by C. L. Parker
Kerrigan and Dominic laughed at his threat. “We should probably go inside,” she said, pushing herself from the ground to stand.
She extended a hand to help Dominic and he accepted, using his own strength to pull himself up, but savoring the contact nonetheless.
Kerrigan looked at him with a smile that reached all the way up into her baby blue eyes. “Thanks for catching me, Nicky.”
“Anytime and every time.” He smiled back and released her hand.
She turned her back on him to walk inside, leaving him there.
“Oh, and hey, Kerrigan?” She turned to look at him. “The kiss really was magnificent. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to do it again some time.”
“Well then that would make two of us.” She winked at him, and then she turned back around, climbing the steps to disappear into the house.
“Oh yeah, there will definitely be lots more kissing,” Dominic murmured to himself. He inhaled deeply and forced the breath back out with a whoosh. “I need a cold shower.”
“So, what are we going to do tonight?” Olivia asked. She plopped down beside Kerrigan on the double chaise in the backyard.
Gabe was busy giving Sydney one of his famous pedicures while she bobbed her head along to the beat of 38 Special’s Hold On Loosely. Every now and then, he would get distracted by the sight of the twins and Dominic as he watched them throw a football back and forth – shirtless, all three of them. He had to start all over on the same nail three times.
“I say we go hang at the beach.” Talon hurled the football at Dominic in a perfect spiral, which he caught without effort.
“Um yeah, I’m going to go with a no on that one, babe,” Sydney said, not even looking in his direction as she flipped through her magazine. “You spend all day there as it is, and every time we go, you forget I even exist. No surfing tonight.”
“You know, you really suck.” Tyson pouted. “Big, hairy donkey dongs at that.”
Dominic launched the football in his direction, but Tyson wasn’t paying attention and it smacked him on the side of his head. “Ow, prick!” Tyson cursed and rubbed at the spot.
Dominic laughed in return, and Olivia shook her head. “Serves you right. You really should stop being so crude to Syd. It always comes back on you somehow.”
“Newsflash, Livi…You’re supposed to be my girl. That requires you to take my side at least some of the time.”
“Don’t act like a douche and I will,” she retorted and then blew him a kiss.
Tyson caught the air kiss and made a show of stuffing it down his pants. “I’m collecting on that one later,” he chuckled and then winked at Olivia.
Sydney rolled her eyes with a look of disgust on her face. “You’re so gross. I don’t know how she stands you.” Not waiting for his witty retort, she averted her attention to the rest of her friends. “How about we hit Panama Hattie’s?”
“What’s a Peppermint Patty’s?” Gabe asked with his nose crinkled up.
“Pan-a-ma Hat-ties,” Sydney enunciated. “It’s just a little hot spot down by the beach.”
Dominic stiffened because he knew the spot well. Whenever he was “in the mood” he usually patrolled the area looking for tourists. They were always great for one-night stands. However, there were a couple of times that local girls had perpetrated being from out of town, and they had gotten a little clingy. He had no desire whatsoever of accidentally running into one of them with Kerrigan there as a witness, so Panama Hattie’s was a no-go for him.
Talon ixnay’d the suggestion. “It’s Sunday. It’ll be dead.”
“Hey, I know what we can do,” Kerrigan spoke up as Olivia stalked toward Tyson and tried to steal the ball away from him. “I’ve always wanted to go to the haunted lighthouse. I know it’s cheesy, but it could be fun.”
“That’s lame,” Dominic said with a huff of indifference.
“Aw, what’s the matter, Dom? Scared?” Kerrigan mocked him. “If you go, I promise I won’t let the big, bad boogey man get you.”
But, I am the big, bad boogey man, Kerrigan, he thought.
“Come on, man,” Talon chimed in. “It’s corny as hell, but it could be fun. The girls get all scared and cling to you. What could be better than that?”
Dominic caught the ball that Tyson had just thrown back to him to keep it out of Olivia’s hands, and quickly tossed it to Talon. The prominent muscles in his chest flexed with his efforts, casting a spell on Kerrigan. She eyed him over the top of her sunglasses, mesmerized, but trying to be inconspicuous. She failed.
He turned and walked toward her, grabbing his shirt off the back of the chaise where he had discarded it. Then he leaned down toward Kerrigan and removed her sunglasses so that he could see the azure of her eyes. His manly scent assaulted her sense of smell and drove her crazy with lust. The pink tip of his tongue made an appearance as he wet his lips, and her attention was drawn to them. She could still remember the taste of him, the feel of his soft lips against hers.
It was the effect he had hoped for. “If I go, what are the chances that I’ll get another one of those kisses?”
Kerrigan looked up at him from under her lashes, giving him a suggestive smile. “I’d say the chances are pretty good.”
Dominic had been too cautious to leave the house since he moved in with Availia, but if it meant that he might be able to taste Kerrigan’s sweet lips again, he would take the risk.
“I’m in,” he announced so that the rest of the gang could hear. “I just have to be back here by 11:30. I, uh…I have plans.”
Kerrigan was a little excited at the prospect of being able to share another kiss with her roommate, but she was suspicious about where he had been disappearing to every night. Although she wanted to believe he didn’t have a girlfriend, it just didn’t make sense that he wouldn’t. Dominic was a very fine specimen of a man. Women probably threw themselves at his feet on a regular basis. The little green monster reared its ugly head at the thought of someone else keeping company with the man who had been haunting her dreams at night, but she shoved it back down into its tiny box, content to believe Dominic wouldn’t have been flirting with her if he had someone else in his life to cater to his needs.
“Well that’s just great,” Gabe huffed, replacing the wand to the nail polish he had been using. “I get to be the odd diva out. I don’t like the way ya’ll flaunt your hetero-sexualness in my face. That shit just ain’t right. For one, it’s just gross. And for two, you better be thanking your lucky, bedazzled stars I haven’t called the Rainbow Coalition on your asses for doing it. Cruelty to gays is something they don’t take lightly.”
“Aw, don’t be that way, sweetie,” Sydney cooed, rubbing his back.
Gabe sighed and let his shoulders slump. “I need a man, or at the very least, someone who’ll smack my patootie and call me a cutie.”
Sydney drew her hand back to swat him, but Gabe stopped her. “Do it and die, bitch.”
Kerrigan locked the house up, carrying a navy blue velvet bag with a drawstring that held the last of the jewelry her grandmother had made before she passed. Everyone else was already saddled up and waiting. Olivia and Gabe were in Tyson’s Mustang convertible, while Sydney and Talon were in her VW bug. But, Dominic was nowhere to be found.
She bounded down the front steps toward her friends. “Where’s Dominic?”
The roar of a hemi engine echoed from the back of the house and became louder as it crept down the driveway. A canary yellow car with a black pinstripe on the rear quarters rolled toward the front and stopped. Dominic sat in the driver’s, revving the engine of a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. Black wall tires, chrome rims and black leather bucket seats.
He revved the engine of the car again and leaned over the passenger seat, opening the door. “You’re riding with me.”
Kerrigan tried to contain her giddiness, feeling like a teenager who had just been picked up by the coolest guy in school for a date. She imagined that in high school, he was likel
y the rebel-without-a-cause, the bad boy your parents prayed you would never bring home, the guy all the girls lusted after, even though their reputation would suffer from being seen with him.
She tapped down the involuntary smile that twitched at the corners of her mouth and walked over to his car. Calm, cool, and collected, so that she wouldn’t come off as a total spazz. She knew she had failed when his celadon eyes pegged her with a yeah-I-know-you-want-me look, and his lips lifted on one side in a way that reminded her of Elvis Presley’s confident smirk. Regardless, she took her seat and closed the door, forcing herself to look straight ahead instead of ogling him like she really wanted to do. Dominic gave a smug chuckle and put the car in gear. He started to step on the gas when she finally got her wits about her and stopped him.
“Wait, wait,” she said and then she stuck her head out the window and yelled to her other friends. “We need to go to Lucinda’s so that I can drop off the last of Grammy’s jewelry.”
“Okay, just go ahead. We’ll follow you,” Sydney said, waving Kerrigan and Dominic ahead of them.
Dominic let his radio blare the entire ride to Saint George Street. Kerrigan didn’t mind. His music was really rubbing off on her. Plus, the sound of his voice as he sang along, and the way he tapped on the steering wheel while moving his head to the beat did things to her lady bits. The man loved his music, and the music looked good on him.
She used music as a topic to strike up conversation and found that although rock was his favorite genre, he liked anything that actually had some meaning behind it. According to him, that ruled out most hip-hop. He was passionate about his dislike for anything, particularly rap music, where the artist – he used the term loosely – relied on sound mixes to get their drabble on the air. He called them an abomination to his ear. If the lyrics couldn’t stand alone, they had no business polluting the air, which was why his preference was for acoustic songs. They took the emphasis off the instrumental and put it on the actual words.
Kerrigan argued that sometimes people just want something to move to. He nodded his head in agreement, but countered her argument with, “And sometimes people just want music that moves them on the inside, not just the out.”
He had a point.
She was so engrossed in their conversation that she hadn’t even realized they had reached their destination and parked. The others caught up with them and whipped into the parking spaces on either side of Dominic’s Barracuda. When Kerrigan reached for the handle on her door, Dominic put his hand on her arm to stop her.
“Do you mind?” he asked, a little irritated. “You’re going to make me look bad.”
“You’re ashamed to be seen with me?”
“Are you kidding? You’re the hottest chick I’ve ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes or my mouth on.” She hid her face in embarrassment. Dominic leaned in closer, his cold breath washing over her bare shoulder. “I know you’ve felt the affect you have on me. So stop playing coy.”
“I am not playing coy!”
“Whatever. I’m just saying you don’t have to.” He placed an open-mouth kiss to her shoulder before he moved his lips to her ear. His voice dropped an octave, and he half whispered, his words slow and deliberate, “Mi alma es tuya. Y así es mi cuerpo, si lo quieres.”
He pulled back to look into her eyes, giving her that sexy smirk. Her heart melted.
“And what does that mean?” The man had a way with words. Even if what he said was, “I have a raging itch in my pants,” it wouldn’t have mattered. It was still seductive to her ears.
Dominic sat up in his seat and opened his door. “Boy, you’re going to need to brush up on your Spanish if you’re going to be hanging out with me because I’m not going to keep translating for you. Besides, it takes the allure out of it. Don’t you think?” He chuckled as he stepped out of the car, then he walked around and opened Kerrigan’s door for her.
She crossed her arms over her chest, miffed. “You infuriate me.”
“And you’re adorable,” he chuckled again. “Look it up, Querida, and stop acting like a spoiled brat.”
Kerrigan feigned insult and smacked him on the arm. “How do you know so much Spanish?”
“I live in a city founded by the Spanish. It’s sort of a requirement.” He didn’t think she really needed to know about the time he spent with the Cuban Mafia.
Tyson joined them, toting Olivia on his back, while Sydney linked one arm through Gabe’s and the other through Talon’s.
“If we’re going to see the gypsy, I want to get my palm read,” Sydney said.
“Gypsy?” Dominic asked.
“Lucinda has some sort of psychic gift. She’s a seer,” Kerrigan explained as she led the way around the corner. “At least, that’s what Grammy said.”
“Well, if Availia said it, it must be true.”
Kerrigan was really starting to see that Dominic and her grandmother had indeed been pretty close. He appeared to view Availia much the same way she did. If Availia said the sky was green, then it was green. If she said it was going to snow, even though it was ninety-degree weather outside, then by God, she would pull out the parka and snow boots.
They walked down the cobbled street a bit before they reached Lucinda’s shop, Silver Feather, and stepped inside. The little bell above the door chimed as they entered to signal their arrival, and memories from her Kerrigan’s childhood flooded her mind once again. The shop was still the same as she remembered. Chock full of new age paraphernalia and old world jewelry. The smell of incense and leather-bound books was familiar and just as comforting as the mellow sound of the music that filled the small room.
A woman in her late fifties with wire-rimmed glasses stepped through the beaded curtain that led to the back room. Her long, graying black hair and golden tanned skin were traits inherited through her Native American lineage. She exuded warmth and profound respect. As she turned to greet her customers, her eyes came to rest on Kerrigan, and her face lit up in surprise.
“Well as I live and breathe, if it isn’t little Kerrigan Cruz. Or, what was it Availia called you? Sunshine, right?”
“Miss Lucinda!” Kerrigan greeted her with a warm smile.
Lucinda waved her off. “Oh please, child. It’s Lucy. You’re not a little girl anymore.”
She reached out and grabbed Kerrigan, pulling her into a tight hug before she stepped back. “Let me take a look at you. My, you have grown up. And who are your friends?”
Kerrigan made the introductions and Lucy greeted each one of them by taking their hand in hers while looking into their eyes for a brief moment. Kerrigan had seen her do the same routine with each one of her clients when she and Availia used to pay her a visit. She always thought it was just a kind greeting, but seeing it from an adult’s prospective, the way Lucinda’s eyes showed complete awareness, it was almost like she was delving into their psyche.
“Lucy, this is Dominic,” Kerrigan said, saving that introduction for last.
Lucy smiled and then reached for his hand as well. The second she made contact with him, her eyes went wide and she gasped. She held tight to his hand, her attention focused on him and him alone. Her brows furrowed in concentration and her lips thinned. After a moment or two, Dominic started to shift from one foot to the other, uncomfortable that every eye in the shop seemed to be trained on him. Plus, he had no way of knowing what she was seeing.
“Lucy? Are you okay?” Kerrigan asked, her eyes shifting from Lucy’s face to Dominic.
“Awkwaaaard,” Gabe sang in a high-pitched voice.
Lucy dropped Dominic’s hand and cleared her throat. “Oh yes, um…my apologies. Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”
Kerrigan looked at Dominic, perplexed by what had just taken place. He cleared his throat and followed the rest of their friends example, meandering around the shop. He stopped and focused his attention on perusing the books on the shelves as if nothing odd had happened at all. Maybe she had read more into it than it actually
was.
“Um, well Grammy made these, and I want to donate them to the shop.” Kerrigan opened the velvet bag and emptied its contents onto the glass countertop.
“These are exquisite,” Lucy said, picking up each piece to examine it. “Are you sure I can’t pay you for them?”
“I wouldn’t hear of it. Grammy would want you to have them.”
Lucy sat the piece she was holding down and grabbed Kerrigan’s wrist. She held it up to look more closely at the bracelet she was wearing. “Did Availia make this for you?”
Kerrigan nodded.
“Do you want to know what these stones symbolize?”
“Absolutely! Dominic has one too, but I made his when I was like seven.”
“Mmhmm, why am I not surprised?” she said cryptically.
“What do you mean?”
“Never mind. Let’s talk about your bracelet.” She dismissed the question and turned her attention back to Kerrigan’s wrist.
“The amethyst and the black onyx are used for protection from fear, negativity and witchcraft. The amethyst will also help to open your spiritual center, and the onyx will help sharpen those senses and even help keep you hidden from those who might seek to do you harm,” she explained as she pointed to each stone. “The moonstone…well, other than being quite beautiful, the story goes that if you give your lover a moonstone when the moon is full, passion will forever be with you. It’s a reflective stone, which means that it helps the wearer remember who they really are, on the inside.”
“Wow. And to think, I just thought they were pretty.” Kerrigan turned to look for Dominic so that he could have his turn. She found him in the back corner of the store with the others, watching as they messed around with some sort of plate with fog floating out of it.
“Dominic, can you come over here for a second?”
“Sure,” he said, laughing at Tyson doing a kung fu chop on the fog that drifted toward him.
“Hey, I’m not stupid, dude,” Tyson said with one leg raised in a Karate Kid stance. “I’ve seen that movie where something evil lived in the fog and totally annihilated like a whole town. And they probably thought it was just harmless smoke too. Beware the fog, man…beware the effin’ fog.”