Chapter Seven

Annie

The next month was what I would categorize as the absolute best time of my fucking life! And yes. I was allowed to swear if I wanted! Which should have been far less exciting than it was. They were just words, after all. What was even better? I could walk around the compound on my own. Sure, there were certain places I wasn’t allowed to go, but that went for anyone living in the compound who wasn’t actually what they called a patched member. All in all, I don’t think I’d ever smiled so much in the whole of my life as I did now. Especially the last couple of weeks as I grew comfortable here.

Living at the compound was a whole new world -- one where I could breathe, think, and just be without the oppressive weight of fear pushing down on my shoulders. I hadn’t even realized how anxious and fearful I’d been. Mainly because I hadn’t really known to feel any differently. Personal interaction outside of church never ended well. Here, people greeted me by name, asked how I was doing, and actually listened to my responses. It was surreal, like I’d stumbled into some sort of utopian bubble in a world that had shown me little kindness before.

Byte, one of the club’s intelligence and information officers, introduced me to computers. And, more importantly, video games and television. Mostly video games. Oh, my goodness, movies ! There was so much I hadn’t known about, or had heard but had no frame of reference. Sure, I’d seen an actual television before Dom brought me to Grim Road, but I hadn’t sat down and watched a show. I was too busy just trying to survive. It was on the computer Byte had given me that I’d found I could learn any language I wanted to with a program that teaches those languages. It was the most fascinating thing I’d ever experienced. Which is when I found there were things like that about anything I could imagine. If I wanted to learn how to do something, I just “Googled” it. I loved Google, by the way. The Divine One might not know everything, but I was pretty sure Google did.

Dom was often busy, but he always seemed to have time to check on me. Sometimes he brought me books from the town library, knowing how much I loved to read but was too shy to ask for them myself. Other times, it was a cup of coffee with the perfect amount of cream and sugar. I’d made such a fuss about how wonderful it tasted the first time he’d brought me one that he’d made sure we had a coffee maker in the kitchen and everything I needed to make the perfect cup of coffee. Which, I’d discovered, was a fine art. All coffee was not created equal.

One afternoon, while taking a walk and enjoying the sunshine filtering down through the trees, I wandered down to the small, secluded garden. It was tucked away behind one of the less frequented grounds. There, on his hands and knees, Dom tended to a bed of colorful marigolds and sunflowers. All around him were various vegetables or flowers. His large, tattooed hands moved with surprising gentleness as he cared for the plants. I’d come here with him several times and had helped him. While I could grow fruits and vegetables, I found I loved growing flowers.

“You know, when we first met, I would have never guessed you were a gardener,” I said, leaning on the fence slightly amused by the sight.

Dom looked up, his face breaking into a wide grin. “Helps settle my mind. Call it therapy. Lemon does.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

He stopped what he was doing and turned his full attention on me. Other than when I’d done something wrong, no one had ever given me their full attention like Dom did every single day. “You can ask me anything, honey.” He wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. Dirt streaked his shirt and his face in places, but he had the most beautiful smile on a man I’d ever seen.

“You talk about Lemon a lot. Everyone here does.”

He raised his hands, almost like he thought I was going to attack or something. “Look, Lemon gives as good as she gets. It’s kind of a game with some of the guys. See who can get one over on her. No one has yet. And she regularly busts their balls.”

“Theirs,” I jumped on quickly. “Not you.”

“Nope. Because I never give her a reason to. At least, I try really hard not to give her a reason.”

“It sounds like you’re actually afraid of her.”

To my surprise, Dom answered immediately and emphatically. “Absolutely I’m afraid of her. That woman is vicious on a whole other level.” He came toward me and leaned on the fence across from me, a smile still tugging at his lips. “Do you know she actually had Falcon’s bike painted pink?” Now, the look of horror on his face as he thought about what he obviously saw as some sort of desecration was so comical I couldn’t help but giggle. It was embarrassing. “It’s not funny.” His eyes got wide and he shook his head. “A man’s bike is sacred.”

“I’m so sorry.” I continued to laugh, unable to stop. I seemed to do a lot of that lately. Laughing. With every outburst of merriment, I felt lighter. Freer. “I imagine it was quite horrifying for him.”

Dom snorted out a laugh before schooling his features again. “For all of us. I know I have PTSD just thinkin’ about it.” He shivered as if someone had walked over his grave. It was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen.

The next thing I knew, I was on my ass in the grass laughing until tears streamed down my cheeks and my belly hurt. Dom sat next to me, putting his arm around me. Without thought, I leaned into him. He pulled me close and kissed the top of my head affectionately.

“You’re a remarkable woman, Annie. I’m glad I met you.”

I looked up at him and smiled. “There’s nothing remarkable about me. I can barely even read.”

“Right. You forget you’re living with me. I see you every single day. You love to read.”

I shrugged, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear to give myself a moment to decide what to say. I knew I was blushing furiously. I loved the feel of him next to me. As I looked up at him, I was sure my heart was in my eyes because I had no filters around him.

“Calista and Evelyn have been helping me. I’m getting better, but I’m pretty slow at it.”

“Uh-huh. I also happen to know English isn’t the only language you’re learning to read. Elena says you translated her menu into Spanish on your own.”

“It wasn’t all correct. And I tried to tell Tito the other day how much I loved the fries he made me and got my words mixed up. I told him it tasted like dung.”

Dom barked out a surprised laugh before he was laughing nearly as hard as I had been before. I couldn’t help but gaze up at him in wonder. If I looked at him with hero worship, it was because he truly was my hero. Not only when he defended me at the contest, but how he’d helped me adjust to my new life.

“I’d loved to have been there for that, honey.” He wiped tears from under his eyes as he continued to chuckle.

“It was embarrassing!” It had been, but Marge had laughed so hard at the indignant look on Tito’s face all of us had ended up all smiles and with stitches in our sides from laughing too much. Tito had hugged me and told me how proud he was of me for learning his language so quickly. Even if I slipped up, I was trying to learn to communicate effectively with the people in my life. His praise had made the slipup worth the small embarrassment. And, really, as Marge pointed out, what was there to be embarrassed about? So I’d messed up a word. What harm had it really done? Tito knew I didn’t think his food tasted like dung. Spanish wasn’t my first language. I’d never been exposed to anything other than English.

“I’m sure it was. But I don’t think you remember it that way.”

I smiled up at him. How did he already know me so well? We’d only known each other a month but I felt like he saw me. I wasn’t someone for him to control or to use until he was done with me. Dom saw me for the person I was. I think he enjoyed my company almost as much as I enjoyed his. I also thought he saw me as a daughter or something and I didn’t think I liked that thought.

Did I remember the incident between me and Tito as being embarrassing? “No. But I honestly didn’t realize it wasn’t so bad until just now. Sometimes, you make me rethink my perception of things.”

“Good. You’re too hard on yourself and I’m pretty sure that has everything to do with where you were raised and who you were with.” He shifted so he was sitting on one hip, resting the wrist of one hand over his bent knee. “Now, it’s my turn. Can I ask you a question?”

“You can ask me anything.” I have no idea why, but my stomach started fluttering with nerves. But these were different than any other time in my life. Usually any similar feelings I had were associated with dread. What I felt now as Dom looked down at me with too-knowing eyes had nothing to do with dread and everything to do with anticipation.

“How do you feel about me? Staying with me? Me being all up in your personal space?”

I frowned slightly. “I never thought of it as you being in my space. If anything, I’ve been in yours.” Then that familiar dread stabbed through me. “I-I’m sorry. I thought… I t-thought I was supposed to stay in your home.” My breath started coming in short gasps and my chest hurt. I tried to push myself to my feet, but Dom held me down.

“Stop, Annie. Remember perception?” When I nodded miserably up at him, Dom pulled me closer, wrapping his other arm around me. “Honey, I don’t want you to leave. In fact, if you tried, I might have to lock you in the house and keep you laughing until you begged me for mercy. No. You need to be right where you’re at.”

“I don’t understand what you mean, then. You’re not in my personal space.”

“No? We spend nearly every evening together. Every time we see each other in the compound during the day we end up spending the rest of the day together. You seem to like my company as much as I like yours.”

“I do.” I reached out and touched his chest through his T-shirt, picking at the material. I realized then, I did that a lot. Picked at his shirt. It was a habit I had when I was nervous. About anything . If Dom was there, I was always within arm’s reach. I’d reach for his shirt and bunch my fingers in it. Dom didn’t seem to mind he was my anchor.

“Good. Do I frighten you?”

“What? No! Dom, no. I could never be afraid of you.”

“Are you absolutely sure, honey? I never want to frighten you. Ever. You understand me?”

I frowned, not sure where he was going with this. “I understand, but you don’t scare me. At all.” I huffed out a breath. “I mean, you intimidated me when I first met you, but only for a minute. You give off a safe vibe. At least to me.” Yeah, I was babbling again. “Sorry. I’m sure that’s way more than you wanted to know.”

“No, honey. That’s exactly what I wanted to know.” He reached out and stroked a finger down my cheek. “You remember the day we met?”

“Yeah. Some creepy guy ran his hand up my leg and you made him stop.”

He grinned, curling one finger under my chin while he brushed his thumb just under my bottom lip. “Yeah, I did. I also touched you without your permission afterward.”

“No, you didn’t. You just freed an aggravating strand of hair from my eyelash.”

“I still didn’t have permission to touch you. So I want to make absolutely certain you know you have a choice in what happens next.”

That was confusing. “What happens next?”

“Yeah. I want to kiss you. But I want you to know you don’t have to. You’ll still have a home. You’ll still have my protection. And you’ll always, always , have my friendship.”

My eyes widened and my belly did another one of those flips. Excitement. Anticipation. Dom wanted to kiss me?

“Kiss me like the man and woman who came out of the clubhouse the evening I first came here?”

For a moment, a look of confusion crossed his face while he thought back. Then he seemed to remember and grinned at me. “Yeah, baby. Maybe not exactly like that, but that’s the way I want to kiss you.” I opened my mouth to tell him that, no, that might not be the best idea I’d ever had. What came out was far simpler.

“Yes, please.”