Love Her or Lose Her (Hot & Hammered #2) - Tessa Bailey Page 0,79
during high school, but this was different. He was a man. She was a woman. And there was more at stake.
Their marriage hadn’t worked. Was this his way of fighting for it?
Maybe it was the vodka. Or the champagne. Or the dress, the club, her sexual frustration, or the situation as a whole. Take your pick. But her rebellious streak from earlier that day was back, and she had the sudden urge to push. She knew Dominic better than anyone and this wasn’t easy for him. Having her on display. Encouraging her to do it. What would it take to break him? The tiniest nudge? Or had he really shown up wanting to change?
A new song pumped through the club, and she closed her eyes. She twisted a tight curl around her index finger and swayed her hips provocatively. Her fingers left her hair and trailed down the front of her dress, narrowly avoiding the tips of her breasts, coasting down to her thighs. She cracked her eyelids to find Dominic watching her intently, his big chest rising and falling with fast, deep breaths. But he didn’t stop her as she threw her hair back and turned in a circle, her lower body bumping to the music—and then she took it down to the floor, grinding her hips in a circle on the way back up.
Dominic’s fists clenched, then loosened. Looking her in the eye, he snagged her wrist and yanked her close, up against his chest.
This is it. He’s going to hustle me out of here.
“You’re incredible with or without me,” he rasped beside her ear. “I can do my best to learn to live with both if it means I get to keep your heart.”
His mouth skated down the side of her neck to her clavicle, openmouthed kissing her there, before he pulled away and spun her in another circle. Dizziness wrapped itself around her mind, and she couldn’t get her rhythm back. Not with the waves of emotion crashing inside of her. Thank God for the music. It swallowed the small sounds she made while gasping for air. And her husband must have sensed she was ready to be held, anchored, because one second she was mentally free-falling—and the next? He’d pulled her up against his strong body and tucked one muscular thigh between her two, leaving a strategic ridge of muscle right there.
“Oh my God,” she whimpered, sliding her arms around his neck to keep her balance. Her need had been burning bright since Dominic had approached her at the bar looking so rough and ready among the polished boys in the club. Jeans, boots, and a relaxed-fit, long-sleeved shirt that was lived in. Worked in. This was the man who turned her on. He always would. There was no question about that. With his words echoing in her ears and his body so sturdy and solid against hers, that need skyrocketed now.
Should she be perched on Dominic’s thick thigh when their marriage had been declared unsalvageable? The jury was out. But he’d revealed something at the bar. A genuine revelation when she knew he wanted to react differently. He’d tried, even though exposing a weakness was difficult for him. Really tried. And that meant something. It hadn’t been easy for him—he was used to keeping it inside—and now he was checking his possessive urges to let her shine.
What else was there? If she could still wait with bated breath for another admission or more progress from Dominic, maybe . . . maybe it wasn’t the end?
Was that too much to hope for?
“If I’m going too far too fast, let me know,” he rasped, his hand trailing roughly down her spine, fingers spreading right above the beginning of her bottom. “But I think you need this as much as I do. Am I right?”
“Yes,” Rosie said before she could stop the admission.
Here in the dark club, the lines were blurred. Some rule laid out by a therapist seemed silly and arbitrary up against the heat their bodies were generating. What he’d shared. The past. The future that hung in the balance. Their attraction was an elemental thing and it was roaring down on them like a category five storm. Was it any wonder she was scared to jump in headfirst, though? Every time they took a step forward, something seemed to knock them off course. He’d handed her a way to maintain a small barrier, hadn’t he? She grasped onto it now.