40. Dom’s Untouchable

Dom

Despite Issy’s celebrations taking place at our childhood home, she always had a car take her from the back of our property and the underground garage up to the front door that would have a black carpet up the stairs.

Some parts of her goth phase had remained in adulthood.

Depending on the year and her relationship status, she would either make a theatrical entrance or be in the foyer gracefully greeting every guest.

Leonie would never be far behind.

But with Sam Yun on her arm this year.

The foyer was filled with people in black ties and cocktail dresses. Every year, this was the worst of the events. My sister was busy working the room, my parents would catch up with their overseas friends, Anton would only spend his time complaining and my mates from school were still pricks. Usually, I ended up hammered in my room with a brunette.

There was only one brunette I needed to see tonight.

Anton’s daughter played the saxophone, a rendition of Ariana Grande’s Thank You, Next as a dark hand gripped my shoulder. Derek asked Anton and I, voice low, “You seen Leonie?”

I turned to my godfather and we clasped hands, lightly slapping each other’s backs. “Derek.”

“Dom, Anton,” he said and repeated his question.

Anton only shrugged, his skin far darker than ours from the Asian sun. Though he had met his wife there, she and their daughter lived here permanently, but a county over.

Julia, Derek’s wife, was then at his side and I took her hand and kissed it. “Aunty Julia.”

“Dominic, don’t you look dapper,” she complimented, gesturing down at me, then peering around my shoulders. “Where’s your date?”

“Dom,” Derek said with more force.

“I haven’t seen her, D,” I told him. “She’ll be here any second, though. Probably the car before Issy’s. You know how it is.”

He hmphed and Julia straightened my already perfect lapels. “Dominic, when are we going to have a wedding? We need a happy occasion. We need to expand the family—”

“Jesus, Julia,” Derek groaned as I smiled down at his wife. “How many have you had?”

“Soon, Aunty Julia, soon.”

“Soon?” she gasped, her dark eyes bright in excitement as she elbowed Derek. “The girlfriend we met last year? Tell me—”

But then the door opened again and my father reached forward to take a tanned hand.

Leonie looked down at her footing as she stepped up into the foyer. She wore the dress I had put on her bed, a near replica of one she had worn to my mum’s art gallery months ago, but with a slightly higher slit and instead of navy, it was a dark burgundy.

It clung to her figure, her tiny waist, those large breasts, showing just enough cleavage. I would have been hard no matter how much skin she showed.

She smiled up at my dad as he kissed her knuckles and then Sam came to her other side. She hooked her arm through his and he led her further into the building.

Leonie didn’t look at me once. She didn’t even look around for me. She smiled sheepishly, her little cheeks dimpling.

Damn, she was good.

My father’s threat of killing him came to mind as he bent to kiss her bare shoulder.

Sam Fucking Yun had always been trying to oust me. He’d always known Leonie was the way to do it.

“Dom? You listening?” Anton asked and, looking back up, Issy had entered and the rest of us were walking into the hall where a bar had been set up on the outer rim of the entire room.

“Yeah,” I said as Leonie was swept away into the crowd. I followed Anton on autopilot and, in seconds, had a second glass of whiskey in my hand.

“The fuck is he doing here?” Anton said, looking after her over his glass before glancing at me and blinking slowly as he realised. “You still love her even after all this time.”

I shrugged.

“And you’re letting her spend her time with that lowlife?”

“For now,” I muttered. She was being swept further onto the dance floor with Sam.

His hands ran over the low back of her dress, gripping her rib cage as he pulled her close. Just above his touch, her breasts would have marks from my mouth.

“Dom, if she’s yours, she’s not his. He should be dead for touching her like that.”

If only the Yuns weren’t such high flyers, running casinos across Northern America. If only it wouldn’t start a turf war.

“I heard this all from Dad,” I sighed. She flung her arms around his neck, swaying to the song’s beat. I wanted to press up from behind her.

“Your dad is soft,” Anton groaned.

As the song ended, I breathed a sigh of relief when Leonie was taken by Issy and her group of giggling friends. Sam sat at one of the casino tables with our insufferable acquaintances from school.

Tonight, I would have to suffer.

I slipped into the seat right beside him. He cashed his money in for chips and stacking them up without turning, he said, “You want to go out to the bike sheds, Belov?”

I snorted and pulled my gun to rest on the side of the table. He glanced down but only continued to straighten his stack. “Don’t act too obvious.”

The whole of the coast knew who my family were. As they knew what his family were, too. The gun wasn’t just for Leonie.

“Dominic!” shouted David, one of the guys who had been on my football team. He clasped my shoulders and then sat beside us. “You never grace us with your presence on these occasions.”

“Normally too busy with the ladies,” Sam said and downed his drink.

I chuckled, sipping my own.

“But let’s talk about your lady, Sam,” David said, taking his tokens from the croupier with a smile. “Leonie Castillo,” he said in awe. “Dom’s untouchable.”

He looked down at the gun in front of me and grinned. “Guess you’re still not over it, Dom? That what the guns for?”

“The gun is for whoever fucks me off, David,” I said, before revealing my first card.

The game continued and the waitress came to refill our drinks on multiple occasions. Sam was a prized bastard. If I were Leonie’s date, I wouldn’t have stayed for two hours gambling. I wouldn’t let her drink ever be empty. She would not have to seek me out as she did Sam now.

“Sam,” she said, leaning over his shoulder. He looked up at her with lustful eyes and showed her his cards. She raised a brow with a smile and whispered in his ear.

I would rip that ear off with my bare fucking fingers so he would never again hear her sultry voice, her pants, her moans.

Leonie’s roar was mine and mine alone.

I threw down the tower of the chips I’d gained and said, “Eat, boys.”

Then I stalked Leo to the bar. She was already ordering two drinks. Just like I had this time last week, I sat beside her.

She looked me over with satisfaction. “Sam’s going to lose big time, you might want to get back there,” she said, bent over, her chin in her palm. “I know just how much you love to see him beat.”

“Not as much as I love to see you,” I said.

She sighed then thanked the barkeep for her drinks with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. I gripped her arm and gently pulled her back as she tried to walk away. She cried, “Dom!” careful not to spill her drinks.

“Do some shots with me,” I begged, not letting go of her. “Hey, Stew, tequila!”

Stew immediately got to work and, releasing her, I glided the salt down the bar to her.

She cocked a brow and lifted her hand to slowly, slowly lick across her wrist.

My trousers tightened around my dick.

She grinned, one of those grins that took out all my other senses. Everything else ceased to exist but her happy face as she sprinkled some salt.

That mischievous, beautiful face.

Stew placed the shots before us and I downed mine before reaching over and licking the salt off her skin. “Delicious,” I crooned and moaned for extra emphasis. “But I know where you taste even better.”

She took a deep breath before downing the shot.

As she swallowed, I leaned into her ear. “Let me taste you. Let me love you.”

This time when she swallowed, it had nothing to do with the alcohol. “Dom…”

“I won’t lie to you,” I started, “I’m really struggling to see you with him. I hope what you’re learning is worth it.”

She snorted. “I have learned nothing.”

“Then leave with me now,” I said.

“You sure you don’t want to leave with Rebecca? She’s been all over you. All night.”

“Rebecca?” I asked. I might have nodded to her when she came over to us while we played, but I had scarcely acknowledged her. “I didn’t come here with her, unlike you coming here with Sam Yun,” I snapped. “I didn’t want to date Ivy, I don’t even recall talking to Rebecca. You’re the one desperate to be with anyone other than me. Look around you. How many people here have you slept with?”

Her brows came together as she breathed harshly through her nose. Real fury was upon her features.

“You’re not leaving with him. You’re leaving with me.”

She threw the shot back. Slamming it back down on the bar, she said, “Well, I’m leaving now.”

With that, she hitched up the skirt of her dress and walked out onto the grounds.