Page 64 of The Viper

I blink several times, totally turned on. My inner darkness is ready to crawl under the table and suck him, right now. I inhale a deep breath and shake my head, attempting to subdue my own carnal desires. I close my eyes for a moment and count to ten, refusing to give in to this darkness daring to burst through. “You have to stop,” I whisper, barely able to speak a complete sentence.

When I open my eyes, I find the table holds four different dishes, and Dominic’s smoldering eyes are fixed on me. “I’ll never stop.” He pulls back and looks at the food. Taking a set of flatware wrapped in a napkin, he hands it to me. “You need to eat.”

Hesitantly, I reach out for the cutlery, careful not to move too much in the seat or I might end up coming just from the friction of my jeans and panties against my sensitive pussy. I have to pull myself together and stop letting him distract me.

It takes me a few moments to compose myself, and once I do I take two of the pancakes and slide them onto my plate, then drench them in syrup. I heartily eat those while trying to think about how I’m going to broach several difficult conversations with Dominic. “Before, at the restaurant, you said I was your soon-to-be wife.”

“Yes,” he confirms confidently.

“Well, I’m not.”

“You will be.”

My movement falters as my fork is midway to my mouth. “This isn’t something you just make a decision over, Dominic. You need to ask, I need to accept, then you can claim me as a soon-to-be wife.”

He spears a sausage and shoves it into his mouth. “No, I don’t.”

“It doesn’t work the way you think it does,” I say.

“In my world, it’s the only way it works.”

“You can’t claim me like I’m a lost puppy who needs a home.”

“I can claim you, but not like the way you described. More like, in my world, we take what we want. And I want you.”

He speaks as if in the infinite. Like his word is gospel, what he says goes. “No, sorry,” I challenge. “I’m not in your world, which means I don’t follow your rules.” I look around at the food and remember we didn’t order any of it. “How did they know what to bring out?”

Dominic lifts his cup to have some of his coffee and chuckles. “It’s cute how you believe you’re not in my world when you’re so caught up in it that you have no chance of ever leaving.”

I turn to look at him, my mouth open in shock. “That sounds like a threat.”

He places the cup down and turns his body so we’re face to face. “You crave everything I give you more than you’ve ever wanted anything.” How does he know? “Beside the fact that I’d never allow you to leave, if you got away ? which you wouldn’t – you’d never see your sister again.”

I stiffen in my chair and feel myself tearing up. “You’d kill her to get to me?”

“Your sister has done nothing to me. But there’d be no way Adrian would allow her to ever see you again.”

I grab hold of his hand while furiously shaking my head. Tears threaten to spill from my eyes. “You can’t let that happen.”

“Rosa, I’d never stop you from seeing your sister, but my brother would.”

This is the perfect opportunity to lead into what’s been eating away at me. “He’s not good for her. He beats her, and she’s holding in some secret about her relationship with him that she won’t tell me.”

Dominic stiffens in his seat and lifts his chin. “He’s my brother. Has Eliza told you he beats her?”

My shoulders sink as I stare at him. “Domestic violence victims aren’t exactly the most forthcoming about the abuse. She’ll hide it and not say a single thing.”

“Then you don’t know he hits her.”

“I saw the bruises, that’s enough for me to know. Not only that, but she’s changing. She’s retreating into herself, and barely talking to me.” I lower my head to hide the tears welling in my eyes. “We used to do nearly everything together. Then suddenly, your brother shows up and the next thing I know, she’s marrying him.” I lift my chin to look at Dominic. “You have to know he’s not a good man.”

“He’s my brother,” he instantly repeats.

“Who beats my sister,” I attempt to use reason to show him this isn’t a way of life for anyone.

“Until she says that’s what he does, then there’s nothing I can do.” My forehead crinkles as the side of my lip lifts with disgust. I push the plate back and abruptly stand to my feet. “What are you doing?” Dominic asks when I move around him.

“I don’t feel well, I’m going outside for air.” I head toward the front, where Frank appears and stands beside me. “I don’t want you here.”

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