Oh God, please. Let him feel half of what I’m feeling.
His mouth is warm and tastes of mint and orange. I lick my tongue across, then push inside, even as I sense how stiffly he’s holding himself.
No, no. I kiss him harder, my lips and tongue clumsy and awkward in their desperation. I know if I just try…do my best, I can make him feel this, make him remember what we have and listen to me.
Suddenly he pushes me away, and I stumble backward, catching myself on the arm of the couch. His breathing grows rougher. I reach forward—I can’t just give up and do nothing—but he shoves his hand into my hair and stops me.
“Your mouth… It’s extraordinary.” His gaze is dark, but it blazes with something other than lust as he studies my lips. “It can kiss me…wrap around my dick like blowjobs were what it was made for…then lie to my aunt and your grandmother about what we’ve been up to…calling it rape. Did you also tell them how many times? What positions? Did you keep a log?”
I swallow, then cross my arms, shivering. “I told Shirley it wasn’t rape. You know it’s all bullshit.”
“Lie-zuh.”
He’s the only man who calls me that. I love it because it seems to make what we have even more special. But it hurts to hear him call me that with such acid contempt in his voice.
“They don’t just want me to stay away from you. They want me prosecuted, convicted, labeled a sex offender. They want to take my sister away.”
“I can help you,” I persist, the way only a panicked young girl can. “I can take care of Kristen, and we can all—”
“Do you think I’d leave my sister with you?” He laughs incredulously. “What are they giving you to feed me all this bullshit? To destroy my life?”
“I’m not getting anything from this. I don’t know your aunt or anybody in your family except Kristen. You have to trust me!” I shove the sob rising in my throat back down. I can’t fall apart now. “Dominic, just trust me. Please.”
“Trust?” Letting go of my hair, he shakes his head. Then he deliberately and methodically takes me by the shoulders and pushes me out of his apartment. “One day I’ll take away what matters most to you. And you’ll experience what it’s like to have your heart ripped to pieces.”
Chapter Thirteen
–five years ago
Dominic
I yank the tie from around my neck then fling it across the hotel room. Nighttime Dallas glitters on the other side of the windows. The meeting went down the toilet fast. The rezoning I need is a no-go because of blah blah blah, but I know what’s really going on.
There’s political pressure to thwart me. Just as there has been every step of the way.
Fury and restless energy rage through me, and I pace, unable to stay still. The continued interference is delaying my plans, and I hate delays.
I’m worth seven hundred million bucks. This project is going to create thousands of jobs. But that isn’t enough to smooth things over.
Elizabeth.
She has to be the one in my way.
Is this some new gambit to destroy me because your pathetic attempt to paint me as a rapist failed?
I think back five years. The threatened prosecution never materialized. But then the accusation was groundless anyway. Probably somebody in the DA’s office saw the light. Or maybe Granddad stopped them. After all, he did make me his sole heir a month after the clusterfuck blow-up with Elizabeth. Shaw Construction was a medium-sized company back then, but it had some pull with local politicians and the police.
My phone rings, and the screen flashes Liza.
Jesus. I still have her fucking number in my contacts.
Anger coalesces, sharp as a lance point. I want a fight. What better target than the woman who keeps fucking with my life?
“You little bitch,” I hiss into the phone. “Do you think your pathetic games can stop me?”
Her breath hitches, then I hear something that sounds suspiciously like a muffled sob.
What the hell?