Shoulda Been a Cowboy (Rough Riders 7)

No! She was his family.

Mrs. Beesman glanced up. “I’d like to speak with Anton now.”

Domini nodded. She poked her head in the small bedroom and gestured for Anton to come out.

Anton sat right next to Domini and gripped her hand. He was trying so hard to be brave but his bottom lip quivered and Domini almost lost it.

“Anton, I’m going to ask you some questions. Be as truthful as you can. If you feel you could be more truthful if we were having this conversation somewhere else, just between you and me, we can stop right now until I can arrange that.”

She ground her teeth. The boy was seven years old. He still believed in Santa Claus for godsake. How was he supposed to understand the implication Domini might be somehow coercing him?

“Domini, don’t leave. Don’t make me go somewhere else away from you. Please.”

“I won’t, sweetling. I’m right here.”

Mrs. Beesman’s questions for Anton were neutral. But when she asked him why he thought Domini wanted custody of him, he simply said, “Because she loves me and she already knows how to take care of me.”

Domini didn’t bother to hide her tears.

Just like that the interview ended and Mrs. Beesman bustled out.

Neither she nor Anton spoke for a while. When he started swinging his feet—a nervous habit he’d always had—she knew something bothered him. “Hey, buddy, what’s going on in that smart head of yours?”

“I think I told her a lie.”

Fear skittered down her spine. “About what?”

“About when she asked why you wanted me.”

“You said exactly the right thing, the true thing. I do love you. I do know how to take care of you.”

His blue eyes filled with such confusion and pain her heart nearly stopped. “But do you think I shoulda told her that you want me because no one else does?”

Those broken words sent her heart plummeting to her toes. “Don’t ever say that. Don’t ever think that. Anyone would be thrilled to have you, but I don’t want to give anyone else a chance because I want you most of all, understand?”

He nodded. He crawled into her lap, clinging as if he were afraid to let her go. She understood the feeling.

Not for the first time, Domini thought if the court ruled against her for custody of this sweet, needy little boy, she’d take Anton and run.

And she had a sneaking suspicion Mrs. Beesman from Social Services had come to the exact same conclusion.

***

Cam hadn’t seen Domini for days and he was going insane.

Before they’d hooked up, Cam had seen Domini every day. Sometimes twice a day. He wasn’t about to walk away when he’d come to terms with how he felt about her.

In addition to setting up Nadia’s memorial service, Domini was taking care of Anton fulltime. He’d dealt with his cousin Luke’s funeral and all the family shit that went along with it, which reminded him why he tended to avoid all that unpleasantness.

Might not be PC, but Cam could give a crap how Anton reacted to him being at Domini’s place. Far as he was concerned, the kid better get used to seeing him.

Cam knocked twice. The fifteen-second wait for her to unlock the door was excruciating. Then Domini, his sweet, beautiful, wonderful Domini, stood in front of him, close enough to touch, close enough to kiss. He hugged her hard, kissed her hard and was totally hard.

“Come in the kitchen. You hungry? There’s leftover casserole.”

“No. I don’t have much of an appetite lately.”

Domini brought them both a beer. He was a little surprised when she parked herself on his lap.

They stayed that way, not speaking, just being together. Cam had never known anyone as comfortable with silence as Domini. He’d never known anyone like Domini period.

This awful week without her had just reinforced the truth: Cam was totally head over heels in love with her. Nothing had ever felt so real, so right.

Too bad his timing was all wrong. Domini had so many life changing events to get through, he didn’t want to burden her with his declaration of love. When the time was right, he’d blurt out everything in his heart. Every sappy thing.

“Cam?”

He leaned back to look at her. “Sorry, I was kinda spacing out. What did you say?”

“I—I…”

“What’s wrong?”

She fingered the necklace he’d given her. “Come to bed with me. Please. I know you can’t stay, but I need to be with you, even for a little while.”

Touched by her sweet hesitation, Cam clasped her hand and directed her to the bedroom, locking the door behind them.

She stripped. She helped him strip. She left his prosthesis on and pushed him on his back. After she straddled him, she ran her hands up the insides of his arms and pinned his arms above his head.

“My way,” she said and kissed him.

Holy shit did Domini kiss him. Seductively. Wantonly. Relentlessly. She licked and bit his lips as her tongue tasted and teased. Her kisses destroyed him, turning him into a raging beast; her caresses tamed him into a junkie who craved her touch. His body burned from the light stroke of her fingertips over his skin. He bowed up from the silken rasp of the pads of her thumbs across his ni**les. The bite of her nails into his scalp stung as she held him in place and kissed him stupid.

Domini locked her gaze to his. She grasped his c**k and impaled herself in one deep stroke.

She kept the pace fast enough to excite but slow enough to tantalize. When she whispered, “Put your hands on me and help me ride,” Cam gritted his teeth against the urge to flip her on her back and f**k her through the mattress.

But he let her choose the pace. He let her love him with the desperation they both felt. Domini didn’t drag it out; she took them both to the brink and kicked them into sweet ecstasy.

“I needed that,” she panted against his throat.

I needed you.

Domini kept touching his body, as if trying to memorize his shape. Then she sighed and nestled deeper into him. “I could fall asleep like this.”

“We’ll have to try it sometime.” He stroked her back and waited for her get whatever was bugging her off her chest.

“Cam, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“I mean, I’d understand if you’d say no—”

“Just ask me.”

She blew out a breath. “Will you come to the lawyer’s office with me tomorrow?”

“What time?”

“Two o’clock.”