by Renee Rose
He picked up her hand and brought it to his lips for a kiss. “How about this? I promise you that if I spank you for rolling your eyes at me, it will only be the fun kind of spanking. Can you live with that?”
She smiled in relief and a bit of excitement. “Yes,” she breathed.
At her place, he got out and walked up to the door with her. When she started to go in, he pulled her back onto the porch for a kiss. “You look tired, cara. I'm going to let you get your sleep.”
“Oh.” she was disappointed.
Dom's phone buzzed and he pulled it out, saying “Excuse me.”
She probably shouldn't have, but she looked over his shoulder to see him open a text from Fox.
Roxanna is looking for you.
Dom turned his phone off immediately as if to hide the message. “I've gotta go,” he said with a grim look on his face. He pressed the car key into her hand, gave her a quick peck on the lips and dematerialized without another word.
She stood there like an idiot on her porch staring at the place he'd just been. Her kitty Zapper twined around her ankles, happily purring, oblivious to her pain.
Who the fuck was Roxanna?
Chapter Seven
Dom materialized in the living room right after Fox texted him.
“What do you know?”
“I heard from Randolph. He said people have been asking around about whether you're still alive, and where you might be now. I'm telling you, you're the next target.”
“Fuck.” Dom breathed.
“Yeah.” He was relieved that Dom was taking him seriously this time.
“Who knows where we are? Besides Randolph?”
He shook his head. “Randolph only knows I'm in the Southwest. He doesn't even know which state. Honestly, I can't think who else. Some of Stella's people might know.”
“Is she here?”
He nodded.
Dom bellowed her name and she emerged from her wing of the complex.
“Fox hears people are asking where I am. Who do you know who knows where we are?”
Stella considered. Then she shook her head. “No one. I've been careful.”
“What have you found out about the vampires who have given up their property to Roxanna?” Dom asked, turning back to him.
“It seems they are changed. They're not the same vampires—it's like they're brainwashed by her to do her bidding. They all are acting like her minions.”
Dom steepled his fingers and looked thoughtful. “Maybe not brainwashed. Maybe it's bloodwashed. The question is, what does she need with the blood of old vampires?” he mused. “We know that older blood controls younger blood, particularly if the older vampire is the maker of the younger. Could she believe that by somehow drinking the blood of the older vampires, she will get a line on controlling all younger vamps? I've never made anyone, but she may not know that…”
“But still, the way an older vampire compels a younger doesn't affect their mind or personality,” Stella said doubtfully.
“No.” Dom said heavily.
“So how is she doing it?” Stella asked.
They both looked to Dom. He had always been the brains of their operation. They'd stuck by his side all these years mainly out of love and devotion, but also because they were attracted to his power. Despite the fact that he rarely demonstrated it, Dom was an extremely brilliant man who had gifts that went beyond ordinary vampire power.
Dom stood up now and paced around. “I don't know. Keep trying to get any details you can on the people who have been changed. I'll keep thinking on it, too.”
Dom stopped in front of Fox and looked down. Fox looked up. “Come here,” Dom said.
Fox furrowed his brow but stood up obediently. He felt like a child again when Dom would call to him to impart some piece of wisdom or remonstrance or praise.
Dom reached out and cupped the base of his skull with his two hands in the old Italian custom. He was all mafia don now. He looked him square in the eye. “You were right, Fox. I should have given you heed when you first spoke of it and I'm sorry.” Dom leaned forward and touched his forehead to his, pausing there for a moment. Then he pulled back and looked him in the eye again. “I am blessed to call you my friend. Thank you for looking out for me, even when I don't listen.”
Fox felt himself flush deeply and he couldn't speak. He wanted to shrug and say “it's cool,” except that it meant so much more to him than that, and he didn't want to belittle Dom's rather grand gesture of apology. Dom saved him by releasing him and turning to Stella. “So…how should we prepare?”
Stella gave a wicked grin. “Start sharpening stakes.”
* * *
Friday night, he could see Kate messing with equipment on the stage. Something was off. There was a tension radiating out from her. He hadn't seen or talked to her since he dropped her off the previous Sunday, although he'd left a few texts and messages for her, and had set up another body work appointment for her as a treat for finishing her paper.
He walked down the stairs and up onto the stage. She didn't look up from where she was crouched, fiddling with cords, although the tension increased so he knew she felt his presence. He put his hand on her back and she stiffened.
“What's going on, Kate?” he asked quietly, trying to catch her eye.
“Nothing,” she said breezily. “Just trying to set up here.” He looked around. It appeared already set up to him. From what he could tell, she was just fiddling with cords that were already plugged in.
“Kate.”
She stood up from her crouched position and looked at him. “Yeah?”
“What's wrong?”
“Nothing!” she exclaimed defensively.
He took her arm. “Come here,” he said, leading her across the floor and up the stairs to his office. He picked her up and sat her on his desk, caging her between his two arms as he leaned his hands on either side of her. “You're mad at me.”
She shook her head stonily.
He slammed his hand down on the desk, causing her to jump. “Dammit, Kate! Talk to me!”
“Who's Roxanna?” she demanded with narrowed eyes.
A wave of pure exasperation ran over him and he shoved himself away from the desk. “Oh Jesus Christ! You have got to me kidding me!” His voice was raised and he was waving his hands in the distinctly Italian way that he thought he had left behind him long ago. “You've been stewing all week over Fox's text to me?” he demanded.
She looked at him with wide eyes, obviously surprised at seeing him so animated.
“You couldn't just pick up your phone and ask me?”
He heard Fox clearing his throat from the door way. “Everything okay, Dom?” he said in a careful voice. It was fairly unusual for Dom to raise his voice unless he was really pissed off, so Fox was clearly there to run interference.
“Go away, Fox.” He threw out a hand and sent a wave of energy that slammed the door in Fox's face and locked it.
Fox materialized inside the office, next to him. “Dom,” he said in his very cautious tone. “Why don't you take a walk and come back to this conversation when you've calmed down a bit?”
He rubbed his face impatiently. Kate was looking from him to Fox with wide eyes. “Fox, I'm fine. Look,” he said and bared his teeth to show that his fangs were not extended.
Fox was standing very still but his eyes darted around, as if assessing what kind of risk factors were involved.
“I just need to talk to Kate. In private.”
“Okay,” Fox said slowly. “Why don't you take it down a notch and sit in the lounge where you can get comfortable?”
“Don't make me hurt you in front of Kate,” he said through gritted teeth.
Unfortunately, that threat just seemed to confirm Fox's fears. “Kate, why don't you wait for Dom downstairs?” he said quickly, puffing his chest up and trying to look around Dom to see Kate's face.
Now he was feeling his fangs start to extend in anger. He backed away from Kate and t
urned around, closing his eyes and covering his face with his hands. Deep breaths. Calm mind. He put his hands down and paced around, slowing his breathing. Finally he said in what he hoped was a calm and patient tone, “Fox. I am not going to hurt Kate. But the same is not true for you. I'm asking you nicely. Please. Leave.”
Despite all their fronting, Kate did not seem frightened by the confrontation. She looked extremely surprised, but not afraid. “I'm fine, Fox. I need to talk to Dom,” she said, finally throwing in her opinion. He sighed. Fox vanished.
He rubbed his face with his hands again. “To answer your question, Roxanna is a bitch of a vampire who is supposedly after me. It's dangerous business that I don't want you involved in, so please don't ask me about it again.”
Kate stared at him. He could feel a tangle of emotions from her. Relief and anger, mostly.
He stared back. “I told you we were exclusive, didn't I?” he asked in a quieter voice.
Tears shone in her eyes and he stepped in to embrace her. He held her for a long moment, stroking her hair and back until it felt like her emotions had settled down. He pulled back and tipped her face up to his. “It pisses me off that you were upset but didn't even ask me. You just tried and convicted me in your mind.”
She blanched at his rebuke and then her face took on a sullen look. “You didn't call or try to see me all week! Over the weekend I thought…I thought…I thought we maybe had something special,” her voice cracked and her eyes filled with tears again. He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “But then you totally blew me off. And I'd seen that text, so I just… got confused, I guess.”
He gave an exaggerated sigh, totally exasperated. “How can you think I blew you off? I left messages for you all week.”
“Yeah, but that was just work.”
He gave her an “are you sure?” look. She dropped her eyes.
“And what about you?” he demanded. “Did you call or visit me this week? Did you let me know that you were worried about who the hell Roxanna was?”
“I'm sorry,” she mumbled. “I guess I really overreacted.”
“Look at me,” he commanded and she lifted her eyes to his. “It is absolutely unacceptable for you to get upset with me over expectations you haven't communicated. Do you understand? If you want to get together, then you damned better well pick up your phone and use it. Okay?”
He felt a flash of anger from her. “Does that mean you didn't want to see me?”
Before he could help it, he growled, causing her to draw back sharply. He closed his eyes and stepped back from her, taking a deep breath. He let out an exhale and looked at her. “No. It means nothing of the sort. I was busy this week trying to figure out what exactly Roxanna's game is. But you would have been a welcome diversion.”
Kate still looked pouty.
“Listen, you're coming to my place after closing tonight. If you're going to throw fits like this every time we're apart, then I may just not let you leave.”
That won him the reluctant smile he was looking for.
“And don't think you're not getting a spanking for this.” He picked her up off the desk and turned her around, bending her over in the way he had that first night they were together. He lifted up her miniskirt and very slowly pulled down her panties. She was frozen completely, not even breathing, as far as he could tell. Her little bottom tightened and released in anticipation of feeling his hand. He gave her twenty hard swats that left her gasping, then rubbed before he pulled her panties back up and flipped the skirt back down. “You be good tonight, or there will be more where that came from,” he said when he'd turned her back around. He gave her a pat on the bottom. Her face was flushed pink and she looked like she couldn't speak. He wasn't sure if it was good to send her off so discombobulated.
He kissed her deeply, and she threw her arms around his neck and responded with enthusiasm. “That's my girl,” he murmured when they came apart. “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
He put his arms around her and held her close for a moment.
“I'm sorry,” she murmured. “You must think I'm the stupidest girl alive.”
“No. I don't. I think you're my girl. And I don't want you to forget it.”
He felt the love from her then, and knew they were okay.
* * *
She was wearing her new Victoria's Secret panties. They were pink and silver striped with the word “naughty” stenciled across the butt. Of course, Dom had already previewed them when he spanked her in his office earlier. Like always, it had made her knees go weak to have him bend her over and pull down her panties like that. The spanking itself had been pretty gentle—more of a warning or reset, than anything. But then he left her with the question of whether he'd be giving her another one later.
Sitting in the passenger seat of the Mercedes, she stole a sidelong look at him. The corner of his mouth curled just a little bit to let her know that he was aware of her spying, and probably that he knew what was on her mind, too. An involuntary shiver ran through her.
“Dom, I really am sorry about earlier.
“It's forgotten, amore.”
“You were really mad?” she asked, remembering how worried Fox had been for her.
“I was not mad,” he said a bit defensively, as if Fox were still there with them.
Fox had shaken his head when he saw her come down happily snuggled under Dom's arm. “All I can say,” he had said to her when they went on stage together, “is that I've never seen Dom so emotional in the entire time I've known him. You do something to him.” She'd been pleased to hear that and she filed that information away with a note to herself to quiz Fox later on the full history of Dom's past love life.
“Fox made me mad. Not you,” he clarified. “I was exasperated with you, that's all.”
She stared at his profile for a while without comment. Then she said, “Fox seemed worried about my safety.”
“Were you worried?” he asked, taking his eyes off the road to look at her.
She shook her head. “No,” she said softly.
“Good.”
She waited to see if he'd offer any more.
He sighed. “Fox isn't used to seeing me worked up about much, I suppose. I must have sounded similar to the way I do when I'm angry. And an enraged vampire should always be feared, even by his closest friends. Remember that, okay?”
She nodded. “Okay.”
When they reached Dom's residence, he led her through the marble-statued magnificence and opened the back door. “Come here, I want to show you something,” he said, leading her out to a beautiful courtyard and garden. It was all subtly lit with lights under trees and bushes, and there was a water feature, with a mini waterfall splashing down into a pond.
“It's beautiful,” she breathed.
“I have every type of night blooming flower I can grow here.”
She looked around. “Evening primrose,” she identified.
“Yep.”
“And night-blooming cereus. That grows well here.” There was something blooming in the pond. “What is that?” she asked pointing to it.
“A night blooming water lily.”
“That's not native.
“No.”
“Incredible.” She pointed to a large, dark-green leafed plant that spilled out of several pots. “Sacred datura.”
“Very good,” he said. “It probably won't bloom till August.”
“I don't know the names of any of the cacti. Are they all night-bloomers?”
He nodded. “Every one of them. This one is called flying saucer. It only blooms for one night. Over there are some other non-natives – moon flower and night gladiolus.”
“Did you plant all these yourself?”
He shook his head. “No, I hired a landscape designer. But I spend a lot of time out here communing with them.”
“Dom, I have a question for you.”
“Hmm?�
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“Why do you work at No Return? It seems to me like you have plenty of money and you have great staff over there—they could handle everything.”
“I work to force myself to get out and interact with people. If I didn't make it a point to work, I'd probably just hole up in my sculpture studio and turn into a hermit.”
She nodded. “That makes sense.”
She looked up at him and he caught her in his arms and kissed her. She felt the tips of his fangs on her lips as they elongated and she pressed her hips against his to feel his erection. She pushed him back into a comfortable outdoor lounge chair. “If you recall, I owe you a blow job.”
“Mmm. I had not forgotten.”
She unbuttoned his pants and freed his erection, kneeling between his legs and licked his cock from base to tip, keeping her eyes on his in what she hoped was a seductive look. He was uncircumcised and it was the first uncircumcised cock she had ever sucked. She realized suddenly that he had probably had a million blow jobs in his very long lifetime, and she wasn't sure how her skills would compare. She licked a few more long strokes before taking him into her mouth. She loved the feel of his thick length stiffening even more as she slid her warm mouth up and down it. She loved the sense of servitude that kneeling before him gave her and at the same time, the power of giving him pleasure. She worked it for a long time, her jaw aching to accommodate his width, her fingers massaging his ball sac, pressing and squeezing at the base of his penis as her lips moved up and down his cock. She could take most of its full length into her mouth without hitting that gag reflex when it hit the uvula. His endowments were more in the way of girth and her jaw was truly starting to lock up from the strain of sucking with it open so wide. She started to feel a bit anxious. How long would he take before he came? Was he used to hour-long blow jobs? Would he tell her what he liked so she could get there faster?
Dom must've felt her anxiety, because he laughed. “Come here, bambina,” he said, releasing her from duty. “I want to be in you.” He pulled her up to stand, turned her facing away from him and pulled her panties down, then lowered her to sit on his cock.