Page 4 of Filthy Dirty Dom
“I wanted to be here when you woke up. Make sure you were okay.”
“You couldn’t have stayed on the couch?” As if he’d ever, in any lifetime, let her sleep on the couch while he took a bed.
She bit her lip. “I could have.”
They stared at one another for a tense moment before she sighed. “Nothing happened, Alex. You promised me you wouldn’t touch me last night, remember?”
“I do.”
But I didn’t promise not to touch you today.
The traitorous thought caused Alex to clench his hands into fists.
Don’t do it, Alex.
Think of what you’ve done.
Hell, if it helps, think about Branden.
Second only to Lee, Alex’s brother, Branden Duke had been Alex’s best friend since they were in college. Branden was a Wall Street mogul, a billionaire, and Alex’s biggest client. Protecting the prominent Duke family was something Alex took more seriously than anything else. He was unfailingly loyal to Branden and he to Alex. There was a time Branden had pushed Alex to act on his feelings for Leslie, but that was before he’d called Alex’s fears about endangering Leslie bullshit, and Alex shared with Branden how dark and dirty he liked sex.
* * *
Softly, precisely, he said, “Is it bullshit that I need to dominate when I fuck, Branden? Is it bullshit that I use nipple clamps? Use my teeth? Drip hot wax on them? Fuck hard and hot and heavy and take it all in return?...Do you think Leslie wants to fuck that way? Because I like to take it just as brutally as I give it. I like a woman who will go wild. So. Fucking. Wild. I want a woman who will get fucking feral. Bite me. Shred my back with her nails. Hurt me. Because sometimes, that’s what I need, Branden… She’d look so damn sweet, crawling to me. Begging me to take her up against the wall. And then we’d switch things up. I’d have her tie me up. Lash me with a fucking cat-o-nine tails…
* * *
Needless to say, Branden hadn’t been quite as vocal about encouraging Alex to be with his sister after that.
No, Alex and Leslie were never going to be anything more than friends but that didn’t mean he didn’t ache for her in a way that put his broken rib and bruised kidney to shame.
“Thanks for looking after me, Leslie. You’re a good friend.”
He used the word deliberately and knew his message hit home when hurt flashed in her eyes.
The hurt was the same hurt he’d see when he’d turned down her friends-with-benefits-offer, though it didn’t come close to the hurt he’d inflicted on her when he’d publicly rejected her at Branden’s engagement party. That was something they’d worked hard to overcome, and thankfully, Leslie had given him a second chance to salvage their friendship.
She shifted, drawing away from him and sitting up. The hurt in her expression had disappeared so quickly that for a moment he questioned whether he’d really seen it.
“Ready for breakfast?” she asked. “I’ll dig through your fridge and make you something. Unless your fridge is empty. Then we can always order DoorDash.”
He sat up, too, then groaned with the sharp pain the movement caused.
Leslie hovered over him. “I hate seeing you this way.”
He smiled tightly. “I’ve suffered worse on the regular. Let’s not focus on it. Does your family know where you are?”
She snorted. “I’m sure my bodyguard, the bodyguard my brother hired through your security company, has already informed Branden and is even now waiting outside.”
“He’s outside, yes, or he’s out of a job, but your bodyguards don’t report your comings and goings, you know that. They only impart information to me, my team, or Branden when they determine your safety is at risk.”
“That’s what I was always told, but I never knew if it was really true.”
“It’s true,” he said firmly.
She shrugged. “Okay, good. At least we won’t have to deal with awkward questions about why I spent the night. But I already texted Branden and the gang that I was fine late last night, so no worries about jeopardizing your friendship with my brother.”
She said that last part with a trace of bitterness.