“Ivy.” He crouched down in front of her. The look in her eyes was like cold water being thrown at him. He was a prick.
Her tear-streaked face shattered his heart. “Come home with me. I know that was bad. We can talk about it and work through it.”
He caught the raised eyebrow from Ella before she glanced away.
“You’re welcome to stay here or even at our house tonight if you need some space.”
“I’m not going to hurt her, Ella,” Gabe sneered.
“I didn’t say you were, Mr. Arthur,” Ella said. “I was only offering space.”
Ivy shook her head. “Ella, thanks. I’m okay. I would prefer to go home.”
“Call me if you need to, Ivy, anytime.” Ella patted her shoulder.
“Thanks,” Ivy said.
She took his offered arm, and Gabe led her through the club, ignoring the attempts at small talk from the Doms he knew, glad that maybe not everyone had seen their scene. No one mentioned it.
He waited for Ivy to change and grab her bag.
“Want to go for a beer tomorrow night?” Nick clapped him on the shoulder.
Gabe shrugged off his touch and shook him off. “No.”
“Okay, you know I’m here if you need me.”
Gabe ran his hand through his hair, exhaling. “I had dinner with my brother and father before coming here tonight.”
“Oh man, Gabe. You should have gone to the gym, not here.”
“I’m tired of people telling me what I should and shouldn’t do,” he muttered.
“Hey, you can jump out of a helicopter if you want.” Nick raised his eyebrows.
“Fuck you,” Gabe said. Nick knew how he felt about helicopters. “But maybe I do need to do that.”
“Let me know about that beer,” Nick said as Ivy came out of the dressing room. “Ivy, take care, eh?”
“Thanks,” she mumbled.
“Let’s go.” Gabe held the door open for her, and they stepped into the rainy night.
“That’s the first time that he’s spoken to me.”
“Yeah. I think he took your betrayal hard.”
“Betrayal?” Ivy spun around, her voice rising in disbelief.
“That’s what it felt like, Ivy. Not just to me, but to all the Bandit Brothers. Your post could have harmed us all.”
Her face scrunched up, and her hands came into fists. “But it didn’t, Gabe. This… tonight was supposed to cement our fresh start, and instead… I don’t know what that was tonight, but it wasn’t a scene.”
Gabe swallowed. “It was a scene, Ivy. Maybe I could have done more or better or made it longer, and yeah, I got mad for a moment, but we did it. Isn’t that what counts?”
Ivy shook her head. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
His heart dove to the ground. He hugged her, kissing her forehead. “You were right, okay? Tonight wasn’t the best night for us to do this scene. Let’s go home. We can talk more about the contract.”
