Page 114 of The Laughing Game

Vihaal gave a small nod. “So disgusting. And very perverted.”

Dominic threw me a look and I glared back. Gideon snorted with derision. Vihaal was a thousand times the man Dominic was, and so was Gideon.

And, maybe I was, too.

“You’re a fucking head case, Vihaal. I hope your father disowns you and stops giving you money.”

“My father hasn’t given me anything except a headache for the past ten years. And the headache’s name is Dominic.”

“Nice,” Dominic commented, grabbing his briefcase.

“I need your laptop and all your passwords, Dominic.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” He opened the briefcase and handed his work laptop to Alice. We waited while he wrote down the passwords with an angry scrawl, then grabbed an umbrella, a pair of gloves and his jacket.

“Am I okay to take this stuff, or are you going to confiscate them, too?”

“We’ll escort you out,” Vihaal stated.

“Fucking fine. Whatever,” Dominic spat.

Alice looked shocked but not overly upset as Dominic strode past her.

“Alice, when we come back, we need to have a chat in the office. You might as well take a seat.”

“Okay,” she said, looking alarmed, but Gideon smiled at her and gave her a thumbs-up.

We followed Vihaal and Dominic through the main part of the store. Soresh watched with curiosity as Dominic carried his things out of the door, and Vihaal closed it behind him.

“We’ll need to change the locks,” Vihaal muttered.

“Good idea,” Gideon agreed.

“And cancel his security code.”

“Alice will know what to do and who to contact,” Gideon said.

“Yes. I’m going to ask if she wants to be Manager. I’m certainly hoping she does.”

“We’ll just hang here,” Gideon said. “You did amazing. It was so satisfying to watch. I almost came in my pants.”

A laugh burst out of me at Gideon’s comment and Vihaal smiled.

“It was satisfying to do it. You have good instincts, Gideon.”

“Yes. You need to remember that,” Gideon said with an arched eyebrow.

Vihaal’s smile broadened into a relieved, triumphant one.

“I’ll do my best, from now on.”

He tugged Gideon close and kissed him hard on the mouth, then pulled back.

“Do you know how much I owe you, my love, for…everything that you give to me, that you do for me? And you,” he said, grabbing me into the hug. “Where on Earth did you come from and how did you end up with us?”

“Um, that was me,” Gideon said, smugly. “Again. See?”

I held on to them both, not worried about Soresh seeing us, because it was who we were, and what we wanted. And this was Vihaal’s store, and he was everything.

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