* * *
Gwen locked herself in the bathroom, dropping the two cups of coffee that she was carrying in the sink. She had just turned the corner to Dominic’s office, when she’d spotted him standing a few feet away talking to Gage. Not wanting to interrupt, she’d stepped back and stayed out of sight as Dominic had teased his friend. The smile that had been on her face had quickly slid away though when she’d heard Gage say her name. The conversation that had followed had been the all too familiar story of her life—with the exception of a possible pregnancy. Apparently, yet another man in her dating life was bored with her and ready to move on to greener pastures.
Why had she let herself begin to believe that they had something more between them? What had she been thinking? A man who looked like Dominic would always get plenty of attention from women. Not only was he handsome and sexy, but he was also charming and kind. And dear heaven, if a woman was lucky enough to discover how talented he was in the bedroom, then she would likely sell her very soul to keep him. What made her think that she could compete?
Dammit, he had led her to believe that he was just as interested in her as she was in him. Okay, maybe she had been the one to initiate sex, but after that, it had been all him. He’d turned into Mr. Wonderful, and she had fallen for it. Now she was convinced there wasn’t a woman around who could hold out when Dominic Brady turned his full attention on them. The ass! This was all his fault. Why couldn’t he have left her alone? So what if they had a condom mishap. He could have told her to call if there were any issues and left it at that. Nooo, he had to continue sexing her up at every opportunity and making her believe that he genuinely cared about her. She was well and truly tired of being treated like she didn’t matter. Maybe the best thing to come out of the overheard conversation this morning was that she could now turn the tables and be one step ahead. She would be the dumper this time and not the dumpee.
Gwen had fully planned to tell Dominic that she’d overheard him talking to Gage, but now she’d changed her mind. Why warn him so that he could just make up some lie to cover his tracks? No, even if it killed her, she would pretend that nothing had changed until she knew for sure whether she was pregnant. By this weekend, she should be able to take a home pregnancy test to answer that question. Of course, if her spotting from the previous day was any indication, she’d say that she wasn’t.
Her sister had called last night to invite her to Peter’s birthday party this weekend, so instead of declining as she’d planned to do, maybe she would go. She could take a test there and then call Dominic while she was out of town and let him know. No, wait. That was too nice. She’d text him. . . . Yeah, that was more impersonal with the added benefit of not having to hear him make small talk while he brushed her off.
Now that she had a plan of action, she only had to get through the rest of the work week without breaking down and begging him to stay. She could do this. She had to. Cleaning the coffee mess out of the sink, she took a few deep breaths and squared her shoulders. She just needed to keep reminding herself that he was no different from the rest. Daniel, the man she had dated before Mac, had broken up with her via e-mail with the standard, “It’s not you, it’s me” spiel. She might have actually bought into that if he hadn’t ended it with, “You’re a great person, Misty.” Needless to say, Gwen had immediately caught on to the fact that her replacement in Daniel’s life was Misty. She hadn’t bothered to call him out on it. What would have been the point? Apparently, her replacement in Dominic’s life was a stripper named Kandi. Just the thought was enough to send a wave of much-needed anger surging through her once again. Ugh, men were pigs!
Gwen stalked back to her office feeling guilty that she had wasted so much time this morning on personal matters. Just as she was reviewing some invoices for approval, there was a tap at her door and a smiling Dominic walked in carrying her morning coffee. Her body went into hyper alert as usual when she saw him before she reminded herself that he was a snake and she shouldn’t be swooning over his masculine beauty. God, this was going to be harder than she thought because she was just addicted to him. She had to focus on how it would feel when he walked away from her. “Hey, babe, got you coffee.” He smiled as he sauntered over to where she was sitting. She pretended not to notice that his mouth was dropping toward hers as she subtly turned her head slightly causing his lips to meet her cheek instead. He gave her a questioning look to which she just smiled brightly.