Turning on the light would erase the darkness, but nothing would fix the emptiness. He certainly couldn’t bring Sarafina to his domain like he ached to do. That emotion had been burning through his veins since the encounter in the closet. The urge to nab her and take her far, far away from the city still penetrated every core in his body.
He knew she wouldn’t stay away from the Chilani family, especially Lily. He wanted to say he had no problem with Lily, but he couldn’t. She was the daughter of one of the most ruthless men in the world. She had to be aware of what kind of man her father was. Ignoring the truth did not make you immune to the consequences in his mind. Did that make Ryan an accomplice as well? If Lily knew, did that mean Ryan knew everything?
Dax refused to believe that. By the end of the wedding night, they had reached a truce in their friendship. He didn’t want to believe Ryan knew about the disastrous things involving Martin Chilani. But he could, and that made him just as much of an idiot as Ryan because he didn’t want to believe his friend could do that to him.
He grabbed a beer from the fridge and downed it in one long swallow. The taste did nothing to ease the pain in his chest. Losing Bridget, who he dated for over a year, felt nothing like this hollowed-out pain that surrounded his entire heart.
Taking a little piece of Sarafina had been the stupidest thing he had ever done. He knew she would taste like heaven, and she had. Like the most beautiful thing in the entire world. How could any woman live up to her? It would be impossible, he knew it. But wouldn’t living with regret, not taking a part of her, be just as bad?
Yes.
He would’ve never been able to live with that regret.
While he knew it would take forever to move on, it was better to live with her small memories than no memories at all.
Grabbing another beer from the fridge, he walked to the back of the house, slamming his bedroom door shut. Sinking into the mattress, he tried not to imagine her next to him. A king-size bed that would be perfect for exploring, treasuring every inch of her body.
He started to grow hard at the delicious images swarming his mind, relaxing further into the bed as he let them take over. Why did he let her walk away?
Jerking upright, he felt for his phone in his pocket. Who was calling him so late? Groaning at the name flashing, his body instantly returned to normal, every erotic picture deleted from his brain.
“Hey, Sloan. Don’t tell me you’re calling me in now.”
“No, but I am curious about what you did all day. You weren’t at the precinct, were you? I thought I heard your name tossed around by Colt.”
Running a flustered hand through his hair, he debated for about a half second lying—again—to his boss. “I might’ve slipped in the back door. Did you think I’d stay away?”
“I guess not, but I figured you would’ve made sure I didn’t hear about it.”
Dax sat up a little straighter. “Only Colt heard, right? Nobody on the Chilani side heard, did they?”
“As far as I know, no. You’re safe, but it was stupid. Your name has been tossed around a bit by Martin Chilani. Not because of the precinct, but from the wedding. He’s asking around about you. I don’t like it. It has me on edge. I’m afraid we might need to do something.”
“Something? Like what? If my cover hasn’t been blown, there’s no need to shove me into hiding. I don’t want to lose the life that I built here.”
“I know this isn’t fair, and that I’m the one who asked you to do this. I can apologize, but we did get his son. So, I’m having a hard time getting the word sorry on my lips.”
“Yeah, but how long do we have his son? He was out within a few hours. He won’t see the inside of a jail again. I think we both know this. They’ll do something to save his ass.”
“We’ll see. We caught him in the act. It’ll be hard to get out of something like that. But let’s get back to the real reason I called.”
“Give it to me. I can handle it.”
After Dax hung up the phone with his boss, he wanted to retract his words. He wasn’t sure he could handle what his boss just told him. Life wasn’t fair.
Throwing the phone clear across the room, hoping it shattered into a billion pieces like his heart just did, he tossed back the rest of his beer. Drinking himself into oblivion wouldn’t change the outcome, wouldn’t change the course of his future. But it would dull the memories. That’s what he wanted. Forget it all. Every little piece.
9
Shuffling around in a circle, Sarafina tried not to blush from head to toe. “I feel ridiculous, Freddie. Must I do this little dance?”
“I need a full picture of you before I create my magic to make the perfect after. Plus, you look adorbs when you blush like that, doesn’t she, Dom?”
Dominic tapped a finger on his chin as if he was thinking with Freddie what to do with her appearance as she displayed herself for them. “Oh, yeah. Totally adorable. I think a flush of highlights to tone down the dark brown in your hair and bring out the sparkle in your eyes would be perfect. And a cut from your shoulders to your chin.”
Her eyes bulged. “You want me to cut half of my hair off. What is wrong with you? I like my long hair.”
“You said a massive makeover. I’m taking your words to heart. You want a change. Change is good. Let’s make a change. You’ll look just as beautiful with shorter hair. Trust me. Trust us. Trust Freddie. What do you think, hon?”
Freddie brushed his long fingers through her hair as he mulled it over. “Like usual, my Dom is right. I can do a beautiful cut to your chin. Nice, angular, sharp. You’ll look like a knockout, even more so than you do now. Let’s get to it. No more arguing. You win the arguments with Dom all the time, but you can never handle them with me. Sit.”
His long pointy finger held no argument as he demanded she sit down in front of the mirror that always made her look a little too mousy.
“I must still be in la-la-land to not argue with you.” She sat down with what she considered defeat and closed her eyes.
“This could take a while. Are you going to keep your eyes closed the entire time?” Freddie asked with quiet patience.
“Yes. I’m too afraid to look.”
Shaking his head as he shared a lovey-dovey look with Dominic, he turned her chair away from the mirror. “Stare at the fine specimen in front of you instead. I can’t have you tense the entire time I work my magic.”
Sarafina laughed as she caught the wink from Dominic and tried to relax instead. This was exactly what she needed to lift her spirits and forget about a man that would be impossible to forget for days to come.
Three hours later, she stood in front of a full-length mirror wearing a new sundress that Dominic pulled from a bag she had no idea he had hidden. Her new hairdo made her feel beautiful along with the dress.
“Well…enough with the suspense. What do you think?” Freddie asked from behind. “I love that coral dress on you. Dom sure does know how to pick the right outfit.”
Brushing her hands down the dress that hugged all her curves, she smiled wide. “He does. It’s beautiful. I love my hair, even though you guys made me nervous about the drastic change.”