By a Thread

by Lucy Score

I was so close to coming. And she was right there.

“Dom,” she said softly. I squeezed my eyes shut. “Ally, you need to go.” My voice shook.

“You said my name. Before,”

“Ally, I can’t hold on. Get the fuck out of here,”

“If you weren’t worried about anything else,” she began softly, “would you want me to stay?”

“Go. Now,”

“Are you thinking about me?” she asked. “Yes.” I snapped out the confession through gritted teeth. “Happy? I’m always thinking of you.” “But you don’t want me enough to bend the rules.”

“I’m so pissed at you, Dom. But apparently that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know what it feels like to have you inside me. And I hate that,” she confessed. “Join the club,” I rasped.

“Give me something to think about tonight, Dom. Please.” She was handing me a goddamn fantasy. And that “please.” Those liquid honey eyes pleaded with me and had me taking an even firmer grip on my shaft.

“Are you afraid of me, Ally?” “I’m afraid that if I’m in a room alone with you, I won’t be able to control myself.”

I’d buy her a thousand thongs if she were mine. I’d drown her in lingerie and dresses and diamonds and fucking yoga pants. Anything she wanted, I would give her.

I’d been hard for her since the second she walked out onto stage. I hated the hold she had on me. The only thing that had kept her safe from me was the fact that my mother signed her paychecks.

“What. The. Fuck, Dominic?” “I paid for the dance.”

“Why are you here, Dom?” I breathed, leaning in and nipping at his ear.

“Because I can’t fucking leave you alone.” His breath was labored.

“Don’t fucking do it, Ally,” he warned.

“Tell me you don’t want this. Tell me you don’t want me in your lap riding you.”

“Lie to me, Dom. Tell me you don’t want me, and I’ll stop right now.”

“I hate how much I want you,” he whispered

“I despise the fact that I can’t think of anything else but you.”

“Ally,” he rasped. “Baby.” One hand in my hair, one on my hip, he gripped hard and grunted out a low, guttural sound.

“Ally,” he said again, thrusting against me. Using my body to ride out the orgasm.

“That’s two you owe me, Dom.”

Ally. Baby. Dominic’s words as he came, as I made him come, hammered inside my head.

“Educate me,” he said coldly. “Tell me why you’d take money from a stranger but not me.” “Because I don’t have feelings for a stranger, you stupid, stubborn asshole!”

Away from the man who made me feel things when I had no business or time to feel anything.

I wondered if I was leaving a trail of body glitter behind me like I was a Questionable Life Choices Tinkerbell.

“You hand-picked me for this ridiculous farce of a job.”

“I did,” he admitted.

“You’re the only one I trust.”

On Valentine’s Day, I got every assistant on the floor a flower arrangement just so I could give her something. I signed her card “From Linus” so she’d keep the fucking flowers.

“But Vest Guy looks like he can’t decide if he wants to spank you or devour you.” I blinked. “So I’m not imagining it?”

“Her husband didn’t surprise her,” Nina said. “Dominic sent her away.”

By the next morning, I’d had the promotion and “signing bonus.” I knew he’d puppet-mastered me into it. I just hadn’t realized how diabolical he’d been.

“What are you doing?”

“Hugging you.” “I can see that. Why?” “I’ve always wanted to,” he confessed.

But it all came back to one thing. He didn’t want to be like his father. It was as simple and complex as that.

I got it now. I got him now.

“Only you can be surrounded by hot guys who clearly want to tear your clothes off yet still end up fully clothed and home alone on a Friday night.”

“You know, babe. Sometimes it’s up to us to tell the universe what we want. Not the other way around.”

Dominic: You’re beautiful. And not just tonight.

I was staring into the eyes of one furious Dominic Russo.

“Who the fuck hit you, Ally?”

“Don’t do this, Dom. Don’t be nice. Don’t ask me questions. I’m hanging on by a thread here.”

It was a hug. A hard, breathless hug. And that’s what broke me. The unyielding contact of his body pressed against mine, his arms wrapped around me tight enough that the only thing I knew for certain was that I was safe.

“I can’t take this anymore, Ally,” he breathed against my hair. “I can’t just watch from the sidelines and pretend it doesn’t fucking kill me that I can’t touch you.”

“Baby,” he whispered against the top of my head. “Talk to me. Please.”

“You can’t murder him,” I told him mournfully. “Give me one good reason why not.” “He’s my father.”

“Dominic.” “Kiss me, Ally. Let me make you feel better.”

If he kissed me now, when my heart was already in a million little pieces, I was going to do something really stupid… like fall in love with the man.