by L. A. Casey
He brushed a light kiss over my mouth before pulling back. "Do you understand why I do what I do now?" he asked.
I nodded. "You're protectin' your brother."
Dominic kissed my forehead. "I knew you would understand once I told you everything."
I gave him a hard look. "That is everythin', right? There is nothin' else you're keepin' from me?"
Dominic shook his head. "You know everything about my past, most of it isn't even mine, it's Damien's, but you still know about it."
I nodded my head and released a huge breath. "I do understand it, but I'm still processin' it. It's a big pill to swallow."
Dominic rubbed my crossed legs. "I know, baby."
I remained quiet for a moment then asked, "Are you and Damien goin' to school as a cover for the 'family business' to make your family look normal?"
Dominic snorted. "No, we want to go to school. It's the only normal thing in our lives that we can control."
I nodded my head then thought of his brothers.
"What do the other lads do for Marco if you fight for him?"
Dominic chewed on his lip before he said, "Kane is his debt collector and what Marco calls his bruiser. If someone is late on payments or just in need of a 'talking' to, then Kane is the man Marco sends in to get the job done."
I gasped. "But Kane is lovely!"
Dominic grinned a little. "You've seen his scars, he didn't get them from being lovely."
Holy shite!
Kane with his big beautiful smile hurt people for this Marco creep. It was his bit to help keep Damien safe, I got that, but still, it was beyond shocking!
"Alec, what does he do? If you tell me that the flirt hurts people then I will go to the corner and just cry."
Dominic laughed. "Alec, fight people? Get real, he fucks Marco's problems away, literally."
I stared at Dominic. "You better fuckin' explain that."
Dominic rubbed his eyes. "Marco deals in things from drugs to weapons to all types of entertainment, including, but not limited to, fighting and sex."
I stared at him still waiting for him to get to Alec's role in all this.
Dominic laughed and scrubbed his face. "Alec is an escort for Marco's clients, Bronagh. Usually the wives or husband of his clients, his job is to keep them happy."
"WHAT?!" I screamed.
Dominic jumped with fright then laughed. "Out of everything I just told you, that is what freaks you out?"
No, but still!
"Alec is gay?" I asked, shocked beyond belief.
Dominic shook his head. "He is bisexual."
Oh, my God.
"I did not pick up on that at all, I thought he was straight," I stated.
Dominic snickered. "He loves pussy and cock, the greedy fucker simply can't choose between them."
I blinked at him then opened my mouth to speak only to close it again. Dominic laughed at this while I just sat next to him in shock.
"So you're an underground fighter; Kane is a bruiser and Alec is an… escort. Am I right so far?" I asked then shook my head.
There was a sentence I never thought I would hear myself say.
"Yeah, and Ryder runs drugs and weapons for Marco, so he is technically a drug and weapons dealer."
Oh, my fucking God!
"And Damien?" I squeaked.
"And Damien's nothin', he isn't involved with Marco. It's part of our deal to keep him safe. He keeps out of everything while we deal with it."
I blew out a breath. "Thank God one of you is normal."
Dominic moved and had me on my back with himself nestled between my legs in only a few seconds. "What's not normal about me, pretty girl?" he teased.
"You're supposed to be an eighteen-year-old foreign exchange student, not a secret underground fighter who is tied up with one of the most dangerous men in the entire world!" I wasn't shocked that my eyes filled with tears, and neither was Dominic because he had a bit of a grin on his face when my tears fell, which made me think of him as a huge bastard.
Dominic pressed his forehead to mine. "I was wondering when the tears were going to come. I'm surprised you got through me telling you everything without crying."
I sniffled, "Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Dominic laughed at me which made me lightly chuckle.
He kissed my nose. "I know this shit is crazy and hard to believe and hard to accept, but I need you to trust me, okay? I know what I'm doing; I can handle this."
"I do trust you. I can't believe all this shite, but I trust you on it."
He kissed me then and kissed me hard, but stopped when I reached down and not so gently gripped his dick in my hand and squeezed.
"Fuck! Why are you doing that?" he shouted.
I released him and grinned when he whimpered a little on top of me.
"You just told me some of the most shocking things I have ever heard my entire life and you're trying to kiss me like that while I'm trying to process it? Get fucked, you bloody eejit," I snapped.
Dominic was laughing and wincing at the same time when he rolled off me and cupped himself. "I live you, pretty girl," he said through his pain.
I rolled my eyes and turned over. "Live you too, Fuckface."
"This is the first time you have come to school on a Monday with no fresh bruises on your face in weeks," Miss McKesson said to me as I entered her classroom on Monday morning.
I was a little surprised that she was in class already; I am usually the first person in here.
I forced a smile to the miss, but didn't say anything to her.
She nodded her head towards the door. "Will you pop down to the main hall and give Alannah and some others a hand with some things down there?"
I furrowed my eyebrows. "A hand with what? What is she doing down there when school doesn't even start for another ten minutes?"
The miss smiled. "Her and some other students are gettin' a head start on gettin' the hall ready for the Christmas concert. It's only a week away after all."
I widened my eyes. "Holy shite, the dates really got away from me. I had no idea Christmas was so close."
The miss frowned at me. "You have been a little detached in school lately, so I'm not surprised some things slipped your mind."
I swallowed. "Some things at home had my attention, but everythin' is fine now." I shook my head and chuckled a little. "I feel like my head has been buried in the sand to not know it is almost Christmas time."
The miss snorted. "It happens to the best of us."
I nodded my head then looked to the door. "I'll go help Alannah and the others then."
The miss waved me on. "Brilliant, the rest of the class will be down to help when the bell rings in ten minutes."
I nodded and left the classroom and headed down the empty hallways until I came to the main hall entrance. I thought it was funny that in ten minutes these hallways would be flooded with students, but now it was like a silent ghost town. When I entered the hall it was anything but silent though.
I inwardly groaned when I spotted Micah bossing some of her friends and classmates around while Alannah was off to the side painting some of the Christmas posters. I would rather help out by doing something by myself but if I had to choose between helping Alannah or Micah, I would pick Alannah every time.
"Hey," I said when I got to her side.
She glanced at me and widened her eyes a little when she seen it was me stood next to her and saying hello.
"Hey me?" she asked and glanced around us to see if I could be talking to someone else.
I nodded and she smiled wide. "Hey back, Bronagh. Are you here to help?"
I nodded again, and she clapped her hands together. "Brilliant, you can help me get this poster done if you want to? You don't have to, of course, you can do somethin' else if you want to be alone and-"
"Alannah," I cut her off, chuckling at her. "Helpin' with the poster is fine."
She stared at me. "Really? It is? You know I'll be here right ne
xt to you helpin' too, right?"
I smiled at her again. She was being very nice and considerate, offering me an out to work on my own so I wouldn't feel uncomfortable being so close to her, but it wasn't necessary. I didn't think Alannah was the type to ask me a million questions or randomly strike up a conversation to fill the silence, and that was a cool person by my standards.
"Yep, I'm aware that you will be next to me," I chuckled again.
Alannah only continued to stare at me, but when she blinked and shook her head a little she seemed to snap out of it. She turned and picked up a clean paintbrush then turned backwards in my direction and handed it to me.
"Thank you," I said.
Alannah just nodded and smiled before pointing to the blank section of the poster and pushed some red paint my way. "I was thinkin' you could fill in the title words with red paint then use a smaller brush to outline them in black paint? We can swap though if you want to?"
I looked at what she was doing and felt my jaw drop open. "Did you draw that reindeer?" I asked, my voice a little higher than it was a few seconds ago.
Alannah nodded her head. "I drew up all the posters with the art teacher, Mr. Wall, last week. No one else in art class wanted to help so it was just the two of us. I drew the animals and other little characters, and Mr. Wall did the all the wording in a stylish font and filled in the background with mistletoe and stuff. It turned out nice, didn't it?"
Understatement.
I nodded my head. "It really did. Seriously Alannah, it looks brilliant!"
Alannah blushed and gave a modest shrug. "Thanks, I'm afraid I might ruin them though with the paint, so that's why it's takin' me awhile to paint them. I'm bein' extra careful," she chuckled.
I blew out a breath. "I'm goin' to get chairs for us to sit on while we paint 'cause there is less chance of us makin' a mistake that way."
Alannah gave me a thumbs up. "Good thinkin', Sherlock."
I grinned. "Anytime, Watson."
Alannah shook her head and laughed while I moved over to the folded up chairs hanging on their hooks on the hall wall and lifted two off. They were light chairs so carrying them wasn't a problem. When I got back to Alannah and our worktable, I opened them up and looked over to Micah and her crew as I did so. She was sat cross-legged on the floor while she instructed her friends on what to do. They were decorating the big Christmas tree that goes to the back of the hall; it's huge, so it has to go there. I shook my head at how bossy Micah was. She was literally directing where her friends placed decorations on the tree instead of helping herself and just placing them anywhere.
I turned back to Alannah, and we got to work on our poster. Five minutes passed by when the bell for first period rang aloud. I jumped a little, and almost went outside the lines with the red paint, making Alannah laugh.
"Fuck," I gasped.
"Shite, that was too close," she cackled.
I lost it when she started laughing like that and burst into a fit of giggles which only made her point at me and laugh harder. We were still chuckling when shadows appeared over our worktop, and like a sixth sense, I knew he was there before I even looked to check.
"What do you want, stalker?" I asked without turning around while Alannah looked over her shoulder to see who was behind us. She blushed a little before going back to her section of the poster after she had seen who was there. Her blush and small smile gave away that Damien was standing behind us as well. I've noticed her doing that a lot when he looked at her over the last few weeks in class.
"Stalker? If you're going to title me with something, I think you should go with magic fingers."
Damien laughed while Dominic grunted thanks to the elbow I threw back into his stomach. He put his arms around me and leaned his head down to kiss my cheek and nuzzle his nose into my neck, inhaling. I closed my eyes and embraced the butterflies that consumed my stomach.
I shivered when he nipped my neck with his teeth, which made me moan a little.
I nudged his head with mine. "Go make yourself useful. You and Damien can help with the heavy liftin'."
Damien laughed then said, "You just want to see me work, pervert."
I snorted and glanced to his grinning face. We hadn't talked about any of the stuff that was told to me last week, even though he knew I knew about what he did, and we didn't have to. It didn't change my opinion of Damien; he was still a sweetheart and was rapidly becoming one of my favourite people.
"Oh yeah, because you're so hot I just need to see that body of yours do some hard labour."
Damien shot me a smirk while Dominic bit my neck again. "Cut out the flirting, bitch."
I rolled my eyes but grinned. "If you make me mess up on this picture I am goin' to kick your arse."
Dominic stood up straight and leaned over to check out what I was doing and kissed me on the head. "It looks good, babe."
I pointed to Alannah. "She drew up all the posters, I'm just fillin' in the lines with paint."
Damien moved behind Alannah and looked at her section of the poster and whistled. "Damn, Lana, you drew these?"
Lana?
Alannah face went purple. "No, not all by meself. Mr. Wall did the letters, mistletoe, and holly."
Damien grinned. "So you drew the awesome animals and characters?"
Alannah shrugged her shoulders so I reached over and shoved her a little. "Stop bein' so modest."
She pulled a face at me, and then flicked her eyes up towards Damien who was still behind her looking down at her work. I thought it was some type of girl code gesture, but I honestly had no clue what it meant so I cleared my throat.
"Lads, go help the girls with the tree. We have this under control," I said and gestured them to move on.
Dominic crunched down to my side and nudged me with his forehead. "I missed you last night, again. I'm thinking of just sneaking into your room at night so I can be with you."
Was he trying to reduce me to an emotional mess?
I smiled and leaned into him. "It's probably best you don't stay over, I'm startin' to lose an ongoin' battle within myself, and you bein' next to me will make me cave instantly."
Dominic eyes locked onto mine. "What battle?" he whispered.
I smiled as I leaned in and licked his bottom lip. "A personal battle to not fuck you until we are together longer."
Dominic audibly groaned and latched onto my bottom lip with his teeth making me hiss in pain and him grin. "That will teach you control that filthy mouth while we're in school."
I snapped my teeth at him making him grin as I said, "Go on, get."
"If I didn't know any better I would think you're trying to get rid of Dame and me."
I smiled. "Would I do such a thing?"
"Yes," Dominic and Damien said in unison, making me roll my eyes.
"Go on, get," I repeated, shooing them away.
They both did as I asked and left chuckling.
I looked to Alannah who was also flicking her eyes over her shoulders watching the twins leave.
"What was that about?" I asked her.
"I was about to stop breathin'! Did you see how close he was to me?" she whispered.
I chuckled at her. "Yeah, he also called you Lana. Is that your preferred nickname or somethin'?" I asked.
She shrugged. "No one has ever called me that but Damien. He randomly started callin' me that last week in class. I like it though, I've never had a nickname."
I smiled, and stored that bit of information away. "So if I said you liked him-"
"You would be absolutely correct, but please don't tell him or Nico, I try me best not to be obvious about it," she said and flicked her eyes around us making sure we were still out of hearing range.
I raised my eyebrow at her. "Why not just be honest with him?"
She sighed. "You know he doesn't do relationships. He has been with more girls than I care to count since he moved here, and even though I really like him, I'm not about to be added to his 'hit' list."
; I laughed at her meaning but nodded my head. "I understand what you mean. Dominic was a slut too before we got together. If he can change, then so can Damien. Don't give up hope is all I'm sayin'."
Alannah sighed and went back to painting. I joined her but kept flicking my eyes towards her every so often.
"What?" she eventually asked me with a sigh.
I smiled to her. "I didn't say anythin'."
"Why are you lookin' at me and smilin' then?" she asked.
I shrugged and gestured to what we were doing. "I kind of like this."
"Paintin'?" Alannah questioned.
"The paintin' is fun but I meant the talkin' part with you. It's nicer than I thought it would be," I admitted.
Alannah laughed. "I'm not like everyone else in school, Bronagh. I don't judge you, because you prefer to be on your own. If it makes you happy, then leave you be I say."
"I always liked you for that; you always respected me and never bugged me into talkin', makin' friends, or doin' anythin' to make me uncomfortable," I said, smiling wide only to frown and blow out a big breath. "I wasn't happy on my own though; being with Dominic is makin' me realise I wasn't really livin' at all, I was just existin' and not even in a fun way. I am literally way out of my comfort zone by bein' with him, and every day I'm venturin' further away from it. I mean, an example is just sittin' here and talkin' with you. Oh and a bigger example is that Gavin Collins is me friend now, how crazy is that?"
Alannah smiled. "Not crazy, just extremely lucky because Gavin is a hottie!"
I laughed. "I agree. I can try and set somethin' up for you-"
"Oh, Jesus, no!" Alannah cut me off, making me laugh.
She smiled at me then. "I appreciate the offer to help, I really do, but since I can't have the one person I want in the way I want him, I'm just gonna steer clear of lads and focus on preparin' for the Leavin' Cert. It's only six months away after all."
"Why did you have to tell me that?" I whined.
Alannah rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up! You're probably the most prepared student for those exams out of the entire group of sixth years!"
I snorted. "Okay, I'm probably a bit more prepared, because before Dominic happened I literally just did school work and revision all the time, but now that he is in me life I've noticed that I haven't picked up a book in weeks! Havin' a boyfriend durin' this year in school is probably goin' to kill me."