The Almighty Dominance novel Chapter 727

"Wait!"

David's voice cracked on the word, urgency spilling past whatever composure he'd meant to keep. He caught up in three long strides, positioning himself square in their path.

"You think I'm finished." He looked past Wren, straight at Alex now, all pretense of subtlety gone.

"What rank is that hound of yours, really? I've heard whispers it's a random street dog."

His eyes swept over Alex's plain clothes, deliberately, cruelly slow. "And what family raised you, exactly? Because I don't see one wealthy enough to sit across from a Calder heir at dinner, let alone stand beside her at a banquet like this."

His mouth twisted. "We both know what this really is. You found a rich, lonely woman, and you're living soft off her pity. Eating from her hand like a man with no pride left to speak of."

Alex didn't look angry. If anything, he looked faintly amused, the way a man looks at a joke that's landed badly for the person telling it.

"Living well because a woman's rich is its own kind of skill," he said, easy, unhurried. "Takes some luck. Helps if women actually like you, too."

He tilted his head, considering David the way you'd consider a puzzle that wasn't especially hard to solve. "But here's what I don't get. You've got the money. The name. The family everyone's supposed to be impressed by. And somehow, not one woman in this district wants anything to do with you."

A small, almost sympathetic shrug. "So which is it? The ugly face? The bad attitude? Or is there something a little smaller than expected under your pants, under all that wealth that even your father's money can't fix?"

The silence that followed had weight to it.

Wern burst out laughing right in front of David.

David's mouth opened. Nothing came out. Whatever he'd rehearsed on the way over here hadn't accounted for this, and it showed in the color climbing up his neck.

Wren didn't wait for him to recover.

She tightened her grip on Alex's hand and pulled him past David without a backward glance, leaving him standing there with his mouth still working uselessly around words that refused to arrive.

“You’re so bad,” Wern said with a giggle.

...

Jennifer found them almost as soon as they'd cleared the entrance, and whatever composure she'd been holding onto since the yard didn't survive the sight of Wren's hand still laced through his.

"So that's what this was." Her voice was quiet, controlled in the specific way that meant it was costing her something to keep it that way.

“You’re quitting Warden duty because you want a clear path to her. You found the woman you want to attach yourself to, and now you’re settling in.” Jennifer looked at Alex with clear irritation.

"It's not like that." Alex smiled at her — easy, careless, deliberately thin. "Wren's a lot more beautiful than you, though, so sure. I'll stick with her."

He said it the way a man says something he wants believed at face value — flat, shallow, exactly rude enough to make himself easy to walk away from.

If Jennifer decided he wasn't worth the trouble after that, so much the better.

That was the plan, anyway.

It didn't work the way he expected.

Whatever he'd meant to kill in her only seemed to sharpen it.

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