Page 7 of Boss Level

It sounded like a painful front to me.

“We’re newly engaged. We probably need to sell theI love you so much the rest of the world doesn’t exist.” Judith leaned into Dominic, head on his shoulder and dopey expression on her face.

He kissed her on the forehead. “I’m sure we can manage.”

I clenched my fist under the table. “Maybe you’re marrying for money. These people should be into that.”

“Technically, that’s absolutely what we’re doing.” Judith straightened up again. “But I don’t think we want to tell them that.”

Percy returned with a bottle of champagne on ice, and three fluted glasses. He made a proper show of popping the cork, and topping all of us off. I’d have been more grateful for the presentation if I was as happy about this as I pretended to be.

“Do you all know what you want?” Percy asked.

“We’ll both have the scallop and chicken special.” The instant I said the words, I knew I’d fucked up. I was so used to ordering for both Dom and I… “I mean, that’s what I’ll have.”

“Same for me,” Dominic said.

Judith shrugged. “Make that three.”

Some habits were going to be harder to break than others, but Percy either didn’t notice or was too well trained to say anything. He asked if we needed anything else, and was on his way again.

But speaking of expectations, “You know they’ll expect Judith to be prim and proper and reserved. A timid little housewife.”

Judith snorted in disbelief, and Dominic failed to hide his smirk behind his water glass.

“Yeah, that’s not going to work for me,” Judith said.

Dom set his drink down. “You can’t tell them you make a smutty game for a living.” His words were almost apologetic.

The way Judith bristled, it didn’t matter. “I get that.” An edge crept into her voice.

I might not want to see them together, but I also didn’t want them to fight. They both needed to be in my life when this was over. “As long as you get your stories straight”—I suppressed a cough—“and agree what topics you’ll steer away from when possible, you’ll be great. The two of you already know each other, so that won’t be a problem. For instance, where did you meet?”

“Here.” Dom gestured. “A friend introduced us seven years ago.”

This was our story, and I didn’t know how I felt about that.

“The sparks were there from the start.” Judith picked up the tale without pause.

Dominic nodded. “I couldn’t stop thinking about her after that first night.”

“Could’ve fooled me. I thought for sure he was more interested in my friend who was with us,” Judith said.

“But I had to call her.”

No. I didn’t like this at all. Not the way Judith got to play two parts in this twisted version of my past, and not the way she and Dominic slid so easily into writing me out of the story. The voice growlingminein my skull nearly drowned out my thoughts. “Her friend, huh? That must’ve been awkward.”

“Not as much as you’d think.” Judith was so cool and casual, as if this was really about her. “She realized the chemistry wasn’t there, making room for me.”

This was a mindfuck.

Dom cupped her cheek and gazed into her eyes. “The rest is history. I could go on forever about my Judy.”

Mistake. Only I could call her Judy and not piss her off. Like that I felt better.

Before he could brush his lips over hers, Judith had her hand on his chest and was pushing him back. “Call me anything but that.” Her tone was flat.

“J-bird?” Dominic asked.

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