Unlawful Temptations (The Star-Crossed Series Book 1)

Every time I kissed Dominic, it was a new experience.

It was an elemental culmination. Sometimes he set me on fire. Sometimes he completely drowned me. Sometimes he swept me off my feet, his kiss like the wind ungrounding me from reality.

This kiss…

This was all of it. My body was engulfed in flames, my head was submerged under love’s ocean, my heart had taken flight, and all of it while being wrapped in the smell of fresh earth.

The moan I released against Dominic’s mouth was helpless and stained with his name. Even if there were no syllables to the sound to form his name, it belonged to him all the same. Everything about me belonged to him in this tiny back room.

Dominic swallowed the noise, his hand sliding to the back of my head and grabbing a fist full of hair. He didn’t pull, even though I wanted him to. He just eased my head back so he could deepen the kiss and touch every corner of my mouth to completely devour me.

I surrendered willingly—as if I had a choice thanks to that bitch Fate—letting his tongue dominate, our teeth clash, and him fill himself with as much of my essence as he wanted.

My limbs were pretty much jelly, but I reached for the knot of his tie, yanking at it with blind determination. A whine crawled up my throat.

“I don’t know how to fucking work ties.”

I gave the silken material another tug when Dominic wretched his mouth from mine.

“We’re not getting undressed, Kat.”

I wasn’t looking at him as he spoke, instead captivated by his lips that were smeared a passionate red, fuller from my own. His words ran lines through my head, dirty, blurred lines that twisted the end of my mouth up and crossed my arms over the bottom of my shirt.

I ripped my shirt up over my head, tossing it to the side, standing now in the dim light of the bedroom clad in my red lace bra, jeans, and sneakers.

“You were saying?”

The shadows of the room played tricks on Dominic’s good looks, scanting them harsher and darker as his eyes dropped to the swell of my tits. Lust burned a ring around his pupils, his jawline doing that thing it always did when I pissed him off.

A bass note started low in his throat, humming dangerously as he gripped my bare waist in his hands. I gasped, startled, as he dragged me forward until my hips pressed to his, the outline of his cock straining between us.

“You…” His head shook slowly, gaze never leaving my breasts. “Have so much trouble following rules.”

“Yeah,” I huffed. “And you love it.”

Hungry eyes flashed up, a predatory glint shading the colors of his stare. “Do you know why I love it?”

“Because you get to punish me when I’m bad?”

Approval flared across his face, and well-worked hands trailed down my waist to the band of my jeans. If possible, his voice was hotter than his stare. “That’s correct, Ms, Sanders.”

Holding my eye, Dominic popped the button on my jeans open. He kept my gaze as he guided the zipper down so fucking slow, orchestrating a tension around us that felt like sweat on skin. He finished with my zipper and hooked his thumbs into the waist of my jeans, beginning the agonizing process all over again.

The rough material slid down my legs at a pace that had a scream of frustration edging in my throat. I watched him as he undressed me, his focus unparalleled as he revealed inch after inch of my naked skin. It was like he was teasing himself with the sight of me as much as he was teasing me by taking his goddamn time.

He slipped my shoes off, socks too, kneeling in front of me to help me step out of my jeans one leg at a time.

When he was done, I was bare of everything but my bra and underwear, a black cotton thong squeezed between my thighs. On his knees in front of me, Dominic saw nothing else but that tiny black thong, his smokey eyes laser focused.

“This is cute,” he mused deeply, brushing his thumbs over the sides of the garment.

“It would look cuter on the floor.”

His stare reached up to me from below, and I was definitely aware of his hand sliding behind my thigh. He lifted my left leg off the floor, setting it over his shoulder. My inner thigh was right next to his face—his dusky pink lips. The image of him kneeling between my legs alone was enough to rattle my hormones into hyperdrive.

“You need to learn patience, Ms. Sanders.”

“And I think you need to put your face about three inches forward, Mr. Reed,” I replied, panting even though nothing had happened yet. He’d barely touched me, but it didn’t matter. I could feel how wet I was for him slicking between my heat, the ache to be touched pulsing louder with each second.

Dominic moved his dark gaze to what was right in front of him, taking in my barely covered pussy with exquisite attention. All the sensitive muscles down there clenched around nothing with his eyes on me, and if I was a different person, I might have been embarrassed that he could probably scent how turned on I was.

It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Not with what he did next.

“Right here?” Dominic asked, and I fucking gasped like I was having a heart attack. He nosed the front of my panties, inhaling my arousal and talking with his mouth against me. “Is this where you want me?”

My hands clenched the air for something to grasp onto so I didn’t fall over and die. “Oh, fuck. Yes.”

“Quiet,” he gruffed, burying the order inside of me. I held onto my next squeak as best I could as he kissed me over my underwear, lips moving, tongue flattening against me and stroking my covered clit. The wet heat of his mouth blended with how soaked the front of my panties were, the garment becoming a mess of mine and Dominic’s unfurling desire for one another.

Electric heat spiked up to my head as he ran the tip of his tongue around my clit through my underwear, up and down, back and forth, driving me to a quick lust-addled insanity.

His breath washed hot over my core as he growled into me. “I can taste you through the fabric.”

I didn’t catch it through the sticky thick atmosphere, but I must have agreed out loud about how wet I was because Dominic pulled back. He hit me with a scorching glower, his fingers denting punishment into the skin of my thigh.

“I said quiet, Ms. Sanders.”

He lifted himself to his feet in front of me, a tower of seduction and power, and even my best attempt at following his rules tonight obliterated.

“I don’t give a fuck about being quiet.”

And then I launched myself at him.

We fell to the mattress behind Dominic, a pile of limbs and need with me on top. Our mouths were magnets, finding each other’s immediately, sighs and moans polluting the air. Dominic’s hands dropped to my ass and he grabbed it, and I mean really grabbed it.

We both cried out for different reasons—me for the bruising grip and marks I loved knowing he would leave buried beneath my ivory skin, and him for the feel of me. The completely unadulterated feel of my ass in his hands and the knowledge that right now, that part of me and the rest of it was all his.

From everything I knew about Dominic so far, he wasn’t a possessive man, but he was a devoted man. What he was devoted to, he cherished and worshiped and got deep satisfaction from knowing his devotion was mutual.

This explosion of passion was our mutual acceptance of what neither of us could stop between us. He’d been there long before I had, waiting for me to catch up so we could climb up our limbo sky and reach every potential written in the stars for us.

Dominic kissed me harder knowing I was finally accepting the possibilities of us, and I let him so his lips could erase the panic that came along with acceptance. All I wanted to focus on were the sensations building at the apex of my thighs, and the steel erection sitting right beneath me that would make those sensations ignite.

Tiny mewls dripped from my tongue to Dominic’s as I ground my hips over his, rocking and building us both up. In a quick motion, our positions flipped, and I found myself beneath Dominic and all his heavy breathing.

“I’m not having sex with you.”

His sharp denial meant nothing because I didn’t believe him. Not one bit.

“Really? Because your cock says differently. It’s hard for me and says you wanna fuck me,” I breathed heavily, pushing my hips up.

I’d never ever felt more hollow before, more empty without him inside of me. Dominic’s eyes slammed shut as I rubbed myself all over his work pants, riding his thickness from beneath him until his resilience slipped.

My head threw back, pushing into the mattress as Dominic thrust his hips forward, grinding himself into me. Then, he did it again and again and again. The room became a chasm of animalistic grunts and breathy moans as Dominic dry fucked me hard and deliberately, losing all sense of self and becoming nothing but his desire and passion.

The bed rocked beneath us, sizzling heat pouring between my legs as Dominic scraped his teeth down the hollow of my neck, his bristled jaw a heavenly burn across my sensitive skin.

“Do you like that you do this to me?” he growled in my ear. “Do you like making me break my own rules?”

I nodded a yes, going weak beneath him as he ran hot, open-mouthed kisses across my collarbone, covering my body in his taste, his scent, his craving for me. His mouth left lava wherever it touched, trailing down my neck, tongue cutting a pathway between my breasts and skipping my peaked, aching nipples.

I whined and he ignored me, working his hungry lips down my bare stomach to cover every inch of me in his delirious affection. He was tasting all of me, licking every bead of building sweat from my skin like he’d been starving his entire life without me.

His wet tongue circled the space just above the band of my underwear, sending a tremor through my body. That tremor broke into something audible as Dominic swept his tongue underneath the strap, and my pussy fucking wept at the feeling.

“Dominic,” I cried, struggling beneath his torture. He didn’t say a word in response. Just left me panting and needy as he hooked his fingers around my thong and dragged it down my legs and off my body.

A heavy tension pulsated in the air as Dominic knelt back on his haunches and took me in. Somehow, his silver eyes shined and eclipsed themselves at the same time. He was spellbound, and I spread my legs wider to show him what was his for the night.

A look of hunger—of filthy, primal need—carved his features into jagged-edged marble. He swallowed so hard, I saw his Adam’s apple move in the dusky lighting of the room.

“Roll over,” he ordered, tone low and controlled.

My brows tugged down. “What?”

With a flare of his nostrils, Dominic didn’t wait to repeat himself. My knees knocked together as he folded my legs shut, his hands locking around my hips next, and the world flipped yet again.

My front was flush with the bed for less than a second before Dominic tugged my hips back and up, sitting my ass right against his crotch. Every muscle in my core fluttered at the new position, his cock right against my ass and his big hands holding on either side.

I perked up on my hands, an excited curl arching my lips. “Well, I didn’t—”

A shriek ripped through my lips with zero warning, much like the hand that slapped across my ass.

Shock swallowed up my head, and I jerked around still on all fours to Dominic. “Did you just spank me?”

Dominic smoothed his hand over my freshly punished cheek, dark eyes on it instead of me. “I did. I’ve told you to be quiet twice now, and you haven’t listened. In fact, you tried to break every rule I set in place.”

“But—”

Another smack to my ass came just as swiftly and suddenly as the first.

This time, my head tossed back with a moan, back arching into the pleasant sting as Dominic again softened the blow with a tender caress of his palm. Oh God. I pushed back into him, so past the point of turned on that I could feel my arousal soaking down my inner thighs.

Dominic squeezed my naked flesh, fingers pressing a reminder into me. “Speak again, Ms. Sanders, and this ends here.”

A tight breath jammed up my throat, quieting any further words.

Dominic waited for one, two, three silent seconds.

“Good girl.”

My fingers twisted into the simple blue comforter beneath us, anticipation ballooning my lungs as he shifted behind me. My awareness was at 150% not being able to see him, just feel the brush of his pants over my thighs and hear his steady breathing quilt the room.

My curiosity won out after too long without words, and I craned my head back to him. I did it just in time to see him loosen the tie around his neck and pull it from around his head. Cool gray eyes met mine, a curve so small on his mouth, it was barely there at all.

“You have a tendency to touch things you shouldn’t.”

Wonder dropped my focus to the innocent tie he held in his hands.

“Sit back, Ms. Sanders.”

I did as he said, turning my head back around and sitting up to my knees. It brought my back right to him and his sweet mint breath right next to my ear.

“Arms back,” he murmured.

Before I could even think not to, I brought my arms behind my back and crossed them at the wrists. Dominic awarded a press of his lips behind my ear, telling me I’d done good.

Silken fabric coiled my wrists, binding them together before a knot was cinched tight by professional fingers. Unabated breathing dried out my mouth, the combination of curiosity and excitement doing strange things to my stomach.

Warm lips feathered up the back of my neck. “Do you trust me?”

Every bit of my wild panting stilled.

My tongue touched the roof of my parched mouth to say ‘no’ in instinct, but I mentally and physically stopped myself. I blinked and didn’t say anything instead, waiting for Dominic to let me off the hook and tell me I didn’t have to answer.

Nerves rolled my stomach into itself when that didn’t happen.

He wanted an answer.

A sound of unintelligible nothingness strangled out of me, and Dominic laid another kiss against my neck, soft and sweet. I slammed my eyes shut to hold on to the feeling of it, the warmth that fused through my blood the same temperature as his lips, the crackling of electricity that buzzed in my bones because it was him kissing me.

It was the thunder kissing his lightning, and it was the best feeling in the entire damn world.

Did it mean I trusted him though?

I didn’t want it to mean that. I didn’t want to believe that I might be idiotic enough or weak enough to not only potentially fall in love with Dominic, but to also trust him. Trust wasn’t trustworthy. Love wasn’t loving.

They were both diseases. Lies. Oxymorons within themselves.

But maybe it was already too late for me.

“I might be dumb enough,” I whispered back, the realization turning my voice to smoke.

A hand appeared on the back of my neck, driving my head to turn to the side. Waiting for me there was a man of unearthly beauty and unspeakable devotion illuminating his gaze aimed right at me, at my lips.

“That’s not dumb,” he assured. “That’s not dumb at all.”

And he covered my mouth in a kiss.

A moan struck up my throat that had nothing to do with the way Dominic’s lips moved with mine or the taste of him on my tongue. It was because of the fucking ache that splintered dead center in my chest the moment he kissed me.

It was a pain that didn’t quite hurt but consumed me entirely. It wrapped around bones, embedded itself in my cells and molecules, transfused my blood and dug into my flesh. It didn’t stop until my whole body was infused with the ache, and tears pricked the backs of my eyes for a reason I couldn’t name.

Dominic kissed the oxygen right out of my lungs, leaving me a breathless mess as he lowered me back to the bed on my stomach. His lips worshiped my shoulders, my back, my confined arms, every touch of skin he could as he made his way back behind me.

“I intend to stick to my word. I won’t sleep with you until I sign divorce papers.”

Disappointment blew a raspberry through my lips, and I buried my forehead against the mattress. The hollow throbbing in my lower stomach pinched in need, making me squirm.

Why the fuck did he take my pants off then?

“As you pointed out at the hotel however, the rules aren’t very consistent.” My attention tracked back to one of his hands sliding over my waist, squeezing my hip bone, curling over my backside.

“And if I’ve made you come before… I don’t see why I can’t do it again.”

A gasp sliced the air, my spine going rigid as Dominic traced one of his long fingers down my drenched center.

“Christ,” he cursed under his breath, dipping the tip of his finger inside. “Are you always this wet for me?”

“What do you think, sir?” I sighed, the sound turning to a moan as he squeezed my hip hard.

“I think you should go back to being quiet.”

“Why?” I pinched my eyes shut as he teased his finger down to the knuckle. “Because you like it too much when I call you sir? You like being the boss?”

A faint cry shredded out of me as Dominic added a second finger, stretching me out and making me bury my face back into the covers. He worked them in and out, sliding so fucking slowly, I knew he was doing it on purpose.

The burn he was building inside of me was stoking just as gradually, feeling like actual flames taking over second by second. It hurt so fucking good. I wanted more, pushing back against him, trying to force his fingers deeper, stretching my bound hands back blindly to try and reach him.

I needed to touch him. I needed him to touch me more. More, more, more.

Except all I got from my efforts was punished.

“No,” I whined, wriggling on the bed as he retracted his second finger and went back to his single-fingered assault.

“What did I say about patience?” Dominic’s deep voice was inflated with arrogance, floating through the room and slapping me with madness.

“I don’t have any.” I groaned something fierce into the bed, muffling my voice. “I would have just done it myself if you were gonna be this mean.”

“And why do you think your hands are tied?”

Another scratching moan ripped up my throat. Dominic didn’t mind it. He didn’t mind any of my frustrated noises or jerking movements. He just kept up his slow-building torture, letting me whine and struggle for more.

“Do you remember back when you said that cake was better than an orgasm, Ms. Sanders?”

My eyes had pressed shut before that, but fluttered open at the memory. I twisted my face to lie on my cheek, cutting a sharp look back at Dominic’s large frame. “Yes?”

“Do you remember what I said in response?”

“That… no cake should be better than an orgasm.”

His finger slipped out of me completely, and I would have protested if I hadn’t felt his touch on my wrists next, unwinding his tie with easy precision. My shoulders caved back to a normal position, and Dominic guided me onto my back.

He was right over me, his thick hair in complete disarray and his pink lips kissed a dirty red. Thunder clouds rolled across his eyes, commanding and dark as he played his fingers between my legs. Up and down, teasing my clit, never quite slipping inside.

Dominic watched my breath hitch, my eyes flare, my every reaction to his slow torture that had come as close to actual pain as pleasure ever could. I was so fucking needy, so drunk on it, I thought I might actually produce tears.

“I never forgot you said that,” he started, hot breath teasing my lips. “Even on the days I tried my hardest to forget about it or you, I couldn’t.”

I sucked back a cut of air, my focus narrowed on Dominic above me as he skimmed two fingers down where I wanted them. His mouth hovered just over mine, murmuring his intentions over my parted lips.

“And I’ve wanted to do this every single day since.”

My head kicked back with a wide gasp. Dominic sank his fingers to the hilt inside of me at the very same time his thumb pressed to my clit. He worked them in tandem, driving his fingers in and out while his thumb popped tiny whimpers off my lips with each stroke over my bud.

Dominic buried his head in my neck too, silk soft hair nuzzling underneath my chin as he mouthed my flesh, sucking and whispering filthy encouragement against it.

“I—fuck,” I cried, clawing at the bedcover and then his back as he curved his fingers up inside of me, hitting a spot that literally blinded my vision. I went up on my toes on the bed, holding my breath as he did it again.

A hum of approval resonated his chest, a smile in his dark voice.

“There it is.”

My legs actually started to shake in uncontrollable convulses each time he hit that place inside of me. It was too much. The sensations fusing together in my stomach were too much, and I began to tell Dominic just that.

“I-I can’t. I—fuck, Dominic, I—”

“Yes you can,” he promised, no room for question in his tone.

I shook my head against the pillow anyway, squeezing my eyes closed as the most intimidating orgasm closed in faster than anything I’d experienced. I tried to move away from it, tried to jerk my hips back to where the winding, pinching feeling wasn’t so overwhelming, but Dominic didn’t let me. He kept me plastered to the bed, reminding me over and over to stay put.

I cried against him, sinking my teeth into his shoulder to chew out my moans and whimpers. Maybe all of Dominic’s torture, the slow teasing had been for this—to deliver me this shattering climax—but I didn’t think I’d survive it if it hit.

In fact, I was pretty much sure I’d die before getting there.

The searing sensations were swallowing me up fast, coiling tighter as Dominic ran his thumb in fast circles over me, his other fingers never stopping even once. Heady oxygen compacted within me, filling my head up with dizzying, hot air as the feeling growing between my legs got tighter and bigger.

Dominic’s carnal voice found my ear. “Show me how you come, Kat. I want to see it.” He sped his pumping fingers inside of me. “Feel it.”

The filthy command, proficient fingers, and the man composing it all set a match to the kindling inside my core. The last thing I remembered before the climax hit was gasping Dominic’s name, and his mouth sealing over mine.

Heat exploded through me, flushing down my thighs and up my chest. Dominic groaned through our kiss as my walls clenched his fingers in pulses of pleasure that were never ending. My vision glitched in flashes of white even behind shut eyes, but I couldn’t control it and I didn’t care.

Dominic muffled each squeak and groan that tried to break through my lips, kissing me and shushing me gently as my body continued to quake in sparks of ecstasy. The pleasure was unbelievable—other-worldly—and Dominic proved himself once and for all to really be a god.

It took several moments and several whispered affections from Dominic until I came down from the high. Every muscle in my body went limp at the same time, a sweat breaking out on my forehead.

Dominic pulled back only so far, allowing me air to breathe and a point to concentrate on in his smiling eyes. He swiped his hand not still between my legs over my damp hairline, bringing it down to thumb my parted lips.

“Still think cake is better?”

His confident half-grin held my entire focus as I struggled for words.

“I think,” I huffed, catching my breath. “I want both.”

Dominic’s chuckle was deep and rich, the sound helping to soothe my live-wire nerves.

“You want to have your cake and eat it too?”

“That saying doesn’t make any sense.”

He rolled his eyes back, a still very present grin tugging up the corner of his mouth. “You don’t have to admit I’m right.” He moved his fingers still inside of me, making my legs tremble and breath wobble. “I have all the proof I need.”

My still too sensitive muscles jerked away from his hand, and I cut him a dopey smile.

“Fuck you.”

“Later. I promise.”

That brought my laugh out of hiding, making it paint the walls a color of happiness I didn’t know existed before now. Maybe I was still high from the orgasm or maybe it was something else, but the world looked different all of a sudden.

Every shade was brighter. Every color was more refined, like someone had switched the lens on my kaleidoscope vision, and I was seeing it all for the first time.

Even so, with the new pop of red coming from a shirt spilling out of one of the moving boxes, or the stark, almost blinding white of the four walls around us, or the dramatic glint of gold showing off on the door knob across the room…

My favorite color in the whole room was still gray.

* * *

Dominic and I both washed up in a bathroom down the hall before meeting Ryan back out in the living room. Layla was missing, and Ryan’s lame ass shirt was on inside out.

He met my eyeline as we emerged from the hallway, and I smirked at him. He had a terrible poker face.

“Where’s Layla?” I asked.

He nodded over his shoulder to the front door. “She stepped outside to smoke.”

Surprise jumped my eyebrows up. “You’re okay with her smoking?”

His light brown brows furrowed, electric blue eyes muddling with confusion. “Yeah, I—” He paused, realization dawning. “Did she not mean smoking cigarettes?”

“Nah, she hates those. Weed. She likes weed.”

His mouth dropped into an O, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“She always smokes after sex.”

“We—”

“Your shirt’s on inside out, man,” Dominic helped from behind me.

Embarrassment tinted Ryan’s cheeks, and he shot a glance down at his shirt. He sighed, leaning back to get comfortable. “Well, you guys were gone for a while.”

And if he hadn’t been fucking Layla during it, he absolutely would have heard why we were gone so long. Dominic did his best to keep me quiet, but we both knew the neighbors next door probably heard me.

Heading for the door, I offered, “I’ll go grab her real quick.”

A hand snaked around my wrist, tugging me back around and to a stop. My neck stretched back to accommodate for Dominic’s height and nearness.

“Let Ryan go get her.”

My eyes kicked back in a playful roll. “I’m fine. It’s literally just outside.”

Hesitance etched lines in his forehead as he stared down at me. His jawline cemented, and he dominated a step closer. “If you’re not back in three minutes, I’m coming to get you. And bring your pepper spray.”

“Sir, yes, sir,” I replied, tossing him a wink.

I snagged the pepper spray laying on the countertop of the peekaboo kitchen window, fitting it in my back pocket as I left the house. The breeze hit my bare arms, and I wrapped my hands around my elbows to hike down the long driveway where Layla sat at the very end of it.

Damn, she was right. It was getting cold.

Layla’s midnight hair glowed almost as purple as her outfit against the night. She turned to me as I walked down to her, a white trail of smoke blowing between her dark lips. She pumped her suggestive eyebrows up at me as I popped a squat on the hard cement next to her.

“Your talk go well?”

“It ended in an orgasm, and I’m pretty sure the promise of cake?” I laughed.

“Yow, that’s definitely a good talk.” Layla snapped her fingers a few times, eyelids drooping to half slits. She always snapped and made weird noises when she was high.

“And you brought out Hello Kitty.” I pointed my chin at the cartoon cat themed bowl in her hand. She always carried it in her purse for moments like these. “You and Ryan made good use of the downtime.”

She rubbed the back of her hand under her nose, a lazy smile pulling across her cheeks. “He asked me on a date. Like a proper date.”

“Was this before or after you boned him?”

“Before. So you know he meant it.”

A noise of approval vibrated up my throat as I watched her mocha eyes go all dreamy as she blew out another puff, probably finding contours of Ryan’s face in the smoke. She seemed really happy.

And as I studied her and her love struck face, that light as air, foreign feeling materialized between my ribs again, except this time, I realized the name for it.

Hope.

I was deliriously hopeful for a chance at that same brand of happiness.

I was… sick for it.

Except maybe being sick didn’t mean death like I always thought. Maybe it meant a different kind of death. The kind of death that brought new life, new chances, and new hope.

I fucking hated maybe’s, but maybe I had to die from the sickness to be reborn into a life where a happily ever after existed for me.

Maybe falling sick for Dominic Reed wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

Then, just as I was dreaming about the potential existence of Prince Charmings and fairytale happiness, it happened.

The SUV came out of nowhere.

Its black exterior was well cloaked by nighttime, and neither Layla nor I saw it come up until it was already there. An alarm bell so loud, I didn’t even hear if I actually yelled out or not, shot off between my ears as my head craned back at the onetime familiar car.

No fucking way…

“Layla,” I breathed, voice frigid in panic. “Run.”

The backdoor to the SUV jammed wide open, and a man in all black spilled out, looking like he could snap me in two and not even blink. I wretched Layla up off the ground by her arm, mouth dropping open to scream for Dominic when unfamiliar arms swooped in on either side of me.

One clamped over my mouth. One locked around my waist and yanked me up off the ground.

Terror ignited fast, a wildfire pouring through my veins as I thrashed like a trapped fucking animal and reached out for Layla. Her glassy eyes were as wide as I’d ever seen them, but she lunged for me too, grappling at my flailing hands and tugging back hard.

Pain popped through my shoulder, but I didn’t care. I didn’t even feel it past the dread chewing at my stomach as Layla played tug of war with my life. My life that I was just starting to want to live for instead of just survive for.

The man grunted behind me as I fought back, his smell of sweat and bad breath shoving up my nose and making me squirm harder. He was too close. Way too fucking close, he—

He was just close enough.

Fight or flight adrenaline charged through me as I remembered back to my training with Dominic long enough to remember to aim for the nose, but not enough to remember how much it was going to hurt.

With a muffled cry, I slammed my head back into a hard face.

Agony exploded in my skull, spidering around my entire face and digging its claws in behind my eyes until tears sprung loose.

The other thing that came loose, however, was me.

Layla and I fell into a heap on the road, asphalt hitting back at us and cutting slits in my palms. Groans of pain, both ours and the man’s, permeated the battleground, and I was still blinking stars out of my eyes when I started blindly patting around my back pocket.

I had it. I knew I had it…

My searching fingers found and clamped hard around the bulge of the pepper spray, and I grunted in victory.

“Layla, go.”

My momentary surge of victory vanished fast when a hand fisted in my hair from behind. My fumbling fingers dropped our only weapon, and a cry ripped out of my mouth as I was yanked to my feet by my hair and jerked around fast.

“You fucking bitch.”

My eyes rounded by shock as the man hissed and I saw what I’d done to him, a red, bloody mess splattered on an already ugly mug. In fact, my eyes couldn’t even stretch any wider in a second dose of surprise as his fist came at my face.

I went down hard, harder than I’d ever hit anything in my life.

Layla might have screamed. I didn’t know. There was too much ringing stuffed between my ears to tell for sure. Oh, and the pain. That was fucking brutal. It hung heavy on every part of my body; I couldn’t even open my eyes over the severity of it.

My entire head was cracking from the inside out. Or at least that’s what it felt like.

Someone or something touched my arm, and there was more noise. More fighting, but all I could see was a dizzy nothing, and all I could hear was the violent ringing.

Until one voice broke through it all.

“Kat!”

Layla’s cry penetrated the dense air submerging my fuzzy head. It split the cement bricks hanging over my eyelids, retching them open in time to blink up from the ground and see my best friend.

In time to see her being pulled into the SUV in my place.

“No,” I breathed, voice completely mangled.

The man covered her mouth with his hand milliseconds after she cried out, her eyes projecting in panic. The man turned his head over his shoulder to someone in the front seat.

“Go! Go now!”

“She’s not the right one,” someone shouted, another man.

“She’ll do!”

Ferocity boiled in me, heating my blood and glitching my already blurry vision a red as deadly as the blood oozing from the man’s face. He was reaching for the door, yanking Layla back as she kicked it open.

“You’re not taking her,” I seethed, pushing myself up on arms that quivered and legs that wobbled. The movement of standing spun my head viciously, sloshing my brain like I had ten shots of alcohol directly injected into my blood.

I fell back to the ground without ever making it upright, weak elbows failing to catch my fall. My cheek smacked the cement, blinding pain stabbing to the core of my head.

My entire body cringed against the scalding shock of pain, a whimper falling between my lips. The pathetic sound hit the asphalt and bounced back a realization of the only weapon I had left.

Breathing heavily, I forced myself onto my back, sucking back a lung full of desperation and screamed up at the black sky. The sound shredded through me, through the night, through the happily ever after I was dumb enough to hope for.

Dominic had to hear that. He had to hear-

“Kat!” Layla’s terror gripped my muscles as I snapped back over to see her, to get to her.

Get up. Get up. Get up!

“Layla, wait,” I huffed as if she had a choice. As if her being taken right now was her choice and not because I’d fought back and she was probably too stoned to.

Our eyes found each other at the last second, a blistering desperation passing between us like a shooting fucking star in this hopeless night. I tried to stand again, reaching out to her from the ground, and she reached back out to me from inside the backseat of the SUV.

And then the door slammed shut, and she was gone.

Layla was gone.