Page 26 of Beneath the Blindfold

Dominic had a strange half-smile on his face.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Running here and back just to say hello. Your parents don’t get it, but your brother does.”

“Yeah,” I said.Who would have thought?

The premium leather of my driver’s seat was buttery soft. I’d narrowly avoided reunion tears when I’d picked my car up from Logan’s place. Well,technically,our place. Evie and Logan would move out in mid-December so Dominic and I could move in when we returned from Japan.

I felt bad about kicking them out, but only for thirty seconds. The view was to die for, and Logan had known this day was coming since leasing the place from his friend.

“It looks different in the daylight,” Dominic said, gesturing to the blindfold club entrance. He wasn’t wrong. The black door looked smaller, and the wear on the façade seemed greater in the harsh light.

“Yeah, this place is way less sexy during the day.” A fact I’d discovered the first time Joseph had asked me to fill in for him. I hadn’t a clue why Joseph wanted to meet here now, but since the club was a good twenty-minute drive from our hotel, and I had my hands on my Jaguar F-Type, it was fine with me.

“Any chance you’d let me drive the car back to the hotel when we leave?” Dominic’s hopeful expression wasn’t enough to pry my grip from the steering wheel.

He hadn’t driven a car in almost two years. “No way, get your own.”

“Half of this car will be mine when we’re married.”

I shut off the engine and let my expression go serious. “Yeah, the passenger half.”

We hurried across the street and through the front door that Joseph left unlocked for us. It was dark except for the security lights as we strolled through the bar and down the hallway of doors. The silence and poor lighting further detracted from the sex appeal.

To the left were the holding lounges, and to the right were the client rooms. I’d met Dominic in Room One. A smile warmed on my lips as we passed the door decorated with the brass six, the room where Dominic asked me to be his wife.

“Joseph?” I called, leading Dominic upstairs.

“In here.”

Not in his office, but across the hall in the large dressing room. He stood by the bar lining the far wall, his back turned to us. His suit jacket was cast aside on a chair, and as he poured himself a glass of whiskey, I could see his sleeves had been rolled back. This was as close to casual as Joseph got.

“Hey.”

My voice forced him to turn. He probably appeared composed and maintained to Dominic, but like the last time I’d seen Joseph, there were faint edges around his eyes. He looked . . . weary. Not that I’d say that to him. Joseph was all about power, and he’d view it as weakness.

He smiled. “You got him to agree to come.”

“Of course,” I said. “My boy-toy does whatever I tell him to.”

The snap on my hip was sharp and biting. Dull pain lingered on my tattoo, so I glared up at the blue eyes watching me. “Okay, ow.”

Dominic looked smug. “Watch it.”

“You watch it,” I echoed back like a four-year-old.

Joseph carried his drink in one hand and strode toward us, pretending he hadn’t just witnessed the immature exchange. “Dominic,” he said. “I’m Joseph Monsato.”

“I remember.” My fiancé’s words were tight. “Everything about that night was pretty hard to forget. You know, except for those ten minutes after the bouncer’s right hook.”

They’d met face to face in the front lounge when Dominic first arrived at the club almost a year ago. It was protocol with walk-ins, plus Joseph liked to evaluate potential clients to match them with the right girl. That meeting had been fine, according to Dominic, but the way he’d left the club was still a sore subject. He’d spent the whole night trying to find me, his head throbbing with a black eye, all because of Joseph.

“I’m sorry about what happened,” Joseph said, his expression genuine. “I didn’t handle it well when Payton said she wanted to leave. Your fiancé was a big part of this place, and also my friend, and . . . I wasn’t sure how the fuck I was going to get on without her.”

Joseph didn’t mean it sexually, of that I was sure. Yet his admission made my breath stall in my lungs. When I’d left the club, I hadn’t just quit, I’d effectively abandoned Joseph. I was at a loss for words, which had to be a fucking first.

“It was good, though,” Joseph continued. “For me, and most definitely for her.”

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