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“ D omino says you can wait in here.” Bane opens the door to what I expect to be Domino’s room. I enter, turning around when I don’t feel his presence close. “We’ll be downstairs if you need us. Need me to get you anything right now?”

I shake my head at him, but his words seem muffled, so if he said anything else, I didn’t catch it.

It must be the right thing to do, because he shuts the door, and I’m left in silence. But unlike when I saw what happened to my room, where all sound seemed to stop, this time I don’t feel the vibration either.

Just complete and utter stillness.

I close my eyes and take a breath.

What am I supposed to do now?

Once I saw what happened, I sort of shut down. I let Domino’s guys get me out of my place and bring me over here. I remember everything. I just didn’t react.

Is this what shock is? I’ve never been in it, I don’t think.

I open my eyes and take in the room. Kinda big for one person; must be a suite or something.

Pretty sure this place was a hotel before the club took it over.

It’s got a small kitchenette, a living space, and a half wall with a rotating TV to block it off from the bedroom.

Nothing screams Domino, but other than having a giant cock, I don’t really know much about him.

He told me he was new to the area, coming from Kansas. That he also tattoos when he can.

Other than a bag here and there, nothing else is in the room. It’s like this is a real hotel, and Domino just got here. Not a single photo beyond one of a motorcycle over the couch and another of a three-headed dog above the bed.

With no idea what I’m meant to do, I decide on what I always do after a fight—shower.

I head to the bathroom, lock the door, turn the water on, and undress.

As soon as I’m naked, I climb under the spray, face in the water as I just let it rinse everything away.

It’s cold for a few seconds, but it’s the jolt I need for my mind to get out of whatever the fuck mood I’m in right now.

I take about five more minutes to let the water just flow over me before I grab Domino’s shampoo and body wash.

I wish he had conditioner, but anything is better than nothing.

After another ten minutes, I’m out, wrapping a towel around my body and another one for my head.

I wander out to his room, see it’s still barren except for me, and head to the drawers in the dresser.

Not much to choose from, but I grab some sweat joggers and a T-shirt that’s soft and also sports the Hounds logo of the three-headed dog.

I toss my wet towel on top of my dirty clothes and leave it all on the floor in the bathroom.

I’ll ask about getting them clean, but later.

Going to the fridge, I pull out what looks to be leftovers of pulled pork sandwiches.

I give it the sniff test before popping it into the microwave and grabbing a bottled water.

While my food is cooking, I snoop. Not for anything to catch Domino in some crazy act, just for pen and paper.

I find the kind that every hotel keeps in the desk drawer and laugh to myself about it.

For a biker club, they really do accommodate their guests.

Hell, I bet they’d be great at customer service if they ever did the whole hotel gig for real.

At the ding of the microwave, I grab my food and take a bite before putting down the sandwich and picking up the pen I found.

“Now to make a plan,” I mutter to myself.

“Wake up, beautiful.”

I lean into the fingers caressing my cheek for a second before blinking my eyes open. Domino is squatting in front of me on his couch. I crashed out watching some movie about car racing in Japan or something.

“Hey,” I say with a smile and a sigh.

“Hey, yourself.” He leans in, his lips touching mine for a second. But it isn’t enough.

When he tries to pull back, I grab his vest and pull him back down.

He chuckles as I grin through our kiss, and after a second, he deepens it.

Unlike the first time, we aren’t fighting for control but rather letting the heat of the moment take away the outside issues as our tongues dance together, listening to their own tune.

With a groan, I flop back on the couch, and he stands with a grin.

“I see you ate my leftovers.”

I shrug. “I was hungry.”

He grunts in understanding as he goes over and picks up the third sandwich I didn’t finish, munching on it as he looks over the papers I spread out on the counter.

“What’s this?” He points to them before he grabs a beer from the fridge.

Rising, I stretch, noting him giving me a once-over. I might put a bit of sway in my hips as I saunter over and take a seat on one of the two high-top chairs.

“Started out with me trying to figure out some remodeling of my place, then turned into some new design ideas for my shop.”

He looks up from the papers with a head tilt. “Remodeling?”

I give him a wide-eyed look. “You really expect me to go back to my place after that?”

He coughs and then swallows some beer. “Got the boys cleaning it up. You can sell it if you want.”

I’m shaking my head before he even finishes talking.

“Yeah, not about to stay there till I get a full redo of it. I’m not going to move since my shop is below it, and I worked too hard to make it what it is.

It’s exactly the way I need it for me to Zen out and just work.

I’m not able to pack up and go somewhere else, so I’m going to make it a full change so it feels like a completely different place, even if the outside is the same. ”

“Just out of curiosity, what would you have done if he touched your workshop?”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Blow it the fuck up. Why? Did he touch my shit? ”

He holds up his hands in surrender and even steps back out of hitting range.

“No, not that we can tell. We checked, and everything was still locked up tight. We even looked at your cameras, the ones you have that just show the shop’s doors and not your home.

They weren’t messed with. No one came or went. ”

I take a deep breath and settle back in my chair.

Didn’t even realize I rose out of it before now.

I’m okay with redoing my home. But my workshop?

Yeah, I wasn’t joking about destroying it.

If he was in there, I could never feel like it was my space again.

My bedroom is just where I sleep. Nothing sentimental about a bed.

But my workshop? My first welding gun? My second?

My third? Yeah, I’ve got a few. I collect them like some collect keyboards or notebooks.

Some might not see a reason to have more than one unless it breaks or there are no more pages to write on in them, but that doesn’t stop people from buying more and just feeling good about using one versus the other depending on a project.

“Got a place to stay?”

I look up at Domino as he speaks, thrown a bit by his words. I had thought….

I jab him fast in the arm. “You fucker.”

He grabs his arm, laughing. “Shit, I’m sorry. You can stay here. I expected you to. Ow, that hurt.” He rubs the spot I hit, and I’m happy to see I left a mark. It’s small, but if he bruises, it’ll keep for a few days.

“It was meant to,” I grumble with a side glare at him, hurt that he made me think he was kicking me out.

“Ah, come here.” He walks around the counter to wrap an arm around me. I fake that I’m going to hit him again, and he flinches. “Cute, real cute.” He grins with a shake of his head as he pulls me in for a hug.

God, I needed this.

He wraps one arm around me, then adjusts after a second to hold me in both.

I’m sitting still so his head can rest on mine, which I let fall to his chest as I wrap him in my own embrace.

I breathe him in, and he lets me have this moment.

This vulnerable moment. I might not cry, but I’m feeling pretty low right now.

But being grounded, locked in his arms, is making me feel better on a level I didn’t know I needed.

Maybe having someone to lean on and not always doing it alone ain’t so bad after all.

“You up for some socializing?”

“What did you have in mind?” I tilt my head back and rest my chin on his chest to look up at him.

“The guys are pretty hyped still. Figured we could do with celebrating the things our brother did before he died. A little wake, if you will.”

I still can’t wrap my mind around that part.

A guy jacking off and ruining my bedspread?

Over it. Well, angry still, but able to move on.

A guy dying for trying to guard my home?

Not over it. Not sure if a part of me will ever be.

Did I know him? No. But he died because of me, and it’s not something you forget about.

I might not hole up somewhere freaking out on it, but I will be honored to share a beer with his brothers down below and drink to a good afterlife for him.

“You got something other than sweats I can go down there in?”

He nods to the door, and I look over, seeing a bag .

“Packed you some things. Figured you weren’t going to want to borrow off a vamp.”

“I don’t know what a vamp is, but I’m not against sharing. Summer and I do it all the time,” I say with a shrug.

“Club girl.”

I make a face, and he chuckles. “Yeah, didn’t think so. I packed a little of everything I could find that was still in your drawers. Might not be everything you want, but it should be enough to find something for tonight.”

He pulls away, smacks my ass, and heads for the bathroom. “Going to rinse off, and then we can head down.”

He doesn’t even bother shutting the bathroom door, and I’m not shy enough not to look. I mean, hello, the door is open. He’s basically asking for me to sneak a peek. And yes, the monster between his legs is still very much there and not something I imagined.