Chapter Twelve

He unfolded his arms and stepped so we were just inches apart. His muscles played off each other, moving, changing the shape of him as he reached for me, rested giant hands on my shoulders and when he touched me, my heart lurched into overtime. It was an instant, overwhelming response, stronger than the quaking jolt I'd felt when Leon had slipped his fingertip into my body, stronger than the soaring weightlessness of my first kiss with Jackson, and it was only my shoulders.

"Look at me in the face, Izzie," he said, and when I did, I was shocked to see something…Fear? Uncertainty? Surprise that he felt…What? He swallowed hard, his black eyes milky from the moonglow. "You want...and DESERVE...more than I can give you tonight." He squeezed my shoulders gently before dropping his hands off of me and shoving them into his pockets. I couldn't breathe, trying to find my voice, dizzy from that rasping, ethereal growl of a sentence. I stuttered out the beginning of an apology as some of the blood returned to my brain, but he stopped me.

"Relax," he said, but somehow I couldn't obey. "Where are your parents?"

"I don't know," I whispered. I went slowly to the window and checked the driveway. "They're gone."

"Your dad drink?" he asked, drawing one large hand slowly from his pocket and rapping his knuckles absently on the white marble island's top.

"Gulps like a fish," I said, and swallowed hard. "Why? You want a drink?" He hiked his pants up and eased onto one of the larged stools near the island, long legs draped open lazily, his feet resting on the floor, elbows on the island's countertop. His head was freshly shaven, the skin there pale and untouched by the sun as of yet. He seemed to like the feel of it, the fingers of one big hand, bruised hand back and forth over it.

"Sure," he said. "What you got?"

"I don't know," I said, and I could feel his eyes on me as I turned my back to him, crossed the kitchen and entered the main room where the full bar was located. "I don't think he's stocked it yet...Tequila. Scotch and Whisky. Captain Morgan's."

"Got Coke?" he asked. "For with the Captain's?" I bent at the waist and checked the cooler at the rear of the bar.

"Yeah," I reported over my shoulder, somewhat calmed by being forced to concentrate at the task at hand. "That what you want?"

"Sure," Dom said. "Not too strong. I was drinking 1800 earlier. That shit is lethal. I remember being pissed. I don't remember hitting him at all." He shook his head slowly. But he didn't look too broken up about it. He was watching me like a hawk, his eyes absolutely pinned on me. I felt as if there was a pillow over my face; my cheeks were hot nd my breath was short and shallow. "You have brothers and sisters, Izzie?"

"Brothers," I said. "Two."

"Older?"

"Yes."

"Uh-oh. They gonna come after Leon?" He smiled a little as I handed him his drink.

"Not likely," I said, hoisting myself up onto the counter beside the fridge, swinging my legs slowly. "They'll probably never even know he exists."

"Unless you marry him," Dom grinned, taking a large gulp of the drink and licking his lips. I laughed.

"Even less likely."

"Just slummin for the summer?" he asked, a little edge to his voice, some underlying sensitivity I couldn't figure.

"What?" I repeated dumbly. "Slummin'?"

"Yeah, slummin. You know, keeping yourself busy all summer with some charming, broke little working class boy from the wrong side of the tracks until you dump him before school starts and go back to all those Ivy League pricks." I gaped at him in utter incredulity.

"NO. Where do you get off thinking that? God, money means nothing to me!"

"Really," Dom said, a hint of a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth.

"Yes, really." I couldn't keep the offended perturbation out of my voice. "In fact, I wish I didn't have any. I wish I could drive around a Lexus that isn't mine picking people up from the airport, scrub swimming pools, serve drinks all day instead of going to some shitty, stuffy ass school with self-absorbed snobs under the impression that the world belongs to them alone, they are the nation's future, and the galaxy shifts with a brush of their fingertips." Even drunk, Dom followed every word. I could see the subdued intelligence in his eyes and a new, sincere expression overtook those beautiful features. I knew the discussion of money was over and, that, at least between us, the topic would never be reopened.

"You gonna sleep with Leon?" Dom asked, and I could feel the fire climbing my cheeks.

"I…I don't know."

"He's not pressuring you."

"No, I know he's not."

"Are you afraid?"

"Yes," I conceded. His tone was so genuine, so chaste, that my humiliation faded and I was able to answer him-and myself-honestly.

"But dying to know," he said, grinning, and I laughed out loud.

"Yeah."

"You'll know when you're ready," he said, standing up slowly and handing me the empty glass. I didn't know what to say, so I just nodded. "I have to go home. Letty's pro'lly pacing and swearing." He went to the door, pants drooping again, and I couldn't follow him. Stood shaking on legs that barely supported my weight. He opened the door himself and looked back over his shoulder at me a minute. "Thanks for letting him sleep here," he said. "For watching him." I nodded, tried to think of something else to say to him, but with a final smile, he was gone.

It was about eleven the following morning when I woke, blinking. I was in bed with Brian, and Mia and Letty stood over me, their heads cocked, smiling down at me.

"Rough night, you two?" Letty asked me, and Mia laughed.

"I sat down here to watch him," I croaked groggily. "I must have fallen asleep. God, I'm exhausted."

"Well, you're one up on me," Letty said. "I didn't sleep at all last night. Dom came home-"

"Please," Mia broke in. "My psychiatric well-being depends so much on you not finishing that sentence." Now it was my turn to laugh. I stood and stretched, yawning deeply, and Mia crawled up onto my bed, pressing her front against Brian's back and closing her eyes, smiling against the nape of his neck. Me and Letty watched as if transfixed as his body warmed to her touch, coherence quickening his features, and he rolled to face her without opening his eyes, his mouth seeking and finding hers instinctively. They kissed deeply for a long, almost chaste moment, then he pulled away, opening those insanely blue eyes.

"Hi," he said. "I missed you." Mia nodded, but couldn't speak, dark eyes welling with tears.

"I'm sorry," she said, voice choked, after a pause. "I'm so sorry."

"It's gonna be fine," he said. "Don't be sorry. I'm not sorry." He kissed her again, then folded her against his chest with impressively built arms.

"Hey," Letty said, tugging on my arm. "Time to go."

"Where?" I asked. "I need to bathe." She made an 'are you serious?' face.

"Fuck it. You're fine. Come on."

"Jesus, at least let me change my clothes." She sighed, but I wasn't giving her an option there, and I grabbed underwear, bra, tee, and jeans before barreling out of the room and closing the door on Brian and Mia's increasingly heated reunion.

"Wait while I change," I said, ducking into an empty guestroom and shutting the door behind me. I ditched the dress, donned the digs, and pulled my fro-ish hair back away from my face before heading out into the hallway and fixing Letty with a curious smile. She dragged her eyes up and down my getup, shaking her head.

"Your clothes are awful," she said, and I burst out laughing, but she was serious. "You wanna be bad, right? Wanna be one of us?" I nodded. I loved Letty's clothes…As long as I could remember, I had wanted something other than the conformist shit the other girls at prep schools were wearing. "Well," she said, laughing a little. "No doubt you'll be a badass at the end of today. Let's go, then."

"What?" I blinked. "Where?"

"On a road trip, esa! God. What else you got to do?"

I felt a slow, anticipatory smile spread across my face like frosting.

"One second while I write my mom a note."