‘What I meant was that—’
He stopped; whatever way he said it would sound like flirting, and he was avoiding all that.
‘I think I’ve done us both a favour,’ Victoria said. ‘He didn’t seem to understand the concept of shift work. So,’ she asked, ‘if it wasn’t me, then what brought you up here?’ She wanted to know more about those difficult days he had alluded to.
‘I’m in the middle of something right now...’ Dominic said. ‘Well, not in the middle—I’ve taken myself out of the equation. I’m staying back from getting involved with anyone.’
‘Good,’ Victoria said, ‘because I don’t like to get involved with anyone at work.’
Yet here they were and the tension that had been in the annexe wrapped and slivered around them.
‘Are you married?’ she asked.
It was a very specific question and the answer was important to Victoria, because the cold air had turned warm.
‘No.’
‘Seeing someone?’
‘Of course not,’ Dominic said, or he would not be doing this—and his hand moved to her cheek. ‘You got your earring back.’
‘They were a gift from my father.’
‘That’s nice,’ Dominic said.
‘Not really, it was just a duty gift when I turned eighteen. Had he bothered to get to know me, then he’d have known that I don’t like diamonds.’
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t believe in fairytales and I don’t believe in for ever.’
There was, to Victoria’s mind, no such thing.
She held her breath as his fingers came to her cheek and lightly brushed the lobe as he examined the stone.
If it were anyone else she would have pushed his hand away.
Anyone else.
Yet she provoked.
‘It was the other earring that I lost.’
And he turned her face and his hands went to the other.
This was foolish, both knew.
Neither wanted to get close to someone they had to work alongside but the attraction between them was intense.
Both knew the reason for their rows and terse exchanges; it was physical attraction at its most raw.
‘Victoria, I’m in no position to get involved with anyone.’
They were standing looking at each other and his hands were on her cheeks and his fingers were warm on her ears. There was a thrum between them and she knew he was telling her they would go nowhere.
‘That’s okay.’
And that was okay.
‘If you don’t like diamonds, then what do you like?’ he asked. His mouth was so close to hers and though it was cold she could feel the heat in the space between them.
‘This.’
Their mouths met and she felt the warm, light pressure and it felt blissful. That musky, soapy scent of him had been imprinted and, this close, it made her dizzy. His tongue sliding in made her move closer and the fingers of one hand reached into her hair as the other hand slid around her waist.
It was almost like setting up to dance, as if the teacher had come in and said, Place your hands here.
But not.
Because then she hadn’t felt a tremble, no matter how warm the palm.
They kissed softly at first as his hand bunched in her hair; he explored with his tongue and it met with hers and he tasted all that had been missing.
Passion coiled them tight; his palm took the weight of her head and pressed her in at the same time.
The pent-up rows and the terse exchanges had been many and could not be dispersed with a single kiss.
It was a deep slow kiss and it birthed impatience in both. He held her head very steady and kissed her hard, and the scratch of his unshaven jaw and the probe of his tongue was sublime. But then, unlike with most men, she tasted resistance.
There was resistance, because Dominic knew very well where they were leading. ‘I don’t have anything with me,’ he said.
And she wanted to feel him unleashed.
‘I do.’
And when most would kiss harder, instead Dominic made her burn with his stealth. He stepped back and moved her coat down her shoulders and did not drop it to the dusty floor. Instead he placed it on the window ledge and she went for her purse that was there.
He came up behind her as she rifled through her purse, praying that the condom was still there and trying to find it. One hand wrapped around her and rested on her stomach as his other hand slid up between her inner thighs to the damp in the middle. His fingers stroked her and she closed her eyes to the bliss.
‘Here.’ She had never been so pleased to find a condom as he peeled her knickers down and she straightened up and stepped out of them.
Still he stood behind her and he lifted her hair and kissed her low on her neck. His hand pressed into her stomach and she could feel him hard against her bottom. Victoria was shaking a little, wanting to turn to him, yet wanting to linger in this bliss.
‘Come away from the window,’ he said, and took her over to a wall in the shadows and he kissed her hard against it. His hands held her hips and now Victoria felt the delicious hardness of him against her stomach. She stretched up onto tiptoe and he moved his hips down so he met her heat.
It was nice, so nice, to be so raw and open with him.
He caressed her breast through the fabric and, since he could feel no zipper on her dress, with a moan of want he just slid his hand inside and it was the most thorough and deliberate grope of her life. Meanwhile, Victoria was doing the same to him; she was trying to hold on to the condom as she freed him from his scrubs and underwear.
Finally, she held him in her palm, and her hand was soft on skin that was so very firm to her touch.
‘I want this dress off...’ Dominic gasped, but it was impossible because they could not move their mouths for more than a second from each other.
They wanted nakedness and hours to explore, but their bodies would only give them minutes.
He took the condom and began sheathing himself, while she was pulling up her dress, and when he was done, he lifted her thigh and placed her leg around his hip.
And they were not dancing!
She balanced on one stiletto but his grip of her was firm and the wall behind her solid. Then her hips angled and both were just as urgent as the other as Dominic thrust and took her.
Victoria had never felt anything so powerful. He was rough and delicious and she felt matched for the first time in her life, because he held nothing back.
Everything he delivered.
Dominic’s hand was behind her back and he could feel the scratch of stone on his knuckles but that was so far from his mind that it barely registered.
‘There...’ she said in a voice that was both demanding and urgent.
He met that demand and heightened it too.
She felt amazing. Dominic was rather more used to holding back, but Victoria invited intensity. It had been ages for Dominic, and he had wanted her for a very long time.
There was almost anger in him for how much she made him want her, so he thrust hard and