Ink & Lust

Chapter 22

Amila froze in mid-turn. Her breathing halted as her heartbeats began to race and her mind started to grow frantic. She went to bed alone and now the faint breathing of another being was emitting from behind. The alarm drained all the sleep from her eyes as she scanned the nightstand for something that could be used as a weapon but the drab light that leaked through the cracks in the blinds didn't aid in her search. She knew her phone was close and there was a lamp but by the time she reached any of those things, the person would've throttled already.

Wait. Her chest fell releasing the breath she was holding letting the sensual, exotic scent of cardamom, vevrier, and rose wood whirled up her olfactory and her nerves unbundled. A washed over her like a wave during low tide; slow and calming. She knew who was in her bed and the thought of him filled her with subtle contentment as she flipped over to find him facing her; sound asleep.

She studied his face; the gingerbread skin that invoked her with a strong urge to quell her appetite for a taste and the beard covering his jawline that made her hand itch to touch and rub it. His plumped lips call her to lean in a taste and his long eyelashes had her entertaining a thought about a future mixture of them. She clenched her teeth cursing herself for thinking about a future with him when her own life wasn't in order. 

She didn't know what she wanted to do in the future and being his hired girlfriend wasn't a career she could sustain until fifty-five and it sure didn't have a retirement plan. She needed to craft a plan for her life before she started conjuring up ideas of spending her future with someone. Plus, her heart was too bruised to love or even strongly adore another human.

"I feel your eyes." Dominic sounded with sleep deepening his voice as he kept his head snuggled in the pillow. He opened one of his eyes and tried hard to keep the other closed but the little smile that formed on her face made him give her all his attention. "Are you being a stalker?"

She tsked twisting her face, disagreeing with his words, "You're in my bed, buddy."

"Buddy." He said the word as if it was offensive but the hint of a smile implied he liked it. "This is our bed." His arm scavenged underneath the covers until it found her waist and pulled her towards him. "Ours."

She gave in willingly to the power of his grasp missing the warmth of his body against hers.

"But I've been in it longer than you." She added, letting her finger slide over the trail of his one of the veins protruding along his hand like it was a road to his arm. "So, I have seniority."

He nodded agreeing with her then faintly shrugged then a moment of quiet fell over them as he let his eyes do the same thing hers did while he was closed. He studied her face as if he was trying to recommit it to memory then he took a breath letting his chest fall slowly as if being in her presence grounded him. Steady him. Pleased him.

"Did you miss me?" He asked, erasing the silence.

Amila quirked her head to the side as if she hadn't checked her phone every so often looking for a text or call from him; or that when a random sedan pulled into the driveway her heart swelled with joy only to crash when it just someone that was lost.

"Maybe a little." She told him with a smirk.

He pulled his head back in shock. "Well, then." He chuckled. "I guess I'm not that special."

"Nope." She nodded her head against the pillow. Her words called his eyes back to her. "Not at all."

His sight drunk in her big smile and the playfulness in her eyes. "You're lying." He rocked her. "You missed me a lot."

She laughed. Not wanting to admit the truth; she missed him too much for one person who had only known another person for only a month could miss someone. Maybe it was the fact that her heart was still sore from losing people she loved that it was eager to find the same love again. There wasn't love between them it was just ink and lust; money and sex. And maybe some good conversation and experiences along the way. But it wasn't love and he was her soulmate. He was just Dominic James; a man with too much going on in his professional life to get a real girlfriend and had settled for her. She was well aware of her place.