Rogue (In the life of the Rogue Book 1) (19 page)

She’s seducing me, she had seduced me. Dominique hadn’t been on a late night stroll and decided to stand in the dark gazebo. No. She was here because I was here. Because I would be here once I finished the meeting with my father.

  Dominique’s plump lips touched my neck and my thoughts ceased. I palmed her thighs, moved my hands to her ass and squeezed as her tongue lapped just below my Adam’s apple.

I exhaled a long, shuddered breath and felt her smile against my neck.

My hands left her ass, and she whimpered at the withdrawl, I grabbed fistfuls of her hair, tugged her gently to get her too look at me. I wanted to smile foolishly as I feel those silky treces of curls looped around my fingers, but I don’t.

I needed to see that want in her eyes, the want for me. I couldn’t comprehend anything else, couldn’t move on any further. I needed to see if she had a hidden agenda for all this. She wasn’t here by accident, she didn’t wear what she wore – the lack of what she wore – for no other reason then to get and keep my attention – which she had successfully done both.

I needed to know if she did this because she wanted me: the
wife fucker
, the wreck, the tarnished son of a pretigous mob boss that she respected and left her father, and his business, to be apart of. If I was going to drive a nail through my own coffin, and put myself in the line of fire of Lulina Wells, I needed to know if Dominique Lougotti wanted me as bad as she implied, and boldly stated –
as bad as I wanted her
.

She met my suspicious gaze and didn’t flinch. “I’ve wanted you since the moment I saw you on that balcony.”

And I was frozen, struck dumb, by her words. It felt like the news of Katie’s pregnancy all over again, but this time I didn’t run for the hills. No. This time I wanted to see the rainbow over the hill, the credits to the movie - the light at the end of the the tunnel because the light was beautiful, too beautiful to run and hide from.

Dominique leaned in and I could feel her mouth hovering over mine. I felt her tongue, rubbing just below my bottom lip.

“Are you strong, Tristan?”

I nodded, then said, “I am.” And then gulped.

“Show me.”

I hoisted Dominique up. Her wetness saturated the skin just below my navel. My lips found hers as her legs wrapped so tightly around me that it hurt.

“I’ve wanted you so bad, Tristan,” she said to me in pants.

I sat her down on the gazebo’s railing. “Show me.”

There was that flicker of fear over her face again, her bottom lip was bit in hesitation and she exhaled. She reached for the belt buckle to my jeans, the zipper was tugged, her warm fingers fumbled with the slit of my boxers, and soon she had me in her hands. Her thumbs massaged, her hand explored.

Light headed, but still trying to hold on, I bit roughly into her shoulder and smiled when I heard her gasped.

We kissed, long and hard, as her legs parted wider, rose higher, her knees tickled my sides.

I produced a condom. “Hold up a sec.” I bit the package open.

Dominique grabbed it from my hand. “No.”

“Safe sex is the best sex,” I told her, panicking that she had come to her senses and she didn’t want to go any further with the man she asked if he was screwing her mother then may now not believe him when he said he hadn’t.

“No,” she said again. “I want you to feel me. I want to feel you feeling me.”

I reached for the open condom packet but she dropped it over her shoulder. My hand was back in my pocket for my back up protection but she seized it and placed it on her bare breast. My mouth opened to protest but Dominique kissed me. She whimpered into my mouth, and I breathed back into hers, exhaling softly and politely. The kiss was alive, growing too fast and I pulled back to breathe.

Dominique tightened her legs around my waist once more. Her knees lifted higher. Her eyes darkened and her mouth opened as she breathed heavily.

“Okay,” I mumbled, “I’ll give you what you want.”

My hands were on her ass, pulling her off the railing and pulling her to me so her back would be supported against it. My breath caught as I felt her hard nipples against my chest.

Dominique wedged her hand between her bodies and slid it down between her legs. She cupped herself, dragged her hands slowly back and forth. Her eyes blinked slowly as her breathing picked up.

“Breathe,” she encouraged.

I did, and the wallop of air, fresh and clean and exsquite, rushed through me.

“Come here,” she breathed against my lips.

I pulled her closer to me. Her lips hovered over mine again as I felt the hand she had used on herself on me – hot, wet and sticky, moving her juices, slicking me up, preparing me to be inside her.

She smiled and grazed her teeth over my bottom lip. Her tongue was out, tracing over my lips, moisting them. She curled her tongue and parted my lips with it.

“Hurry,” she urged, as she kissed me.

I heeded her command, bending low. Dominique had her elbows on my shoulders as her hands ran back and forth through my hair, gripping it roughly, her nails digging till I felt the first signs of blood wetting my scalp. I lifted her up slightly, prepared to ease her down and never made it any further than that.

The grass crunched behind, somewhere not too distant – someone was coming. Only now, did I realize just how exposed we were.

I used the back of my hand to wipe my mouth, still feeling the impression of Dominique’s lips. Dominique closed her robe, flipped her hair back and tied it into a ponytail. She bit her lip, her face flushed, and her eyes big and wide and frightened.

Dominique walked to one side of the gazebo while I escaped to another – doing the best to put as much distance between us. The footsteps were closer now. We both dared not look out to see who was approaching, or meet each other’s eyes while our visitor was making their way.

My guess, we both had a very good educated guess on the visitor’s idenity.

I sank to the bench, lit a cigarette, bowed my head, and allowed the smoke to slither out. I tried to look normal, and not like I was about to have sex outside where my father’s men patrolled around with guns.

Lulina smirked at me as she stepped inside the gazebo. I didn’t even want to think what she had seen, or what she had heard; the heavy breathing, my drumming heartbeat, Dominique’s soft moans – all of it had seemed so defeaning just a moment ago.

I touched my lips, still felt the heat, the warmth; I licked them and still tasted her.

And now Lulina was here. I did my best not to look her in the eyes. I didn’t want to look guilty. Instead, at the turn and twists in my stomach, I figured I looked more bilious than anything.

Lulina leaned in and kissed Dominique on the cheek. “It’s a wonderful night for a stroll, isn’t it dear?”

“Yes, mother, I believe you’re right,” Dominique said in a stringent manner.

Lulina leaned in to kiss Dominique on the cheek again, but Dominique invaded. I couldn’t help but feel sick. The first kiss, maybe, had been to see if she smelled me on her daughter’s mouth. The second attempted kiss may have been to confirm the suspicion.

Lulina placed her hand on Dominique’s forehead. “Are you feeling well, you look flustered?”

Dominique moved her head out of her mother’s touch. “I’m fine, mom.”

Lulina eyes turned to me and I squirmed. The gazebo had seemed darken, secluded, a private caccoon, in which me and Dominique seemed to have gotten lost in. Yet, now, nothing seemed to be missed, like the hard, searching stare of the woman I had been sleeping with for years – behind her husband’s back, and while he was still fresh in the ground, and turning.

“Tristan, darling, how are you?” Lulina asked.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“You don’t know?” She repeated my words slowly, as if I didn’t understand the meaning in which it was first spoken.

I blew smoke in Lulina’s direction to let her know she had been acknowledged, and said nothing.

Lulina looked at me for a long moment, half her face hidden in the dark. When I couldn’t take her stare any longer, I turned away and cursed myself when I did.

That was the true sign of guilt.

She chuckled. “You still don’t know how you are, Tristan?”

I rubbed my fingers over my face. “What do you want me to say? It’s been a long fucking night.”

Lulina touched my face, feeling the lumps and split lip. “It looks like it,” she whispered.

Her fingers remained. I fought not to shudder under her touch. Dominique had just pulled the move not too long ago, but I realized how different the simple act portrayed. When Dominique touched my face, I had melted. When Lulina had done the same, it felt like getting hit all over again.

“It was nice out,” Dominique blurted, “So I decided to take a walk and ran into Tristan.” She tightened her robe once more. “We should go back, its cold. Tristan was just leaving.”

Lulina played a little hard ball. “I want to enjoy the quiet night. The moon is so lovely. You can go back in, dear, don’t want you catching a cold. I’ll walk Tristan to his car.”

I realized I was stuck, unable to make a getaway. Fixing my clothes would not be able to happen without Lulina noticing.

I replied, “I’m a big boy. I can walk my own self to my car.”

Lulina plucked my cigarette out of my hand right as I was about to take another pull. “I know you’re a big boy.” She took a puff, inhaled and smiled around the smoke as she blew it out. “I know just how big of a boy you’re are, but it’s scary out there, Tristan. I’ve known you since you were a little boy and don’t want anything to happen to you.”

The innuendo was in direct violation of my lie I had given Dominique that I was not sleeping with her mother.

I shook out my last cigarette and lit it. “Nothing will.”

“You don’t know that. Such a dangerous family we’re in. Don’t you agree?” Lulina asked. “We both know all too well, Tristan, that blood won’t protect you from a bullet.”

I was scared into silence. Lulina’s warning was there and I was in no position to stop it. My lie of nothing going on between Lulina and I was being blown right into my face.

It soon occurred to me that Lulina was waiting for Dominique to leave.

Dominique was most likely waiting for the same thing.

I happily took myself out of the equation. I stood, fixed my pants and smiled at Lulina as I did it.

Dominique didn’t make eye contact, and even if she did, I wasn’t making it with her.

Lulina called after me as I walking back to my car, trying not to run. “There’s a meeting in a couple weeks, Tristan. That should be enough time for your face to heal. And try to find something nice to wear.”

I kept moving.

Not once did I turn around.

Even when I was speeding down the driveway, I kept my eyes firmly in front of me and dared not to look back at all.

Why fear fire when life burns you so much more…

It had been forty thousands dollars in the envelope that Papa handed me. I had never seen so much money in one time. And of course, instantly, the money started to burn a hole in my pocket.

I was tasked with going over every single bill Zander and I had overdue, which were all of them, and paid them off. I put extra money on the bill for when we wouldn’t have money, for which I was certain was just around the corner.

After ducking and dodging the manager to our apartment building, threatening him when he caught up to us, and ignoring him when he yelled from his office window when he caught us walking to and from our apartment, he couldn’t believe it when I came to him.

“What’s this all about, Mr. Rogue?” A stream of smoke sailed out between the gap in his teeth.

He was a miserable looking old man with very papery skin and no hair on his head.

I pushed eight thousand in his hand. He counted it – twice – then ran his fingers over the bills.

He blew out a ring of smoke and smiled. “This should cover you nicely.”

Between all the fees and the unpaid months, I was surprised that Zander and I owed only that. To be safe, respecting both Zander and I’s spending habits on ass and booze, I paid a couple of months in advance.

For Zander I handed five thousand dollars and knew I would regret it.

“Don’t do anything stupid with this money, Zan,” I told him.

He took the last inhale on his cigarette and blew out the smoke in my face. “I’m tired of you guys not trusting me.”

I could actually see the money smoldering in his hands. The implications for the cash flashed in his eyes and it wasn’t good.

“Keep the money out of your arm, Zander,” I told him.

He pointed his finger and was dangerously close to touching my nose. “I’m tired of everyone giving me shit.”

I leaned my head out of the way of his finger. “I’m not everyone.”

Zander stuffed the money in his pocket. “If you aren’t now, you soon will be.”

The rift between us had been subtle – it had all started the day he almost died on the toilet - but the hole, at times, seemed to be gapping, and just getting bigger and bigger.

***

Lulina’s fingers touched at my tie, her hands grasping the knot. She pulled me forward, her cheek brushing against mine.

I groaned as I felt her lips kiss the tip of my earlobe. “See,” she whispered, “Just a casual meeting between friends of the family.”

Lulina ran her hand down the front of my shirt, stopping at my belt then moving further down. I coughed as I pushed her hands away from my crotch and stepped around her.

I wasn’t having a good day. Sure, it was a meeting among friends of the family, but that friend had been Lulina’s ex husband, who hated her to the point that he almost shot her when he arrived through the front door.

And he was also Dominique’s father.

Mr. Almond Lougotti, Miami crime boss, and a long time friend of my Papa more than sixty years, had looked especially pissed when he found out that his ex-wife had been living under the same roof as his precious daughter.

Sure, it was a casual meeting, a meeting that I had no business being involved in and was not. Papa, my father, Lougotti and Dominique were in the main office while I sipped a glass water with too many ice cubes and danced around Lulina’s advances. We were outside the office, in the meeting area where a table and chairs had been set up for Lougotti’s men. I was given strict instructions to make sure Mr. Lougotti’s hired guns were taken care of, while the meeting was in progress.

The four young men, with itchy fingers resting not too far from their guns, plowed plates of food.

One looked up, holding up his glass and rattled it. “More,” he grunted, licking sauce off his lips.

I did my best not to snatch the glass out of his hand while I poured him more champagne.

I was playing waiter while Lulina was playing hotress. Or, in other terms, she pranced around the men, sure they were gazing her tight ass through her ridiculously tight, leather, bright red dress.

A joke was told amongst Lougotti’s men and they chuckled loudly. An elbow hit and knocked off a plate of food onto the floor.

Before I knew it, I was on my knees with a bottle of cleaner and paper towels.

It was a wonder how I didn’t have a nosebleed when I looked up to see how low I had sunk.

Lulina was behind me, her hands touching at my back. “Aren’t you interested in what they’re discussing, Tristan?”

I stood up, shrugging her hands away from me. I could feel the four men’s stares at my back and didn’t like it. They may have been young, but they were older than me and knew the rules in the family. I wasn’t positive but I’m sure the history of Lulina Wells had been shared among them. They knew just who wife she was, even though my brother was dead, and she was acting way too cozy with me.

The playful, flirtious banter was making their itchy fingers a little itcher.

The dishes crashed a little too hard on the tray the maid had wheeled in. I hadn’t thrown the plates but I hadn’t set them down easy either. The laughing stopped and I felt more eyes on my back. I closed my eyes, pinching my nose as I breathed around the headache. I touched at the tie around my neck, wanting to loosen it but instead dipped my fingers between my neck and the tie and tried to let some air in.

Lulina was at my side again. “Did Dominique talk to you, Tristan?”

I peeked a glance behind me to see that Lougotti’s men were back to eating and laughing.

“No, Lu,” I whispered, “Why would she want to talk to me?”

“You looked like you had become fast friends the last time I saw you two together.”

This line of conversation was dangerous. No one needed to overhear that the Rogue’s family rebellious son was caught fondling their boss’ beloved and sacred daughter.

I grabbed Lulina by the elbow and walked her a little further away from the table.

“Nothing happened,” I said, starting the line of conversation that would consist of mostly lies from my end.

“Oh I know. I had her check out again.”

“Checked out?”

Lulina licked her bottom lip and smiled. “You aren’t very bright, are you? Tristan?”

“How about you lower your injected ass a little off its pedestal and maybe we can have a conversation that doesn’t fly over both our heads.”

Lulina threw her head back and laughed. I looked at her long, creamy bare neck that smelled like sweet candles in a beach setting, and wasn’t sure if I wanted to drag my tongue over it or wrap my hands around it.

She switched gears in the conversation. “Your father wants to merge our families - Lougotti and Rogue, one big family, one big organization. Dominique is the bridge to make that happen.”

“That’s why we had to grab her from Miami?” I asked.

“My ex-husband isn’t adapted to change. He needed a little push.”

“Hey, boy,” another one of Lougotti’s idiots called from across the room, “Move my plate.”

I pointed at Lulina. “Stay right here, I want to finish this.”

The man laughed as I approached, knocking his plate on the floor with his hand.

“Get it,” he sneered.

My elbow was in his face before I knew what happened. I grabbed the back of his head, slamming his face into the table. My other hand was digging in his jacket pulling the gun and placing it comfortably to the back of his head.

I looked up to see three separate revolver barrels pointed in my face and I smiled. “How about we not eat like pigs, boys?”

My thumb pulled the hammer back. “I’m sure your boss wouldn’t like it how you purposely spilled food all over the Rogue’s carpet and shot the Rogue’s boss’ son while he was in the mist of meeting with friends, who are the Rogue, and making a very big deal that could be a lot of money.”

The guns went back into the holsters and the men sat down. I unleashed my hold on the man who I hit with my elbow. The gun was handed back to him with a paper towel and a bottle of cleaner.

Lulina licked her lips as I approached her again. “Your father is a fool to overlook how powerful you are, Tristan.”

I snatched her arm and brought her close to me. “What aren’t you telling me, Lu? I’m tired to fucking death of all your games.”

“And I’m tired of watching you round second base with my daughter everytime I turn my back.” She pulled her arm out of my grasp. “That’s why the doctor, Tristan.”

I went for a retort but froze. The gears were slow but they still grinded.

“To see if she’s still intact?” I questioned, reciting the same words Papa had spoken to me.

“Oh, he get’s it,” Lulina taunted, “that’s right, Tristan. She’s a virgin, and she is the key to her family and your family merging, and the marriage is the only way that’s going to happen. What better way to have that done if the bride hasn’t been touch?”

I shoved Lulina away from me. “You’re a peace of work, you know that? Bartering your daughter’s ass like its prime meat in a butcher shop. Why don’t you sale your ass?”

“It’s already been pounded,” she called out to me as I walked away. “But you know that better than anyone.”

The main office door opened and Lougotti stepped out of the room. His gray eyes – the same color of Dominique’s but no where near as beautiful – watched me from under the brim of his fedora hat.

“What’s this about ass being pounded?” He asked, his voice raspy, but still strong.

Lougotti turned his wrist over, fixing the cuff of his baby blue shirt. He was a man pushing eighty but looked well over a hundred. A man dying of prostate cancer who’s foot was firmly planted in the grave, but he still had the power to still a room with one glance.

Papa joined his side, slapping him softly on the back. “I’m glad we could find common ground, old friend.”

Lougottie used a hankerchief to wipe away the blood of his palm on his right hand.

I knew what this meant.

The deal had been done, Dominique had been sold and the families would be merged because it was now sealed.  When a deal had been reached among families, one member from each family had to cut their palms and shake on the new dealings.

Papa was wiping his palm, smearing the blood over his fingers while Lougotti met my gaze and held it.

“Is this the grandson you speak of,” Lougotti raised his blood dripping hand in my direction. “Is the one that my daughter has showed favor in marrying?”

Papa nodded, not looking at me.

The tie around my neck went back to choking me but there would be no loosening it with these two old men.

“And that’s the man she wanted to carry the child of?” Lougotti asked, his face darkening.

Papa: “That is.”

I looked past the men to see Dominique talking quietly with my father near his desk.

She looked up and met my eyes. There was no emotion in her face, and I wasn’t sure I convayed anything, myself.

Lougotti was grabbing my hand, shaking it and dropping blood all over the carpet. “Tell me,” he said, “if I was to give you my daughter, would you be honored?”

I felt Lulina’s eyes on me first before I felt Lougotti’s men staring at my back. My father and Dominique walked out into the room, walking arm and arm with pocker faces.

I turned back and glanced at Lulina. It had been the wrong thing to do, and if Dominique had any doubts of our relationship, well, I was sure she wouldn’t have them any longer.

Lulina’s heated glare was clear: I will tell everything, Tristan, you will never have my daughter.

I gulped and touched my tie with my free hand.

“I’m not worthy of her,” I answered.

My hand was dropped, wet with Lougotti’s blood. The man smiled in my face, happily nodding his head. I looked at Dominique’s crumpling face, her eyes watered briefly before a look of pure stone flashed over.

Having spent maybe thousands and thousands of dollars in buying women, I had grown a very acute awareness on how some women thought.

A thought flashed over Dominique’s face. A choice had been made, and I had no idea what choice that was but it had depended how I would act in front of her father.

“You do have a fondness in her,” Lougotti asked, still grinding me into the ground with his questions.

“I do,” I said.

“And you still not plead for her hand. She needs to be married to your family and bare a child to bridge us. That is my terms: that is my payment for not raging war for what you did in Miami. You were there, weren’t you? You helped kill my men and steal my daughter.”

He touched his daughter’s face, his bloody fingers smearing on her cheek. “She is beautiful and strong and smart and I will not allow a nigger to have her. I will die before she bares a dark baby, but if that man is strong and will advance the family, I could make an acception.”

“No,” I heard myself saying. Lulina’s stare had gotten hotter and hotter on the side of my neck. “I do not ask her hand.”