Supernova (30 page)

Kerrigan could see every muscle in Dominic’s body draw taut, and she slipped around his tall frame to stand between him and Jackson in the doorway.

“What the hell do you want, Jackson?” she asked, not even bothering to open the screen door to invite him in.

“Well isn’t it obvious? I’ve come back to get you and give you another chance.” Judging by the look on his face, Jackson actually believed he was doing her a favor.

“I don’t want you, Jackson. Get that through your thick skull,” she said as calmly as she could.

“Either that, or my boot is going to drill it in there for you,” Dominic seethed from behind her.

“This is between me and Kerri,” Jackson said, looking Dominic in the eye. “I think it would be best if you mind your own business.”

“
Kerrigan
is my business!” Dominic was furious. “She’s
my
girl!”

“Oh, she’s your girl now?” Jackson asked with a chuckle. Then he looked back down at Kerrigan. “Are you screwing him now, Kerri? Is that it? You’re whoring around?”

Dominic lunged toward the door, but Kerrigan pushed back on his chest. “Stop it! Both of you!”

“It’s okay, Kerri. I forgive you. We all have needs, and knowing how much you craved my body back in Chicago…I guess I can see why you felt the need to fill that empty void in your life, even if it was with someone below the standards you’re used to. You were slumming. I get it. But, big daddy Jack is back and ready to hear you moan and scream my name again.”

“Jackson!” she screeched, appalled.

“Well, it wasn’t exactly like that, but close,” he said with an arrogant smile and a wink.

Dominic dropped his head and let out one humorless snort before he looked back up at Jackson with a lazy smile on his face. “And now I’m going to have to kill you.”

Faster than she could register what was happening, Dominic had shoved Kerrigan out of the way and thrown the screen door open. It smacked Jackson in the forehead and momentarily stunned him. Jackson backed up a little, and Dominic threw the first punch, landing it with a loud crack to the left side of his face. Before Jackson could retaliate, Dominic landed another blow to the right side of his ribcage. The force sent Jackson careening down the porch stairs, and he landed with a thud onto the walkway.

“Get up!” Dominic bellowed, stalking down the stairs after him. He pulled his shirt over his head and threw it aside.

Jackson scrambled to his feet. Kerrigan rushed out the door, but didn’t dare approach them because Dominic looked entirely too lethal. His fists were raised, the muscles in his arms and back flexing with his fighter’s stance as he bounced around. Jackson looked terrified, but as with most other man, he refused to back down.

Jackson took a swing at him, but Dominic ducked and landed a punch to Jackson’s stomach. The air whooshed out of his lungs, and he doubled over in pain. It only took him a moment to regain his composure, stand back up, and swing again. This time, Jackson managed to make contact with Dominic’s mouth. Dominic took a step back and flicked his tongue over his lip, tasting the blood trickling from the small cut.

The corner of his mouth turned up into a smirk. “You made me bleed. I hope you know that means I’m definitely going to have to fuck you up now.”

He threw his fists back up, but before he could take a swing, Jackson ran at him. He wrapped his big arms around Dominic’s waist, tackling him to the ground. Kerrigan watched them roll around. Fists were swung, punches were landed, and she was having a really hard time figuring out who was winning. But then Dominic was on top, and he threw punch after punch that landed to various spots on Jackson’s face and head.

With each blow, an indescribable, fearsome growl clawed its way out of his chest. Kerrigan knew she had to get him under control before he ended up killing Jackson.

“Dominic.” She stepped carefully, not wanting to startle him. “Dominic, stop.” Her voice was calm, but her hand was unsteady as she reached toward him, making contact with his skin. He stilled his movements, but his body was so tense and volatile, she knew he was ripe for another explosion.

She inched closer to him, careful not to move too suddenly. Her fingertips crawled across his skin until she found the scar on his shoulder. Dominic’s head dropped back, and he closed his eyes. Kerrigan watched his body relax.

“Come here, Dominic,” she whispered, trying to get him off Jackson’s limp body.

Dominic took her hand and pressed his lips to her knuckles. He rose from the body beneath him and wrapped his arms around Kerrigan’s waist.

“Look at me. Only at me.” Her soothing voice calmed him. Her hands wrapped in the hair at the back of his neck and urged him to bow his head toward her. Their foreheads touched, and Dominic looked into her eyes, seeing a hint of brightness there that illuminated the darkness that had taken him over.

“You okay?” she asked, stroking his cheek.

Dominic nodded.

“Let’s get you inside and find you a cigarette and a beer, yeah?” Dominic nodded again. She always knew exactly what he needed, because
she
was exactly what he needed.

They turned to walk toward the house, and Kerrigan felt a hand around her ankle. She looked down at Jackson’s marred face and sighed. “Jackson, I’m with Dominic now. I don’t want anything to do with you. Now please go back home to Chicago, and leave me alone.”

With that, she yanked her ankle from his grasp and wrapped her arms around Dominic’s waist, leading him inside.

I’m crazy about you, Kerrigan. Can’t you see that?

Take my heart. It’s all I have left. I would rip it out and serve it to you on a silver platter if I thought it would make you happy. But as for my soul, well, that already belongs to you. Mi alma es tuya. Remember? My soul is yours.

Kerrigan had committed Dominic’s words to memory. Even as she showered for the evening, she kept them on repeat, playing over and over again in her mind. It was as if by not doing so it would make them a figment of her imagination.

He gave her his soul and offered his heart. Then he beat the crap out of a man for calling her a whore.

Swoon.

She stood under the spray of the shower allowing the hot water to cascade over her bare skin. The defenses she had been building up to keep him away washed down the drain with the last remnants of her shampoo suds. Her body relaxed, and her muscles melted into tangible desire.

She wanted him, wanted to be his. She smiled to herself. He told Jackson she was his girl.

The atmosphere around them oozed with their mutual attraction. So much Kerrigan sometimes couldn’t even find the air to breathe unless she was in that little bubble she shared only with Dominic. He was becoming that air, and she craved him. His presence, his touch, everything that was Dominic Grayson.

The magnetism they held for each other had taken on a life of its own, something organic and raw. Something real. It was an actual living, breathing entity with an existence of its own and a promise of what they could be together. Two halves coexisting to create one whole. A formidable force they would be, able to take on the world or anyone foolish enough to stand in their way.

Like Jackson. And even that Sinclair woman, whoever she was or whatever she was to him.

After the fight, she had taken him inside and up to his room. He sat out on the balcony with his cigarette and a beer, assuring her that he was fine. It seemed like he wanted some time to himself, so she left. Before she did, he made her promise she would be back later for their talk. She had no idea if what he had to say would be the one thing that could keep them apart. He still had a lot of explaining to do, but the sincerity in his eyes when he smiled at her before she left was intense, palpable.

Sinclair’s exposure of Dominic’s supposed late night trysts with her was still a major concern for her. He said he couldn’t stand her and promised to explain everything, so she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being. She realized that he had never denied he had a relationship with Sinclair, just that it was a sordid past. That could mean anything.

Sweet Jesus! What if he had a whole family with her that he’s kept hidden? A Mrs. Grayson, 2.4 Grayson babies, and a dog named…Grayson. Poor Millie would be so heartbroken. So would she.

She groaned inwardly at the thought and shut the water off. Stepping from the shower, she grabbed her towel and wrapped it around her naked body. Shoved into the corner of the room, was one of Dominic’s wife beaters. It was discarded on the floor, forgotten and left behind after his earlier shower. She lifted it to her nose and inhaled his manly scent. What she wouldn’t have given to be enveloped in it all the time.

A hint of wickedness sparkled in her eye as an idea began to formulate in her devious mind. She slipped his shirt over her head and stepped into the panties and sleep shorts she had brought with her. After brushing her teeth and combing her wet hair, she walked into the darkened hallway and headed straight for Dominic’s bedroom door.

Dominic was tuning his guitar when she reached the top of the steps.

“You know, I think you just might be obsessed with that thing.”

He looked toward her, and his concentrated expression fell when he saw her in his shirt. He was awestruck and couldn’t even force words out of his mouth in response. He was held in a trance by the vision of the woman in front of him. And she was
all
woman.

Kerrigan bit her bottom lip and went to sit next to him on the futon. “Play something for me?”

He had no intention of embarrassing himself by playing, but when she placed her hand on his knee and gave it a squeeze, all bets were off. She was sitting there with her wet hair thrown over her shoulder, adorned in his very thin shirt that left
nothing
to the imagination. She couldn’t have been sexier if she tried.

“We need to talk, Kerrigan.” Dominic’s voice was deep and husky.

She arched her back and pressed her chest against his arm as her fingertips ghosted through the hair on the back of his neck. “Just one song,” she purred into his ear. Her warm breath spilled over his skin, causing his sensitive flesh to pebble and a chill to run down his spine.

Dominic reached beside him and turned the stereo off before settling his guitar in a comfortable position. He strummed it a couple of times, thinking about what to play.

“I’m really not very good, but there is this one song that just keeps playing over and over again in my head,” he said with an uncomfortable chuckle. “It kind of reminds me of someone special.”

Kerrigan gave him an encouraging smile and crossed her legs with her hands cupped together between them.

Dominic cleared his throat and began moving his fingers along the neck of the guitar with each chord change while picking the strings with purpose. When he started singing, Kerrigan recognized the song right off as Jason Manns’
Crazy Love
. His voice was bluesy. Soulful with a raw, raspy edge. Lust, as it turned out, was the perfect description of his sound. Kerrigan found the need to sit on her hands to keep herself from launching a savage attack and ripping his clothes to shreds.

He stuck his chin out and sang with closed eyes. He felt every word he sang like they were a map to his soul. Kerrigan wanted to touch his jaw and feel the muscles moving under her fingertips. She wanted to lick the defined lines of the flexing tendons in his forearms. But most of all, she wanted to let her lips hover over his to feel them moving to form the words, inhale the breath of each lyric he sang, and taste the lust that spilled forth from the cavern of sin.

She was in a weird sort of hypnotic trance by the time Dominic strummed the last chord and looked into her eyes. His shockingly pale green orbs were overshadowed by raw emotion. His gaze, intense and penetrating and it shook her foundation.

Kerrigan didn’t know what to say. How does one follow up such an awesome spectacle as Dominic had just put on with mere words?

“You…take my breath away.” It was the truth.

Dominic gave her a sexy smirk and stuck his pearl-blue pick behind the strings on the neck of the guitar. He perched it against the stereo stand with care before turning the music back on. When he turned around to face her, Kerrigan gave him a gentle smile and rose to her feet. Dominic thought she meant to walk away, so he reached out for her, not wanting her to leave. They had things to discuss, and he wanted to get it over with, rip the Band-Aid off in one quick motion.

But she wasn’t leaving. She turned around and stood between his legs instead, smiling down at him. The glow of the overhead light shined down on her, reflecting off her mahogany tendrils and creating a halo effect.

“Whatever it is that you have to tell me, it won’t change the way I feel about you.” She reached her hand out and slowly ran the back of her fingers over his beard. “I’m pretty crazy about you, too, ya’ know.”

Because it might have been his last opportunity to do so, Dominic wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her to him. The side of his face rested sensually against her stomach, and he inhaled her scent. Kerrigan placed one hand to the back of his head and held him to her while raking the fingers of the other hand through his thick, jet-black waves. The action was so soothing, loving. Dominic may have even teared up a little on the inside. But he would never let her see that. No one had ever seen him cry. No one.

Dominic turned his lips toward her stomach and placed a kiss to her bare skin. The top of her birthmark peeked out from the top of her little blue shorts, and he slowly lowered them to reveal it more fully. It was uncanny how similar their marks were. Where his was raised like a scar, hers was smooth as a freckle. He didn’t know how it was possible, but it was something they shared. That had to mean something. Dominic parted his lips and kissed her mark. He wanted to see if it would have the same effect on her as it did on him when she did the same.

A sound like that of a contented kitten’s purr escaped Kerrigan’s chest, and she grasped his hair tightly between her fingers. Dominic smiled, having gotten an answer to his unspoken question. He would have to remember that for later. If there was indeed a later after he told her what he needed her to know.

With a great deal of reluctance, he pulled away. “We have to talk.” He patted her place beside him on the futon. “Sit.”

Kerrigan took her seat, and Dominic stood, grabbing a cigarette from the pack that lay on top of his stereo. “Do you mind?” he asked out of common courtesy.

She shook her head.

Dominic walked over to the open window and perched his foot on the windowsill, lighting his cigarette. Looking out into the star-filled night, he inhaled the nicotine deeply to steady his nerves before exhaling the smoke through his nose. He was stalling, trying to find the words to tell her.

Sensing his hesitation, Kerrigan stood and walked over to him. She traced the pattern of the tribal tattoo over his neck and placed a kiss to his shoulder. “Just say it, Dominic.”

He turned his head to the side and looked down at her before giving her an uneasy smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He was nervous. Kerrigan could see it written all over his face and feel it in his taut muscles. He may have even been shaking.

“What are you afraid of? That I’ll go running and screaming from the room?” she asked with a light chuckle.

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.” He took another long draw off his cigarette and flicked the ashes out the window.

“Yeah, well, I don’t scare that easily.”

A loud crash sounded from the lower floor, causing Kerrigan to jump a little, startled. Dominic chuckled minutely, her claim having been proved false.

She sighed. “It’s Millie. You finish your cigarette, and I’ll go get him before he destroys something.”

Dominic nodded and turned back toward the window.

Once she made it to the bottom of the stairs, Kerrigan called out for Millie. She heard a faint scratching noise and then a whimper, but it sounded more like it was coming from her room instead. That was odd because she could have sworn the crash came from the lower floor.

She heard a creak behind her and she turned, expecting to see Gabe. But it wasn’t Gabe.

A figure, dressed all in black with a ski mask over his face, emerged from the shadows and lunged at her. His hand covered her mouth, muting the scream she attempted to sound to alert Dominic. The figure picked her up, so she couldn’t run, and backed up with her. She tried to kick and swing to get out of his grasp, but his hold was too tight. He was already moving toward the front door with her in tow. She was dragged from of the house and out to the street before she was shoved into the backseat of a car.

Kerrigan heard Millie’s barks from her balcony, and she hoped it would be enough to get Dominic’s attention. One glimpse at his bedroom window, and she knew it had. There stood Dominic, leaning dangerously over the edge of his balcony with a panicked expression on his face. The car sped off. She pressed her hand to the window to reach out to him just as a piercing pain shot from the back of her head and radiated forward. She sank into darkness, helpless to do anything but watch Dominic fade from view.

A terror stricken Dominic flew down the stairs and through the house until he found himself standing in the middle of the front yard staring after red taillights. Instinct kicked in. He ran after it, his bare feet smacking the asphalt as fast as they could, but the car faded from sight. It may have been too fast for him to keep up with on bare feet, but it didn’t matter. He knew where they were going.

His heart pounded in his chest, and he felt winded. Not because of the physical exertion. It was because they had his girl, his world.

A raven swooped down and screeched its warning caw as it took off after the vehicle. He didn’t need to see that telltale sign to know who was in that car. Sinclair was behind Kerrigan’s kidnapping. He swore to God that when he caught up to them, he was going to kill her. Once and for all.