Exposed Exposed (Dom Nation #1) - E. Davies Page 0,38
my heart soared. Oh my God, yes! He does want me!
Caught up in my joy, I waited too long to go for the kiss I wanted. Instead, Rex leaned in toward me and pressed his lips against my cheek.
Hot and lingering, his breath ghosted across my ear, his grip firm on my shoulder. I ached to melt into him, to turn my head and let my lips meet his. To lose myself in the clash of our mouths and the quickly climbing temperature in here…
It must have only lasted a second. But when he pulled back, there was something real and warm in Rex’s eyes.
It matched the warm quiver of delight in my own chest.
“Thanks for the drive,” I whispered.
“Thanks,” Rex muttered. Then, as if flustered, he cleared his throat. “I mean, you’re welcome. See you later, alligator. Oh, God. Just leave now, please.”
I burst out in a breathless laugh at this tiny moment of realness—where his walls slipped and he was fragile and human and fucking perfect. Rex glared at me, but it only made my giggles worsen.
“I’ll see you later.” This time, it was a promise.
I grinned all the way to the house, my steps light.
Rex was everything I wanted: firm, confident, and rough, but so charming, too. He seemed to want to be seen as a big, tough Dom, yet he wasn’t afraid of being kind and therefore weak.
Now I had all day to practice closing the deal. Chances like this didn’t come around every day, and I might never get another.
8
Rex
Christ, I could use a drink.
But I was stuck behind the counter of Daddy Cakes, batting my lashes at customers as I asked about their nights. None of them held a candle to the man wandering around outside the club, greeting all with smiles and offers of cupcake pieces.
I wanted to call it quits and bring Slate home right now. But I had to sell out of cupcakes first.
Or did I have to?
I really do, I told myself for the dozenth time this hour. After all, I’d opened Daddy Cakes for a damn good reason. I needed an outlet for the untamable desires I found myself resisting at this very moment.
But holding out as the cabinet dwindled away took every ounce of my patience I’d once thought was so endless. Apparently, there were exceptions. Well, an exception—just one.
Slate.
Honestly, he scared me to the bone. Not because he was the incarnation of evil like Isaac. Slate hadn’t done anything wrong. But in the span of one night, he’d blown past every rule I’d ever set myself.
Don’t invite them home.
Don’t let them see you vulnerable.
Don’t get attached.
And most important of all: Don’t fall for anyone.
All of it crumbled to dust with one big, blue, innocent stare from Slate. It wasn’t the fake-innocent stare of an experienced brat who knew how to get what he wanted.
No, Slate was the real deal, under all his layers of self-loathing—no doubt planted there by Isaac for his own amusement. I could rip the bastard limb from limb. I’d known Slate for less than a day, but I’d go to the ends of the earth to protect that innocent, tender vulnerability he’d shown me last night.
My stares out the door of Daddy Cakes mirrored the hungry gazes of my customers into the glass display case. Slate was milling around the crowds filtering out of Dom Nation, offering the serving tray to any and all.
He was dressed the same as last night, but his attitude tonight couldn’t be more different. He moved with a newfound confidence to another group of four men, smiling and coyly catching one of their eyes. He laughed at something they said and offered the tray.
One of them put a hand on his arm instead and ran it up his shoulder while the others grinned. I recognized them—Doms, all of them.
I couldn’t look away. Deep in my chest, my very soul snarled in a primal rage I had no right to. I wanted a monopoly on flirtation. But I was the one insisting at every turn that I wasn’t his Daddy, so I couldn’t very well get angry now. But inexplicably, every friendly and flirty gesture made me want to storm outside and snatch him away from them all.
Slate sidled away from them with another playful grin and looked right over at me through the glass door. His glance was sly and knowing, a smile playing on his lips. Like he knew how much it irritated me.