Page 89 of Playing the Backbeat

“Okay, later,” he agrees, nodding to himself while he takes another bite of his meal. “But like…you two areintimate?” he asks around a bite of food.

“Ew, please don’t say intimate.”

“What do you want me to say? That you two are banging?”

“I don’t like that either,” I say. That makes it sound like that’s all it is.

“Okay, well excuse the fuck out of me and the fucking semantics, but you’re not giving me anything to work with here,” he complains.

“I don’t need you to work with anything. I need you to keep this under wraps until I figure out how to tell Dee about the apartment.”

“Oh.” He nods, pursing his lips. “Gotcha. We don’t know how she’s going to take the news, so we need to deliver it delicately. I’m with you.”

I laugh at his very well-meaning intentions. It’s who Dom is, but for the love of God, I don’t want him anywhere near this conversation I need to have with Dee.

“Just let me handle it, okay?”

“Okay, but if you need me, I’m here.”

“I know. Thanks, man.”

“You’re here for what?” Jake asks loudly across the table.

“Yeah, what’s all that whispering about over there?” Chris asks, pointing between Dom and me with his fork.

“Oooooh, you boys got secrets?” Ellie pipes up, leaning her head over Dom’s shoulder to look between us. “Spill.”

“Dylan has to go to the bathroom. It’s an emergency,” Dom blurts out.

Well, if it isn’t karma coming to haunt me from date night with Dee. Hate to see that manifest so quickly, but here we are.

“I hate you,” I mutter quietly so only Dom can hear me.

“You love me,” he whispers, slapping a hand onto my shoulder. “Bathroom’s that way, champ,” he says loudly, pointing me in the direction of the restrooms.

I stand, because at this point, I can’t disagree with him without having to explain what’s really going on. I walk to the bathroom and return quickly, not wanting anyone to think too much about Dom’s bullshit excuse for me leaving the table.

We’re all leaving dinner and walking to the area designated for live music and dancing when Dee pulls me to the side.

“Is my midnight booty call being derailed?” she asks me quietly. “Dominic made it sound like you’re out of commission.”

I’m going to kill him.

“Nope. I’m good. Really good. Ready and waiting to answer that call.”

She laughs. “Then what was that all about?”

“I don’t know. He was being really weird tonight, don’t you think?” Ugh, I feel slimy as shit not coming clean, but my instincts are telling me that this apartment becoming available is going to be a problem. It’s going to force us to havetheconversation we’ve been avoiding, and I don’t know if either of us is ready for it. But I only have so much time…

“Good, because I had plans for you,” she says, grabbing me by the front of my shirt and pulling me to the side of the building, off the pathway and between large grass plants hiding us from view.

“What kind of plans did you—Jesus Christ.” Every thought…every ounce of anxiety vacates my body at the sight of Dee dropping to her knees, unbuckling my belt, and pulling my dickfree from my shorts. “Holy fucking shit,” I groan as she sucks me deep into the back of her throat. I place one hand at the crown of her head, reveling in every glide, every pass she makes, taking me deeper into her mouth.

She pops off my dick and whispers, “You looked hot as fuck during dinner and I didn’t want to wait anymore.” The smirk she gives me before licking the crown of my cock has me threading my fingers through her hair and gripping the strands gently enough it won’t hurt her, but enough so that I can control her movements if I wanted to. She smiles around my dick before deep throating me again and again.

We both know who’s in charge right now, and it sure as fuck isn’t me.

“Dylan, you all right?” Jake calls out.