Page 4 of Ice
Dom heard the rumors like everyone else had; an Ice Whore took over the Gomes organization. He didn’t want to believe it to be Sofia, but the coke supply miraculous never picked back up with the Barbati’s enemies—at least not directly. There had been a lull in the ongoing wars up until Antonio Barbati was killed, and now everyone was scrambling, desperate to claim power that didn’t belong to them.
Dom scrubbed his hands down his face and cracked his neck, trying to relieve some of his growing tension. He needed to chill out a little. His need to control things was making him antsy, as was the anticipation of seeing Sofia again, after all this time. He was curious to see the woman she grew into.
“Be careful, boy.” His father’s warning rang loud in the air around them.
“With?” Dom already sensed where the conversation was about to go.
“This isn’t an old girlfriend coming home to see you. Sofia’s an heiress coming to collect what is hers with the training of a Gomes. She’s not the same girl who left when she was seventeen.”
As soon as his father’s words left his lips, the exit doors slid open and Dom’s eyes locked on a girl he once knew. His gaze took in her black sneakers, grey sweatpants, and black cropped hoodie that exposed the expanse of her stomach. It caused a slight pull in his groin as memories of the nights he spent kissing his way down her body floated around in his head, bringing him back to a time that no longer held true in his present.
He could see ink peeking out underneath her hoodie. It disappeared up her ribs and his throat went dry. His balls sat heavy in his jeans as images morphed in his mind, wondering what other ink hid behind her clothing.
When his eyes finally landed on her face, he could hear the rolling thunder of his heartbeat against his chest. She was always gorgeous—but there had always been an air of innocence about her. Now, Dom only saw a woman who had been through the trials of life. She seemed harder; the icy cold stare of her piercing blue eyes was harsh enough to freeze anybody, even on a hot summer day in New York City.
There was no denying the rumors—he couldn’t. Dom was staring at the head of the Gomes organization, the brutal leader who ruled with an icy fist. His father was right. This wasn’t the same Sofia who left when she was seventeen. She was a different woman now, a killer he recognized by the look in her eyes. It was the same look he saw every time he looked in the mirror.
Sofia Barbati didn’t come here to rekindle anything. There was no mistaking that she was here to claim her father’s empire.
SOFIA WAITED A SECOND BEFOREexiting the airport. She needed time to collect herself before she stepped outside and reunited with a past she had to bury deep inside of her if she wanted to survive in Colombia.
Dom had been her first everything, kiss, fuck—love if she allowed herself to be honest. When she was forced to leave, while she missed her father, it didn’t compare to the pain of leaving Dom behind.
She admired him from the safety of the airport. He seemed impossibly large—bigger than what he’d been at twenty. He folded his arms across his chest, and she licked her lips as the veins on his forearms popped. She always felt the safest in his arms. It was why he was the one she reached out to when she was able to come back home. She didn’t trust anyone but him.
In the back of her mind she was concerned that the life might have hardened Dom into something that would make him want the power of the Barbati empire, but as quickly as that thought crossed her mind was as quickly as her gut squashed it. If Dom, or his father before he went blind, wanted the empire, they would have had it. They were the closest to her father and would have had the easiest time taking him out of the picture.
Sofia watched as Dom checked his watch again, and she felt a slight tug of her lips pulling into a smile.Someone’s impatient.She knew she couldn’t stay behind these doors forever, and while she usually had no issue facing off with a firing squad, facing Dom was different. She had to shut down that part of her that felt anything for anybody and what she was stepping into, she needed to be what the Colombians so graciously nicknamed her.
They created the monster that I was, and when I embraced it, they tried to hunt me down for it.
Sofia shook herself, trying to mentally prepare for her first interaction with Dom since she was seventeen. She took a tentative step at first and then berated herself for being a chicken shit. She and Dom had history, yes, but they weren’t those kids anymore. She was here for business, not for some childish notion of love and fairytales.
The airport doors slid open, and as soon as she stepped outside into the warm September sun, Dom’s dark eyes were on her in an instant. They flashed with a fire she used to relish in sparking. Her pulse picked up speed as she watched him drink her in like a man on a hunt to quench his thirst. When his eyes landed back on her face, they flashed with recognition, like he saw exactly who she had to become. Sofia knew Dom had to have heard the rumors of the Ice Whore,and she wondered what he thought about what she had to become.
Dom pushed off the car and quickly ate up the distance between them. He stepped onto the curb, effectively closing the distance between them. If she thought he was big from afar, holy shit—up close he seemed to consume the very air she breathed. She wanted to take a step back—needed to—but she knew that would show a sign of weakness, something that was burned into her skull to never show.
Sofia had to crane her neck to look up at him. The hardness that surrounded him when he was younger cloaked him like a second skin. She could see how easily it must have been for him to step into his father’s role as the executioner.
“Saffi,” he whispered his nickname for her.
Her body hummed and warmth seeped into her chest.My Saffi. How do you always taste so sweet for me?Dom’s voice from her past filtered through her mind, causing her to soften just a fraction. He only ever called her that when he was being affectionate or when they were fucking. She knew back then it was his way of saying, ‘I love you.’
Sofia had to fight the urge to step closer to him and kill whatever space was left between them. For a moment she wanted to be a girl who was here for her guy. Something she hadn’t thought about since she was rushed out of the States. She used to dream of what it would be like to reunite with Dom—craved it—especially after her mother died.
But those were childish hopes meant for a girl who hadn’t believed the cruelty of the world yet.
Sofia had put walls up around that part of her she thought for sure she destroyed—that part that Dom seemed to still own going by the rapid beat of her heart. She couldn’t afford to have Dom thaw her out.
When you were the head of an organization, you couldn’t be soft. You had to be cold and calculating. She had no room for mercy in the war she was stepping into. They were going to come for her—to chop the head off of the last Barbati. These men wouldn’t allow a woman—one who wasn’t one hundred percent Sicilian—to be in a position of power. She had the same issue in Colombia and had to correct their old world views rather swiftly.
Dom watched her closely. He knew calling her by her nickname was a mistake. It slipped out on its own before he thought of how familiar it would make things between them. He saw the heat in her gaze, but it was quickly replaced with an icy glare that gave him frostbite.
“Sofia.” Her name cracked out like a whip against his skin and he smirked. This was his warning. They weren’t who they used to be, and he had no rights to the parts of her he claimed long ago.
He reached for the duffel bag in her hands, and his fingers brushed against her skin. They both took a sharp inhale. “Dom.” His name on her lips had his cock stirring beneath his jeans.
Dom looked back at Sofia, that icy stare slowly defrosting as she licked her lips. He went to make a smart comment, but the shriek of tires in the distance had his head snapping to the noise.
