Dominque (Knights to Remember) (23 page)

D
ominque left Jacob in the shower. Today was the big day. The wedding day. He’d woken early, gone for a run while Jacob slept, then returned to find Jacob reading in bed, waiting for him with a frown on his face.

Dominque hadn’t really followed his own routine since they’d been together, but a morning run was something he did every day when he woke at home to help keep in shape and to clear his mind, and since he was no longer on the books with the agency, and their relationship was official, Dominque thought it was time to start those routines again.

Jacob had been concerned and irritated about his absence when he’d woken up, which he couldn’t wait to share when Dominque bounded through the door to their room, sweaty and still out of breath. At first Dominque thought Jacob was being a little overbearing, but when he confessed why he’d been so concerned, Dominque relaxed and lay beside him, consoling him with soft touches and kisses.

He hadn't considered Jacob would worry about him running off, but there was still the cloud hanging over them, the cloud of Dominque’s past casting a shadow over what should be a bright and sunny place.

As Dominque walked down the impressive hallways to where Helen’s room were, he reminded himself Jacob would have far more worries over Dominque than he could ever have over Jacob. Yes, like any new relationship there would be simple issues which both would share and need time to overcome, and it was so new, so soon – neither could be blamed for those concerns showing up.

He knocked quietly on Helen’s door, listening to the activity inside and smiling. It was an hour before the wedding and he could only guess how hectic things must be preparing herself and three bridesmaids.

One of her friends opened the door, dressed in a deep blue satin gown which clung to her curves and enhanced her figure in all the right places. It made Dominque smile. Helen wanted everyone to look their best, not just herself, and had obviously chosen her maids’ dresses with each person in mind.

“Good morning. You look beautiful. The colour suits you perfectly.”

“Thank you.” She smiled brightly, running her hands over her dress. “Come on in.” The auburn-haired woman, who Dominque recalled was called Valerie, ushered him inside with a bright smile. “She’s all dressed and ready to go.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.” Dominque chuckled as he stepped inside, looking around the spacious sitting room and taking in the other two ladies both dressed in the same striking blue satin gowns. One was still having her hair pinned and the other was having the final touches to her makeup applied. “Where is she? I don’t want to intrude.”

“Oh, you're not.” Valerie pointed to the bedroom at the other end of the room. “She’s in there taking a moment. Just knock, she wanted to see you before the service.”

Dominque smiled, hiding the little jolt of apprehension which flowed up his spine. “Thank you.”

He hadn't seen anyone since he knelt in the lawn for Jacob, since they saw the beautiful collar which now adorned his neck being slipped around it. She probably had questions and worries. Maybe the whole family had them. This was the first time their feelings about the previous evening would be voiced.

With a deep breath, he found himself tapping gently on the partially open door. “Helen, it’s Dominque.”

There was a little movement in the room, then she called out for him to come in.

Dominque poked his head through the gap and found her standing in front of the big bay window beside the bed, fluffing her dress up. He stopped and looked at her—a vision in cream lace and silk, the dress billowing out and cascading on the floor around her. The bodice was carefully shaped to fit around her bump, almost hiding it with the yards of material surrounding her. He had to double check she was actually pregnant for a moment, trying to figure out if she’d worn some sort of girdle, but knowing she wouldn’t.

“Wow!” He stepped into the room and grinned, hands in pockets and tapping his feet on the floor. “You look stunning. I knew you would, but seeing you in that dress…” He whistled slowly, watching her smile wider. “I’ve never seen a more beautiful bride.”

Helen cocked her head to the side, her shiny brown hair pinned up elaborately on her head, leaving a few strands of curls draping over her shoulders. “And you’ve seen
how
many exactly?”

Dominque looked upward, recalling how many times he’d attended weddings. They were all part of his male escort role, but he’d enjoyed them all. “Around twenty.”

“Twenty?” She put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Well, I guess you're more of an expert than I thought. Thank you.” Helen gave him the same look he’d seen her use on Jacob and Krane a few times, and the smile faded from his lips a little. “So…” There was a heavy pause and Dominque stood stiffly in front of her while she raised a brow. “We need to talk. You, me, Jacob. But not now. For now, I wanted to say this…”

Dominque felt ice fill his veins and he watched as she walked to him, dress billowing out around her, her gaze on his all the time. When she stood in front of him, she reached up and held his shoulder, then kissed him on each cheek. “Welcome to the family.”

Dominque felt tears prickle behind his lids, and he swallowed thickly, holding his emotions in check, not wanting to weep all over her gown. He was lost for words. It had been so long since he had a family, and to be welcomed so easily into her life with so many questions about him still hanging in the air, she’d accepted him.

“Helen…” He stepped back, taking a deep breath before meeting her gaze again, this time seeing the warmth and humour filling them. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you. I don’t know what that stoic bastard has done to make you so happy, and how he’s managed to convince you to love him, but I'm thankful he did, and I hope he continues doing it. I never thought he’d find someone. I knew he was falling for you the moment I laid my eyes on you both back in London, but I got the feeling
you
weren’t too happy about it.”

Dominque raised his brow and nodded. For her to see so much in such a short time showed how intuitive she was, because Dominque was a master manipulator and no one saw through his act. “You must have x-ray glasses to see something like that. I guess right then I didn’t know what Jacob wanted from me, or what I wanted…” He paused and looked at his feet, shiny black dress shoes tapping on the floor. “Well, I didn’t think I would ever find it, and to find it with Jacob…” He looked into her eyes. “I didn’t think he would want me.”

She huffed loudly before hugging him. “I know you're scared and worried about how fast this has happened, and I would be too, but be strong and stick it out. It’s worth it.”

“He’s worth it.” He grinned before placing a kiss on her cheek. “You all are. I just hope… I hope when we talk… I hope you still want me to be here.” He wasn’t planning on making his past available to everyone in Jacob’s family, but Helen and Karen were different. He wanted them to know everything and to still open their arms and welcome him to the family. He didn’t want to lie to them.

“Nothing you can tell me will change my mind.
Nothing
!” She looked into his eyes firmly and with that certain determined knowledge that it
would
happen, just as Jacob did. “I think you're very honest. I don’t think you’ve ever lied to me about how you and Jacob met.” She kissed him softly on the cheek, taking his hand in hers. “The first time we met, I asked you how you two met, and how Jacob had convinced you to date him, you quite honestly answered that he’d paid you a lot of money.” She chuckled softly.

Dominque faltered, about to speak, but she placed her other hand over his mouth and shook her head.

“It was a joke to me then, but looking back with the knowledge of the past few days, I saw the truth in your statement. A good lie always stems from the truth. I don’t judge you for what you’ve done, or how you met my brother. The only thing I can judge you on is how you treat Jacob from this point onwards. I care a lot for him. Despite how I bitch about him, I love him. He’s family, and I don’t want to see him hurt. I'm not saying I believe you
will
hurt him, but I'm just preparing you for the fact if you
do
, I will hunt you down and kick your ass.” She grinned.

Dominque laughed. “I'd like to think if it was my sister in this position I would say the same thing to her chap. I understand, Helen, and I'm grateful you're still hugging me and welcoming me into your family knowing what my job was, but I promise you I love Jacob, and the last thing I ever want is to hurt him in any way.”

“I believe you, because despite you obviously thinking you’re
super
brilliant at lying, you’re not. Not with us anyway.”

“No,” Dominque said quietly, adjusting a strand of hair over her shoulder. “I don’t think I ever wanted to lie to anyone here. This place, all of you, it was the first time in a long time I've been
me
outside my own house. It’s been such a long time since I allowed anyone in, and it’s been easy with you, with your mum–Jacob.” He met her eyes, seeing they were a little misty and he huffed. “You’re not allowed to cry. It will spoil your makeup. No tears before the wedding.”

“Okay,” she mumbled before taking a deep breath. “Okay!” she repeated but this time with more conviction. She clapped her hands together loudly and shook out her body. “Let’s check up on those three, and then I need you to go check on the men. I don’t want anything to go wrong.”

“It won't. Everything will be perfect, just as you planned it.” Dominque kissed her one last time, then took her hand in his, leading her into the sitting room where she looked around the room and smiled. “See, everything’s okay.”

She nodded, then moved off to the squeals of her bridesmaids watching her walk to them. Dominque let them hug and screech excitedly in the middle of the room and he smiled warmly. Helen had guessed his role and was okay with it. He couldn’t have asked for more than that. All he had to do now was to prove her trust in him was the right choice.

J
acob wandered around the ballroom where they would be spending the next few hours, meeting and greeting friends and other family members who had arrived that morning for the wedding—cousins and aunts he hadn’t seen since the last family wedding years ago.

The service itself was now over, as were the hundreds of photographs which happened afterwards. They’d spent a good two hours all over the castle posing for different ones, and Jacob had been involved in way too many of them for his liking. Dominque was keeping his mum company as she couldn’t walk around the castle, and had gruffly told Helen to bugger off and leave her alone. Jacob had smiled and kissed Dominque, thinking how he couldn’t wait until he was her age so he could get away with such rudeness and not be judged for it.

He’d been forced to wear the family tartan for the wedding, including a kilt. Jacob wasn’t one for wearing them, but a selection of his family—Krane included—wore them at every given chance, and a wedding in the family was an event which called for Jacob to bend slightly and include himself in their tradition. Plus, Helen had been rather adamant over the kilt. Two years of discussions wore him down, and there he was, adjusting the kilt as he walked through the room, feeling like everyone was staring at him, and they probably were, just not because of the kilt.

He often went without underwear, and in keeping with the other men wearing them, he had gone commando underneath it. The Scottish Highlands weren’t known for their gentle breezes, and throughout the pictures it had been a cause of laughter and embarrassment on Jacob’s part when a gust of wind had left several of them holding down the rear of the kilt to save their asses from being included in the family album. Krane didn’t care—he and a couple of his brothers decided to own to the moment by happily turning around and bending over for some sort of group full moon shot. God knows if it would make it into the album. Somehow, knowing his family as he did, he presumed it would do.

He was now searching for them. He’d missed Dominque over the short time and worried he would feel left out. Even though Helen had included him in many of the pictures, there were obviously ones which just included the close family, and he concluded as things were so new with them right now, having him in all the wedding pictures may have been considered unwise to her. After all, from his family’s point of view, they were helping Jacob in some way. Seeing an ex in all the pictures forever wouldn’t be a pleasant thing, and even though Jacob could never see Dominque and him separating, he understood.

He’d already become tired of the formal clothing he was wearing, and remembering to attempt to keep his legs closed, the collar from his shirt was now loose around his neck and his bow tie undone. He was on his third glass of champagne and feeling less irritable as he spotted Dominque and Krane with his mum, sitting at one of the large tables.

Dominque spotted him and smiled widely, Jacob grinning as he felt a warmth spread over him. Too soon he’d become used to having Dominque beside him and he wondered how he would cope when they would be separated. “You’ve been gone ages.” He reached up and placed a kiss on his lips, Jacob curling an arm around his waist as he breathed in his scent. “I missed you,” Dominque whispered against his lips.

“Hmm, I missed you too. Don’t leave my side from now on. I want to feel your body right against mine.”

“I won't.” Dominque kissed him again. A sly touch of his hand on the bare skin of his thigh made Jacob stiffen and he gave Dominque a warning look.

The last thing he needed was to be hard and wearing a kilt, and at his sister’s wedding, oh, and in front of his ma. The glare did nothing to stop his boy though, and with a sneaky smile, Dominque ran his hand smoothly under the heavy material of the kilt and stopped inches away from his cock, which was now rising with the attention it craved despite Jacob internally shouting at it to stop.

“Have I told you how much I love this outfit on you?”

“Only around fifty times since I put it on this morning.” Jacob gulped down the remaining champagne from his glass, looking anywhere but Dominque and his ma, who was surely onto the fact something was going on between them. “Stop it,” he hissed over his glass. He looked into Dominque’s eyes and sighed. “You’re tipsy.”

“Maybe.”

“There’s no maybe about it.”

Dominque leaned in, his hand now sliding with slow determination towards its goal—Jacob’s cock now stiffly standing upright under the table, the heavy tartan doing nothing to stop it, and leaving Jacob breathless and blushing for the first time in his life. He kissed Jacob, chaste and quite obviously not in keeping with the rampant need building inside them both, then he whispered against his throat, “I want to take this hard cock in my mouth and feel you cum over my tongue.”

“Not now,” Jacob rushed out through gritted teeth. “Later.” He took hold of Dominque’s hand and gave it a squeeze as he laid it on his knee. “So,” Jacob breathed out, looking to Krane and his mum, hoping actually looking at her would quickly dampen his desire. “Are we eating at some point soon? I'm starving.”

“That’s your own fault for missing breakfast.” His mum shot him a hard look. “This one looked worn out too.” She pointed to Dominque. “You both need an early night, and I mean one where you actually
sleep
.” The steely gaze made them both stiffen. “You can't go back to work after a week of no rest, Jacob. You have patients to think about.”

“You don’t have to remind me of
my
responsibilities. They’re never far from my thoughts,” Jacob bristled. There were some things he never stopped thinking about, and his job was one of them. Though he’d been happy to have it further from his mind, it was still there. “I have time at home before I resume my full rota at the hospital. I’ll bear in mind your suggestion.”

Before she could start on him again, one of the bridesmaids appeared, looking hesitantly down at her. “Erm, I'm sorry, Mrs Buchanan, but Helen needs you for the photographer. They’re handing over the gifts to you and Shaun’s mother, and they wanted to take pictures.”

“Do they now.” She cast a sly look at Dominque who chuckled as she stood. “I guess if
she’s
going, so will I. No doubt
she’s
been running here there and everywhere with them two, poking her stuck up nose where it’s not needed. Silly cow.” His mum didn’t get along with Helen’s new mother-in-law to say the least. “I’ll be back soon.” She leaned down and kissed Jacob on the cheek, something she rarely did in way of goodbye. “Speak to Krane. Something’s up and Melanie isn’t anywhere to be seen.”

“Right.” Jacob sipped his champagne waiting all of two seconds after she’d left before he scowled at Krane sitting across the table. “What’s happened?”

Krane refused to look at him, instead drinking the rest of his pint and watching their mum slowly make her way across the room. “Things came to a head last night and we both said things we shouldn’t have, or perhaps
should
have said a long time ago. She stayed for the ceremony, but that was all. She didn’t want to cause a fuss, and neither did I, so she packed last night and took off while the pictures were being taken.”

Jacob had noticed she hadn't been there, but as there were so much going on and several different groups, he thought she’d been hanging around somewhere. “If it’s any consolation, I think it’s a good thing. You were going to end the marriage anyway. Whether it happened now or in a few months’ time is irrelevant. It seems poignant for it to happen on Helen’s wedding day in a way. A start of a new life for her and for you. For Melanie too. See this as a good thing and move on with your life.”

Krane eventually shot him a hard glare, brows furrowed and his lips in a thin line. “I don’t think you realise how momentous this is for me. It’s a huge change.”

“Yes, but one you both need, and due to the fact you're both terrified of change, you’ve clung on desperately to a life neither of you are happy with nor desire. You're both prisoners of your own hesitancy. Move on. She’s taken the step which you’ve failed to. Enjoy this moment and stop mourning your wasted years. Think of the good ones waiting for you. Deal with it now and don’t put off living any longer. There’s more to a relationship than being comfortable and secure. That’s no life to lead.”

“Jacob.” Dominque took his hand and shook his head softly. “Please.”

He sighed heavily, running his hand through his hair. “Fine! But every word I meant.”

Krane held a stony gaze with Jacob. “You think I'm a coward, don’t you?”

“No,” Jacob said slowly, knowing this could lead to a full scale shouting match with his rowdy brother. “You made a decision and stood by it. That shows conviction and determination. It also shows stupidity and selfishness, but either way, I don’t think you’re a coward.”

Krane stood up, leaning his big palms on the table and getting nose to nose with Jacob. “There’s a reason you don’t have many friends. This is it.”

“I speak my mind and tell it like it is. If you don’t like my honesty, then don’t ask for my opinion. I don’t sugar coat my answers. You know this and yet you expected me to act otherwise. I never expect
you
to be anything other than yourself. Perhaps if people gave
me
the same privilege, things would be a little easier for all of us.”

Krane huffed as he moved away, standing tall and looking out at the gardens through the patio doors.

Dominque moved from Jacob and touched one of Krane’s big biceps stretching the white cotton of his dress shirt, gaining a tilt of the head. “He just wants you to be happy, and I think from the sounds of it, you haven’t been for a long time. He doesn’t want you to spend more years looking back and regretting what could have been. I know this is difficult, but both Jacob and I have been through at least some part of what you are going through now, albeit when we were teenagers, but we understand and we’re here for you anytime you need us.” He reached up and hung his arms around Krane’s neck.

A spike of steel ran up Jacob’s spine, further cementing the fact he couldn’t live with the thought of Dominque being with other men and calming himself with the knowledge Dominque had finished his role as an escort.

Krane looked right into Jacob’s eyes as he wrapped both his arms around Dominque’s waist and hugged him back. “See that? Now
that’s
supportive.”

“I said
basically
the same thing he did, just worded in my own way. It’s not my fault you failed to understand.”

“No.” Krane smiled softly at him.

“Huh,” Jacob mused quietly as Dominque stepped back and gave him a little smile. Jacob offered him a hand, watching as Dominque slid his soft skin against Jacob’s. “I care for your happiness as I do my own, Krane. It bothers me greatly you haven’t been able to find happiness in your life, but I'm hopeful you’ll now know what to search for and find it. Just as I have done.” He looked to Dominque taking a seat beside him. “I've never been happier, and I want that for you.”

Krane rolled his big shoulders, adjusting his kilt before sitting down again. “I'm happy for you both, and I won't waste more of my life living a lie.”

“Then here’s to you. To a new beginning.” Jacob raised his glass with a smile. “Congratulations.”

As they drank, the soft piano music faded and a set of trumpets blared out from the balcony above them, announcing the arrival of the happy couple—both mothers in tow behind them. The room exploded into cheers and clapping which they joined in with. Jacob was truly happy for his sister, and seeing her and Shaun so in love made him happier still.

He’d always looked with scorn at this sort of display of love, but now he had Dominque, he understood what it was like to adore someone so much, and he let his inner soppiness out, a tear appearing in the corner of his eye. A tear he tried to hold back and cursed before it fell.

He sighed heavily when Dominque spotted his emotional state and leaned in, kissing his cheek. “This is all your fault, Mr Day.”

Dominque chuckled as he brushed those full lips over his. “And I couldn’t be happier about it. So… when do I get to sneak my head up this kilt and suck you off?”

Jacob coughed out a laugh and shook his head. “After the meal. I was thinking while everyone is dancing, you and I can slip off somewhere. Not too far away. I want them close by when I watch you sink to your knees and take my cock in those pretty lips.”