“Mmm.” Bright warmth fell across my face. I lifted a lazy hand over my eyes to shield them from the morning sun. Domino stood at the bedroom window, sliding the blinds open.

“Too bright,” I said, my voice ragged. “What time is it?”

Dom laughed. He was dressed already in a clean, white t-shirt, faded jeans that hugged him in all the right places, and his leather cut. It was that last item that stirred me fully awake. In the last three days, he hadn’t worn much more than boxer briefs. I’d worn even less. That now all-too-familiar flash of heat throbbed between my legs as I thought about all the things we’d done to each other.

“Late,” he answered. Dom came to me. The bed dipped and creaked as he sat on the edge. His formidable size drew me toward the middle. He leaned down and kissed me. “Almost noon.”

“Are you kidding?” I leaned up on my elbows. “I don’t think I’ve slept this late since ... um ... I’ve never slept this late. I’ve gone to bed this late.”

“Well, in fairness, you didn’t go to sleep until four in the morning.” Dom’s voice had that sexy growl as he kissed his way down my throat and nuzzled between my breasts. His rough stubble tickled and I threaded my hands through his thick, dark hair. This man had me worn out, made me saddle sore, and one hundred percent sated. Still, as my fingers played over the hard muscles of his back, I wanted more.

“This is heaven, you know that?” I said. “A girl could get used to this.”

Dom went rigid for a fraction of a beat as if he stopped himself from saying something. Then he sat back up; his wicked smile devastated me. I knew what he wanted to say. I should get used to this. He wanted me to. And yet, we both knew how impossible that was. We’d been tucked away in this rustic paradise for three days. I’d been cut off from the internet and hadn’t even looked at my phone in all that time. I knew I’d pay a heavy price for that, but as Dom brushed a hair from my face and met my eyes, I believed it would be worth it.

“You look different,” he said.

“Hmm.” I rolled to my hip and laced my fingers through his. Dom brought my hand to his lips and kissed my palm. “I think this is the longest I’ve ever gone without makeup since I was maybe eight years old.”

“It’s not that,” he said. “Well, it’s a little bit that. I like you this way. All that shit they make you put on your face, it’s not you. It’s a mask. You seem more ... you, somehow.”

He was more right than he knew. The makeup, the hair, the clothes. They were all part of the mask I wore. And yet, they’d been so much a part of my life, I wasn’t altogether sure where they stopped and I began. Until now. I wanted to say a thousand things to Dom. The scariest of which burned through me. I wanted him. He aroused me in ways I’d never felt before, awakening a need powerful enough to take over every thought. But there was something else there too.

I was falling in love with this man. With all his rough edges and dangerous life. He was the first person I’d ever met who didn’t want to take something from me. He just wanted to be with me. He didn’t ask me about my career. He cared nothing about Hollywood and had no hidden agenda involving how I could further some ambition of his own. He was real. He was raw. I wanted him to be mine.

“I feel good,” I said. “And that’s because of you. How did you know just what I needed?”

Dom’s smile went from wicked to bright. He kissed me again on the tip of the nose. Sliding his hand beneath me, he cupped my ass and brought me to him. “Just lucky, I guess.” He was lying and we both knew it.

“I don’t want to go back.” The words spilled out of me before I could stop them. Dom went stiff again then slowly rose to a sitting position. His eyes flickered with questions.

“I don’t either. But I have to. I have to check in with the club.”

“Right,” I said. I rose fully and pulled the covers around me.

“Come with me,” he said. Three words. They hung in the air between us for a moment.

“Dom …”

He held a hand up. “Just for another day. Back to Port Az. I want to show you something.”

“Mmm. Now you’ve got me curious.”

“I told you,” he said. “I’m building a place. I want to take you there. I could use your honest opinion.”

My heart warmed. He kept his tone casual, but the question he asked me was anything but. Little by little, he was letting me into his world. He didn’t have to say it. I knew he’d never taken any other woman there. He took my breath away. I knew I should say no. Someday, we’d have to say goodbye. He wasn’t ready. Neither was I.

“I suppose I could stay gone for one more day.”

Dom’s posture changed. His back got straighter and a new light brightened his eyes. He hadn’t expected me to say yes.

“I wish we could ride,” I said. Now that I’d given in to another impulse, I felt a little drunk with it.

“We can,” he said. “Bear keeps a bike out in the shed. It’s not a bad idea anyway. It could use a tune-up and he’s been meaning to bring it into the shop. Two birds, one stone.”

“Perfect,” I said, my voice growing husky with fresh desire. What I wouldn’t give to just stay right here with this man for a little while longer.

“Get dressed,” he said, squeezing my ass. “You don’t get moving I’m liable to tie you to this bed and stay here forever.”

“Mmm.” Heat zinged through me. But Dom was already on his feet. He shot me a naughty wink and tossed my jeans to me. He was right. It was time to go.

* * *

We fit. When I wrapped my arms around Dom’s waist and he hit the open road, everything just fell away. I felt free. Centered. Whole. I wished the ride to Port Azrael were longer. Bear and Josie’s cabin seemed like another world. In reality, we were only forty miles from downtown Port Az.

When Dom hit the bridge, a tiny flutter of nerves went through me. Back in the world, my life would find me. There was no way to avoid it. Dom took the curves hard, making me dig my heels in and hold on even tighter. I knew he planned it that way. His wild laughter made my heart beat faster. Everything about him did.

We headed for the docks. The warm Gulf air moved through me. It was so different here. I’d lived a few miles from the ocean my whole life. But here in Port Az, it felt like another planet. The emerald waters and clear sky lifted me. In L.A., the haze of smog weighed me down and wrapped itself around me.

Dom slowed the bike and pulled into the parking lot of Cups. Just before four o’clock in the afternoon, on a Sunday, the place was starting to fill already.

“There’s a game on,” Dom said, peeling off his helmet and reaching for mine. “Playoffs, I think. Good for business.”

“I see that,” I said. A little flare of trepidation went through me as Dom took my hand to help me climb off the bike. It was such a natural gesture and his hand warmed mine. But I looked behind me, waiting for someone to pop out from behind a corner.

“Relax,” Dom said, smiling. “Nobody knows you’re here this time.”

“Right.” I tucked a hair behind my ear and we walked into the bar together.

A wave of noise hit me instantly as Dom opened the front door. My eyes adjusted to the light. Dom had been right. There was a playoff game on the big screens in the back of the bar. Scores of people crowded around them. Dom lifted his chin and raised a hand. At the main bar in the center of the room, three of his club brothers sat. One lifted a beer mug and called us over. I’d met each of them before. There was the one Dom called Zig. His pregnant wife, Gina, owned this place. Next was Chase. He gave me a kind smile. His girlfriend, Ariel, sat beside him. She was charming with flowing red hair and natural beauty. Dom had told me she had her own business remodeling and flipping houses in what was once the seedier part of town. Finally, Bear and Josie Bullock’s son Shep sat at the edge. You’d never know it though. He didn’t favor either of them. A slow blush reddened his face as he saw me. I waved a hello. It was far too loud for conversation.

Dom kept a protective hand on the small of my back. I found I liked it there. Years of training made me want to pull away. Keep up the performance, show them nothing real. But Dom changed all of that. These men and women were his family. They cared about me because I was with him. It had nothing to do with what I did for a living.

“Hey, stranger,” Zig said, sipping his beer. “We thought you’d gone feral on us.”

Dom lifted his head and let out a credible wolf’s howl. “Aroo!”

This earned him a round of laughter and good-natured slaps on the back. “Don’t mind them,” Ariel said. “They’ll crow for a while then they’ll all be ready for a nap by about ten o’clock.”

“Somehow I doubt that,” I said. Ariel pulled out the stool next to her and offered it to me. Dom gave me a wink and moved down the bar so he could talk to Shep, Chase, and Zig. The weight of my cell phone in my purse pulled at me. I’d had it on silent for almost four days. I was almost afraid to look at it.

“Did Domino take good care of you?” Ariel asked. Her tone was kind and genuine.

“It’s so beautiful at the cabin,” I said. “I wanted to stay forever.”

“It’s on my list of projects,” she said. “Mama Bear wants me to go out there with her this fall. Bear built something solid for her, but he’s not much of an interior designer.”

“Oh, I’ll bet you’ll come up with some wonderful ideas. You know, I have some contacts who could help out with that. Get you some good deals on furniture and even some artwork.”

“I might just take you up on that,” she said. She gestured to the girl behind the bar and ordered each of us a beer. Dom caught my eye at the end of the bar. His eyes creased with laughter. He looked so happy. My heart warmed, hoping I had a little something to do with that.

As our beers arrived, Ariel handed me mine. The bartender gave her a wave. Wendy, her name was Wendy. She’d recognized me the other day but had kept a discreet distance. Now I saw her cheeks color as she looked me up and down. A fan. But she let me have my privacy.

My eyes traveled to the smaller TV screens right above us. Two were tuned to the same game as the crowd watched in the rear of the bar. The third had on entertainment news. Wendy had the remote in her hand and was about to change the channel at the request of some more vocal patrons at the other end of the bar.

“Wait!” I shouted, my heart dropping. My own face flashed on the screen. Then a new picture of Dom and me came on. It was grainy, taken from a distance with a high-powered lens. The photographer caught us in an embrace at the entrance to my neighborhood, just outside the gates. The crawl beneath the screen read: “Quinn Larsen’s new mystery man may have a troubled past.”

I picked out a few words from the glamorous female entertainment reporter. “Friends and family are worried. Quinn Larsen has canceled several appearances in the last few days …”

Dom was at my side. “Wendy,” he shouted. “Turn that shit off.”

Wendy stood frozen with the remote in her hand. “Quinn,” Dom said.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I should have known this would happen. God. Can’t I just get one break?”

More pictures of me flashed on the screen. They were from some of my more racier movie scenes. Then they showed a spread I did for a men’s magazine two years ago. It was tasteful, but I’d been wearing a skimpy bikini. That had been Noreen’s idea. All part of her quest to remake me from the girl next door everyone knew from Crosspointe to the sex symbol that brought people to the box office.

Dom went rigid beside me. A low noise rumbled through him, almost like a growl. “Dom,” I said. He looked about ready to smash something.

“Dom!” Zig got to him next. “Chill out, man. That ain’t shit. That’s just how they sell movie tickets.”

“This is bad,” he said. “Bear’s gonna lose his shit over this. We don’t need this kind of attention right now.”

My face dropped. “Domino. I’m so sorry. I never meant to …”

His expression changed immediately, going from barely contained fury to concern. “Baby. No. I didn’t mean that. This isn’t your fault. This has nothing to do with you.”

“Come on,” Ariel said. “Why don’t we see if the room in the back is cleared. Let’s move this little party back there. Better yet, what about heading back to the club?”

I pulled my phone out of my purse. It was time for some damage control. As I expected, I had about a hundred texts and several dozen missed calls. Most were from Noreen, a few from my mother. They were both worried about their meal ticket. Rage bubbled inside of me, but Dom’s steady presence beside me helped keep me calm.

I called Noreen first. She answered immediately, shooting rapid-fire questions at me I could barely understand.

“Go in the office,” Zig said, guiding me by the elbow. “You’ll be able to hear better in there. Gina had to run to the store.”

As Noreen shouted in my ear, Dom and Zig passed a look between them. I let Dom lead me into the back office and shut the door.

“Stop!” I finally got a word in edgewise. “Noreen, you work for me, not the other way around.”

“Don’t kid yourself,” she said. “You want to take off. You want to slum it with some biker thug, it’s more than just you that has to deal with it. You have commitments, Quinn. Your management team has been putting out fires for days.”

“Three days,” I said. “Three damn days, Noreen. I needed a vacation. I deserve one. I’ve done just about everything you and my mother wanted for the last ten years. I’m still doing what you want.”

“Your little field trip to Port Azrael is not what I want. It’s the worst thing for you. I’ve kept quiet. I figured it would be better to just let you figure it out yourself. It’s not you, Quinn. I know what I’m doing. You want your fuck-you money? You want to eventually be able to do your passion projects? There’s a way to get there. This isn’t it. It’s too soon. You have to trust me.”

Dom stood in the doorway, immovable. His stony expression would have brought grown men to heel. I put up a finger.

“And you have to trust me. I’m not a little kid anymore. I can make my own decisions.”

“Really?” Noreen asked. “So sending that group of criminals over to the Ransom Building was your decision? Dammit, Quinn. If you were having trouble with him, your first call should have been to me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb,” she said. “There’s footage from security cameras of them going up the elevator. The Hollywood Tattler has it. They’re sitting on it because of about a dozen favors I called in. You know how many years it’s taken me to build up that kind of capital? It won’t hold for long anyway.”

“I’ll ask again. What are you talking about?”

Noreen let loose a stream of obscenities that blew my hair back. When she calmed down, I brought the phone back to my ear. “Security footage,” she said. “Three of those bozos in their leather cuts walking into Oliver Ransom’s office. They scared the shit out of him. Rumor is he checked into a spa on the French Riviera to deal with the trauma. You’re lucky he doesn’t sue your ass. As it is, he’s called in favors and bounced you from every project you had in the hopper. You better hope Night Terrors IV breaks records. It’ll be your last paycheck ... maybe forever.”

My heart turned to stone. Doubled over, bracing myself against the desk. When Dom made a move toward me, I lifted a hand to halt him.

I had no idea. Dom hadn’t said a word. He’d gone to Oliver Ransom’s office? Everything about the last few days took on a different meaning. I’d seen the look of fury in his eyes when he saw the bruising on my arms. Noreen was right. I was stupid, but not for the reason she thought. I’d been naive to think Domino would let that slide.

“He can’t do that,” I said through heavy breaths. “I have contracts.”

Noreen broke into a shrill laugh. “He’s Oliver Ransom, honey. We’re fucked right now. Do you understand that? I tried to clean up this mess. When he caught wind of it, he started messing with some of my other clients. I’m done, Quinn. Done.”

“Noreen.”

“You want to make your own decisions, make them. But I’m not going to let them drag me down with you, sweetie. This is where I get off.”

She hung up on me. I should have been angry. Panicked even. But as Dom stood before me, looking like some warrior carved in stone, calm settled over me. Calm and a fair amount of fury.

“Dom,” I said. He came to me. The door behind him stood open. Zig and the others looked our way.

“You should have told me,” I said. “Going to Ransom. I know why you did it. A part of me loves you for it. But it’s made things very difficult for me.”

“If you’re looking for me to say I’m sorry, I won’t. That fucker doesn’t get to touch you. Not ever.”

“Well, you got your wish,” I said, a bitter laugh erupting from me. “He’s in the process of derailing my entire career.”

“You didn’t want it,” he said. “That’s why you came to Port Az in the first place. Admit it. You needed a change. And dammit, Quinn, as strong as you are, you need somebody to look out for you. Somebody who actually gives a damn about what happens to you.”

I was angry. Though his motives might be more pure, Dom had just done to me what everyone else in my life did. He made decisions for me without including me in them.

“I can’t do this right now,” I said, hating the way he looked at me. “I have to go home. I have to see what I can salvage.”

“Quinn.” He reached for me. I stepped around him into the bar.

“Just ... let me go, Dom. I need to think. I need some space.”

I was torn in two. I wanted to go to him. I wanted to let him fold me in his arms and tell me everything would be all right. But it wouldn’t be. I still had another life.

My memory of what happened next stayed in freeze frame. Dom’s face going cold. His head slowly turning toward the front of the bar. A shout from one of the other Saints. I think it was Chase. A blast of heat and smoke.

Firecrackers went off. The bar mugs hanging on hooks shattered, spraying glass everywhere. The windows at the front of the bar exploded. Screams filled the air as a hail of bullets rained over us. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.

“Get down!” someone screamed. I think it was Zig.

Dom grabbed me, shielding me with his body as he pulled me to the ground.