Until We Burn (5 page)

Shooting for
the promos with Amy is uncomfortable, to say the least.  She shoots
daggers at me from across the room with her eyes and when we have to kiss for a
picture, she bites my lip. 

But I don’t
react.  I won’t give her the satisfaction.

Instead, when
she is sitting in a lounger by the wall, I engage in phone sex with an old
friend, Kira, from back home.  Amy glares at me for a moment, then stalks
away to her trailer.  I grin into the phone.

“Yes, I’ll be
home soon, Kira.  No, I can’t fly you here.  I won’t be here long
enough.  I’m coming to Chicago soon.  Maybe I’ll even be home next
weekend.”

Kira laughs
her familiar laugh.  I’ve known her for so long, she’s known me since we
were kids. In fact, she was Emma’s best friend.  She knows what Emma did
to me.  And she’s been here to comfort me for years. 

“I heard Sin
almost got hauled off to jail last night,” she mentions.  “Fiona called me
this morning complaining about it.”

I grin, trying
to picture how worked up my little sister Fiona probably was.  Since she’d
taken the job as Sin’s manager, he’s definitely put her through her
paces. 

“Yeah. 
He’s got to get better about guessing girls’ ages.  Or he has to start
taking an interest.  So far, he doesn’t give a flying fuck.”

Kira
laughs.  “Well, I’m glad he didn’t get into trouble.  It’s a good
thing the laws there are so much more relaxed about that stuff.”

“Yeah,” I
agree.  “It’s the only thing that kept him out of jail.  Has it hit
the news there yet?”

“It’s on some
gossip sites,” Kira answers. “But I wouldn’t worry about it too much. 
It’ll blow over.”

“I agree,” I
tell her.  “Sin’s having a party next weekend at his house.  Are you
coming?”

“I am if you
are,” she purrs.  “I’ve missed you.”

I grin. 
“I’ll be there.”

We hang up and
I head outside, through the halls that lead to the doors.  The sunlight
pours in through the glass, and I can see the crowds of women flocking
outdoors, just waiting to get a glimpse of Amy or me. 

The second I
emerge, the women begin screaming and pressing toward me.  Security moves
me fluidly through the crush of women and within a minute, I’m deposited into a
waiting car. 

As the
darkness envelopes me, I close my eyes.  As we drive away, I can still
hear the women calling out my name.  Asking for pictures, asking for
autographs, asking for kisses and hugs. 

They don’t
know me. 

They don’t
know what I’ve done, or what I’m capable of. 

They don’t
know any of it. 

I close my
eyes.

********

“You’ve got to
be home on Monday,” Tally tells me firmly.  “Shooting begins.  I
don’t give a rat’s ass what happened with Amy.  You’ll be on set and
you’ll be cordial to her.  So have fun with your brother, clear your head
and get ready to work.”

I sigh into
the phone.  “You worry too much,” I tell him.   “I’ll be
fine.  Amy won’t be a problem. Shooting will go off without a hitch.”

“It better,”
he growls, then hangs up.  I roll my eyes and toss my phone down. 
Tally tries to sound like an ass, but his bark is worse than his bite.  At
least, it is with my brothers and me. 

I finish
packing and then head to Providence to have lunch before I board my plane for
home.  I make my way inconspicuously through the restaurant and find my
favorite table. 

I by-pass the hostess,
but she sees me as she shows someone else their table.

She pauses at
mine. 

“Have you
spoken with Tally about me yet?” she asks, her hand on my shoulder. 

I shake my
head.  “Not yet.  I’m sorry.  I haven’t had a chance. But I will
soon. And I’ll give him your number.”

And maybe I
will.  Tally can do what he wants with it.  Melanie nods in
satisfaction. 

“Thank
you.  And if you need anything else from me, let me know.”  Her tone
is suggestive.  I smile.

“Thanks. 
I will.  Is Alex here today?”

Melanie nods
as she starts to walk away.  “Yeah.  She’ll be with you shortly.”

As I wait, I
decide to hit the men’s room.  As I pass down the long hall that leads to
it, an office door is slightly ajar.  I glance inside as I pass and am
startled to see Alex sitting on the desk, her legs wrapped tightly around the
manager’s waist.

I freeze in
place, staring. 

Alex has her
arms wrapped around his neck, her wedding band glinting in the light.  Her
tongue is buried in manager’s throat.  My heart feels heavy as I remember
what she’d said to me before. 

Sorry,
dude.  You’re hot and all, but I’m one of the few out there who believes
that marriage is sacred.

Not
that
sacred,
apparently. 

She must feel
someone staring, because she opens her eyes and sees me.  She yanks away
from the manager, her eyes wide.  I don’t wait.  I go to the
restroom, wash my hands and then head back to my table. 

Alex is there
within seconds.

“Dominic, it
wasn’t what you think.”

“Really?” I
raise an eyebrow.  “I’m pretty sure it was exactly what it looked like.”

She starts to
protest, to offer lame explanations about how she needs the money and the
manager was going to cut her hours, but I hold up a hand.

“It’s not my
business,” I tell her coldly.  “And actually, I’ve lost my appetite
today.”

Without
another word, I get up and leave, ignoring her protests from behind me. 

As I drive
away, I have to examine why I’m so annoyed.  Because honestly, I’m pissed.
And it shouldn’t be my business. 

What it boils down
to, though, is that I thought Alex was a decent person. One of the only decent
people I’ve met in LA.  And the fact that she’s like everyone else is
depressing. 

Everyone wants
to use everybody else.  They want something, they need something. They are
willing to do anything to get what they want.  They’ll break marriage
vows, cross lines of decency, stretch bounds of propriety. 

Where does it
end?  And is there anyone out in the world who is a decent person?  A
person who is good on the inside?

I’m beginning
to think that there’s not.  In fact, I’m convinced of it. 

I sigh as I
drive to the airport and board my plane.

Soon, I’ll be
home, just for the weekend. I can relax, soak in the wild atmosphere of Sin’s
party and disappear into the shadows. 

I can forget
that people are greedy, black-hearted users. 

I can forget
it all. 

As the plane
takes off, I close my eyes.  The weariness of the world has gotten to
me.  The ugly side of life, the guilt that I carry. 

Sometimes,
it’s all just too much to bear so I cope in the only way I know how. 

It’s the only
thing I can do. 

“Mr. Kinkaide,
is there anything else I can do for you?” I open my eyes at the polite voice
and find a voluptuous blonde flight attendant bent in front of me, her chest
straining at the buttons of her uniform. 

I meet her
gaze and smile my most charming grin, the one I’m known for. 

“Well, there
is
one thing.”

I trail my
fingers along the inside of her thigh and she smiles. 

The End

To read the
rest of Dom’s story….to find out why he is the way he is…and to see how he
finds his redemption and his salvation, please read
BEFORE WE FALL
….the
novel-length story of Dominic, my baddest bad boy yet and Jacey, the bad girl
who will save him. 

To read a
preview of BEFORE WE FALL, please continue to the next page. 

Chapter One

I
like to watch.

I know that I shouldn’t, but I
don’t really give a shit.  I like the flash of skin, the sweaty limbs, the
sex smells, the
fucking
…. 

Watching makes me feel
something.  It’s one of the only things that does.

“Some things never change,
Dominic,” Kira murmurs as her hand splays across my open shirt, her long brown
hair moving in the breeze, tickling my chest as she watches with me. 
“You’re just the same…a freak.  I love that.”

I don’t answer because she’s
right.  I’m a fucking freak.  She knows it and I know it, and neither
of us care.  If anything, Kira likes it.  She must, because she’s
stuck by me for a long time.  She knows me better than anyone…and she
definitely knows what I like.

Even though she’s beautiful and
familiar, I ignore her fingers as they trace across my skin, graze the tips of
my nipples and trail down to my crotch.  My dick is resistant to her touch
tonight and remains soft inside my pants.  Not because she’s not hot or
sexy, because she is. 

But because familiar and normal
don’t stir my blood.  I’ve seen pretty much everything once and have done
it twice.  Normal doesn’t do it for me anymore.

Forbidden
things are what lift my
dick.  Dark things, bad things.    

I stare down from the balcony,
looking past the shimmering pool below,
  past
the
rippling water that sheds blue light on everything around it, at the images
that waver in the night. The images of two people fucking. 

Knowing that I
shouldn’t
watch
is what excites me about it and so I don’t take my eyes from the couple having
sex next to my brother’s pool.  

I take another drink of
whiskey, letting the fiery liquid sit in my mouth before I swallow it, letting
it curl its fingers around my stomach, warming my gut. 

Watching the couple quietly, I
lean against the railing, half-hidden by the shadows, enveloped by the
night.  It’s just how I like it.

In front of me, the scene turns
rough. 

And my dick turns hard. 

The girl’s teeth sink into the
guy’s neck, then she whispers something unintelligible into his ear, words that
hiss as she drags her teeth across his skin.  Hard, aggressive, rough.
 I can see the red trail of pain she leaves behind from here. 

“Did she just bite him?” Kira
asks in amusement, her hand frozen at my waistband. 

I nod. She did.  And it
made me hard as a rock.  I love watching pain.  It distracts me from
my own. 

The guy smiles, liking it,
too.  He lifts her legs onto his shoulders as he thrusts into her. 
Hard. Then he frees one hand to grab her neck.  Hard.   His
fingers dig into the delicate skin there, cutting into the flesh, leaving red
marks that just might turn purple by morning. 

But she likes it.

I can tell by the way she
scratches his back and moans for more.  I can tell by the way she draws
him even further into herself, bucking her hips to take him even deeper. 
I can tell by the way she doesn’t even try to take his hand away from her
throat. 

It always fascinates me when I
see women that like getting debased, the ones who like it rough,
the
ones who want to be dominated or humiliated.  

It doesn’t make any sense, but
I see it all the time, more and more, especially here at my brother’s place at
one of his endless parties.  Around his pool, in his hot-tub, on his
lawn.  People seem to lose their inhibitions when they pass through these gates,
which doesn’t make any sense, either.  Most of them don’t know him, not
really.  But it doesn’t stop them from making themselves
very
at
home here.

Suffice it to say I’m always
entertained when I come to visit.

“Do you think they know we’re watching?” 
Kira leans up on her tiptoes, murmuring with hot breath into my ear as one hand
strokes my balls. 

I glance back down at the
couple, watching the guy’s face contort and twist, and watching the girl moan
and writhe beneath him.  They have no clue we’re here, but I have a
feeling they wouldn’t care even if they did. 

“I think that girl served me
champagne earlier!” Kira exclaims, leaning closer to look. 

“You’re probably right,” I
answer, staring at the girl’s skimpy server’s uniform.  I briefly wonder
where her boss thinks she is.  Surely he has no idea that she’s fucking a
party guest next to the pool.

But that’s not my
problem. 

The bulge between my legs is my
problem now.  It’s grown thicker and heavier and I shift, easing the
pressure of my jeans away from my dick.  I brush my hand against the denim
covering my crotch, stroking myself.  Just a little.  Quickly and
efficiently. 

I’m not going to get off right
out here in the open.  Because of how I make my living, I’ve learned
better than doing
anything
out in the open.   The press would
have a fucking field day with it if pictures of me jacking off leaked out.
 

Kira takes care of the
situation for me, just as she always does when I’m in town.  She pushes me
backward into the shadows, where she steps out of her shorts in front of
me.  She’s not wearing underwear.   

She’s right.  Some things
never change.

“Fuck me with your hand while
you watch them,” she instructs me softly, her green eyes gleaming.  “Do
it, Dom.  And then I’ll let you come on my face, the way you like to.”

.

I reach for her.  She
stands limply in front of me, her head resting on my shoulder as I slide two of
my fingers in and out of her.  I know exactly where to touch her. 
She sucks in a breath and I have to smile.  I know every inch of
her.  There are some things to be said for familiarity. 

She’s soaking wet, as though
she’s been waiting for this since I’d seen her last.  She hasn’t, of
course.  Kira and I have an arrangement of convenience.  It’s
convenient because we know each other, we trust each other. And there are no
feelings involved.  She and I are the same in that way. 

I can hear the girl by the pool
moaning loudly and it makes my fingers move faster, working Kira harder, in
time to the guy’s sweaty thrusts.  Kira moans with the girl by the pool
and I close my eyes, listening to the fucking sounds.  With my hand buried
in Kira’s crotch, the sounds are all I need now. 

If I were decent, I’d back away
from the balcony and give the couple some privacy and I’d give Kira more
coverage from the shadows...just in case someone happens upon us.

But fuck that.  I’m not
decent.  Not anymore.

After a few more minutes of
rough fucking, the guy pulls out of the waitress and grasps her hard, yanking
her off the chaise and forcing her down in front of him, onto her knees. 
I can see her skin graze the bricks, just as I can read his lips.

Suck me.

I pause as the girl shakes her
head, trying to scramble away, but he holds her fast by her hair, making her
take him into her mouth. Making her suck her own taste off of him.

She’s definitely not into it
now.  She swings her arms at him frantically, but he holds her hair
tightly, wrapping it around his hands, refusing to let her go.

I watch the fear wash over her
face and my gut tightens in reaction.

Fuck.

Kira lifts her head as my hand
stills.  “What?”

Her eyes are glazed as she
stares at me.  I nod toward the pool, at the struggle going on down there,
at the girl trying desperately to get away from the asshole’s grip.  

“Hell,” Kira sighs. 
“Ignore it, Dom. It’s not your problem.  We’re not done here.”

I sigh too, because I know I
can’t ignore it.

This has been happening way too
much. People come here and get wasted and out of control.  It’s not worth
the trouble but my brother keeps having the parties anyway.  He says it
keeps him relevant, whatever the fuck that means.   I don’t seem to
have a problem with being
relevant
and I don’t host a single
party. 

I shake Kira’s grip off of my
wrist, gulp down the rest of my drink and head down the stairs, ignoring her
calls of protest.   

It takes a minute to weave
discreetly through the masses of people scattered through the house and to make
my way across the lawn and onto the stones leading to the pool.  But I
reach the couple within two minutes and without even pausing, I grab the guy
from behind, ripping him backward.  He hisses as the girl’s teeth scrape
his dick.  

It serves him right.  The
fucker interrupted me.  

He yelps and I toss him on the
ground, watching in satisfaction as he scrapes his face on the stone bricks
before he rolls into the lawn.

“Get the fuck out,” I snap at
him.  “No one gets forced against their will here.”

“That bitch wanted it,” he
protests as he climbs to his feet.  “She was asking for it.”

I shake my head.  “The
last time I checked, no means no. It’s not a new way of
asking for it.
 
Get the fuck out of here.”

The guy looks at me again,
recognizes who I am, and then stalks away without another word.  I grab a
pool towel and wrap it around the girl’s shoulders. 

Her skimpy uniform, which was
barely there in the first place, is hanging around her waist now, apparently
ripped in their scuffle.  She seems self-conscious but honestly, I barely
notice. She’s young and has perky tits, but so do thousands of other
women.  She doesn’t do much for me.  Mostly because I know she’d
offer herself on a platter if I wanted her to.  I briefly consider
inviting her to join Kira and I, but don’t.  She’s drunk, and even if
she’s too drunk to remember it, she’d just been almost violated.

“You okay?” I ask
gruffly.  She nods, sniveling, just as another girl, a gorgeous blonde in
a matching uniform, rushes up. 

“Holy shit, Kaylie. What the
hell happened?”

The blonde is obviously
alarmed, concerned, and while Kaylie explains about the asshole, I turn to
disappear back into the shadows.  Regardless of my profession, I try to
stay out of the spotlight when the cameras aren’t rolling.  Unfortunately,
I only make it partway before Kaylie grabs my arm, then wraps herself around my
waist.

“Thank you,” she tells me
shakily, her arms like thin bands, not giving me room to even squirm.  I
stare down at her, looking past her tear-smeared eyeliner to look into her
panicky eyes. 

“It’s not a problem.  But
you need to stay out of situations like that. There won’t always be someone to
step in and save you.”

From her shocked expression, I
decide that I might’ve been a little too hard on her. But shit.  Women
have to be more careful.  She can’t parade around in barely any clothes,
have rough sex with a stranger and just expect him to be a gentleman. 
Men, by and large, aren’t gentlemen.  We’re assholes. 

Kaylie stares at me, too drunk
or high to even respond. But her friend isn’t so silent. 

Big brown eyes snap at me
angrily.  “Why are you lecturing her?  She was just assaulted, in
case you didn’t notice.”

I roll my eyes.

“Is that what you call
it?  She was having rough sex with that asshole right out in the open,
when she was supposed to be working, I might add.  It looked to me like it
was an incident that just got out of control. I stopped it for her. You’re
welcome.”

Gorgeous Blonde stares at me
dumbfounded.  “Are you trying to insinuate that she’s not a victim, that
it was her fault this happened?”

I sigh.  “Of course
not.  I’m saying that she shouldn’t have been encouraging a drunk stranger
to be rough with her in the first place.  Good night.”

I start to walk away, but
apparently she’s not done. 

“Who the fuck do you think you
are?” she demands.  “You might not have heard, but you really shouldn’t
blame the victim.”

“I’m not blaming-
“ I
begin, but I’m interrupted by her gasp as I step fully
into the light and she sees my face.

“Holy shit,” she breathes. “You’re
Dominic fucking Kinkaide.”

I can’t help but smile, just a
little, just enough to pull the corners of my mouth up. “Dominic will do. I
tend to drop the ‘fucking’.  Unless of course, I’m
actually
fucking.”

She smiles a breathtaking smile
that should affect me.  The girl is stacked, has legs that go on for
miles, and is wearing next to nothing.  She should affect me.  But
she doesn’t.  Because nothing affects me anymore.  I’m jaded as fuck.

“I’ve heard you’re trouble,”
she announces matter-of-factly, eyeing me up and down with a slow gaze and fire
in her eyes.  “That’s lucky, because I happen to like trouble.”

“I bet you do,” I answer back,
trying to ignore the way she’s acting now that she knows who I am.  They
all act like this.  Every one of them.  It gets monotonous. 
Just once, can’t someone surprise me?   “Nice to meet you.”