No, no, no, no. This was not happening. This couldn’t be happening. I stared down at the tablecloth in the restaurant and used all of my will to change what was going on around me. Maybe life could be like a Sci-Fi show? This could be the moment at which I discovered I had superpowers, stopping time and bending minds.

I looked up. My father sat across the table from me, beaming at the woman sitting next to him who also happened to be sitting across the table from the man next to me. Her son, my true love, Dom.

I was not a superpower. I was fucked.

“And you’re about to start your sophomore year of college!” Dom’s mother practically bubbled over with enthusiasm and praise, telling me how lovely I was, how pretty and charming. All of my typical social skills failed me. I took a sip of my water.

“Gigi, why don’t you tell Brandi about the shop where you work. I’m sure she’d like to stop by and see it some time.” My father gave me a look, the equivalent of kicking me under the table. He hadn’t raised me to sit still and dumb. He’d raised a socialite, goddamnit, who could be relied upon to keep up a patter of conversation over a dinner table regardless of context.

“Um…” My mouth hung slightly open and I stared at my fork, unable to stop forbidden moments from coming to mind. Dom and I at the beach. Dom in my bedroom the night I turned 19. The more I tried to stop thinking about what I shouldn’t be thinking about, the more it was all I could think about.

“Gigi has always showed a flair for interior design.” My father gave up on me and launched in himself. He’d always been better at bragging about me than I was myself. He told some funny story about how I’d draped our entire apartment in scarves at the age of four. I didn’t even remember it, but apparently it had made an impression.

I’d figured my father was seeing someone. The whole summer I’d barely seen him at the house or the country club, but I knew he was there in the Hamptons so it made sense. He’d never gotten serious with anyone since the divorce even though it had been over a decade, but he’d had plenty of arm candy. Sometimes I’d meet his lady friends as he called them at functions or events. But never before over a dinner like this.

“I understand you like cars, Dominic.” Now my father turned his attention to Dom, who seemed to have exactly my set of conversation skills. Zilch. “I’ll have to have you over and show you my collection.”

I choked on my water. His sports cars were his babies. He didn’t even like his own children poking around at them. He kept them in a separate facility like a stable for horses, not even in our garage.

“Everything all right, Gigi?” Dad’s voice had an edge to it. I knew he was displeased with me. My brothers Ash and Heath, they were the ones who gave him a hard time. They were the ones he had to worry about not going along with the program. Ash might even go so far as to make a scene in a public place. Not me, though. I was a good girl. I always had a smile on my face, always knew just what to say to smooth things over. I was a peacemaker, Daddy’s little girl. Never ruffled, never petulant.

But I’d had one hell of a week.

“Excuse me for a moment.” I stood and made it over to the bathroom. I sat in the stall, head in my hands.

My father clearly had no idea about anything. In true form—just like our father—Colt had handled everything last weekend. It was all wrapped up so tight the whole thing felt almost surreal. If I hadn’t been awakened by the shouting, I wondered if I’d ever even have known Brock had broken into our house. Probably not. It was clear my father had no idea that a young man had died or that I’d almost been attacked in his home last weekend. I kept having dreams about that knife I’d seen in Brock’s chest. The gory pool growing around him. And what he might have intended to do with that knife to me.

And now this? Tonight was one week after the attack. This was the night Dom and I had planned to lift our self-imposed exile and start spending time together again. I needed him like I needed oxygen. I’d barely made it through the seven days without being in his arms. Now it turned out our parents were dating? What the hell?

I told myself I just needed to make it through this dinner. Then Dom and I would work something out. My father tended to switch up girlfriends like flavors of the month. Chances were good that by September he’d be on to the next one. This dinner was probably the worst of it.

I rejoined the table and things immediately got worse.

“We have something we want to tell you both.” My father beamed and my stomach plummeted to the floor. I could see Dom’s hand on a napkin, squeezing it so hard his knuckles turned white.

“We know it’s fast. But life passes fast, too. We don’t want to wait.” He paused to give Brandi a kiss, then turned to us to announce, “We’re getting married.”

I knocked a full glass of ice water all over my dress and I didn’t even feel it.

The day after the dinner, Dom didn’t take my calls. They went direct to voicemail and I had to stop myself from driving all around town like a madwoman looking for him. I didn’t know what we were going to do, but we had to see each other. We needed to talk and figure this out.

The next day, he finally picked up. “Dom, please, when can I see you?” I asked. “We need to talk.”

“Gigi, this is fucked up.”

“I know.” The tears I’d held back started coming at the sound of his voice. He asked me if I’d had any idea. Neither of us had had a clue.

“I knew she was seeing someone, but…” He trailed off, and I could fill in the blank. Both of us couldn’t believe, of all the people in all the world, somehow our parents had managed to find each other. And now they were getting married. It was too much to take.

“You know what needs to happen, Gigi.” I could hear it loud and clear before he’d even spoken the words. He was ending things.

“Dom, wait, I need to see you.”

“Gigi, I’m going to take off for a while. I think it’s best if I head out of town. For a bunch of reasons.” He bit back a bitter half-laugh.

“Dom.” My voice broke. “Don’t go.”

“Gigi, I’ve seen a lot of shit go down in my life, but this is next-level.”

I had to agree, and I hadn’t even, as he’d put it, “seen a lot of shit go down.” But this was bad no matter how you looked at it. Dom was about to become my stepbrother. As crazy as I was about him, I knew things between us had to end. And even as that thought felt like a swift kick in the gut, the rest was worse. I’d have to keep seeing him, at holidays, when he dated, maybe married another woman. The torture would never end.

“One last night, Dom,” I pleaded. “Come to me tonight. At least say good-bye.”

The silence on his end of the call stretched out so long I almost wondered if he was still there. Finally he answered, “I’ll see you tonight.”

I barely managed to get out of bed the rest of the day. I was a complete wreck. Penny thought I was upset over my father’s engagement.

“It’s pretty random,” she sympathized. “Did you even know he was dating her?”

“No,” I sobbed on the phone in my bedroom. She’d wanted to come over but I’d told her I wasn’t up to it.

“And she’s…from California?” I knew what Penny was getting at. Brandi was clearly not from the elite, jet-setting crew that made up our inner circle. Brandi seemed nice enough and she was a very attractive woman who’d clearly had some work done to enhance those attributes, but just as clearly she was not a Wellesley grad like my mom.

“I don’t know anything about her.” That was the truth. Dom didn’t like talking about his past. He’d let me know it was rough, he’d seen too much, and that was that.

Colt called to check-in, asked if I’d heard the news about Dad. He told me he’d be down the day after tomorrow. He’d spent most of the days after the assault at the house with me, then tried to convince me to head back to the city with him and stay at his place. I’d said no, thinking I’d be spending time with Dom. Now I thought maybe I would change my answer. I couldn’t imagine staying in the Hamptons on my own, nothing but memories haunting me.

I paced my room like a prisoner until midnight when I finally heard a tap at my window. Outside I saw Dom, who’d scaled the tower to get to his princess. It almost made me smile as I raced toward him, except I remembered it was the last time he’d do it.

I started crying the second I was in his arms, kissing him and crying and kissing him again. He held me like he never wanted to let me go, pressing me to him, kissing my tears away even as new ones flowed. I shook against him and he took me in his lap, sitting on the bed, stroking my back, kissing me until my sobs turned into a different sort, needy and urgent. My hands wrapped in his hair, along his shoulders, pulling at him, trying to get him closer to me.

“This has to end, Gigi,” he whispered to me, even as he dipped down to kiss my throat, licking me there like he was on death row and savoring his last meal. “Nothing can happen between us now. I’m going to go away.”

“Where?” My heart broke as I asked. Maybe I could find him, go to him wherever he was?

“It’s better you don’t know.”

Tears streamed down my face as I buried it in his chest, inhaling him, pressing against his heat. He knew me too well. “So this is our last night together?” I asked, looking up at him.

He looked pained, his eyes dark and guarded, but he nodded. Yes. Then, hell, I was going to make the most of it. Without another word, I slipped off his lap and took off my T-shirt and shorts. In just my lacy panties, I climbed back on, straddling his large and powerful thigh. Running my hands up his chest, I looked up at him. “Then you’d better kiss me.”

He lips found mine, hot and needy, urgent with the passing of time. This would be the last night I had him like this. I didn’t want to waste a second. Pulling his T-shirt, I lifted it up and over his head. He was so magnificent, powerfully corded with muscle, fierce like a warrior. I covered every inch of him with kisses, licking my way along his tattoos, wishing I could brand them into my skin so I could always remember this moment, melding us together. He ran his hands along my curves, cupping my breasts, massaging and licking them, making an almost strangled sound of pain as he sucked on my hardened nipples.

“That feels so good, Dom,” I moaned, arching my back and pushing my chest toward his mouth. He took one of my breasts in his large, rough palm and held it to his mouth as I ground my slick, throbbing pussy into his thigh. It felt so good it made me restless with desire. I needed more. I needed him to take me farther. Watching my face, he brought his teeth down and bit my stiff nipple.

“Yes!” I screamed, feeling my pussy clench in response, wet heat pooling at my core. I needed to feel him possess me, devour me, claim me as his own as if we’d never be apart.

“One last time,” he grit out, as if making a bargain with himself. He brought his large hand down to my hip, his fingers around my panties. “Stand up.”

Quivering, I raised myself from his thigh and in one, swift motion he ripped the flimsy lace straight off of me. I gasped at the sensation, his brute force, and he brought me back to his lap, this time straddling his waist.

“I want you facing me, baby,” he said as he positioned me, hands at my waist, then down to open my thighs. “I want to watch you when you come.”

He slipped his fingers down and I was lost instantly, barely able to cling to his shoulders as he started fucking me in a hard rhythm, first one finger, then two.

“Lean back,” he growled, and I rested back onto his other hand, giving him more to see, my glistening breasts with my pink, hardened tips, my slick, bare pussy newly waxed just for him. He knew exactly how to work me, how to make me crazy and I spread my legs wide as he rhythmically rubbed my swollen clit, thrusting his fingers into me with urgent, fevered need.

“Are you going to come hard for me, baby?” he asked, his voice deep and dark.

“Yes.” I pushed against his fingers, wanting to get there, wanting him to make me.

“You’re so close.” He feasted on me with his eyes, watching me as I grunted and gasped and felt it build and build until finally he told me, “Come for me, Gigi.”

I exploded at his command, shuddering and coming hard on his fingers. He slipped a third in as he told me to come and I felt so full, so possessed by him. He kept working my clit, forcing more pleasure out of me, demanding I give him everything. All of my body and mind sang out in response, hiding nothing, offering everything.

He guided me back onto the bed and we lay there, him holding me in his arms. As I came back to reality, I wrapped my arms around him tight, as if I could keep him there forever.

“I’ll stay,” he reassured me, stroking my back. “I’ll stay tonight.”

But you’ll be gone in the morning. I thought it, but I didn’t say it. No use adding salt to the wound. Slowly, at a more leisurely pace, we lay together and kissed, touched, wound our bodies around each other. I sucked at him and licked, then tried a nip at his neck the way he’d done to me.

Heat burned in his eyes, and he flipped me onto my side, spooning my back. “I’m going to keep you like this, naughty girl. So I can control you.”

But there was still so much I could do, even held onto my side. With my back against him, I arched my ass, pushing right where I could feel his erection long and stiff. He must need release so badly. I rubbed against him, up and down his length with my bare ass cheeks and moaned.

“Dom, please. It’s our last night together. I want to feel you naked against me.”

“Gigi.” He bit out his words, struggling. “We can’t…you know we can’t.”

“We don’t have to have sex,” I pleaded. “I just want to feel you. This one time.”

He cursed like a man going to the gallows. Then he rolled away. I turned to watch him as he removed his jeans and his huge, gorgeous cock sprang out so hard. I licked my lips. I wanted it in my mouth.

“Now you need to be good.” He pointed a finger at me, and I bit my lip, feeling chastised. “You need to let me be in control.” He smacked my ass briefly, a short, sharp sting. I cried out in surprise and my pussy throbbed and gushed in response. It felt so good. “You like that,” he whispered, husky, almost sounding drugged with lust as he read the desire in my eyes.

I looked up at him, wide-eyed, surprised myself at the response I had to his spanking. I nodded. I had liked it. My ass tingled and I wanted more. He cursed and looked away, struggling with himself. Then he looked back.

“Turn on your side.” I complied with his order, and was rewarded when he slid in along my backside, completely naked.

“Oh, Dom!” I cried out as he pressed against me, the full length of his body, his hard, hot chest, his long, muscular legs, his full hard cock pushing against my ass. “You feel so good!”

“Christ.” I could hear him panting by my side, practically feel the desire rolling off of him in waves. “Stay still,” he barked. I hadn’t realized it, but I’d started grinding my ass against his cock, my body craving the pleasure it could give. With a whimper, I tried to keep still. He caressed the arm I lay my head on, then twined his fingers through that hand, loving me and fastening me there, tight.

He trailed his fingers down my other arm, then covered my hand resting on the mattress. “Keep your hand here. Understand? Don’t move it.”

“Yes,” I sighed, knowing it would be hard. I wanted to move my hand back to his ass, push it against me, work it around to touch his cock and maybe guide it over to where I wanted it. I wanted to give Dom my virginity. I wanted him to take it so badly.

Assured of my compliance, he took over, moving his free hand along my body, caressing my breasts. He settled against my ass, moving his fingers down to my pussy to push me against him, bucking against me with his impossibly large cock. I moaned and tilted my head back, eyes closed.

“You feel how much I want you,” he growled. “How hard it is for me not to take you.”

“I want you to,” I panted, begging. “Please.”

“You know I can’t, Gigi.” He moved against me, mimicking the rhythm, as if he were pushing himself inside of me. “Fuck, you’re so wet.” I moaned and couldn’t help but push my ass back into him. And I got more of what I wanted. He moved his hand to his cock, then brought it between my slick thighs so it rested against my pussy.

“Oh! Yes!” I worked down along its length, loving the way it felt against me, covering him with my slickness, trying to get my clit down on it.

“Are you getting off on my cock, Gigi?” His voice sounded so dangerous, like a warning and it turned me on even more.

“You feel so good.” I wished I could free my hands and push his cock exactly where I needed it. I could press it against my clit and slide it there, my arousal keeping it so slick. But he held one of my hands against the pillow and I kept the other one fisted in the sheets, like he’d told me.

“So wet.” He was moving against me now, pushing himself in and out between my thighs, each time bumping up against my clit.

“Please,” I pleaded, moving my hips against him in the rhythm he set. “I need to feel you inside me.”

“Gigi,” he groaned, tortured.

But I couldn’t stop. “Just the tip, Dom. Please. Just the tip. You’ll slip right in.” I could feel how close he was, how easy it would be for him.

“Fuck!” And then he did it, he brought the huge swollen tip of his cock to my quivering, wet entrance. “Stay still,” he ordered me.

“Yes, yes,” I promised.

When he pushed in, I nearly came. He stretched me and my eyes watered with it, even though it was just his tip. But he was so big, the head of his cock so fat, and I’d never had one in me before. It felt so fucking good.

“So…tight…” He made a deep, guttural sound and stayed still in me. Then he moved, just an inch forward, an inch back.

“Dom!” I screamed, wanting him to know how good it felt, wanting him to know he could go in all the way. I wanted him to.

“That feel good?” he asked, an inch in, and inch out. He let go of my hand and fisted his hand in my hair, claiming me. “You like my cock in you, baby?”

“Ugh! Oh!” I couldn’t form words any more, and I could feel an orgasm swelling, right at the cusp, ready for him again.

“Are you going to come for me again?” he asked, teasing me, in an inch, out an inch. “Are you going to come on my cock?”

“Yes,” I groaned, wanting it so badly, wanting to feel his come shoot hot inside of me as I milked it from him.

“Come on my cock, baby.” As always for Dom, I did as I was told, coming crazy for him, my pussy quivering and clenching on his wide crown. I felt his whole body tense, and then he pulled out as he came in full, hot spurts all over my ass. The feel of him coating me, marking me, gave me another crest of orgasm and we both groaned together, losing our minds. For the last time.

He left my side as I was still in a daze, then came back with a washcloth to clean me.

Like before, I protested. “I want you on me.” But I let him tend to me, such strong and caring strokes, cleaning my ass cheeks, my lower back, my own arousal that had dripped between my inner thighs. He pulled his jeans back on, and I fought the tears that clung to me once again. The halo of orgasmic joy still hovered. I wanted it to last.

He circled me in his arms and pulled me against his chest, spooning me as he’d done before. This time he pulled the comforter up over both of us.

“Sleep, beauty,” he murmured into my ear. “Sleep.”

“I love you, Dom,” I whispered to him.

I’d never know if he felt the same way. I drifted off, somehow the exhaustion of all my intense emotion winning out over my desire to stay awake and savor every last minute. I fell asleep encircled in his heat, his scent, his protectiveness.

When I woke up he was gone. I didn’t even know where he was going, but true to his word he picked up and left without a trace. Even his mother didn’t know where he’d headed. His cell phone was no longer in service. I had no idea when or if I’d ever see him again.

I left town, too, heading to my brother Colt’s apartment in the city for the last couple weeks of August. Soon I’d head back down again to Nashville for my sophomore year of college. I hadn’t seen much of my father before, and I didn’t see much of him for the remainder of the summer, either. He and Brandi eloped, making it official. So that happened. But other than that, things in my life went back to how they always had been.

Even though everything about me had changed forever.

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