The Dominator (29 page)

But damn, the way she wrapped herself around me in the shower when I was home and tried to take care of me and then handed me control this morning…it did something to me, fortified me. Today I felt like I could rule the fucking world. But I didn’t really want to, for once. I just wanted to go back and climb in bed with her, smell her, feel her, touch her. Make up for lost time. Try to make up for the tears I’d caused her.

When I walked into the office my father handed me a brass skeleton key that was about a foot long.

“What’s this?” I jerked my chin up.

“Key to the city. Symbolic, my boy. When is the wedding?”

I laid it on his desk and smiled a little, “I’ll keep you posted.”

“A month? Do it at my house. I’ll tell Lisa. She and your sisters can help. We’ll call that planner that put my and Lisa’s wedding together.”

I shrugged, “That could work. Let me just talk to her before you get the girls involved.”

He clapped his hands together, “Good. Now that that’s settled, on to other business.”

“One sec,” I told him and reached into the inside pocket of my suit jacket and slapped an envelope on the desk.

Pop raised his chin, “What’s that?”

“35K. I’m clearing O’Connor’s debt. Twenty-five for the debt; ten for the juice.”

“Huh?”

“You heard; payment with interest.”

“I gave her to you as a gift, my boy, and even if I didn’t, the vig didn’t run
that
high.”

I shook my head, “I’d rather clear it.”

“I’m not taking the gift back, son.”

I nodded and shoved the envelope closer to him and looked him in the eye, “Now you can’t.”

“And you’re marrying her. That makes her even more yours.”

“Take the money.”

Pop stroked his chin and looked at me, perplexed.

“The business between you and O’Connor, whatever it was, is done now. If anything further needs to be done about him, I do it,” I told him.

He sighed, looking a bit defeated, “Fine.” he agreed and put the envelope of money into the inside pocket of his blazer.

“You gonna fill me in?” I asked.

“Why? You’re already digging around. I know you; you’ll find all the answers eventually. Why spoil your moment of triumph?”

“That’s what I thought.”

Yeah, we both knew where I got my tendency for mind fucking from.

Tia

I lounged in bed for the biggest part of what was left of the day, despite sleeping at least 14 hours the night he came home. He really
had
worn me out. The last week and a half had worn me out emotionally and I guessed it had manifested itself physically despite the fact I’d done not much other than lay around.  At around dusk I decided to get some proper exercise and do some laps in the pool and then I spent a few hours reading a novel that Sarah had lent me. I had trouble losing myself in it. Why did I need escape into another world when my own world felt like another world? While it was a pretty stress-free evening, all things considered, my wheels just wouldn’t stop turning. I thought on possible scenarios regarding my father and this whole debt thing. I thought about Tommy’s words after we woke up that day, about the fact that I could look at this thing two ways.

1: He’d taken ownership
of
me and given me a life sentence to be with him, regardless of what I’d be put through and regardless of how I felt. I had no choice, no out.

2: He was making a lifelong commitment
to
me and I’d have to take him for better or for worse. There could be a lot worse than being with him, as I’d seen down in Mexico. He promised to protect me. No one had ever offered me that before. Not my father, not anyone.

If I chose to look at it positively, it sounded like all he was doing was articulating some marriage vows. Promising to provide for me and protect me but there was an underlying threat that I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to despite the fact that it’d be rough at times.  And that freaked me out. A lot.

But how much would be for better and how much would be for worse?  Ice cream parlor guy vs gangster guy with the dark hunger for control --- the dominator. Till death do us part was something people promised all the time but I had no choice but to honor and obey. I was going to be taken literally in promising to obey him and to spend my life with him, only I hadn’t promised that. I’d been told that this was the deal; like it or lump it.

What was next for me, for us? Did I try to find a way to accept this or did I keep looking for a way out? The way he looked at me made me feel wanted. He was gorgeous, he was protective, he knew how to light my body on fire. He could be charming. He scared the crap out of me.

Tommy wasn’t there for dinner. I ate a late meal with Sarah. We cooked together and had barbequed chicken burgers and salads on the patio and we both floated around on tubes in the pool after dinner. Then I went up to bed early, exhausted physically and exhausted emotionally although I’d certainly slept a lot the night before. 

I woke up to him climbing in bed with me in the dark. I didn’t know what time it was but he didn’t initiate sex. He just curled up against me, wrapped his arms around me protectively, and kissed under my earlobe, and was snoring softly into my hair a few breaths later.

Tommy

I crawled in bed fully prepared to yank her night clothes off her and remind her of rule number 3 but the minute my nose caught a whiff of her hair and warm skin, which smelled like oats, honey, and vanilla, I nuzzled in and slept like a log beside her. The last few days had been long and painful. In the morning I’d be taking her out and trying to show her a change of scenery, maybe some romance.

** ** **

She’d be spending a lot of time alone at home for the next few weeks while I took care of some business that might mean even more security because I was probably going to have to show disrespect publicly to a scumbag that didn’t even deserve my time. Today I’d take her out for some fun and then broach the subject of our wedding with her. That’d keep her busy with my sisters.

I woke up first and found her with her head on my stomach. She was sleeping on her belly using my belly as a pillow, face toward my crotch. Her legs were hanging off the bed and she was flat out, sound asleep, hair fanned out across my torso.

I looked down and ran my fingers through her hair and then my thumb skimmed across her lower lip. She sucked in my thumb and actually sucked on it, still asleep. She must’ve been a thumb sucker as a kid. The sensation went straight to my groin, which was already awake. I then swept my hand down her back and cupped her ass.

She was wearing a tiny pair of lacy pale pink, almost flesh toned, shorts that were pretty well transparent and barely covered her cheeks and a matching lacy tank top that had ridden up and she looked edible, fuckable. If she was going to break my sleepwear rule and wear something like this I could probably overlook the infraction. She nuzzled into me and then as I reached my middle finger to stroke between her cheeks and downward, her legs magically parted. I smiled. The way she did that for me every morning so far hadn’t ceased amazing me. All I had to do was get anywhere near her pussy or her ass while she slept and she would instantly spread wide for me while she was sound asleep.

I had a feeling that morning sex would become as normal for me as my morning coffee. I never had women sleep at my place or even visit my place so I often found a partner to fuck somewhere in my travels, usually in the evenings in a motel, at the club (it had rooms), or their place and then went home alone. I’d always thought I’d preferred that but who knew that finding a woman in my bed when I climbed in at night and waking up to her spreading her legs for me every morning would be so fucking amazing?

Tia

I woke up facing his massive erection, pointing up in front of my line of vision. My head was on his tummy and he was tenderly caressing my head with one hand and had his other hand between my legs. I turned my head over and looked at him. He was lying on his back and looking down at me with the biggest, sexiest smile on his half asleep face. I smiled and rubbed my eyes, “Umm, Hi.”

“Mornin’, baby,” he said with a smirk, “All aboard?”

I blushed. He was gorgeous with a sleepy smile, a twinkle in his eyes, and a bit of bedhead and the way he looked at me made tingles work their way up my spine. He reached for me and then pulled me up by my underarms so I was straddling him. He pulled my shorts to the side with one hand, pulled his boxer briefs down with his other hand and connected us and wow. He said, “Unauthorized sleepwear again. I might have to punish you.”

Before I registered the words and let them scare me, I saw humor in his eyes so I smiled and ran my hands up his gorgeous chest and then had his jaw in my hands. I leaned over, about to kiss him, but then a big bang pierced the air. I thought it was firecrackers but the second I thought that my brain autocorrected it --- not firecrackers, gunfire. In a flash I’d gone from being on top of him on the bed to being swung through the air in his strong arms and then on the floor beside the bed lying directly under him. Covering me with his body, he reached under the bed and upwards and then he had a gun in his hand.

I was about to gasp but his hand was over my mouth gently. He made a soundless
shhh
and motioned for me to get under the bed as he carefully rolled off me and then silently moved around, commando-style crawling, to the other side of the bed, closer to the door. I stayed put under the bed and tried hard not to hyperventilate. I could see that the area under the bed had another gun strapped up as well as a big ass knife. Holy crap. When and how did my life become an action movie? Amid my shock and fear about the commotion and about the fact that he now had a gun in his hand was the realization that he, as an initial reaction to the gunfire, had actually turtled over me to protect me. Wow.

As that was permeating, I heard the door open and saw his feet leave the room. My heard thudded loudly in my chest. He was in nothing but underwear, holding a gun and I was under the bed, afraid for my life!

I heard a storm of gunfire and it sounded like it was right outside the door. I plugged my ears with my index fingers and squeezed my eyes shut tight.  Then there was silence.  Deafening silence. Then voices. But I couldn’t make out whose voices or what they said.

After what seemed like forever I heard footsteps. I looked and they weren’t Tommy’s bare feet. They were a pair of black boots. My heart thudded wildly in my throat. I silently reached up for the knife strapped to the bottom of the box spring and slid it out from the strap that held it up.

“Tia,” I heard a deep voice.  I didn’t recognize it. I had the knife in my grip.

“Tommy asked me to escort you somewhere safe. Please come out,” the voice said.

I didn’t believe anything I was hearing. Where was Tommy? Was he shot dead in the hallway? Was this someone else wanting to kidnap me? If they wanted me dead they would just shoot though, right?

I heard more footsteps, then saw a pair of men’s black leather dress shoes, “What’s going on?”

Was that Dario’s voice? I wasn’t sure.

“She won’t come out,” the first guy said.

I saw some suit pant-clad knees, then Dario’s face. I was lying under the bed with the knife pointed toward him. He looked at my face, the knife, then my face. He smiled, “You okay?”

I was frozen, I couldn’t move. I just laid there pointing the knife at him.

“C’mon,” he said and he looked amused.

I slid out from under the bed and he helped me up. The knife fell. I was shaking. Dario threw a robe at me and I put it on, glad he was thinking straight because I sure wasn’t. I was still in those tiny lacy sleeping clothes and they were more than revealing.

Nino, that biker-looking guy was standing there with Dario, his eyes politely fixed on the floor.

“Quickly, come,” Dario and Nino ushered me out of the room.

Two men were on the carpet in the hall and one was face down, one wasn’t. The one who wasn’t I recognized as one of the burly guys from day one, the unibrow guy. I felt bad for thinking that thought. I wondered what his name was, if he had any family. It was not only bloody but there were holes in the walls. Tommy was nowhere to be seen.

I breathed out a large breath and Dario ushered me forward but leaned back, “Get her shoes and get Tommy some pants, fast,” he told Nino.

“Where’s Tommy. He okay?” I breathed.

“Yep, no worries. Settle down.” Dario gave my shoulder a squeeze.

We got to the bottom of the stairs and I heard Tommy’s voice booming like thunder,   “You tell me right fucking now or I cut off your balls first!” he sounded utterly murderous. I froze for a second.

“Dare!” Tommy shouted, “Bring her.”

Dario motioned toward the slightly ajar office door.

I opened it, seeing a very bloody redheaded guy slumped in a chair and Tommy standing over him, two other men, one of them I recognized as sometimes being outside on guard, standing behind him. Tommy was still just in his underwear. Nino came up behind me and passed Tommy a pair of jeans. Tommy threw them on the desk and took me into his arms and inhaled my hair, “You okay, baby?”