Page 33 of Disavowed

With her heart pounding, she stormed into the kitchen and poured another finger of Cognac into a snifter. Tipping the glass up, she took a hefty swallow, grateful for the slow burn it made all the way to her belly.

He still hadn’t left. She should kick him out, is what she should do. She spun to put her plan into action and collided with Dom’s chest.

“It’s a piss-poor night when I drive a woman to drink.” He glanced at the snifter.

“Why are you still here?” She brushed past him into the living room. Absently, she deadheaded a dried-up flower from an African violet perched in the center of the coffee table. When he followed her inside, she sat in her wingchair and crossed her legs. “You’ve had your fun. Now you can leave.” She gestured with her hand toward the door.

“That’s not how it was.” Without invitation, he sat in the middle of the sofa, facing her with his forearms resting on his knees.

Just like Jack had. Only when Jack had sat in her sofa, she’d been uncomfortable at his presence in her apartment. When Dom sat there, she wasn’t exactly uncomfortable. She was confused and all twisted up inside. She should thoroughly hate the guy, but all she could think was how pathetic she’d been at believing for one stupidly naive moment that something would be different this time.

“Dom, please leave.” She rolled the smooth curve of the snifter back and forth against her forehead. “I’m tired, and I have an early day tomorrow. I have to hire another driver to handle the overflow from the Piazza contract.”

He didn’t budge. “You’re seeing someone. Your new driver.”

“What if I am?” She took another sip. “That’s no business of yours. And what were you doing? Spying on me?”

He drew his brows together. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Seriously?” She barked out a laugh. “Of all the gall. You’re nothing but a damned hypocrite. What gives you the right?”

When he clenched his jaws, the muscles of his way-too-handsome face stood out in rigid perfection. “Not a damned thing.”

“Finally, something we agree on.” Tears pricked the backs of her eyes. She had to get him out of her apartment before she started crying like a lovestruck teenager whose high school crush didn’t return her feelings.

She blinked rapidly, then noticed the troubled look had returned to Dom’s eyes. What does he have to be troubled about?

“Embrace the suck,” he muttered.

“Did you just say, embrace the suck?” She shook her head. “Is that warrior-speak for lie down and take it? Because I most certainly refuse to lie down with you again. Ever.”

A steely look came into his eyes, making them appear more gray than blue. “How exactly did you come to hire your new driver?”

“Why do you care?” She exhaled loudly. “If you’re jealous, that’s your problem.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. She got the distinct impression he was holding back a lot of anger. Anger she didn’t understand the source of.

“Humor me. I’m not leaving until you do.”

“Fine.” Anything to get him out the door. “My regular driver, Gus Padagno, was hit by a car and badly hurt. He’s still in the hospital, and when he gets home he’ll be laid up for at least a month before he can come back to work. So I hired Jack.”

“How did Jack,” he said the name with a notable hint of irritation, “know you were looking for a new driver? Did you place an ad in the paper?”

“No.” She couldn’t take the intense scrutiny of his stare so she rose and began pruning dead leaves from her favorite fern on a plant stand in the corner of the living room. “He showed up the day after Gus’s accident. He had a CDL, and it’s not easy to find a driver with that kind of license so I hired him on the spot.” She hazarded a glance at Dom and saw his eyes had narrowed to slits.

“Don’t you think that’s a huge coincidence? Him showing up the very next day after your driver gets mowed down?”

“Well, yes,” she admitted. “But I was desperate. We’ve gotten so busy lately, and I needed a replacement driver right away.” Her hands stilled on the plant. “What are you suggesting?”

“Did the driver of the vehicle stop to provide information to the police?” he asked.

“It was a hit and run.” She clenched the dried leaf in her hand. “But I don’t see what that has to do with Jack.”

“Maybe nothing.” He began stroking his jaw, reminding her of how disgustingly good a five o’clock shadow looked on the man, and how sexy it had felt against her skin while he’d been kissing her into freaking oblivion.

Her cheeks felt red-hot at the unwanted memory. She didn’t know what was going on here, but she wasn’t about to entertain Dom’s unfounded jealousy.

“Don’t look at me like that.” She dropped the dried leaves into an empty pot. “Jack showing up when he did might be coincidental, but it doesn’t mean there’s anything nefarious going on. You’re a cop. To you, everyone’s a threat.”