He presses a kiss to my hair and smiles gently. “Tell you what. I’ll do everything I can to keep our worlds as separate as possible. I won’t hold meetings in our home anymore, and I’ll keep you and Felicia as far away from my work affairs as I can. When we’re here together, it’s just the three of us. She doesn’t ever have to know. She can grow up like every other normal child, and you can have an equally normal life.”
“Do you really think that’s possible?”
“I’d do anything to try to make it happen.”
It sounds too good to be true, but I so desperately want to believe it’s possible. It’s like living a double life, going about my day willingly ignorant to the reality of who Dominic is and what he does. But I can’t stand the thought of leaving him, either. I don’t know if there’s a way out of this where I don’t come out unscathed. For now, the only way to protect my heart is to take him at his word and pray harm never befalls him.
Dominic kisses my cheek. “Get dressed. I have a surprise for you.”
“What is it?”
“I can’t tell you. That’d ruin the surprise. It’s nothing nefarious, I swear.” He takes Felicia back, holding her against his chest. It makes me unbelievably happy to see him getting more and more comfortable with carrying her. “Go ahead and get changed,” he says. “I promise you won’t regret it.”
Chapter 29
Arin
I’m confused when he has Johnny drive us to SoHo. “I thought you said this place was off limits.”
Dominic is on his phone, texting someone. He hasn’t put that damn thing down since this morning. I wonder if it has to do with his sudden promotion. Felicia sits between us in her car seat, distractedly flipping through an illustrated children’s book about a cow and its barnyard friends.
“Have a little patience,” he says, not looking up from his screen. “It’ll be worth the wait.”
When I feel the car roll to a stop, I glance out the window to a big shop front. We’re in a particularly nice part of the neighborhood, full of all sorts of upscale shops. Johnny is the first to get out, dressed in one of the special Kevlar-lined suits that I designed, and circles the front of the car to open the door for me. Behind us, I notice a black SUV. Several well-dressed men get out of their vehicle as well, also wearing the suits I painstakingly stitched together by hand.
“They’re with us,” Johnny says with an understanding smile. “Your own personal protection detail.”
I lift Felicia out of the car, holding her close to me. She’s totally unfazed by their presence. I, on the other hand, can’t ignore the weird sinking feeling stewing in my gut. Something in the air has shifted, but I can’t quite put my finger on what.
“This is it,” Dominic says, gesturing to the shop front.
The big windows are covered on the inside with opaque brown paper, but even without peeking inside, I know this place must cost a fortune to rent commercially. The exterior is painted a lovely deep evergreen, and there’s plenty of space above the French double doors to install a big, beautiful sign.
My mouth drops open when Dominic reaches into his pocket, steps up to the doors, and unlocks them. We step inside together. A few of Dominic’s colleagues come in with us, but a few stay outside to keep guard.
The place smells of fresh paint and sawdust. It’s well-lit and will probably be even more so once the windows are cleared of paper. The floors are a polished white tile and the walls an elegant cream.
“It’s yours,” Dominic tells me with a grin.
It takes a second for my brain to compute what he’s saying. “Excuse me?”
“I know it’s not quite Fifth Avenue, but I think it’s a significant improvement over your previous location.”
All I can do is marvel. “This is… for me? But how?”
“Let’s just say the building’s come under new management.” He sounds wholly smug, and I’m not a fan.
“So you’re bribing me?” I ask him tersely.
He looks shocked for a moment before responding. “No, Arin. I think you are immensely talented and I want to help you realize your dream. Will you let me do that?”
My initial unease quickly melts and gives way to my uncontainable excitement. I can hardly believe it. This place is Chanel, Gucci, and Dior levels of chic. I can already imagine where I’m going to install shelves to display select dresses—at full retail price—as well as where I want to arrange a seating area for shoppers to relax as I pamper them with a bespoke fitting.
The dressing rooms will be somewhere in the back, and they won’t be made out of those ugly metal stalls like the contractors got confused about where to put the bathroom, either. Everything is going to be well-lit and beautifully displayed, and maybe I’ll be able to hire a couple of employees to help me ring customers up and—
“I love it,” I breathe, my heart promising to skip right out of my chest. “I love it. Thank you so much.”
The smile he gives me sends a delightful shiver down my spine.