Bonus Scene: First Sight (Dominic's POV)

Bonus Scene: Book 1, Chapter 4 (Dominic's POV)

This is a scene from Inception (Chapter 4: Dangerous Connections) told from the POV of Dominic when he sees Jemma for the first time.

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To my dismay, my eyes find her the moment I step into All Saints. I had fully expected the littlest Blackburn to be pleasing to the eyes but seeing her in the flesh strikes me like a bolt of lightning. She's quite possibly the most exquisite creature I’ve ever laid eyes on, and for the faintest of seconds, my purpose here escapes me.

My gaze roves over her from the riot of waves cascading down her back to the way her hips sway as she shifts from one foot to the other. She has a body that was created to sin, but it's more than that. There’s something dangerously beguiling about her—a magnetism that tugs at my little black heart with an intensity I've not encountered before. My throat tightens with hunger pangs that scorch the back of my mouth, and suddenly, I feel as though I haven't fed in months.

Rattled, I grab a passerby by the collar of his shirt and yank him up to my face.

“Yo! What the fuck are you—”

“You’d very much like to give me the drink you’re holding,” I command, using my compulsion to bend him to my will. “Isn’t that right?”

“Y-yeah. I would.” He holds up the glass for me and gives me his drink. “I…I want you to have it.”

“That's very kind of you.” I release his collar and throw the entire contents of his drink down in one fell swoop as the disoriented man walks away shaking his head. I grimace at the aftertaste of his cheap, bottom of the shelf whiskey, but it helps quell the burn at the back of my throat that has nothing to do with an empty stomach.

The Immortal Amulet, I remind myself as I refocus on the task at hand and move across the establishment. My eyes never leave their mark as I find a place across the way and lean back against the wall—watching her. The Amulet is the single most important relic on the face of this earth and as it stands, the little temptress’s trollop of a sister has it. I’ve been tracking her for months, unable to find an in.

But I’m closer than ever now.

I learned early on that when you cannot best your enemy, you must do the next best thing. Use your enemy’s weakness against them, and as best as I can tell, Tessa Blackburn has but one weakness.

Her sister.

It shouldn’t be too difficult to get within reach of her. She moves with an innocent buoyancy that belies her fierce bloodline and appears to be entirely oblivious to herself and everyone around her—to the way men reel in their breaths when she passes them. She’s oblivious to me, too. She should have felt my presence the moment I walked into the bar, sensed the danger, and yet her eyes never moved this way once.

Perhaps the rumors about her are true after all. She certainly lacks that jaded look that all Slayers wear like a crown. This might just prove to be a far easier task than I’d anticipated.

I drink in the sight of her and find myself imagining all the ways I could bend her to my will. I’d truly make a feast of her and would wager the whole of my inheritance that she’d love every second of it. Despite that aura of innocence, there’s something darker there too. A wildness that begs to be unleashed.

‘Jemma.’ I call out her name in my mind, liking the way it sounds inside my head.

Her head jerks up abruptly and she glances around the room as though she heard me.

Well, now…that’s interesting.

Her eyes suddenly go wild with panic like she wants to flee, and I can’t help the smirk that pulls at my lips. There’s almost nothing as intoxicating as the thrill of a chase and I’ve got her in my sights now. She’s a doe caught in the blinding light of an oncoming hunter, and she doesn’t have the slightest idea what’s coming.

The blonde girl from earlier reappears beside her and then leans in to whisper something into her ear. Jemma looks at her friend for a moment and then veers her gaze directly to me as though I were the only man standing in the room.

I watch as she swallows hard, her chest rising and falling rapidly. A wave of something foreign crashes over me at the sight and I suddenly find myself fighting to keep my ironclad composure. She’s caught in a web she cannot see, but I can feel the thrill pulsating through her veins. It races in sync with the chaotic beating in her chest that I can hear clear across the packed room. It’s a thunderous and wild symphony to my senses and it makes my dick strain in my pants.

I dial in deeper, drowning out the noise around me as my senses pull her all the way in until all I hear is the delicate trill of her voice in my ears.  

“Who is that?” she asks Blondie, her gaze still locked on mine.

“That’s Dominic Huntington.”

“He’s so—”

“Smoking hot?” supplies Blondie. “I know.”

I wait on bated breath for Jemma’s response, curious to see if she agrees with her friend’s assessment, but instead, she asks her, “Does he go to Weston?”

“I wish.” Blondie laughs at that. “He just moved back to Hollow a couple of weeks ago. Heard he got kicked out of college.”

Hm. False on both accounts. I suppress a smile as another group of girls surround the two of them and then disappear with Blondie just as quickly as they appeared. Jemma’s gaze is back on me as though there isn’t anything or anyone in the world she’d rather be looking at.

I realize I like that very much.
I like it a lot more than I should.

Without thinking it through, I gesture for her to come over to me, though I’m not entirely sure what I plan to do when she gets here. She’s my target—just a game piece I need to move on the board in order to checkmate my enemy. There were no plans to meet her. No plans to speak to her at all. In fact, this would go far more smoothly if I avoided her altogether and used the element of surprise like I'd planned.  

Then again, I suppose there is more than one way to play this game. What could one small conversation with her hurt? I’ll simply satisfy my curiosity and then get on with it.

Before I can commit to the mistake, the Macarthur boy appears beside as if to foil my plan on purpose. Despite my heightened senses, I can’t hear what he’s saying to her but I note the amount of effort it takes for her to tear her gaze away from me, and it pleases me to no end.

Soon, my little temptress. Soon.  

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