After hanging up with her, I looked back at Dominic and found him staring at me. His expression was enough to make me forget that I’d been feeling guilty again about sleeping with Barrett. The heat in his eyes as he shoved his hands in his pockets and ran his eyes over me was nearly tangible.
Because I couldn’t help myself, I uncrossed my legs and recrossed them the other way, teasing Dominic as much as I dared. When he narrowed his eyes, I shut my laptop and stood up from where I’d been sitting in the empty waiting area. Cindy was gone for the afternoon and I had wanted to see things in action. Being a chicken, I hurried down to Dominic’s office and settled at my desk, doing my best to focus.
I was more than thankful when Barrett knocked on the open door and came in. Smiling at him, I shut my laptop. “Distract me, please!”
He laughed. “How about a field trip?”
I cringed. “Makes me feel younger than I’d like, but other than that, I’m up for anything. Especially if it means I can stop reading this stuff.”
“There’s a reason Dom is CEO. The man has a thorough mind. He doesn’t see that shit as monotonous and heavy. He loves the details.” Pulling his car keys from his pocket, Barrett looked down at my bare feet. “I don’t think walking barefoot across the city sidewalks is a good plan.”
I hurried back to my desk and groaned. “I’m an embarrassment.”
“Want to see Dominic get pissed? Say that in front of him.” Leading me down the hallway, he rested his hand at the base of my spine and nodded to the conference room when we got closer. “Also, me stealing you away while he can’t do anything about it is going to piss him off.”
I met Dominic’s eyes and watched as he turned to glare at Barrett and held up a hand to the group. I held my breath as he came out of the room and stood with his back to it so they wouldn’t be able to see his expression. Which was pissed, to say the least.
“If I have to erase a video of you tomorrow morning, I’ll kick your ass, Barr.” Looking down at me, his expression softened. “Be good for me.”
I swooned and had to clear my throat to speak. “Yes, Sir.”
He stepped closer and tipped my chin up with his finger. “Not too good, though. I like having an excuse to bend you over.”
I made an embarrassing sound, something between a squeak and a moan. Having thoroughly made a fool of myself, I rubbed my warm cheeks and then stretched up to press a kiss to his cheek, not thinking about it maybe looking strange for an employee to do that until I was already pulling back.
Blanching, I looked back and forth between Barrett and Dominic. “Sorry! That’s not appropriate, is it? Ugh. I’m sorry.”
Dominic gave me one of his slow smiles that made the world turn a little slower. “There’s nothing inappropriate between us. If you want to kiss me goodbye, you kiss me goodbye.”
I glanced at his mouth and then glanced at the room behind him and saw almost every lawyer in the room looking back at us. I reached out and put my hand on his stomach, where they wouldn’t see me, and nodded. “Understood.”
Barrett laughed and rested his hand on my back again. “This woman is something else. We’re going to be working on a marketing idea for a few of our smaller places. Call me if anything comes up.”
I suddenly froze. “You said you own The Brownstone.”
Dominic nodded and shrugged. “Yeah?”
“You own The Brownstone?”
He nodded again. “Yeah. I thought you knew. Holden took you there. It’s one of his first babies. I figured he would’ve said something.”
I shook my head. “No, he just fought with the other chef and tried to poach a waiter from the guy. At least, that’s what I thought he was doing. It was sweet, but I thought…you guys really own it?”
Barrett laughed and pushed me toward the elevators. “I’ll fix her. Get back to your meeting, Dom.”
“Not paying attention to the material I’ve been sending you could probably be a punishable offense.” Dominic caught my arm and pulled me into his chest. Brushing my hair out of my face, he leaned down and slowly pressed his lips to mine.
After the sweet kiss, he moved his mouth to my ear and breathed out words that I clung to. “One of these days, you’ll let me give you a reward, Sugar. A real one. As much as I love punishing you, and as much as I love wearing your sweet scent all over my body today, I think you deserve to be rewarded for how good you’ve been.”
I blinked up at him and realized I was nodding along. Pressing my hands into his chest, I kissed him once more before pushing him away and hurrying to leave with Barrett. I did my best to ignore the way my heart hammered at my chest at the reality of what Dominic had just done. He’d kissed me openly, in front of anyone who happened to look our way.
32
***Barrett***
“Thiswasgood.Ilike what we came up with.” Molly Hurst stood up and gathered her laptop and notebook. “You’re going to be a great asset, SJ. I wasn’t kidding about showing all my friends your blog. It’s great.”
Sugar grinned and pointed her pen at Molly. “I appreciate that. Your ideas are really going to help me figure out what to write. I’m so excited to get started and see how it goes. I’ve never been able to see the back end of something like this. Knowing that we’ll have numbers, whatever that means, back after I release this, and we’ll instantly know the reaction from people, is terrifying.”