Supernova (19 page)

“I sure as hell hope not.”

Dominic mentally berated himself, both for scaring them and because his negligence had kept him from hearing Kerrigan’s thoughts on his kiss. He was so upset with himself that he jumped up and sped out of the room and back to his own. In his rush, he didn’t take care to not make any more noise, and the force of his movements caused his door to slam behind him.

Kerrigan and Gabe jumped at the sound of a door slamming shut in the hall and held onto each other, neither one brave enough to go check it out.

“We should go get Dominic.” Gabe’s voice was shaking from fear.

Kerrigan shook her head and huddled closer. “He left. Had a hot date that he just couldn’t tear himself away from.”

“Well, I’m scared. What are we going to do?”

“You’re a man, go check it out,” Kerrigan said, nudging Gabe to get out of the bed.

Gabe narrowed his eyes at her. “Say that again, bitch, and I’ll put my fist in your mouth. I’m about as much of a man as you are, and you know it. Besides, your legs are hairier. When was the last time you shaved, Jungle Jane?”

Kerrigan gave him the evil eye. “Okay look, we’re just going to stay right here until Dominic gets home.”

Gabe nodded. “I just hope boyfriend’s only interested in a quickie tonight instead of the full Monty.”

The thought of Dominic holding some other woman in those strong arms, pleasuring her in ways that only a man could slammed into Kerrigan like an iceberg, and she felt her heart sink. She had no right to think he would ever think about her like that. He was there to fulfill a promise he made to her grandmother, nothing more.

Kerrigan woke the next morning, still sitting up in bed with her back to Gabe’s chest. Judging by the position of the sun on the horizon, it was still very early. Gabe’s head was resting on the headboard and he didn’t look at all comfortable, but he was sleeping. She couldn’t recall when they had actually fallen asleep, but she knew it hadn’t been that long before, and she knew that Dominic hadn’t shown up.

She pulled the covers and pillows off and slipped out of the bed, careful not to disturb Gabe. Then she tiptoed out of her bedroom and down the hall to the door that led upstairs to Dominic’s room. She knocked three times. When she didn’t get an answer, she opened the door and tiptoed up the stairs, hoping she wasn’t going to walk in on him in bed with some skank.

She was grateful when she found him alone and fast asleep in his bed. The sheet was covering his bottom half, but his naked chest was exposed. She took a moment to appreciate how innocent he looked in his sleep. His lips puckered slightly, his brow relaxed, and his muscles, although still impressive, were not so tense. She could see hints of Nicky there, and it made her smile fondly.

Kerrigan managed to tear her eyes away and looked around the room, noticing how very different it looked from her old play room. It was definitely more masculine and all Dominic. His stereo was turned down low, but still playing his rock music, which she considered to be thoughtful. Obviously he hadn’t wanted to wake her and Gabe. But then she found the old acoustic guitar that was propped against it. She reached over and strummed her fingers over the strings, just barely enough to make a sound.

Dominic stirred in his sleep, and Kerrigan jerked away from the instrument to leave before she got caught in his room. He probably wouldn’t appreciate the fact that she was in his room, let alone touching something that seemed to be so personal to him. She recognized the guitar as the one that belonged to her grandfather, which further solidified the relationship she suspected he had with her grandmother. They had to have been close for her to offer something so meaningful to him. The thought actually made her happy.

“Where are you going?” She heard his sleepy voice from behind her as she started down the stairs.

Kerrigan turned around to face him, embarrassed that she was caught. “I was just seeing if you were awake.”

Dominic watched her face, noting the slight puffiness to her eyes and the darkness beneath them. She hadn’t slept much, thanks to him, and after everything she had been through the night before at the lighthouse, she needed the sleep.

“Come here.” He held his hand out to her to get her to join him in the bed.

She crossed the room to where he was and took his hand. Dominic pulled her down to him, forcing her to sit on the bed.

“You look tired,” he said, stroking the dark ring under her eye. “You need rest.”

He moved over in the bed and patted the space beside him, motioning for her to lie down next to him. Kerrigan knew she shouldn’t have gone to his room, and most certainly shouldn’t be lying in his bed, but she was tired. And, she really just wanted him to hold her and make her feel protected again.

She lay down and snuggled into his pillow, drowning in the enticing manly aroma that was concentrated there. Dominic draped his right arm over her waist and pulled her back to his chest.

“Is this okay?”

“It’s more than okay. It feels really nice.” Kerrigan yawned as she pulled his hand up to her chest.

She began playing with his fingers, tracing lines in his palm. In short, driving him insane even though what she was doing was relatively innocent. There was just something so seductive about the way she touched him.

Kerrigan’s fingers trailed down to his wrist where she played with the beads of the bracelet, spinning it around and around his wrist, and then she stopped short. She pushed the bracelet up a bit and let her fingers run over the tattoo there.

“How do you say this?”

“Corazón de Hierro,” he pronounced in a husky voice, his cold breath washing over the back of her neck.

Kerrigan closed her eyes and tried to regain her composure. “Translation?”

“Iron Heart,” he said and placed a light kiss to the sensitive skin at the back of her neck.

She didn’t want to pry and ask him what it meant to him. She had already invaded his room and his bed, so enough of his privacy had already been violated. But she noted the sadness in his voice and wanted to offer him some comfort. Maintaining as much composure as she could, she lifted his wrist to her mouth and pressed her lips to his tattoo. Dominic let out a gush of air and moaned a little as he pulled her closer into his embrace. She could feel his hardness pressed against her and decided she might as well live up to the title of cock tease he had bestowed upon her. She feigned a stretch, arching her back and pushing her ass back into him.

Dominic’s body went stiff. He growled at her before placing a hand on her hip to still her movements.

“Sleep, Kerrigan. Too many more moves like that and I can’t be held responsible for my actions,” he said and eased away from her.

Kerrigan giggled in response, but pulled his arm closer to her chest so that he was wrapped tightly around her. It didn’t take long for his smell, his soft caresses, his steady breathing, and the gentle beat of his heartbeat against her back to lull her off to sleep.

Kerrigan and Dominic were startled awake a short time later by an incessant banging on his bedroom door. Whoever it was, they weren’t intent on waiting for Dominic to answer. The door flew open and heavy stomps echoed up the steps ahead of the creator.

Gabe appeared at the top and pushed one hip out with a balled up fist resting on it, while he waved a finger on the other hand in the air in sync with his head. “Oh no you didn’t come up here to get your freak on and leave me down there all by my damn self with Casper.”

“Ugh, Gabe!” Kerrigan said, covering her head with a pillow. “Nobody was getting their freak on.”

“Well, why the hell not?” he asked, throwing his hands up into the air and letting them slap back down on his thighs. “At least then my death wouldn’t have been for nothing.”

“You’re not dead, bitch,” Kerrigan mumbled and sat up on the side of the bed. “Sorry, Dom. We’ll just get out of your way.”

As she stood, Dominic pulled her back down. “You still need to rest,” he said in a raspy voice.

His concern for her knew no limits, and she reached her hand out to run them through his messy bed head. “I feel fine.”

“Yes, you do, which is exactly why I don’t want you to leave my bed.” He bit down on his bottom lip seductively as his fingertips made slow passes over her forearm.

“Mm, damn, boy.” Kerrigan turned to see Gabe massaging his chest. “I think the temperature just shot up like ten degrees in my shorts. Something else did, too. Wanna’ see?”

Dominic’s eyes went wide. Kerrigan busted out laughing, leaning over to plant a chaste kiss to his cheek. Then she got out of the bed and followed a giggling Gabe to the stairs.

“Querida?” When she turned to face him, all traces of the playfulness was gone. “We need to talk later. There are some things you need to know.”

She gave him a simple nod and a smile and proceeded down the stairs, leaving him alone.

By the time Dominic took a shower and dressed for the day, Sydney and Olivia had already stopped by. They were all in the kitchen having a cup of coffee when he stepped inside. He looked Kerrigan over and was relieved that the dark rings under her eyes seemed to have faded which meant that she had actually gotten some restful sleep.

In
his
arms.

“Oh! We should have a séance!” Olivia’s face lit up with the suggestion like she had just come up with the solution to cure world hunger.

Caught off guard by the suggestion, Dominic’s head shot in their direction. It was apparent that Kerrigan and Gabe had filled Olivia and Sydney in on their experience the night before.

“Livi, please be serious,” Kerrigan said, blowing her off.

“She is completely serious, Kerr,” Sydney said, sitting her coffee mug down. “Livi has been researching all that
other-worldly
stuff, and we’ve even played around with a couple of séances ourselves.”

Kerrigan and Gabe looked at them in surprise.

“What? We were bored,” Sydney said with a shrug of her shoulders.

“And it works?”

“Oh yeah! We’re pretty sure we talked to the spirit of Anna Nicole,” Olivia said, nodding her head. “We so have to do it!”

“Why exactly do you want to do a séance?” Dominic asked.

“We heard a ghost last night,” Gabe answered.

“We
think
we might have heard a ghost last night,” Kerrigan clarified.

“That’s absurd.” Dominic opened the refrigerator and pulled out the orange juice, trying to appear normal even though he was nervous as hell. “There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

“Yeah, well my Grammy taught me that not everything is what it seems. Just because you can’t see them, it doesn’t mean they’re not there,” Kerrigan retorted.

“Fine. Tell me what happened then,” he challenged her as he leaned back onto the counter and crossed his ankles.

“Well, we heard the floor creaking like someone was walking across it,” she started.

“The house was settling,” he dismissed her quickly. “What else?”

“It got really cold in my room.”

“I got hot yesterday and lowered the temperature on the thermostat. I’ll fix it back today.”

“The chair moved.”

“You were just delusional after the passion flower concoction. It’s a side effect.”

“Gabe was there, too.”

“He was reacting to your delusion.”

He seemed to have an answer for everything, and Kerrigan grew more frustrated with the way he kept shooting down her theory. Then it hit her.

“Oh! Your bedroom door slammed!”

Dominic sighed as if he was bored. “I left my window open, and it was windy last night. The breeze probably caused it to slam.”

Her shoulders slumped in defeat and she just felt silly. Dominic crossed the room and squatted down in front of her so that he was on eye level before he took her hand in his.

“Listen, why would you want to do a séance anyway? Aren’t you worried about inviting something
in
? I’ve heard that can happen when you open doorways to the other side like that.”