Page 48 of Incipient

Gabriel’s words came back to me like a glass of ice water to the face. I needed to make him feel again, and I needed to use every emotion possible against him. Fear. Anger. Love.

Jealousy…

A plan sprang to mind. I squared my shoulders and stepped up beside Trace, wrapping my arm around his waist and letting his own arm fall down around my shoulder “What are you doing here, Dominic? I’m busy.”

Dominic’s inky gaze immediately dropped to where my arm had gone before pivoting back to my eyes. “Well, isn’t this nice and cozy.”

I fixed my expression into one of boredom.

“Would you mind excusing us?” he asked Trace though his eyes never strayed from mine.

“He doesn’t need to go anywhere,” I answered boldly. “Anything you need to say to me you can say in front of Trace.”

“I see.” A flicker of something flashed in his dark eyes, but it was gone before I could make it out. “You never showed up for our date.”

“Oh, right, our date. Gosh, I’m really sorry about that. It must have completely slipped my mind,” I said coyly while making sure to let him know that his compulsion had failed. Obviously, that wasn’t entirely true, but he didn’t need to know about the hell I’d gone through to get on the other side of it. I was keeping that part to myself.

“Itslippedyour mind?” he repeated, tossing the word around his mouth, tasting it with his tongue. “Well, now, isn’t that something.” His dark eyes flared with curiosity as his gaze consumed me.

Emboldened by his reaction, I went on. “In my defense, I’ve been a little distracted lately.” I winked at him, hoping to get under his skin—even if just a little bit. “Right Trace?” I said and then looked up at Trace for confirmation though he was already peering down at me with a mixture of amusement and adoration smeared across his face. He was enjoying every second of the show.

Trace nodded, his eyes sparkling mischievously. “What she said.”

A muscle in Dominic’s jaw twitched, and I knew I was finally gettingsomewhere. While he couldn’t feel love for me with his emotions turned off, he was still a man at the end of the day, and men liked to win, and right now, Dominic was losing, and it was clearly getting under his skin.

With a taste for progress and in desperate need of more, my brain clicked off as I lifted on my toes and kissed Trace square on the mouth. I’d meant for it to be brief and chaste, just a quick middle finger to Dominic, but then Trace pushed his hand into my hair and tugged me closer, kissing me back far more heatedly than was needed to pull off the farce.

A swarm of butterflies dove through my stomach as my blood hummed under my skin. With my fingernails digging into his shirt, I pressed myself against the heat of his body, the fire of his mouth, and shivered deliciously as it all but thawed my bones right there in the entranceway.

Dominic cleared his throat, the sound of it snapping me out of my haze. I quickly pulled away from Trace, remembering where I was and what I was trying to do here in the first place. A deep blush slid across my cheeks as I tore my gaze away from Trace’s heated eyes.

“Touché, angel.” Dominic’s lips curved upward, and the butterflies promptly died in my stomach. “I think you’re going to be a much more worthy adversary than I previously estimated you to be,” he said as he languidly backed away from the door, his eyes still tacked on me like he’d just spotted his prize.

Shitballs.That didn’t look or sound remotely good.

Feeling as though my plan had just backfired in my face, I took a brazen step outside and followed him onto the front porch. “If I were you, I would go home and consider quitting while you’re still ahead.”

He stopped retreating. “And why would I do that, angel?”

I hugged myself as a chill crept back into my bones. “Because you’re starting to piss me off, and Ireallydon’t need another excuse to put you out of your misery.”

“Is that so?” His grin widened. “Do you really think you have it in you, love?”

At that specific moment, probably not, but he was making it harder and harder for me to do nothing. “Keep pushing me and I guess you’ll find out,” I said, my voice cold and flat. The truth was, I was hoping my warning would be enough to make him lay low or maybe even skip town and get as far away from me and Hollow Hills as possible. For his own sake and mine. But deep down, I knew he wouldn’t do that.

I knew he wasn’t done playing yet.

Not by a long shot.

“Is that a challenge?” he asked, his dark eyes catching nothing but the shadows. And then he was in front of me, as quick as a heartbeat, leaning his head down beside my ear as he murmured, “Because it sure does sound like one.”

Before I could produce an answer or even process what had just happened, Trace materialized behind Dominic, his hands on both sides of his head, ready to snap his neck.

“No! Don’t!” I screamed, panic squeezing my insides like a corset.

Trace’s gaze shot to my petrified face, and he hesitated, giving Dominic the opportunity to break out of his hold and shove him back a few steps.

Trace rolled his neck and pumped his jaw muscles as though it were taking every bit of restraint he had not to turn Dominic into a puddle of ash. “If you ever show up here again, it’ll be the last thing you do. You got that bloodsucker?”

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