The Bookish Babe: UNTIL WE BURN by COURTNEY COLE: CHAPTER TWO

Before We Fall releases on 12/3. But...Courtney Cole is giving you the opportunity to meet that book's hero, Dominic in her free novella, Until We Burn. And I have Chapter Two for you today.

Until We Burn (Beautifully Broken, #2.5)

Dominic Kinkaide does bad, bad things.

As a 24-year old actor with the world on a string, not many women tell Dominic no.

In a life where no doesn’t exist, he stretches the boundaries between what is right, what is wrong and what is downright depraved.

Dark and damaged, Dom wants no commitments. He wants no attachments. He only wants to disappear into the taboo, into a place where he feels something.

Anything.

But when the aching need to disappear into the darkness is the only thing he has left, Dominic flounders. In a world that is hollow and sexual, without a guiding light or a reason to breathe, Dominic is lost and broken.

He knows he’ll never be fixed.

So he makes a decision.

If he’s going to hell, he might as well make it worth it.

Chapter Two

I duck in the back of my favorite restaurant, Providence, and make my way to my regular table. It’s in the back, in the shadows, and that’s just the way I like it.

I’m different from most of the people I know who eat here. Most celebrities like to make an entrance through the front because they enjoy how the fans rush up to them, surrounding them with pleas for autographs or pictures.

Not me.

That’s never been me.

I’ve barely slid into my booth before a waitress slinks over to me, her bright green eyes lighting up as she sees me.

“Dominic,” she exclaims, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and squeezing. I grin up at her, genuinely pleased to see her. Since she’s one of the only women who have ever turned me down, I shouldn’t be so partial to her.

But that’s not the case. I actually like her.

“Hey Alex.”

She glances around me. “Where’s Miss Ashby? Should I watch for her?”

I shake my head, remembering how I spent most of the night tied up in silk cords and getting my ass beat by her. She’d slipped out of my house before nine a.m.

“Nope. She’s at work today. I’m here on my own.”

“Just the way I like it,” Alex announces smirking. She sits across the table from me, comfortable now that she knows Amy isn’t coming. “How are things? I haven’t seen you in a couple of weeks.”

I shrug. “I’ve been busy. Just wrapped production, and I have a couple of weeks before the next film starts. I’m thinking about going to my brother’s for a weekend or so. It’d be nice to go home for a few days.”

Alex shakes her head. “You know that your family has been blessed by the Gods, right? I mean, you’re gorgeous, sexy as hell and you’ve got the freaking world on a string, Dominic. Your brothers are in the most famous band in the world and so you’ve got a built-in soundtrack to your life if you want it.”

I have to laugh at that. “Oh really? You think that the Devil’s Own will just stop what they’re doing and write some songs for me? Not hardly. I love my brothers, but Sin and Duncan aren’t going to interrupt a tour schedule just for me. But you’re right. I’ve been blessed and I need to remember that.”

I pick up my menu, even though I know exactly what it says. As I peruse the food offering, Alex stares at me, her brow furrowed.

“What’s going on with you, dude? You don’t seem like yourself. You seem…off.”

I laugh again. “I am off. I’ve been off for a long time, but nothing’s wrong. I’m just feeling a bit tired. I think going home to Chicago will be good for me. It’ll recharge my batteries, so to speak.”

Alex continues to examine me, her head cocked. “Okay. If you say so. But if you want anyone to talk to someone who won’t just tell you what you want to hear, you know you can talk to me. I’m not concerned with sleeping with you, so I’ll always be honest with you.”

“You’ve got that right,” I tell her wryly. “You’ve never been concerned with sleeping with me.”

She taps her wedding ring. “Sorry, dude. You’re hot and all, but I’m one of the few out there who believes that marriage is sacred. Well, there are only a few here in LA. I’m sure that there are plenty more like me out in the real world. But us Angelinos are a different breed.”

“True story,” I agree. “I’ll have the fish tacos.” I fold up the menu and hand it to her. “Thanks, Alex.”

And by thanks, I mean for offering to listen to me. I do appreciate it. She’s one of the few decent people I’ve met out here.

“Sure thing.”

She trots off to the kitchen and I’m left alone once again.

But only for a few minutes.

The hostess, a bleached blonde Barbie-type makes her way over to me a short time later, trying to act casual but I feel sure that she’d bee-lined her way to me as soon as she saw that I was here. She always does.

“Dominic,” she purrs, snaking her skinny arm around my shoulders. Unlike when Alex did it, I’m not enjoying this girl’s touch. I shrug out of her grasp.

“Hi,” I answer coolly.

I’m not trying to be rude, but she’s always annoyed me. She’s an opportunist. She’s trying to make it in the acting world and I know she’d probably take down her own grandmother to get a leg up. Given how poor her acting skills are when she pretends to be casual around me, I don’t think she should quit her day job.

“So, are you alone?” she asks bluntly, her lips almost grazing my ear. “Because I’ve got something important to discuss with you.”

I arch an eyebrow. “Oh, really? And that is?”

She whispers into my ear. “I’m not supposed to discuss this kind of thing here, but I have a question about the industry.”

And by industry, she of course means the acting world.

I sigh.

“Okay, shoot,” I tell her.

“How can I go about getting your agent?” she asks seriously, her eyes burning into mine with intensity.

“Tally?” I ask in surprise. “He’s got a waiting list ten miles long. He was a friend of my father’s and that’s the only reason why he took me on a few years back.”

She stares at me dubiously. “So there’s no way whatsoever that I could get you to put a good word in for me?”

There’s a light in her eyes now, a particular sexual light that I’ve seen in a thousand women’s eyes. I stare back, unfazed.

“Probably not.”

“Nothing I can do?” she asks again, her hands trailing from my shoulders down my back and wrapping around to my lap, lightly tracing my crotch. “Can I try?”

I roll my eyes. “Go for it.”

The hostess glances around, sees that no one is near, and immediately drops to her knees and crawls under the table. I’m startled for a mere second, then as her deft hands unfasten my pants and stroke at me, I allow all cognitive thought to leave my mind. When her mouth replaces her hands, logical thought disappears and I close my eyes.

Her hands are cold as she cups my balls, but her lips are warm.

Her breath is hot.

And her tongue teases the tip of my dick.

I fight back the urge to moan. She’s hidden by the tablecloth, so it would look odd if anyone happened to notice me moaning to myself in the middle of a restaurant.

Christ. I despise women like this, but at the same time, I can’t dismiss their merit. It’s nice to get blown in the middle of the day, in the middle of Providence.

Sometimes, it pays to be Dominic Kinkaide.

“Hey, Melanie hasn’t bothered you yet, has she?” Alex demands, appearing out of nowhere. My eyes snap open and I fight to act normal, which is hard since a very key part of me is buried in Melanie’s throat at this very minute.

Melanie tightens her grasp on my balls, as she’s perfectly able to hear every word that Alex says.

“Yeah. Stupid chick keeps wanting to assault you… get you to help her out. Just ignore her, Dominic. She’s ridiculous. I have better acting skills than she does. And I’m not an actor.”

Melanie’s claws grip me tighter and I grimace.

“No, I haven’t seen her,” I lie to Alex, praying that Alex doesn’t decide to sit down and chat again.

“Good,” she says in satisfaction. “I told her to leave you alone. I guess she listened to me for once. If she bothers you, let me know.”

“She’s not a bother,” I assure Alex. Because she’s not…right now. Alex nods.

“Your food will be up in a second,” she tells me before walking away.

After she leaves, Melanie finishes sucking me off in record time and climbs back out from under the table, wiping her mouth daintily.

“That chick is a bitch,” Melanie growls to me. “She has no idea what kind of talent I have. But you do. Now. Can you please put in a word with Tally for me?”

She stares at me, her hard eyes turning soft for just a brief minute, long enough to give me a glimpse into her life. She’s vulnerable and insecure beneath her hard surface. Just another reason why she shouldn’t be in my world.

Girls like her get eaten up and spit out.

“Sure,” I tell her. “I’ll say something to him.”

Lie.

But Melanie takes me at my word and bends to squeeze my shoulders once again. She walks away and I watch her hips swish as she goes.

She’s barely out of my sight when Alex returns with my lunch, switching one service (Melanie’s blow job) for another: my lunch.

It’s how my life works.

Everything is easy. Everyone strives to please me. Everything is just so fucking smooth. Now. It wasn’t always that way, of course, but the past is the past. I don’t dwell on it. In fact, I do everything I can to forget it.

For a second, I wrap my fingers around the necklace in my pocket, the one thing I allow myself to have from my previous life. It serves as a constant reminder for me.

To never trust anyone again.

I release the pendant and grip my fork instead, chewing each bite of food efficiently and quickly, returning to the Dominic Kinkaide that the world knows and loves.

Mysterious, detached, sexy.

Those are words that have often been used to describe me. But the one word that suits me most of all has never been uttered, never even been hinted at… because no one knows.

That word is broken.

The Serialization Schedule

November 5-Natasha is a Book Junkie

November 7-The Bookish Babe

November 12-Vilma's Book Blog

November 14-Scandalicious Book Reviews

November 19-Three Chicks & Their Books

November 21-Romance Addict

November 26-I Love Indie Books

November 28-Maryse's Book Blog

(click on cover for GoodReads page)

About the author:

Courtney Cole is a novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could. She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds. She loves chocolate and roller coasters and hates waiting and rude people.

Courtney lives in quiet suburbia, close to Lake Michigan, with her real-life Prince Charming, her ornery kids (there is a small chance that they get their orneriness from their mother) and a small domestic zoo.