DOM (Brothers In Ink Romances Series Book 1)

by Cooper, Linda

  She always promised it would be a couple days until she could get back on her feet. What she actually meant was a couple months until she could find a new rich man to date, and then a couple more weeks until she could convince him that they should move in together.

  “You know I’m not always going to say yes,” I muttered as I flagged down a waiter.

  “As long as you say yes this time I don’t care,” Jen beamed as she took a sip of her iced tea. I rolled my eyes as the waiter approached us.

  “Could I get water, please?”

  “Of course, are you two ready to order?”

  “I’ll get a salad.” Jenn smiled.

  “Chicken burger, please. Extra gravy with the fries.”

  Jen shook her head.

  “Hey,” I pointed at her. “I don’t lecture you about your boyfriend or your car, but that will change if you so much as think about doing it to me and my food.”

  “I just don’t see why you don’t try to eat healthier.”

  “And I don’t see why you pay someone to put your summer tires on,” I snapped, but then shrugged. “But that’s okay. It doesn’t really affect me.”

  I froze as I saw him. He was in the middle of the sidewalk, not moving and just staring at me unblinkingly.

  I felt my cheeks burn as I realized what he was holding in his hand. The piece of paper with my number on it.

  “Kat? Katie?” My own name brought me back to reality. Jen turned in the direction I was staring.

  “Ohhh my. I can see why you weren’t paying any attention to me.”

  “I just know him …” I muttered. I forced myself to turn away from him as the waiter brought my water over. “Thanks.”

  “How do you know him?” Jen raised an eyebrow.

  “I got tires from his shop,” I said flatly.

  “Oh really? He’s like a mechanic then?”

  “Something like that.”

  “My car has been giving me trouble,” she said tapping her fingers on the table.

  “Of course.” I tried to force myself not to be affected by it. I’d been telling her for months she needed to get the car checked out, but she’d just told me to stop going on about it. Now that there was a cute mechanic she could go to, and her and John were splitting up, she wanted to get her car checked out.

  “You should wave him over here.”

  “I’m sure he’s too busy for that.”

  “Oh come on, for me?” She gave me a pleading look. The one I knew all too well. The one that I knew would lead to begging if I didn’t do it soon. I rolled my eyes and waved over to Dom.

  He waved back, paused and came over to me.

  “Hey.” He sounded like it had been hard for him to say it.

  “Hi. How’s it going?”

  “Alright, you?”

  “Good … good … just …” Great, we couldn’t even get small talk right. I stared at him. I wanted to make him feel bad for standing me up, but that would mean admitting we’d been on a date in front of my sister, and I didn’t want that. It would also mean admitting that I was still upset. And I wasn’t going to do that.

  “I’m Jen,” my sister announced, turning the attention towards her. She held her hand out to him as she leaned over the table, revealing her best assets. I felt jealousy spike and tried to ignore it.

  Suddenly I felt like I was 15-years-old again and all the boys wanted to date my sister, not me. I took another deep breath and turned my attention to her.

  Trying to push my past feelings away, I forced a smile as they shook hands, and Dom turned his attention back to me. He opened his mouth but nothing came out for a second, and then after closing it, he tried again. “Anyways, I’d better get going. I’m just supposed to be grabbing coffees for everyone, and if they don’t get their coffee soon they’ll probably get mad at me.” He gave a forced laugh.

  “Well, I won’t get in your way any longer.” I smiled.

  “I’ll … bye.” He gave me a weak wave before turning his back on me and walking away.

  I felt my heart drop into my stomach. Why would I be so hurt about this? It’s not like we even had a proper date to begin with. I mentally shook myself, snapping back to reality, and found my sister staring at me.

  “So, what’s the deal with you two?”

  “There is no deal,” I said curtly.

  My sister snorted. “Really?”

  “Yes, really.”

  “So you don’t mind if I ask him to take care of my car?”

  “Why would I?”

  “I just wanted to make sure.” My sister shrugged as the waiter brought us our food.

  ***

  I stared down at the ten numbers. All I had to do was dial the phone number and hit call. That was what I wanted to do, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t risk getting attached to her, or her getting attached to me. It was stupid enough that I’d stopped by the other night.

  It wasn’t fair to her. Anyways, the last time you even got half this close to a girl you ended killing her.

  I froze. My own words shocking me. It shouldn’t have surprised me that I would think it. I knew I thought about it all the time, but this wasn’t the same. I tried not to think about it. I tried not to think about Becky at all … of course that was a little hard with what I was planning on doing, and being in jail because of her for the past 10 years didn’t do much to help that.

  I mentally shook myself as I reached for my coffee, took a long sip and crumpled the piece of paper into a ball. It hit the garbage on the first try.

  Micky raised an eyebrow at me. “You call her?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because …” I couldn’t risk it.

  “She doesn’t know about your past, does she?”

  “No, but it doesn’t matter. It wouldn’t work out even if she did know and decide to accept it.” I wasn’t going to have time for a relationship. I didn’t plan on going back to jail once I was done with this mess.

  Micky stared at me. “You know, she seemed very interested in you. Almost like she missed you or something.”

  “I’m sure she didn’t.” I felt guilt tug at me as I said the words.

  I didn’t want to hurt her, but it seemed like no matter what I did, it would hurt her. If I didn’t call her then she would think I didn’t have any interest in her, but If I did call her, and everything went according to plan, I wouldn’t be around in a month and that would hurt her too. Either way it wasn’t fair to the girl.

  I let out a deep breath, running my fingers through my hair as Micky walked away from me and back towards the back of the garage where we were working on a Ford Mustang for the owner. What have you gotten yourself into Dominic? I asked myself, letting out another deep sigh and closing my eyes.

  For a split second, the idea of calling it all off, or just bailing on the other guys, popped into my head. No, I couldn’t do that. That wouldn’t be fair to the guys. My eyes snapped open as the doorbell rang and a couple walked in. They smiled as they approached the counter.

  “Hello, how can I help you?” I asked as I forced a smile.

  Before I pushed myself away from the counter to help these people, I took a deep breath, promising myself that I wouldn’t do anything stupid.

  I really only had one option.

  ***

  He never texted. He never called.

  After two days, I’d given up on ever seeing him again. Chances were my sister rushed over there and got him to do the work on her car, and then one thing led to another, and he was doing some work on her now. So, here I was … on my couch with my cat curled up to me and watching old movies. I hadn’t heard from my sister, and I wasn’t expecting to until she and John broke up. I shouldn’t let her stay with me, I thought, but I knew I would. I couldn’t bring myself to be mean to her; despite everything she’d done to make my life hell when I was younger, she was my sister, and we were trying to work through our issues.

  Bang, bang, bang.

 
; My heart skipped a beat. For the second time this week I pushed myself up from the couch wondering who the hell could be at my door. My fingers curled around the handle as I pulled it open. “Oh.” I stared at him. “What do you want?”

  I wondered if I should just slam the door in his face and be done with it, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I took a deep breath and waited for my answer.

  “I … I wanted to stop by and try to make up for storming out on you the other day.” I looked him up and down, saw that he held a pizza box and a plastic bag in his hand. “I brought Pizza,” he offered weakly.

  “Fine.” I stepped out of the doorway and let him come inside. “But pizza isn’t going to make up for standing me up.” I promised myself I wasn’t going to let this slide so easily.

  He slipped out of his boots and padded to my couch. “Fight Club?”

  “Yea, I’ve seen it a couple dozen times, but there was nothing better on, and I wanted some background noise.”

  “Did I catch you at a bad time?” he asked as I sat down beside him.

  “No.” I was utterly aware of my yoga pants, the fact that I had no bra on and my dirty white tank top. I pushed the thought out of my mind. “So, are you going to tell me what that was all about or are you going to expect me to forgive you without you actually giving me a reason for what you did?”

  “I … it’s com—”

  I stared at him. “I swear if you tell me it’s complicated, I will kick you out of my house.”

  He paused. A thin smile spreading over his lips. “I can’t tell you what’s going on, but I can tell you that it’s something to do with my friends … and the tattoo on my knuckles.”

  I mulled over his words. Yes, it made sense, I guess. “I don’t expect you to tell me all the details of your life, but I do expect you to at least be honest with me when you tell me stuff.” I paused to give him time to let this sink in. “I’m not … I’m not saying that one date means you have to tell me everything I want to know, or even tell me anything at all, but if you’re going to tell me something, at least do me a favor and not lie to me outright?”

  “I think I can do that.” He smiled softly. “But I’ll expect the same from you.”

  “I don’t see the point in not being honest about things,” I said flatly. “If I don’t want you to know something, I’ll just tell you that I’m not going to tell you about it.”

  “Straight to the point.” Dom’s smile widened as he opened the box of pizza and laid it on my cluttered coffee table.

  I took it upon myself to go through the plastic bag. I found several cans of soda, chips, gummy worms and chocolate. I eyed Dom. “Did you just plan on trying to buy my forgiveness with food?”

  “You don’t seem like the flowers and diamonds type.”

  I snorted. “Well, you pinpointed that. I like food though, and cars. You can win me over with cars.”

  Dom laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He paused, his eyes locking on mine and suddenly he looked so sad. What are you going through? I wanted to ask, but I knew I had no right to. I had no right to know. He was still just a stranger. A stranger who went through all this effort to make up for a lack of first date.

  “So Dom, what can you tell me about your life?”

  “Probably nothing of interest,” he confessed. “You met my friend the other day at the diner, other than that I have two other friends that I’m close to … we’re like family more than anything and … I’d do anything for those guys.”

  So whatever he was about to get into was probably about one of them, right? I nodded. “So, you’re going to take a look at my sister’s car? She said she called you.” I scowled. I’d been telling her to get it checked out for ages, but she always said she didn’t need to—until she met a cute mechanic.

  “I’ll have a friend do it.” He shrugged it off. “Actually, I get the feeling they will get along quite well.”

  I turned to face him. “Why aren’t you going to do it?” Was it because he liked me? I couldn’t help wondering … no, hoping that it was because he liked me.

  “Because I’m already busy enough as it is, and I know my friend could use a couple extra hours.” He stared at me for a couple seconds looking lost in thought. “Anyways, enough about my depressing life.” He smiled as we both reached for another slice of pizza, my fingers touching his as we both went for the same place. Right on the 04 of his tattoo. His hand warmed the tip of my finger before I could force myself to pull away and reach for another piece of pizza. “So, I guess this isn’t too bad for a first date.”

  He glanced at me and bit his lip. “I’m sorry about that. I got a text that kinda left me speechless. I should have at least paid for the lunch though.”

  “It’s alright.” My eyes sparked as I took my last bite of pizza. “It could have been a lot worse. Anyways, there’s no point in dwelling on it, it’s in the past.”

  “Still, you must have thought I didn’t like you or something,” he pressed.

  “The thought had crossed my mind,” I confessed. I wasn’t willing to admit I’d been worrying about it the entire time.

  “And … I’m sorry I took so long.” He refused to look at me.

  “What do you mean?”

  “To come by … the fact that I didn’t call or text or anything. I just … I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. I wasn’t sure the timing was going to be good.”

  “And you think it is now?”

  ***

  “No, but I can’t stop thinking about you.” I wished I could have said something else but this was the truth, and that was what she wanted from me, right?

  I didn’t want to break her heart, but I couldn’t get my mind off her. Fuck, I was dreaming about her.

  I couldn’t ignore the fact that I wanted her. I just … needed to be careful about all this.

  She stared at me, her long red hair pulled up into a messy bun. The slice of pizza that she was about to take a bite out of hung close to her mouth. I felt the heat from the blush on my cheeks.

  “I see.” Katie nodded. “And you’re not going to tell me what is going on at all?”

  “I can’t. I have a friend who would kill me if I so much as thought about it, and he knew.”

  “So, have you thought about it?”

  “Yes.”

  She grinned.

  The next few weeks were all I had left, and I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to tell her that, but I knew that I wanted to spend the last few weeks with her. I took a deep breath. “I want to tell you everything, I really do.”

  “But your friends won’t let you?”

  “Yes.” And if I told her the truth I wasn’t sure how she would react. If she would call the cops on me or, somehow worse, if she would be scared of me.

  Chapter Three

  The next evening, I slipped into a pair of jeans that made my ass look great and a shirt that showed a little bit too much boob. I applied some lipstick and attempted a smoky eye, slipped into a pair of heels and headed to his place. Yes, it was an odd place to have a second date, but it seemed like this relationship, whether it was just friendly or more, wasn’t going to be what anyone would call normal. So I double checked my makeup in the small mirror as I sat outside his house. For the first time since I’d seen him, I found out what kind of car he drove.

  A 1995 Camaro. Good car in my opinion. I popped my door open and made my way towards the small house. It looked like it was two stories, maybe.

  My heart raced in my ears as I approached the door and I felt like I was going to be sick.

  Reaching out, I rang the doorbell. I didn’t think it was possible, but my heart raced faster as I heard footsteps from inside.

  He pulled the door open and smiled. My jaw almost dropped as I stared at him. He wore a black button-up shirt and clean jeans. He looked … I took a deep breath as I stepped forwards. “Hey.”

  “Hey,” he closed the distance between us and pulled me into a hug, his arms wrapping around my waist. “How’s
it going?”

  “Good.” I stood there in shock for a couple seconds before I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer. “You?” I felt strangely comfortable in his arms; warm, safe, and most of all, I didn’t want to move.

  He squeezed me, although it was gentle it was still enough to show that this man had muscle. I swallowed dryly. I would love to get a good look at those muscles. Forcing myself to let go of him, I stepped away. “So, you said not to bring anything to eat.” It sounded like a statement, but I’m pretty sure it was a question. Kinda. I was trying to figure out if we were going out or not.

  “Yup!” He stepped out of the doorway and motioned for me to come inside. “I figured I could show off my skills and do some cooking for you.”

  “Ohhh, you can cook? Impressive.” A man who could cook and work on cars? A man after my own heart.

  “I aim to please.” He grinned as I slipped out of my shoes and padded into the open living room that connected to the kitchen. Looking around, I saw there were very few things here actually. A couch, a coffee table, an end table and a TV.

  “It’s not much but it is home,” he said as though reading my mind.

  “It’s cute.” And it was. The leather couch, the hardwood floors and the clear coffee table looked good, it just looked like there should be a little more to it. Not that it mattered to me. The TV was huge, clearly a big expense. I sauntered to the end table where a single picture frame stood.

  There were four boys and a girl. The one on the far left I recognised as the man who was in the house with me, the one beside him had blue hair and a grin spread across his face; then there was the girl in the middle. She had blonde hair that fell to her mid chest, a beautiful smile and perfect skin. She wore red lipstick and a pair of jean shorts with a tank top. On the other side of her I was sure was the one from the restaurant … what was his name again? Luke, I think. Beside him was another person. Brown hair, tall, and without his shirt on I could see his abs. I reached out and took the photo to study it. Every single one of them smiled happily.

  “That was a long time ago.” He spoke softly behind me and I gasped, spinning to face him. He stood inches away from me, how had I not heard him come up behind me?