Chapter 4 - Dom
Dom
THE AIR WAS icy enough to freeze my lungs, but the fire burning in my chest made the cold irrelevant.
Eunice was walking beside me, her breath coming out in pale bursts that the cold turned visible.
Her fingers had gone that bloodless, shock-cold that comes when everything inside you shuts down, but where I’d touched her arm to pull her outside, I could still feel traces of warmth.
My handprint on her skin, evidence that I’d dragged her away from watching her own heart break in real time.
“You have a car?” She stopped when she saw my BMW, her eyes widening.
“Rental,” I lied.
The word tasted wrong. I hated starting us with dishonesty.
But I wasn’t about to tell her I’d spent ten hours driving through snow because of someone I barely knew.
That would sound exactly like the stalker behavior it was, and she had enough weight on her shoulders without adding that to the pile.
It started the moment I saw her yesterday morning. I told myself it was curiosity. Then I pretended I was just watching out for someone who reminded me of the younger, stupider version of myself.
Lies. All of it.
The truth was, I recognized my own brokenness in her, and the part of me that lived deeper than thought or reason needed to protect it. To protect her. Like if I could keep her safe, maybe all the broken parts of me weren’t beyond saving either.
She wrapped her arms around herself, that pink jacket making her look like she’d shatter if you held her wrong.
“Get in,” I said, keeping my voice low to hide the violence that wanted to erupt at the thought of the man she’d left inside.
She obeyed without argument, sliding into the passenger seat. I walked around to the driver’s side, taking my time. She needed a moment to pull herself back together, and I needed a moment to understand what the hell I was doing.
When I slid behind the wheel, she was staring straight ahead, her jaw set hard. The muscle in her cheek was tight, like she was holding back a dam that wanted to burst.
I started the engine and cranked the heat. The silence was suffocating, heavy with her pain. It radiated off her, and I felt every pulse in my bones. I knew that pain. The one that comes when someone makes you feel small and stupid for wanting them.
It took a lot of effort not to go back in there and rearrange his teeth. The leather of the steering wheel creaked, and that was when I snapped out of my murderous thoughts.
“You can talk to me,” I said as I pulled out of the parking space.
The second the words left my mouth, I immediately wanted them back.
Who says that to someone they barely know?
I sounded like a creep. I didn’t recognize this version of myself.
A man who would follow a woman just to make sure she held herself together.
But looking at her now, small and hurt and trying so damn hard to hold herself together, I didn’t care about the logic.
All I knew was that I wasn’t leaving her alone.
“You don’t know me,” she said, letting out a sound that might have been a laugh if it didn’t sound so broken.
“I know that dickhead would rather have a dinner date with his phone. He’s a fucking idiot.”
“You were watching?” She turned to me, red blooming high on her cheeks.
“Hard not to see.” I didn’t apologize for being there. I also didn’t pretend it was an accident. “You looked like you needed an exit.”
“It wasn’t anything... we were just talking.” From the corner of my eye, I noticed her start to pick at the hem of her jacket.
“Would you rather it had been more?” I asked.
We passed the main strip, Christmas lights blinking cheerfully in shop windows, so in contrast to the mood inside the car. She didn’t answer. She’d gone quiet again, but I knew she was thinking, processing, trying to make sense of everything.
I usually felt nothing around people. My father had successfully beaten the empathy out of me years ago, leaving just a cold, functional blueprint where a person should be. I watched people laugh or cry and only felt white noise where emotion should live.
But with her, it was different. Her disappointment felt like mine, like it belonged to me somehow. Her pain, I could feel it in my bones, like an old break that never healed right. I couldn’t explain it. But being beside her was also the first time in years I hadn’t been holding my breath.
“I can make you forget,” I said, the words slipping out and shocking us both.
“W-what?” Her voice trembled, and I watched her throat work as she swallowed hard.
Damn. I should take it back. I gripped the steering wheel harder. Take it back. Just say you misspoke. But when I opened my mouth, something else came out instead.
“I’m saying I can make it better. Make him irrelevant.”
Every muscle in my body pulled tight, demanding I stop the car right here, turn to face her, and show her what it looked like when a man actually paid attention. When someone saw her as more than just a convenience. No way I was letting her drown in this by herself.
“I can be whatever you need. A distraction. A reset button. Something to focus on that isn’t him.” I pulled into the empty lot of Tee’s Diner, the neon sign bleeding red across her face. “Tell me how deep you need me to go, and I’ll dig him out.”
I turned just enough to meet her eyes, and what I saw there sent a jolt straight to my groin.
Her lips were parted, her breath coming in shallow pants. Although her gaze darted to the door handle like she might run, she didn’t. The warm air from the vents blasted, and it carried her scent right to me. Not perfume, but the slick, sweet smell of a woman getting wet.
She was aroused.
Despite everything, despite the tears still threatening to spill and the hurt radiating from her, her body was responding to me.
“Y-you’re funny,” she whispered, though she looked anything but amused. She looked confused and tempted and scared of how much she wanted this.
“I’m told I have better qualities.” I kept my voice light. “What do you need, Eunice? Tell me and I’ll make it happen.”
Silence followed the question.
“I don’t understand.” She shook her head after a while. “Why would you... I should go back. Derek might wonder—”
“No, he won’t.” The words came out harsher than I meant them to. But I had to do it. I had to deliver the message. “We both know that loser isn’t wondering anything about you.”
Her face crumpled for just a second before she caught herself.
“You deserve better than what you’re settling for,” I said, my voice gentler now. “Forget him. Or keep him in your head if you want. But you can use me to get him out of your system.”
“I... I don’t even know what to say to that.”
“Don’t say anything.” I leaned closer, close enough to smell the faint sweetness on her skin, to feel her heat. “Just take what you need. Use me however you want—for anger, for distraction, for proof that someone sees you.”
My hand moved to the headrest, settling next to where her neck curved. I kept that sliver of distance, but she’d feel me there.
“Pretend I’m not a person if it helps. Just an object. I can be anything you want me to be.” My voice dropped; it was almost just a breath. “I’ve got nothing much, might as well let you play God with what’s left.”
Her breath hitched, and I saw the war in her eyes, wanting this but terrified of what it meant.
“You don’t want it?” I murmured, giving her the out even though walking away now would kill me. “Tell me no, and I’ll drive you back.”
She didn’t speak. Instead, her eyes flickered to my mouth, and that was all the permission I needed.
I closed the gap and claimed her mouth. No gentleness, no testing the waters, just desperation I’d been choking down since I first saw her.
She was trembling, shaking all over, but she was kissing me back just as hard. Her arms curled around my neck, pulling me closer, and a growl rumbled in my chest.
My hands went for her jacket, that puffy pink that looked cute on her but was driving me insane now. It felt like fighting through padding to get what I wanted. I finally got my hand inside, only to find another layer—her blouse, tucked neat and tight into her pants.
A frustrated sound escaped my throat, swallowed by her mouth. I didn’t break the kiss. Instead, I slid my hand down her front, my fingers slipping into the waistband of her pants to work the hem of her blouse free.
The skin of her stomach was hot, and I pushed my hand upward, desperate for more.
I found the cup of her bra, some flimsy piece of lace stopping me.
My fingers went straight for the hooks on her back, fighting to unfasten until I heard that satisfying click.
The strap went slack, and my palm moved back around just as her breast spilled out.
Fuck.
I almost lost my mind right there. Heavy and perfect and mine. Her nipple was already a hard peak pressing into my palm. I squeezed, rolling the hard point between my thumb and forefinger, feeling it harden even more.
“Look at you,” I growled, my mouth still fused to hers. “So fucking perfect.”
She whimpered, the sound vibrating through my jaw and straight to my cock.
That little noise broke something inside me.
My brain turned fuzzy with want, every thought feeding my need for more skin, more heat.
Suddenly, touching and squeezing were no longer enough.
I needed to see. I had to strip that jacket and blouse out of the way and have her tits out for me.
I wanted to bury my face between them, suffocate myself in that softness, and lick a path right over her heart.
The greed was building fast, each heartbeat demanding more.
Demanding all. I wanted to drag my tongue over every inch of her skin until she was slick with my spit.
I wanted to latch and suck until she was raw and red and her toes curled.
Until she was a sobbing mess, begging me to stop—and I would never, ever stop.
I wouldn’t just fuck her pussy. I’d shove my cock down her throat until she gagged on me.
I’d grind myself between her tits until they were red and slick with my sweat.
Then I’d flip her over and fill her tight, perfect ass.
I’d pump every last drop of my seed into her until she was overflowing. All of me, inside all of her.
Damn it! I wanted her to forget that loser and only think of me.
“Open,” I commanded. My voice was wrecked, ripping from my throat like rusted metal. “Show me.” I didn’t give her a goddamn second to obey. My hand shot to her jacket, yanking the zipper down and bunching her blouse up around her neck, baring her to the neon lights.
“Fuck,” I breathed, the word shaking on my lips. “You’re so goddamn beautiful.”
Her breasts were full and pale, flushed with pink. Her nipples were hard as a fucking stone, already begging for my mouth.
I leaned in, my nose brushing her skin, and breathed her in. Soap and sweat and that sharp smell of pure, undiluted arousal. My thumb brushed over her nipple, circling it, teasing, watching her squirm until she was practically vibrating with need.
“Let me,” I rasped, my lips brushing the swell of her breast. The vibration of my voice against her skin made her shudder. “Let me suck these.”
A broken moan was my only answer before her fingers clawed into my hair, pulling me closer. That was all the permission I needed. My mouth clamped down over her nipple, sucking so hard that my cheeks hollowed. I pulled her deep, my tongue lashing the sensitive peak.
“D-Dom,” she cried out, her back bowing off the seat, trying to push herself even deeper into my mouth.
Fucking perfect. I sucked harder, wanting to replace every memory of that asshole. My free hand found her other breast, squeezing and kneading while my mouth continued its relentless assault.
“I’m going to suck you dry,” I snarled against her wet skin, my words slurred with need. “Don’t be surprised if you find my fucking teeth marks in the morning. Let’s see if you can still think of him when my brand is staring back at you.”
A keening wail tore from her throat, a sound that went straight to my cock and made my vision flash. Suddenly, her hands were yanking my head up, dragging my face to hers. She crashed her mouth against mine, all teeth and desperation and clumsy hunger. And then—fire.
A sharp, searing pain exploded on my lower lip as she bit down. The coppery tang of my own blood burst on my mouth instantly.
Fuck, yes.
I pulled back, panting, my whole body thrumming with a violent energy. I ran a tongue over the wound, tasting the blood mixed with her spit. It was a goddamn sacrament.
She stared, her eyes wide with terror. “Oh God. I’m so—”
“Don’t.” My hand shot to the back of her neck, fingers twisting her hair, holding her head so she had no choice but to look at me. I let her see the feral grin on my face, the animal she’d just unleashed. “Don’t apologize.”
Her pupils were blown wide, her chest rising and falling a million times per minute.
“Again,” I commanded, my voice dropping to a low, vicious growl. “Show me how much you need this.” I leaned closer until our lips were almost touching. “Harder, bite me harder. Because I’m about to fuck you so hard you won’t remember anything else but me.”