Dominic's Touch Read online

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

  That deep, scratchy voice had her instantly smiling. Turning, Chloe watched as Dominic stepped out of the house and made his way toward her. For an instant, Chloe couldn’t help but admire him, feeling that comfort fill her. The white tee he wore did nothing to hide the raw power and rippling muscles. They flexed and bunched with every step he took. The loose, distressed jeans and flip-flops he wore seemed almost out of place on the hardcore soldier who had seen too much war.

  When he stopped in front of her, his smile was wide. He was so much taller than her meager five-foot-four inches. Craning her neck back, she couldn’t help but really examine him. It seemed like it had been ages since she’d seen him last, and he’d changed, become more masculine, more hardened. Or maybe she was just seeing him like a woman saw a man? That had her face feeling hot as a flush stole over her.

  His smile was white and straight. Dragging her gaze up over his square jaw and chiseled cheekbones, she stared into his eyes. The color always reminded her of the ocean. It was such a startling contrast to the coal black color of his short, dark hair.

  “It really is.” He pulled her into a tight embrace and turned them so they could both stare out at the lake. “I’ve missed you,” he said softly, and she nodded.

  “Me too.”

  They stood there, just the two of them, the wind whistling through the trees. She could have stayed there all day, but her aunt’s high-pitched voice broke the serenity.

  “Hey. Would you guys come in already? We're going to head out on the boat in a little bit.”

  Chloe turned to see her aunt standing in the doorway. Her tone was clipped, almost as if she were angry. She glanced at Dominic, and Chloe didn’t miss how she narrowed her eyes.

  Whatever was going on between her aunt and Dominic was pretty bad. Chloe felt it thicken the air when they were near each other, when they even glanced at one another. Why had they had anyone come over if they weren’t getting along?

  “Come on, sweetheart.” Dominic’s tone had suddenly gone terse and cold, but he kept his arm around Chloe’s shoulders and led her into the house.

  Her aunt and uncle’s problems, coupled with the pressure from Jake to go further sexually, would make for a … fun vacation.

  Chapter Three

  Chloe slipped her sunglasses on and closed her eyes. The boat gently rocked back and forth from the waves, almost lulling her to sleep. The feel of the sun above her, heating her skin, made it bead with sweat and had her sighing in contentment.

  “You look so freakin’ hot.”

  Chloe turned her head toward the sound of Jake’s voice. “Could you be any louder?” She chuckled when he shrugged and grinned wider. “My parents are just a few feet away.” Sliding her glasses down the bridge of her nose, she squinted at him.

  Jake was propped on his elbows. Sweat dotted his forehead and muscular chest. Leaning in, he whispered against the shell of her ear, “That bikini is barely enough to cover your tits and ass, baby.”

  She felt herself heat in embarrassment. “Jake, what the hell?” she hissed. She quickly sat up and looked behind her. Her mother, father, and aunt were all sitting on the padded bench on the other side of the boat. It was clear from their laughter and the glasses of wine they held that they were oblivious to anything else.

  “What?” he asked, sounded genuinely surprised.

  She rolled her eyes and slipped her sunglass back up her nose. “Would you just keep it down? The last thing I need is for my parents to hear you talking like that. They’ll put a chastity belt on me to make a point.”

  He snorted and leaned in again. “I could say how much I want to fuck you. How do you think they’d respond to that?”

  Chloe felt hot again, and not in a good way. She was a virgin, and aside from kissing here and there, she and Jake hadn’t done anything much. But he’d started to become increasingly sexual in nature recently, and she had a feeling it was because she refused to go all the way.

  In just the short time since they’d arrived at the cottage, Jake had gotten even more aggressive with his sexual advances. When he started to move his hand up her leg, she swatted it away and stood, anger filling her.

  “You have no respect, Jake. None.”

  He let out a frustrated sound and mumbled something under his breath that she couldn’t quite decipher.

  Walking over to the edge of the boat, Chloe leaned over it and stared at the water lapping at the side. She felt Jake’s presence behind her and gritted her teeth.

  Annoyed didn’t even come close to describing how she felt right now. Chloe turned quickly, about to put him in his place, but slammed against a hard chest. She tipped her head back, her heart stopping instantly. The sunglasses did nothing to hide the glare of the sun overhead, and she stumbled back, as much as the edge of the boat would allow.

  Big hands latched on to her arms to steady her. She shielded her eyes with her hand and stared at Dominic.

  Horror and embarrassment lanced through her like a hot poker. Chloe felt her face become fiery with mortification.

  “Oh God. I am so sorry. I thought you were Jake.” Squeezing her eyes shut and wanting to scream, she knew she should just be quiet.

  He was silent for far too long. Chloe dared to meet his intense stare. She knew what she had done and said looked extremely bad, no matter how innocent it had truly been. Well, maybe not totally innocent, but that wasn’t the point.

  “I’ve seen the way he’s been talking to you, trying to cop a feel, even around all of us.” He sounded pissed, and rightly so.

  “I know, and I’m sorry. He’s been acting like this for a while, but I didn’t expect him to be so disrespectful in front of the family.” Heat flooded her.

  “So he’s a little asshole when you’re alone?” He sounded even more upset than before. He crossed his arms across his chest, which caused everything to bunch and flex from the strain.

  She slipped her sunglasses back on and dropped her head. What could she say? “I’m sorry?” What was she apologizing for? Accidentally slamming her chest against his, and making this really weird? Or maybe because hearing Dominic say what an asshole Jake was cemented things even more?

  Her throat felt like sandpaper, and she swallowed roughly. She just wished this day was over with already.

  “Listen,” he said on an exhale. “I know you’re eighteen now and grown, but while you're staying here, I don’t want you and him…” He stabbed a finger behind him at Jake. “I don’t want you getting into any trouble with him. He rubs me the wrong way, and watching the way he treats you, what he thinks he can get away with, makes me want to pop him in the damn nose, Chloe.” When she didn’t respond, he continued. “In other words, Jake better keep his hands to himself or I’m intervening.”

  Blunt. Pissed. Yeah, that’s what Dominic was.

  “Um.” How awkward was this? “Yeah, I understand and agree.” Chloe looked over at Jake. He had his earbuds already in and his music blaring. Chloe forced herself to look back at Dominic. She said the first thing that came to her mind. “He won’t be a problem anymore. I’ll make sure of it.” She had no intentions of doing anything with him anyway. She wasn’t feeling things with Jake, if she were being truthful.

  And him coming along with them to the cottage had felt stilted and forced. But it was only for a short time, and then she could decide how to break things off with him. And that’s honestly how she saw things going. His incessant pushing her to have sex, his lack of respect when he spoke to her, and when her family was around, rubbed her the wrong way, too.

  “Good. Now get under the shade before you burn, and cover up. I don’t want that little punk getting any more ideas.” The hard tone in his voice vanished, and he smiled before turning away and walking back over to where everyone else sat.

  Chloe moved over to her towel and sat back down next to Jake. He didn’t stir, and she was glad. What would she have told him anyway?

  Chapter Four

/>   One week later

  A week had already passed at the cabin. Chloe had successfully avoided Jake's attempts, but she could tell he was becoming short-tempered over the situation. He was more aggressive with his advances, something she wasn’t used to with him. The last two years with Jake had been about softly spoken endearments, respecting that she didn’t want to rush things, didn’t want to go to that level.

  This new Jake was almost frightening in his insistence to go further.

  Trying to push her worries over the situation away, she focused on the fire in front of her. They’d gone boating earlier in the day, and now everyone sat around the firepit. Thoughts on other things, she hadn’t heard Jake speak until he nudged her.

  “I’m sorry, what?” Turning to look at him, she saw his wide grin.

  “I said, would you like to walk with me along the lake a little later? I saw this really romantic little cove not too far from here.”

  Chloe knew where he was talking about, and “romantic” wasn’t really what she’d have called it. The “cove” was a bed of fallen, rotten logs and jagged rocks. The only romance she could even picture there was the small, postage stamp sized beach, but even that left much to be desired.

  “Sure.” It was getting late, but she wasn’t tired and she would still be able to see the house from the cove. She didn’t like venturing too far from the cottage once it got late.

  Her answer seemed to placate him for the time being, and he turned from her, his gaze back on the fire. Chloe reached into the bowl of watermelon, grabbed a chunk and brought the thick, pink flesh to her mouth. Biting into it, she felt the juice slip down her chin. When she lifted her eyes, she locked gazes with Dominic. He watched her intently as he leaned back in his chair. He brought a longneck beer bottle to his mouth, took a drink, and then turned his attention to the conversation her parents and aunt were having.

  Chloe listened with little interest as her parents and aunt talked about the newest breakthrough surgery. This was normally what happened with them. They were always so engrossed in their own conversation that everything and everyone else just fizzled out.

  Dominic tipped his beer bottle back and looked at the fire, his brows knitted, this annoyed expression on his face. Chloe glanced at her aunt and saw her looking at him, the same hard, annoyed expression on her face. She had no idea what was going on, but there was definitely animosity between them. In fact, there had been the entire time they’d been at the cottage. And if she really thought about it, the last time they’d seen her aunt and Dominic, which had been just a few months back, they’d seemed tense toward each other, hateful even.

  “Maybe you’ve had enough, Dom?” Clara said with a bit of spite in her tone.

  Everyone stopped talking, and this tension surrounded them.

  He slowly looked back at Clara. “Excuse me?” he asked in a deep voice.

  “I think you’ve had enough to drink. You’re acting like a fish in need of water with the beer.” She all but spit the words out.

  Chloe shifted on her seat, the weirdness of this interaction being felt by everyone. She could see her parents glancing between them, her father looking away as if he didn’t want to be sitting here.

  “Well, this beer is getting me through being here with you.”

  Shit.

  He lifted the beer up, saluting Clara, then tipped it back and finished it off.

  Chloe’s dad cleared his throat and was about to stand, but when Dominic did it instead, everyone froze. “Maybe we should just tell everyone? Stop pretending like shit’s good?”

  Chloe looked between Dominic and Clara, and she could see her aunt looked pissed. Whatever it is Dominic was talking about wasn’t what Clara wanted.

  Clara looked absolutely livid as she slowly stood up, her half-filled wine glass in hand, shooting daggers at Dominic.

  “You really want to do this here, now?”

  Dominic shrugged. “Why the hell not? I’m tired of pretending.”

  Clara’s face got red, and she pursed her lips. “Fine.”

  Shit was going down.

  “Dominic and I are no longer together.”

  There was a collective silence, a heavy void that filled the space between everyone after Clara spoke.

  “Meaning…” Chloe’s mother said and trailed off, her tone hesitant.

  “Meaning we are no longer married. Meaning we’ve been divorced for three months.”

  Chloe felt her eyes widen.

  “Divorced?” Chloe’s mother said softly and looked between Clara and Dominic. “But you’re living together—”

  “Appearances,” Dominic said. “You know your sister better than anyone. You know how she has to pretend like things are fine … like she’s been doing since everyone has been here.” He took another swig from his beer. “No offense.” He looked over at Chloe and gave her a sad smile. “I didn’t even want to be here. But until everything is finalized with the financials and all that shit, we are trying to play nice.”

  There was more silence.

  Dominic and Clara weren’t together anymore. They’d even been divorced for months and hadn’t told anyone. Chloe had sensed something was going on between them, but never had she assumed it was this.

  Dominic muttered something under his breath and left the fire, heading inside and slamming the door shut. Clara still stood there, now downing the rest of her wine. Chloe thought maybe her aunt would be sad, but she looked more annoyed than anything else.

  “Why the divorce?” Chloe’s mom asked, standing and wrapping her arm around Clara.

  “I’m not even getting into that,” Clara mumbled.

  The two women headed off toward the lake house. Chloe’s father then got up and went inside.

  And then it was just Jake and Chloe by the fire.

  “Holy fucking shit,” he whistled under his breath. He got up and disappeared for a short while, but then returned with a duffle bag. He reached inside and pulled out a six-pack of beer, holding it up and wagging his eyebrows.

  “Want one?” He held up his half-drunk bottle, but she shook her head.

  “No thanks.” She was still reeling from what had just happened.

  “Suit yourself.”

  The time passed with her staring into the fire and Jake rambling on about bullshit while drinking beer after beer.

  Chloe could tell the alcohol was starting to take effect by the glassy look in his eyes. She gripped the iron poker tight in her hand and pushed around the burning logs in the firepit, embers floating up.

  “Want to go for that walk now? Shit, I know I need to clear my head from that little shit show that went down.”

  Glancing at Jake, she shrugged. “Sure.” Yeah, walking might help clear her head and make sense of everything.

  He took her hand and led them away from the light of the fire and deeper into the woods, within the tree line as they walked parallel to the lake.

  “Don’t you just love this place?” Absently speaking to herself, she watched as the water gently stroked the shoreline. She turned to look at Jake when he didn’t respond. Before she could get a good look at him, she shrieked in surprise when Jake gripped her waist and pressed her against a tree. “What are you doing, Jake?” She tried to push him away. “Easy.”

  He took a step back, his gaze roaming up and down her body.

  “You are so hot, Chloe.” His voice was thick, his words slightly slurred. He reached into his pocket and pulled out three small liquor bottles.

  She stared, appalled at him. “Where the hell did you get those?” Drinking wasn’t the problem in this situation—well, not the major one. She’d been to plenty of parties, had even gotten drunk herself on more than one occasion. But the way he was acting right now was not the Jake she knew.

  “Took them from my parents' mini bar. Want one?” He unscrewed one of the caps and downed it in one swallow.

  Never had she seen this side of him before. He was acting so reckless and uninhibited. “What the h
ell, Jake? Since when did you become a lush?”

  His laugh was clipped. “We just graduated. I’m celebrating.” He held a bottle out to her, and she shook her head. He shrugged. “More for me.” Unscrewing the second one, he downed that as well. The stench of liquor wafted around her, and she wrinkled her nose. “Don’t act all uptight, Chloe. You’ve gotten drunk before.”

  “Yeah, I have, but not the way you are. We are also at my aunt and uncle's house, and my parents are here.” He laughed and drank the third one. “You smell like a bar, Jake. So not attractive.”

  He took a step forward, placing a hand on the tree beside her head. “No? What do you find attractive about me, Chloe?”

  “Well, it was your dignity, responsibility, and all-around gentleness, but now even that is going downhill.” The dark look that crossed his expression had her stiffening in response. “I think we should go back to the house so you can sleep this off.”

  “Oh? What? You think you’re too good to let loose?”

  She shook her head. The conversation was starting to move to dangerous ground. “There's nothing wrong with letting loose, Jake, but I do have a big problem with being irresponsible, especially at someone else’s house.” Chloe placed her hands on his chest and tried to push him back. “Move, Jake. I’m done here.” He was immovable. “I’m serious. Move out of the way.”

  “You know how many girls I could have fucked since I’ve been with you?”

  Anger made a slow path through her body. “You’re drunk, and you’re going to regret where this conversation is going in the morning, Jake.”

  Licking his lips, he dropped his eyes to her mouth.

  “I could have fucked Heather, Kallie, and Megan just in the last week of school.” He smirked. “Maybe I did to take care of these fucking blue balls you constantly give me.”