“Why do you pretend your real name is just a cover?” Sam murmured, staring at their entangled fingers. Sam’s hand wasn’t small by any means, but Dominic’s hand dwarfed it, his skin so much darker than Sam’s. It made Sam feel funny. He couldn’t tear his gaze away.
“It is a cover, in a way,” Dominic said. “Just because it’s my given name doesn’t mean the Dominic Bommer people know is a real person. He isn’t. My education is real enough, as is my job at Grayguard, but most of my supposed interests and preferences are fake. Even my relatives have no idea that I’m not actually gay. When I was assigned to this mission two years ago, I ‘came out’ and started building my cover. For the sake of this mission, Dominic Bommer is supposed to be the perfect man of Luke Whitford’s dreams: a gay man, confident and dependable, who wants a serious relationship and family. This cover isn’t more real than any other cover I’ve had.”
“Luke Whitford?” Sam said, snapping his gaze to Dominic’s face. “That’s who you’re supposed to seduce? I didn’t even know he was gay.”
Dominic raised his eyebrows. “You know of him?”
Sam snorted. “I’m a thief, Nick. He’s the heir of the richest man in England. Knowing about rich people was part of my job.”
He also knew that Luke Whitford was very pretty. Not handsome or even beautiful—he was pretty. So pretty even a straight man could probably be attracted to him.
Sam cleared his throat. “So when does your mission officially start? Like, is there a reason you’ve been waiting?”
“There is,” Dominic said, starting to fiddle with Sam’s fingers again. “I needed to make my cover bulletproof, and we had to wait for a sign that Whitford had started to trust his son. We know that Whitford sent his son to Russia last winter, to represent him at the Russian branch of Whitford Industries. Interestingly enough, Luke went missing in February, after a meeting with Roman Demidov, the Russian billionaire suspected of being the boss of Russian mafia.”
Sam frowned. “Wait, Luke Whitford was kidnapped? I didn’t know that.”
“Not many did. His father mostly managed to keep it quiet. He didn’t even call the police. But Luke’s best friend—my cousin James, actually—talked his father, a very influential politician, into asking MI6 for help.” Dominic smiled. “It was kind of funny. We already knew of Luke’s disappearance but had to pretend that we didn’t. Though, James did confirm that Luke went to see Roman Demidov before he disappeared, so it wasn’t entirely useless. It seems Whitford finally started trusting his son, so my mission can officially start now that Luke is back.”
“Wait,” Sam said again. “Luke was found?”
“Not long ago,” Dominic said, his thumb stroking the thin skin between Sam’s fingers. “He was interrogated by our agents, but they didn’t learn much. Luke claims not to know who kidnapped him or why. He said it wasn’t Roman Demidov, that he was kidnapped a few hours after his meeting with the Russian.”
Sam looked at Dominic curiously. “You don’t believe it?”
Untangling their hands, Dominic tapped Sam’s nose with his thumb, his expression soft but rueful. “I just realized I shouldn’t be telling you this. It’s classified for a reason. That little face of yours is a danger to national security.”
Sam grinned, his cheeks warm. “Too late, you can’t take it back! Keep talking.”
Dominic snorted, his finger poking the tiny dimple that appeared by Sam’s mouth when he smiled. “Yes, I think Luke is lying,” he said. “The question is why. Anyway, the mission has been given a go, so I’ll find out soon enough.”
Right.
Sam’s good mood plummeted.
“So…” he said, looking anywhere but at Dominic. “If you’re going to focus on that mission, does that mean you’ll stop coming to headquarters?”
“Yes,” Dominic said. “As soon as I start dating his son, Whitford will likely have me tracked by his people. He’s actually that paranoid.”
“He knows his son is gay?”
“We have conflicting intelligence. It seems Luke thinks his father doesn’t know he’s gay, but we’re sure Whitford does. Whitford had Luke’s last two boyfriends followed. He scared one of them off, actually. It doesn’t look like he’s happy with his son’s sexuality, but as far as we know, he hasn’t confronted Luke yet. Maybe he’s hoping that it’s just a phase and his son will outgrow it.”
“Good luck with that,” Sam said with a scoff, feeling almost sorry for Luke before remembering that soon Luke would be dating his Dominic.
Not yours, a voice in his head said scathingly. He had as much claim on Dominic as Luke Whitford did. Less, actually.
It was a bitter pill to swallow.
Sam sprang to his feet and walked to his suitcase. Someone must have dropped it off while he talked to Amanda. He started unpacking, even though there was no rush to do it. He needed something to occupy himself while he pretended that everything was fine—that he was totally fine with Dominic seducing some other guy. A very pretty, very rich, well-educated guy.