by C. L. Parker
Dominic gave him a blank stare and turned to Kerrigan who merely raised an eyebrow at him. “No, Gabe…it probably wouldn’t kill him. Dominic’s the master of tease. Aren’t you, Dominic?” she said with a smirk on her lips. “He never follows through with anything, always running away the second things start to get a little…hard to deal with.”
He smirked back at her and nodded his head. “Okay, okay.” Then, without warning, he sprang forward, scooped her up, threw her over his shoulder, and took off running down the beach with her.
“Put me down!” Kerrigan shrieked through her laughter as she swatted his butt.
“Uh-uh. No way. You have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to do this to you. Only, my bedroom would be my destination of choice under the other circumstances.”
“Dominic, all the blood is rushing to my head,” she laughed. “Please put me down.”
He stood her on her feet with a disgruntled huff, but wouldn’t release his hold on her. Instead, he pulled her into his chest until her body was flush with his.
“Kiss me.” His voice was gentle, yet assertive.
“No, you’re being mean to me. I don’t feel like kissing you,” she pouted, straightening her clothes.
“Fine then,” he said nonchalantly as he started walking backward toward the bonfire. “There just happens to be another woman over there that was eyeing me like a fat kid staring down the Christmas pie. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind giving me a kiss.”
He turned away from her and kept walking toward the party. Kerrigan ran to catch up with him and launched herself onto his back. Dominic caught her though. He would always catch her.
“Oh, I don’t think that’s going to happen, Mr. Grayson.” She giggled and bit his earlobe. Her sweet laughter was so infectious that Dominic couldn’t help but laugh along. He hiked her up on his back to a more comfortable position.
“Well, well, well…I thought that car looked familiar,” a woman walking toward them crooned. “How’s it going, lover?”
Dominic stopped dead in his tracks. It wasn’t until he felt Kerrigan shift again that he loosened his grip on her legs and allowed her to slide down his back. He kept her there with one arm still around her back in a protective stance.
“Sinclair,” he greeted her in a less than friendly voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh come now, Dominic. Is that any way to treat your girlfriend?”
“Dominic? What’s she talking about? Who is this?”
“So, this is the plaything that’s been monopolizing all your time during the day?” Sinclair’s words suggested she knew exactly what he had been doing at night.
“Dominic?” Kerrigan asked again, growing more confused and frustrated.
Dominic couldn’t answer her because he didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t very well tell Kerrigan that Sinclair was the woman who attempted to steal his soul so his dead father could inhabit his body. And he couldn’t tell her the residual effect of her failed attempt had left him in an apparitional state at night while she thought he was at work. He couldn’t tell her everything she thought him to be was a lie.
How could he be stupid enough to be in public – in his car no less? Deep down, this had always been his fear. Being with Kerrigan made it easy to let his guard down. He was going soft. Nothing like the hardcore man of the streets he had been before this whole situation happened.
Sinclair’s attention drifted from Dominic’s stale face to Kerrigan, and she smiled with a fake sweetness. “Hi, I’m Sinclair, Dominic’s girlfriend.” She offered an outstretched hand toward Kerrigan who was still being shielded by Dominic’s body.
“Don’t you dare touch her!” Dominic seethed, pushing Kerrigan further behind him.
“Well, that’s just rude,” Sinclair said, still trying to play the sweet girlfriend. “I haven’t ever minded your extra-curricular activities, and you know that. I think I at least have the right to be able to meet the other woman. Wouldn’t you agree…Kerrigan?”
Dominic’s face blanched. Sinclair knew her name. His mind swarmed with thoughts of what that could mean. Had she known where he was all along? Was she watching him? He knew he hadn’t seen her anywhere, but she would probably have someone else do her bidding for her. While he was sorting out the possibilities, Sinclair continued to spew lies.
“I’m willing to share,” she continued. “She can have you during the day as long as you continue to come to my bed every night.”
She turned toward Kerrigan again. “That okay with you? I mean, as long as you don’t wear him out so much that he can’t perform for me. I know he’s got a lot of stamina, but even the most virile of men can only take so much before they…”
“Stop it!” Dominic yelled, breaking his silence. The muscles in his jaw tensed, and the green of his eyes darkened with hatred.
Kerrigan flinched, startled by the boom of his voice. He looked back at her to make sure that she was okay. When he saw the hurt in her eyes, he felt ill. She believed the lies that Sinclair had carefully orchestrated.
Sinclair gave a self-confident giggle, drawing his attention back to her. Her expression was smug. She knew the damage she had caused and was beyond proud of herself. The urge to reach out and grab her by the throat to choke the life out of her was overwhelming. If he didn’t get himself and Kerrigan out of there, the urge would win. Kerrigan didn’t need to see that side of him.
“Come on, we’re leaving.” He pulled a stunned Kerrigan into his side and walked them around Sinclair, keeping a wary eye on her.
Dominic pointed at Sinclair. “You stay away from her. Do you hear me? You stay away from her!”
When they were almost back to the bonfire, Kerrigan pulled out of his grasp and started to walk away without a word.
“Querida,” Dominic started, grabbing her elbow.
“Don’t touch me!” she yelled, yanking away from him again.
He had a pleading look in his eyes when she looked back at him, but she couldn’t feel sorry for him. He had been making a fool out of her all along. The time they had spent together, the feelings she thought they shared, it had all been a lie. She was the only one feeling those things. He was feeling up some floozy every night while telling her he was working.
Anger flared like a raging inferno in the pit of her stomach. She thought back on all the ways men had shoved her around and made her feel inferior. The way her father always coddled her as if she couldn’t take care of herself, how Jackson tried to control her and use her as his own personal piggy bank. But worst of all, the way Dominic made her fall for the lie. She blamed herself for being so naïve, but he took advantage of her innocence. And he was there, an easy target for her frustrations.
She ran at him, shoving him hard in the chest and knocking him off balance. He took one step back before he righted himself, but he didn’t push back. He just stretched his arms out to her in an effort to pull her to him.
She threw her hands up and backed away, her chest heaving as quiet tears slipped down her cheek.
“It was a lie,” he said in a soft voice.
“Obviously.” She turned and walked away.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.” She kept walking in the direction of their friends.
“Wait up. I’ll take you.” He picked up his pace to catch up to her.
She spun around on him. They were close enough to the party that their friends were able to see and hear everything between them. When the girls saw her crying, they shot daggers at Dominic, instantly launching into man-hater mode. Even the strangers in attendance stopped dancing and chatting amongst themselves to watch the scene unfold.
“I’m not going anywhere with you. Sydney will take me home. Won’t you, Syd?”
“Of course, sweetie,” Sydney answered. She, Olivia, and Gabe started gathering up their things.
“Querida…”
“Don’t, Dominic. Just…don’t.” She bent over to pick up Millie and started walking toward
the parking lot. Gabe shot Dominic a disapproving scowl and saddled up beside his best friend. Putting his arm over her shoulders, he curled her into his side to give her comfort as she cried.
Dominic should have been the one to do that. But, he was the one she was running from. All because of Sinclair. Over a year had passed since she had first wreaked havoc on his life. When he finally found someone who made him feel like life was worth living again, she took that away, too.
His hatred of the woman he once thought he loved boiled over in his veins, and he turned to charge at her down the beach. Only she was no longer there. The pitch blackness of the night stared back at him ominously. He heard that unmistakable croaking sound, and his head whipped around to face it head on. A black shadow flew overhead, blocking out the faint light from the moon. Bright orange eyes peered back at him as the raven swooped low, causing him to duck. He could have sworn he heard it laugh as it gained altitude once again and flew off into the darkness.
Dominic didn’t even stop to talk to Talon or Tyson before he sprinted for his car and peeled out of the parking lot. Once he made it home, he ran inside, finding it quiet. He checked all the doors and windows to be sure they were secure, fearing Sinclair and her coven might try something stupid. Then he made his way to Kerrigan’s room. He could tell the light was on from the crack under the door, but when he knocked and called out her name, there was no answer.
“Kerrigan, please!” he yelled through the door.
“Go away, Dominic!”
“You don’t have to talk to me right now, Kerrigan,” he said, exasperated. “Just…just make sure you shut and lock your balcony door and all the windows in your room. Please?”
He was met with silence again. He had no choice but to give up. Relenting, he went back to his room where he was forced to wait until midnight before he could sneak into her room and keep watch over her without her knowing.
It was times like this his music had been the most comfort in the past, so he picked up his guitar and lit a cigarette before climbing out his window. He sat on the floor of his balcony and stuck the filter of his cigarette between his lips, giving him use of both hands. Removing the pearl-blue pick that was wedged under the strings on the neck of the guitar, he leaned his back against the wall and strummed a song he knew by heart.
Kerrigan heard the hum of Dominic’s guitar as he sang a song she recognized. Ray Lamontagne’s Let It Be Me. She stepped out onto her balcony as well, careful not to let the screen door slam and alert him to her presence. She was still beyond upset with him. She trusted him, and he let her down. He was a stranger that her grandmother had opened her home to, and she had allowed him to stay because Grammy had asked her to. But, it never had to be more than that. She’s the one who let herself believe that there was something more between them. A sense of obligation to her grandmother was what made him stay there to help develop her gift, and perhaps he thought a little kiss here and there made it somewhat less boring.
But to go to another woman’s bed every night while she was pining away for him in his?
Her emotions got the better of her again, and she wished rain would pour down from the sky and drown his two-timing butt. Hearing and granting her wish, the clouds opened up with a downpour.
A devilish grin spread across her face. She was getting really good at using her gift.
Dominic didn’t even have it in him to care that a sudden burst of rain came out of nowhere and was now drowning him. He tilted his head toward the sky. Beads of water bounced off his chiseled face. He closed his eyes and just breathed. It was Kerrigan’s doing. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he just did. The rain even smelled like her.
He sat there like that until midnight came and went. The soft pelts of the rain consumed his senses, and he hadn’t even realized he had transformed. She did it to lash out at him, but in truth, he felt refreshed.
He got up and took his guitar inside, propping it against the stereo in hopes that it wasn’t ruined. Kerrigan would be there soon, ready to fall asleep in his bed. So he made his way over to the futon to wait for her to come to his room.
But Kerrigan didn’t go to his room that night. And, she wasn’t there the next night either.
For over a week Kerrigan hadn’t uttered so much as a word to Dominic that wasn’t necessary. There were lots of times that Dominic felt the hair on the back of his neck stand straight up, and when he turned around to inspect the room, he had always found her staring daggers at him. Long gone were those moments of stolen glances where her lips curled into a half smirk and her thick lashes gently swept the delicate skin just beneath those azure eyes.
He missed her.
He missed the sound of her voice, the way she hummed while she washed dishes, or laughed at Gabe’s flamboyant antics. He missed the softness of her skin under his fingertips, the shudder that ran through his body when she brushed past him, the way her lips felt pressed to his, her taste, the raw passion that burned in her eyes whenever she looked at him. She took it all away from him. But ever present, was her scent. That never left, and it only served to remind him of what he craved, but could never have.
What he wanted was miles away, even though she was in the same damn house.
He had to talk to her. Make her listen to him. She needed to know that Sinclair was no longer a part of his life and never really was to begin with. And he most certainly wasn’t making love to her every night as she had alluded. Even if the truth about what he was sickened her, and she wanted nothing further to do with him, she needed to know. It wasn’t like it would make things much worse anyway. Maybe just solidify the fact that she had good cause to be disgusted with him.
Kerrigan was in the kitchen with Gabe when Dominic summoned the courage to approach her. She was taking everything out of the cupboards and wiping down the shelves. She had been cleaning a lot over the past few days. It was her way of keeping busy. Lord knows she was using every excuse known to man to avoid him. But enough was enough.
The radio blared rap music, making Dominic cringe. He hated rap music. Well, not all of it. There were some pretty powerful rap songs out there, but the ones where the rappers just went on and on about bitches and hos and booties dropping to the floor – he despised those. Why those douchebags thought that stuff appealed to women was beyond him. It was degrading, and any woman who thought otherwise, lacked any real self-respect.
Gabe was in the middle of dropping it like it was hot when Dominic cleared his throat to get their attention. The music was so loud that neither Kerrigan nor Gabe turned to look at him. So, Dominic walked over to the radio and turned it off.
Kerrigan’s head snapped toward him, and she glared once again, eliciting a sigh from Dominic. This wasn’t going to be pretty.
“Um, I was mid booty pop,” Gabe said, looking at Dominic over his shoulder with his butt stuck out.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Gabe, but I need to speak with Kerrigan for a moment if you don’t mind.” Dominic kept his eyes locked with Kerrigan’s to gauge her reaction.
She rolled her eyes and smacked her lips before turning her attention back to the cupboard.
“I don’t mind at all.” Gabe took a seat at the kitchen table and placed his chin in his hand. He leaned forward, getting comfortable for the show.
“Alone, please?”
“Well, I never,” Gabe feigned insult.
“I find that very hard to believe,” Dominic shot back. He smiled and winked at Gabe to make up for the playful insult. “Please?”
“Take your shirt off and give me a little hip thrust while licking your lips, and I’ll consider it. After all, it’s the least you can do for upsetting my boo-boo,” Gabe bargained, only to be met with a warning look from Dominic and an amused giggle from Kerrigan. “Too much?”
“Too much,” Dominic answered.
“Fine then, party pooper. Tehehe,” he laughed, covering his mouth daintily. “That’s funny because I usually love a party in my pooper. Complete with confe
tti and neon paint…”
“Gabe!” Dominic interrupted, stopping him from going any further.
Gabe stood and grabbed his Bubbletini with a disgruntled huff. “Fine. I just wanted the visual for my alone time, but it’s cool. I’m going over to Syd and Livi’s. Later, bitches.” He snapped his fingers with an air of dismissal and sashayed out of the room, leaving Dominic and Kerrigan alone.
Kerrigan hopped down from the counter where she was perched and threw her towel on the sink, but it slid off and landed on the floor. She ignored it and stomped over to the radio, turning it back on with an exaggerated motion.
“Kerrigan, we need to talk.”
Kerrigan looked at him and, without breaking eye contact, turned the music up as loud as it would go. Then she turned her back on him and walked away. Dominic tried not to be distracted by the tiny shorts she was wearing and how the cheeks of her ass were hanging out of them. When she bent over to pick up the towel, all bets were off.
She was wearing a goddamn thong.
“Are you going to talk or just stand there ogling my ass all day?” Kerrigan asked without even turning to look at him. She must have had eyes in the back of her head, or maybe, just maybe Dominic was literally able to caress her with his eyes alone.
“Can I at least turn the radio down so that we’re not shouting over it?”
“Knock yourself out, but I have a feeling we’re going to end up shouting anyway,” she said as she turned to face him with her arms crossed over her chest.
He turned the volume down to an acceptable level. “That may be true, but at least it will be more effective if the radio isn’t blaring.”
Kerrigan grabbed a bottle of beer from the refrigerator and offered it to him. Dominic took it, knowing he was going to need something to still his nerves, and waited while Kerrigan grabbed one for herself. He loved that she drank beer straight from the bottle instead of pouring it into a glass or mixing up one of those fruity drinks with an umbrella sticking out of it.
