Chapter 15
A week later, Dominic woke up in Austin’s bed again.
He allowed himself exactly thirty seconds to watch Austin sleep, loose and relaxed. Then he heaved himself out of bed, grabbed his boxers and his phone, and headed out to the balcony, sliding the door closed behind him.
Ben picked up on the second ring. “Why the fuck are you calling me this early? Are you dead?”
“Not dead,” Dominic said. He twisted to watch Austin through the glass.
They usually had the curtains drawn due to the paparazzi’s annoying habit of scaling the trees to take photos, but it hadn’t been a problem for months.
Not since Dominic chased down every paparazzi he found in those trees and told them what he’d do if he found them up there again.
“I need to quit,” Dominic continued.
“This revelation couldn’t wait until later?” Ben yawned. “Why? What’d he do?”
“Austin didn’t do anything. It’s me.” Dominic squinted at the sun rising in the distance. There wouldn’t be anywhere to buy a coffee, but there was always the beach. “Meet me at the beach? Usual spot.”
“Sure, I got nothing else to do,” Ben said flatly, and paused. “You serious about quitting? Thought you liked that job. Don’t tell me you actually fucked that kid.”
“He’s two years younger than me,” Dominic pointed out, scratching his bandage carefully. He could probably go without it, but Austin made worried noises whenever he tried. “See you in twenty.”
The sand was firm and damp under their feet as they ran. Ben refused to run on the soft stuff further up the beach, even before his knee started hurting.
“Busy week for you,” Ben said as they jogged alongside each other. “Got stabbed. Slept with your boss. Now you’re quitting. Any chance those things are related?”
“The stabbing doesn’t factor into it,” Dominic assured him.
“Uh-huh,” Ben grunted, his eyes fixed on the beach stretching out ahead of them.
They both found it easier to have these conversations when they weren’t looking at each other.
“Any reason why you didn’t tell me you were fucking him until now?
You only do that with shit you don’t want to talk about. ”
“Yeah, and I didn’t want to talk about it until I was…” Dominic sighed. He’d gone over this in his head on the way over and still wasn’t sure what he wanted to say. “I don’t know. Until I’d decided something. Everything was up in the air before.”
“And now?”
Dominic wordlessly picked up the pace. Ben groaned but followed suit, glaring at him resentfully as he fell back into place beside him.
“Let me know if your knee is giving you trouble,” Dominic said.
“Fuck off,” Ben replied. “So, you decided on quitting? He’s not giving you a good reference after all this, I don’t care how good you fucked him.”
“I said I’m quitting. Didn’t say I was leaving him.”
Ben snorted. “Oh, so there’s something to leave? You said this was a fling.”
“It is. But he wants it to be more.”
“You said you weren’t getting close.”
“I did.”
“But you got close.”
“Obviously.”
Ben cackled. “Told you. You sleep with someone more than once or, god forbid, sleep over, and you get all moony and stupid. That’s why you didn’t tell me about it. You knew I’d call you on your bullshit.”
Dominic picked up the pace again. Ben cursed, legs pumping to keep up.
“Maybe,” Dominic allowed. “Maybe I want more, and I’m sick of telling myself to get over it. But I’m not dating my boss. Which means—”
“Quitting time,” Ben panted. “Sure. I don’t see why you can’t just sneak around—”
“I just said I want something more serious.”
“You can be serious and sneaky,” Ben said. “But sure. You don’t wanna be a side piece. You want to be front and center. You big fucking drama queen.”
Dominic thought about turning their jog into a full sprint.
But Ben would probably trip him up again, even if Dominic was watching out for his leg.
Speaking of Ben’s leg, he didn’t actually want to put extra stress on Ben’s injury, even if he was talking back in ways that Domnic didn’t hear from anyone but Austin.
He slowed down instead. Ben sighed in relief.
“That’s not the only thing I wanted to talk to you about,” Dominic said once he had made sure that they were jogging too far away from any stray passerby on a morning beach walk.
“Don’t tell me,” Ben said flatly. “You want me to be a bridesmaid.”
Dominic jabbed his elbow into Ben’s side. Ben fended him off, slapping him so close to his chest bandage that Dominic let out a shocked laugh.
“We’re not there yet,” Dominic assured him. “I just wanted to know about your old flame who makes those custom collars.”
Ben’s greying eyebrows rose. “Rick? Why?”
Dominic shrugged. He’d heard about Rick’s work when Ben dragged him to a BDSM club for the first and only time, when they were both adjusting to life outside the army.
Rick, a middle-aged switch, ran a small business out of his garage where he sold custom-made BDSM equipment.
He showed Dominic his range on his phone: supple leather and O-rings in all shapes and sizes, plus a range of other gear that mostly didn’t spark Dominic’s interest. Dominic had politely excused himself, but Ben ended up sleeping with Rick for a week or two before their fling faded into a friendship where they got coffee every few months.
“I was thinking about picking one out for Austin,” Dominic explained.
“Jesus Christ,” Ben muttered. “How long have you been fucking him? A week?”
“I want to show him I’m serious.”
“After a week,” Ben emphasized. “This is fast, even for you.”
“No,” Dominic said. “It’s not. I know him, Ben. We work well together.”
Ben rolled his eyes so obviously Dominic stuck his elbow into his side again. Or, he tried to. Ben ducked out of the way and then slammed into Dominic with such force he went sprawling into the damp sand.
“I’ll give Rick a call,” Ben called back, jogging away.
Dominic laughed. Then he heaved himself up, rubbing wet sand out of his hair with a grimace and wondering what kind of O-chain Austin would like.