Passion After Dark (6 page)

Chapter Four.

Dominick.

Dominick let himself into his home hitting the button to lower all the metal shutters on the outside of the upstairs rooms and he sighed as darkness fell over the upper level. He was hungry, he should have fed, but it was too late to worry about that now. One or two missed meals wasn’t going to kill him he thought, his lips curving up in a smile at his little joke.

He rubbed at his tattoo and feeling the
extreme fatigue starting to settle over his limbs, robbing him of his usual strength and stamina, he wearily climbed the stairs and as he approached his huge bedroom of the home that had been in his family for over 200 years, he started stripping off his clothing until he was naked and collapsed onto his bed, sleep claiming him almost instantly.

His sleep was plagued with dreams, dreams of a brown haired, green eyed beauty in a blood red dress and legs designed to be wrapped around his hips. His dream
s shifted to her in her bed, tears falling and soaking into her pillow and as he reached for her to comfort her, desperate to take her in his arms she suddenly opened her eyes and saw him and as he watched, her eyes widened, horror filling her gaze. Her mouth opened and she screamed, a scream so loud and piercing it could have woken the dead and Dominick’s eyes snapped open, dragged from his sleep by his dreams and he lay there, his body coated in sweat as the image of his bellezza’s face filled with sheer terror slowly began to fade from his mind. It had just been a dream, a horrible, horrible dream.

*********

Allegra.

When I woke the morning after the night at the club I discovered that although I
’d lost the chance to get to know the man who had appeared in my life so briefly but who had impacted me in a way that was going to take some time to get over, he had in fact helped me in a way he would never get to know. My writer’s block was over, in fact I was rearing to go, eager to sit at my laptop and type.

Domi
nick had given me the inspiration for my next book and my head filled with so many ideas, I quickly dressed, brushed my teeth and hurried downstairs to my study, turning the kettle on as I passed the kitchen.

Salem and Beau
gave me bemused looks as I shot past them and I could almost see Salem tap his foot impatiently with that look on his face that said. “Where do you think you’re going?” Not wanting to risk my cat’s wrath or more to the point, not wanting his howling protests when I was right in the middle of writing to disturb me I hastily filled his food bowls and poured my coffee, patted Beau on his smooth, sleek head and rushed to my laptop. I was in a hurry, almost afraid that if I didn’t get what was in my head written down soon, it would go ‘poof’ and be gone. It was like I thought I had a time limit on it before it self destructed or something.

I spent hours writing and when my stomach finally protested at me neglecting it with an obvious failure to feed it, I reluctantly got up and headed for the
kitchen to make a late lunch for myself.

I was just bent over surveying the contents of the fridge when Cassie walked in her hair soaked with sweat and dressed in her
shorts and tank top that she wore when she went running. She was so much more motivated than I was, always doing everything she could to keep her trim figure.

“
Ah so she emerges from the writer’s cave.” She grinned at me and I poked my tongue out at her.

“
A writer cannot live on words alone you know.” I smirked and went back to digging around in the fridge for something to tempt me.

“
So what have you got planned for tonight? Do you want to go out again and see if you can find your mysterious disappearing man?” Cassie said, her eyes twinkling as she struggled to contain her laughter.

“
Bitch.” I turned my head from the fridge long enough to say before reaching in to pull out an unopened tub of dip. I then found a packet of cracker biscuits and sat down on one of the bar stools.

“
You’re not eating dip are you?” Cassie looked horrified.

“
Well I’m not getting it out to stare at it. It’s yoghurt based so that has to make it better for me, right?”

She rolled her eyes. “
There is no hope for you Allie. You talk about wishing you were slimmer but you won’t exercise and you don’t watch what you eat.”

“
I watch what I eat.” I picked up a cracker and pushed it through the French onion dip until there was a big dollop perched on it and then I dropped the whole thing into my mouth, chewing and savouring the tangy burst of flavour from the dip. “See, I watched the food as I ate it.” I grinned.

Cassie rolled her eyes at me again. “
So I’m serious, do you want to go out again to see if you find your mystery man or not?”

“
Hell no Cass. He was real ok, I didn’t make him up and I wasn’t hallucinating. He was beautiful, you have no idea what a stunning man he was. He was really there, he honestly was.” My voice cracked slightly and I cleared my throat, feeling a little foolish that I was allowing myself to be so affected by this man but something about him just made me feel like I’d been waiting for him all my life. It had felt so right to be in his arms and despite only having just met.

“
I’m not coming out again tonight. I’m writing while I can. Frank’s after me for the next book and I promised him I’d have something to show him. If I don’t, I’m dead.”

“
Well you have fun with your book then because I’m going out. Danielle’s invited me out on a girls’ night and I’ll probably crash at her house tonight if we’re out really late. You remember Danielle from work?” Cass asked and I nodded.

“
Yeah I remember. She’s the one whose made it her life’s mission to find a man who is the spitting image of Adam Levine isn’t she?”

Cassie grinned. “
That’s her. She does love Adam but she’s a riot to go out with once she’s got a few drinks in her.” She looked at the clock. “I’d better go and get ready to head over to her place. Are you sure you’ll be ok on your own?”

“
I’ll be fine. I’m a big girl now and anyway I have to write. I told Frank I’d have more for him soon so I need to write until my head is quiet again.”

As I watched Cassie bounce out of the room to go and get ready for her night out, I realised that what I
’d just said to her was true. When I had ideas for books my head would fill with the names and what each character was doing and then they would start talking, telling the story and if I ignored them the voices would get louder and louder in my head until I finally gave them free rein and started to write.

Once I
’d stuffed myself with dip and crackers I made another cup of coffee and headed back to the study to keep writing. I was totally engrossed in my work and by the time Cassie was ready and called out that she was leaving, I could barely manage a mumbled good bye at her before I was absorbed back in my writing.

********
*

Dominick.

The next time Dominick woke, he could tell it was just getting dark. He’d slept for too long, all the day and now he was so hungry he could tell his strength was waning a little. He needed to get out and feed. He so badly wanted to go to see Allegra but the time wasn’t right yet and anyway he knew himself well enough to know that he might not have enough restraint with her given he hadn’t feed in two days.

He threw the sheet back from his sweat dampened body and was about to climb out of bed wh
en he heard a noise and caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

With a dramatic flourish his sister Francesca breezed into the room, her long raven coloured hair
flowing all around her. She was dressed as she always dressed in black. Francesca was definitely a fan of the gothic look and due to her pale make up and her almost black eyes made up with very dark eyeshadow, thick black eyeliner and black lipstick, she had no trouble concealing her true identity. People were used to the gothic look so she never frightened anyone and therefore had no trouble making her move on unsuspecting men, her preferred targets.

“
Still languishing in bed big brother?” She drawled, her eyebrow raised as she studied him. “What’s wrong? I see something in your eyes. What happened Nicky boy?”

“
I found her Fran. My destiny, the woman who is the one, the one who will live with me for eternity.” Dominick pulled himself up in his bed until he could rest against the bedhead.

“
Does she know it though Nicky?”

Dominick sighed. “
No, I got to touch her and hold her briefly last night but it was a night club and her friend turned up and I had to leave her. I didn’t have a chance to start the bonding of our minds and bodies but I followed her home, I know where she lives and fuck Fran, she’s so beautiful and she wants me too. I know she does. She just doesn’t realise yet what our connection is to be.” He raised a hand to rub at the tattoo on his neck again as he thought of the day when his bellezza would share that same tattoo.

“
You’re looking a little washed out big brother. You haven’t fed have you?” She frowned when he shook his head.

“
I ran out of time after following Allegra home and I spent the night by her window watching her sleep.” That wasn’t all he’d watched and he felt his cock stir at the memory of her bringing herself to climax with the vibrator. It had frustrated him so much. It should have been him making her come, not a battery operated length of plastic that really didn’t look anything like a real cock and it couldn’t hold her either.

His eyes shifted to Francesca
’s face when he heard her quiet laughter. “Oh big brother’s horny for her.” Her eyes moved to where the sheet was forming a tent over his hardening cock. “You should have taken her when you had a chance. She’s left you weak and hungry and seriously needing to fuck her Nicky boy. You always were too soft you know. Emotionally soft that is.” She grinned again, before directing her rather pointed look at his erection.

“
Fuck off Fran.” He threw a pillow at her but she ducked with her usual lightening fast reflexes. “So why are you here? I don’t believe it’s because you had a sudden urge to see your big brother. What do you want?”

“
Fabian sent me. He heard about what happened last night and he’s worried you might be getting careless since you have such strong feelings for this woman. You know the rules Nicky. No one must know about us and sitting on someone’s roof until daylight is considered too risky. You know if you push your luck Fabian will stop you. Do you want to lose that?” She pointed to his tattoo and Dominick touched his fingers to it.

“
Would he really do that? He would take my tattoo?”

Fran snickered. “
You know Fabian Nicky. Don’t push him. You can’t beat him. He made us both what we are today and he can take that away anytime he wants to so be a good boy and keep him on side. I don’t need him chewing my ear off when he’s showing his displeasure with you.”

She stood up, flicking her long black hair back over her shoulder. “
Oh and Fabian said, you are to stay away from the woman for 5 days as punishment for running the risk of exposing yourself. Don’t argue with him on this one and don’t defy him Nicky. Do you want him to confine you to the dark?”

Dominick cringed at her words. “
Fuck no!” He snapped. God damn Fabian for denying him the right to see Allegra for 5 days. How was he going to stay away from her for that long?

“
Don’t you do something stupid Nicky. You know Fabian will find out, he always finds out.” Francesca’s voice cut into his thoughts, her tone filled with warning.

“
Five days Fran. How am I going to be able to stay away from her for 5 days? I need her, I need to taste her and dammit I need to fuck her.” He grabbed his rigid cock through the sheet.

Fran laughed. “
Would you like me to take care of that for you big brother or maybe you’d prefer to jerk off? Still knowing you, you’ll probably get off on suffering in silence, since you seem to have this attitude going that due to our lifestyle, you must be punished sometimes and denial of your body’s basic needs has always been one of your preferred methods of punishment, hasn’t it Nicky boy?”

“
Don’t call me big brother when you’re offering to give me what? A blow job, hand job Fran. You’re not really my sister after all but no, I can take care of myself, thanks for the offer though.”

“
Well I’m going Nicky. Be a good boy and stay out of trouble. Just go out to feed ok? Stay under Fabian’s radar or he will make you pay.” She blew him a kiss and walked out of the room and he listened as the front door opened and closed again as she left his home.

Five days, five days without being able to see his bella donna. How was he going to survive that? He wanted to see her so much it was like a flame burning deep inside him. Fabian could be such an arse but despit
e him wanting to see Allegra with a desperation that almost made him risk everything, enough common sense prevailed to tell him to wait. To do as Fabian had instructed. Much as he wanted Allegra the price was too high to pay and Fabian would make him pay. There was no compromise with him.