Everything except…
She stood and quickly began clearing up, her hands shaking slightly. No, she wouldn’t think about her father, the money, or the risk of losing Nicole if Dominic discovered that she’d sold her body to her husband to have his baby. Surely life couldn’t be so cruel?
And she knew differently.
Taking the dishes inside, she stacked them in the dishwasher and tidied up. She wouldn’t think about the past. She had to concentrate on Nicole and giving her daughter the best life she could. And that meant having a mother who didn’t let her fears permeate the family unit.
Dominic’s low tones on the phone still wafted through the air by the time she’d finished, so she went back out on the deck. Darkness had fallen, and the solar night-lights illuminated the garden. It beckoned her.
She strolled down the steps and past the swimming pool, which was as calm as a millpond right now. It was so beautiful at this time of the evening, with the scent of jasmine in the air. She could feel her shoulders loosening up, the idyllic surroundings sliding the tension right out of her. “Cassandra, stop!”
She twirled around to see Dominic coming along the path toward her. There was an urgency to his voice. “Wh-what?”
“You’re about to walk into a spider’s web.”
She glanced over her shoulder and saw a huge web strung across the path between two trees. Shuddering, she took a step toward Dominic. “Ugh!”
His arms came out to steady her. “It’s okay. I can’t see the spider. It’s just the web.”
“Just?” she choked out, giving another shudder. “I hate spiders.”
“I don’t particularly like them myself,” he said, sounding distracted, and suddenly she saw awareness in his eyes and realized why. Somehow her hands had found their way to his chest. The touch of hard muscle beneath her palms made her tingle.
The air became charged. She forgot the spider. And the web. “I…”
“What?”
Kiss me.
He moved closer. “Cassandra?”
She moistened her lips. “Um…”
He slipped his hands around her waist and brought her up against him. “Say it.”
“Kiss me,” she whispered.
He groaned as his head came down. Her lips parted on a breath, and she sank into his kiss. Their kiss. Their very first kiss as man and woman.
And then his tongue began to stroke hers, dipping inside her mouth with an intoxicating infusion of wine and virility. The sensitive contours flared, and she could feel herself tilting forward into his embrace, sinking farther into him. The intimacy of it turned her upside down. It staggered her to be here in his arms like this.
Then something—she wasn’t sure what exactly—revived all her uncertainties and fears. Suddenly it was too much. It all came rushing back. He thought she was a gold digger who’d done his brother wrong. He thought she’d been an unfaithful wife. That she’d had a baby to tie her forever to the Roth family. That it had all backfired on her with the terms of Liam’s will. How could he want to make love to her believing that? How could she let him?
“No!” she muttered, jerking away from him.
“What the dev—”
“I’m sorry.” She pushed past him and ran inside.
As hard as it was not to follow her and break down the barriers until she was begging him to make love to her, Dominic let Cassandra go. He didn’t want an unwilling woman in his bed. He wanted physical surrender with a willing partner.
God, his body was throbbing with a need he’d held inside him for so long now. She’d tasted so good beneath his tongue, her body tantalizing him as she’d pressed up against him like she had, making him hunger to be inside the very pulse of her. Heat coursed through him at the thought of it.
And clearly she wasn’t ready.
He expelled a long breath and forced aside his body’s ache, yet that only brought him to what he couldn’t ignore. Her childhood.
His father had requisitioned a report years ago, after she’d married Liam, but he’d never read it himself. What little he’d known about her being adopted, and about her adoptive father suffering a stroke, he’d learned through his family.
But he hadn’t been aware it had been so terrible for her. To his shame, he hadn’t even thought about her childhood, but now that he had, he couldn’t unwind the knot in his gut. It only complicated things now. And heaven help him, things were already complicated more than enough.
Hell, he wasn’t unsympathetic. He understood she’d paid a high emotional toll growing up, but he still couldn’t get past her marrying his brother for the money, then staying married to have a child.
And that made him wonder if her revelation had been deliberate. A sympathy bid? Or more than that? Had she been trying to explain why she was a gold digger? Being orphaned had to leave some sort of lasting effect, but was that enough to make what she’d done acceptable? Many other people survived all life had thrown at them without resorting to using people.
He winced. Could he really blame her for wanting more than she had? Did he need to cut her a break about all this?
He firmed his jaw. He had to be careful here. Years ago he’d learned a hard lesson in business, that things sometimes weren’t what they seemed. There was always an ulterior motive, always a reason, sometimes valid, sometimes not. He had to consider the possibility that all this openness had merely been a ploy to get his sympathy and win him over.
Cassandra closed her bedroom door and stood listening for sounds of Dominic coming after her, but all was hushed except for the sound of an infant’s soft snuffling. Going over to the crib, she was relieved to see Nicole still sleeping.
Then she sank down on the bed and ran her shaky fingers through her hair. Oh, Lord. What had she just done? It wasn’t fair of her to lead Dominic on like that, then run away from him. What a thing to do to a man!
To her husband!
Yet would he really have followed her? Already he’d proved he wasn’t the type of man to take what wasn’t on offer. She pulled a face. The thing was, she wanted to be on offer. She’d wanted him to make love to her right there on the spot.
And then she’d gone and sabotaged herself with her thoughts. She could see now that she’d been overwhelmed by her desire for him. She’d never felt such a deep response before, not even with Liam. With Liam, their lovemaking in the early days had been a pleasant, infrequent flame that had never threatened to flare out of control.
With Dominic, his touch, his kiss, sent hot desire rippling through her veins like lava flowing down a mountain. How could she be a woman who wanted a man she didn’t love like her next breath? She would never have believed that would happen to her. She’d always thought she was above sex for sex’s sake. Obviously not.
And clearly she couldn’t keep running away from Dominic. Sooner or later she would give in to him. And to her own longings. The thought both thrilled and frightened her.
Right then, the living-room light spilling onto the lawn below her window went off, darkening the bedroom. Her heart surged inside her chest. Was Dominic going to bed now? Would he knock on her door to see if she was okay? Would she answer?
Panicking, she quickly stripped and drew on her silky nightgown, then hopped into bed and pulled the blankets up to her neck. If he looked in, he would think she was asleep.
Then she decided she was such a fool, lying there, listening to nothing. If Dominic was going to bed, he was being very quiet about it. Relaxing at last, she closed her eyes and let herself drift off to sleep.
A sound woke her in the night, and she came awake with a start.
“Cassandra!”
Dominic! It wasn’t a yell, but more a loud groan of her name that had reached her through the walls. She threw back the blankets and flew out of bed. Something must be wrong. He’d sounded like he was in pain. Still, mother instinct had her pausing a heartbeat to check Nicole in her crib before she raced out of the bedroom to Dominic’s room across the hall.
His door was ajar, and for a moment she stood there, letting her eyes adjust to the room, a sudden thought that an intruder might have gotten through the security system making her breath stall. But no one jumped on her. Nothing moved. She couldn’t see any shadows that weren’t supposed to be there.
And then Dominic gave a moan, and her gaze sliced to the bed and she saw him lying there, the moonlight falling over him through the open curtains. He moaned again, and her shoulders slumped with relief. He was having a nightmare, that was all. A stupid nightmare.
“Oh, God, Cassandra.”
She froze. The huskiness in his voice said he wasn’t having a nightmare. He was having a dream.
About her.
Unable to stop herself, she moved forward. He lay on his back, his eyes closed. Her gaze slid slowly downward, past his bare chest to where the blanket had edged to his navel. It was obvious he was fully aroused. Remembering that he was dreaming about her, she trembled.
She dragged her eyes back upward. His chest was all muscle, with a light sprinkling of hair, which seemed to beg for her touch. Holding her breath, she reached out. She couldn’t seem to help herself.
His skin felt hot and damp, his male scent emanating from him and making her aware of his arousal. She inhaled deeply and grew more bold, the palm of her hand sliding over his flesh.
And then without an inch of warning, his hand trapped hers against him, causing the breath to hitch in her throat. He turned his head toward her; his eyes slid open. For a moment she stood there, frozen. He’d caught her out.
Then he murmured her name, and she realized he was still dreaming. Her heart thudded, not with relief, but with disappointment. She wanted him to pull her into his arms and make love to her without giving her time to think. If she thought too much, she might—
He hauled her into his arms and pulled her on top of him.
The shock of it held her still.
She went to speak, to tell him to wake him up so that he knew what he was doing, but he kissed her, and at that moment she was his. The taste of him, the scent of him, the very feel of him at her thighs were what she wanted most. She didn’t have the willpower to pull away from him this time.
And then his hands did a slow march down her body, then up again, as if feeling to make sure she was really in his arms. She knew he was awake then. She broke off the kiss and lifted her head to look down at him.
His dark eyes burned into her. “You’re here,” he said hoarsely.
She moistened her mouth. “Yes.” She swallowed. “I’m staying this time.”
In his arms.
He gave a shudder that rippled through her. After that his palms slid over her silky nightgown; then he was lifting it up over her head, taking it off her to give him access to her body. It was so quiet in the room that she heard the sound of the silk dropping to the floor in the sweetest surrender.
“God, I knew you’d be beautiful,” he rasped, looking down between them at her firm br**sts suspending toward his chest. Then he lifted her higher and held her there while he drew one of her n**ples in his mouth.
“Please!” she cried out at the exquisite torture as he tugged the tender bud with his lips, making her arch her neck. But was she asking for more or asking him to stop? She didn’t know.