Page 5 of Best In Class (Savannah's Best #7)

Luna

I t’s been a month of… torture .

Of being close to Dom.

Of working with him.

Of fighting with him.

Of being in awe of his brilliance as an architect.

Of wanting him.

Of…losing my mind around him.

Since Dom came back to Savannah—there hasn’t been anyone else. I can’t seem to be able to get my gonads to listen to me when Dom is around. He’s like a drug for me.

Why did he have to cheat on me? Seriously ! Anything else I could forgive and maybe even forget, but he was fucking another woman! My heart is still hurting from that wound.

My father cheats on my mother. Still .

They’ve been married forever, and he sleeps around. It’s like an incurable disease. And my mother pretends it’s not happening. She takes her Xanax, her bottle of wine, and whatever else her doctor has prescribed, and wanders through life like a freaking zombie.

Jenn Steele checked out of being a wife, mother, and human a long time ago. She just couldn’t handle the devastation of loving a man more than he loves her. I promised myself I would not be her.

I will not be my mama . The frail ghost who laughs too hard at my father’s unfunny jokes, and looks away when everyone in Savannah knows he’s got a new side piece.

My father—the great Nathaniel Steele—is a prick, and then some. He nearly squandered the generational wealth handed to him on a silver platter. If it weren’t for Lev and me using the trust funds he couldn’t touch, there wouldn’t be a Steele Corporation any longer.

The company now sustainably manages vast tracts of southern pine and hardwood forests—thanks to Lev.

And while our father still holds a few shares and reaps the benefits, the only reason he can afford the life he leads—living on the estate, funding his mistresses—is because Lev allows it.

Lev pays for both his life and our mother’s.

I avoid my parents. Both of them.

Lev still sees them, mostly because he can’t bring himself to abandon our mother.

I had to. I couldn’t keep watching her dissipate into nothingness, slowly vanish under the weight of pills, silence, and disappointment.

She became just another casualty of the rich and callous men that Savannah society was built to protect.

She was once elegant, sharp, even loving in her brittle way. But years married to my father hollowed her out until all that was left was a beautiful ghost, drifting through cocktail parties and prescription refills.

I love her, but it’s in the way you love someone who stopped choosing you a long time ago.

So, I walked away.

Because watching her fade while my father continues to win will eventually break me.

I know it.

Forgiving Dom, accepting that he cheated on me, will also break me.

I know it.

As tempting as it is to fall back into old patterns with Dom—to let him be my home, especially when he calls me Moonbeam—I can’t. I won’t. Because I refuse to become Jennifer Steele. I refuse to become my mother’s daughter.

Which, of course, means Dom and I clash. Hard. At every opportunity.

Just yesterday, we met to finalize the blueprints, and if Stella hadn’t held me back, I might have punched him. It didn’t help that, once I’d cooled off and actually reviewed his notes with a clear head, I realized every single one of his suggestions made perfect sense.

The man is fucking with my head!

I’m cool at work; I get the job done with no nerves. Steele is not just a last name but part of my identity. Enter Dom, and I’m a mass of contradictions.

Maybe I need to get laid, I think as I go into Nina’s office. My boss and friend has summoned me. I think I know what this is about.

“Close the door,” Nina instructs without looking up from her laptop.

She’s perched behind her minimalist desk, wearing a navy silk blouse and a power bun. Savannah Lace’s glass-walled conference room might have been designed for intimidation, but Nina owns it like a throne room.

The CEO of Savannah Lace is so sharp that she could slice through drywall.

I push the door shut and sit across from her.

Nina peers at me over the rim of her reading glasses, the kind of look that means trouble’s coming. “Care to explain why the two lead architects on the most high-profile project in Savannah are also starring in what appears to be a slow-burn workplace rom-com?”

I inhale sharply and let it out in an exasperated huff. “What on earth are you talking about?”

She doesn’t even blink. “Drop the ‘who, me?’ routine. I’m talking about you and Dom Calder.”

I open my mouth to protest, but she cuts me off with a raised hand.

“I’ve already been asked,” she continues smoothly, “if we’re the kind of firm that lets lovers squabble over blueprints.” She pauses, tilting her head. “Their words. Not mine.”

I roll my eyes. “Stella is tattling, isn’t she?”

Nina doesn’t even break a smile. “Stella would never tattle. ”

She’s confirming what I know. Stella is worried about me, not because of the project but because she knows how I feel about Dom, and she’s asked Nina to run interference and make sure I’m doing okay .

This is the problem with working with your friends; they interfere in your life and call it a work meeting.

“Right.” I send her a flat, unimpressed stare. “Dom and I are not squabbling.”

Nina raises an eyebrow.

“We’re collaborating… loudly .”

She leans back. “We all know your history with Dom. Hell, we could draw a family tree of the drama, and what I’m hearing is probably the tip of the iceberg.”

“You’re so mixing your metaphors,” I retort dryly.

“If you can’t work with Dom, I need to know.”

I stick my tongue out at her.

She sighs. “Very mature.”

I do it again.

“I need y’all to remember something,” Nina says, her voice sharpening. “This is not a dating service. This is a goddamn architectural powerhouse. And you are one of the finest talents here. Don’t let personal ghosts compromise that.”

I wave a hand. “Sure.”

“Luna,” she warns.

I stretch out, arms behind my head. “I’m fine, I promise.”

“Good. Because you’ve got something to prove. Not to them,” she says, gesturing vaguely toward the outside world, “ but to yourself. And I won’t let you blow that over some man who?—”

The door opens without even a perfunctory knock.

“ Cara , Luna, am I interrupting?” Diego Perez asks, grinning. His shirt is open at the collar, sunglasses hooked into the front, and his stubble’s at that dangerous level—just shy of intentional.

Nina glares at him. “I said twelve-thirty.”

“It’s twelve-twenty-nine.” He shrugs. The man is sex on wheels, and honestly, it’s the cutest thing I’ve seen—him wooing the hard as concrete Nina Davenport.

“You’re interrupting an ass reaming,” I say sweetly.

He chuckles. “Then I guess I’m doing you a favor by stealing your boss for lunch. She works too hard, and I like it when she eats.”

Nina sighs, grabs her bag, and stands. “I’ll be back in an hour.”

As she passes me, I grin. “Remember, Nina. This is a workplace. Not a dating service.”

“Bite me,” she says over her shoulder.

“Real mature, Nina, real mature,” I call out, to which there is no response but the slamming of her office door.

I find Lia and Aurora in the break room, snacking on cheddar cheese gougères that Mira Bodine, our resident culinary genius who runs the cafeteria, is having them taste.

“These are awesome,” Aurora declares.

“I think I need to eat at least three more to be honest about how I feel.” Lia grabs a gougère and pops it into her mouth .

I snort. “Gimme.”

Mira smiles broadly and holds up a plate. I take one and eat it, and then another. “These are terrific.”

“Lots of cheddar, a little bit of Indian spices,” Mira declares proudly.

“Question,” I ask all the women, “Are Diego and Nina dating?”

Aurora nods thoughtfully. “He says they are, she says they’re friends.”

“He’s so smitten,” Mira says, amused.

“The other day, I saw her hair all mussed up after he left her office,” Lia adds to the gossip.

“Does Sam know?” I sit next to Aurora.

Nina’s ex, Samuel Brennan, is an asshole of the highest order.

When she divorced him and dragged his adultery into court, it caused a full-blown scandal in Savannah—one Sam still hasn’t forgiven her for.

If Sam finds out she’s in a relationship, that too with a younger man who looks hot as hell, he’s going to lose his damn mind.

Thankfully, their daughter, Bianca, is old enough now to see through her father’s bullshit.

And even though Nina will saw off her own tongue with a rusty knife before saying one bad word about Sam to her daughter, Bianca isn’t stupid.

She knows exactly what’s what. She loves her father, but she knows who he is.

Aurora shrugs. “Savannah is a small town, and Diego isn’t exactly being discreet.”

Lia nods in agreement. “He told Sebastian that he was in love with Nina. ”

My heart warms for my friend. Nina deserves all the happiness in the world. She’s an amazing woman, boss, mother, friend…and she should have a man with her who worships her, not Sam fucking Brennan who cheated on her throughout their marriage.

What is it with men not being able to control their pecker?