18. TRAVEL
PANDORA
Dominic’s familiar hands knead my muscles. For once, they don’t cause my mind to roam in unwanted directions and my body to stir with inappropriate need. I sense his concern for me, my own gratitude whenever he unravels a painful nub at the core of my compressed lumbar region.
Knot by knot, area after area, Dominic untangles me, and between the painkillers and his touch, only a dull heat remains as testimony to my sufferings.
“Do you want to sit up?” he finally asks.
Cautiously, I turn my head to the side to check if he’s serious. Warm, hazel eyes meet mine, awaiting my decision.
“Is it safe?”
“I think so. I don’t believe you’ve dislocated anything.”
I breathe out, my relief prompting him to add, “Get an X-ray as soon as possible, though, okay? You need to know one hundred percent.”
I nod into the pillow, excited about the small move not hurting.
“You’re a wizard,” I say, and Dominic laughs.
“A wizard, huh?”
“Mm, a magician.” I grin, getting back into my playful mood for the first time today. “Or, hey, a troll?”
His irises glitter with amusement. “And you’re a witch. A spellbinding one.”
My smile widens. “Am I? What do I spellbind, then? Trolls?”
“Perhaps so.” Dominic says it in a stern politician voice and pops his index finger up as if there’s a lesson to be learned from this.
“Hopefully I spellbind only the sexy trolls,” I hum.
He sinks to his haunches on the floor by my side. Strokes my hair away and lets his gaze flicker over my face. When it rests on my mouth, I’m suddenly shy, and despite the blanket covering me, an odd sensation of being exposed floods in.
“Pandora,” he whispers, breaking the silence. He watches me bite my lip while I wait for more. My heart speeds up as the seconds tick by without him speaking, and suddenly I can’t lie still any longer.
Cautiously, I ease myself onto my back with the sheet still draping me. I must emit some unconscious signal, because he helps me into a half-sitting position just as I think that I’d like that.
“You’re so lovely,” he murmurs, shaking his head slowly. “I don’t know what to do with you.”
My warning bells start tingling; with all my flaws, I need to stay away from this man, and yet the closer he is to me, the closer I want him.
“Can you hold me a little bit?” I am weak for Dominic.
He hisses air out through puckered lips, and it’s his defeat and then he’s got me engulfed in his arms. Behind him, the door to my room slides open. I catch a partial view of Mica over his shoulder.
God. I’m so safe here in the sanctuary of him. Dominic has me. They’re right—all of them are. He does come whenever I ask for it. He does take care of me.
My heart sinks as I breathe in his scent. I think of how I have to stop being a fucking disaster. How I need to stand on my own two feet. Be an adult. Responsible.
Still, more than anything, what resonates through my mind is how he doesn’t deserve this. Dominic, of all people, is the last person I should pull down into the mud bath of my life.
An angry motor roars from his jeans. Dominic groans, and for a moment, he buries his mouth into the nape of my neck, inhaling me. My stomach clenches, sending a jolt of heat—pain—to my chest. His phone snarls with displeasure, more furious by the second, but I slide my hands into his hair and hold him to me. I swallow with him tight against my throat.
He blows out a hot burst of air as he fumbles in his pocket without drawing away from me. I don’t want him to let go of me. We’re both so—
I’m so—
“Please let this be good news,” he mutters.
Dominic stands up, tall for this room. I feel faint at the thought of the last time his phone rang like that. He’d been so upset. Ah, he should get good news, only ever good news.
“Alan,” he says, listening intently. His eyes glaze into a blank, controlled sort of despair, focusing on a point behind me.
Mica retreats from the doorway with Destiny’s arm hooking her back by the waist. Destiny has always had a better sense of privacy than Mica.
“So, you stayed over last night? And this happened in the morning. After you left,” Dominic says.
A deep man’s voice buzzes from his phone.
“Well, that does it. Tell her I’m getting on a plane right now, Alan. Tell her.” His uncle buzzes again, but Dominic doesn’t let him finish. “No, I’ll find a way. This is fucking it, Alan. I’m coming home.”
Dominic lifts the phone in the air, wanting to chuck it at something. My hands fly to my ears, preempting the blow as it shatters against the wall, but he stops himself in time. Hand frozen midair, he’s shaking with contained rage.
Then, he backs into the wall behind him. “I gotta go,” he says, shoving his hands into his hair and making the ends stand up around them.
“What happened, baby?” I’ve never used an endearment for him before. I don’t know if he notices. He doesn’t comment on it, but his gaze glides from the floor to me.
“My grandma. After my uncle left this morning, she went to the store. Long story short, she thought someone said her name, so she swung around, tripped and fell over a threshold.”
He squeezes his eyes shut over the tears forming and shakes his head angrily.
“Is she all right?” Of course she isn’t. He wouldn’t have been on the verge of crying if she were.
Dominic pulls in a deep breath, nostrils flaring. He’s so adamant not to show how upset he is. I don’t understand.
“Grandma has this cute overbite. I used to tease her about it when I was little, and she’d make rabbit sounds to get a laugh out of me. Claimed she was related to the Easter bunny.”
“Aww, how sweet,” I reply, unsure of where he’s going with this.
“Yeah.” His pitch breaks, but he clears his voice quickly. I wave him closer. With sluggish steps, he advances until he slumps down next to me.
“Well, they’re gone now. When she fell, she hit the floor face first and knocked out six of her upper teeth, all in a row. My uncle says she’s got a gaping hole there. He’s waiting for the doctor to tell him if her nose is broken too.”
“Crap, Dominic. I’m so sorry.”
“Gotta take off,” he repeats, eyeing me. He reaches out and cups my face once, brushing a thumb over my lower lip. “Get your back checked on Monday, okay? Have the girls drive you?”
“Are you leaving for long?” I sound needy.
“Don’t know. I’ve gotta find a solution for her. She can’t be alone anymore.”
“Your uncle’s an idiot,” I tell him even though I don’t know this Alan.
“I’ll check in on you. Be cool, babe, okay? Please.”
I’m so selfish that I don’t want Dominic to leave. I go through the motions of nodding, because I can’t talk right now—this is too much.
My phone vibrates on the nightstand. Since I’m not picking up, Dominic reaches over. “Mother Dearest,” he informs me, causing my lips to tug upward again. I roll my eyes.
“Yeah. Hit ‘reject call’ for me?”
He does without a word. “Do you have me programmed in there?”
“Yes.” My grin grows.
He frowns, browsing through my contacts. “No, you don’t?”
“Check under ‘P.’”
I expect him to ask why, but instead he thumbs down and looks up, surprised, once he finds himself. “‘Perfect Dominic?’”
“Yep, Mr. Perfect. You’re Mr. Right and I’m Miss Wrong,” I giggle, although what the hell’s funny about that? A hint of a smile plays on those full lips of his again.
“Nah, you’re ‘Miss Drives-a-Guy-Crazy.’ I’ll be in touch.”
Dominic walks out of the room, leaving his massage equipment behind, and it’s instantly empty in here. I hold my breath and listen for the apartment door opening and closing. When I don’t hear anything, I let a glimmer of hope breathe inside of me, and sure enough, there he is, scorching me with his stare from the doorway again.
“Just…” he begins and strides over to me. Then, his mouth is on mine, sucking, baring teeth that press into my lips, opening for his tongue to caress mine in deliberate, heated strokes. “…this first,” he sighs.
When he lets go, I moan, because he keeps making things harder. I open my mouth to say something I’ll regret, but he lifts a finger to his mouth, crossing it. And he’s right. So, so right.
“Shhh, Pandora.”
Shhh.