Carole Mortimer - Men of Power

‘Dominick…?’ She put her hand on his arm to stop him picking the bags back up and striding towards the house.

He looked down pointedly at her hand touching his arm. ‘What?’

Her mouth twisted ruefully as she let her hand fall back to her side, aware of a slight tingling in her palm just from their brief contact. ‘You’re right; neither of us exactly has the look of a happily married couple!’

Dominick smoothed his overlong hair back with impatient fingers. ‘I’m not sure I know how that’s supposed to look!’

Kenzie frowned. ‘Maybe if you could just try looking a little less—remote—’

‘A little less remote…’ he echoed thoughtfully, a look of intent suddenly crossing her face.

Kenzie’s eyes widened as she saw that look, taking a slight step backwards. ‘Dominick—’ She didn’t get very far before Dominick took a firm grasp of her arms and pulled her in tight against him, making her aware of every hard muscle and sinew of his body before his head lowered and his lips captured hers to kiss her.

Thoroughly.

Punishingly.

Passionately!

After his uncommunicative silence on the drive up here this was the last thing that Kenzie had been expecting, and she was too surprised to do anything more than grasp the width of his shoulders for support as her lips parted beneath his and his mouth continued to plunder hers.

At last he raised his head to look down at her, dark gaze triumphant as he did so. ‘Better?’ he taunted huskily.

Much better.

Too much better.

She didn’t like that look of victory in his eyes, either, and moved quickly away from him as she pulled out of his arms. ‘I don’t think there was any need for you to go that far—’

‘Weddings always have this effect on me too!’ her father interrupted cheerfully as he strolled down the driveway to join them.

‘We’ll discuss this later,’ Kenzie muttered softly.

‘Maybe,’ Dominick murmured softly, his arm about Kenzie’s shoulders as they turned to look at Donald.

And so the pretence began, Kenzie acknowledged agonisingly…

She gave a light laugh as she turned to greet her father, the move effectively taking her out of Dominick’s reach.

Dominick stood silently as father and daughter hugged, able to see an unfamiliar fragility to Donald Miller. There was a slight greyness to his face that spoke of recent illness, and his clothes were a little loose on him where he had lost weight.

But the older man’s handshake had been firm enough when he had greeted Dominick, and his green eyes warm and welcoming, so unlike his eldest daughter’s had been when Dominick had called at her apartment to collect her a couple of hours ago.

‘It’s good to see you again, Dominick,’ Donald told him with genuine pleasure.

‘Sir,’ he replied with studied politeness; he had never got particularly close to Kenzie’s family, and he certainly didn’t intend doing so now, either! ‘I’m only sorry that work commitments have prevented me from coming to see you before.’

‘Oh, we know how busy you are. Besides, I’m perfectly fine now,’ Donald dismissed with a wave of his hand. ‘Come inside and say hello to Nancy. She’ll be so pleased you’re here.’

Kenzie’s family, Dominick had learnt on being introduced to them, was nothing like his own dysfunctional one. Donald and Nancy, despite having been married for thirty years, were obviously still deeply in love with each other, and their four daughters were also wrapped unpossessively in that closeness.

The hug Nancy gave him, her real pleasure in seeing him again, was also in sharp contrast to the stiffness and suspicion with which Dominick always greeted visits from his own parents. The Millers’ obvious genuine warmth in seeing him again didn’t sit too comfortably with his decision to take advantage of Kenzie’s dilemma and exact revenge on her for ever daring to cheat on him.

Kenzie’s sisters Kathy, Carly and Suzie, the latter both in varying stages of pregnancy, hugged him just as happily, while the two middle sisters informed him that their husbands, Colin and Neil, hadn’t returned from work yet but would be along later.

The four Miller sisters all shared an incredible dark-haired, green-eyed beauty, and it was overwhelming when confronted with all four of them together, Dominick acknowledged. He was relieved when mother and daughters launched into a discussion about the dresses they were wearing for the wedding tomorrow.

‘Our cue to beat a hasty retreat, I think,’ Donald told him ruefully. ‘Dominick and I are just going to take the dog for a walk,’ he said, raising his voice so he could be heard over the women’s chatter.

His wife turned to give him a knowing look, the startling beauty of her four daughters obviously inherited from her. ‘We don’t have a dog, Donald,’ she told him dryly. ‘And you know you aren’t allowed to go to the pub, if that’s where you’re sneaking off to,’ she added reprovingly.

‘I take exception to the word “sneaking”,’ her husband teased back. ‘And I’m allowed to go in the pub. I just can’t have the pint of beer I would like to have while I’m in there!’

‘Well, I’m sure Dominick has absolutely no interest in going to the pub…do you, Dominick?’ Nancy looked at him enquiringly.

No, he didn’t have any interest in going to a pub, or in being alone with Kenzie’s father. But neither did he want to stay here to watch Kenzie as she relaxed in the company of her close-knit family.

Kenzie had asked him to do something for her, and he had agreed, and in return she would give him exactly what he wanted. Getting involved in the intimacy of her family was not part of that bargain.

Kenzie had turned to look at him now, the sharpness of her gaze obviously seeing his lack of enthusiasm for any father/son chats that might occur between the two men once they were alone at the local pub.

‘How about Dominick and I take our things up to our room and freshen up first?’ She slipped her hand into the crook of his arm even as she smiled brightly at her family. ‘You can “walk the dog” just as easily in half an hour or so, can’t you, Dad?’ she teased.

‘Half an hour, an hour, as long as I can escape from this chatter about weddings for a while!’ Her father nodded, his grin belying his words.

Kenzie could feel Dominick’s tension as they left the room together and walked up the stairs. She knew that he had always found the easy affection of her family slightly overwhelming. And that it was something he wanted no part of.

It was understandable in a man who hadn’t grown up in a loving and stable family, but it also made his agreement to come here this weekend all the more surprising. And the payment he would demand more worrying…

‘I’m sorry about that.’ She grimaced as she sat down on one of the twin beds in the room her mother had told her she and Dominick were to use for the night. ‘Do you think you’ll be able to stand a whole weekend of it?’ She frowned as she looked at him.

‘Oh, I think I’ll probably survive,’ he drawled, thrusting his hands into the pockets of his denims as he moved restlessly around the room. ‘What’s the prognosis on your father?’ he asked as he remembered, despite Donald’s cheerfulness, those tell-tale signs of recent illness in the older man.

‘Good.’ Kenzie nodded, dark lashes fanning down over her cheeks as she looked towards the floor. ‘It was more—frightening, than anything else, I think.’ She glanced up at him, her eyes bruised and shadowed. ‘The doctors say it’s a warning for him to slow down, that’s all, that he can return to work at his estate agency in a couple of months’ time. But my mother wants him to sell up and take early retirement,’ she added ruefully, aware that she was talking too much in her nervousness of being alone with Dominick. She was sure he didn’t really want to hear all this, and that his interest had just been idle conversation on his part.