Just a Bit Shameless (Straight Guys 8)

Sam couldn’t hear what Roman said, but it made Dominic’s muscles tense up. “It’s just a nick. If I really wanted to hurt him, I would have. Tell Luke I apologize. Is that all?”

He handed the phone back to the guard, who listened to whatever Roman said and lowered his gun. “You can go.”

Tightening his grip on Sam’s arm, Dominic strode out of the house, all but dragging Sam toward his parked car.

“Get in,” he barked out without looking at Sam as he got into the driver’s seat.

Shooting him a wary look, Sam did as he was told.

The drive was silent.

Sam balled his hands into fists and stared out the window, pretending that he couldn’t feel the suffocating, angry tension in the car and acutely aware of Dominic’s body with every inch of his. Even now, despite his defensiveness, anger, and guilt, his insides ached with needmisswant. His heart didn’t care that Dominic was angry with him, and neither did his body. All his body wanted was Dominic’s hands on him, craving any contact, be it gentle or violent.

God, he was beyond help.

At last, after what felt like hours, they arrived at the familiar house. The sight of it made his chest ache. It hadn’t been his home for long, but he’d been so happy in that house.

Sam didn’t hurry to get out of the car. He was slow enough to force Dominic to take his arm and drag him out of it, Sam’s skin tingling from the contact despite the layers of fabric between them.

Sam glanced at Dominic’s stony, hard face, and his stomach clenched with nerves. He’d never seen him so angry.

Dominic unlocked the door and pushed him inside. Sam went obediently enough but turned around and crossed his arms over his chest as soon as Dominic closed the door.

“I’m sorry for getting caught, but you didn’t need to intervene! I almost convinced him, I could feel it! You blew your cover totally unnecessarily! If you waited a few minutes—” He squeaked when Dominic pushed him to the couch and threw him face down over his lap.

“Waited for what?” Dominic bit out, yanking Sam’s sweatpants and boxers down. “For him to choke you?” He brought a hand down on Sam’s ass, hard.

Sam yelped, more from surprise than pain. “Are you fucking serious? I’m not a child to spank! And he wasn’t choking me! I had it under control—oof.”

The second smack stung more.

“Under control?” Dominic growled, delivering another sharp smack, and then another. “He had a gun to your head. Do you have any idea how dangerous that man is? He could have killed you. It would have been nothing to him.”

“He didn’t,” Sam tried weakly, closing his eyes.

“You were fucking lucky Luke was with him,” Dominic said, delivering another stinging smack. “He’s Demidov’s weak spot. If Luke weren’t there—” His hand went still, just a heavy weight on Sam’s ass before his touch turned into a bruising grip. “Fuck, do you have any idea—” The next thing Sam knew, he was rolled onto his back and Dominic was on top of him, solid, heavy, and perfect.

Dark eyes glared down at him. “Why did you leave?”

Sam swiped his tongue over his dry lips, his heart thundering in his chest. He was aware how loudly he was breathing, taking in greedy lungfuls of Dominic’s scent, like a junkie.

Dominic stared at him intently. “Were you really with Redknap’s gang?”

“You—you didn’t know?” Sam managed.

“I didn’t look for you.”

His throat uncomfortably achy, Sam struggled to keep his face calm. Although it had been his worst fear, he hadn’t really believed that Dominic wouldn’t even bother looking for him.

Dominic’s lips twisted. He gave Sam a look that was almost hateful. “Quit looking like that when it was you who told me not to look for you. Or did you want me to be one of those creepy, controlling assholes who stalk people against their wishes?”

Of course I did.

Flushing, Sam swallowed back the instinctive response. Jesus, this was beyond mortifying.

“You mean… You mean you wanted to look for me?” he said in a small voice.

Dominic laughed, the sound as humorless as it was jarring. “You could say that.” Shifting his weight to one elbow, Dominic brought the other hand up to Sam’s face. The hand hovered an inch above Sam’s cheek, his fingers twitching a little. Dominic’s jaw worked. “I could have found you in a few days if I really looked. It would have been so easy to use the resources at my disposal to stalk you. I never crossed that line in all the years with MI6—I’ve never been tempted to—but fuck—” Dominic cut himself off, his dark eyes roaming all over Sam’s face, as if he didn’t believe that Sam was really there.

Sam looked at him, really looked at him for the first time that evening. Although Dominic was as devastatingly handsome as ever, there were tired, tense lines around Dominic’s eyes that spoke of sleepless nights and stress.