Page 116 of The Blame Game

“No, I need a little time to think. And it would be better if we didn’t have to go through all that again,” Dom said slowly. “Things are already complicated enough.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Something had gone terribly wrong the last time he and Dom had sex and Shea didn’t know what the fuck it was.

Everything had felt good and right and like they were getting closer and then Dom had … gotten weird.

Was it the intimacy of what they’d done? It didn’t quite feel like it.

Mostly Dom had seemed confused by the fact that Shea wasn’t gay. Had appeared upset by it, even.

Or was it simply the reminder that this relationship was transactional?

In all of the years Dom had been his client, Shea had never felt judged by Dom for being an escort before, so why now? Was it the timing? Was it something else?

Or maybe he was the one making it weird. Shea had no idea.

He knew they needed to talk but he wasn’t sure what to say or how to explain it. It wasn’t like he could tell Dom he was in love with him.

That he wanted more.

So they’d both been a little quiet this week.

Dom had updated him on his testing and the plans for the charity event he was taking Audra to this weekend. They’d talked hockey and, on the surface, it had all seemed fairly normal.

But although Shea had responded, he hadn’t gone out of his way to start conversations the way he might have before the trip to London.

And now Shea was going to have to face Dom when he came to pick up Audra any moment and fuck, he should have put more effort in than the holey T-shirt and sweats he wore. He touched his hair, feeling the weird, fluffy cowlicks from where it had been left to dry naturally.

Shit, yeah, he should do something about that. Or put on a shirt that wasn’t stained with spaghetti sauce. So much for making sure his clients never saw a crack in the fantasy.

Only, he and Dom had hurtled past that one a long time ago, hadn’t they?

“Well, how do I look, darling?”

Shea glanced up to see Audra strike a vampy pose as she walked into the living room wearing a slinky dark green cocktail dress that shimmered in the light. “Uhh, you look nice.”

“Nice?” She scowled. “I look better than nice.”

“Sorry.” Shea sat up, shaking his head and hoping to dispel the weird fog he’d been in all week. “No, you look amazing.”

The charity gala tonight was 1920s themed and Audra had found an incredible beaded and sequined dress that was a nod to the flapper era. It was deep green at the top and gradually faded into a bronze mermaid hemline.

The color set off her creamy skin and the auburn hair that tumbled over her shoulders in beautiful curls.

She’d look stunning on Dom’s arm tonight.

She nudged him with the toe of her bronze heel. “What’s up with you? Why are you in a funk?”

“I think I fucked up somehow,” Shea admitted. “You know how he came over last weekend?”

She nodded. “I was surprised he didn’t spend the night.”

“Well, that’s when it started. He’s been weird since then.”

Audra perched on the arm of the sofa as she rooted through her large black leather Dior handbag that she used daily, pulling things out and putting them in a little evening clutch. “He’s always weird.”

“True. But I’m used to his weird. This was … I don’t know. I told him I came out to my dad and he got very strange about it. Apparently, he assumed I was gay and got all weirded out about the whole gay-for-pay thing.”

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