A Touch of Summer

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.
She raised me to be independent, capable of taking care of myself. And I am capable. I graduated a year early with a degree in business. I spend my days keeping Dominic's office from falling into chaos. I'm good at it. I don't second guess myself or hesitate to make decisions. But I ache for something more than my mom had. She was single her whole life and she was happy that way. I'm not built the same. I want a family and love.
Maybe I have lost my mind.
In my dreams, he's started telling me that he loves me. He tries to get me pregnant.
I'm a twenty-two-year-old virgin, but the things my mind conjures up each night make my entire body ache with need like I've never felt before. Even now, I feel the press of his fingers to my skin, smell the spicy, all-male scent that drives me crazy in my dreams. I hear his voice as if it still echoes in the corners of my room. The painful rush of desire, the crushing need to feel more of him, and the utter sense of euphoria from my dreams linger.
I place my fingertips over the side of my neck, where part of me—the not quite awake, not quite sleeping part—still whispers that his mark should be. That wild, defiant part refuses to believe my attraction to him is completely one-sided. That part desperately wants to believe the softness in his gaze when he looks at me is reserved just for me. That the way his eyes seem to linger on me is evidence that he wants me too.
But he hasn't made a move. If anything, it's been the complete opposite. When I first