“Nothing personal, but I’m glad he’s dead,” Maria said, trying to conceal the tightening in her chest from hearing Kat talk about her brother that way.
Slipping off the counter, a strange thought occurred to Maria. “Did Cassius … ever take beatings for you?”
“No,” Katarina told her after a few silent moments. “He didn’t.”
Seeing that she offered no more information, Maria quickly changed the subject but was sure to keep her voice down to a whisper in case the boys were about to come back in. “Can you tell me more about Dominic’s old westerns?”
Laughing, Kat wasn’t able to divulge any more information for her to scare Dom with about her old western knowledge.
“Good?” Maria asked Drago with a raised brow when the men walked back inside. She was offering him a truce … at least for the night.
“Good,” Drago accepted, clearly in a better mood than when he left, making Maria wonder what Dominic said.
While Drago helped his wife finish up, Dom volunteered to set the table, and when Maria went to help, he made her sit down, knowing she still had a hangover.
Ugh! Everything he did was making her contemplate saying fuck it and marrying him already. He’s right, there’s always divorce.
Sitting there, Maria didn’t miss the way Dominic questioned Katarina about her day and activities. Big brother was finding out for himself that Drago was taking care of Kat.
She watched Dominic take notice of Drago, measuring how relaxed he was and unconcerned about what Kat would disclose.
“Dinner’s ready. Everyone have a seat.” Kat proudly set a serving platter on the table.
It was then Maria realized that Katarina didn’t go through all this trouble to just cook for her husband; she went through all this trouble to make him happy. Like when Lucca did it for Chloe. Maria obviously preferred the societal roles to be reversed and to have a man in the kitchen, but she now understood. If Katarina was happy, then Maria was happy, and that meant so was Dominic.
Staring at the dish, she had to give Kat credit. It looked like a picture in a magazine. Maria sat next to Dominic at the table and waited for the men to attack the food, but when they looked at her, she realized they were letting her serve herself first.
Spooning a small portion of the parmesan chicken on her plate, she passed the platter to Dominic before she took a helping of the lemon rice.
Politely, she waited until everyone had filled their plates before she took a bite. Oh God, it was almost as bad as the ketchup eggs. She had to count to ten to give herself the courage to swallow.
“It’s delicious, Kat.”
Maria stared at Drago’s plate to make sure they were both eating the same food. Excuse m—
“I don’t know how you do it,” Dominic complimented. “It gets better every time you make it.”
The fuck? The food was so bad she guessed there was no place to go but up.
Blushing from the compliments, Kat gave her a questioning glance. “Maria? How’s the food?”
Was something wrong with her taste buds? The dish tasted like soured lemons, and that was the best part of the dish. The rice wasn’t done, and the chicken was hard as a brick.
Maria shoved another spoonful in her mouth to keep from answering. “Mmmhmm ….”
See? Maria could be nice. She was sure if Dominic and Drago weren’t in the room, she would have told Kat it tasted fucking nasty, but she didn’t. Hell, she was sure Dominic would have told his sister, as he had no problem admitting DeeDee’s food was gross. Instead, she literally had to eat her words.
“I’m glad you like it.” A happy Kat continued eating. “It’s easy to make. I’ll give you the recipe if you want?”
Maria gave her a thumbs-up, afraid she would vomit up what she had just forced down. Had the alcohol she drank last night fried her tongue, making it unable to differentiate between good and fucking vile?
“I wanted to make Drago’s favorite, but he convinced me that Dom would be disappointed.”
Maria gulped down half the water in her glass. “What’s your favorite, Drago?”
Maybe if she started talking, no one would notice she wasn’t eating.
Drago talked with a big mouthful, “Deconstructed apple cherry ham steak.”
What the fuck?! Drawing a blank at what she could say in response to anything deconstructed, she could only watch as both Drago and Dom refilled their plates.
Taking tiny bites and refilling her glasses twice, Maria was able to get through the meal with the silent promise that she was fucking murdering Dominic after they got out of there. This was payback for last night, and she knew it.
One thing was for sure, she was right when she said Katarina was poisoning Drago. Maria started to feel a little bad for the man she despised.
“You’re in for a treat tonight, Maria,” Kat said, rising from the table. “I made Dom’s favorite dessert, too.” Going to the refrigerator, Kat came back with a pie. “Grasshopper pie.”
She would bite a fucking bullet before she was taking a bite of the gorgeous pie that Katarina was cutting into large slices.
Maria hastily shook her head. “None for me. You know I don’t do too many carbs, and I’ve been on a diet.”
Katarina looked at her in disappointment, which had both men looking at her like she had kicked a helpless kitten.
Oh my God! Maria cried internally and almost broke, but thankfully, her bitchy side saved the fucking day. “What’s in it …? So I can count to see if I have any calories left.” If lemon was an ingredient, she was out.
Kat started naming them off. “Chocolate cookies …”
I like cookies.
“Butter …”
Butter always makes everything better.
“Half-and-half.”
Half of what?
“Heavy cream and marshmallows.”
Hmm ….
How could Kat screw up something that sounded so tasty? If she hadn’t just eaten the fucking dinner from hell, Maria would have already taken a slice of the pie that the men were scarfing down.
Kat continued, “It has two liquors …”
Sign me up for that bad boy.
“Crème of cacao …”
That’s chocolate, right?
Eye-fucking the pie, Maria started to reach for her dessert plate.
“Crème de Menthe.”
She would never doubt her bitchy side again. “Shoot, that would make me way over.” Maria pretended to act bummed, but she continued to sell it even more. “And after last night, I swore to Dominic I’d never touch alcohol again.”
“You sure?”
“Oh yes,” Maria told a precious Kat before she smiled graciously. “Since it’s Dom’s favorite, let him have him have my slice.”
“There’s enough for each of them to have another slice,” Kat said, giving each of the men more. “I don’t like the taste. It reminds me of mouthwash. DeeDee used to make it for us when we were growing up, then stopped making it.”
Gee, I wonder why ….
“I only started making it because Dom enjoyed it when she did, and Drago loves it too.” Katarina shrugged as if there were no accounting for men’s taste.
When the men stopped eating, Maria would have laughed at their pained expressions if she still didn’t have that fucking sour lemon taste in her mouth. While she had eaten the food to be polite for Dominic’s sake—and, to be real, she wasn’t sure she hadn’t been on the fritz because of the alcohol she had consumed the night before—there was only one reason the men resumed scarfing the pie down—pure love for Kat.
Maria knew she was fucked when Dominic asked for the last slice of pie and Drago began to turn a sickly green. He was taking the bullet for the team. How could the mighty be toppled by something as simple as grasshopper pie?
Lowering her gaze to her ring finger, it felt … empty.
Damn.
Forty-Four
Pain
As soon as the door s
hut, Maria’s smile dropped as she glared at Dominic and furiously whispered at him, “That’s how you repay me for not fucking me?”
“Shh!” Dom whispered back even harsher while he dragged her down the hall back to her place. “Okay, maybe I should have given you a heads-up that her cooking is worse than DeeDee’s, but I knew if I told you that, you wouldn’t have fucking come!”
“Why did you want me there?” Maria stuck out her tongue and tried to wipe the taste out of her mouth with her hand. “To violate my fucking mouth?”
“No, princess.” Dom laughed before his tone went serious as they reached her place. “It would have felt wrong to be there without you.”
Oh gosh, here we go again, Dominic saying the right fucking thing!
“Next time you want to have dinner with Kat and Drago”—Maria reached up, lightly grabbing his chin like she had last night in the casino—“I’m catering, or you tell her I’m dead.” She placed a light kiss on his lips.
Dominic gave her another kiss, revealing his dimples that she loved to see. “All right.”
Opening the door to her apartment, Maria gave him one last kiss. “Goodnight, Dominic.”
“That’s it?” he asked, confused. “You’re not going to try to scheme your way into getting me in your apartment and then into fucking you?”
Wow, if she didn’t know better, she would think he might be a little bit offended.
Maria shook her head with a slow smile. “Nope.”
“Really?” he asked, now clearly offended.
“Why?” Maria raised a perfect brow. “Would it work?”
“N-No.” Dom ran a quick hand through his hair, seeming to be the one who was sexually frustrated tonight. “It’s just unlike you.” Putting a hand back to her cheek, he felt to see if she was warm. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes,” she assured him but tried her best to give a good yawn. “I’m still sleepy after last night.”
Dominic didn’t look like he’d give her an Academy Award anytime soon, but he thankfully didn’t question her. “All right. Goodnight, Maria.” Leaning down, Dom placed her a tender kiss on her cheek before his lips went to her ear to remind her of something he never wanted her to forget. “I love you, Maria.”
Swallowing, the tightness that had been in her chest went to her throat. “Goodnight.”
Why did it hurt so fucking badly that she couldn’t tell him those three words back? And it only made her hurt worse to have to shut the door on him when she wanted nothing more than to have Dominic spend the night with her.
But there was someone Maria needed to see ….
Knocking on the door, she waited for permission to enter, instead of just entering like she used to.
“Come in.”
Hearing the dark voice, she slowly opened the door. It felt like forever since she had come in this room, and it felt even longer since she’d last spoken to the man behind the desk.
In the middle of lighting his cigarette, he did a double-take, seeing it was her before Lucca leaned back in his leather chair. “Long time, no see.”
Maria took a seat down in front of him. She had avoided her brother since the last time they had spoken. Even before he murdered Kayne, they weren’t in good standing, because he had yet to find One-Shot, the man who had taken their baby brother’s eye.
“I didn’t come to apologize,” she let him know off the bat.
Lucca blew out a puff of smoke. “I didn’t think you did.”
“I’m here because … Dominic asked me to marry him,” she said the words way easier to Lucca than Angel, but it was clear by his lack of response that he already knew. “Not surprised?”
“No,” he told her honestly. “But you didn’t come here for my blessing”—leaning forward, his blue-green eyes glowed—“so why are you really here, Maria?”
Taking a deep breath, Maria wasn’t sure if she could get the words to come out of her mouth, until they did.
“How are you with her?” she whispered heartbrokenly into his eyes. “How do you allow yourself to even be with Chloe with what you are?” Not only did Maria’s eyes trail down to the floor, but so did her fallen voice. “How am I …?”
Lucca understood what she was asking, having already gone through the same feelings when he had chosen the beautifully scarred Chloe. It hurt for something so evil to touch something so pure, and it was the only time they could feel pain.
“Maria, you will never deserve Dominic. Just how I will never deserve Chloe,” he said the words just as unsympathetically as she had, but neither of them meant any ill will. “But we will spend the rest of our lives trying.” The look he gave her was one of sympathy, as he left his sister to his office to think and to be alone.
“What do you get out of me marrying Dominic?” Maria asked without turning away from the sparkling city.
Lucca smiled at her back. “I guess there’s only way to find out ….”
Forty-Five
Her Gut
Creaking up the stairs, Maria held her heels in one hand so they wouldn’t wake anyone in the house. It wasn’t until she had turned the doorknob and opened the door did she think what she was doing through.
“Jesus, Maria!” Dominic roared, dropping his gun to the floor. It proved how scared he had gotten when he tightly wound his arms around Maria. “I could have fucking shot you.”
“I’m sorry,” she quickly apologized, giving him a death-grip hug of her own after she dropped her heels to the floor. She had never felt so close to death before. Even feeling the heat from an explosion hadn’t compare to the cold metal of a gun to your head. She didn’t know if she was telling this part to him or herself. “You didn’t, though, so it’s okay.”
“How did you even get in?” he asked, still hugging her to him and shaking.
“Angel gave me a key.”
Letting her go, he stared down at her. “You found out he was following you.”
“Yes. Don’t worry, I know you weren’t supposed to know anything about it. I just thought I’d save him the trouble of having to tail me and let him give me a ride instead.”
“Well, I’ll kill him.” Dom hugged her to him again. “And if you ever fucking try to surprise me again, princess, wear the fucking heels next time.”
“I will,” she assured him. Giving him a kiss, she tried to soothe his fears and tell him it was okay, as he clearly had been more scared than she.
“You’re wearing my jacket.” Dominic remarked, looking down at her. He took in the sight but his brows quickly furrowed in confusion. “You’re wearing the same outfit from …” He saw the tired expression on her face. “Maria, have you been up all night?”
“I couldn’t sleep,” she admitted as she looked out the window to see the sun had yet to rise.
Worry marred his beautiful face. “Is something wrong, princess?”
Maria slowly slipped her arms from the warmth of Dominic’s jacket. Holding the soft leather in her hands, she stared at it instead of meeting his fierce gaze. “I want you to promise me, Dominic. I want you to swear on your life that you meant it when you said I could do anything, be anything if I marry you.”
Making his oath again, he could only hope this time she would believe him without a shadow of a doubt. “I swear to you, Maria, on everything I love, and on my life, that I meant those words and any other words I have told you.”
“I’m scared …,” she whispered, squeezing his jacket that she had yet to hand over. “I’m scared of going against everything I believe in, that it might change me.” Maria took a shuddering breath. “But most importantly, I’m scared I will end up hurting you.”
“Maria, when I tell you I love you, I don’t expect to hear those words back, not from the little girl who couldn’t even cry at her mother’s funeral. All I know is that, deep down, you care for me, and that will always be good enough. I am only asking for you to take a chance on me.”
Maria raised her eyes from the jacket to look into Dominic�
�s intense ones, seeing he spoke the complete and utter truth. She had come to a decision before coming here, but it wasn’t until now that she fully committed as she slowly held out his jacket to him.
Staring at his outstretched jacket, he knew the offer came with Maria’s complete trust and faith, along with something else … “You know, if I take that jacket, I expect you to marry me, princess?”
Slowly, Maria nodded.
Dominic didn’t take the jacket. Instead, he took her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he picked her up and took her to his bed. “Finally.”
“Does this mean you’re going to fuck me now?” she asked, getting excited when he laid her down on his bed and came crashing down on top of her.
“Sorry, princess”—Dom began stealing kisses all over her face before he moved to her neck—“but you’re still going to have to wait.”
Maria internally cried with need. The only thing that had her not externally showing her disappointment was because when he had said “finally,” he hadn’t meant it in the way Maria had thought, which meant he was finally glad she had agreed to marry him.
“How did you know you wanted to marry me so quickly?” she asked. The thought of marriage was so foreign to her. She didn’t understand how he could even ask her a question like that so fast. Yes, Dominic was right; she did care for him, but she could have spent the rest of her life as a couple with him and been happy at that. Both Maria and Dom knew she was marrying him to soothe his fears and satisfy his wants, not hers.
“Maria, I knew I was in love with you before you even walked through my door eight years after I had first met you.” Rolling off her, he lay beside her now as he reached into his nightstand to pull something out …
Dominic (Made Men Book 8) Page 33