Blackstone Inc. (Book 1)

Part 53

I laughed in disbelief, "I can't not worry about it, Preston. They're painting me out to be this slut who went from sleeping with my boss to sleeping with his brother. My face is on the cover and my name is in the article. I'll be forever associated with this."

"We can come out as a couple if you want. That might make headlines," he said quietly.

I didn't hear any more chatter in the background so he must've been out of the airport now.

"No, it's fine. I don't want you in my drama. I'll fix it myself," I huffed.

I finally opened my eyes and saw Dominic still looking at me. I knew he was listening in on my phone call and I didn't care. He was partially to blame for the mess I was in.

"If you say so, sweetheart. Let me know if there's anything you want me to do. Are you okay now," Preston asked, his voice full of concern.

A small smile formed on my face and I realized that I missed him.

"Yeah. I'm okay now. I guess I just needed to talk it through with you. Thanks, Preston."

"Anytime, Kitten. Listen, I'm at the office now so I'll talk to you later, okay? Remember, 4:25."

I dropped my voice to a whisper, "Yes, Daddy. I'll talk to you later."

I set my phone on the corner of my desk and breathed out a sigh.

"You know, they say that 'fixing' an issue like self-image in the media is sure to hurt you more than help," I heard Dominic state from his desk.

His head was down again, a pen in his fingers scratching against the paper on his desk.

"What do you mean? I'll just lie and say I wasn't sleeping with you because you're just my boss and that I haven't slept with Preston because that part is the truth. What could go wrong with that?"

'Famous last words.'

He pushed his chair back and stood up, making his way across the office and stopped to lean his hip against the edge of my desk.

"You really think that women caught up in affairs haven't tried to come forward and say, "Oh no, I wasn't sleeping with him. They're just 'this and that' to me"?

"It always comes to light, Genevieve. It's better to tell the truth. It's, honestly, better to not say anything at all and just let it go away on its own, but with you being so...headstrong like you are, I'm sure you'll go and get yourself into something," he said matter-of-factly.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "You want me to go in front of the world, basically, and admit that I was sleeping with you? You want everyone to know what a slut I was for you? You want me to make my own life hell because I decided to get shit faced and allowed Preston to bring me home? How is that fair to me?"

Dominic shook his head, "I don't want you to do anything. I want you to stop talking to Preston and forget about everything that's happened over the past few days. I want you to just stop trying to do things for once and just let me fix it for us.

"I'm trying my hardest to find a way out of this so that we can be together and you're making it difficult by backing me into a corner. I'm fucking things up with Jasmine for you when I need to go about it rationally."

Had I heard him right?

Had he really just had the audacity to say that I made him claim me in front of Jasmine? Had he lost his mind?

I stood up and lifted my chin in defiance.

"Dominic, you are never going to leave her for me, so why would you even try this hard? You must know that Preston is better for me than you. You must know that I can be myself with hi—"

"—You can be yourself with me, Genevieve. I've never once hindered you from acting out in any way you wanted with me."

I laughed in disbelief and folded my arms across my body, "You punished and scolded me any time I said or did the wrong thing! You only want me sexually, Dominic! You don't want to get to know me, you don't want to see my baby photos, you don't want to learn what my dads' favorite football team is, you don't want to see the places I use to hang out when I was young—"

"—And you think Preston does? He's just like me—no, he's worse than me, Genevieve! He's calculating, manipulative, controlling, vindictive, and dangerous! The 'nice guy' act is just that-- an act, a mask, a facade!

"He doesn't like you, he doesn't give a shit about anything other than using you to get to me, and then when he gets what he wants he'll leave and I know this because I've seen it happen! I promise you, Princess, I know him far better than you do. I've had to live beside him my whole life and I was glad when I was able to get away from him."

I shook my head.

There was no way any of that was true. The Preston that Dominic was talking about isn't the one who came with me to my parents' house. The Preston he's talking about isn't the one who respected me enough to still want to wait to have sex with me until we got to know each other better.

"You're just jealous that he's got me and you don't! You've already shown that you'll do just about anything to have me back and now that you see I won't come crawling back to you, you're going to try to defame your brother so that I'll leave him too?

"You're a real piece of work, Dominic, and I can't believe I ever thought I could love you. You have no idea what love even is and you never will. Please grow up and realize that the world doesn't revolve arou—"

And then he kissed me.