Chapter Eighteen
Maria
“Why can’t you answer your phone?” Allie asked, not even bothering with pleasantries. Why, hello, Allie, nice to see you, too. Love the snakeskin yoga pants. “You should always answer your phone. You never know what someone is calling to say.” Honestly, it reminded me of when Jade had showed up on my door. Man, if Jade and Allie weren’t alike then I didn’t know what was.
“I was busy.” Trying out my new toy with Dom. Honestly, I didn’t even know the phone was ringing because I had left it down here when I’d raced Dom to the bedroom. Now that I thought about it, that probably wasn’t the wisest idea. On the bright side, nothing happened with Isabella, which was one of the only reasons I kept the phone glued to me.
Allie didn’t need to know all of that, though, so I decided to be nonchalant so I wouldn’t give myself away. I unscrewed the cap on the water bottle and took a swig of it. That was right, I could be chill. One thing I’d learned from keeping this secret for as long as we had—if we acted like nothing nefarious was going on, then no one would suspect a thing. More importantly, Allie wouldn’t suspect anything currently.
Closing the gap between us and coming to stand opposite of me around the kitchen counter, Allie shrugged. “You know, I just left Dad’s and I decided something today. I think I might be Dad’s favorite after all.”
I felt the deep V my brows formed and knew it was really the only acceptable reaction. “Have I missed something? Bibi is Dad’s favorite.”
Allie waved a hand in the air. “Yes, but how sure are we about that?”
“I’d bet my life on it.”
Laughing, she said, “Fine, but you know for a second there when she started dating Knox, even though Dad forbade it, I really thought that would change.” She shrugged. “Oh, well. I’m Brady’s favorite, and that’s all that matters.”
I cringed, remembering the last time I was in a room with Allie, Brady, and my beautiful niece. “I think that might’ve changed.”
“Excuse me?” She feigned insult, placing a hand on her chest and gasping like what I’d said was actual news to her. Then she got serious, dropping her hand and narrowing her eyes. “Stupid me had to get pregnant and give him an adorable baby girl that bumped me from the top spot.”
“The fact that you knew what I was talking about says it all.” I laughed.
She rolled her eyes. “It’s her dimples, isn’t it? Brady and I don’t know where those came from. They don’t run in our family, and Brady doesn’t have them. Must be someone on his side, and he just forgot.” She exhaled. “Anyway, where’s Dom? His car’s outside.” Damn that car. This would be the second time it was going to get us in trouble.
I looked around stupidly. “Uhh… he’s not here. Just his car. He left it here.”
“Oh, why?”
“I don’t know. He had some reason, but I wasn’t listening.” Oooh, that made me sound like a bitch, didn’t it? At least it didn’t make it sound like I just came all over a toy while he sat there and watched.
Pouting, Allie looked at me. “What’s the deal with you lately?” I’ve been screwing my best friend more frequently because we were both very horny. Oh, and I had my first orgasm.
I turned my gaze to my water bottle. “My deal?” Play it off like she was so off base it was ridiculous. Yeah, that sounded like it might work.
Allie heaved the biggest sigh. “You’re quite possibly one of the most difficult people to nail down. And you’re acting weird. Like something’s up.”
Was I? I didn’t think I was. To start, I recently went to the nail salon with Isabella, Perla, and Bianca—that made me accessible. So there you go, point proven. Although, that didn’t stop my mind from racing to Dom and all the times we were. . . otherwise occupied. My cheeks burned and I knew they were turning fifty shades of red. Damn it. I was blushing a lot. Way to give yourself away, Maria. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And I’m not that hard to—”
Allie didn’t even let me finish my thought. She gasped loudly and pointed an accusatory finger in my face. “Ohmigod! You’re hard to nail down because someone is nailing you down!” she shouted, feeling mighty pleased with herself right about now based on the ridiculously wide smile on her face. It practically went from ear to ear. “It’s all over your face,” she said, eyeing me closely.
“Don’t give me the up-down!” I returned, giving it right back to her, my eyes going from her feet to her face. “Doesn’t feel so good, does it?”
But Allie didn’t seem to care one way or the other. She only shook her head. “You’re totally having sex and, like, a lot of it.”
Geez, what is she, the sex police?
When I didn’t answer, she continued, waggling her brows and dancing around in a circle, swaying her ass. Glad she was enjoying this. “I’m right, I’m right, I’m right,” she chanted in a sing-song voice that had me rolling my eyes.
“Yes, Allie, fine, I’m having sex.” The good news? She hadn’t a clue who it was with. That was all that really mattered, right? The cat wasn’t out of the bag. It was still securely in the bag. All right, that sounded weird, but you got me.
“Oooh! I knew it! With who?”
With who? With who? All right, echoing the question multiple times wasn’t helping matters. Why hadn’t I expected her to ask that question once she had confirmation? Of course she’d ask. This was Allie we were talking about. I mentally slapped my forehead and tried to think on my feet. “You don’t know him,” I lied. Actually, that technically wasn’t a lie because the Dom that came to life in the bedroom was. . . a beast.
Suddenly, there was a creak and the undeniable sound of footsteps filled the silence as Dom no doubt descended the stairs. You have got to be kidding me.
“Come on, we should get going,” I said, placing my hands on her shoulders and trying to steer her out of the house.
She wasn’t having that, though, staring down at my hands and giving me a cock-eyed look. “I thought you said no one was here. Why are you acting all cagey?”
“We should go,” I tried again, walking around and trying to push Allie in the direction of the door. “We’re going to be late.” While Allie didn’t mind being late to most things, she didn’t like being late to yoga. She said it messed with other people’s zen, and she didn’t want to do that.
Shaking me off, Allie looked at me. “Screw yoga. I honestly wasn’t in the mood to go today anyway, so I don’t care if we go or not. Let’s blow it off.”
“No. We should go.” Anywhere as long as it meant leaving this house.
“Wait! Is the man you’re sleeping with here? Now? ” She stopped and blinked when she saw Dom. “Dom?” Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline, and she crossed her arms.
“Allie,” Dom said, looking from her to me and wetting his lips.
We were pretty decent at reading each other’s body language by now, so let me catch you up on what we were saying without actually saying a word:
Dom: “What the hell? I thought you two were gone.”
Me: “You couldn’t wait a few more minutes, so we could’ve been?”
Dom: “Sorry. Maybe she won’t figure it out.”
Me: “This is Allie we’re talking about!”
I cleared my throat and angled my body toward the door. “We can go somewhere else. You know, you might be right. Maybe we’re not spending enough time together.” I couldn’t remember whether she’d said those exact words or not, but I was going with it just the same.
She narrowed her eyes like she was trying to piece together a puzzle. Please tell me she wasn’t putting the pieces together successfully because that would mean two people knew. Two people! “He didn’t leave his car here,” she practically shouted, ignoring me. She turned her attention toward him, her body language signaling that she was indeed putting the pieces together as she pursed her lips and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
Dom tucked his hands in his pockets. “Nope. I did. Now I’m picking it up.”
Allie gasped that horrendous gasp again—seriously, it was going to be in my nightmares—and jumped up, her eyes fleeting from Dom to me and back again. “Holy crap! You two are lying. You two are—” She let out a shriek, and I placed my hands over my ears. “Ewww, but also ahhh!”
I glanced at Dom and shrugged. What was I going to do?
She touched her chin. “You two are sleeping together.” Then she turned to me. “He’s the one who’s nailing you down.”
Dom coughed, trying to hide his shock. “What?” he questioned, cocking a brow.
I shook my head, shutting my eyes briefly to really drive my point home. “You don’t want to know.”
“You’re not denying it,” she directed at me. “So, it’s true then?”
I placed my tongue in my cheek and nodded. “If I said no, would you believe me?”
“Nope!” she yelled. “I knew there was something different about you because you have that freshly fucked look.”
Told you she’d know when I had that. “Is there really a look for that, though? Or is that just something people say?”
“Hell yeah there is, and you, Maria, have it.” She wiggled a finger in front of my face, like that could prove something.
“You have to keep this information to yourself,” Dom said, and if I could’ve kissed him right there, I would’ve.
“Oh, come on! No. You can’t ask me to do that. Why aren’t you telling everyone? What’s the big secret? I mean, it’s a little weird because you’re like a brother to me, so gross, but also we’ve seen this coming for a long time.”
Shaking my head, I rushed to explain. “We’re not dating.”
Allie shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“We’re not a couple,” I said, trying again.
“Then what the hell are you?” Allie asked, her brows furrowed in confusion.
“Friends with benefits,” Dom supplied, something sounding off in his voice. I didn’t have a chance to think too much about that, though, because Allie peered at me, a look of disappointment written all over her face, and that got to me most.
And that was just one reason why I hadn’t wanted my family to find out. They had their own ideas about me and Dom.
“When did this happen?” Allie questioned, her eyes darting from me to Dom.
I crossed my arms. “Vito’s wedding.”
She blinked. “That was—” It looked like she was digging in her brain, searching for a timeline. “Around three years ago.”
“Yep,” Dom replied, his blank expression unchanging.
Disappointment morphed into surprise quickly with Dom’s confirmation. The shocked look on Allie’s face said it all—her eyes looked like they were going to bulge out of her head, and her lips were slightly parted as she tried her best not to let her mouth hang open and hit the floor—but if that wasn’t enough, she added, “What. The. Actual. Fuck.”