Picking up her heels and dress, he regretfully left her side. Quietly, he went to another door in her room that he knew must’ve been a closet, but jeez, he didn’t think it would look like this. Half of it was ceiling to floor in clothes and the other half was ceiling to floor in purses and shoes. If this was her closet here, he wondered what her closet at her family home looked like.
Dom laid her dress down on a velvet bench in the middle of the closet that he figured was where she put on her shoes before he went to put her heels in the only spot that wasn’t filled.
While he could look in here all night of the things he looked forward to seeing her wear, he took particular interest in her heels. He picked out about five or so pairs that he would be asking to see her in before he went to leave.
About to turn the closet light off, his eye was caught by the only black item he could see. Walking over to it, Dom pulled the hanger off the rack to take a look at it.
Smiling, Dominic still somehow found a way to love Maria even more … while staring at the suit jacket that he had given her when he had left her in the freezer.
Maria might’ve claimed to have loved Kayne, but it was his jacket hanging in her closet.
Forty-Two
Hello, Again…
Closing the door to Maria’s penthouse quietly, Dominic walked a foot in the other direction and beat on a door. He didn’t treat the person who lived there with the same respect.
When the door opened, it appeared even the boogieman slept, as Lucca emerged, promising death with his eyes. “You better have a good fucking reason to wake me u—”
“Four?” Dominic roared, uncaring about the underboss’s precious sleep. “Four of your men have bit the dust protecting her, and you’re fucking letting Maria prance around Kansas City wherever she pleases?”
Lucca crossed his arms over his chest. “In case you fucking missed it, she hasn’t talked to me since I told her I offed her last boyfriend.” He gave him a silent promise he could do the same to boyfriend number two. “She doesn’t want my protection anymore.”
Dom spat at him furiously, “That doesn’t mean you fucking listen to her!”
“If you feel that way, why don’t you get one of your fucking men to watch her.”
When Lucca went to shut his door, Dominic put his hand out, stopping him. “I can’t. I promised her I wouldn’t,” he admitted, looking defeated before pleading. “She won’t listen to reason that it will never be safe for her not to have her back watched.”
Understanding what he was asking, Lucca gave him a pitiful look. “And you think I can?”
“Yes.” Dom nodded. “She respects you. She will listen. I don’t want her suffocated again. I just want someone to watch her back.” He would never want Maria to have to go back to listening to what every man in her life told her to do. He only wanted her safe because, whether she liked it or not, she was born into royalty.
Lucca raised a brow. “You haven’t talked to Angel lately, have you?”
Frustrated, Dominic looked at the underboss, confused and questioning if he was even listening. “What does my brother have to fucking do wit—”
“If you had”—Lucca stopped him with his cold voice—“then you would know he’s been following her.”
Oh. Dom’s fears calmed. Staring at the underboss, he gave him a grateful look. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” Lucca smiled, watching him walk away, now slightly embarrassed. “I’d be thanking your brother, though. Angel told me Maria’s been a real pain in the ass, running after you.”
Looking back over his shoulder, he gave the underboss a smile of his own. “I’ll do that.”
Hearing the door slam behind him, Dominic walked down the hall, glad he had been able to ruin Lucca’s night.
When he got to the elevator, he could hear the jingle of keys before he even turned the corner.
“Hello again… Dominic,” Sal greeted him as he stood there, waiting for his arrival.
He nodded, entering the elevator. “Hello.”
Sal pressed the buttons to take them to the casino floor, and the doors slowly slid to a close. “Did you have a nice night?”
“I did,” Dom said, watching the numbers fall.
Sal gave a quick twirl to his keys. “Good.”
Sliding his eyes to him, Dom dared to ask the question since the second he’d been allowed into the underground casino. “Why’d you do it?”
“I didn’t do it for you.” Sal spoke over the clang of metal. “I did it for her.”
Surprised, Dom couldn’t help but remind him of a little fact. “But she calls you an ass kisser.”
“Has she told you how her father hoped for us to marry when we were just kids?”
“No …,” Dom whispered, not knowing how to feel about that fact. “And this has to do with her calling you an ass kisser how?”
A slow smile touched Sal’s lips. “Well, I just thought you’d know better than anyone that siblings fight.”
Dominic smiled himself. Sal didn’t tell him that information about Dante wanting them to marry to make him jealous. He told him to let him know Maria and Sal thought of each other as nothing more than brother and sister.
Dominic took a step forward, standing in front of the brother whom he never got to know, and he held his hand out.
“I hope Dante does get his wish after all.” The great Salvatore shook his hand. “A son of Lucifer should marry his daughter.”
“I hope so,” Dom told him as the elevator door opened.
Dropping their hands, Dom exited, but as the door slid closed Dom stopped it.
Pushing the elevator open with his hand, he looked at the man who shared his same blood. “I didn’t know who you were,” he promised with shame in his eyes, remembering every single time he had passed a little homeless boy on the street. “Lucifer didn’t tell me until after I met you and, by then, I knew you were better off here.”
Staring into the blackish-blue orbs, Dom thought he would see hatred in them; it was what he deserved. But Sal spoke the words that set his soul free from the one thing Dominic had yet been able to forgive himself for.
“I know.”
The sun shining through her tall windows had Maria’s hands going to her throbbing head. It took her a minute of waking up until she smelled Dominic’s fiery scent, along with the warmth of wool wrapping her up under the covers.
Reaching under, she found Dominic’s jacket that she had slept with, as she began to slowly remember the night before. It was one of the best nights she ever had, and she could only compare it to one ….
Maria picked up her phone. Dialing, she held the phone up to her ear with a shaky hand as she listened to a ghost.
“This is Kayne Evans, leave a message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”
Beep.
Holding the jacket to her furiously, she tried not to cry. “I trusted you ….”
Hearing the phone ding in his nightstand, Dominic wanted to pretend that he hadn’t heard it. He wished he had thrown the phone out. That way, he would have never known the woman he was in love with was still in love with another man.
Dominic knew what Maria was doing. She had put their relationship strictly on a sexual level and was too afraid to put the little emotions she carried back at stake. Her first love had hurt her, and now Dom was paying the price. All Maria was willing to give was her body in order not to chance feeling that wretched pain again.
When Maria had asked why she wanted him so badly, he didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth. The words would have hurt her, just as much as him.
Staring at the nightstand, Dominic felt like a sick bastard for keeping the phone.
And he was an even sicker one now as he listened to the message that he knew would only break his heart.
Dominic would just have to keep praying for the day Maria stopped calling Kayne.
Forty-Three
Dinner From Hell
“Who the hell g
ets up at this time of day?” Maria muttered, trying not to trigger another round of pain by making her vocal cords work.
“It’s seven p.m.,” Dom informed her as they walked the short distance to Kat and Drago’s place.
“I think I’m getting sick,” she complained, trying to focus, despite the drilling going on under her scalp.
“It’s called a hangover, princess.”
“What I’m experiencing isn’t a hangover; it’s more like a prelude to death.” Mistakes had been made. The first was using alcohol to curtail her fascination with Dom’s male parts, after he refused to budge on his stance of premarital sex. The second mistake she made was opening her door when he had come to get her tonight, and at the moment, the final seemed the worst: never buying a pair of flats.
Not even Dom’s dimples could soothe her pain. “I think it was tequila shot number five that I warned you—”
“Try telling me that before shot number five next time,” Maria said through a fake smile. Grabbing the crook of his arm to help balance herself, they reached Kat and Drago’s apartment.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Trying to get my balance.”
“As much as I love those heels on you, princess”— Dom steadied her by holding onto her waist—“it might’ve been better to have picked a pair closer to the floor.”
His suggestion was met with a feral glare. “Dom, sweetie, do you want to die tonight?”
Touching her forehead and cheeks, he grew concerned. “You feel that bad?”
“Yes.” Maria felt only the tiniest bit bad about giving him a pain-filled glance. She tried to pull off a helpless look, hoping it would get her in his pants. “I’m only able to stand here with you because you asked me to have dinner with you and your sister.”
“Maria”—Dominic’s eyes sliced her open—“are you trying to use the sympathy card to lure me into bed with you?”
“Would it work?” Cunning eyes stared at him, watching his reaction.
“Nope,” he told her without an ounce of sympathy. “I gave you my ultimatum.”
“Why give in when I’m enjoying negotiating with you?” she cooed.
Dominic knocked on the door to end the inevitable conversation, showing what he thought of her negotiating skills.
Kat must have been waiting for their arrival, since she immediately opened the door. However, Maria couldn’t miss the shock on her face.
Did he not tell her I was coming …?
Kat smiled, keeping her—obviously curious—thoughts to herself. “Come in. Dinner’s almost ready.”
Maria had clearly been wrong. Kat had been told; she just hadn’t believed it.
Trust me, I don’t either.
Coming inside their home, Maria stood to the side as Kat gave Dom a hug before closing the door. Watching the brother and sister together was an eye opener for her. The affection between the two was apparent.
“Where’s your jacket?” Kat asked, finding it strange to see her brother without it.
“I left it at home,” Dom said before changing the subject. “What’s for dinner?”
The excitement on the baby-pink-haired woman was apparent. “Your favorite; parmesan chicken with lemon rice.”
Kat, what are you doing? Maria internally screamed at her, as Katarina was the only girl in her friend group who had been wifed up, but ironically didn’t act it. Now it appeared her friend was getting loved up more and more every day.
Moving farther into the apartment, Drago, however, seemed taken back she’d been invited to dinner. “What the hell is she doing here?” Drago grumbled.
Maria flipped her hair behind her shoulder. “I came to try your wife’s cooking.”
“You’ve never wanted to fucking try it before.”
How long has she been cooking for him? Katarina might’ve been more domesticated than she thought.
“I was scared she might’ve poisoned it and, well … you’re still alive, unfortunately.”
Drago’s eyes went a furious shade of red.
With his eyes dancing between the two, Dominic leaned over, quietly asking Maria, “I take it you don’t like him either?”
“No,” Maria and Drago answered in unison.
Laughing and ignoring them, Katarina walked back into the kitchen to finish cooking.
Oh, she’s good. It was obvious his precious little wife wasn’t that domesticated after all. She still had some bite left in her.
Getting the picture himself, Drago looked at Kat. “Why is she here?”
Dominic whispered into her ear privately, “I knew I fell in love with you for a reason.”
Kat’s big brother might put up with Drago, but he still didn’t like him.
“Oh God.” Drago looked like he was about to gag. “I need a minute …”
Maria smiled at him sweetly as he walked out of the apartment. “Oopsie,” she said with a laugh, knowing Dom’s whispered confession was overheard.
Going over to Kat, Maria slid herself up on the counter to get a good look at her partner in crime. “Conveniently forgot to mention that I was coming as your brother’s date, huh?”
“It must’ve slipped my mind,” Kat commented innocently as she pretended to wipe sweat off her brow. “It’s so hard being a wife.”
“You know what?” Dominic backed away from the kitchen slowly. “I’m gonna go see if I can get him to come back.”
“Take your time!” Maria yelled as the door flung open.
As soon as it closed, both girls laughed until they cried.
“Her?” Drago asked when he saw Dominic come out into the hallway. “Are you fucking crazy?”
“What’s wrong with Maria?” The warning in Dominic’s voice told Drago to tread carefully.
Drago, however, didn’t give a fuck, giving him a warning of his own. “I know you might think you’re a bad motherfucker, Dominic, but that girl is going to chew you up and spit you out.”
“Probably,” Dom agreed. “But what do you care?”
“I’ve taken my fair share to protect that woman, and I’m grateful to live the tale, but I have never seen Maria let a man stand that close to her, so that means she must like your ass too.” Drago looked close to tears. “I already have to deal with her as Kat’s friend, but I don’t need to see her at the Luciano family functions. That was my only freedom from her.”
Dominic laughed now. He just got a two for one. Not only was he going to get himself a wife, but he was going to make Drago rue the day he ever picked Katarina.
Drago waited patiently until he stopped laughing then said, “You know what?” He was the one to laugh now. “Good luck.”
“The way Drago feels about you, I’d almost be concerned that he might actually like you deep down, but no.” Kat laughed, wiping a tear away. “He just doesn’t like you.”
Maria laughed, wiping her own tear, “Ugh, when I was growing up, my father used to tell me this bullshit that, when a boy picked on you, it meant he had a crush on you. It used to make me so mad.”
“Not Dom.” Kat shook her head with a smile at an old memory. “I had a teacher tell me that once because a boy wouldn’t stop picking on me at school, and my brother got so mad, when he dropped me off in the morning, he came into my class and told the teacher, very loudly, ‘that boy is not picking on my sister because he likes her, he’s picking on her because he’s a fucking bully.’ My teacher got so scared and said she would handle it. And, I kid you not, on the way out, Dom stared at the boy who wouldn’t leave me alone and said, ‘I already did.’ And he was right; that little asswipe never picked on me again.”
“D-Dominic told you that?” Maria asked in disbelief, feeling her chest get tighter. “He did that?”
“Yep,” Katarina said proudly. “After that point, I learned to stand up for myself, but I don’t think I would have if I hadn’t seen him do it first.”
“You and Dominic are close, aren’t you?” It was too obvious to miss. She had seen him with hi
s brothers, but with Kat, he was different. Maria didn’t think it would be possible for a man like that to exist, but he really is the perfect man. It was either the fact he had watched Lucifer abuse women, or having to care for a sister at a young age, or maybe a combination of both that made him that way.
“I’m close to all my brothers, but Dom has a special place in my heart,” Kat agreed. “He’s been more like a father to me.”
Considering who Katarina’s real father was, even Maria’s cold soul shuddered at what it must have been like living in the same home with the deranged madman.
“When I think of Dom, a father figure doesn’t come to my mind.”
Katarina suddenly stopped what she was doing. “You really do like him, don’t you?”
“I think so,” Maria whispered, shocking herself. “Thinking about giving me a sisterly warning?” she asked, wondering if Kat approved, since they’d become good friends in a short amount of time.
“No.” Kat laughed. “I want Dom to be as happy as I am, and he looks it with you, Maria.”
That made Maria feel fuzzy inside, but she couldn’t help herself from asking, “Are you? You didn’t exactly pick out Drago on your own.”
“I didn’t, but I also knew Dom would never have let me marry him if he had any doubts about the type of man Drago was.”
Maria felt bad to say the next part. “Dominic didn’t have any more choice than you were given, Katarina.”
Kat gave her an assured look. “Dom is protecting all of us. If I didn’t marry Drago, then it would have put my other brothers in danger. He would never put one over the other. We all serve our family, and each of my brothers had paid their dues. By marrying Drago I paid mine. For the first time, I was given the opportunity to be a solution instead of a problem that had to be protected from Lucifer. Without Dom, I wouldn’t even be alive; Lucifer wanted soldiers. I was no more to him than an annoyance that often kept his best soldier too occupied. I lost count of the beatings Dom took for me, or Angel and Matthias anytime one of us set him off.”
Dominic (Made Men Book 8) Page 32