“You’re starting to sound like a broken record, man.” Case laughed.
“Fuck you,” he spat out at him.
“Dominic, I can’t just sit here and keep waiting. What if the next time, he actually hurts Jaxson?” She knew he’d see the logic there.
“The answer is no.”
Maybe not.
“There’s more at play than you know,” he began to tell her.
“What else is there?”
Sighing, he ran his hand down his face roughly. “Brooke has had her eyes on me for a while.” Something like regret flashed across his face. “When she found out about you, she went searching for Bradshaw.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
“I don’t have all of the particulars yet,” he explained. “Creed’s coming in today. Should be here anytime actually.”
“Creed’s coming?”
He narrowed his eyes on her at the excitement in her voice. When he would have said something, he closed his mouth instead. Averting his attention to Case, he did a manly chin lift thing, silent communication and all. Next thing she knew she was upside down over his shoulder and on her way back upstairs before she could say a word.
“Dom?” she tried to call, but he ignored her until they were back in the bedroom.
Tossing her on the bed, he whipped his shirt over his head before planting his body down on hers. “You got something you need to tell me, Deidre?”
The bite in his tone told her to watch what she said, but the emotion swirling in his eyes called her to challenge him. That he had a driving need to assert himself over her.
“Nothing,” she said quietly.
“You sure?” The threat in his tone was clear.
“No.” His eyes grew dark at her answer, and the veins along his neck bulged and pulsed in his anger with every beat of his heart.
When he arched a brow, she knew she’d better start talking. Lifting her head forward, she kissed the base of his neck right where his pulse was out of control. “When I was in Italy, Kenny kept me sane. On all those nights that I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry? I would think of her and what she’d been through. Then I realized my situation wasn’t so bad.”
“And?” he demanded.
Kissing up along his jaw, she nipped him lightly knowing he liked that bite of pain. “When Creed and Linc came, I wasn’t sure what to think. But then they sort of became my friends too, and with them around, things weren’t nearly as lonely before.”
“Watch it,” he barked.
She smiled. “Then I would see them with her, and I was jealous. So disgustingly so because she had something I knew I would never have.”
Tilting his head to look down at her, he asked, “What’s that?”
“A love so strong nothing could break it,” she sighed out as a lone tear escaped her eye. “They flew across the world because they felt a connection with her during the worst time of her life. I was never going to have that. But you know what I thought of every time those depressing thoughts entered my mind?”
Their eyes locked, and she thought he knew.
“This big scary man that growled when he spoke, was bossy as hell, and took no shit from some spoiled adolescent girl. When I thought of him, I was less lonely, felt more anticipation. I didn’t even realize why until out of the blue, there he was. In all his scary, growling, badass glory.”
“Fuck,” he groaned.
“So am I happy to see Creed? I am. He made my friend happy. When she left, she was smiling. Inside she was terrified, but even I knew that those two men would take care of her the way she deserved.”
Running her hands up his sides, she pondered her words for a second before meeting his gaze and saying, “And when I look at you, when I’m in your arms, I know I’ll have that same care and attention in a way I never thought I could.”