Despite his plea, he didn’t follow me as I left the conference room. Did he expect me to just jump at his every command? Maybe once upon a time I would have. Maybe I had. Now I knew exactly what he thought of me, and I was never going down that road with him again.
The door had barely closed behind me when it opened again. I stiffened, but part of me held out hope that Dom had followed. It would have been a first.
It wasn’t him. The girls had looked back and stiffened, so I knew who it was before I even turned around.
“You shouldn’t have come back,” she spoke to my back. “I can make your life even more miserable than I ever have before.”
I squared my shoulders and slowly turned to face her, pushing the girls behind me as I did so. “Trust me when I say, there is nothing you could possibly do to make my life any more miserable than you already have.”
“I know you cashed that check yesterday. How do you think Dom is going to react when I tell him you finally used that money?” There was pure malice in her gray eyes, but the smile I had been expecting, the glee at knowing she had finally won that battle, was absent.
“Seeing as that was blood money to begin with, I really don’t care how he reacts. Quite honestly, Nancy dear, I don’t give a damn about any of you. You and your children mean nothing to me now, just as I never meant anything to you.”
I felt little hands touch my back, then saw a blonde head peek out from around me. “Who is she, Triss?” Lily whispered worriedly.
Nancy slowly dropped her eyes, and as she looked at Lily, something flashed in their depths. I was pretty sure the fact that my sister looked so much like me and my mother was killing her. My father had loved my mother dearly, though they had never meshed well as a couple. They had stayed friends up until he had kicked me out. After that, she had hated him for allowing his wife to pull us apart.
“Hello, Lily.”
“H-hi,” she whispered and waved shyly.
I stiffened at Nancy speaking her name and quickly reached behind me, pushing her out of the old hag’s sight. “Do not ever speak to my sisters.”
She laughed at that, but didn’t speak. Turning back for the door, she called over her shoulder, “I’ll be seeing you around, Triss.”
FIVE
Triss
IT STILL SURPRISED ME HOW quickly things could get done when you threw enough money at a problem. What probably should have taken weeks, I accomplished in a few days once Amber had put the money in my bank account that I had asked her for.
The first thing I had done was start the ball rolling for my mother. I had to have her transferred to a hospital in New York City before I could get her back to my dad’s house. That was better than being hours away from her when she would have been stuck in Buffalo. I made sure that she was comfortable in her own private room before I left to take care of everything else.
I had quit my job as soon as I had gotten home. Once the money was in my account, I had traded in my rundown car for a new SUV, one that was built like a tank so I wouldn’t worry about driving in the snow with the girls. From there, I had bought them new clothes, coats, shoes, and a few things for the girls, myself, and my mother. Nothing expensive. It had been nice to pull on a pair of underwear that didn’t have holes and a bra that fit my breasts perfectly rather than squishing them together like so many of my others did.
I didn’t go to my father’s house for a few days. Nancy and Kim were still living in the house, and I didn’t want to put up with either of them—or subject the girls to their presence. Therefore, I got us a hotel room until everything was taken care of and my house was emptied of the trash that had been living in it for so many years.
With Amber’s help, one of the ground floor bedrooms was being converted over for my mother and a nurse to use. On top of that, two of the upstairs bedrooms were being turned into rooms for the girls. I wanted them to have everything little girls could possibly dream of when we moved in. I knew it couldn’t make up for all the months we had been living off mac and cheese, but I hoped it would better help them adjust to our new living arrangements.
Lily was put in a new school; the same private grammar school I had been in when I was a little girl. I took her every morning and picked her up every afternoon. Having Daisy with me all day long was nice. She got to see our mother a little more than she was used to, which cheered up Savanna, and she kept me company throughout the day. Having her with me made it easier not to think about Dom.
Today was Saturday, and Amber had promised me that the house was ready for us, meaning that the girls’ rooms were finished. More importantly, it meant my stepmother and stepsister were finally out. The room for my mother would be finished on Monday. Then a private ambulance and her home health nurse would bring her home.
Despite knowing that the house was empty except for the staff that ran the place so seamlessly, I couldn’t help feeling nervous as I drove up the long driveway and stopped in front of the house. As I looked up at it through the windshield of my new SUV, I tried to remember all the good times I’d had in this house with my father. Summer had been my favorite time of year simply because I got to spend it with my daddy.
Even after he had married Nancy, I had looked forward to coming home to this house. Kim and I had been close, but that wasn’t why I had been so happy to come home every summer. That was all because of Dom.
From the first moment I had met him, there had been this connection. Not so much sexual, because I had only been fifteen and Dom had been in college by that time. He wasn’t the kind of guy who got a thrill out of having teenaged girls crushing on him and chasing after him.
Still, there had been a pull for us both. I had been closer to him than I was to Kim. When I had gone home at the end of the summer, he had texted and called me when he had time between classes. As the years had gone by, our texts had turned more flirtatious as I had grown bolder in my feelings for him.
It wasn’t just the flirting, though. It was how he had treated me when we were together. The subtle touches to my hand, tracing his fingers through my hair, even those damn smiles he would give me that told me without words he was thinking of me. For over a year, we had danced around whatever was between us, until finally neither of us could take it another second …
Then, all hell had broken loose and my life had been turned upside down.
“Is this a hotel?” Daisy asked from her car seat in the middle of the second row.
I turned to look at her, saw how her eyes were wide like the prettiest little owl I had ever seen, and found myself smiling. “Nope. This is where I lived when I was a little girl,” I told her as I unsnapped my seatbelt. “My dad left this to me when he died.”
“That was nice of him.”
My heart twisted in my chest. “Yeah, I guess it was.”
As I got out of the SUV and opened the back door for the girls, who had already unbuckled themselves from their boosters, I noticed the front door open. Seeing Amber, I waved then helped Daisy jump down.
Beside Amber was a little boy about the same age as Lily. They walked down to the driveway to greet us, and I had an odd sense of deja vu when I looked down at the boy.
“Hi, there,” Amber greeted with a warm smile.
“Hi,” I murmured, my eyes still on the boy.
“Triss, this is my son Jamie. It’s not my weekend with him, but when I told him I was going to be hanging out with three pretty girls, he blew his dad off and came with me.” She grinned teasingly at her son. “Jamie, this is Triss and her sisters, Lily and Daisy.”
The boy shook my hand then turned to the girls. Lily shyly spoke to him, but it was Daisy who was taking charge as always.
We started up to the house, the kids walking in front of us. “I married Sawyer Brannon for a few years,” she told me in a quiet voice, and I had a total “ah-ha” moment, realizing why the boy had looked so familiar.
I remembered Sawyer fondly, along with Brice and his sister Ash. Dom had fallen into a frien
dship with Sawyer and Brice, and naturally, we had all had fun together.
“But you’re not married to him now?” I asked, as we entered the house. Her last name was Allister, not Brannon.
“Nope, I married Leo over a year ago.” She closed the door behind us. “Sawyer is with Ash, actually. They’re getting married in June.”
“Oh, well, that makes sense.” I pulled off my gloves and unhooked my scarf from around my neck, making sure the girls did the same. “Ash always did have a crush on Sawyer.”
“You saw that?”
I nodded, and she grimaced.
“I wish I had seen it. I never would have married him if I had known my best friend was in love with the guy, you know?”
I shrugged. “It all worked out, though, right?” I glanced after the kids who were running into the living room now. “You got a really good thing out of it.”
Her grimace turned into a look of pure, motherly love. “Yeah, you’re right. I wouldn’t trade that kid in for anything.”
Over the next few hours, Amber showed me everything that the contractors had done over the last few days. All we were waiting on was a few more pieces of equipment for my mother’s room. The girls’ rooms were perfect, and they screamed when they saw them. Daisy had a huge doll house with plenty of other toys to play with, while Lily had an entire art station to keep her happy. Both girls had their own canopied beds and connecting bathrooms.
My old room was right across from theirs, and it was the room I decided to take. It didn’t feel right taking the master bedroom. Not when that had been my father’s room he shared with Nancy.
That evening, after Amber and Jamie were gone and I had the girls bathed and ready for bed, I finally went into my bedroom. It was the first time I had stepped foot in there all day.
As I lay in my old bed, dreading the coming days before me, I tried to forget about how I had gotten to this point. How desperate I had been, how scared and alone I had felt as my world had come crashing down around me. I didn’t know what to do to fix things now. No amount of money could repair the damage that had already been done, the time that had been lost.
I needed to look toward the future, but all I could see was the past right then.
A past that still held me prisoner.
SIX
Triss
Seven years ago…
MY CLOSET WAS FULL OF nice dresses, but they were too nice—as in, good-girl-next-door nice. I wanted something sexy, something that would make Dom want to strip it off me the second he saw me in it.
With Kim out who knew where, I decided to go shopping on my own. It took me three hours to find the right dress, and once I had it on, I didn’t want to take it off. I bought matching underwear and a bra at Victoria Secret that made my breasts look killer in the dress, and I wore them home after getting my hair done.
My dad and stepmother had left the night before for Vermont. A much-needed getaway they had said, but really it was just so Nancy could spend more of my father’s money while trying to impress her snotty friends. As much as I adored Dom and Kim, I wasn’t blind to the fact that their mother was a greedy cow who was only with my father for his money. I doubted they were blind to her either, but Dom was a good son and didn’t question his mother too often. That was probably the only thing we ever argued about. However, I was a daddy’s girl, so I could understand him being a momma’s boy. Therefore, I didn’t let it get me down too often.
Walking into the house that afternoon, I knew he was home even without having to see him. I could feel his presence in the house. Every cell in my body was attuned to his nearness like some odd sixth sense. Dropping the rest of my bags in my room, I walked down the east wing of the house and stopped at Dom’s door. It was slightly ajar, so I pushed it open and peeked inside.
He was standing at his huge walk-in closet, pulling on a suit jacket over a metallic blue button-up. Seeing his choice of shirt color, I couldn’t help grinning. The dress I was wearing matched it almost perfectly, making my eyes pop. Had he picked that shirt with me in mind? I couldn’t help wondering.
Biting my bottom lip, I stood there in the doorway, leaning against the frame as I watched him work on his tie. Every move he made had my body amped up with awareness of him. The way his fingers fiddled with his tie, how his shoulders moved, and his chest lifted with each breath.
When he shifted from one leg to the other, growing frustrated with the tie, I finally took pity on him and entered the room.
“Want some help?” I murmured as I came up behind him.
He looked up with a mixture of relief, amusement, and pleasure on his handsome face. “I’m willing to beg for it, if I have to.”
I sunk my teeth into my lip again, trying to hide how giddy I was. “I won’t make you beg … this time,” I said with a sassy wink as I unknotted the tie.
This close to him, I could smell the clean, woodsy scent of his aftershave. It was an intoxicating scent that threatened to consume me with its headiness.
Carefully, I fixed the tie then reluctantly stepped back as my shyness began to overwhelm me. “There. Perfect.”
Strong hands caught mine when I would have turned away, pulling me in close again. He pressed my hands against his chest, and I was helpless to not feel how wild his heart was beating. With my hands on his chest, he lowered his own to my waist, circling them around me and stroking his fingers over my hips.
“Where did you get this dress?” he demanded in a low voice.
“This old thing?” I smirked when he just glowered down at me. He knew I had just bought it, since it wasn’t the kind of thing I normally wore. And I could see that he liked it on me. “I got it at the mall today. You like it?”
A low growl left him. “It’s sexy as hell. I hate it on you.” His fingers contracted on my hips. “I want you to take it off.”
I couldn’t contain the shiver that swept down my spine as images of him doing just that filled my head. It made me breathless, and I unconsciously pressed into him.
“You said we were going out,” I reminded him.
I had been so nervous all day from his promise to celebrate with me by taking me to dinner. This didn’t feel like just two friends celebrating. It felt like a date, but I was too shy to ask if that was what it really was.
Dom lowered his head until his nose was brushing over my jaw. “We will,” he assured me, his voice low and full of promises. “Just let me see you without that dress first.” As he spoke, he trailed his fingers caressingly up my back until he found the hidden zipper. In the next moment, the dress was falling apart in the back.
Shivering, I stepped back from him and turned, letting the dress fall down my arms, and then to my waist before pushing it over my hips.
Behind me, I heard his harsh exhale and looked at him from over my shoulder. The raw desire I saw shining out of his eyes had my already wet panties growing soaked with a need I had been too shy to let him see. But that look, it made me brave, and I turned as I stepped out of the dress.
In only my bra, panties, and heels, I faced him as I parted my legs ever so slightly, giving him a glimpse of the wetness on my thighs that I didn’t want to hide from him.
“Triss,” my name was a groan on his tongue.
I licked my dry lips, trying to think of something sexy to say, but as always, my shyness wouldn’t let me. Instead, I just stood there, letting my eyes tell their own story.
His nostrils flared with his next inhale, and then he took a step closer to me. When he lifted a hand, I noticed his fingers shook. He touched my hair, stroking the silkiness between his fingertips before pushing it over my shoulder and feasting his eyes on my body.
My breasts filled the cups of my bra almost to the point of overflowing with each breath I took. My heart was pounding just as hard as his had been under my hands only a moment before. I felt dizzy with need; edgy with a desire that I had never let myself slake in all the months we had been flirting and teasing each other.
“Y
ou are the most beautiful thing I have ever laid eyes on,” he said with a growl, catching my hips and forcefully pulling me into him.
When I felt the evidence of how much he wanted me pulse against my bare tummy, I couldn’t hold back my moan.
“Fuck, Triss. You’re killing me, love.” I felt his lips on my neck, just under my ear. “If you let me touch you, there’s no going back. I can’t go on as we have been. The flirting, the teasing, the wanting you so badly I can’t see straight.” He traced his tongue over a vein. “I want you, baby. I want all of you.”
“All …?” I whispered, lost in the pleasure of being held by him like this, of having his hands and mouth on me.
“All,” he confirmed in a strong voice, leaving me in no doubt of how much he wanted me.
Us.
“Will you give it to me, Triss?”
“Yes.” My answer was a vow, a promise that I was already his in every way. He just needed to claim me.
“Thank you.” His exhale sounded relieved, and I realized he had been holding his breath, waiting for my answer. As if he had thought I didn’t want him—us—as much as he did.
Forcing my shyness down, I lifted my hands and cupped his strong jaw in both palms. I met his gaze boldly, showing him exactly how much I was in this with him.
His next breath left him on a shudder, and then he buried his face in my hair. I stroked my fingers over his freshly shaven jaw and up into his hair, holding him to me.
We stood like that for a long moment before he sucked in a deep breath and stepped back. “Put your dress back on. We’ll be late if we don’t go now.”
I shook my head. “No.” Reaching behind me, I unsnapped my bra and let it fall forward.
He swallowed with difficulty, his throat bobbing with the force of it.
“I don’t want to go out, after all.”
“I promised you,” he got out in a rough voice.