Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Brian
As much as he wanted to curse Rae for shouting the truth to the world, he understood why she’d done it. It wasn’t like there was a whole lot of choice. He’d just hoped to tell the guys on his own terms after they got home, when he wasn’t stuck with them on a boat, then a plane.
Avoiding them was completely impossible.
They’d made him sit down with them on a couple of bench seats out on the deck while Domi dragged Rae into the interior with Avery and Iris trailing behind them.
The interior had huge windows so the occupants could see out, which meant everyone could see in, too.
So, he knew Rae wasn’t doing any better with her friends.
However, it didn’t look like Avery and Iris were talking much. Iris was still too jubilant about being right—which would have been hilarious under other circumstances—and Avery was listening quietly while Domi did all the grilling.
Unlike his friends, who were taking it in turns. The only ones who didn’t care what was going on were Kincaid and Zach, who were having what looked like their own terse conversation at the stern of the boat.
“All week and you didn’t tell us.” Mitch huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “I can’t believe you kept it a secret.”
Brian shot him a look. “Really? You can’t?”
As Mitch huffed again, Nick raised his hand like he was in class.
“I still don’t understand. Why did you keep it a secret?
I mean, not the sleeping together. I understand why you didn’t want to tell all the nosy Nellys, but why did you keep what happened to her bathroom a secret?
I mean, obviously, if you’d told us, we’d all have offered her a place to stay…
” His voice trailed off, obviously figuring it out.
“Because then he wouldn’t have had the excuse to sleep with her,” Law said. He sighed. “I can’t believe Iris was right, dammit. Do you know how long I’m going to have to hear about this?”
“Hopefully, at least as long as me,” Brian muttered unsympathetically.
He cleared his throat and shook his head.
“It wasn’t about trying to sleep with her.
That just… happened.” He looked at Mitch.
“This week was about you and Domi. It was supposed to be relaxing and enjoyable. You weren’t supposed to have to worry about a thing, so we didn’t want you to know because we wanted it to be entirely stress free. ”
“That is a load of bullshit,” Mitch stated. He leaned back against the bench he was seated on. “We would not have been that stressed.”
“Well, we didn’t want you to be stressed at all.
Rae knew Domi would want her in the villas near us.
She didn’t want to interrupt any of the couples or end up being a third wheel, and obviously, then we’d have to tell someone else.
I just happened to be there when everything happened, so I said she could stay with me, and that way, she didn’t have to bother anyone.
She was still in the same grouping of villas as us, and you and Domi got to have your vacation stress free.
” He crossed his arms over his chest, glaring back at Mitch. “You’re welcome.”
“Oh, yes, having sex with Rae was about doing me a favor.” Mitch shook his head, the corners of his mouth quirking up. “Dude, you are the Simone Biles of mental gymnastics right now.”
“Yeah, you could have just slept on the couch,” Nick pointed out. “But it sounds like you spent the week actually sleeping with her. I didn’t think you two really got along.”
“We don’t,” he said, but Mitch was already talking over him, explaining. At least explaining based on his own point of view.
“They’ve got a ‘will they, won’t they’ thing going on,” Mitch said, focusing on Nick and ignoring Brian’s glare. “As in, they both want each other, but they stay away from each other for stupid reasons.”
“It’s not stupid reasons,” Brian snapped. Mitch was finally starting to get under his skin. “I’m a Daddy Dom. Rae doesn’t want a Daddy Dom. It’s that simple.”
“No, Rae doesn’t want a Dom she has to call Daddy. She needs a Daddy Dom.” Mitch arched an eyebrow at him as if daring him to disagree.
“I’m confused,” Nick said, looking back and forth between them.
“Rae won’t call Brian ‘Daddy,’ so Brian refuses to even try anything with her,” Law explained.
Brian opened his mouth to protest, but Mitch was already talking.
“Also, Brian handles rejection really poorly, and Rae’s done that, like, twice now.” He shook his head again. “I can’t believe you set yourself up for another rejection from her. You rarely even give anyone a second chance, much less a third.”
“I wasn’t setting myself up! We agreed it would only be for this week. She couldn’t reject me because we had a mutually agreed upon end date.” As the words came out of his mouth, he slapped his palm against his face. Yeah. Now that it was out there, said out loud… “Yeah, I hear it. Just… shut up.”
There was silence for a long moment.
“So, who’s going to inform the pool?” Law asked.
“The pool?” Poor Nick. He was the newest to the scene and the club, and since he was often working on the weekends as Marquis’ executive chef, he tended to be at the very end of the gossip train.
“The betting pool on whether Brian and Rae are ever going to get their heads out of their asses and get together.” Mitch stroked his chin, looking up thoughtfully. “Hm. Yeah, I might need to change my day. The question is, is this going to move things along faster or push them back?”
“I hate you all.” Brian dropped his head into his hands. Theoretically, he’d known about the pool. People were way too up in each other’s business at the clubs. It was all in good fun, but sometimes…
“I think I’m going to move mine up,” Mitch mused. “Y’all are getting worse at keeping away from each other.”
“Because you put us on an island together, and her bathroom flooded! That’s not going to happen at home!”
“None of that required you putting your penis in her, and you know it.”
Rae
“Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Because this week was about you. Not me. And Brian was there, and he offered to let me stay with him, which meant I didn’t have to move to a totally different area or be a bother to anyone else.
” Rae huffed. “You know, if the situations were reversed, you wouldn’t want to stress me out at my bachelorette party. ”
Domi scowled at her because she knew she was right. And immediately changed tactics.
“So, who was the masked Dom? Was it Brian?”
“It was Brian; he just wasn’t masked.”
“And now you guys are going to go home and just go back to pretending you don’t feel anything for each other. Is that it?”
“Exactly, except we won’t be pretending,” she snapped, but her heart clenched a little even as she said the words.
Okay, so she might be pretending not to have feelings for him a bit, but it would fade.
It was just that island magic. It had made everything shiny and great.
“We don’t go together. The only reason it was good this week was because we agreed on an end date.
There was nothing to fight over, and he only had to go a week not being called Daddy, which I’m never going to call him, so there’s no reason to start something up that can’t end well. ”
“Call him something else. You two act like ‘Daddy’ is the only thing in the world that you can call him.” Domi threw up her hands.
“Call him ‘Papi’ if it matters that much. But you haven’t even suggested anything.
You see one roadblock, and instead of trying to work around it, you just decide it’s not worth the work at all. ”
“That’s not true! I just don’t think either of us should have to give up the things we want!” She said the words, but Domi’s accusation hit her in the gut. She and Domi didn’t usually argue, so it was making her stomach churn in an uncomfortable way.
“It’s called compromise. That’s what you do in a relationship.
You have a fight about what you both want, then you find a compromise.
Sometimes, you even get to do it without the fight, but a fight is not the end of the world.
You are not always going to agree on everything, but you have to be willing to work through that! ”
“You and I don’t fight,” Rae retorted.
“We are fighting right now.” Domi threw her hands up in the air. “I can’t with you.”
“We’re disagreeing. It’s different. And we’re not in a romantic relationship.” She looked back and forth between her friends. Though Iris and Avery had seemed content for Domi to be the interrogator, they were obviously invested in the conversation. “I just want what my parents have.”
“She thinks they never fight,” Domi told the other two.
“They don’t!”
“I think they just don’t do it in front of you. Or one of them is always getting their way, and the other one never gets what they want.” Domi shook her head. “But I think it’s the first thing.”
“I would know if they fought,” Rae insisted. “But they never needed to fight. Good relationships don’t. You and Mitch don’t.”
“Of course we do. I just don’t tell you about it because the moment I tell you I had a fight with a guy, you’re all ‘dump him, dump him,’ so I stopped telling you when I have a fight.”
Rae’s mouth dropped open. “What?” She… she’d had no idea.
Domi huffed, running her hand over her curls as if she would be able to smooth them back while the wind was whipping them around.
“Yeah. Domi told me not to tell you when Law and I had a fight, too, unless I wanted to hear a whole bunch about how I needed to break up with him,” Iris put in tentatively.
“Which… I didn’t want to break up with him.
I just needed to vent so I could get my anger out before we figured out our next steps. ”
“I can’t talk to you about fights if I want you to support my relationships.
” Domi didn’t sound so mad anymore. She sounded sad.
“The moment I told you about a fight with one of my boyfriends, you never saw them the same way again. Everything they did, even if it was small, was just another reason to break up. It’s like you think relationships can’t work if everyone’s not getting along all the time, but it’s just not true. ”
“I… I don’t think that. I’m sorry I made you feel like you can’t talk to me. I just… I want what my parents have. I don’t think everyone else has to want that.”
“Maybe not consciously, but you get super judgmental about couples who don’t act like your parents.
So, it’s better to just not tell you about fights.
I don’t want to hear about how I need to dump my fiancé, who I love, just because he and I were both cranky one day and took it out on each other.
We got through it, and we were better for it. But you don’t do that. You just leave.”
“Well, I’m glad that works for you, but now you’re sounding kind of judgmental about what I want.” Rae crossed her arms over her chest. “Just because that works for you doesn’t mean it would work for me.”
“It definitely won’t if you’re not willing to try.”
Avery cleared her throat, finally speaking up and breaking up the argument. “I feel like we’ve gotten a little off-topic. So… you and Brian were just for this week, and that was it?”
“Yup. What happens on the island stays on the island.” Rae nodded firmly, though her stomach clenched. Then she rolled her eyes. “Well, other than the gossip.”
“We don’t have to tell anyone,” Avery reassured her.
Oh. That was cute that she thought that would work.
“Fuck that,” Iris said. “I’m telling everyone I was right.” She grinned unrepentantly, proving Rae right, though even if her friends would have been willing to try to keep it quiet, she knew it would get out, eventually.
“There’s too many people on this trip, anyway,” Domi said. “It’ll come out sooner or later. Someone will accidentally say something or make a comment in passing, then it’ll take on a life of its own. It’s better to get the truth out there first. Stronghold and Marquis run on gossip.”
Sad but true. At least, sad for her now. It wasn’t as if she’d minded in the past. That didn’t bother her so much, though. People liked to talk. It didn’t mean anything.
What smarted were Domi’s words and knowing her best friend had kept things from her. That Domi had felt she couldn’t share certain things with her. And… well, Rae couldn’t even blame her. Looking back, she knew exactly what Domi was talking about.
The second Domi had a fight with a boyfriend, Rae was no longer willing to put up with any of his bullshit, even if Domi was.
It wasn’t as if she’d ever forced Domi to break up with anyone, but she always felt like it was a long time coming when Domi finally did.
As though she should have known after that first fight.
And she did leave relationships as soon as there was a big fight. Because she didn’t want that. She wanted what her mom and dad had.
She could see the fight with Brian coming.
Just call him Papi.
Was it even worth making the suggestion when he’d already told her what he wanted? It wasn’t what he wanted, so why bother?
Because maybe the fight would be worth it.