Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Nico set his phone down and looked back.
“I’ll be back,” I said before I jogged to the other side of the street.
15
ROSIE
For a moment, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. Or maybe it was that third tequila shot that Yari made me take. I wasn’t always a lightweight. A few years ago, I could outdrink the best of them. These days, I was an easy lay. I preferred it that way when I needed to be. Still, three tequila shots did not get me drunk, but I did have to blink out of a haze when I saw Dominic walking directly toward us looking like the opposite of a knight in shining armor. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a slight V-neck that gave a peek of his hard chest and tattoos. His dark eyes seared through me, locked on me so intently that it was as though he had blinders to block out everyone else around us. As if he didn’t register them at all, though his corded muscles said otherwise. My pulse raced in my neck, in my ears, between my legs. I knew that the people that had surrounded me two seconds ago were still there, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay attention to them. His gaze held me prisoner, and even if I could look away, I didn’t want to. I felt a sudden slap on the back of the hand I had set on the table and jolted, looking over at Yari.
“You okay? Where’d you go?” she asked, turning her head to look in my line of vision. “Who’d you . . . oh, fuck.” She looked away, saw Dominic, and looked at me again, mouth agape for a second. He was readily approaching when she practically yelled, “That’s your guy?”
I swallowed thickly, eyes still on his. From the way his lips twitched slightly, I knew he heard what she said. I shook my head quickly to deny it, because he wasn’t. He wasn’t my guy. I hadn’t even referred to him as such to her. I’d just mentioned that I was staying with Gabe’s brother and that he was making me feel things I shouldn’t. I’d never called him mine.
“No?” Dominic asked, a fire in his eyes as he stopped in front of me.
My mouth parted slightly. I shook my head again, slower this time. Where was my voice? Why couldn’t I find it? The guys who’d been flirting with us two seconds ago suddenly seemed to have lost their voices. The entire area of the bar seemed to have quieted with his arrival. It wasn’t my usual hangout. Whenever I found time to go out and have fun, it was with the dancers at the company, and we always went to bars near the performance center. Dominic merely looked at the guy to my left, Terrence, who had his arm up against mine and suddenly it was no longer there, and he was saying goodbye to us. His two friends followed suit. Everyone around us kept talking, in hushed whispers now, and I wondered who the fuck Dominic De Luca had become to warrant that kind of reaction in this neighborhood. His brother certainly didn’t, but then again, his brother hung out with rich assholes who partied at high-end nightclubs and dabbled in recreational drugs. I had no idea who Dom hung out with besides Rocco, and those two together hadn’t been a good idea back when we were teenagers. I couldn’t imagine much had changed there.
“What are you doing here?” I asked once I finally found my voice.
“Not your guy?” He quirked an eyebrow, still stuck on that. “So it wouldn’t bother you if I went and flirted with another woman here?” he asked, not taking his eyes off me. “Maybe took one of them home?”
My heart pounded even harder. I tore my gaze from his and looked around, finding a lot of the women looking at him like he was a snack, and that bothered me beyond reason. It shouldn’t; I knew I shouldn’t feel this way about him, but I couldn’t help it. At the thought of him with another woman, I saw red. I looked at him again, and from the way his mouth tipped up on one side, I knew he read the answer in my expression.
When I didn’t say anything, he took his eyes off me for the second time since he got here and looked over at Yari. “Hello, Yaritza. I’m sorry I scared away your company.”
“Are you really?”
“I am sorry I scared away your company.” His lips twisted. “Not hers.”
At that, Yari laughed. My heart skipped again.
“I’m going to the bathroom,” she said, looking between the two of us. “And then I’m going to find one of those guys you just scared away because I kind of liked him.” I stared at her like I was going to kill her for abandoning me like this. Her response was to smile wide. “Should I tell Terrance to come back over here when Dominic leaves?”