water while his kiss obliterated all thought except for one. I’d told him that night at the club I didn’t do relationships, but I’d also told him I don’t do love.
Was he going to disregard that rule, too?
chapter
SIXTEEN
My flight home was Friday afternoon, which meant I had three days left with him. Neither one of us mentioned it. We didn’t talk about if this relationship was going to continue with ten thousand miles between us, or how it was going to work if it did. Maybe he was like me, pushing away the things he didn’t want to deal with until he was out of time.
The weekend had gone faster than the elevator that took us to the top of the Skytree tower on Saturday, which gave us unbelievable views of the city. It had gone faster than the bullet train that took us the two hours to the base of Mount Fuji on Sunday. We’d done a tour and a gondola ride to the summit of the gorgeous, snowcapped volcano that was the icon of Japan.
Last night, it had been Kabukicho – Tokyo’s famous red light district. Nothing in common with Amsterdam’s red light district except for the lewd signage in a mixture of languages.