Why, oh why couldn’t he keep his cool around Gage? For the love of God, he served two tours in the Marines and most of them in Afghanistan, where having a poker face kept you alive, and he couldn’t bluff the man sitting next to him. Instead, he was fumbling around with his keyboard and mouse like a virginal schoolgirl being hit on for the first time. He might as well be holding up a sign saying: I HAD SEX WITH GWEN LAST NIGHT, because there was no way Gage was missing his complete loss of cool. “Can we not talk about this,” he said weakly, hoping for mercy, which wasn’t going to happen.
Gage’s chair hit the floor with a heavy thud. “Bro,” he began in a voice heavy with shock, “you slept with Gwen last night, didn’t you? She showed up naked at your door, and you finally did it. How did that happen?”
Dominic was shaking his head before Gage finished his last sentence. “I’m not giving you any details, man, nor am I going to confirm that any of what you just said happened.”
Grinning, Gage said, “You don’t have to confirm it. You started bumbling all over the place when I mentioned the words naked, doorstep, and Gwen. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened. I just can’t fathom why. How does she go from dating your best friend and barely acknowledging your existence to suddenly finding you irresistible? Massive quantities of alcohol?”
Dominic felt a little pang at the thought of Gwen being intoxicated. She’d admitted to having some wine with her friends, but otherwise she seemed to be aware of where she was, who she was with, and she damned sure seemed to know what she wanted. Maybe it had taken a drink to lower her normal reserve and admit that she wanted him. Stone-cold sober, he could admit that he wanted her, and he couldn’t bring himself to regret the events that brought her to him so unexpectedly. Hell, he was pitifully grateful to have finally had a chance with the woman he had spent so long enamored with from afar. He wasn’t even rattled over their condom mishap from the previous night.
Not that he was looking to be a daddy anytime soon, but if it happened, he was all in. Until he knew different, he planned to operate as if Gwen could be pregnant and treat her like a princess. Heck, he would have been happy to do that without a pregnancy scare. He was tired of one-night stands and casual dating. He wanted a woman in his life to love, respect, and lay the world at her feet. Something told him that woman could very well be Gwen, and he was a man who always trusted his intuition. It had kept him in one piece more than once in his life.
He could feel Gage’s eyes boring into him, waiting for an answer to his rash of nosy questions. When he reared back in his seat again, balancing it on its back legs, Dominic did what he and Mac were so fond of when they needed to distract the other man. He reached out, pushed against the back of the chair, and listened to Gage scream like a girl as he tipped over. That never got old and the man never learned. Damn, he loved his job.
Chapter Three
Gwen stood apprehensively outside Dominic’s apartment door, hesitant to knock. He had called her this afternoon just to check on her and to let her know that dinner would be ready at seven. So, here she was feeling like a basket of nervous anxiety at the thought of facing the man that she’d ridden to pleasure countless times not even twenty-four hours ago.
Just when she was pondering whether to make up some excuse, the door swung open and she could only stare at the picture of masculine beauty standing before her. He was wearing a black T-shirt and a pair of dark jeans that showed off his powerful thighs to perfection. She stood gawking at him, feeling like she was in danger of swallowing her tongue. He gave her a knowing grin and took her hand, pulling her inside. She barely had time to register the delicious smell permeating the apartment before she was pushed against the closed door and engulfed in a kiss that had her eyes rolling back in her head. This was no tentative brush of his lips against hers; he took control and ravished every corner of her mouth. His hands settled on her ass, pulling her against the hard line of his cock and without thought, she locked her arms around his neck and lifted her legs around his waist. God, she wanted nothing more than to feel him moving inside of her again. “Dominic . . .” she moaned, unable to get close enough. What was it about this man that set her on fire so quickly?
“Something’s burning,” he hissed against her neck as he ground his lower body against her.
“It is . . .” she agreed. “Oh, yes . . .”