Free Craving HIM (Serving HIM Vol. 7) by M. S. Parker, Cassie Wild Page A

going to balk at what I was going to say next. “But this is my treat. I’m paying tonight.”
    Dominic ran his tongue along his teeth as he studied me. We’d argued over money before. Okay, maybe it wasn’t an argument, but when I’d come to work for him, he’d been dismissive of my protests over him paying for my wardrobe. That had been work though, and while I still had issues regarding paying for things, that had been business. This was different. I wasn’t struggling anymore and I could afford to buy him a dinner for his birthday.
    “This is important to you, isn’t it?” He took my hand and rubbed his thumb over the back of it.
    “Yes.”
    He nodded. “Okay, Aleena. Buy me dinner.”
    I would have said something else, but somebody I didn't know stopped by the table. As the stranger's eyes kept straying to me, I decided I didn’t want to know him.
    Fortunately, after less than two minutes of small talk, Dominic said, “Anthony, I hate to be rude, but Aleena and I are here for a late celebration of my birthday. I promised her I wouldn’t be talking business.”
    “Of course.” He slid me a look, his eyes dropping to linger on my breasts. “Aleena. A pleasure.”
    He lost himself in the crowd while next to me, I heard Dominic made a low, angry noise in his throat.
    Shit. He’d noticed.
    “Son of a bitch,” he muttered. He started to push back from the table.
    I placed a hand on his arm. “Please don’t.” Looking over at him, I managed a weak smile. “I have to deal with men staring at my tits fairly often. It’s annoying, but when you’re a woman who's...built like me, you deal with it. I don’t want you getting into a fight because some asshole's a letch.”
    His muscles vibrated under my arm, but after a long moment, he nodded.
    After a few awkward seconds, we slipped into familiar small talk and I sipped from the glass of wine until the knot in my belly relaxed.
    When I finally put the now-empty glass down, I looked up and caught a woman across the room staring at me.
    The moment our eyes locked, she looked away. After a few seconds, I looked away as well, but from the corner of my eye, I saw her lean over and say something to the man with her. He glanced at me, then Dominic and snorted, waving a dismissive hand.
    My gut began to crawl. I didn’t have to hear her to know she was talking about me. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence for me.
    “Mr. Snow.”
    I looked up as the server approached and put a plate in front of us. A few minutes ago, the bruschetta would have been more than welcome. I hadn’t eaten much today, but now I wasn’t very hungry. I took the piece Dominic offered though, smiling at him as I lifted it to my lips.
    It was very good and I slowly ate the one piece, concentrating on the man in front of me instead of the woman I’d seen staring at me.
    I might have done okay, might have gotten through the meal just fine, as long as I kept watching Dominic. But his eyes kept straying off to the side. Unable to resist, I glanced backward and surprise jolted through me at the woman I saw sitting off to my left.
    I knew her.
    She was a friend of Penelope’s. I couldn’t remember her name, assuming I’d ever known it, but she’d been out with Penelope the day I’d tried to go shopping for some new clothes, and Penelope had all but had me thrown out of the shops. Max had been there to save me, bringing Dominic’s name up and the women running the store had looked like they’d had their mouths stuffed with rotten fish.
    Now, Penelope's friend was looking at me and laughing. As I stared hard at her, she leaned over and whispered something to one of the others with her and the entire table broke out into laughter. Though I couldn’t hear it, I imagined I could. I'd spent enough time getting laughed at to imagine pretty well.
    Jerking back around, I stared at Dominic, my face hot. I was blushing. I knew I was. Embarrassment churned inside me, although I had no idea why. I