“You all look really happy.”
“We … we were.”
“How long ago was it?”
He nodded. “That photo was taken eleven years and eight months ago.” Reaching out, he took it from me, his eyes locked on the people in the frame.
“That’s pretty exact.”
“She died two days later.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. He said it so flatly, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. He finally forced himself to look away and put the photo down.
“I’m … I’m so sorry.”
He shrugged. “There’s nothing anyone can do about it now.”
I didn’t say anything else. I mean really, what else was there to say? I knew how hard it was to lose a friend.
“So, what did you have in mind for dinner?” I asked in a lame attempt to change the subject.
“Nothing fancy.” He turned away and headed for the kitchen. “Steak and baked potatoes. I hope that sounds good to you.”
“It sounds perfect.” I grinned, looking around the kitchen.
“I made some coleslaw to go along with it too.”
“Wait, you made some?”
“Well, yea. There’s no point in buying it when it’s so much cheaper to make.”
My eyes widened a little. “That is so cool. I’ve never had it actually homemade before.” He gave me a weak smile, but it was obvious that his mind was still on that girl in the photo. “Hey,” I reached out and grabbed his arm pulling him into a tight hug. “I don’t know what happened when she died, and I don’t expect you to tell me or anything but … well, I just wanted to let you know that I’m here if you ever need anything.”
“Thanks, Katie.”
“Call me Kat, everyone else does.”
His arms wrapped around me as he buried his face into the groove of my neck. “Thanks Kat,” he whispered against my skin. The pure heat of his breath made my heart race.
His hand slid up the curves of my body as he stepped away from me, his eyes locking on mine. Those gorgeous green eyes. The more I looked at them, I was sure I saw small flakes of gold there. Stepping closer to him without even realizing it, I stared up at those big green eyes, trying to look for any sign that this was about to lead to the kiss I wanted it to. His arms pulled away from me, and he forced his eyes shut. Letting out a deep breath, he turned his face away from me.
I was left standing there staring at him. His tattooed arms folded over his chest. I reached out and grabbed his hand, but he stepped away from me.
“I … it wouldn’t be fair to you,” he whispered so quietly I almost didn’t hear him.
“Maybe I don’t mind that.” My eyes narrowed. I was getting sick of this game.
His eyes snapped open as he stared at me. “But …”
“Look,” I cut him off. “Clearly you want to hang out with me. I’m a big girl, I get that some things might not work out, and I’m not saying that we have to get married and have two point five kids and go to family soccer nights. I’m just saying that maybe … we actually see where this goes.”
“I know where it will go.”
“Where?” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest. Why was he being so difficult about this? It was a simple matter of whether he wanted to hang out with me or not.
He didn’t say anything. Instead, he looked down at the ground. “I’m sorry. You’re right … it’s not like we’re getting married or anything and … I’m just …” He sighed. “I really have to stop telling you I’ve got a lot going on.”
“Yea, it’s getting kinda old.” My blunt response didn’t seem to hurt him. He smirked.
“Alright, let’s go get dinner on the barbeque.”
I followed him outside. The weather was gorgeous, and I couldn’t think of anything better than to sit out on the deck while he lit the barbeque and minutes later placed the steaks down on it. He made his way back inside and brought out two cold beers, handing me one.
“So, did you work today?”
“Yea.” He looked down at his hand before extending it out to me. The entire middle finger was covered in dried blood. “Oh wow.” I reached out and studied it. “What happened?”
“I got my finger stuck.”
“Are you okay? Shouldn’t you go to the doctor?”
“I probably should have, but I’m fine.” He shrugged it off as he took a sip of beer. “I’ve got to ask you something.”
“Okay.”
“You know things are crazy for me right now, and you know I’m a bit of a jerk who, as the past has shown us, might just get up and leave and not ever plan on coming back … so why do you even want to bother trying?”
“Because.” I paused, mulling it over. I hadn’t thought about it honestly. The answer had just been ‘because’ and that was good enough for me. “Because I want to. I want to get to know you. I … I like the person I think you are, and if I just give up now, I’ll never know.”
“And what if I’m not that person?”
“Then I’m not sure if I’ll like you or not, but I want to find out.”
I took a long sip of the beer as Dom processed my words. He smiled softly as he took a sip of his own beer, stood up and flipped the steaks.
He came back and sat down beside me. I reached out and took his free hand, and he glanced at me. A smile spread over his face as he squeezed my hand.
“Was she a friend?” I knew I was pushing my boundaries, but I still tried.
“Yes.”
“Was she more?”
“Are you jealous?”
“No, are you deflecting a question?”
He snorted. “She was just a friend.” He took a long swig of his beer. “We were 15 when … when that photo was taken. It was summer … we spent the entire thing together. She, Becky, was going through a rough time. Her parents were … well, she was staying with me, and she met this guy.” He stopped for a second to take another sip of beer, then shook the empty can and tossed it towards the garbage. “They’d been together for three months before she broke things off with him … he didn’t take it well at all.”
“I’m so sorry.” I had so many questions, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask them as I stared at Dom. I could see the tears welling up in the corner of his eyes. He looked away from me, but not before I saw one slide down his cheek.
His hand left mine as he stood up and checked the steaks. They must have been done because he grabbed a plate and put them on it, flicked off the barbeque and turned his attention to me. “I guess you could say she was more than a friend, but not in the way you’re asking. She was more like a sister to me than anything else.”
I got to my feet, and we made our way inside where he put a steak onto another plate, and I wandered over to the oven. Pulling out two baked potatoes, I carried them over to the plates. We each got one, and then I made my way to the fridge as he got us forks and knives. “The other three guys in the picture, do you still talk to them.”
“Yes. The one you met the other day.”
“I thought so!”
“The four of us get together often, just … to hang out. We lived together for a couple years too.” I felt like there was something more to that statement, but I wasn’t sure what it was. I shrugged it off. There was only so much prying I could do at a time without freaking him out, and I didn’t want to freak him out.
We each dressed the baked potatoes how we wanted them and then made our way back outside with fresh beers in our hands before sitting down at the table on the deck.
We ate in silence, carried our plates into the house and then strolled over to the couch. “So, that’s what it’s like to eat with you when you don’t just run away.” I teased with a grin.
“You’re going to hold that over my head forever, aren’t you?”
“Yup.” My grin widened.
He laughed softly as he shifted in his spot, moving a little closer to me. I took a deep breath of him. He still smelt like a garage. Like a working clas
s man. “Dinner was good by the way.”
“Thanks.”
He reached out, took my hand, studying it carefully and then raised it to his lips and placed a small kiss on the back of my hand. I looked down hoping to hide my blush, but I don’t think it helped much based on the way Dom’s grin widened. He leaned towards me as he released my hand.
My heart skipped a beat as I realized what was about to happen. I pulled away from him, and he froze. “You’re not going to try to take it back, are you?”
“What?” He stared at me utterly confused.
“If you try to kiss me you better not go and say that we can’t try being together.” I raised an eyebrow.
A soft smile touched his lips as his fingers curled into my hair and pulled me close to him.
***
I was sick of fighting myself. I was sick of telling myself I couldn’t be happy.
I wanted Katie, and for once in the past 11 years, I wasn’t going to stop myself from doing something that might be stupid. I only had a couple weeks left, and I wasn’t going to waste it. Priest was out every night with a different woman, but that wasn’t me. I wanted to be in every night with this woman, for as long as I could make it last.
She’d find out about me, and she’d leave me eventually, but I wasn’t going to worry about that right now. I leaned closer and closer towards her. My eyes locked on hers as I pulled her into a kiss, my lips touching her softly at first, in case she wanted to pull away. But she moved closer to me, her lips pulling away from mine for a fraction of a second before returning towards me. She wrapped her arms around my neck as the kiss became more passionate and I pulled her onto my lap.
She moaned against my lips, her teeth grazing my lower ones. My eyes rolled back as I gasped, my fingers pulling her hair lightly.
“Oh yes.” Her hips pushed against mine. I tried to pull her closer to me, and then I gasped as something buzzed against the coffee table and fell to the floor. She spun to see what it was. I already knew.
I let out a deep sigh as I reached for the cell phone. “Sorry, I’ve got to take this.” It was our special line, which meant it had to be important. “Promise we will get back to what we were doing.” That was a promise I planned on keeping as I answered the phone and lifted it to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Hey.” Priest sounded tired.
“What’s up?”
“I … I needed to talk to you.”
***
An hour later Dom hung up his phone. He gave me a weak smile.
“Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay. Is your friend all right?”
“Not really … Becky… it’s getting close to her um, anniversary.”
“Oh God. I’m so sorry.” I reached out and touched him. He didn’t react to my touch. He just stared unblinkingly.
“It’s just … really got to him over the past couple days. The closer it gets, the harder it gets for us and Luke … he hasn’t figured out how to deal with it in these years, not really.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine … it’s just … well, you asked if Becky was just a friend. She was for me … not for Priest.”
“Oh God. It must be so hard for him.” I felt a single tear well up in the corner of my eye and looked away. “It’s rough. And no matter how long it is you never get over it.”
He turned to face me as he realized I knew how he felt. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
I ran my fingers down his arm and squeezed gently.
“What’s your story?”
“My childhood friend. I was seven years old.” I shrugged it off. “It’s hard but I … got over it, I think. It’s hard during the month that it happened, but it’s easy most of the time.”
“Yea, that sounds like it.”
He reached out and took my hand in his, pulling me a little closer to him as his lips touched mine. “It’s getting kind of late.” He glanced at the clock. “Are you sure you don’t need to head out or anything?”
“I can manage to stay a little later.” I grinned. Clearly he needed to change the subject.
I reached out and pulled him close to me, our lips touching softly at first.
Chapter Four
I gasped as he pulled me into the bedroom, pushed me up against the door and kissed me again. A soft moan escaped me, my arms curling around his as I took in a deep breath, trying to look around the room. There was a bed and a dresser. The walls were a dingy white and … that was it. That’s all there was.
I felt his warm hands slip under my shirt and touch my skin, and I pushed him away, just enough for me to get my hand between us. It ran down his body and stopped at a small bump in the front of his jeans. I grinned, massaging him from outside his jeans. He gasped, pushing himself against me, letting me feel every inch of him as he brought me close, our lips pulling away and coming back together again and again.
Pulling me away from the door, he led me towards the bed. “There.” He kissed me. “Is.” His lips touched mine again. “Something.” His teeth grazed my lower lip. I moaned. “I need to.” Our lips touched again. “Tell you.”
We came to a stop in front of the bed, and he backed away from me, his cheeks were bright red as we sat down.
Oh God, what kind of freaky ass shit is he into.
“What?”
“I um …” He looked down so I couldn’t see the look on his face; however, it didn’t work. I’d seen that look before.
“Wait, are you … Is this your first time?” I worked hard to control my voice. How could it be? He was gorgeous; he must have had women falling all over him his entire life. Oh God. If this was his first time, he must be into something really freaky.
“No.” He almost sounded offended. “It’s just … been a really long time for me, Katie.”
“How long?” It came out before I even realized it had.
“Just over ten years.”
My eyes widened. “Ten years?”
He took a deep breath. “I … I was in jail for a while.” I saw the blush on his cheeks deepen.
All emotion dropped from my face. My heart slammed into my chest. He was in jail? For what? I swallowed dryly as my mind raced to say something.
“Oh.” Was the best I could manage.
“I’m sorry to just spring it on you like this but … I just … well, like I said, it’s been a while for me.”
“It’s okay …” I couldn’t decide how to process this. What had he been sent to jail for? Was it for something like breaking puppies out of somewhere that would test on them? Or did he try to kill someone? Did this all have to do with Becky in some way, shape or form?
I didn’t have answers to any of these questions, but part of me was sure that it had to do with her in some way.
“I get it if you don’t want to see me anymore.” He turned and gave me a smile. “I just figured you should know what you’re getting into before you actually get into it.”
I took a deep breath, glancing down at the floor. I knew I should give him the benefit of the doubt, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to.
“I can tell you everything all in due time. I know I’ll have to, but tonight, if you don’t want to leave, please let’s just let it be about the present—not my past.”
I didn’t want to disagree with that. I wasn’t sure if I should or not, but I knew I didn’t want to.
“Okay.”
I leaned towards him and placed a kiss on his cheek. I wasn’t sure what his deal was, but I knew I wanted to hear his side of the story, and I knew that I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe that was naive of me, but I’d already made my choice. My fingers tangled in his hair as I pulled myself on top of him, and his arms wrapped around my waist.
“So, it’s been a while?” I grinned as I pulled away from him just enough to speak.
“You could say that.” He nodded, his hands traced over the curves of my body. “But I’m pretty sure it’s a skill you d
on’t forget.” He rolled us down onto the bed, me under his body as he spread my legs and settled down between them.
“Still, I should make it something you won’t forget.” I nipped his lower lip with my teeth, tugging gently as he pulled away from me.
“Trust me, I won’t forget this.”
He let out a deep breath of pleasure.
My hands found their way to the hem of his shirt. I sat up and pulled it off him, tossed it onto the ground and removed my own shirt. Dom drank in the sight of me.
I didn’t care; I was too busy staring at him. His arms were not the only part of him that was tattooed. I reached out and touched his sculpted chest; I stared at the tattoos, trying to take everything in. My fingers trying to memorize every inch of his body as I slowly made my way towards his abs. My eyes widened as I stared at his abs, they were perfect, and then a chill ran down my spine as I felt his eyes on me.
I forced myself to look away from the thin line of hair that led down his body. His green eyes glowed with lust as they locked on mine.
I took a deep breath, something that had suddenly become so much harder as I reached up and pulled him towards me. Our lips touched as I felt heat spread through my body, well not really my entire body, just my pussy.
He nipped my lower lip gently, and I moaned as my eyes rolled back. I felt his lips curve into a smile as he pushed me down on the bed and lightly his lips left mine. They made their way along my jawline and down to my neck. I moaned as he placed feathery soft kisses along every inch of my skin that he could reach.
I opened my eyes just in time to see him reach for my hands. Our fingers tangled together as he nipped my neck softly, and I moaned as I felt him pull my skin into his mouth and suck gently.
It had been a long time since I got a hickey, and I was looking forward to it.
I moaned louder, my body arching towards him as he pulled away and pushed himself up off the bed.
I sat up watching him.
“Take your pants off,” he ordered. I paused for a fraction of a second. This was it.
My fingers touched the waistband on my jeans as soon as I popped the button on them.
DOM (Brothers In Ink Romances Series Book 1) Page 3
