“Can’t you take some time off? At least until we have this resolved. I don’t think I can live with you out of my sight.”
I blushed at Dom’s words, avoiding Morgan’s eyes in embarrassment. “Yes, well…what will I tell them?”
“Do you have any cumulated leave days? Personal days?” Dom asked.
“Oh, I know you do. You never take time off,” Morgan interjected before I could answer.
“Yes, but-”
Dom shook his head, “No buts, Nico. You’re not going into work until we have this resolved. Tell them the disappointment of not winning the grant was too much for you. Whatever you have to say.”
I sighed in resignation. “Fine. I’ll call my supervisor. But she’s gonna think I’m pulling some kind of diva fit.”
“You’re entitled. Pretty sure that Danna girl pulls diva fits daily.” He clenched his jaw in obvious annoyance. I smiled, knowing that he was actually right.
“Okay. I’ll call. Can I borrow your phone? I don’t have mine.”
He dug the phone from his pocket and handed it to me. I went into the bedroom to make the call, leaving them to plot and plan behind me. My supervisor was surprisingly chill about my sudden need to take leave. I thanked her and hung up before sending Jacinda a text telling her I wouldn’t be in for a few days and I didn’t have a phone. Luckily, my contacts were saved on a cloud and I could access her number.
She texted back to say she completely understood, which kind of choked me up for some reason. The tears seemed so close to the surface all of a sudden. It was disconcerting. I’m not a crier.
I walked back to the living room and heard Dom and Morgan discussing beating Roman Alexander to a pulp. That made me smile and I left them to it as I went to the kitchen to fill my coffee cup.
Morgan left after breakfast, but we stayed at the cottage. Dom was on his phone all morning, first with his lawyer, discussing legal avenues to pursue and then with other people, having long, whispered conversations, probably about me.
I busied myself with Netflix and food, waiting for him to finish. It gave me too much time to think, mostly about our night together and how intense it had been. I was ready to acknowledge that whatever feelings I had for Dom, they were strong.
He finally hung up the phone and came to sit by me with a tired sigh, peering at my bowl of ice cream. “What you eatin’?”
I huffed a laugh. “Ice cream. And no, you can’t have some. Get your own.”
He gave me a wounded glance. “I just saved you from the bad bikers and you can’t share your ice cream with me?”
I gave him an incredulous look. “First of all, buddy, I rescued myself. You just gave me a lift outta there. Second of all, there’s plenty more in the fridge.”
“So not the point,” he mumbled sulkily but got up to get his own ice cream.
Once he came back, I turned to face him, wanting to hear what had transpired and what was going to happen next.
“So I spoke to a few of my friends, you know, the kind who like to talk. I complained loudly about what had happened with Roman. Him hiring a bunch of bikers to kidnap my wife.”
“And how does that help anything?”
“Well, I happen to know that at least three of the people I spoke to have access to board members on Tech Dyne. I’m pretty sure word will have reached the entire board by close of business today.”
“Thus disqualifying him.”
“Hopefully.”
I sighed as I scooped more ice cream into my mouth. “Well…at least this has worked out to your advantage.”
He shook his head, looking thoughtful. “No, it really hasn’t. Do you think that I wanted this? That I wanted you in any danger because of me? No. It’s not just board members I’ve been speaking to.”
I put the bowl down and turned to him, feeling like his next words were going to be very important. “Who else have you been talking to?”
“The Lost Boys. They have their own ways of getting revenge.”
“And you want to use them? Are you crazy? You’ll lose the CEO position for sure if you do that.”
Dom stayed silent, looking off into the middle distance. “You know, last week if you’d asked me those same questions, I’d have said ‘of course I’m not crazy enough to risk my chances…’”
“But…today?”
“Today, I don’t give a damn. I just want him to pay.”
“If it means anything, it’s not like I was hurt. Just really scared.”
“That’s because Rooster wasn’t dumb enough to risk doing anything that might make me destroy his ass.”
“Why did he do it in the first place?”
He gave me a sideways glance. “Why do you think? Money.”
I straightened up, staring at him. “That’s it!”
“What is it?”
“We follow the money. If Roman paid Rooster to kidnap me or whatever, there should be a money trail, right?”
Dom sighed, leaning back on the sofa. “Yeah, but he paid cash.”
I deflated too. “Damn.”
“Yeah.”
We both sighed, and then looked at each other and smiled. Soon we were laughing again, for no reason. Once we stopped, still eyeballing each other, the sexual tension built between us until it could be cut with a knife. I don’t know who lunged first, but soon we were kissing and clawing at each other like a couple of hungry hyenas.
It wasn’t long before we were attacking each other’s clothes like they were personal enemies, trying to touch every bit of skin we could. There was nothing tender in our actions. It was desperate and wanting, fast and hard. The whole thing was a blur in my mind actually – just a kaleidoscope of emotion radiating every which way in uninhibited passion.
I felt quite battered as we lay on the floor afterwards, panting hard – battered but complete.
I rolled over to lay my head on Dom’s shoulder. “Perhaps we’ll leave Mr. Alexander’s fate to Karma.”
He looked back at me and shook
