by Score, Lucy
“Packing.”
She yanked a skirt out of my hands. “Knock it off, Dom. You’re starting to piss me off.”
“You’ll stay with me,” I decided.
She hit me with the skirt. “Excuse me! I’m not moving in with you!” She looked horrified.
“I have spare rooms. You can take one of them.”
“You have lost your damn mind. I am not living in your house!”
“Fine. Then I’m staying here with you.” I abandoned the clothes I’d piled up on her bed and started for the stairs. I’d pack a bag for me and Brownie and make a few calls. A contractor and an all-night locksmith to start.
She ran after me. “You can’t stay here!”
I rounded on her, and she came to an abrupt stop on the step above mine. “Get it through your stubborn fucking head, Ally. If you’re staying here, then so am I.”
“I’m handling this. I don’t need you.”
“What you need is to realize that you’re in over your head and that I am not just willing to help, I am begging to help you.”
The panic was still there in those sweet brown eyes. “Dominic, I can’t afford to owe you anything more.”
Overwhelmed, I dragged her into my arms. “Baby, listen to me. The way you felt about your dad living in that shithole is exactly how I feel about you living here. This isn’t a favor to pay back. This is purely selfish on my part. I can’t live with you staying here.”
“You’ve already done more than I can ever thank you for. This job, this salary, literally saved my dad. And I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to repay you for that.” Her voice broke, and I couldn’t take it anymore than I could take the image of her huddled up under the covers while I texted her from my warm, safe townhouse.
I held on tight.
“I promised my Dad that I would handle this. That he’d never be a burden. I can’t let him down. He’d be humiliated.”
I pressed her face to my chest. “Oh, Ally. How do you think he would feel if he saw you living like this? If he knew how hard you were working and how little you were eating? You tell me what would be worse for him.”
“He’s never going to know,” she said firmly.
“So if you’re not going to tell him that, why do you have to tell him if I help?”
Ha! I had her there. It was her own pride getting in the way right now, not her father’s.
“I…”
Clearly she didn’t know what to say in the face of my flawless male logic.
“You’re not in this alone anymore, Ally. I get that this feels like just another curveball coming from me. I do. And I’m fucking sorry for that. But I’m on your team, whether you want me or not. And you are not staying here alone ever again.”
“Knock knock!” The cheery, heavily accented call came from the open front door.
I grabbed Ally and tucked her behind my back to face the pre-crack of dawn threat.
The woman couldn’t have been more than five feet tall. She was roundish and oldish with a bright, nosy smile. There was a blue casserole dish in her hands. “I heard lots of yelling and came to investigate.”
“Mrs. Grosu, it’s 4:30 in the morning,” Ally choked the words out.
“Yes. It is. And you’re having a fight with a very handsome man. I’m hoping for a lovers’ quarrel, but even handsome cat burglars deserve love.”
“No lovers’ quarrel,” Ally insisted, trying to get around me on the stairs. “I’m sorry we woke you.”
“Nonsense!” The woman beamed. “It’s always the perfect time for French toast casserole. Now, introduce me to your handsome, loud friend.”
Together, we trooped down the stairs, and when Ally tried to put some distance between us, I dragged her into my side.
“Mrs. Grosu, this is my—”
“Boyfriend,” I finished for her.
“Boss,” she said.
We glared at each other. One of us was going to win this. And it wasn’t going to be Ally.
“What happened to your face?” Mrs. Grosu asked.
52
Dominic
We took Brownie next door to Mrs. Grosu’s warm, cozy bungalow and ate French toast casserole while she updated us on what sounded like an entire army of children and grandchildren.
I took advantage of Ally’s exhaustion and helped her pack two days’ worth of clothes—a compromise that I magnanimously agreed to—before driving us back into the city that was just beginning to wake up.
It had been a long fucking night, but I was energized. For the first time since I’d stepped into my father’s role at Label, I felt confident in what I needed to do.
While Ally got Brownie his breakfast. I warmed up the kettle and fired off a text to my mother.
Me: Need to talk. It’s important. My house?
Mom: You really know how to strike fear in a mother’s heart before 7 in the morning. Is Brownie okay? Are you okay?
Me: Sorry. Brownie and I are both fine. Everything is fine. Just need to talk.
Mom: I can be there by 8. But I want breakfast if you’re determined to deliver bad news.
I winced.
Ally yawned and bent down to peer under the kitchen sink.
“What are you doing?” I asked, admiring the view of her ass in my sweats. It felt like a claim staked.
“Looking for some kind of cleaner. Aha!” Triumphantly, she produced a bottle.
I watched as she grabbed the paper towels and liberally sprayed the spot where only hours ago, we’d fucked like horny teenagers.
For some reason, it struck me as funny, and I laughed.
Ally raised an eyebrow in my direction. Brownie lifted his head out of his bowl and stared at me, head cocked. Had I never laughed in front of my dog before? Was I really that soulless?
“What?” Ally asked, wiping down the countertop. “Sooner or later, someone is going to make a sandwich here.”
I took the bottle and the towels from her. “Go upstairs and shower.”
“Bossy,” she complained, yawning again. “Can’t we just go to bed?”
“Not yet. My mom is coming over.”
“Oh!” Her eyes widened as it sunk in. “Wait, you’re telling Dalessandra that we had sex?”
I laughed again at the horror on her face. It had been a hell of a lot more than sex, and we both knew it.
“My father kept a lot of things from her.”
“But it was just—”
I put my hand over her mouth. “If you try to say that last night was ‘just sex,’ I am going to work very hard to prove you very wrong.”
She pulled my hand away and poked me in the chest. “Excuse me. Don’t you think this is a conversation we should have before we include your mother, our boss?”
The woman seemed really hung up on the hierarchy. She also had a practically infinitesimal point. “Fine. Ally, last night changed everything for us, and I’m not willing to return to a strictly professional relationship.”
“There are miles between a strictly professional relationship and dating, Dom.”
“Not in this case, there isn’t. Are we together?”
“What about the policy?”
“Forget everything else right now. Forget the policy. My mother. Your father. Forget that hovel in New Jersey.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Forget everything else except you and me. Right here. Right now.” Pulling her into me felt so fucking right after all those weeks I’d wasted pushing her away. “Are we together?”
She studied me quietly. There was a war brewing behind those whiskey eyes.
“We can make this work. All of it. I promise you that. I just need you to say the words, Maleficent.”
She bit her lip as her fingers worried little circles into my biceps. I was asking her to trust me when I hadn’t ever given her a reason to. But I needed her to have faith in me.
“Give me a minute,” she said.
I dipped my head and traced my tongue over her e
arlobe. “Think about last night, Ally. That was real. We’re real. We can make this work. If you want to.”
“But how?”
I shook my head. “The how doesn’t matter right now. What matters is if you want this. If you want us.” On cue, my very smart dog wedged his face between us.
I was holding on to her too tight. I could feel her balanced on that ledge, and long seconds ticked by without me knowing which way Ally would lean. My Ally. She didn’t really have a choice. Neither did I. And I think we both knew it.
“When you say ‘this,’ what do you mean?” she asked.
“Us. Together.”
“Monogamous?”
I glared at her. “Yes. So don’t even think of that asshole Christian James again.”
“Both of us. Monogamous,” she repeated.
“Of course.”
“What else?” she pressed.
“Ally, I don’t fucking know. We’ll figure it out. We both want to continue having sex with each other and only each other, correct?”
“That’s not exactly romantic,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, well, I’m not really a hearts and flowers kind of guy.” I was more of a “fuck her in a dark corner until she screamed my name” kind of guy.
“This is crazy,” she breathed.
“It is.”
“And irresponsible and stupid, and we’re both probably just drunk on sex.”
“Life-changing, counter-defacing sex,” I pointed out.
Her lips trembled, then lifted. “I’m probably going to regret this.”
I held my breath and squeezed her arms. Say it.
“But I’m in. Let’s give this disaster waiting to happen a shot.”
Relief and something brighter, warmer, happier, lit me up from the inside. I picked her up and spun us around. Ally’s arms came around my neck and held tight.
“This is insane,” she laughed.
It was. And for the first time in my life, the insane choice felt like the right one.
Forty-five minutes later, my mother arrived in a subtle cloud of Chanel No. 5 and oversized sunglasses.
I took her coat while she showered her granddog with attention. “I still can’t believe you got a dog,” she said, straightening back into her elegant and proper posture.
“I’m an excellent dog dad,” I pointed out, opening the door and ushering her through.
“Of course you are,” she said, patting my cheek. “I’m just surprised you committed. It’s a good thing you haven’t felt compelled to commit to everything you’ve ever French kissed.”
“About that.”
My mother stopped in her tracks in the kitchen doorway.
“Hi.” Ally waved guiltily with a spatula from her sentry at the stove.
“Ah,” Mom said and turned back to me. Her expression was unreadable. But I wasn’t picking up on any hostile vibes. Yet. “Hello, Ally,” she said.
“Mom, have a seat,” I said, pushing her toward the table Ally had set in the dining room while I cooked.
She sat, and I gestured for Ally to do the same. I took the pan off the heat and scooped eggs and spinach onto plates with sliced tomatoes.
Carrying the plates into the dining area, I felt remarkably calm for what I was about to do. And that told me everything I needed to know. It was time for new priorities.
I took the chair next to Ally’s and picked up my tea.
“Mom. I’m resigning.”
53
Ally
My fork hit the plate with a resounding clatter.
“You’re what?” Dalessandra and I said together.
Dominic placed a hand over mine, but his attention was on his mother.
“As of last night, Ally and I are in a relationship. You’re the first to know. Well, besides a Romanian woman who broke into Ally’s house.”
I felt like I was having an out of body experience. I was floating up toward the ceiling and looking down at this scene with a distinct feeling of what the fuck? I imagined people who were hit by buses felt the same kind of detached bemusement on their way off the mortal coil.
“You are not resigning,” I said a few decibels louder than I intended.
Brownie trotted into the room, Dominic’s underwear dangling out of his mouth.
“I am,” Dominic insisted. “Ally will stay on in her current position for whoever you appoint to take my place until Greta comes back. If Greta chooses to leave or retire, Ally can continue on in the position permanently. If Greta prefers to stay, I want you to find Ally a suitable placement with the salary she has currently.”
“You can’t just make decisions like that without consulting me,” I choked, valiantly trying to wrench my hand free of his so I could smack him upside the head.
“Or me,” Dalessandra agreed. She was handling it better than I was, slicing up a dainty portion of tomato and egg.
“You hard-headed, bossy, alpha—Brownie, put those down!” The dog shot me a guilty look and ran out of the room, underwear flapping. “This is not how a relationship works. You don’t just make all the decisions and expect me to happily go along with it!”
“Ally is absolutely correct,” she said, picking up her tea.
“This is the only way this works,” he insisted. “I’m not willing to put you through another scandal. Or drag Ally’s name through the mud.”
“A consensual relationship between two people who care very much for each other is not a scandal,” she said.
“It’s still fodder. There will be rumors. People will say things,” Dominic pointed out.
“Of course, they’ll say things,” I snapped. “You can’t control people’s reactions.”
They were both ignoring me, and I wondered if perhaps I really had ceased to exist. Maybe a bus had plowed through Dom’s townhouse, and I was the last to know.
“I do not accept your resignation,” Dalessandra told him.
“You’re not fucking firing Ally,” he said.
“Of course not,” she agreed.
“Can either of you two see me? Am I invisible?” I yanked my hand free from his grip, but Dominic grabbed my thigh under the table and held me in place.
“First of all. How serious are you? Is this just sex, or is it more serious?”
“Once again, this is a conversation that should be had with me first, not your mother or our boss.” I was screeching.
“We had the conversation. We’re together.”
“Darling, if you’re not willing to put up with a few bloviating windbags and their blind speculation, then I have to wonder just how serious you are about this relationship,” Dalessandra said.
“We’re serious enough. End of story,” he said calmly. “I’ll announce my resignation today.”
“No, you fucking won’t, you egotistical jackass,” I snapped.
“You’ll do no such thing,” Dalessandra insisted much more politely. “I suppose keeping this quiet is not an option?”
“There isn’t going to be a relationship to keep quiet about in a minute,” I said through clenched teeth.
It would be my shortest relationship on record.
“I’m not hiding this,” Dom said quietly. “I don’t think I could even if you asked me.”
Okay, coming from Dominic Russo, maybe that was kind of a swoony thing to say. It wasn’t a declaration of love, but it was real. These feelings felt real.
But still.
Dalessandra nodded. “Well, that settles that.”
I fought his hand off my thigh and stood. “Look, Russos. I am not a minion. I am a human person with feelings and opinions and decision-making capabilities.”
“Your decision-making capabilities have you living in a water-damaged icebox,” Dominic said.
Oh, if he wanted a fight, I was happy, thrilled, to wade in swinging. “Up until last night, your permanent stance was you didn’t want to have anything to do with me!”
“I am trying to save you both from another scandal,” he growled.<
br />
“I don’t need to be saved.” Dalessandra and I blinked at each other as the words came out of both our mouths in unison.
Dominic took a breath and let it out slowly. “I am offering a solution that puts all the problems to bed,” he argued.
Dalessandra spoke first. “That policy was designed to protect employees from predatory power plays and the workplace from disasters like your father left us with last year.” She shot me a look.
“What exactly do you suggest?” Dominic asked, annoyed.
“I suggest you disclose your relationship to human resources and the rest of Label’s senior management, myself included. Let us worry about how to deal with it.”
“I willingly ignored the fraternization policy. How do you think they’re going to deal with it? It’s grounds for termination for both of us. And Ally can’t afford to lose this job. If I leave, no one has to know why.”
“Everyone will know why,” I said, regaining my voice. “You think just because you didn’t confirm any rumors about Paul Russo that they just went away? This is the problem. Sweeping secrets under the rug doesn’t help anyone. The rumors are usually worse than the truth. People know about your father, and they’re going to find out about us.”
Dalessandra paled visibly.
“You think rumors are worse?” Dominic asked icily. “Are the rumors worse than my father locking an intern in a conference room and putting his hand up her skirt until she cried? She’s in therapy three years later because he thought he could take what he wanted. I read every affidavit, and believe me, the rumors don’t do the bastard justice.”
His pissed-off vulnerability snuck up on me and gripped my heart. I reached for him, intending to put my hand on his shoulder, but he rose. “I’m taking the dog out,” he snapped and disappeared out the back with Brownie, who was still carrying his underwear around like a trophy.
An awkward silence descended.
Dalessandra took her tea to the window that overlooked Dominic’s backyard. “He cares very much for you,” she mused.
