The Dom’s Forever
The Pleasure Wars | Part Three
Harper West
Edited by Red Axe Editing
Copyright © 2020 by Harper West
All rights reserved.
This book is intended for readers 18+
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
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Chapter 1
Killian
She was late.
I double checked the text messages we'd exchanged about meeting for dinner just in case, but I already knew she was late. Only by about fifteen minutes, but that was fifteen minutes that were unusual.
The way this usually went was I came in about five minutes late from whatever I was doing beforehand, and she gave me shit about wasting her time.
I wasn't used to being on the other side of it, sitting there with my menu and my glass of wine, waiting for her to show up.
The waitress kept eyeing me, and I wondered if she thought I'd been stood up and was waiting to make her move. She would look at me and then go whisper with her fellow servers before coming back to ask if I was sure I didn't need anything else. Either she was interested, or she was angling for a big tip, but I kept smiling politely at her and telling her I was fine and she didn't need to worry. My companion would be there soon.
'Companion' was a much less damning word than 'date,' and I was almost tempted to just go ahead and say 'wife' to get her to leave me alone, even though I wasn't sure how well that would work, judging by the way she was still looking at me like I was something she wanted to eat.
Every time the door opened, I lifted my head to look, willing it to be Ash so I didn't have to keep sitting there feeling awkward, but the first six or seven times it wasn't her. Families came in, other couples clearly at this steakhouse for dates, and even one or two people who were on their own, but no sign of the woman I was meant to be meeting.
I was just about to call her and make sure she hadn't died in a ditch somewhere when the door opened and she came in, looking around for me with a flustered look on her face.
She spoke to the hostess for a second and then was brought over to my table, much to the dismay of our waitress. I had half a mind to ask for another.
I waited for Ash to get settled and take off her jacket, hands folded on the table in front of me.
When she finally pushed her hair out of her face and glanced up at me, I made sure I was wearing my most placid expression.
"Is this the part where I give you grief for keeping me waiting?" I asked before reaching for my glass and taking a sip of the wine.
She made a face and sighed. "I'm sorry. I should have texted you when I was on the way."
"And yet," I said. "What held you up?"
Ash picked up her menu and busied herself looking at it, and I couldn't tell if she was actually that interested in what the offerings were or if she was trying to avoid looking at me while she answered my question.
There was a prickly feeling in my stomach at the thought of her trying to hide something from me, and I didn't like it one bit.
There was no honesty clause in the contract of our marriage, but at the same time, I'd thought we'd finally gotten to a point where we respected each other enough to not play games or hide the truth from each other. Maybe I was wrong, and it was just me.
I watched her until she finally licked her lips and answered.
"I just got held up at work. There was one of those customers who didn't want to leave even though we were closing, and I didn't want to leave Diane alone with him. She's new, and all."
I turned that over in my head. Ash had mentioned having a new co-worker, since one of her old ones had left to have a baby. She was partially in charge of training this new girl, so it would make sense for Ash to stick around and help her out.
"Alright," I said. "I'd appreciate a head’s up next time, though, if you'd be so kind. I was beginning to feel like shark bait here all alone."
She glanced up at that, frowning. "What do you mean?"
I jerked my head in the direction of the little gathering of waitresses who were standing by the doors to the kitchen, watching us, no doubt trying to figure out what the connection between the two of us was and if they needed to back off. Or spit in Ash's food.
When we glanced over, they hurried back to their tasks, but Ash figured it out quickly enough and rolled her eyes.
"You can't even go out to dinner without being swamped by admirers. How unfortunate to be you."
I laughed and shook my head. "It's not all bad. We'll probably get incredible service."
"You'll probably get incredible service. They're probably plotting how they can poison me and make it look like an accident."
"Fatalistic."
"Realistic," she shot back, giving me a little smile before she went back to the menu.
It was the usual dynamic between the two of us. Ash argued, I let her, it ended up being amusing more than irritating.
We'd been meeting for these dinners ever Friday since we'd gotten two months or so deep into our "marriage" as a way to check in with each other and spend time together in the
