TNT, A Tommy and Tia Novella: The Dominator Series, Book 1.5

by DD Prince

  “Nope,” he refused, smirking.

  “Then… let me go to that beach and get my hair damp.” I tried to walk toward the sand from the path we were on.

  “Nope again,” he looped his arm around my waist and stopped me.

  I tried to playfully fight him off, but he subdued me like a pro.

  So, cum-hair it was. At least my hair didn’t look like Cameron Diaz in There’s Something About Mary. But, I knew it was there.

  We went for a late lunch.

  I found an elastic in my purse, thankfully and gave that chunk of my hair a rinse in the ladies’ room. He smirked when I was back at the table, knowing what I’d done.

  “You get permission to wash that out?”

  “Uh no. and if you think you’re taking your insanely possessive nature up another notch to that level, we’re gonna have a fight about it.”

  “With how our fights usually end, baby girl, you’re not exactly dissuading me here.”

  I rolled my eyes and pointed saucily at him.

  ***

  He teased me when I got out of breath climbing up the really tall lighthouse landmark at the end of the day, as the sun was setting. He’d kissed me breathless just before we started the climb and then, after I caught my breath at the top, he did it again while we looked out at the water and the horizon.

  That was where I informed him that the following day we were taking a sunset cruise after going for a couples’ massage.

  We did that (both with female masseurs, and I chose them. I chose an older motherly type for us both, rather than hot young women, and Tommy teased me for it) and we danced on the catamaran under the stars with a live band playing. It was incredible. He was a little drunk and looked absolutely carefree and didn’t take his eyes off me, except when he’d pull me super close and whisper dirty things in my ears, kissing behind them, or skating his lips across my throat.

  I was down for some extra-energetic fucking when we got back, but we danced so much and drank so much that it resulted in us being so exhausted that he passed out before getting his clothes off.

  He tried for morning sex the following day, but this was our last full day in Aruba, and I had plans which we were almost late for, so I fought him off with giggles and pleading, then dragged him out to meet the cab, which had been waiting for ten minutes already when we got out.

  We went to meet our charter for some deep-sea fishing. We both caught several fish, a few of them massive, and had an absolute blast all day out on that big boat. Tommy baited my hook each time, just like he’d done at the pond at his safehouse farm, despite the staff members on hand who were there to do that. I was a smitten kitten that he insisted it be him.

  His eyes were untroubled and he really seemed to be enjoying our time out there, which made me so happy inside.

  We ate dinner back in our villa that night, a meal consisting of the fish that we had caught, that the chef at the resort prepared for us, and served poolside, then we made sweet vanilla love with the windows open, a beautiful breeze in the air.

  I didn’t know if he slept as well as he should’ve the last few days in Aruba, but I didn’t get woken up by thrashing or wake up alone so I was thinking he was sleeping okay. This made me so happy.

  We were heading to Costa Rica to plan our wedding. He told me that his sisters, Sarah, and Lisa could help, but that it would mean it was small, just the Ferrano side of the family

  “If that’s all right?” he pushed again, when I’d already told him twice that it was perfect.

  “Absolutely,” I reassured.

  He again offered to fly in my foster parents.

  I declined. “They have foster kids, their own kids, Cal has a job. They can’t just up and fly here. It’s fine. Don’t worry.”

  “You want some of your girlfriends flown in?”

  I shook my head. “No, Tommy. You said you didn’t want anyone to know where we are from home.”

  “I don’t. If we fly them there, we fly somewhere else afterwards. No one can know where we are. No one but my family.”

  “Don’t worry. Your family is my family now. I’ll be good.”

  “Baby…”

  “All I need on my wedding day is my groom and a beautiful dress so I can knock your socks off. Honestly. That’s all I need. You… Tommy Ferrano… are all I need.”

  His hand was quickly in my hair and he used it to pull my mouth to his, crushing his lips against mine.

  Tommy

  On our way to the airport in Aruba, we stopped in a café to meet the guy I was getting our new identification from. This was just a middle man. Actually, there were two middle men. I was being cautious.

  I got Tia to choose aliases for us, Tommaso and Valentina Caruso. But when I got our marriage license, I got it in our real names, of course. Zero doubt she’s mine in my mind, but not gonna chance it with the law either.

  Costa Rica

  Tia

  The house Tommy rented us in Costa Rica? The stuff dream houses are made of.

  Private, on a stretch of sandy beach with a long dock (perfect for fishing. He’d ordered fishing rods.) and an outdoor area for grilling, campfires, and lounging. The house? Huge. And the roof had an in-ground pool and massive patio on top. I could not get over it. I wanted to live in this house forever.

  Within hours of arriving, gym equipment was delivered and set up on that rooftop.

  “A place to swim and box,” I mused. “Teach me boxing?”

  He smiled. “Sure.”

  “I’ll learn to kick yer ass,” I informed.

  “Be fun to watch you try.”

  I winked and as the workers had just left, I went to the kitchen to survey ingredients. He’d had the place fully stocked with food, too.

  This spot was beautiful; the house was huge for entertaining the family when they arrived, and the beach was a perfect spot to get married. I was thrilled.

  ***

  I woke up to thrashing beside me. I fumbled for a lamp, but then remembered we weren’t home. We also weren’t in Aruba. We were in Costa Rica and the master bedroom didn’t have tables or lamps on either side of the big bed.

  “Tommy?” I called.

  He let out a feral growling sound and mumbled something incoherent.

  I reached for him and he grabbed my wrist, hard. It was kind of crushing, actually.

  “Tommy!” I cried out.

  He growled. “Never. Fucking never.”

  I cried out again.

  His grip loosened. “Tia?”

  “Yeah. You have a bad dream? You okay?”

  He pulled me close. “Sorry, baby.”

  “We need lamps.”

  “Huh?”

  “Lamps. You would’ve seen it was me…”

  “The fuck you talking about?”

  “You grabbed my arm and hurt me because you di-didn’t see it was me because this room has no lamps.”

  He moved away and the light was then blinding me. He was standing by the doorway and had flicked the main switch on. This room was huge, luxurious, and clearly the lack of lamps was an oversight.

  He moved to me and lifted my hands. He looked at my wrist. It was going to bruise, for sure. It felt sprained.

  I didn’t want to make him feel worse.

  “It’s okay.” I fought a wince.

  He stormed out and was back a minute later, two lamps in his hands, cords dragging. “How many fuckin’ bedrooms in this joint? Every one of them but the master has lamps?” He slammed one, then the other on the floor on either side of the bed. He plugged one in on his side, then did the same over on my side. I sat there, wrist throbbing, but trying not to draw attention to it.

  “Hurts?” he asked.

  “It’ll be okay.”

  “Don’t lie to me. Your face tells me. Don’t keep the truth from me just because you think it’ll make me feel shit. I deserve to feel shit.”

  He stormed out again and then came back with a towel filled with ice. He sat beside me and put
it on my wrist, holding my hand on his lap.

  He was just in his boxer briefs.

  “The ice is gonna melt on you.”

  “Don’t give a fuck.” He flexed his jaw muscles, holding the ice on my wrist.

  “What are you dreaming of?” I whispered, hoping it wasn’t a mistake to ask again.

  “All sorts of ugly shit.”

  I leaned over and put my head against his arm as he continued holding the ice over my wrist.

  He craned his neck to kiss the top of my head.

  “It’ll pass,” he whispered.

  “Maybe you should… talk it out with someone.”

  He scoffed. “And what would that conversation sound like?”

  I decided to tread carefully. “It wouldn’t have to be a tell-all. I’m sure you could carefully disperse information in a way that might help you find…tools…”

  He sighed. “Never been into all that psychobabble, baby girl.”

  “It couldn’t hurt.”

  “I fuckin’ disagree with you there.”

  “Okay,” I conceded. “You can talk to me. You can tell me what’s on your mind. Maybe it’ll help to just vent.”

  “I’ll be good, Tia. Don’t worry.” He kissed my head again.

  I chewed my lip.

  We sat a minute in silence. The ice started to drip onto his legs.

  “My wrist feels numb enough,” I said. “Here. I’ll put that in the bathroom.” I took the damp towel from him and went into the ensuite and dumped the rest of the ice in the sink. I reached into the toiletries bag I hadn’t unpacked yet and found a bottle of ibuprofen, took two with some tap water, and used the facilities, then went back to bed. He was there, both lamps on, lying back and staring at the ceiling, looking pissed off, hands folded behind his head.

  I straddled him and leaned forward. His hands came down to land on my hips.

  “Better just get some sleep, okay, baby?”

  “Oh. Kay.” I rolled over onto my back and stretched to turn the lamp beside me off, then scooted closer to him. His arm went around me and my head rested on his chest. He lifted my hand and brought my wrist to his mouth. He kissed it.

  He left his lamp on and I eventually fell back to sleep.

  ***

  There are guns in this house. A lot of guns.

  We had a little spat when I tried to ask about them our third day here.

  “Just precautionary,” he told me.

  There were guns in the bedroom. There were guns in the kitchen. We had guns on the rooftop terrace. I did not like it one bit.

  “These are gonna have to be put away when all your nieces and nephews get here for the wedding!” I exclaimed in a panic.

  “Well, duh,” he said, like I was an idiot.

  I stomped to another room. He been working on my laptop a good chunk of the time since we’d been here and then had another one delivered, along with some of those guns. He’d also moved the nightstands from one of the spare rooms to our room.

  Day three and I was bored.

  “How about if we go to town and shop, and …”

  “Got shit to do,” he said without looking up. “Family will be here in a few days to drive you nuts. Enjoy the peace. Swim. Sun. Somethin’…” He trailed off with a dismissive wave that was kind of a “something away from me,” reference, even if he didn’t intend it.

  I felt dismissed and annoyed.

  Nevertheless, I went to the rooftop terrace and downloaded some new books on my tablet and a candy matching game to get my mind off stuff.

  He found me an hour and a half later up there, the two new fishing rods in his hand.

  “Wanna go take a few casts?” he asked.

  I chewed my lip. I was nursing a bit of a snit.

  His eyes sparkled as he looked at me.

  “Temper tantrum’s over, baby girl.”

  My snit evaporated.

  We fished and had a campfire. We found some pie irons in the boathouse so I made campfire pizza pockets in them and then giant smores.

  ***

  “No!”

  That was Tommy shouting in the middle of the night.

  I leaned over and fumbled in the dark until I got the light on.

  He was pinned to the bed, covered in sweat, as if some invisible force held him down. His neck muscles were bulging as his head was off to the right, a look of pain on his face. His head swung left, as if he’d been hit. His fists were clenched, arms tight with the muscles bunching as if he were restrained and fighting against bonds.

  “Tommy?” I called out, rubbing my eyes.

  He jackknifed straight up and was on his feet on the bed, looking bewildered, looking ready to do battle. I looked up at him from the little corner at the bottom of the bed where I’d scampered to.

  He stared at me a second, nostrils flaring, eyes wide, chest rising and falling. He was getting his bearings.

  “Baby?” I whispered. “You okay?”

  His breathing slowed. “Yeah.”

  He got down off the bed and headed to the bathroom. I fixed the bedding, which was mostly off, and turned out the light.

  He was heading out of the room.

  “Where you goin’?”

  “Hit the bag a bit. Sleep, baby.” He turned around, leaned over to kiss me and then he was gone.

  I blinked in the dark for a bit, chewing the inside of my cheek.

  The next afternoon, I overheard him on the phone.

  “Naw, Zack. It’s not that I think I need a head shrink… doin’ it for Tia. She’s on my ass a bit. You’re confident this guy’s trustworthy?”

  He was in a big room by the stairs on the second floor that he’d put his laptop in, to serve as his office.

  I kept going down the stairs, feeling immense relief. But that was short-lived, because for Tommy to be willing to talk to someone, he had to be in pretty bad mental shape. He wasn’t the sort of guy to go around spewing his feelings.

  He found me in the kitchen a few minutes later.

  “You heard that?”

  I gave him a tight smile. “Just a sentence or two.”

  He pulled me into his arms. “The last thing I need is to hurt you when I’m in the middle of a dream. Seein’ you last night, curled into a ball at the bottom of the bed brought back memories I didn’t like.”

  I tilted my head in confusion.

  “Vegas,” he said, his voice rough. “You sleepin’ at the bottom of the bed curled into a ball because you’re afraid of me.”

  “I didn’t go to sleep down there last night. I probably rolled down there when you jumped up. Out of reflex.”

  “Out of fear,” he snapped, his eyes fierce. “How’s your wrist?” His eyes moved down to my hands. He lifted my sore wrist.

  “Mostly better.” If I didn’t use it too much, but I didn’t say that.

  He grinded his teeth tight.

  “Maybe…” I mused and looked to his face for a reaction, “Maybe if we play some games, it’ll help you release some frustration, and…”

  He took a step back. I stopped speaking.

  We stared at one another. He clearly didn’t like that idea. My heart sank. His state of mind was worse than I thought.

  “Zack is sending me some information for a guy in the UK. He’ll do video appointments. I’ll give it a shot. See what he says. Ain’t taking sleeping pills or baring my soul or anything like that. Just wanna see if there are some things I can do to make sure I don’t hurt you in the middle of the night.”

  “I could sleep with a taser under my pillow. You get unruly… zap.”

  I shrugged.

  His face split into a smile. He moved towards me and put his hands to my jaw and held it while kissing me. My hands came up to rest on his chest.

  “Love you,” I whispered.

  “Love you, baby. No games right now. I’m not in the right frame of mind. Okay?”

  I nodded and snuggled against him.

  Tommy

  My initial chat with Ol
iver wasn’t too bad, but I can’t say the conversation did much. I used the fake name. I wore a ball cap and then blocked the camera two minutes in. Didn’t like being on the guy’s screen, not knowing who else was there.

  He didn’t balk about my blocking the camera, didn’t ask a whole lot of questions. Maybe that’s because I was on the offensive from the word hello. Told the guy I’d experienced some family trauma, lost my father recently, and was having dreams and waking up in a rage, didn’t want to hurt my girl. Told him my future was uncertain at the moment.

  He suggested journaling. I laughed. He shrugged, looking like he was rolling with it (I could still see him on screen), not offended. He asked what the dreams were about. I lied and said I didn’t remember.

  He didn’t get frustrated, seemed like a patient guy, so by the end of the video call, I said I’d write down the dreams if I remembered them, told him I’d think about what I wanted from my future, and we agreed to talk again a week later. I figured at the end of the call it was maybe a waste of time. I hadn’t fully decided.

  I found her on the rooftop terrace by the pool. She was playing a game on her tablet, sitting on a lounger, facing the water.

  “What ‘cha doin’?” I asked, lifting the back of the lounger into an upright position. “Scoot a bit.”

  She shimmied forward enough for me to climb in behind her.

  “Nothin’. Gonna watch the sunset.”

  “You didn’t invite me?”

  “Sorry.” She leaned back against me.

  The sky was turning orange and pink.

  She let out a happy purr sound as she squirmed back and tipped her head back to see me. I leaned forward enough to kiss the tip of her nose and then we stared ahead at the sky.

  “This place is amazing,” she said with a sigh. “I like watching the sun set with you.”

  “Mm,” I agreed and ran my hand down the front of her bikini-clad body (this one pink and white) sliding my fingers into the waistband.

  Her body jolted in surprise.

  “Stay still. Watch the sky,” I told her.

  And then I worked her clit with my fingers, feeling her breath quicken, her body tighten. I watched her toes curl down at the bottom of the lounger. She tried to reach back for my cock.