by C. L. Parker
Kerrigan’s eyes closed, her head falling back to expose more of her creamy flesh as she craned her neck. She felt his nose graze against the sensitive flesh there, traveling up the length of her neck until he reached her jaw and continued to move excruciatingly slower toward her mouth. His cold breath came in waves, cooling her emblazoned skin. All the signs were there. He was going to kiss her. His lips barely brushed against hers, and she sucked in a stuttering breath in anticipation of the contact she desired.
Just as he was about to give it to her, a knock sounded on the screen door at the front of the house. “Hello? Anybody home?”
“Kerrigan?” a different voice called out.
Kerrigan’s eyes shot open in surprise. Dominic groaned in aggravation because the moment was lost. His hold around her waist loosened, and he straightened to his full height, mentally kicking himself for what he had almost done. Kerrigan reluctantly let her arm fall from around his neck and took a step back. Her eyes ghosted over his collarbone until they landed on the scar once more.
When Dominic’s shoulders rose and fell with a sigh, her attention was diverted back to his eyes. His gaze captured and held her attention, and she momentarily forgot about the voices and the knocks still sounding relentlessly from the front door.
“You have visitors, guardián de mi alma.” Dominic’s voice was low and husky. A seductive smile crept up on his face.
She gasped and her eyes widened in surprise as she backed into the counter. It was the same voice from her dreams, the same words. It was him.
Everything her grandmother had told her the night before came rushing back like the floodgates to her memories had been opened to allow them to flow unabated. She was drowning in a sea of realization, and found it increasingly harder to stay afloat.
“What did you just say?”
“I said, ‘you have visitors.’ Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
She closed and opened her mouth like a fish out of water, trying to think of what to say.
“Who’s burning bacon?” Gabe asked as he sashayed into the kitchen with his nose crinkled. “And, why are ya’ll being rude, not answering the door and shit?”
“Dammit!” Dominic rushed over to the stove to remove the skillet from the flame.
“Ahem.” A throat cleared from behind Gabe.
Gabe moved to the side, revealing a girl. She was small in stature and had short, black hair with chunks of navy blue woven throughout. Her eyes were wide and brown, lined in coal black makeup that made them stand out from her pale skin and deep red lips.
Just behind her stood a taller girl with thick, strawberry-blonde hair. It was pulled back into a high ponytail and her face was free of makeup, but her nose was speckled with a few freckles across the bridge. A familiar smile graced her lips as she looked at Kerrigan.
“Syd!? Livi!?” Kerrigan screamed in surprise.
She ran into the waiting arms of her two oldest and dearest friends. All three of the girls squealed and started bouncing up and down, excited to be reunited. Not wanting to feel left out, Gabe joined in on the celebration as well, even though he didn’t know either one of them.
“What are you doing here?” Kerrigan asked as she pulled back from them.
“We heard the neighborhood was going to Hell in a hand basket, so we knew that meant you were back,” Sydney joked.
Sydney was super model gorgeous, but she had no clue. Really, she just didn’t care. She had always been the tomboy of the trio: climbing trees, catching toads and bugs. She never backed down from a dare, but she never missed a chance to issue one either.
“So, Livi…this look is different. What gives?” Kerrigan fingered a navy blue strand of hair.
“She’s trying out the Goth look,” Sydney answered for her. “Seriously, I don’t care what persona she adopts, I just wish she’d pick one and stick with it already. Cybil’s been on this one for about two months now, but before that she was on a valley girl kick. Like ohmigod. Gag me with a rusted credit card,” Sydney mocked the accent and then rolled her eyes. “I almost did just that.”
“Shut it, Syd.” Olivia’s eyes narrowed playfully at her friend. Then she turned back to Kerrigan, her scowl replaced by a somber frown. “Oh, Kerr, we’re so sorry to hear about Grams.”
“Thanks, but you know Grammy. She would say that everything happens for a reason.” A coy smile tugged at Kerrigan’s lips before she looked in Dominic’s direction, an action that wasn’t at all as inconspicuous as she thought it was.
Gabe, Olivia, and Sydney followed her line of sight toward Dominic, noticing the look he was exchanging with Kerrigan. He suddenly felt very naked, which was apt since all four of them were definitely undressing him with their eyes. Olivia may have even audibly hummed in appreciation.
“Um, I’m just going to go upstairs and get dressed,” he said uncomfortably, wanting to put as many layers as he could on.
“Nah, baby, you ain’t gotta’ cover up all that sexiness on our account,” Gabe said, taking a seat at the kitchen table and crossing his waxed legs elegantly. That’s right, waxed. He picked up a banana and peeled the skin back before shoving the end in his mouth suggestively and taking an exaggerated bite.
“Kerrigan, you’re being rude. Aren’t you going to introduce us to your friends?” Olivia asked.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Sydney Rayburn, Olivia Cochran…meet Gabriel Baxter.”
“It’s just Gabe. And before you ask, yes, I am this damn pretty,” he said with an air of boredom as he waved a limp hand in the air.
“And this is Dominic Grayson,” Kerrigan said, motioning to him as well. “Sydney and Olivia have been friends of mine for as long as I can remember. In fact, Livi used to live across the street, and Syd lived right next door.”
“Still do,” Sydney said, joining Gabe at the table. “Livi lives with me now. Her parents sold their house and moved to Hawaii with my parents to enjoy their retirement, which is the reason we weren’t at Availia’s funeral. We were helping them get settled in, and we only just got back. You know we would have been there if we had known.”
“I know. Don’t think twice about it,” Kerrigan said. “Hawaii, huh? I always thought Florida was the retirement capital of the world.”
Olivia laughed. “Yeah, well I guess when you already live here the retirement capital of the world becomes Waikiki.”
“It was nice to meet you ladies, but I really should go get a shower and get this mustard cleaned off,” Dominic said, before making a hasty retreat.
“Mmhmm, and maybe Kerr should join you. I mean, since she looks like she got into a fight with a ham sandwich,” Sydney called after him. She shot Kerrigan a questioning look. “You’ve got mustard all over the front of your shirt, you little slut.”
“Shut up, bitch. I’ll be right back,” she said, and then hurried after Dominic.
The man was fast. By the time she caught up to him, he was already on the second floor, about to take the first step on the staircase to his room.
“Hey,” she said, stopping him. “Guardián de mi alma…what does that mean?” she asked, out of breath from taking two steps at a time.
“You’re of Spanish descent, and you can’t even speak the language?”
“My ancestors came from Spain like a gazillion years ago. My lineage has been watered down a lot. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m just as white as you. Tell me what it means.”
Dominic sighed in frustration. “It’s nothing, just a common term of endearment. You were being nice to me with the burn and all, so I tried to return the sentiment.”
“What does it mean?” she persisted.
“Loosely translated, it means guardian of my soul,” he answered and then started back up the stairs. He hadn’t wanted to tell her what it meant, but it was his fault for letting it slip in the first place.
“Wait! About that back there…”
Dominic turned around to face her. “About what?”
“You were g
oing to…kiss me.” All of a sudden she felt really stupid because maybe he wasn’t and she had just made a total fool of herself for making the assumption.
He stepped down off the stairs and walked over to her with purpose. One strong arm gathered her body into his as he leaned down to whisper into her ear. “I wasn’t going to kiss you, silly girl. I was going to ravish you.”
His cold breath blew across her flushed skin and made her tingle all over, the moment from the kitchen revived once again.
“Would you have let me?” His lips grazed the shell of her ear just before he flicked his tongue out and ran the tip under her earlobe to taste her. He smiled to himself when he felt her shiver in response.
He was toying with her like she was some kind of play thing. Kerrigan had no idea how he was able to make her melt with just a simple touch, but she certainly had no intention of letting him know the effect he had on her. She needed to maintain some sort of control. And so she managed to gather enough strength to shake her head back and forth.
“No?” Dominic’s raspy voice asked her with an amused chuckle.
“No,” Kerrigan answered more confidently, even though she didn’t even believe herself. He probably saw right through the lie, but he wouldn’t get an admission of the truth from her.
“Hmm, that’s interesting.” He moved his head until his lips were hovering just over hers. She closed her eyes and breathed him in. Her heart rate accelerated from his closeness, but she stood her ground. “The beat of your heart seems to indicate something entirely different.”
Kerrigan silently cursed her body for its betrayal. It was becoming more impossible to deny the attraction she held for him. His body sang to hers, an erotic composition of desire vibrating through every fiber of her being. She wanted to get lost in the alluring crescendos of each breath he took, and float like a feather on each exhalation he released. Physically, she was lost, completely at his mercy. But mentally, she still had control over a small part of her brain, and she fought hard to regain power over the rest of her body as well.
“Mmm, you’re fighting it, Querida,” he whispered against her lips, elated by the way her body trembled against his. “But your body is aching for my touch, for my kiss, for my…” Although he didn’t say the last word, the way he rolled his hips against hers, left no room to question his meaning.
His breathy words washed over her skin, and his obvious arousal created a gush of warmth to her center. She mewled a little at the contact and licked her bottom lip in anticipation of more. A low rumble escaped Dominic’s chest at the visual. He had to bite his bottom lip in an effort to stop himself from claiming her mouth with his own to taste her.
He was just as affected by their closeness. He knew it was wrong. He shouldn’t have been teasing her. It was torturous not only to her, but to himself as well. If he didn’t stop, he wouldn’t be able to keep from throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her up to his room to have his wicked way with her.
A desperate grunt left his throat. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me.” He rolled his hips against hers one last time before he released her, his breathing just as heavy as Kerrigan’s. “I would gladly give you everything your body desires, but it would be wrong. So very wrong.”
The gentle hum that had been reverberating between their bodies was suddenly gone. Kerrigan opened her eyes to find Dominic’s retreating form on the staircase, the familiar creaks of the wood replacing the sound of her own heart beat in her ears.
The rest of the day was spent catching up with her old friends. It was as if there had never been any time or distance between them. Gabe seemed so comfortable around Sydney and Olivia that if Kerrigan hadn’t known better, she would have believed Gabe had always been in the picture as well. Dominic only reappeared for brief periods of time to get a fresh beer or a glass of iced tea, but for the most part, he kept to himself in his bedroom.
Kerrigan and her friends discussed him at length. She found it odd that they knew nothing about him when they seemed to know everyone else in town. She came clean to her friends about the few close encounters the two of them had and her frustration over the lack of further development. Gabe called her a chickenshit because she hadn’t raped the man, and Sydney called her a whore because she was so quick to want a romp in the sack with him. Sydney had, of course, been joking. Gabe had not. But even Kerrigan had to admit that it wasn’t really logical to want something with someone she not only didn’t know, but had only met a week before.
Primal physical urges. That was the only explanation her scrambled mind could come up with.
Kerrigan insisted the girls invite their boyfriends, Talon and Tyson Swail, over for dinner so that she and Gabe could meet and get to know them. Her only trepidation was that they might be huge homophobes and mistreat her best friend. But she knew Olivia and Sydney better than to think they would be dating a couple of jackasses.
The guys arrived later that afternoon after work. At least that’s what they called it. They were both avid beach bums – their self-appointed titles – and ran their own water sports rental kiosk down by the shore. They were identical twins, well, mostly identical.
Talon, Sydney’s boyfriend, had curly blonde hair, gray eyes, light facial hair, and a single dimple in his right cheek. Tyson had straight hair, a clean-shaven face, and a single dimple in his left cheek. Of course, spending a lot of time on the beach meant they were perfectly tanned.
Talon was about an inch taller and had that surfer body build, which was fitting because they were avid surfers. Tyson looked more like a linebacker, but was goofy as hell and that made him a little less intimidating. Gabe was salivating at the mouth with his unabashed appreciation of their physiques, but they just laughed it off as if it didn’t bother them at all.
After a trip to the grocery store, the gang had decided to grill burgers and hot dogs because it was a quick fix. Kerrigan and Gabe were in the kitchen preparing the burgers for the grill and making up some potato salad. The others were hanging out in the back yard, drinking beer and acting like they were still in high school.
“I dreamed about her again…last night,” she told Gabe, loud enough for only him to hear. No way did she want any of the others to know how crazy she really was.
Gabe sighed and pulled the meat out of the packaging. “Sweetie, it’s probably just because you’re still in mourning and missing her. I can’t imagine being in this house is helping much either.”
“But it felt so real. She told me all this stuff about destiny and fate and some weird sort of ability that I have…and Dominic. She talked about me and Dominic. And I think he was there, too.”
“Girl, even I have been having dreams about that scrumptiousness. He’s a fine piece of Mm-Mm-Mmm with a side of Oh-My-Gawd! Dreaming about him doesn’t make you crazy. It makes you human.
Hey, check this out,” he said, changing the subject.
When she turned around, she saw that he had taken two hamburger patties and placed them side by side, creating the illusion of an ass with a prominent crack. The disturbing part was that he had also tunneled two holes in the crack and had stuffed them with hotdogs.
Kerrigan couldn’t help her snort of laughter. “You’re a sick bitch,” she said, shaking her head.
“Double penetration ain’t nothing to snub your nose at, Kerr Bear. I’ve been trying to tell you that’s what you need, but you’re just too Little House on the Prairie to listen to me.”
“Oh really?” she asked. “See, normally you’re telling me I need to take the stick out of my butt. Now you’re telling me to put it in?”
“Now who’s sick?” Gabe asked, crinkling his nose up. “Didn’t nobody say nothing about putting a stick in your butt, nasty. Take out the damn stick and sit on a dick. Just try it, you might actually like it.”
Kerrigan washed her hands off, laughing the entire time. She had heard of people using double negatives, but left up to Gabe, he would most assuredly find a way to triple it.
/> Gabe smacked the ground beef butt sculpture while he sang Akon’s Smack That, obviously enjoying his molestation of it and in no hurry to dismantle his creation. Kerrigan went over and shoved him out of the way and grabbed the hotdogs to remove them. Before she could finish the task, Dominic walked into the room and looked in her direction, catching her in quite the precarious position.
“Wow,” he said, pausing with his hand on the refrigerator handle. “Something you’re interested in there, perv?” he asked her with a smirk on his face and one eyebrow arched.
His laugh was throaty and melodic, and made Kerrigan’s heart thump in her chest. Her mind was racing, trying to come up with an explanation. The only thing she could think about was how she was going to hurt Gabe for making her look like an idiot in front of the only man who had ever made her body feel sinful things. In an effort to save her from the awkward moment, Gabe spoke up. Which may, or may not, have been better for Kerrigan.
“Shit, that was all me, boo,” he boasted as Dominic reached inside the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. “I keep trying to tell her she needs to think outside the box and explore her sexuality a little bit, but she just won’t listen to me. I’m thinking maybe you might be able to help her expand her repertoire though.”
Really. She was going to kill him.
Kerrigan was so shocked and embarrassed she couldn’t say or do anything other than just gape at her best friend like he had lost his mind.
Dominic popped the top off his beer and walked over to where she stood to toss it in the trash can. As he reached around her, he got a suggestive tone in his voice and a look of lust on his face. “Hmm, maybe we should see what we can do about that.”
He loved messing with her and watching as she got all flustered. But, she turned the tables on him instead. “What, exactly, are you proposing, Grayson?” Kerrigan asked, snatching the beer from his hand and taking a drink.
Caught off guard, he fell silent. He hadn’t expected her to challenge him. He swore under his breath at his inability to come back with a witty retort.
