This Love's Not for Sale
Read This Love's Not for Sale Online
Authors: Ella Dominguez
This Love’s Not for Sale
This Love’s Not for Sale
Copyright © Ella Dominguez 2013
All right reserved
Dedication
To my husband and my daughter whose patience is wearing
dangerously thin with my writing obsession, but still they remain loving and kind. For how long? Only time will tell…
To family, friends and coworkers for their support.
To my loyal readers.
To Mallory, my sometimes assistant and sounding board for my ideas.
To Kendra & Chris
for allowing me to borrow “don’t be a weenie your whole life”
To Tad Anderson
for use of his finely tuned “ewww”
To my wonderful beta readers who
help make sense of my thoughts
To Writers Resource, Inc. for edit
ing and making my work readable
To
the patient and talented C.L. Lewis of
www.goonwrite.com
for his amazing cover ar
t on this and many of my books
To Beautifully Bound for the
ir talents and the Bondage Bear
Contents
“Tucker McGrath!”
Lilliana’s secretary
had poked her head into her small office and shrieked with such intensity and ear-piercing deafness, it startled Lilliana and damn near made her piss herself.
“What the Kegel muscles
, Dana?” Lilliana asked with her own still contracted from their unexpected work-out.
After calming herself, Dana proceeded to tell Lilliana t
hat there was an emergent consultation being requested on none other than the man whose name she had screamed out like a giddy schoolgirl. Apparently there had been an altercation and Tucker was on his way in.
Lilliana
hurriedly got her station set up to inspect the damage while the secretary placed a phone call to the dentist on-call. Her job as a dental hygienist was fairly mundane from day-to-day so when there was an emergency, Lilliana felt the rush of adrenaline and welcomed the change of pace.
As Dana stood waiting for some kind of reaction, Lilliana looked up at her
unimpressed. Being so new to the area, she had no idea who Tucker McGrath was. Dana rolled her eyes and informed Lilliana that Tucker was, in fact, a scrumptious package of masculinity who was single, and quite well known throughout the Tri-State area for his many business ventures and sizeable wealth. Apparently it was also no secret that he had been married multiple times and was a womanizing player whose reputation preceded him. Lilliana remained unfazed and shrugged her shoulders as she continued setting out more equipment.
Lilliana was still adjusting to her new surr
oundings and job. It had been over a month since the death of her beloved Auntie Margo and the notice had came as a shock to her. She had spoken to Margo only a few days before her death and she was so cheerful and full of life, it was hard to believe that she was
really
gone. Lilliana’s mother had died when she was nineteen and Margo had been her closest confidant after her mother’s passing.
Lilliana recalled sitting stunned and with tears streaming down her face as she listened on the phone about Margo’s sudden heart attack. Margo’s lawyer spoke softly and tried to console Lilliana, but she was too
upset to hear his sympathetic words. Margo was very thorough and all of her funeral plans were set up in advance, leaving only the details of the will to be dealt with upon her arrival to Bridgeport. The astonishment of being told she been left the sole heir of her Auntie’s estate and all of her personal belongings was still fresh in Lilliana’s mind.
Margo had always been
very charitable with her modest wealth and Lilliana thought for sure Margo would’ve just donated her land and possessions to some needy foundation.
While
Lilliana prepared her work station, she thought back to her last conversation with her Auntie and tears wet her eyes. She would forever miss the closeness and the bond they shared. Other than a few distant second cousins, she was completely alone now and without a soul to rely on.
Lilliana’s sadness was interrupted when
she heard a commotion at the front desk and a man’s booming voice. She quickly put on a disposable gown, mask, scrub cap and sterile gloves.
She smelled the infamous Tucker McGrath before she saw him. A subtle
, clean, citrus scent wafted into the room and Lilliana’s belly fluttered. She missed the smell of a man. Only a few seconds later, Tucker staggered in.
Lil
liana immediately looked him over. She did a guesstimate and averaged his height to be just less than six feet tall and slightly taller than her ex-husband. He was holding a bloodied towel to his mouth and his expensive, tailored business suit was disheveled with his white shirt sporting blood stains, and his jacket revealing a ripped lapel.
Tucker stood before Lilliana, boldly intimidating
, and she pointed him towards the dental chair.
He promptly fell into it, laid his head back and grumbled,
“Thucking thell.”
“There’s no need for that kind of lang
uage, Mr. McGrath,” she scolded him.
Lilliana was
well versed in the language of Dentalese and she knew immediately he had said
fucking hell.
Tucker
’s mouth tightened before he barked even more obscenities at her.
“
Yes, yes, I understand; you’re hurt and angry. Now let me see what’s going on inside that potty mouth of yours.”
Cle
nching his jaw, Tucker narrowed his eyes, expressing his disdain with the Lilliana’s condescending attitude. Dana and two of the dental assistants were waiting just inside the door ogling Tucker and obviously amused with the way Lilliana was handling him. When Lilliana heard them giggle, she dismissed them of them but one assistant with a wave of her hand.
She
placed suction and water into his mouth and rinsed it clean of all traces of blood. She then placed a soft bite block and looked into his mouth with a mirror. Tucker groaned and winced and Lilliana broke the news to him.
“Okay,
the good news is that all of your upper and lower central and lateral incisors appear to be intact. Now for the bad news: your left upper first and second molars appear to be damaged along with the gum tissue. Of course, we’ll check to be sure that there’s no damage to the bone by doing an x-ray.”
“
Thucking theak Engith,” Tucker snorted.
“Fine, in English, two of your back top teeth are cracked. The den
tist is on his way in now so he can get you patched up.”
Lilliana
regarded Tucker curiously. His eyes were framed by dark lashes and she was instantly struck at the lusty shade of brown staring back at her. She noted his set face and his fixed eyes as he watched her closely. She studied his hair, noting its darkened copper shade frosted with streaks of silver scattered throughout. He was definitely handsome. No – more than that, he was stunning.
She peered back into his mouth
and was also taken at how perfectly straight his teeth were. Lilliana had always been a sucker for a nice set of chompers and she couldn’t help but comment on them.
“Did you have orthodontia?”
Tucker shook his head
with an air of complete unconcern.
“
Really
? You have the most amazing molars I’ve ever seen,” she responded dreamily as she gazed into his exposed mouth.
***
Tucker had never heard something so medical sound so oddly sexual
.
Who was this feisty female behind the mask? He scanned her face trying to make out her features, but all that could be seen were her bright hazel eyes hidden behind sweeping lashes.
Tucker’s
eyebrows went up when their eyes met and his expression held a note of mischievousness as an ember of sexual attraction sparked between them. One corner of his mouth twisted upward in a mocking smile when he saw her cheeks warm.
Lilliana took in a deep breath and looked away quickly. She s
huffled the dental equipment anxiously and cleaned and suctioned his mouth again.
“You seem a little old to be involved in schoolyard fights, Mr. McGrath,” she stated flatly
without making direct eye contact.
Lilliana’s imperviousness was slightly amusing if not unnerving.
Most women cowered or swooned in his presence, but this woman did neither. Tucker started to mumble something back, but the dentist arrived and cut him off. Lilliana stood to speak with the dentist and Tucker craned his head to the side to try and get a better look at the shrouded female. He found her quite intriguing and could see that despite her wearing an oversized isolation gown, she was quite shapely by her silhouette. She looked to be a little shorter than his ex-fiancé, or around 5’4”ish.
Lilliana kep
t glancing at Tucker time and time again as his eyes moved up and down her veiled body. When Tucker realized he had been caught mentally undressing her, he winked and attempted to smile. A fleeting look of irritation crossed her face and she rolled her eyes, turning her back to Tucker while she and the dentist continued their conversation.
Damn that gow
n.
Tucker wanted nothing more than to get a good look at her ass. He could deal with a boring personality, in fact, he had on many occasions, but having an unattractive ass was a deal-breaker for him. It must be round, firm and bounce in time to each of his thrusts or else there was just no hope for things to work out. He tried to envision what was hidden behind the throw-away gown and wondered what kind of mystique her ass held.
He wondered
, too, if she was married. He didn’t need another ass whooping like the one he had just received.
A
tall blond-haired assistant moved in next to Tucker and attempted to strike up a polite conversation with him. By her body language, it was obvious to Tucker that she was interested in him, though she seemed a little juvenile for his tastes. He had already had his share of pretty young things and they turned out to be more trouble than they were worth, in his opinion. His second wife was proof of that. As for his
almost
third wife, well, Tucker didn’t want to think about her right now.
The pain in his jaw was throbbing and so was the ache in his groin
from gaping at the hygienist as he tried to picture what the hazel-eyed temptress looked like au natural.
If she liked his molars, she should see his di
…
Tucker’s lascivious thoughts were interrupted when the tall man wearing a white coat approached and sat next to him. He didn’t pay much attention to what the dentist was saying because he was too busy concentrating on Lilliana as she hovered over the dentist’s shoulder.
“I
t would do you well to pay attention to what Dr. York is telling you, Mr. McGrath,” Lilliana chastised when she, again, caught him eye fucking her.
That
woman was something else. Any other time or situation, he would’ve taken her into a private room, bent her over his knee and showed her just who was in charge and what would do
her
well. Yes, that’s what she needed – a good bit of discipline.
After receiving x-rays, getting a mino
r patch up on his cracked molars and packing for his cut and swollen gums, Tucker was finally released from the dental office. To his dismay, the femme fatale in desperate need of a spanking was nowhere to be found.
When he was picked up by his business partner, he caught
a glimpse of himself in the mirror and was horrified at his own reflection. He had a black eye, a swollen jaw and his hair and clothes were a wreck. It was no wonder the hygienist hadn’t shown any interest in him; he wasn’t on his best game.
“I have go
od news,” Marco told him.
“What? That douche
nozzle who punched me is in jail?” Tucker snorted sarcastically.
“No, but he will be just as soon as you file a police report about the incident.
Just a word of advice: The next time you decide to sleep with a woman, you should probably make sure she’s not married first.”
“Where
’s the fun in that?” Tucker countered as he continued to look in the mirror and inspect the damage done by the jealous husband. “So what’s the good news?”
“I have the information on that property you’ve been interested in
on the edge of town. It turns out the owner died recently and her niece is now the sole owner.”
“No shit? That is good news. Maybe the niece will be more reasonable. That stubborn old woman wouldn’t even consider talking to me about selling her land. What’s her name and where’s she from?”
“Lilliana Norris. She’s from the Midwest somewhere but she’s relocated here recently.”
“For what? Fuck. I hope she’s not planning on taking up permanent residency in that house. I need to talk to her right away. Get me her number. No. Fuck that. I’ll
get changed and pay her a visit myself. I prefer to do business face-to-face anyway.”
Looking over the rims of his glasses, Marco raised his eyebrows
and smiled ironically, “Yes, I can see that.”