The Sacrificial Lamb (40 page)

Domenic had given her the gun in the cabin, and she had it slung in her waistband, exactly as he wore his. A small smile played at his lips as he watched her check the safety before shoving it down her shorts. It was kind of sexy to see her so familiar with the small weapon. There was almost an unconscious grace in how she handled it. Perhaps this wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Moving aside, he gestured for her to go in front of him. Alex walked into the clearing and looked back at him. Stepping up behind her, he put his hands on her shoulders and turned her toward the trees.

“Do you want me to shoot the gun first so you aren’t shocked by the noise?” he asked in a low voice.

“No, I remember.”

“Whenever you’re ready then.” Domenic kept his hands on her shoulders as she drew the weapon. She depressed the hammer, and the chamber turned with a muted click. Briefly he considered holding her hand again but decided he trusted her not to drop the gun this time. Alex had seen firsthand what could happen if she did.

The tension increased in her upper body as she pulled the trigger. A shot rang out, loud and brutal in the silent forest, smacking of death and destruction. Alex’s hands rose as the kickback drove them upward.

“How did that feel?”

“Good.”

“Do you want to try aiming again?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” He took his hands off her. “Bend your arms up a bit so it’s closer to your face. Use the sight to aim. Try for the same tree as before.”

Alex nodded, did as instructed, and fired off a shot. The bullet whizzed through the trees, hitting nothing. Domenic heard her curse under her breath and squeeze her eye shut once more as she pulled the trigger. Once again the bullet went wild. Frustrated, Alex dropped the gun to her side and looked at him frowning.

“You aren’t concentrating.”

“What do you mean I’m not concentrating?” she snapped. “Can’t you see me?”

“You’re not aiming. You’re too focused on the tree instead of where you’re aiming the
gun
.”

Alex grumbled and lifted the gun up for a second time. This time she kept her eye trained on the sight at the end of the short barrel and the bullet took a chunk out of the side of the tree.

“I did it!”

“Good, but make sure you stay focused. In order to shoot well, you have to tune out any distractions. You have to see your target only.”

They tried a couple of more times, and Alex hit her target once and missed the second. She fired the last round, hitting the tree beside the one she was aiming for. Domenic pulled more bullets from his pocket and taught her how to reload the gun, making her do it a few times until he was satisfied she knew what she was doing.

The second go-round, Alex hit the target three times. Pulling back to watch, he noticed that she seemed quite at ease with the small gun now. When they parted, he decided he would give it to her to keep. If he couldn’t be around to keep her safe, he would prefer she have some sort of protection.

As she was getting ready to fire once more, Domenic shouted out, “BOO!” Alex’s hands jerked and the bullet went wide.

“What did you do that for?”

“I wanted to see if you were concentrating.”

“
What?”

“Alex, part of using a weapon is to stay so focused that you don’t get distracted by what’s going on around you. A kind of clarity should come to you—where you see your target and nothing else.”

“Isn’t that kind of dangerous? What if someone else is shooting at you too?”

“You can only shoot one person at a time anyway. If you get rid of your first target, you can move on to your second.”

“Right.”

Domenic tried distracting Alex a few more times until she became immune to it. She didn’t always hit her target, but she stopped hunching her shoulders whenever he made a loud noise. He made her reload the gun on her own again and was happy to see her deft fingers loading the bullets rapidly. The sight was kind of erotic.

Standing behind Alex once again, he brushed her hair away from her neck and placed a kiss on her neck. “How about a distraction like this?” he whispered in her ear. Her breathing picked up, but she brought the gun up and tried to focus as he ran his tongue up the side of her neck. Alex shivered against him and fired, missing the tree.

His hands slipped under Alex’s shirt, moving up to cup her breasts lightly. “Try again.” Domenic didn’t expect her to hit her target, but he was enjoying teasing her. He moved his hips against her ass so she could feel how turned on he was. Alex made a small noise in response and fired one more shot. That one went wild as well.

“Memo to self,” Alex said, putting on the safety of the gun and turning in his arms. “Don’t let anyone feel me up when I’m trying to shoot a gun.” She threw her arms around Domenic’s neck and crushed her lips against his.

It took but a moment for her to part her lips. Their tongues met, tasting, teasing, and becoming more forceful. Reaching behind him, he took the gun from Alex’s hand. Even with the safety on, he didn’t want her to drop it by accident. She let go of it willingly enough, her now-free hand grabbing a handful of his hair. He sucked on her tongue and lips hungrily, grabbing her ass and pushing himself against her. Alex moaned into his mouth and moved against him eagerly.

“Alex,” he said, stopping before he could get carried away. “We have to stop.”

“Why?” she replied, kissing his neck, undeterred. One of her hands slipped between them and began caressing him through the thin fabric of his shorts.

“Oh, Jesus Christ,” he ground out, his hips moving, pumping by instinct. Grabbing hold of Alex by the back of the head, Domenic pulled her face back to his, kissing her roughly. His mind was clouded by lust until he remembered why they had to stop.

“Alex,” he warned again and tried to stop her from snaking her hand down into his clothing. “Baby, we don’t have any protection.”

Her hand left his hair and fumbled in her pocket. “You mean one of these?” She pulled out a condom, and he nearly groaned with a combination of arousal and relief. Domenic didn’t think he would have been able to make it back to the cabin in this condition.

“You’re a naughty girl,” he said, biting Alex’s earlobe. She chuckled breathlessly as he pulled her deeper into the forest. Turning, he pinned Alex to a tree, picking up where they’d left off during her first gun lesson.

Trailing kisses down her chin, he kept moving down her body. Starting with her neck, then between her breasts and down her stomach. Getting on his knees in front of her, he lowered the gun to the ground and turned back to her. Domenic lifted Alex’s shirt and slipped his hands under it to cup her breasts. As he ran his thumbs over her hardened nipples, he kissed her stomach and sucked at the sensitive flesh. Alex leaned back, her head lolling as she made small contented noises.

Domenic pulled her shorts and panties down in one strong tug, and she kicked them away as his hand slid between her legs. She was obviously excited—wet to the touch. His fingers slipped inside her easily and Alex bucked her hips hard against him.

“
Yesss
…” she hissed, reaching behind her to grasp the tree trunk. He continued to pump his fingers into her as he stood up, and then gripped her face with his free hand, kissing her with a fierce passion.

Unable to wait any longer, he withdrew his hand from between her legs and yanked down his own clothing from the waist down. She watched with hooded eyes as he ripped the foil packet and rolled the condom on in quick jerks. Taking hold of her, he spun Alex so that she faced the tree, bending her over so that his cock was pressed against her ass cheeks. If she wanted to be a bad girl, he would treat her like one.

Reaching out, Alex braced herself against the tree. Domenic took hold of her hips, positioned himself, and thrust inside of her, grunting at the force. She gasped as his pelvis slapped against her, her head hanging between her arms. He pulled back and thrust into her again as hard as he could. Alex cried out in ecstasy.

Domenic began to piston his hips faster, digging his fingers in the soft flesh of her hips. “Are you a bad girl?” he asked between thrusts.

“Yes!”

“Do you like when I fuck you hard?”

“Ah…God, yes!”

“Good,” he growled and increased the force of his strokes. Alex made high, breathless sounds, barely heard over the slapping noise their bodies made whenever they connected. Domenic reached his hand around and started stroking Alex intimately. She groaned and pushed back against him, frantic now, using the tree to build up momentum.

“That’s it, baby,” he encouraged, moving his fingers faster.

“
Fuck!”
Alex cried out right before her body shuddered against his.

Domenic didn’t stop or slow down. He continued to drive into Alex with everything he had, gripping her hips tightly once again. The friction was building, and he could feel his testicles draw up toward his body. Heat spiraled outward, causing him to shake and shiver. Bending over, he fastened his mouth onto the back of Alex’s neck and sucked hard. He wanted to mark her as his, for surely she was.

Wrapping his arms around her, he held Alex close to him for a moment, his primal urge sated. Keeping his forehead against her shoulder, his breath came out loud and harsh. Slowly he pulled out, bracing his hands against the tree. His knees felt rubbery as if he would collapse. Alex turned in his arms and kissed him. They stood like that, kissing as they came down from their high.

Eventually Domenic stepped away from her to dispose of the condom and pull his shorts back on. Alex also put her clothing on and waited for him while he hunted for the gun. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes glittered. A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, and he couldn’t stop the one that pulled on his in return.

Once again Alex had rendered him speechless. They held hands and headed back to their temporary home.

“What’s it like to kill someone?”

Domenic frowned at Alex as she looked at him across the table, her eyes wide and curious. It was a simple question with a not so simple answer. How could you possibly explain what it was like to take someone’s life? He hadn’t been in that position very often—and it was always in a kill or be killed situation—but he’d killed nonetheless.

Leaning back in his chair, he reached up and passed his hand through his hair. Alex watched him calmly as he opened his mouth a few times and then snapped it shut.

“Veto,” he finally answered.

“Veto?”

“Yes. You remember when I said I’d answer your questions but reserved the right to veto any ones I wasn’t comfortable answering?”

“But…”

“No, Alex.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s not an easy answer,” he said, starting to get annoyed.

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t!” he snapped. “How could you possibly? How can I explain to you that it’s the worst and best thing you could ever experience all at once?”

Alex blinked at him, shocked.

“It is awful and horrible. But at the same time it’s thrilling because you
won
.
You
are the one left standing. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, I get it.”

“But, you don’t. And I hope you never have to.”

Rising from the table, Domenic walked away and sat down on the couch. He didn’t like thinking about the darker side of his profession. It was a fact of life in this job that you’d more than likely have to kill someone, someday, but that didn’t make the execution of it any easier, even if it was self-defense.

Alex joined him a few minutes later. She sat on the opposite side of the couch, pulling her legs up on the cushion and wrapping her arms around her shins. Her hair was still damp from the shower they had taken upon their return—it curled around her shoulders in long, thick tresses.

“I keep upsetting you today,” she said, with remorse.

His lips compressed in a line. Domenic didn’t want her to blame herself for this fucked up situation. It wasn’t her fault she had been pulled into his life. Naturally she was going to be curious about him, and how he lived, especially now that they were intimately involved. There were simply things he could not tell her. Things best left unrevealed for both their sakes.