“Excuse me for a moment.” I stood and made it over to the bathroom. I sat in the stall, head in my hands.
My father clearly had no idea about anything. In true form—just like our father—Colt had handled everything last weekend. It was all wrapped up so tight the whole thing felt almost surreal. If I hadn’t been awakened by the shouting, I wondered if I’d ever even have known Brock had broken into our house. Probably not. It was clear my father had no idea that a young man had died or that I’d almost been attacked in his home last weekend. I kept having dreams about that knife I’d seen in Brock’s chest. The gory pool growing around him. And what he might have intended to do with that knife to me.
And now this? Tonight was one week after the attack. This was the night Dom and I had planned to lift our self-imposed exile and start spending time together again. I needed him like I needed oxygen. I’d barely made it through the seven days without being in his arms. Now it turned out our parents were dating? What the hell?
I told myself I just needed to make it through this dinner. Then Dom and I would work something out. My father tended to switch up girlfriends like flavors of the month. Chances were good that by September he’d be on to the next one. This dinner was probably the worst of it.
I rejoined the table and things immediately got worse.
“We have something we want to tell you both.” My father beamed and my stomach plummeted to the floor. I could see Dom’s hand on a napkin, squeezing it so hard his knuckles turned white.
“We know it’s fast. But life passes fast, too. We don’t want to wait.” He paused to give Brandi a kiss, then turned to us to announce, “We’re getting married.”
I knocked a full glass of ice water all over my dress and I didn’t even feel it.
* * *
§
* * *
The day after the dinner, Dom didn’t take my calls. They went direct to voicemail and I had to stop myself from driving all around town like a madwoman looking for him. I didn’t know what we were going to do, but we had to see each other. We needed to talk and figure this out.
The next day, he finally picked up. “Dom, please, when can I see you?” I asked. “We need to talk.”
“Gigi, this is fucked up.”
“I know.” The tears I’d held back started coming at the sound of his voice. He asked me if I’d had any idea. Neither of us had had a clue.
“I knew she was seeing someone, but…” He trailed off, and I could fill in the blank. Both of us couldn’t believe, of all the people in all the world, somehow our parents had managed to find each other. And now they were getting married. It was too much to take.
“You know what needs to happen, Gigi.” I could hear it loud and clear before he’d even spoken the words. He was ending things.
“Dom, wait, I need to see you.”
“Gigi, I’m going to take off for a while. I think it’s best if I head out of town. For a bunch of reasons.” He bit back a bitter half-laugh.
“Dom.” My voice broke. “Don’t go.”
“Gigi, I’ve seen a lot of shit go down in my life, but this is next-level.”
I had to agree, and I hadn’t even, as he’d put it, “seen a lot of shit go down.” But this was bad no matter how you looked at it. Dom was about to become my stepbrother. As crazy as I was about him, I knew things between us had to end. And even as that thought felt like a swift kick in the gut, the rest was worse. I’d have to keep seeing him, at holidays, when he dated, maybe married another woman. The torture would never end.
“One last night, Dom,” I pleaded. “Come to me tonight. At least say good-bye.”
The silence on his end of the call stretched out so long I almost wondered if he was still there. Finally he answered, “I’ll see you tonight.”
I barely managed to get out of bed the rest of the day. I was a complete wreck. Penny thought I was upset over my father’s engagement.
“It’s pretty random,” she sympathized. “Did you even know he was dating her?”
“No,” I sobbed on the phone in my bedroom. She’d wanted to come over but I’d told her I wasn’t up to it.
“And she’s…from California?” I knew what Penny was getting at. Brandi was clearly not from the elite, jet-setting crew that made up our inner circle. Brandi seemed nice enough and she was a very attractive woman who’d clearly had some work done to enhance those attributes, but just as clearly she was not a Wellesley grad like my mom.
“I don’t know anything about her.” That was the truth. Dom didn’t like talking about his past. He’d let me know it was rough, he’d seen too much, and that was that.
Colt called to check-in, asked if I’d heard the news about Dad. He told me he’d be down the day after tomorrow. He’d spent most of the days after the assault at the house with me, then tried to convince me to head back to the city with him and stay at his place. I’d said no, thinking I’d be spending time with Dom. Now I thought maybe I would change my answer. I couldn’t imagine staying in the Hamptons on my own, nothing but memories haunting me.
I paced my room like a prisoner until midnight when I finally heard a tap at my window. Outside I saw Dom, who’d scaled the tower to get to his princess. It almost made me smile as I raced toward him, except I remembered it was the last time he’d do it.
I started crying the second I was in his arms, kissing him and crying and kissing him again. He held me like he never wanted to let me go, pressing me to him, kissing my tears away even as new ones flowed. I shook against him and he took me in his lap, sitting on the bed, stroking my back, kissing me until my sobs turned into a different sort, needy and urgent. My hands wrapped in his hair, along his shoulders, pulling at him, trying to get him closer to me.
“This has to end, Gigi,” he whispered to me, even as he dipped down to kiss my throat, licking me there like he was on death row and savoring his last meal. “Nothing can happen between us now. I’m going to go away.”
“Where?” My heart broke as I asked. Maybe I could find him, go to him wherever he was?
“It’s better you don’t know.”
&n
bsp; Tears streamed down my face as I buried it in his chest, inhaling him, pressing against his heat. He knew me too well. “So this is our last night together?” I asked, looking up at him.
He looked pained, his eyes dark and guarded, but he nodded. Yes. Then, hell, I was going to make the most of it. Without another word, I slipped off his lap and took off my T-shirt and shorts. In just my lacy panties, I climbed back on, straddling his large and powerful thigh. Running my hands up his chest, I looked up at him. “Then you’d better kiss me.”
He lips found mine, hot and needy, urgent with the passing of time. This would be the last night I had him like this. I didn’t want to waste a second. Pulling his T-shirt, I lifted it up and over his head. He was so magnificent, powerfully corded with muscle, fierce like a warrior. I covered every inch of him with kisses, licking my way along his tattoos, wishing I could brand them into my skin so I could always remember this moment, melding us together. He ran his hands along my curves, cupping my breasts, massaging and licking them, making an almost strangled sound of pain as he sucked on my hardened nipples.
“That feels so good, Dom,” I moaned, arching my back and pushing my chest toward his mouth. He took one of my breasts in his large, rough palm and held it to his mouth as I ground my slick, throbbing pussy into his thigh. It felt so good it made me restless with desire. I needed more. I needed him to take me farther. Watching my face, he brought his teeth down and bit my stiff nipple.
“Yes!” I screamed, feeling my pussy clench in response, wet heat pooling at my core. I needed to feel him possess me, devour me, claim me as his own as if we’d never be apart.