Domination (Explicitly Yours 2)

“I’m so sorry,” Lola said to the waiter, grasping for her purse from the floor. “I can pay.”

“For what?” he asked. “Bread and water?”

“I don’t know. I’m just so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He smiled. “You aren’t the first couple to fight before appetizers.”

She thanked him. His graciousness reinforced her idea that people from all walks of life had money, and she and Johnny had as much right to be there as anyone. It was an effort, but she kept her eyes up as she made her way through the tables to the exit.

The valet stood from his station when he saw her.

“Did my boyfriend just come out here?” she asked.

“Guy with the ponytail? He just left.”

“With the car?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Lola looked down at her dress and heels. Johnny wasn’t the type to abandon her, which meant he just hadn’t thought of her at all. She wasn’t sure which was worse. No matter how you looked at it, she had no way of getting home, and she wasn’t even wearing clothes she felt comfortable in. That was Johnny’s fault.

“Asshole,” she muttered. She took out her phone to call him. Beau’s text was still on the screen.

* * *

You’re still here with me. Say yes.

* * *

She read it again. Here with me. Their night had gone so fast, it was almost as if it hadn’t happened at all. Except that once in a while, she was still there with Beau, reliving their moments together. She’d seen Mayor Churchill on TV that morning and remembered holding Beau’s hand in the crowd at the benefit. On the way to the restaurant earlier, Nirvana had been on the radio, and Lola had hummed along, back at the speakeasy.

She moved her finger to hover over his phone number. It wasn’t long ago they’d talked. With a tap, she could call Beau to come get her. Maybe he still had the hotel room. It shouldn’t have even been an option, but it was—and a luxurious one at that. She knew with certainty that Beau would come, just like she knew he wouldn’t have left her behind in the first place.

She cleared the text and called Johnny instead.

* * *

It was after two in the morning when Lola heard noises outside their apartment. She stood from the couch. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you,” she said before the door was even open. “Where have you been?”

Johnny toed off his shoes and left them by the door. “Thinking.”

“Drinking?” she asked.

“No. Just thinking.”

“I was worried.”

“I know,” he said. “I was also worried. About you.”

“Serves you right for leaving me there,” she said.

“I had to get away before I said something I regretted.”

She fell back onto the couch. “I know.” She’d been angry for the first few hours. The whole cab ride home, she’d been tempted to give the driver the address to Beau’s hotel. If he’d been there, Beau would’ve made sure she was comfortable, and that sounded appealing after the week she’d had. But her anger had turned to concern around midnight. Now she was just glad Johnny was home safely.

He came to her and bent to take her cheeks in his hands. He kissed her. “You’re always so good. So understanding. What did I do to deserve you?”

“Sit, Johnny. We should talk.”

He sat close to her and held her hand. “I know what we agreed on, but if I’m going to consider this, I need to know what happened that night. I can’t send you back in there if I don’t.”

So he would send her in to do their dirty work again. Lola rested her elbow on the arm of the couch as she leaned away a little. Even if she’d been fighting the desire to see Beau again, she was disappointed Johnny was fine enough with the first night that he’d let her do a second. She’d worried telling him might make him think she wanted to do it, but apparently he just wanted details. If she were a spiteful person, she’d give them to him. Johnny wasn’t built for details.

“What makes you think I’d do it again?” she asked.

“You brought it up. I figured if you weren’t considering it…you would’ve kept it to yourself.”

“I brought it up because I thought you should know.”

“Yes, right after you brought up money. I hate to admit it, but maybe we are in over our heads.”

“We can still call the whole thing off,” she said. “We don’t have to buy Hey Joe. We could do something else.”

“I can’t.” He shook his head. “You didn’t endure what you did so I could give up before we even got started.”

She swallowed at the word endure. It wasn’t the word she would’ve chosen, which was why a second night of it could be dangerous. “I don’t want you to give up. We’ll just have to get creative and take on as many tasks as we can so we don’t have to pay other people.”

He released her hand and put his arm along the back of the sofa. “Can’t believe I’m saying this, but a million dollars is a hell of a lot less money than I thought.”

“But it’s not nothing,” she said. “Maybe we could even take out a loan in the beginning.”

“True.”

She waited. “That’s it? ‘True’?”

He pulled on the corner of a cushion but didn’t look away from her. “You keep saying how we need every last dollar. How it’s not enough. And you—you already did it once. We can never take that back. Once the line is crossed, it’s crossed.”

She watched him closely. To her, a second night was not the same as a first night. It meant sinking deeper into Beau and the way she felt when she was with him, but there was no way of explaining that to Johnny. “What are you saying?”

“I guess that if you look at it from a strictly business point of view—this kind of money for a few hours is unheard of. You’d already know what you were in for. We sort of already broke the seal off this deal.”

“Looking at it from a strictly business point of view makes me feel like a prostitute,” she said flatly. He still hadn’t said no. She couldn’t tell if that was a yes. “Is that how you see me?”

A red splotch appeared on Johnny’s neck. “A prostitute? God, no.” He got off the couch and kneeled in front of her. He took her stiff, tense hands in his warm ones. “If that’s how you feel, of course we won’t do it. What we have now will be enough.” He kissed the backs of her hands. “How did we even get in this mess?”