We used to love each other. We used to laugh together and do stupid things, like write stupid or pornographic things on the community white board in my dorm lobby. Childish things. We would sit in the back of class and make out. Or toss pieces of paper at the people in front of us. There was this one time when we got caught tossing spitballs into people’s hair. The teacher threatened to turn us in to the dean, but Dominic talked her out of it by promising to mow her lawn for the entire month of September.
And then we moved in together, and we could hardly drag ourselves out of bed every morning. Sometimes, when he had a later class than mine, he would grab my hand and try to make me stay, mumbling things about how we could get along without college educations. He had this whole scenario where he’d work washing dishes and I’d teach piano to local kids. I’d laugh and blow holes in his theories by asking how we were supposed to pay for a piano and he’d call me a party pooper, threatening to tickle me until I stopped blowing holes in everything.
It was a carefree time. I thought it would last forever. Instead, it only lasted until he decided my sister was more fun than I was.
I closed my eyes, the image of the two of them kissing at that table filling my head. It was a beautiful day, spring in Paris, and I was so excited just to be there. To see them…I was almost happy for them. Isn’t that stupid? I was admiring them, thinking that Paris was meant for lovers like them. And then I realized who they were…and my heart sank.
Why her? Of all the people he could have cheated on me with, why her?
Dominic pulled the car into the parking lot of one of those no-tell motels that populate the outskirts of most big cities. I stared at the chipped paint and broken gutters on the side of the building, imagining the stains that would be on the sheets.
“Really? Can’t we go somewhere slightly better than this? Even a Motel 6 would be better.”
He didn’t acknowledge me. He climbed out and disappeared into the main office. I turned and watched the traffic go by on the street behind me. I could easily run out there and get picked up before he even realized I was gone. It wouldn’t be hard to get the attention of some lonely salesman who wanted companionship. Or even a cop. I could flag down a cop. There had to be a few patrol cars in this seedy part of town. But I didn’t do it.
He came back and silently drove the car to a corner of the parking lot. I followed him into a corner room on the ground floor, wrinkling my nose at the smell of stale cigarettes that filled the room.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I said, grabbing a couple of the Walmart bags he brought in and heading to the small bathroom at the back of the room.
“Leave the door open.”
“Do you want to join me? Make sure I don’t slip out the window?”
“I might.”
I spun around. He was watching me from the doorway, his duffle dangling from his fingers. But then he tossed it onto the bed and turned again.
“Where are you going?”
“Food.”
He was gone before I could say anything else.
The bathroom was halfway decent. Clean. I stripped out of the smelly, dirty clothes I’d been wearing for what seemed like months and climbed into the shower. The water was warm. Not hot, but warm. I could live with that. I lathered up several times, feeling like I would never get clean. Scrubbed my hair until my scalp was tingling. When I stepped out of the shower, he was still gone. My eyes fell to the phone sitting on the nightstand beside the king-sized bed. Wrapped in a towel and nothing more, I crossed the room and grabbed it, dialing my parents’ number without thinking twice.
The phone was ringing on the other end when Dominic walked through the door.
“Fuck!” he cried, crossing the room in two big strides, yanking the cord out of the wall. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Letting my parents know I’m okay. They lost one child; they don’t need to worry about the other.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Why not? I wasn’t going to tell them where we are.”
“Don’t you realize that people can trace calls? I you make that call, someone could trace us back here, and then we’ll have more trouble on our hands than you can imagine.”
“The police won’t do anything if I don’t press charges.”
“I wish it was that simple.”
He dropped the bag of food he had in his hand and pushed me back, slapping the cuffs on my wrist before I realized what he was doing. Then he leaned close over me to attach the other end to the headboard.
“Why?”
He glared at me. “Because I need to sleep, and I obviously can’t trust you to behave.”
“If you would just tell me what’s going on, maybe I wouldn’t do these things.”
“I’ve told you what you need to know.”
“You’ve told me nothing.”
He gave me this look that suggested that was exactly what I needed to know. And that made me see red.
“She was my sister, Dominic. You may have been fucking her, but she was my sister. She was my twin! Don’t you think that trumps any other relationship?”
“Yes, I do,” he said wearily, sitting on the edge of the bed. “But she was my friend. And she made me promise to protect you. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
“Your friend? Why do you keep insisting on denying what I saw?”
“I’m not denying it. I kissed her. And it wasn’t the first time. I would never pretend it was anything else.”
That cut through me. As much as I tried to tell myself that I was over him, I knew that I wasn’t. It hurt to think of him with Emily.
“Was she better than me?”
He snorted. “No one was ever better than you.”
“Then why?”
He looked at me for a long minute, his eyes moving slowly over me, over the towel that was the only thing covering my nudity. A little bit of amusement came into his eyes.
“This is familiar.”
“Is it?”
“Do you remember that night right after we moved into our apartment? The night you showed me the bag of ties you’d stolen from your dad?”
I blushed, remembering it far too well.
He leaned close, slipping a finger under the fold that held the towel in place. “I remember. I remember that you asked me to tie you up. And then you begged me to touch you, moving your sexy little hips so that when I did touch you, it was in all the right places.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“Not so long.”
His finger pulled the towel loose, exposing a little bit more of my breasts. My nipples were hard, pressing against the thin terrycloth like little pebbles. He was watching me, his eyes locked onto mine as his finger slipped lower under the towel, brushing against my breast.
“Did she turn you on like I did? Did she make you hot just by walking past you in the kitchen?”
“No,” he whispered. “You were the only one who could do that to me.”
“Then why?”
He brushed the towel away, exposing my breasts. He bent and captured one hard nibble between his teeth, biting down almost painfully. And then he ran his tongue over it, caressing it with the tip, the heat almost mind blowing. Then he sighed, pressing his head against my chest for a long second.
“Get some sleep,” he said, abruptly pulling away and lifting the towel back over my body. Then he went to the other side of the bed, punched his pillow a few times, and fell into a quick, fast, deep sleep.
Son of a bitch!
***
I dozed, I think. But I mostly lay there and watched him sleep, thinking about all the times we’d lain together in the past, usually with me as the one with my back to him instead of like this with his back to me. He would spoon with me, pulling me against him until I was all encompassed by the length of his body. I always felt safe with him. Now…I wasn’t sure what I felt.
I was so confused. The way he talked about Emily…there was respect in his
voice. But then he said I was the only one who turned him on the way I’d done. Why would he say that when it was so disrespectful to Emily? Didn’t he care about her?
I don’t know…I wanted to believe he wasn’t in love with her the way he was with me. But I didn’t want him to not love her. That seemed wrong, too. I didn’t know how to feel about the whole thing.
I knew I was jealous that he clearly knew she was in Arlington when I didn’t. I was jealous that he got this almost adoring look in his eyes whenever he talked about her. I was pissed that he spoke to her before she died and I…I could have done something to help her if I’d known. I could have found her, got help for her, if I hadn’t been so consumed with anger.
I didn’t want to be angry anymore. I wanted to know what happened to my sister.
Dominic had been asleep maybe a two, three hours when he suddenly cried out in his sleep. He jerked, his body stiffening at an odd angle. Then he cried out again.
“Dom,” I said, leaning close to him, touching his shoulder. “You’re okay, Dominic. Wake up!”
He cried out again and spun around, his hand closing on my throat so quickly that I had no warning. But almost the second he did it, he recognized me and pulled back, sitting up on his haunches.
“I’m sorry,” he said, running both hands over his head. “I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”
“No.” I sat up and reached for him, but my hand was cuffed to the headboard at such an angle that I couldn’t quite reach him. A pained look crossed his face when he saw that. He dug into his pocket and leaned close to me to remove the cuffs, his body pressed against mine for a long second as he worked the lock.
I touched his throat, running my hand slowly over the frantic beat of his pulse. And then I ran my thumb over his chin, touching his bottom lip with just the pad. I’d missed him. I knew I did; I knew that it was no coincidence that when I closed my eyes at night that it was his face that floated there. But I hadn’t realized how completely I missed him.
I loved him. He was the man I was going to build my future around. No matter what happened between us, I still loved him.
He got the cuff loose, and I pressed that hand, the cuffs still dangling from my wrist, against his chest. He groaned softly.
“Don’t, Amy.”
He took my wrists and pushed me back, climbing off of the bed.
“What happened to you?”
He hesitated, but he didn’t turn.
“What were you dreaming about? What did they do to you over there?”
He was quiet for a long moment. Then he turned and tossed the key to me.
“Get dressed. We have somewhere to be.”
He went into the bathroom, the sound of the shower immediately filling the small room. I removed the cuff and got up, padding slowly to the bathroom. I peeked around the partially open door and saw him climb into the shower, the length of his naked body thick and perfectly sculpted. When I knew him, he was nineteen, young and firm. But now…the military had built him up, made him buffer than he’d ever been before. But there were new things, tattoos and scars that hadn’t been there before. Again I was struck with this sense that he was so familiar, but so alien all at the same time.
Was he still my Dominic? Or had the military and time changed him into someone else?
Was it those changes that had driven him into my sister’s arms?
I stood there like some sort of voyeur and watched him bathe through the opaque shower door. He stood under the spray for a long time, clearly washing exhaustion away. Then he used the cheap, tiny sliver of soap the motel provided to wash himself and his hair. He opened the shower door, and I slipped the towel from around my body to offer him.
He stared at me, his cock—already partially erect—quickly responding to the sight of my nudity.
“Amy…”
I went to him, touching the tattoo above his heart that was a date only he and I would know, my fingers tracing the fancy scrolled numbers.
“When did you get this?”
He took hold of my wrist and pulled my hand back.
“Don’t do this.”
“What if it’s what I want? Will you deny me that, too?”
He only hesitated a heartbeat. He pushed me back, trapping me up against the narrow vanity that held the stained and cracked sink. His mouth was on mine, stealing what had always been his, his tongue slipping past my partially parted lips as if it belonged right where it was. He trapped my arms behind my back, his free hand sliding over my breasts, his fingers tweaking and twisting my nipples, drawing moans from between my lips. And his knee was forcing my legs apart, making me open to him in every way possible.
I wanted to touch him. I leaned into him, my breath coming in quick gasps, my need so intense that my body had forgotten how to do something as simple as breathe. I wanted to draw him to me, wanted to wrap my hand around his familiar length and pull him inside of me. My body knew him and had missed him in ways that I couldn’t really wrap my mind fully around. He was my first, my only. And I desperately needed to feel the pleasure that only he could offer.
He leaned me back, his mouth moving over my throat, his teeth tugging at the thin skin over my trachea. It was painful, but so good all at the same time. I moved my hips, telling him with my body that I was ready, that I wanted him. He pressed his head against me, acting as if he was going to take me, but then he backed off. I groaned and he sighed, moving back up along my throat to nibble at my ear.
“Tell me,” he whispered. “I want to hear you say it.”
“I want you. I’ve always wanted you.”
He groaned, as he stole my mouth again.
I felt his fingers brush me as he reached between our bodies to guide himself inside of me. The pressure was incredible, the feel of him pressed against me, asking for permission to enter. I wrapped my legs around him and tugged a little, moving my hips until he had no option but to thrust forward, to push his thick cock deep inside of me. I cried out as his mouth moved back down to my throat, the heat of his breath sending shivers of pleasure up and down my spine. He let go of my hands in favor of grabbing my ass in both of his and lifting me partially off of the vanity, encouraging me to move hard against him. I wrapped my arms around his neck, moaning as he moved into a quick rhythm, thrusting hard against me as I ground my hips against his. My clit felt like it was going to explode, even as he touched things inside of me that made my toes curl and my heart pound.
We were both lost in the pleasure of each other’s bodies, pulling and tugging at each other, our mouths giving voice to things we never would have expressed in any other situation. I could feel my orgasm building. I pulled him closer, moving my hips so that he barely had to move to get the friction just right. And then I cried out, my body quivering with the waves that blew through me. He held me, standing still as he waited for the moment to pass. I’d never truly appreciated before how difficult that must be for him. But I could see it now, the color in his face and the tension in his jaw, his shoulders, his ass. He watched me through hooded eyes, need radiating like heat from a fire.
When my body began to relax, the orgasm slowing, he untangled himself from my grip and turned me around, bending me slightly over the vanity. Then he entered me again from behind, his hands on my hips as he began to pound against me, forcing my thighs against the edge of the sink with incredible force. The pain mixed with pleasure, with the friction of his fingers on my clit. Another orgasm began to build as he lost control, pounding so hard that I would later have bruises across the front of my thighs.
He cried out as he reached his pinnacle, grinding his teeth against the intensity of his pleasure. I could feel him swell just a little more; I could feel the heat of his orgasm bathe me. He thrust a few more times, the friction pushing me over the edge again. My vision darkened ever so slightly, my ears ringing. And then it was over, our bodies connected, our breathing almost on the same frequency.
But then his phone began to ring, pulling us back into re
ality.
He stepped back, picking up the towel I’d given him off the floor and tossing it over my body.
“Get dressed. It’s time to go.”
Chapter 5
Dominic
Edgar was sitting at a table close to the kitchen, a drink in front of him that looked untouched. He was nervous. He hadn’t wanted to meet, but I gave him no choice.
“Hello, brother.”
He looked up, his eyes lost behind dark tinted glasses. He stood, taking my hand to pull me in and give me a pat on the back.
“Good to see you’re still alive.”
I stepped back and his eyes fell on Amy. He stiffened, stepping back so that he nearly tripped over his chair.
“Emily?”
“No. This is her sister, Amy.”
Edgar had paled noticeably under the glasses that seemed to cover his entire face. He studied her for a long moment before he slumped down into his chair.
“This was a mistake. You shouldn’t be here, and you definitely shouldn’t have brought her here.”
“I need to know what you know, Edgar. I need to know what Emily stumbled onto before they killed her.”
“They’re everywhere. They might be here, listening to us now.”
“I’m aware.”
Edgar looked around the room, checking out the twenty-something crowd that was undulating to music that was much too loud and much too vulgar to be considered true music. I turned a chair around and straddled it, leaning close to Edgar so that I was the only thing he could focus on.
“Tell me what she told you.”
“What makes you think she told me anything?”
“Because she trusted you. You would have been the first person she turned to with any information.”
Edgar inclined his head slightly. He glanced around the bar again, his eyes alighting on Amy where she stood behind me, then on me again.
“She looks so much like her.”
“Forget about her. Tell me what Emily said the last time she spoke to you.”
DRAGON SECURITY: The Complete 6 Books Series Page 35