Dark Heart of the Sun (Dark Destinies Book 1) (16 page)

Chapter 16

This Dream

The temptation to walk up to Jackson with an obscenely good-looking, scantily attired Frenchman in tow was almost more than Cassidy could resist. Much less enticing was the prospect of having to deal with Jackson’s inevitable reaction, whatever it might be. The less she had to discuss with him, the faster he would leave. She hoped.

“Please stay out of sight and let me handle this. He’d never understand.”

Dominic laughed quietly. “Ah
chère
, you wound me again.”

“I couldn’t explain you if I talked all night.” Not to Jackson. Not with Dominic wearing nothing but a pair of gym pants, which left nothing to the imagination above the waist and mighty little below. Hell, right now she couldn’t even explain him to herself.

“Cassidy? Is that you?” Jackson shouted over the rising wind. He sounded a shade away from outright panic.

“Do me this favor, Dominic. As a friend,” she said. “I’ll send him away as quickly as I can.”

Without waiting for a response, she jogged toward the cottage.

“Cassidy. Thank God.” Jackson scooped her up, smothering the breath out of her with a massive hug, oblivious to the fact that she went stick stiff in his arms. “I was about to call 911.”

“What are you doing here?” she squeaked, pushing at his chest until he let her go.

“They upgraded this thing to a tropical storm an hour ago. You didn’t answer your phone or my texts. I had to make sure you’re all right.”

His worry struck a small, guilty chord in her. Still furious with him for spying on her, she had not only ignored his calls and messages all day, she had turned off her ringer altogether. Plus there was the added preoccupation of learning self-defense skills from a half-naked, maybe-not-gay man . . . who then kissed her senseless.

“Right. Sorry,” she muttered. “I guess I didn’t hear my phone over all the noise on the beach.”

Jackson glanced around. “What the hell are you doing out here anyway?”

She cleared her throat. “Watching the storm come in over the ocean.”

“What? Alone? At night?” He looked incredulous.

“Yes. What of it?”

“This is serious weather, Cass,” he said, tone terse. “You don’t go out for a stroll in it. Especially not by yourself in the middle of the night twenty fucking miles from nowhere.”

“And surprise, surprise I’m perfectly fine anyway.”
Physically anyway
, she amended. “I’m going inside now to avoid getting hit by lightning. You should go.”

When she tried to pass him, he grabbed her arm. “No, you’re obviously not fine. I know you, babe. This isn’t you. You’re not this stupid.”

“Are you seriously calling me stupid now?” she flared.

“What? No.” He let go of her and made a calming gesture that even in this low light looked forced. “Honestly, I’m only here because I was worried sick about you.”

Thunder rumbled, rising over the roar of the surf like a mountain on the move. The low sound vibrated through her.

“Well, you can stop worrying. As you can see, I survived my very dangerous nighttime expedition to the beach. Now you better go before this storm really hits.” And who knew what the hell else.

Jackson scratched the back of his neck. “Actually, I think it’s time for you to come home with me. This storm’s building faster than they predicted. There’s no telling what it’ll be when it gets here. And this—” He indicated the cottage. “This may not . . .” He trailed off.

Cassidy followed his gaze and felt punched in the gut. There on the porch, silhouetted against the lit living room window, a familiar figure leaned on the railing.
Freaking bastard.

“This house has survived worse,” the shadow said, sounding just this side of bored. “Are you not going to invite your guest in,
chèrie?
This is no night to be outside.”

Jackson propped his hands on his hips. “Who the hell are you?”

“I am Dominic. I live here.”

Jackson glanced back at her as though waiting to hear her deny those words.

She didn’t. She couldn’t. She sighed, exasperated. “My landlord.”

“And roommate,” Dominic clarified, his voice dripping with smug satisfaction.

Jackson headed for the cottage with a determined stride, Cassidy trailing after him. He came to a halt on the top step to stare at Dominic who turned enough for the light to edge part of his angular face. Though she had no idea how he’d moved this quickly, he now wore a pair of form-fitting black jeans and a dress shirt, also black, unbuttoned to mid-chest, long sleeves rolled up his muscular forearms. The wind fluttered the silky fabric around his torso and tousled his black hair. He could not have looked more devastatingly handsome.

“I see,” Jackson said, sounding dazed.

Cassidy leapt at the chance to take control of the situation. “Dominic, this is Jackson Striker. He was just leaving.” She fiddled with the ring on her finger. If ever there was a time to give it back, this was it.

Dominic’s clear, dark eyes flickered to her. “Your fiancé,
non?
Or maybe not?” he added with a knowing, suggestive tone that made her face burn.

Jackson bristled beside her. “So. This is
Nicky
, is it? Nice.”

Dominic looked Jackson over and arched a critical brow. “So this is the brave Jackson Striker.
Charmant.
”

“You’re a . . . guy.”

One corner of Dominic’s mouth tugged upward. “You noticed.”

“Delightful company you keep these days, Cassidy. Do you think you might have mentioned this?”

“It’s not what you think. He’s letting me rent a room cheap. That’s all.” She stopped toying with the ring. This situation had reached critical mass. Insisting he take the ring back now might well turn it nuclear.

Jackson didn’t look away from Dominic for even a second. “Really? And why would you do a silly thing like that? What’s your interest in my fiancée that you would let her disturb your peace and quiet all the way out here?”

With his arms crossed, Dominic leaned against a porch post and slanted Cassidy a quizzical look. “You must know how stubborn she can be. She wanted to stay with me. Who am I to stand in the way of such determination to get away from you?”

What did that bastard think he was doing? Wasn’t her life freaking complicated enough already without him muddying the waters? Cassidy placed a hand on Jackson’s arm to get his attention. He was focused on Dominic like a laser beam. The frantic ticking of his pulse beneath her fingers made her speak with care. “Don’t let him get to you, Jack. He’s obnoxious by nature.”

“I am French,” Dominic clarified without missing a beat.

“And gay,” she snapped.

He leveled one of those heart-stopping smiles at her. “But you like that about me,
non
?”

“Oh, gay!” Jackson burst out. “Is that it? Well, that makes everything all right then, doesn’t it?”

“Jack, will you listen to yourself? What’s gotten into you?” Cassidy said, taken aback by his escalating reaction. Of course he wouldn’t shrug off the woman he must still expect to marry living with a strange man out in the middle of nowhere, but neither would she expect him to go postal on the guy given what she believed to be a reasonable explanation. She’d seen Jackson lose it once before when he went after her would-be attackers with his fists. She knew he skated awfully close to that edge now. And this time he’d have a handgun in his car.

Definitely
not
the moment to give him back that damn ring.

Dominic produced a cigarette from somewhere and lit it with an impatient flick of his lighter. The orange flare, sheltered in his cupped hand against the wind, cast his features in long, eerie shadows.

“Please don’t make a big deal out of this, Jackson,” she tried again. “It’s not worth it.”

“Are you out of your mind? What am I supposed to think of—?” He trailed off to watch Dominic exhale a long stream of smoke as though he had never seen anyone do such a thing.

“Such delicious fighting,” Dominic murmured. “If you and Cassidy are going to make up by having sex, may I join you?”

Cassidy gasped. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Dominic gestured at Jackson with the cigarette. “He may have no balls, but he might be fun. You tell me?”

Jackson’s muscles bunched under Cassidy’s hand. Veins protruded from his neck and forehead. At this point she had half a mind to punch Dominic herself. But she knew now what an Aikido black belt was capable of. Armed with nothing but his temper, Jackson didn’t have a prayer.

Unless he went for his gun.

The strange anticipatory glint in Dominic’s eyes made her wonder if he was looking forward to a fight—or getting into bed with both of them.

“Cassidy, do you have any idea—?” Jackson began, hoarse with fury. He tore his gaze away from Dominic to meet her eyes. “Do you have
any
idea what this is doing to me?”

“Prude.” Dominic sniffed.

“Stop it, both of you,” Cassidy ordered, slapping her hand on Dominic’s chest. It felt like hitting a brick wall. Inserting herself between them, she faced Jackson. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. But for now I’m living with a first-class French jerk. Deal with it. God knows, I am.”

Jackson grabbed both her arms. “Come home with me, babe. Right now. I’ll keep you safe. I swear.”

For the space of several heartbeats, she considered agreeing. She had believed him to be her best friend until only recently and always trusted him in the past. Never had she seen him so desperate, so unreasonable.

Lightning cracked through the night, washing the scene in a harsh brilliance. The thunder that followed rattled the glass in the windows and vibrated in her bones.

No, not desperate. There was nothing in Jackson’s cold gray eyes but determination and anger.

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

His grip on her arms tightened, and Cassidy exercised one of Dominic’s half-learned Aikido moves. Spiraling her arms up and out, she shook him off. Surprised, Jackson stepped back, staggering a little. He saved himself from tumbling down the porch steps and ended up standing in the yard, looking up at them with an expression as bewildered as it was furious.

“Don’t do this. You don’t want to stay here. It’s dangerous here.” As if to back him up, more lightning split the sky followed by the first fine spattering of rain.

“Then you should leave. Now.” Trembling, she took a step back toward Dominic. Of the two of them, incredibly, he was the more rational right now.

“I won’t leave you here,” Jackson insisted, starting up the steps.

“She does not want to go with you.” The menace in Dominic’s voice was soft but unmistakable and stopped Jackson on the second stair.

A chill curled through Cassidy, battling with relief. She rubbed her arms. “I’ll be fine.”

Jackson looked like a bottled explosion in search of a corkscrew. Again Cassidy thought of the gun he kept in his car and remembered Dominic’s words about there being no defense against a bullet.

“Please?” she cajoled, leaning forward.

“Damn it, Cassidy.” He shook his head as if trying to dislodge something from his brain. “You seriously want to stay here? In this dump? With this . . . this asshole?”

“For now, yes. Yes, I do.”

Dominic shifted his weight behind her. “I wonder what that says about you, Jackson Striker.”

“Or you,” Jackson countered.

“Okay, that’s it,” Cassidy declared. She hardly recognized either of these men. The high-voltage tension humming between them crawled all over her skin. “I’ve had about enough of this pissing contest. Jackson, you need to go. We can talk about this when you’ve cooled off.”

He looked like he might try to drag her away again, but instead he raised his hands in a gesture of reluctant surrender. “Okay. If you’re sure. Fine.” He took several steps backward. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Hard rain swept in on an unusually cold gust, and he hurried to fold himself into the sports car. Then he sat, staring at them through the windshield. He did not, to Cassidy’s immense relief, reach for his gun.

“He is not for you,” Dominic murmured. “He does not know you.”

“Oh, and you do? If you did, you wouldn’t be here right now.” She reached over, snatched the cigarette out of his fingers, and flung it into the rain. “Would it have killed you to stay out of sight? To say nothing of pushing every button I didn’t even know he had? What the hell were you thinking? Right now, I swear, Dominic, I don’t like you. Not even remotely.”

Dominic remained silent and unmoving as they watched the Audi rumbled to life. The glaring LED headlights swept over them before cutting into the darkness of the narrow road. Within seconds, all traces of Jackson vanished into the night and an onslaught of rain.

As the tension poured out of her, bone-deep weariness sucked at her limbs. Cassidy turned to the door, but paused before entering. “Just stay out of my way.”

She didn’t expect a reply. And she didn’t wait for one.

Dominic stood in the darkness and let the wind-driven rain swirl around him
. Jackson’s fury still filled his senses, prodding the beast, while Cassidy’s words echoed in his heart like a curse. He deserved her contempt, but he could not have done anything other than what he had.

He needed her to stay, and Jackson not only expected her to return to him, now that he knew of Dominic, he was determined to take her away. By force if necessary. For this alone Dominic would have laid waste to him, and if not for Cassidy’s presence, he might well have. Jackson Striker was a spoiled brute unworthy of her gentle spirit.