Chapter 14 #2
But I couldn’t stop. The words kept coming, driven by weeks of suppressed doubts and moral horror.
“That’s what I was, wasn’t it? Convenient.
That's why you disappeared for two months. You were preparing to abandon ship when things got complicated—because I was nothing but a means to an end that happened to become inconveniently personal.” My voice was shaking now, with anger and hurt and the terrible certainty of what I was saying. “You’re a bastard,” I breathed.
Dominic’s smile was sharp and predatory, all alpha dominance and barely restrained violence. “I’m your bastard,” he said, and then his hands were in my hair and his mouth was on mine.
The kiss was claiming and desperate, full of five days of bitter distance and unresolved conflict.
I tried to pull away, tried to maintain my anger, but his pheromones were flooding the car’s interior and I hated that my body still craved him, still responded to his touch despite knowing how our relationship had really begun.
“I hate that you don’t feel guilty,” I gasped against his mouth.
“Good,” Dominic said, his hands already working at my belt with practiced efficiency. “Stay angry. I want to feel how much you hate what I’m capable of.”
“You’re ruthless and calculating and—” My protest was cut off as his hand wrapped around my cock, and coherent thought became impossible.
“I’m effective at getting what I want,” he said, his voice rough with satisfaction as he felt how hard I was despite my fury. “Look how your body responds to me, even when you’re trying to hate me. You’re already leaking for me, baby.”
His thumb swept over the head of my cock, spreading the evidence of my arousal, and I couldn’t suppress the moan that escaped my throat.
“That’s it,” Dominic growled with dark satisfaction. “Tell me again how much you disapprove while you’re dripping wet for your bastard alpha.”
“Fuck you,” I managed, but my hips were already moving into his touch.
“No, sweetheart,” he said, his other hand sliding around me with predatory efficiency. “I’m not giving you my cock. I’m going to make you come while you tell me what a monster I am. And I’m not going to take anything for myself—I just want to watch you fall apart for me.”
His hands pulled me closer until I was all but straddling his thigh, the steering wheel digging into my leg.
The position put us face to face in the cramped car interior.
One hand kept working my cock while the other moved lower, fingers brushing my tailbone before pressing against my entrance with confident possession.
“You want this,” he said, his steel-gray eyes boring into mine as he pushed one finger inside me. “You want me, even knowing everything.”
“I hate that I want you,” I admitted with a snarl, my voice breaking on the words as he added a second finger, finding that spot that made me arch against him.
“I know,” Dominic said, his thumb working over the head of my cock while his fingers moved with deliberate precision. “And I love that you can’t help yourself. Just look how wet you are for me.”
He withdrew his fingers slowly and my body clenched at the sudden emptiness, a soft whine of protest escaping my throat.
He held his hand between us, my slick coating his fingers and catching the dim light as it dripped down toward his palm.
He held my gaze as his tongue swept across his fingers, a low rumble vibrating in his chest that made my cock throb harder against his palm.
“Delicious,” he said.
I released a shuddering breath. “Asshole.”
His mouth claimed mine again with bruising force while his hands mapped my body like territory to be conquered.
This wasn’t the careful tenderness that usually characterized our intimate moments—this was all teeth and demanding fingers.
Dominic’s low growls vibrated against my throat as my body arched into his touch despite every rational thought screaming otherwise.
“Tell me,” he demanded, his fingers finding my hole again and curling inside me while his other hand brought me closer and closer to the edge. “Tell me you’re mine.”
“I’m yours,” I gasped, because it was true despite everything else. “God help me, I’m yours.”
“That’s right,” he growled, his mouth finding the mating mark on my neck and biting down just hard enough to send electricity shooting through the bond. “Mine to protect. Mine to claim. Mine to keep safe, no matter what it costs.”
When I came, it was with his name on my lips and his low rumble of satisfied laughter in my ear, his fingers still moving inside me as I shuddered against him. He didn’t seek his own release, just held me through the aftershocks with possessive satisfaction.
When it was over, we sat in the quiet car, breathing hard.
“This doesn’t fix anything,” I said finally, my voice hoarse from shouting and other activities.
“I know,” Dominic replied, before pressing his lips to my forehead with unexpected gentleness. “But at least now you know that your moral outrage doesn’t change how much you want me.”
“And you know that my wanting you doesn’t mean I approve of what you did.”
“Fair enough.”
We were just beginning to straighten our clothes when the sound of running footsteps on gravel made us both freeze. Through the tinted windows, I could see someone approaching the car.
“Shit,” I muttered, frantically trying to make myself presentable.
“Leo! Dominic!” Penny’s voice called out, sharp with excitement and urgency. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you two!”
I quickly finished getting dressed and emerged from the car, trying to look like we’d just been having a private conversation rather than working out our conflicts through physical intimacy.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, hoping my flushed appearance could be attributed to the argument rather than what had actually happened.
His cotton candy scent was sharp with adrenaline, and his usually bright demeanor was replaced by something that looked like shock. “You have to come see this. Something’s happened at the demolition site.”
“What happened?” Dominic asked.
“I don’t know exactly, but they’ve stopped the demolition completely. They called Sheriff Hawkins. There are police cars coming.”
Dominic and I exchanged glances, our personal conflict temporarily set aside in the face of whatever new crisis was unfolding.
We followed Penny across the park toward the pharmacy, joining the crowd that had swelled to nearly a hundred people.
The demolition equipment sat silent, and I could see several workers standing in a cluster, talking in hushed tones with expressions that suggested they’d encountered something far outside their normal experience.
“What did they find?” I asked Margaret Tang, who was standing at the edge of the crowd with her phone out, apparently live-tweeting the morning’s events.
“Nobody knows for sure,” she said, not looking up from her screen. “But the excavator operator called his supervisor, who called the city inspector, who called the Sheriff. Something about structural irregularities in the foundation.”
Dominic moved closer to me, his protective instincts engaged by the crowd and the unknown situation. Through the bond, I felt his heightened alertness as he scanned for potential threats.
“There,” Penny said, pointing toward the pharmacy’s exposed foundation. “You can see where they broke through.”
I pushed through the crowd with Penny and Dominic flanking me, drawn by the same curiosity that had everyone straining to see what the excavation had revealed.
As we got closer, I could see the exposed foundation where the excavator had broken through what appeared to be a sealed section, revealing a dark hollow space beneath the building.
My craftsman’s eye automatically analyzed what I could see of the foundation work. I didn’t know much about brickwork, but the mortar joints showed signs of careful finishing.
Someone had definitely sealed this space on purpose.
Before I could answer, one of the police officers who’d arrived on scene approached with a powerful flashlight. “We’re going to need everyone to step back while we investigate what’s in there.”
I started to back away, but I was close enough to see when the flashlight beam illuminated the interior of the hidden space, and what I saw made my blood run cold.
Human skeletal remains, positioned as if they’d been placed there deliberately rather than buried accidentally. Even from this distance, I could make out the deteriorated remnants of clothing and, more distinctly, the gleam of metal that could only be a shoe buckle.
“Everyone back!” the police officer commanded, suddenly taking charge with practiced authority. “This is now a potential crime scene.”
The crowd began to murmur and shift, but I found myself unable to move. My attention was fixed on that buckle, on the distinctive shape and ornate design that I’d been studying and trying to replicate.
“Leo?” Dominic’s voice seemed to come from very far away. His hands were on me, pulling me away from that dark hollow space. The crowd pressed closer to the barriers, everyone straining to see what the excavation had revealed. Around me, voices rose in speculation.
I gripped Dominic’s arm, my hands shaking as the full weight of the discovery settled over me. My grandfather’s buckles. A hidden makeshift grave beneath the pharmacy.
“Dominic,” I whispered, my voice barely audible above the crowd noise. “I think I know who that is.”