A Touch of Summer

Chapter One

Summer

"Oh, please," I groan, my eyes falling closed. That single action seems to be the only defense I have remaining against the gorgeous man quickly unraveling me at the seams. The rest of my defenses lie in tatters around me, little more than scraps of fabric littering the bedroom floor.

He started slow, with teasing brushes of his rough fingertips against my soft skin. My shoulders. My arms. My neck. His simple touches and whispered words wrecked me.

You’re beautiful.

You’re so soft, so warm.

Each touch of his skilled hands, each word from his full lips, acts like a melody, lulling me further into the here and now. Here, with my clothes strewn across the floor. Now, with my eyes closed and my body aching and on fire. This is what I've wanted since the first time I set eyes on this man, and it's torture. Exquisite, beautiful torture.

He's light and shadow, fire and ice. An artist working with his teeth and tongue, molding me into a piercing, all-over ache. I can't take any more of his torment. There's no way my body was designed for this level of pleasure.

Every part of me wants more anyway.

"Please, I need you." The plea is so faint, I'm not even sure he hears it.

Of course he does, though. He hears every little sound that passes my lips.

"Open your eyes, beautiful girl," he whispers. He trails his fingertips across the soft valley of my stomach. "Let me see you."

"I can't." I shake my head in a slow denial, my body arching toward his warm touch of its own accord. Even with my eyes closed, I feel the heat of his gaze on me and know he hasn't missed the way my body seems to seek him out, silently begging for another caress. Every inch of me craves him and those rough, strong hands.

"Look at me."

"I can't."

"You can." His fingertips sweep across my hipbones, pulling another soft groan from deep within my chest. "I need to see you."

"Please," I whisper again, knowing he's going to see how I really feel about him if I open my eyes. He'll know that I'm head over heels in love with him.

"Show me, beautiful girl."

I try to resist him, but I've never been particularly good at refusing him. On some level, I think he needs the connection between us more than I do. When he looks into my eyes, I think he's peeking through the doorway into my soul. He's taken up residence there. His strength and my softness meet in those deep recesses like yin and yang, sustaining both of us. I'm not sure which one of us loves it more.

I give in and open my eyes.

"Beautiful girl." His gratitude comes as a soft sigh against my overheated skin.

His dark emerald eyes meet mine.

What I feel for him—what he makes me feel—shines in my eyes, I know it does. Pleasure and pain burn through me. Desire for more wars with the intrinsic need to protect myself, buttress walls, and build defenses to keep him out. I let him see that, too. I can't hide it from him when we're like this.

He's already taken me too far, playing my body like a finely tuned instrument. For him, I think maybe it is. One he was created to play. He seems to know it—know me—better than I do. In the dark of night, when he comes to visit me, he whispers that he was made for me. That my pleasure belongs to him.

I believe him.

The way he looks at me with tenderness searing his emerald eyes makes me want to wrap myself around his powerful body and stay there.

He dips his head, hiding those eyes from me. His rough hands dance across my overheated skin like an artist blending light and shadow with his brush. His warm breath wafts across those secret places only he knows. Somehow, he fans the flames higher and soothes the burn at the same time.

His tongue dips, traveling the same path he's explored a thousand times already. Down the valley of my stomach, across the soft curve of my waist, and then around the peak of my hip. He rakes his teeth across my skin, a stinging nip bringing me to the edge of heaven.

I feel the tingling pleasure everywhere. Feel him all the way to my soul.

"Please." This time, I'm not pleading for him to stop, but begging for more. For everything. I arch beneath him, seeking relief.

"I'll take care of you, beautiful girl," he whispers, his breath blowing across my hip. His tongue follows, tracing that delicate bone and making me shudder.

I know he'll take care of me. He always does.

He dips his head again, his messy hair brushing like silk across my stomach, my hips…my inner thighs. His tongue touches my folds first, tentative, soft. His lips follow. Starbursts of warm, white light dance behind my lids as his mouth works against my core, his lips and teeth and tongue driving me right to the edge of heaven and then easing me over.

The blissful lights come again when he rises up over me, wrapping my thigh around his hip.

And again when he slips inside, sheathing his hard length inside me.

"Dominic," I sob, delirious with pleasure.

"I love you," he breathes against my neck, raining gentle kisses across my face. "Always, sweet girl."

Hot, happy tears make silent tracks down my cheeks. I've waited so long for him to say those words to me.

He rakes his teeth against the tendon in my neck, whispering soft

promises of forever as starbursts rupture behind my lids again, tumbling me over the edge into warm waves of euphoria.

"Are you ready to be mine forever, Summer?" he asks as I drift in that radiant spot between heaven and earth.

I nod, reaching eagerly for what he's offering. Babies and a family of our own. Forever.

"I love you, Dominic," I whisper.

He dips his head, his teeth sinking into my flesh as he comes apart for me.

I jerk upright, a soft cry echoing in the inky darkness surrounding me. My heart hammers, pounding like the beat of hooves in my ears. Beads of sweat drip down my body, sliding across my overheated skin and soaking into the sheets twisted around my legs. I slap my hair out of my face, clutching my neck and the crescent-shaped love bite I can still feel there.

Except…there is no bite. There's no Dominic either.

"Jesus, I'm going insane," I groan, collapsing back against my pillows. I grind the heels of my hands into my eyes, tug on the tangled strands of my hair. Dominic's intense gaze refuses to fade from my mind. I think his gorgeous eyes are imprinted there, refusing to dislodge no matter how hard I try.

And I have tried. A thousand times since I started working for Dominic Alessi six months ago. No matter how many times I tell myself that he isn't interested in me, I still can't seem to keep my mind off him. My dreams about him are becoming more frequent. Every night for the past few months, I've dreamed about him and of…well, of things I won't be writing home about, that's for sure.

My mom would have a heart attack if she knew how much time I spend fantasizing over the gorgeous man who hired me to manage his office. She'd think I'd lost my mind if she knew how many times I've thought about what my life would be like with him and a bunch of adorable little boys who look just like him. If she knew how badly I want him to mark me so everyone knows I'm his.