by Liz Crowe
Cal shrugged, keeping his gaze on Angelique’s door. “I wish I knew. But I do know the investigating officer real well. I’ll make sure he talks to all of us…to all of you, I mean.” Cal’s skin reddened at his slip-up. Dom clapped him on the shoulder.
“She’s lucky you came along, man.” And for more reasons than one, he thought as he pushed the hapless, obviously love-struck man through his sister’s hospital door.
Antony pulled into Diana’s newly plowed drive and threw the car in park. He white-knuckled the steering wheel for a minute, then glanced over at Dom.
“I will fucking murder that asshole. After I slice off his nuts, make him eat them, then shove his dick up his own nose.”
“I’m with you, brother, but after some sleep. Let’s talk in the morning. Aiden’s staying up there with Daddy and Mama tonight.” Dom climbed out into the biting wind, head pounding from lack of food and an overabundance of rage.
He stumbled into the kitchen, propelled by the wind and exhaustion. He knew he should rest, but also knew that he probably wouldn’t—he’d be too obsessed pondering the pleasant possibility of pounding Angelique’s former, soon-to-be-dickless, boyfriend into a pulp.
Head aching and heart pounding, he snagged a bottle of bourbon from the liquor cabinet, decided not to dirty a glass and took a long, warm drink from the neck of it. After a couple more of the same, he poked up the embers in the grate, put a few more hickory logs on top of them, and sat on the floor, mesmerized by the dancing flames, contemplating his upside-down life.
A pair of familiar bare feet appeared next to him. Blurry, he reached out and put his hand on the strong, smooth calf, then got up on his knees and tugged down the shorts he encountered. He gripped Diana’s ass, kissed her stomach, then lower, finally landing where he wanted to be.
Her fingers gripped his hair. She spread her legs and let him taste her, touch her, tease her. Shivering, she dropped to her knees and brushed at his face. He took a long breath, teeth chattering with a combination of desire and deep, dark remorse.
“Diana—”
“Shh…it’s all right.”
She tugged his shirt up and off, shoving down the sweats he’d thrown on what felt like weeks ago while still at the gym.
Something about the moment was definitely wrong, but his body demanded he act on it. “I don’t think this is a great plan.” He exhaled when she fisted his dick right before he kissed her.
She kept rubbing, slowly, surely, knowing what he liked. He groaned into her mouth, his fingers buried in her hair.
“That’s my boy….”
The memory of his father’s words made him groan, knowing he shouldn’t do this with her, here, now, after all they’d been through. He had no idea what he wanted. He knew he should get away from her, find someplace else to live, possibly not even in this town or this state, or even this stupid country. But she tasted, smelled and felt so…very…perfect….
He eased her down onto the rug, noting how the firelight threw shadows on her skin. He slid his hands up her thighs, hips and waist then dropped down over her so he could take first one, then the other nipple into his mouth. She had her legs up, circling his hips and then, he was inside her, moving fast, hard, as the room went dark from the outside of his vision.
They lay together on the rug after, her head on his chest, his fingers in her hair, tears drying on his cheeks. He hurt all over from the manual labor working for her brother-in-law, managing renovations on the old barn, setting up the Kombucha brewery, basketball, and plain old mental anguish.
“Don’t leave me,” he said into her hair, knowing even as he spoke that if Kent showed up, he’d bolt—he’d run from them both in his usual, cowardly manner. Dom held her tighter when she stirred and tried to get up off the floor. “Diana, I love you.”
She jerked out his arms, found her shirt and pulled it down over her head. “No, you don’t. I’m….” She took a long breath and met his eyes, half her face still glowing in the flames, the other, in shadow. “Lee asked me to marry him.” She dropped her gaze, stood up and put her shorts on. He sat rubbing his face and attempting to process her words.
“So that means you’re…getting married?”
“Did I stutter? Didn’t think so. You’re gonna have to move out. I can’t have you here….” She moved to the sink and turned to face the window.
“Tempting you?” He dropped onto his elbows, thinking he’d charm her out of this, and back into his arms.
“Go to hell.”
“Already there, babe, already there. Now, come on over here and jump into its warm depths with me. I’m still horny.” He wasn’t, but when confronted with the sort of terrifying emotion gripping him right then, he usually deflected by being a jerk, or reverting to horn-dog type. She glared at him, fists clenched at her sides, her color high. And like that, his statement became a fact.
Dom got up without a word, walked over and kissed her, aching to be connected again, to convince her that he could be a good guy, if she gave him half a shot at it. Knowing it was way too late in this game for it.
She wrapped around him, letting him touch and kiss her wherever he wanted. “Oh God, Dom, yes,” she hissed as he picked her up and sat in one of the kitchen chairs, lowering her down onto his aching flesh, making them both exhale at the moment of connection. She ground down as he felt every nuance of her onrushing orgasm. When she cried out, gripping him so hard he grunted, he joined her, face pressed into her sweaty tits, their hips moving in perfect rhythm.
She paused, giving him a small modicum of hope. But she jumped up, grabbing paper towels and looking at him with a kind of neutral expression he didn’t like at all. He tried to take her arm but she sidestepped and reassembled her clothes, leaving him sitting there, naked, sticky, arms dangling at his sides, legs sprawled out in front of him.
“I am marrying Lee,” she said. He sucked in a breath at the firm finality of her words. “You can stay here a few more weeks, but after that, I’m done with you. For good. Do you get me, Love?” She cupped his chin, putting her mouth close to his. “Done.” She bit his lower lip, hard, then walked out of the kitchen, which had gone cold now that the fire had finally flickered out.
Chapter Thirteen
Then
Diana studied her fingers as if from a strange distance. They were raw from stringing and snapping mounds of beans and scraping corn off the cobs. But she could barely feel them. She felt nothing much really, other than the intense pain in the dead center of her chest that only Dominic Love could inflict.
“Diana.” Her mother’s voice was sharp. Diana glanced up and caught her sister frowning at her as she supervised the steaming vat of glass jars. “Make yourself more useful, please. I’m sick of all your mooning.”
A huge sigh escaped her lips as she looked at the bushel of kale and turnip greens that required picking through, washing and picking through again before they could be frozen for later use.
“Young lady, if you make that noise that one more time, I’ll knock you into next week.”
“Ow, Mama.” She rubbed her skull where her mother had bestowed a not-so-gentle flick of her fingers. The virtual bubble wrap she’d been encased in since the end of the school year didn’t allow for much in the way of physical sensation anymore, but she definitely felt the intention behind that. “Sorry.” She pulled the basket closer and grabbed the first of many bunches of dark green leaves.
After a couple more hours of work completed more or less in total silence, Diana excused herself, wanting to escape the house’s steamy-hot interior and unspoken tension. “I need to…let Pepper out of his stall.”
Her mother shot her a patented, withering glare but waved her away. Jen followed her to the door, taking her arm at the last minute. “Do not go to him, Di. I’ll know it if you do and I swan I will drag you away by your hair.” She tightened her grasp. Keeping her gaze on the back porch and the expanse of late summer burned up grass beyond it, Diana jerked free and stomped out the
door.
“You’re not the boss of me, Jen.” She whirled around at the last minute.
“I mean it, Diana.” Jen’s eyes were dark. “You have to break free of him now, for good. You’re headed to college and have your whole life ahead of you.”
“Who are you, Oprah? Jesus. Spare me.” Diana stomped down the wooden steps and ran as fast as she could across the crunchy grass. Inside the somewhat cooler air of the barn, Pepper whinnied, probably thinking it was ride time. But Diana merely buried her face in the animal’s neck. The horse tolerated it about five minutes then started stamping his foot and flicking his tail so Diana let go and slumped against the wall, hoping she hadn’t landed in horseshit. Although that would be beyond appropriate right then.
She grabbed the saddle making Pepper prance in excitement. Diana kept sniffling, recalling how Dom had acted when she’d shown up at his house to drop off a bushel of cucumbers and tomatoes at her mother’s request.
After an hour of pushing the horse to his limits, she found herself at the edge of Antony Love’s property, headed toward the pond, having jumped the fence with little effort.
She dismounted and smacked the animal’s flank, sending him trotting toward the edge of the water. The sun baked her skin as she dropped into the grass. She drifted, reliving the horror of the last time she’d seen Dominic despite her efforts to repress it. He’d looked so much older, home after his second year of college to work for his family’s brewery. He’d cut his hair, which she didn’t like. His dark eyes had danced with mischief that she’d mistaken for delight.
“Missed you at my grad party.” She’d punched his shoulder playfully trying not to reveal how upset she still was that he’d stood her up when the rest of his family had attended, looking a little sheepish.
“Yeah, sorry. Had a thing…you know.”
It had devolved from there, ending when he reminded her of her status—that of his ex-girlfriend, in front of a couple of his jerk off friends and two girls she didn’t recognize all gathered around him on the patio. She rolled over onto her stomach and in an attempt to force recent memory out of her brain, observed the tiny ecosystem going about its business in the grass. The sounds of late-season bugs and Pepper’s gentle snorts drowned out the roaring in her head long enough for her to relax a few minutes.
“Hey.” A deep voice woke her and she scrambled to her feet in a panic. “Oh, hey, Di,” Antony said with a smile. Dom’s oldest brother stood in shorts and a soaking wet T-shirt. His expression, so much like Dom’s, bore her no anger, but she couldn’t help but read a twinge of pity in them. She wiped the grass off her front, hoping to hide the flush of embarrassment creeping up her neck.
“Hi. Sorry. Just dropping by to water the horse.” She moved to snag Pepper’s reins, but the animal had seemingly disappeared.
“He’s up at the barn.” Antony jerked his thumb over his shoulder and then knelt down to splash water on his hair. She studied his broad shoulders for a beat, trying to find words to express why she’d come here.
“I figured y’all jumped that back fence. I really gotta fix that damn thing. So busy, though, with the baby and all.” He flopped onto his butt with a groan.
Diana crouched down next to him, poking a stick into the mud. Words bubbled up in her throat, questions about Dom begging to be asked, but she swallowed them, unsure how to begin. Antony had always been intimidating, with his tall, dark, handsomeness and his renowned quick temper. She had no idea how a guy like him and a girl as bitchy as Crystal Shelton had managed to not kill each other much less find happiness together. But they’d gotten married and now had a baby, much to Crystal’s mama’s fury, according to her own mother. Antony had successfully revived the languishing family car repair place though, and things seemed to have settled down for the two of them.
“So, Germany, eh?” She glanced over at Antony’s sharp profile. He nodded, keeping his gaze across the pond. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s all right. I’m just pissed off at him, mainly for causing so much trauma for our mother. He’s a real selfish prick sometimes.”
“Yeah. I’ll go with that description.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know why you put up with his sorry ass for so long, Diana. Honest to God.” He grabbed a rock and chucked it into the middle of the pond. “You’re headed to college soon, right?”
She swallowed the urge to snap at him for being yet another person who thought that going to college would in any way dampen her feelings. Mainly because in the logical part of her brain, she knew damn well her sister, parents, Dominic’s brother, her friends all were right—she had to move on.
Problem was, she didn’t want to. She wanted Dominic, heart, body and soul and she had for such a long time she didn’t know how to exist any other way.
“That’s a good thing. Didn’t work for me, of course. Or Dom, it would appear.” He smiled and draped an arm over her shoulders. “He’ll be home soon, I’m sure. What you do about that when it happens is up to you. I wish he’d just admit that…well, never mind.”
“But, why Germany?”
“He claims he wants to be a master brewer. Which means he’s gotta go to some school there.”
“School? How will he pay for it?”
She knew that Dom’s father had told him in no uncertain terms if he got it in his fool head he had to leave his own country to learn more about brewing beer than he already knew, he would be doing it on his own nickel. Bad news about other families travelled faster than a scalded cat in their small town.
“He’s got a fair bit of cash squirreled away and of course, there is the Bank of Big Brother Antony.” He shrugged. “Yeah, well, it’s mostly on his own, but I gave him the money for the plane ticket and a few bucks to get settled. I just hope he doesn’t do anything too stupid to get money for the school. Oh, wait, sorry, we are talking about Dominic here. I’m sure it’ll be stupid.” He stood and helped her to her feet.
“Do you think he loves me?” she blurted out.
He raised a dark eyebrow. “Well, I think he ought to. Come on, let’s go see what we can find for lunch.”
She gulped and followed him. “Pepper all right out there?” She pointed to a clump of horses standing close, nose to rump, hanging out the way horses do.
“Sure.” He squinted into the sun. “My two could use a break from harassing each other. I figure on moving Mama’s fancy horses out here soon, once she decides to give up her boarding space at Keeneland.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sure she’ll miss going there.” Diana knew Lindsay Love had been a champion in her day and had given it all up for…love, she supposed, plain and simple.
“Yeah. Well, sometimes things go in a way we don’t plan, but it all works out. At least I like to think so since it resulted in me and my idiot brothers. Hope you don’t mind holding the baby. She’s usually awake this time of day.”
“Happy to.” Diana smiled at him, thrilled to be anywhere near Dominic’s family at that point.
He grabbed her arm. “Don’t put up with him, Di. You deserve better.”
“Yeah, probably.”
He grinned at her, looking so much like Dominic it made her breathless. “Come on, race ya!”
That night she sat on the screened porch, listening to the frogs and crickets. The house creaked when an unexpected wind picked up, ruffling the ends of her damp hair. She’d managed to stay over at Antony and Crystal’s after a pleasant lunch of tuna salad and iced tea, playing with baby AliceLynn and watching a Reds game on their television. At one point, she’d blushed when she’d seen them cuddled up on the couch, kissing.
When the baby had fallen asleep in the middle of the floor, Diana had tucked her into her crib and snuck out past them. Not that they would’ve noticed considering how far into a make-out session they’d gone while she’d been taking the baby to her room.
She sipped her lemonade and put her feet up on the old trunk used for a table, considering what lay ahead—a life devoid of Dominic
Love, once and for all. Anger filled her chest—at him of course, but mostly at herself for not being able to let go of him. Crystal Love had put it as bluntly as anyone while they loaded the dishwasher after lunch.
“Dominic is a lost cause, Diana. Let him stay that way. You’re way too smart and pretty to pine after a horse’s ass like him, sorry Antony.”
Antony had been holding AliceLynn, trying to get her to eat from a spoon and smearing them both with some kind of baby food slime. “She’s right, Di. As much as it pains me to tell her that.”
Crystal had stuck her tongue out at her husband, and wiped AliceLynn’s messy cheeks. He’d put the spoon down and grabbed at his wife, making her squeal before planting a kiss on her bare midriff, bringing a squawk from the baby at being squeezed between them.
She knew the odds were stacked against Antony and Crystal. They’d married young, had a baby early by accident, had a mortgage, a business, and busybody families more or less counting on their failure. But despite all that Diana knew they’d make it.
She got up and repositioned the ancient box fan so the breeze cooled her face. When a shadow passed by her peripheral vision, her heart sped up. But she couldn’t give in to it. She refused to let him use her for a goodbye mercy screw, despite how much she wanted to have him hold her one more time before he left.
“Go away.”
The shadow moved again and filled her vision. The screen door creaked. He knelt in front of her, arms around her waist, his cheek resting on her bare thighs.
“I’m sorry I was such a dick earlier.”
She ran her palm across the exposed side of his face and touched her fingers to his lips. “You have to go.” She shoved him off her and jumped to her feet, trying to put some distance between them.
He rose, unfolding slowly, more graceful than any man-boy had a right to be. She bit her lip, moving away from him until her butt hit the doorknob. He kept moving toward her, half in shadow, broad shoulders crowding out everything else in her universe. When he touched her cheek, she leaned into his palm, knowing she’d do whatever he wanted.