Internally, I laughed, surprised it had taken him this long to bring him up. “What about him?”
“Who is he?”
I paused, panting as I smirked. “God, it’s fucking killing you not to know, isn’t it?”
“It is.” He frowned. “I hate that there’s anything Idon’t know about you, much less about someone who’s clearly important to you.”
My fists flew again. “And whose fault is that?”
“Mine,” Dom said steadily. “I’m not disputing that.”
Such simple words, but they knocked my world off-kilter. Enough so that I found myself answering his initial question. “Xander lived in the room next to me at uni. We became house mates after first year and lived together in York before he joined up. I moved home after that.”
“What service?”
“Navy.”
“Figures.” Dom rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me—he’s a Royal Marine?”
I’d never understood the bitter rivalry between the different service branches. I unstrapped my gloves, giving the task far more focus than it deserved. “Not that it matters, but yeah, he is.”
“Knew it.” Dom gave me an innocent smile. “What instrument does he play?”
I frown, not understanding the question. “What?”
“Never mind.” Dom laughed under his breath. “I’ll ask him when we meet. Fair warning, he might punch me for it.”
“Oh, he’d punch you alright,” I said darkly. The two of them couldn’t meet. Not when Xander’s temper could give Dom’s a run for its money. “But not because of that.”
Dom’s jaw tightened. “He knows about us.”
“Everything,” I said curtly. “Xander’s my best friend. He’s the one who picked up my pieces after you broke them. He put me back together. Without him, I don’t know where I’d be today.”
I went to walk away, but a hand on my wrist stopped me. I looked over my shoulder to see a veritable storm in Dom’s eyes. “Is Xanderjustyour friend?”
“Now he is.” I gave him a cruel smile I hadn’t known I was capable of. “We realised after fucking a few times that we were better off as friends.”
Dom dropped my arm and took a step back. The widening of his eyes had me wishing I could recall my words. Why the fuck had I rubbed that in his face?
He hurt me. It’s only fair.
Was it? Dominic hadn’t planned on hurting me. He hadn’t realised what the consequences of his actions would be.
But I’d meant to hurt him. I’d known exactly what effect revealing that information would have.
I hadn’t realised it would hurt me too. Dominic didn’t do a single thing to hide the pain in his eyes. A pit opened in my stomach as his throat bobbed. God, I wanted to curl up and die. What the fuck was wrong with me?
“Dom—”
“It’s fine,” he said quickly, raking a hand through his hair. The pit in my stomach widened as I saw how it shook. “We weren’t together. I have no right to be upset.”
He didn’t. But he was.
Maybe I was weak, but I drew closer to him, my voice dropping low. “Xander is my friend. Yes, we hooked up, but that was many years ago. It never meant anything.”
Not like with us.Those were the words I left unsaid.
I thought he heard them anyway.