Page 25

Chapter 25

Not Running

Dominic

I pressed Nora against the wall, my mouth hungry for hers, her taste driving every coherent thought from my head. My father’s voice, which had been ricocheting through my skull all night like a pinball of disappointment, faded to blessed silence.

There was only Nora. Her soft lips. Her hands gripping my shirt. The little noise she made in the back of her throat when I tilted her head back to deepen the kiss.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured again, my lips brushing against hers as I spoke. “I shouldn’t have?—”

She pulled me back to her, cutting off my apology with another kiss, her tongue sliding against mine. My hands drifted down her sides, feeling the soft fabric of her oversized sweatshirt until they found her hips.

Something white-hot and primitive surged through me. Under these clothes, under my hands, was the woman carrying my child.

The reality of it struck like lightning, illuminating a truth so blindingly clear it nearly knocked me back. I wouldn’t let my father anywhere near this baby. I would not subject this tiny, innocent person to the endless criticism, the impossible standards, the constant feeling of never being good enough.

Nora’s fingers tangled in my hair, tugging just hard enough to send a current down my spine. I lifted her, hands cupping her ass, and she wrapped her legs around my waist, looking at me with eyes that saw too much.

“Bedroom,” she murmured against my lips.

I carried her into her room, trying not to trip over my own feet as she trailed slow, deliberate kisses along my jaw. Each touch of her lips sent sparks through my body, and when her teeth grazed my earlobe, my steps wobbled.

I set her down next to the bed, and for a moment, we just looked at each other. Some of her hair had escaped its messy bun, falling in waves around her flushed face. Her eyes were bright, and her lips swollen from our kisses.

She grabbed the hem of her sweatshirt and pulled it over her head in one fluid motion. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and my breath caught. Her breasts were fuller, her nipples pebbled.

I reached out, trailing my fingers along her collarbone, then lower, cupping the weight of her breast in my palm. She arched into my touch, a soft sound escaping her.

“I don’t have enough words to apologize,” I confessed, circling my thumb over her nipple as her eyes fluttered shut.

Her eyes opened at that, something fierce blazing in them. “Then show me.” She reached for me, fingers working the buttons of my shirt. I shrugged it off, letting it fall to the floor beside her discarded sweatshirt.

Her hands were on my chest immediately, her nails scraping lightly over my skin. I couldn’t suppress the shudder that ran through me as she continued down my abs to my pants.

“These need to be gone.” She tugged at my waistband, the command in her voice sending heat pooling low in my abdomen.

I kicked off my shoes and pulled off my socks. Her eyes never left mine as I unbuttoned my jeans and pushed them down, stepping out of them to stand before her in nothing but my boxer briefs.

The evidence of my desire for her was obvious, straining against the dark fabric. She made an appreciative noise in her throat before sitting on the bed and leaning back on her elbows.

“Your turn.” She held out a leg in invitation.

I quickly removed her socks and hooked my fingers in the waistband of her leggings, pulling them down slowly to reveal smooth skin inch by inch. She wasn’t wearing underwear either, and the sight of her completely bare before me nearly brought me to my knees.

“Fuck, Nora.” There were no adequate words for how beautiful she looked.

Her cheeks flushed deeper, spreading a rosy glow down her neck, and she reached for me with hungry determination in her eyes. Her fingers curled around my wrists, tugging me down with surprising strength until I settled my weight carefully above her.

“Dominic.” My name transformed into something reverent on her lips. Her hands explored my shoulders, fingertips tracing patterns that left trails of sensation in their wake.

I braced myself on my forearms, hovering close enough to feel her quickened breaths against my skin, to count the faint freckles dusting the bridge of her nose that I’d never noticed before. Something profound and terrifying expanded in my chest, a feeling too immense to name.

Her eyes, half-lidded and unflinching, held mine with an intensity that stripped away every defense I’d ever built.

I kissed her deeply, then trailed my lips down her neck to the swell of her breast. When I took her nipple into my mouth, her back arched off the bed.

“Sensitive?” I murmured against her skin.

Her fingers dug into my shoulders. “Everything feels more intense now.”

That knowledge sent a fresh wave of heat through me. I lavished her breasts with attention, alternating between gentle and firm, listening to the sounds she made to guide my movements.

Her hands ran down my back, nails leaving light scratches that sent shivers racing down my spine. When she reached the waistband of my boxers, she pushed them down, freeing me from the confining fabric.

“I’ve thought about this more than I should have.” She wrapped her fingers around me, stroking slowly.

I groaned, dropping my forehead to her shoulder as she continued her torturous pace. “Me too. Every night. Every damn night.”

I moved lower, kissing down her stomach, pausing below her navel. Something protective and fierce surged through me, and I pressed a reverent kiss there before continuing my journey downward.

When I reached the apex of her thighs, I looked up to find her watching me, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. I maintained eye contact as I lowered my mouth to her, giving her a long, slow lick that made her head fall back with a moan.

I lost myself in the taste of her, the sounds she made, the way her thighs trembled around my head. Her fingers twisted in my hair, alternately pulling me closer and pushing me away when the sensation became too much.

“Dom, I need you in my mouth.”

In one smooth motion, I turned around, positioning myself above her in reverse, giving her access to my cock while I continued my ministrations.

When her mouth closed around me, my entire body tensed at the overwhelming sensation. I had to pause completely, pressing my forehead against her inner thigh as I battled for some semblance of control.

“Fuck, that feels good,” I whispered hoarsely against her skin, feeling her smile around me even as I tried to regain my composure. The intimacy of our position, giving and receiving pleasure simultaneously, created an intensity I hadn’t anticipated.

I dove back in with a need to feel her come apart against my mouth. Her hands gripped my thighs firmly when I found that perfect spot that made her moan around me, creating vibrations that traveled through my entire body.

I held her hips steady, my thumbs tracing small circles against her skin as she began to tremble beneath me, her mouth growing more desperate around my cock, less coordinated. The knowledge that I could affect her this way was intoxicating.

When she came, it was with a cry that vibrated around me, nearly sending me over the edge with her. Before I could move, she was pushing at my hip. “Turn around,” she commanded, her voice husky.

I complied, lying on my back as she straddled me, her hair wild around her flushed face, her eyes dark with desire. She looked like something out of a dream, my dream specifically, one I’d had variations of for months now.

She sank down onto me in one fluid motion, and I was pretty sure my eyes rolled back. “Goddamn, Nora.”

She braced her hands on my chest, setting a pace that was almost torturous. It was slow and deliberate, each movement calculated for maximum sensation. I gripped her hips, needing an anchor as pleasure gathered low in my spine.

“So fucking perfect.” I watched as she moved above me, taking her pleasure from my body.

Her rhythm faltered slightly at my words, and I sat up, wrapping an arm around her waist to keep her close. The move changed the angle to something deeper and more intimate.

Like this, face to face, I could kiss her, could feel her breath hitch when I hit the right spot. I could whisper in her ear all the things I’d been thinking for months: how beautiful she was, how much I wanted her, how no one else compared.

“Dom, please.” Her movements became more erratic.

I slipped a hand between us, finding where we were joined, my fingertips tracing the delicate place where her body welcomed mine. I moved my finger back up, circling her sensitive bundle of nerves.

She pressed herself against my touch, her thighs trembling around my hips. A soft, broken sound escaped her lips, and I instantly committed it to memory, determined to hear it again and again.

She came apart in my arms with a cry that I swallowed with a kiss. The feeling of her pulsing around me, combined with the look of absolute pleasure on her face, sent me tumbling over the edge after her.

Time seemed to suspend as we came, foreheads pressed together. I couldn’t tell where I ended and she began.

When she finally lifted herself off me, collapsing beside me on the bed, I turned to look down at her. Her hair was a tangled mess, her lips swollen, and a light sheen of sweat made her skin glow.

I lay down beside her, my chest heaving like I’d skated six consecutive penalty kills. My body felt simultaneously weightless and impossibly heavy, like I’d been hollowed out and filled with something better.

I rolled onto my side, propping myself up on one elbow to look at her, and her eyes searched mine for what? Regret? There was none to find. Just a tangle of emotions I wasn’t equipped to sort through.

Mine. The word flashed through my mind before I could stop it, primitive and possessive.

No, not mine, I corrected myself. Nora wasn’t anyone’s. She was her own person, stubborn and strong and absolutely fucking magnificent. But what we had created together was ours.

I let my gaze drop to her stomach. My hand followed, palm hovering for a moment before gently resting against the warm skin there.

I moved down so my lips were against her skin. “Hey, GB,” I whispered.

“GB?”

I glanced up. “Gummy Bear. That’s what they looked like in the ultrasound.”

She laughed, the sound warming whatever coldness was left inside me. I moved back up the bed, and for a moment, the weight of what had happened, and was still happening, settled around us like a blanket.

“I don’t want to be like him.” It felt like the words were ripped from somewhere deep. “I don’t want to lose this.” I didn’t say what this was. I didn’t know yet. But I knew it was worth fighting for.

Nora took my hand and squeezed it. “You won’t be like him.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I told you this before… because you’re worried about it.” She shifted to face me fully. “Assholes don’t worry about being assholes. They just... are.”

I snorted. “Profound.” I leaned down to kiss her, softly this time, all the urgency from earlier transformed into something gentler but no less intense.

When I pulled back, her eyes were serious again. “What are we doing, Dom?”

The question hung between us, heavy with implication. What were we doing? Playing house? Giving in to months of tension? Creating a family?

“I have no fucking idea,” I admitted. “But I’m not running anymore.”

She traced the line of my jaw with her finger. “Good, because GB’s going to have tiny little hockey skates before they can even walk, and they’ll need you to teach them.”

We had a lot to figure out still, especially with the mess we’d created with Miles and Carter. But as we lay there together, I realized there was no one else I’d rather figure it out with.