Page 162 of Ominous: Part 1
I take in the high ceilings, dim orange lighting. Anything to distract myself from his nearness, but I want to hear his words. Just like Saturday, I play into how close he is to me.
I back up into him.
His hand comes to my hip, curling around my flesh, just over my leggings.
My mouth goes dry, but I don’t say anything at all.
“It was our favorite place to hang out.” The scent of chlorine and alcohol dissipates the smell of old books and decades of history. “Sometimes, I think she’s just waiting behind one of these aisles.” He laughs and I flex my jaw, scared despite the fact I don’t want to be.
“What do you think happened to her?” I ask quietly, seizing the moment.
Dom’s lips graze the skin of my neck, exposed from my hair, pulled up in a crown of braids again, done just last night.
Goosebumps erupt on my flesh.
I close my eyes. I see Eli’s text in my head.Baby girl, I’m coming for you.
“Maybe she just ran away from us.”
My mouth goes dry.Us.
I want Eli’s secrets. He won’t give them. But Dominic…
Heart racing, I take another step back into him.
I feel how turned on he is and cringe a little, but he doesn’t notice. I hear his sharp intake of breath.
“Why would she run?” I ask quietly.
Dom’s hand glides over my hip, around to my belly, his thumb slipping under the hem of my shirt. On my skin.
It feels like cheating. Like a wave of guilt I’m going to drown in.
“Don’t you want to, sometimes? Being around him?”
I tilt my head back, resting it against his chest, my phone gripped tight in one hand, other still flexed around a single strap of my bag. “Yeah,” I say. “Sometimes.”
Dominic laughs, the rumble against my back. “He hurt you, didn’t he, at his house?” My stomach drops as Dom’s mouth moves over my neck.
“Has he ever hurt you?” My voice is hoarse.
“Sure.” He kisses the tip of my ear and I grind my teeth. “And I think you’re the only one who could hurt him back.”
I open my eyes, staring at the ceiling, but I don’t move away from him. “Dominic.” I say his name very slowly, then turn around, and his hand slips from my hip. I can breathe a little easier this way, facing him, not touching him. With my flat tone, I see the same surprise I saw in Eli’s eyes when I didn’t immediately react to his description of getting head from Luna is deeper on Dom’s face. Boys always seem to underestimate me. “You’re drunk.”But I can use you, can’t I?“You don’t really want me to hurt him.”
He only smiles at me, and it looks like something he learned from Eli.
I see my phone light up in my hand. Sebastian is calling, and I don’t want him to drive off with my car or lock my keys in or something stupid. And part of me… part of me wants to get away from Dom. I shouldn’t bait him, I know, it just seems so easy to do sometimes.
Still holding Dom’s gaze, I bring my phone to my ear and answer the call. “Hello?”
Dom’s smile falters.
“Yo, I’m out here. In the visitor lot.”
“Be there in two minutes.” I end the call. “Move,” I tell Dominic. “Or I’ll summon Satan this time, instead.”
Dom steps back, and I refuse to show the relief I feel. Phone in one hand, the strap of my bag in my other, I veer around him and head for the exit.
