Page 131 of The Blame Game

“I—I don’t know off the top of my head but there must be something. Maybe—maybe not seeing each other anymore. If Audra and I go away—”

But Dom shook his head. “We know that won’t work. This is the only solution.”

“Dom’s right,” Kate said. “At this point, we’re well past any other options that I laid out previously and I can’t think of any others.”

Shea took a deep breath. “Can we speak in private for a minute, Dom?”

“Sure. Please give us a few,” Dom said to Audra and Kate. He rose to his feet.

Shea followed him into the bedroom, feeling sick as he shut the door behind them. “Dom, you can’t do this!”

Dom crossed his arms. “Can’t I?”

“No, of course you can,” Shea conceded. “But you shouldn’t. This is—I know how much you value your privacy! I can’t ask you to do this.”

“You aren’t asking. I offered.”

“Yes, but …” Shea sputtered, unsure of what to say. How to make Dom understand. “I don’t want this for you, Dom. I don’t.”

“Hey, I know that.” Dom’s hard, closed-off expression softened. “I know you would never ask me to do that. If there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that. You would never force me out of the closet.”

“Not for anything,” Shea whispered. “Not even to save myself.”

Dom stepped forward, grasping Shea’s upper arms. Shea wanted to press closer, feel the heat of Dom’s body against his own, reassure himself with Dom’s touch, but he hesitated, settling for resting his hands on Dom’s chest.

What did this mean? This gesture of Dom’s, was it a declaration of his feelings? Or something else?

Dom looked Shea in the eye and reached out, cupping his cheek. “I trust you, Shea. And there are precious few people who I feel that way about.”

“I know that,” Shea whispered.

“And this isn’t the way I wanted my life to go. I wanted to retire without having to make a big splashy announcement or, hell, end up in JockGossip at all. But this is where we’re at. And I don’t see any other way around it.”

Shea swallowed thickly because he didn’t either.

Dom let his hand fall away but he stayed close, still looking him in the eye. “I don’t want this gossip to jeopardize your work at the clinic.”

“I know. And I don’t want that either,” Shea admitted thickly. “I love my work. I—I enjoyed sex work. I was good at it, but physiotherapy is my passion.”

“I know.” Dom squeezed his arms. “And I’m sure this would be rough personally for you, too.”

“Yeah.” Shea looked away, glancing out the windows overlooking the water. “My friends and my sister would probably understand. But my parents and I have had such a difficult relationship and we just got to a better place and I—I would hate to risk that.”

“I would hate to risk that for you too.”

Shea looked at him again, torn. “But you being forced out of the closet, Dom … that’s a huge price for you to pay.”

“Yeah, well.” He let out a rough laugh. “The PR scandal of hiring an escort of any gender wouldn’t exactly be a picnic either.”

“Oh,” Shea said. He hadn’t thought about that part of it. “True.”

“Hey, look at me,” Dom coaxed.

Shea looked into his eyes, taking in the fine stress lines around the corners and wanting to reach out and smooth them away with his thumb. But he didn’t, too unsure of where they stood.

Dom continued, his voice low and earnest. “I would weather that PR scandal if it meant keeping you safe though. Protecting you from the repercussions of the gossip.”

“Dom,” Shea said, shocked, not knowing what else to say to that. What did that mean?

---