Chapter 105: Red Roses

He said his goodbyes and left. Dorian walked toward the Mercedes, but his mind stayed behind in that living room.

Raymond Bennett.

Obsessive.

Controlling.

Jealous.

Dorian unlocked the car and stopped beside it.

Yeah.

Maybe he had been a son of a bitch too. He didn’t like the comparison. He thought back to his argument with Naomi.

Jesus Christ.

Dorian opened the driver’s door and got in. She had been right. Naomi was not responsible for Lillian.

She was not responsible for every lie he had swallowed, every betrayal he had missed, every moment another woman had made him feel stupid for trusting her.

And she certainly didn’t deserve to be punished for any of it.

Dorian started the engine. He needed to apologize. On the way home, he checked the neighbourhood for an open flower shop.

*****

Naomi heard the shuffle outside her bedroom door late that night. She sat up quickly and wiped beneath her eyes, suddenly very aware that she had been crying again. She straightened her shoulders and waited for the knock.

It didn’t come. Instead, there was silence for a few seconds, followed by the sound of footsteps retreating down the hallway.

Naomi frowned. She stayed seated for a moment, staring at the door. The entire day had been too much.

The horrible look on Tessa’s face when Naomi finally told her the truth. Then there was Dorian and this ridiculous distance between them.

And if that wasn’t enough, Callum had offered to clear all her debts. One million dollars immediately, with the rest apparently waiting behind it.

Naomi pressed both hands over her face. It was exhausting. Everything felt like it wanted an answer from her at the same time. She got out of bed and paced the room. She hated this weirdness between them.

It stung more than she wanted to admit. They were supposed to be above petty jealousy and possessive arguments. They had rules for exactly this reason. An entire contract designed to keep everything neat, controlled and temporary.

They needed to talk. She also needed to tell him that there was now a very real chance their arrangement could become public.

That conversation was probably going to make Dorian even angrier.

Naomi sighed and opened the bedroom door then nearly tripped. "What the—" She looked down.

A huge bouquet sat carefully outside her door.

Red roses.

Dozens of them.

Deep, rich red blooms packed tightly together, softened with sprays of delicate white baby’s breath and wrapped in dark paper.

She bent and picked up the bouquet. It was heavier than she expected and gorgeous. Naomi felt the smile trying to appear and immediately fought it. She was not going to get light-headed because a man bought her flowers.

Very beautiful flowers.

Flowers certainly did not magically fix whatever strange thing was happening between them.

Naomi buried her nose briefly in the roses anyway. Then she caught herself. "Oh, for God’s sake." She adjusted the bouquet in her arms, stepped into the hallway and closed her bedroom door behind her.

Whatever happened next, they needed to talk.

Naomi knocked lightly on his bedroom door when she got to the floor of his room. "It’s me."

A second later, the door opened. Dorian stood there with a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Hi..." she said.

Dorian’s eyes immediately dropped to the flowers in her arms. She was holding the bouquet close to her chest, like there was absolutely no possibility she intended to give it back. His gaze lifted to her face.

Her eyes were swollen.

"Have you been crying?"

Naomi opened her mouth. Dorian didn’t give her the chance to answer.

"What? Did I..." He frowned. "I’m sorry. I’m sorry, okay? I thought you needed some distance from me. I didn’t want to keep pushing after what happened, and I know what I said was—"

That was when he noticed the expression on her face. Naomi was staring at him with her lips pressed together, visibly fighting something.

Dorian narrowed his eyes. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Her mouth twitched. His brows pulled together.

"Our fight isn’t what made you cry, is it?"

Naomi shook her head. The laugh she had been trying to suppress almost escaped.

"Right." He dragged a hand down his face. "I’m becoming you. Talking without asking questions first."

A small laugh escaped her.

"You find this funny, but this is concerning." He stepped back and opened the door wider. "Come in. What’s going on?"

Naomi entered. She looked down at the bouquet. "Thank you for the flowers."

Dorian glanced at them. "Yeah."

"They’re beautiful."

"I just thought I should do something so you do not forget I exist."

She tightened her arms around the flowers. "I like them."

"So, what happened?"

Naomi’s smile faded. This was the part she had been avoiding. "You’re going to be mad."

"Okay..."

"Our contract is at risk of exposure."

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Okay. What’s the situation?"

"Jordan threatened to expose the contract if I tell Tessa about his affair."

"I thought you said you were only going to..." Dorian began.

"Yeah, yeah. I found the same woman in his office." Naomi cut him off because she already knew exactly what he was about to ask.

"So you told her."

Naomi nodded then waited and waited. She had come upstairs fully prepared for Dorian to lose his mind. The contract was private. Extremely private. Its existence protected both of them from the humiliation that would come with the public discovering that their very real marriage was operating under a six-month expiry date.

Dorian simply stood there. Naomi frowned. "What... what’s going on?"

"What?"

"I thought..." She studied his face suspiciously. "Aren’t you mad?"

Dorian looked genuinely confused. "Why would I be?"

Was this the same man who had nearly developed an aneurysm because Callum Sterling escorted her home?

"So, let me get this straight." She pointed between them. "You get mad about the fidelity clause I didn’t break, but you do not get mad about the confidentiality clause I did break?"

Okay.

Good point.

A very good point, actually.

What was he supposed to do now? Pretend to be angry? It was too late for that, wasn’t it? He could hardly start pacing and shouting retroactively just so his reactions appeared logically consistent.

"You’re giving me whiplash, Dorian."

"The confidentiality clause can be handled," he argued weakly but she seemed to buy it.

Naomi carefully placed the bouquet on his dresser, then turned back to him. "Would you please put on a shirt? You’re positively distracting."

"Then you shouldn’t have come when I was about to shower. You couldn’t wait a couple more minutes, could you? I think you were hoping to see me naked."

"I have seen you naked."

"Familiarity has not diminished the experience."

Naomi narrowed her eyes at him. "Does this arrogance pay your bills?"

Dorian smiled to himself. He’d missed this. This stupid banter and back and forth between them. "Actually, Trouble... it does." He said it with entirely too much satisfaction before walking back toward the bed.

Naomi rolled her eyes. "Can we focus?" she asked.

"Go on."

"Okay. I told Tessa what happened despite Jordan’s threats, and well... I don’t know if he meant it or not, but..."

"You don’t want to sit back and hope for the best," Dorian finished for her.

Naomi nodded. "Yes."

Jordan might have been bluffing. He might have been desperate and angry and throwing out whatever threat he thought would stop her.

Or he might actually expose the contract. And considering the amount of press Dorian had already endured over this marriage, Naomi wasn’t particularly interested in discovering which possibility was true by waking up one morning to headlines about their six-month arrangement.

"Do you want me to handle it?"

Naomi shook her head immediately. "No. This is personal. But I don’t know what to do either," she admitted.

"Never give in to threats, Naomi. Never. Don’t let anyone threaten you into submission," he continued. "There is always a punch somewhere. You just have to find it and land it. Negotiate with the devil if you must, but do not give in. Find a weapon and hit back harder."

"What would you do?" she asked.

Dorian smiled. That smile immediately made Naomi suspicious. "I use the rule two can play this game. Frequently." He folded his arms across his chest. "Use what you know about him to beat him into submission too."

"You make everything sound criminal."

"Occupational contamination." Dorian continued. "What does he love? What does he fear? What is he good at? What can he not afford to lose?"

Naomi’s eyes widened. "His job!"

"Great place to start."

Then he paused.

"But I’m not sure how that will work."

Naomi was already thinking faster now. "The woman he is having an affair with works at his job." She pointed at him excitedly as the idea fully formed. "I saw the hotel logo on the shirt she was wearing. So I’m sure that is an HR visit kind of thing."