“Please.”
He poured something clear and slid it toward me. I swallowed it quickly. The burn cut down my throat and hit my stomach like punishment.
It didn’t fix anything.
So I ordered another.
The second one hit harder. It loosened the edge of my panic. It blurred the sharpest corners of my thoughts.
I was halfway across the corridor when I saw them again.
Vince and Rome were moving toward the exit, walking like the building belonged to them. Rome was talking, animated, and Vince listened with that cold attention that made people obey without being asked.
Vince was walking straight at me.
My heart slammed once, hard enough to make my vision tilt.
His gaze lifted and landed on me.
Ten seconds, maybe.
Long enough to acknowledge my presence.
Long enough to look straight through me like I was furniture. Like I was someone he used to know and couldn’t be bothered pretending mattered now.
The air left my lungs so abruptly it felt physical.
I stopped walking. I couldn’t help it.
Rome kept talking like nothing was happening. Vince kept walking.
He passed close enough that I could smell his cologne and my body reacted like it remembered him even if he’d decided he didn’t remember me.
Footsteps clicked behind them.
The women.
They followed at a slower pace, laughing softly.
One of them called out, bright and teasing. “Vince, wait. I have your lighter.”
Vince stopped instantly.
Not for me.
For her.
He turned back, and she walked straight to him. He took the lighter from her hand, fingers closing around it slowly, then his gaze lifted to her face.
A real look.
Focused. Appraising. The kind of look that made the hairs on my arms rise because it wasn’t casual attention, it was intent.
A dom shopping for a sub.
Or worse.
A dom already training one.
