So what was Dom so scared of? That the others would judge him? The reckless part of Jesse grabbed his tongue and said, To hell with this. “Pretty open-minded of them. Unlike Dom, who seems to really like—”
“We’re getting distracted,” Dom said sharply.
—putting his tongue on my body. Jesse didn’t finish his sentence, but Dom didn’t need him to.
Dom glared. “Jesse, if you could stop speculating about me—”
Yeah, he’d gotten Dom’s attention, front and center. And Dom was looking straight at him, those eyes narrowed, flashing dangerously. A thrill shot down Jesse’s spine. “Just stating a fact,” Jesse retorted. “If you didn’t keep shoving your—”
—dick against mine, and pretending you didn’t, I wouldn’t have to talk about it in front of everyone else.
“Gareth, if you could join us in fifteen seconds, that’ll be great,” Dom snapped. “Alec, with me. I’m not spending more time here.” In a kinder tone, he added, “Welcome to the family, Flores.”
Dom spun around and strode off. Alec’s eyebrows crawled up. “What was that about?” Alec whispered.
Jesse shrugged, ignoring the prickle of heat on his neck. Alec left to follow Dom. Gareth looked too shrewdly at Jesse—it felt like he knew. “Things okay between you and Dom, Jes?”
Jesse shrugged. That would depend on what Gareth meant by ‘okay’. “I guess.”
“You mean, you’re together?” Flores asked. “Like, boyfriends?”
“What?” Why would he even think that? Jesse grimaced. Dom and him? Boyfriends? “No.”
But what would that feel like? If Dom actually put his arm around Jesse like Gareth did with his omega? If he didn’t actually mind... touching Jesse? For a long time?
Jesse’s skin prickled with curiosity, and something else he didn’t want to put a name to.
In a roundabout way, Dom had welcomed him to the team. He’d not mentioned the beads on Jesse’s skin anymore, or even said a word about Jesse’s past. When they were on duty, he treated Jesse just like everyone else.
So why did Jesse’s stomach flip whenever he saw Dom? Why did he feel that urge to make Dom look at him? Why did he—whenever Dom was nearby—want to step closer, just to feel the heat rippling off Dom’s skin?
His mind clouded with too many thoughts, Jesse strode off in the opposite direction, needing to put some distance between Dom and himself.
11
Dom is In Deep
“So, about Jesse,” Gareth said slyly.
Dom was sorely tempted to chuck his wrench at Gareth. “What about him?”
“Nothing.” Gareth leaned against the truck, where Dom was inspecting the fan belt system. “Harris told me a few interesting things.”
Fuck. Dom closed his eyes, unease creeping through his limbs. Harris, what the hell did you say? “Is there something I should know?”
“He mentioned you were fighting.” Gareth sipped from his mug. “After one of the bar nights.”
Harris, you fucker. Dom bit down his swearing, trying to suppress the heat that threatened to swallow his face. “You’re the nosiest damn person I’ve ever met, Gareth. Worse than an omega.”
Gareth’s smile grew. “That only means you’ve got something to hide.”
“Go back to your duties,” Dom muttered.
“I will, but after I’ve gotten to the bottom of this.” Gareth glanced around the garage, then inched closer to Dom so he could drop his voice. “Have you fucked?”
“What the hell,” Dom spluttered.
Gareth kicked Dom’s shoe. “The sooner I’m caught up, the sooner I’ll get back to work, deputy.”
“Fuck off,” Dom hissed.
“I’ve been putting it off for weeks. So it’s about time you spilled, damn it.” Gareth kicked him again. “What the hell’s going on with you two?”
“Nothing.”
“That fight at the grocery store ain’t nothing. Sounded like there was some miscommunication to me. About... ‘shoving’.” Gareth raised his eyebrows.
Dom straightened, the wrench feeling like a pretty solid threat in his palm. Yeah, he’d fucked up. Had Harris mentioned that, too? “It was just once. A few months back.”
“Oh?” Gareth searched out Sinclair, who was on the other end of the garage, washing down a truck. “You told him it was a one-off thing? ‘Cuz he seems to think otherwise.”
Dom followed his gaze, finding Sinclair with half his shirt wet, the fabric clinging to his pecs. It looked good on him. Better than it had any right to be. Dom wondered if Sinclair would peel his shirt off today, but that alpha rarely did.
As though he felt Dom’s attention, Sinclair looked up. Their eyes met, and exhilaration sizzled down to Dom’s toes.
Gareth snorted. “Actually, no. This is far from over, isn’t it?”
Dom yanked his stare back to the truck’s engine. “There’s nothing going on in the first place.”
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” Gareth coughed discreetly. “You look like you’re one second from turning into a beast and ravaging him.”
Well, Gareth wasn’t wrong about that. Dom had been aching to—that bar night, when Sinclair had dared to grab Dom. That afternoon in the truck, when Sinclair’s lips had been just a whisper away from his own. He’d wanted to taste that man. To hear him groan again.
There were a great many things Dom wanted to do to Jesse Sinclair, and none of them was a good idea.
“You know about his past?” Dom asked.
Gareth sent him a look. “You think? Have you talked to Nate about him? Because I think you’re the only one who hasn’t.”
That had alarm bells ringing in Dom’s mind. Bad enough that he knew a little about Sinclair’s past. Bad enough that he’d been imagining that alpha tied down in some dark room, being given injections and who the hell knew what else.
Deep down, Dom had figured that the multitude of scars on Sinclair’s body hadn’t all been self-inflicted. But to know that he’d wanted none of them, to know that an alpha like that had been tied down against his will—it made a savage voice in him snarl, Don’t let any more harm come to him.
That was more emotional than Dom allowed himself to be.
Then, he had wondered about the sort of person who had suffered so badly, and who still kept his head up. The
