Page 71 of Hard Bargain

Miguel blinked. “Who?”

Cassian only smiled.

Knox’s jaw tightened. “You’re assuming a lot.”

“Am I?”

Before Knox could answer, Cassian straightened, glancing toward the entrance. The teasing expression faded and refined into something more alert. “There,” he murmured.

Knox turned despite himself.

Dominic was already walking toward them.

Oh.

Cassian set his glass down with finality. “Right,” he said brightly, turning to Miguel and Logan. “You two want me to introduce you to some of the girls? Feels like the right moment.”

Logan blinked. “Uh—yeah.”

Miguel hesitated, eyes moving between Dominic and Knox. “You good?”

“I’m good,” he said.

Cassian gave him one last knowing look before steering the other two into the crowd.

That’s when Dominic stopped in front of him. Close enough that Knox could feel the heat of him through the thin space between them. The music still pulsed around them, bodies moved, glasses clinked—but the noise had dulled, like someone had turned the world’s volume down.

He looked exactly as Knox remembered. Sharp suit, open collar, dark stubble framing the hard line of his jaw. The fractured club lights caught against his skin and carved his features into something even more severe. His hazel eyes were fixed on Knox, their intensity unmistakable.

Two weeks.

Two weeks and the tension hadn’t thinned at all. If anything, the absence had concentrated it, distilled it into something Knox felt in his throat and chest and the back of his neck. He became acutely aware of the shirt he’d chosen. The care he’d taken. The fact that Dominic’s gaze had traveled over it.

God.

Dominic didn’t ease into conversation. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s a club,” he replied. “People come here to have a good time.”

Dominic’s jaw shifted, not in amusement. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

Dominic looked at him like the answer should’ve been obvious. “Don’t play dumb. You didn’t walk into my club by accident.”

Knox’s brow twitched, hating that it was true. “You really think everything I do revolves around you?”

“No?” Dominic said. “Then why this place?”

Knox shrugged. “It’s close.”

“There are at least five bars closer to your apartment.”

Knox felt the heat rise before he could stop it. He opened his mouth to deflect, to make light of it—but what came out instead wasn’t calculated at all. “You disappeared for two weeks.”

The words hung there. Knox felt it the second they left his mouth. The mistake. He hadn’t meant to give that much away. To let it show that he’d counted the days, and that the silence had gotten under his skin.

Dominic’s expression iced over. “I was working.”