Dirty Secrets by Landish Lauren

Author:Landish, Lauren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-11-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Allie

Dinner is not going well. I’d planned everything as well as I could, setting the coffee table with a tablecloth and candles, even giving the floor pillows a fresh fluff so we’d be comfortable sitting on them.

Not the usual dinner party set-up, but when my dining room is more dance studio, it’s what I’ve got.

Maybe I’d been stupid to think getting the two of them together under better circumstances would make the introductions friendlier, the conversation politer, the air more welcoming.

Nope. Not with these two, apparently. I guess maybe it’s asking for a bit too much, too fast, considering the start.

It’s been a tense hour of interrogation-style questions, dismissive answers, and barely-contained dick measuring as TJ tries to intimidate Dominick with some version of big brother protectiveness. It might work with another man, but not with Dom.

I try to stop my near-constant eye rolls. I’m no expert, but TJ’s antics are clearly telling more about himself than anything he’s gleaning from Dominick. I could have told him it was a waste of time. Dom’s spent years hiding himself behind a mask.

And we’ve barely started the main course. I take a bite of my chicken parmigiana, thinking for the third time that I should’ve made something less time-intensive that I could just shove in their mouths to keep them quiet.

Speaking of . . . “More bread?” I ask, offering the breadsticks and crossing my fingers under the table that TJ might eat a whole stick of garlicky goodness in one go. Because if he keeps this up, I’m going to be stuffing one in his ear. “Teej?”

His crooked eyebrow tells me he knows what I’m trying to do, but he takes one anyway, taking a bite and talking around the mouthful with a look that tells me, Take that.

“So, you own a strip club?” TJ somehow manages to sneer the words without losing a crumb of breadstick.

Dom’s eyes flick to me, wondering how much I’ve told him.

I glare back, telling him wordlessly, Of course, I didn’t tell him. I’m not stupid. That’s not my story to tell, and not one I’d share without permission. And a shot of something strong to give me courage.

Dominick’s attention returns to TJ. “Yes, I own several businesses, one of which is a club.”

“A strip club,” TJ says with scorn. TJ is trying to make the club sound seedy and disgusting, and by his ownership, painting Dominick with the same brush. But his disdain for the club stabs at me like a knife, hot betrayal burning through me. I set my fork down with a clatter.

Both men turn to me at the sharp sound, and TJ immediately reads the anger in my eyes. He grimaces, and his shoulders slump a little. “Shit. Allie-gator, I didn’t mean it like that.”

Once upon a time, I would’ve wilted and just forgiven him, but this is something I’ve had to deal with over and over again, finding strength I didn’t know I had, to handle other people’s misconceptions. I

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.