by Eve Langlais
Rather than reply to the guy, Dominick looked at Anika. “You want to talk to him?”
She pressed her lips tight.
He frowned, whereas Thomas chuckled. “She knows better than to piss me off.”
“Just go away, Thomas.” Spoken without the fire Dominick had already gotten used to.
What kind of shit had this douchebag put her through that she wouldn’t fight?
“Would you look at that? Nine o’clock, which means store-closing time. Let’s go, you knuckle-dragging twat.” Dominick didn’t wait for the idiot to argue. He reached for Thomas’s arm and twisted it behind his back.
“Ow. Let me go, asshole. This is assault.”
Dominick frog-marched him and whispered softly, “Assault would be me rearranging your face permanently.” As they reached the door, he shoved the guy out and watched him stumble. “Stay away from Anika.”
“I’m going to have you charged,” blustered Thomas.
“Go ahead. File charges. I guarantee it never goes to trial because they’ll never find your body.” He hoped his smile conveyed his seriousness.
The asshole gave him the finger. “You want the whore, keep her. She was a dud in the sack.”
“More like your dick was probably too small to satisfy. Maybe you should stick to inflatable girlfriends. They might not be as disappointed.”
The barb had the guy snarling as he stalked off. Pity. Had he stuck around, maybe Dominick could have goaded him into throwing the first punch. Then he could have legitimately knocked him out.
As Dominick returned to Anika, he caught her chewing her lower lip. He’d be more than willing to save her the trouble and bite it for her—along with other parts.
“Thanks.” Grudgingly said.
“I’m surprised you didn’t knock him out.”
“I can’t. Last time I did, it cost me.”
“Fucker sued you?”
She nodded. “He does shit on purpose to taunt me into losing my temper so he can milk me for more money.”
“Will you hit me if I say I don’t know how you ever married the guy?”
She rolled her shoulders. “He wasn’t always a dick. At least, not to my face. I should never have married him, but we had an accident when we were dating. I got pregnant.”
“Shit, you’re a mom?” He’d never have guessed.
She shook her head. “I lost the baby. But by then, we’d already gotten hitched because Thomas was determined that we not have a bastard. I tried to make it work for a while, but it got to the point where every time my phone rang, or someone knocked on the door, I was hoping it was someone coming to tell me he’d died in an accident. Before I started plotting his death myself, I asked for a divorce.”
“He doesn’t appear to have taken it well.”
“That scum-sucking bastard took everything I had and then some,” she huffed. “I’ve been trying to rebuild my life since, but he just won’t leave me alone.”
At her vehement statement, Dominick really wanted to chase after the fucker and beat the living crap out of him. Maybe dangle him from a tree and use him as bait for the wildlife. Pity he couldn’t get a hold of those ants he’d encountered from his time spent in that prison camp.
“If you ever need a hand dealing with him, I’d be more than happy.”
She shook her head. “This is my problem.”
For now. She didn’t know it, but it’d just become Dom’s, too.
“You look a little wound up. How about we go for a coffee and talk?” Said more gruffly than intended. Probably too soon.
She’d say no for sure.
He’d ruined his chance.
The longer she eyed him without replying, the more he braced himself. When her mouth opened, he expected her to say no, to give him an excuse.
Instead, she knocked him flat when she said, “Sure. Why don’t we go to my place and save ourselves the outrageous prices?”
8
Anika should have said no. Could have. Would have.
But the encounter with Thomas had left her simmering. Angry. And feeling a bit spiteful, too.
So she invited Dominick to her place, not sure what would happen.
Oh, for fuck’s sake. She knew what she wanted to happen, and Dominick was handy. She’d fuck him and send him on his way.
He didn’t reply immediately, and shame started heating within her. He must think her a whore. Or crazy, given she’d been giving him the cold shoulder.
“Are you sure?”
It surprised her that he’d asked. “Are you planning to kill me?”
“No!”
“Then, yes, I’m sure.” Had he been a pig about it, she would have probably changed her mind, but he seemed genuinely shocked.
He didn’t say much as he got into her car.
What was there to say? The wrong word might wake her to the insanity of what she did. She had to fill the void, though. “How did you like your first day of work?”
He uttered a choked laugh. “Okay, I guess. I mean, easy enough. Boring.”
“If it’s so boring, then why did you ask for the job?”
He glanced at her. “Because I wanted to be closer to you.”
Said every stalker in the world. What did it say about her that it gave her a cheap thrill?
“I still don’t like you.” She stared straight ahead.
“If it helps, my feelings toward you are complicated. Hell, my whole life is complicated.”
“Then why ask me out?”
“For the same reason I got a job at the store. I want to be around you.”
That had her snorting. “You just met me yesterday.”
“But I’ve known you longer.”
“I hadn’t seen you since high school,” she pointed out.
“True, but did you know I crushed on you for months before graduation?”
The claim drew her gaze. “Why? I hit you and told you to jump off a bridge.”
He shrugged. “What can I say? I liked that you said no.”
The excuse caused her to snort. “So, in other words, if I’d said yes back then, you’d have lost interest?”
He leaned closer to say, “If you’d have said yes, we would have made out, and you’d have become my girlfriend.”
“Until you went into the military.”
He shrugged. “Probably. I didn’t have the grades for college, and I wasn’t interested in anything else at the time.”
“What about now? And don’t tell me you plan to be a stock boy for life.”
“I don’t know. My brother Stefan works the bar scene, which I hate. Raymond is some techno-geek. They’ve both offered to help me find something, but…” He shrugged. “None of it interests me.”
“What do you like?” she asked him, more interested in his reply than expected.
“I liked the military.”
“Then why leave?”
He went silent.
“That bad, huh?”
He huffed a breath. “Yes, and no. I started having episodes. Blackouts. They claimed PTSD and medically discharged me.”
“You don’t sound like you believe the diagnosis.”
“Because despite all the wars and the things I did”—he rolled his shoulders—“it honestly didn’t bother me. And my nightmares weren’t about the missions.”
“What do you have nightmares about?” This was the most he’d talked, and she found herself curious to know more.
“I dream about not being myself.”
“Who are you?”
“Not who. What.” He laughed. “I dream I’m a fucking jungle cat of all things. Which is why they thought I was crazy. For a while, I was convinced I had something living inside me.”
“And now?” she asked.
“Now, I still feel as if my body is too small. When it gets to be too much, I jog.”
She pulled into the spot for her apartment, the basement of a converted house. She paused, wondering if she should have driven them to a motel,
only she didn’t have that kind of cash. And really, best let him see the real truth of her life.
Maybe he’d save them the bother and run.
He got out, and while he glanced around, he said nothing.
They entered her apartment, and she felt shame for a moment. Embarrassment at its shabbiness. But it was clean. She might be poor, but you could damned well eat off her floor.
He didn’t say anything disparaging. Nor did his expression convey any kind of disgust.
He pointed to her kitchen. “How about I get a pot of coffee started while you change?”
Did he seriously still think this invitation to her place was about coffee?
Since he apparently needed a stronger hint, she grabbed him by the shirt and mashed her mouth to his.
For a moment, he stilled, frozen against her.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“Sex, if you’d ever shut up.”
“But—”
She slid him some tongue before she changed her mind.
He got the hint and kissed her back, his mouth hard and insistent against hers.
Passion erupted, the kind that soon had them panting against each other. Sucking at tongues. Biting at lips.
She had a bed, but they didn’t make it to the bedroom. His hands spanned her waist, and he lifted her until her ass hit the Formica. Her knees spread to accommodate his body. With her new spot on the counter, he had to bend a bit to keep kissing her. Not that he had a choice given the way she had her hands clamped around his neck.
As their harsh breaths mingled, her pulse raced, and her pussy throbbed. She wanted this more than expected.
He dragged his mouth from her lips to her jaw then drew them over to the lobe of her ear. Tugging it. Sucking it. She uttered a mewling cry, and he growled against her, the sound making her shudder with need.
His mouth returned to crush hers, nipping and sucking, driving her crazy with passion.
She clung to him, her legs around his waist drawing him against her. She could feel him. Hard and ready.
Wanting her.
Just like she wanted him.
She tugged at his shirt and shoved it up, baring his flesh to her touch. Not just her fingers, though. She kissed his chest. Dug her nails into his skin once he removed the shirt. She licked around his nipples and felt a thrill at his low groan.
He wasn’t content to just let her play.
His hands, big and callused, removed her shirt and then traced over her ribcage, drawing shivers of pleasure. He grumbled when her bra gave him trouble, but he managed to undo the clasp. The moment he freed her breasts, he cupped them, his thumbs stroking over the taut peaks. She leaned back, and he took the invitation. He dipped his head and claimed one of her buds.
His hot and wet mouth sucked and tugged at her nipples, pulling at them with his lips. He bit them lightly enough to draw gasps. He swirled his tongue around the buds before sucking them.
She held him by the belt loops and used her leverage to grind against him as he played with her nipples.
Arousal rode her hard, more than she imagined. Almost enough to be frightening, and yet, at the same time, she couldn’t stop.
Wouldn’t.
She wanted what he offered.
Needed to feel desired. Wanted pleasure.
His mouth left her breasts to blaze a trail down her stomach to the waistband of her pants. She throbbed, and yet he paused.
A glance through heavy-lidded eyes showed him peering at her.
She managed a husky, “What are you waiting for?”
He groaned, the sound reaching her through the fabric of her pants as he put his mouth on her.
Jesus, the heat. She moaned. Trembled. Then cried out as he blew even more hotly.
“Dom.” She whispered his name, and it had him in a frenzy, his hands tugging at her pants. She heard fabric tearing as he managed to get them down.
“Fuck me, you smell so good.” He growled just before his mouth pressed against her sex.
She cried out and arched, would have slid off the counter if not for his hands.
He held her safe so that he might pleasure her, his tongue swiping across her pussy. Lapping at her cleft. Parting her lips to jab at her core.
Her fingers scrabbled for purchase on the counter as her hips rocked in time to his licking. He held her spread wide and where he wanted so he could feast.
But he didn’t just play with her clit. He suddenly fingered her. His rough finger penetrating and drawing a raw cry as she arched into his thrust.
He kept lapping at her clit as he slid a second finger in to stretch her, the digit long enough to reach that spot inside.
Stroke it.
Push at it.
Licking.
Thrusting.
Desire coiled. She panted as she reached the edge.
And then he growled against her, “Come for me, Annie.”
Her orgasm exploded, a tensing spasm that hit her whole body and emerged on a scream.
She pulsed around his fingers, and he hummed in satisfaction against her, drawing it out until she whimpered.
“Too much.”
He stood and dragged her close for a kiss where she could taste herself. But she didn’t care. She throbbed. Pulsed. And she knew he did, as well.
She tugged at his belt then his pants. Reaching in to grab him, she heard him hiss.
Just as she was about to ask for a condom, his phone went off, the ring of it an insistent distraction.
He ignored it as he kissed her. She rubbed her thumb over his tip and said, “You got prot—?”
Dring. Dring.
His phone went off again, and he cursed. “Fuck me, why now?”
“I guess you better answer.” She released him as the moment shattered.
He looked wild, passion still in his gaze, the slight hint of a pout on his lips. “I don’t want to fucking answer. I want to be inside you.”
She wanted it, too.
The phone stopped ringing but just as quickly started again.
He sighed. And then sighed again as he pulled it from his pocket and answered.
She didn’t hear anything but saw his expression as it went from smoldering to cold and hard. He hung up and growled, “I gotta go.”
“Oh.” The word sounded more dejected than she liked, and to her surprise, he drew her close for a deep kiss and a grumbled, “Not leaving ’cause I want to, Annie.”
Annie. She liked the way he softened her name.
“Need a ride?” she asked.
“No. My brother is coming to grab me.”
“How does he know you’re here?” She’d not heard him give an address.
The furrow in his brow matched his curled lip. “Fucker tracked my phone.”
“Is everything okay?”
“My little brother is missing. And I gotta help find him.” He dragged her to him and gave her another fierce kiss. “I will see you tomorrow.”
He would?
For once, she didn’t argue.
“Fuck me, this sucks,” he grumbled as he left.
Whereas she touched her lips.
What had just happened?
The best sex of her life with a guy who usually said the stupidest things with his mouth. But he sure knew how to talk to her pussy.
9
Stefan was the one to pick him up. With it being just the two of them, Dominick could ask better questions.
“Why does Mom think Tyson is missing?”
“Because he might be mouthy, but he’s always home by his nine o’clock curfew on school nights.”
“It’s only ten p.m.”
“You want to repeat that to Mom?” was Stefan’s wry reply.
Dominick grimaced. “Any ideas where he’s gone?”
“Raymond tracked his phone to a spot in the woods. It’s not moving.”
“Doesn’t mean shit. Could be he’s out there drinking, or he’s with a girl.”
Stefan slanted him
a look. “Is this your way of trying to get out of searching? Because if you want, I’ll turn around and drop you off.”
“No.” But he didn’t say it in a happy tone. His gut said that Tyson was in trouble, and he knew better than to ignore it. It’d never steered him wrong, although it should be noted that it currently steered him in Anika’s direction. He wanted her something fierce. Would have gladly gone back to her arms but for one thing.
Mom.
“What time did little bro leave the house?” Dominick asked to get a better sense of what might have happened.
“Sometimes before nine. According to Mom, he came down for a snack. She went up to bed to read. Noticed that he wasn’t in his room when she went down to make sure everything was locked up.”
More like she waited for Dominick. She didn’t like to go to sleep until her babies were home.
“Is he a drinker?” Dominick had to ask. He’d not spent much time here in the last few years. Not enough to know, at any rate.
Stefan shook his head. “A few beers. Mostly to fit in, I think. But I have caught him smoking weed.”
Dominick slapped the dashboard. “Little fucker. That would explain the package I got, then. Someone mailed an anonymous bag of green to me.”
“No shit.” Stefan breathed the words. “Is it any good?”
“How would I know? I don’t do drugs.” Not since the blackouts.
“Maybe you should. You might lighten up,” Stefan observed.
“I’m fine. I don’t need to get high.” Didn’t need to wake up with blood on his chin again. Because it wasn’t enough that he’d had one episode. When they took him off active duty, he’d smoked another from that stash and woke up in the local market, amidst a pile of fish.
“If you say so. How’s Anika?”
Heat warmed his face, and he shifted in the passenger seat. “She’s good.”
“Uh-huh,” was all Stefan said, and yet it bugged Dominick.
“Stay away from her.”
“Marking your territory?” His brother smirked at him. “Not to worry. Even I have some scruples.”
Remorse hit him as he realized that he’d implied his brother would betray him that way. Stefan was many things but never a hurtful bastard to his family.