Page 44 of Careless Whisper (Modern Vintage Romances #11)

Luna

I was twenty when Dominic Calder taught me my most valuable lesson.

Never love someone more than they love you.

I would’ve followed him anywhere back then—New York, Dubai, into fire, if he asked.

I was standing on the edge of my future, ready to chase after architecture schools that didn’t care about my last name or my family’s money.

He didn’t ask me to follow. He told me to stay.

Dom Calder didn’t just break my heart. He broke me .

Now he’s back. And I’m supposed to work side-by-side with him like none of that ever happened?

I park my bike in front of Savannah Lace’s offices and give myself a full sixty seconds to breathe.

Deep. Even. Controlled. The way Dr. Monica Ryan, my therapist, taught me, after I got into more trouble than I could handle when I was in my early teens, before I fell in love with Dom, when I didn’t know how to handle my parents. And then after Dom, when I didn’t know how to handle myself.

I didn’t tell anyone what Dom did. If my brother found out, he’d have beaten him to death. Lev didn’t push when I told him I didn’t want to talk about it .

It’s our family trait— emotional constipation .

“Well?” Stella asks when she sees me walk past her office to mine.

I shrug.

I go to my office, angry as hell but also hurt. A part of me thought that if I asked Dom to do something, he’d do it. If I told him I didn’t want him on this project, he’d step away. I am Luna, and he’s Dom, and….

I blink when I feel tears in my eyes. Damn it!

Stella follows me as I set my helmet and driving gloves on a bookshelf.

He might’ve broken my heart once, but now I was older, smarter, and tougher.

This time, I’ll break his kneecaps if he does me wrong.

“Luna?” my friend queries gently.

Stella and I have been friends for years. We grew up together, and she’s seen me through it all—finding Dom, losing him.

I turn so she can see me.

“Fuck!” she mutters.

I know I have tears in my eyes.

Strong, sassy Luna Steele—still crying over Dominic Calder. How fucking pathetic!

“What did he do?” she demands angrily.

“Nothing.” I sniffle and straighten my shoulders. “ Abso-fucking-lutely nothing.”

“Hon, you’ve got to stop torturing yourself.”

I run a hand through my hair and slump into my chair. “Is that what I’m doing?”

Stella leans her hip against my desk. “Yeah, you are. Since he came back.”

Aurora hurries into my office, her laptop in hand. “You’re late. Which means you’re either making trouble or avoiding it.”

I quirk an eyebrow. “Why not both?”

Aurora is soft on the outside, steel on the inside.

She frowns. “Where have you been?” There’s accusation in her tone. She has told me several times now to not push this thing with Dom and just work with him like I would anyone else.

Like hell!

“She went to see a man-shaped mistake,” Stella explains.

Aurora sighs. “You’ve got to just accept this, Luna. Minton tied you to Dom, and you’re like a….”

“Two-for-one deal at Arby’s?” Stella suggests.

They both laugh. I flip them a finger.

They’re right. I don’t have a choice. The Minton project is what I need to progress my career. It has scale, visibility, and legacy. And I won it. Fair and square. Dom just hitched himself to my victory.

“Whose kneecaps are we breaking?” Nova asks as she leans against my office doorway.

“Dom’s,” Stella says and sails out of the office, past Nova.

“Bring her to the meeting,” Aurora instructs Nova as she leaves to set up for the meeting we’re about to have.

Nova nods and then studies me for a long moment. “When I was working with Anson, there were many times that I almost did that.”

Anson LaRue is Nova’s old lover, old betrayer, and current husband. Some romances work out, some don’t. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Dom and I aren’t going to have a happy ending.

Because, despite him mouthing off about not giving up on us (whatever the hell that means), Dom is now dating Camy Channing.

Blonde. Typical. Bland. Perfect arm candy for him.

Camy is the type who’d normally not associate with Dom. I mean, OMG, he’s the son of the help . And if that isn’t bad enough, he’s half black.

But then he won the Pritzker Architecture Prize and made tons of money, looks like freaking Regé-Jean Page from Bridgerton , so…yeah, he’s acceptable to a Savannah society belle with more tits than brains.

I’d bet money Camy’s daddy bought her those tits. They’re perky as fuck.

And you’re jealous .

Sigh!

“Come on, Steele,” Nova prompts. “Your ex is gonna be here in a few minutes for our meeting. Game face on.”

I roll my eyes. “Don’t need no game face,” I reply petulantly. Any minute now, I’m going to stomp my feet on the ground like a toddler. “I need a minute, I’ll see you in there.”

After Nova leaves, I do some breathing exercises.

The man rattles me. No one does that but him.

Even my parents can’t push my buttons any longer.

I’ve been in therapy long enough to have cured myself from wanting to win their approval and am comfortable with the truth that I neither like nor love them.

As a child, that was hard. I didn’t understand what was wrong with me that I didn’t like my mostly absent mother, or my world-class bully father.

My therapist helped me normalize my emotions.

Lots of children don’t like their parents, and as impossible as it sounds, a lot of parents don’t like their children—it happens.

“You can’t control your parents or their behavior; all you can control is your reaction to them.”

It’s a philosophy worth living by—one I’ve struggled to apply with Dom. I can’t control him, and I can’t stop the storm of emotions he stirs in me every time he’s near—confusing, overwhelming, and all-consuming.

By the time I make it to the meeting room, my game face, unlike what I told Nova, is on . It stays on when I see Dom walk into the meeting room, looking like…regret wrapped in charm.

I square my shoulders and hold back a sigh of longing because my body remembers him like a favorite song I wish I could forget.

He grins at me and then throws in a wink for good measure. I glare at him.

Stop letting him get to you, Luna .

Easy to say, very hard to do.

I can lie to the whole world, but I can’t lie to myself, and the truth is that I’m stupidly, recklessly, carelessly in love with Dom Calder. He cheated on me. Broke my heart, and I can’t forgive him, but I also can’t stop loving him. He’s my soulmate. I’ve always known this.

Why the hell didn’t he? How could he crush my soul? And why does it still matter after all these years?

Nina steps into the meeting and she and Dom shake hands, make small talk.

Nina is my boss—and my friend. She knows my history with Dom. She’s also determined not to let Savannah Lace, her company, become a soap opera set . Her words.

Already, there have been several romances that have thrived within our professionally designed walls, and she mutters in exasperation that: “Savannah Lace is not a dating site.”

However, since she’s dating—secretly, according to her, and very publicly, according to him—Diego Perez, whom she met at Savannah Lace, I just raise an eyebrow and say, “ Pot, meet kettle .”

Dom looks good! Really good.

He’s in the same black dress shirt I saw him in earlier, but he’s rolled the sleeves up just enough to show off the veins in his forearms.

Christ! Am I waxing poetic about the veins in his forearms?

Remember, regret wrapped in charm, Luna.

Tell me about it!

Nina leaves before the meeting starts as she only came to say hello to our new partner, who is also my ex.

Slowly, others involved in the Minton project enter the meeting room.

There are four of us from Savannah Lace leading the charge: me, Nova as the lead project manager, Lia as her right hand, and Stella bringing her landscaping expertise. Others will join us—this is a massive initiative, after all—but we form the core team.

From Dom’s side, it’s going to be just him. And we’ll have a few people from Tommy Minton’s side.

Jason Marquez, the Minton project liaison, is an overconfident, underqualified go-between who calls everyone ‘ boss .’

He takes a seat next to me.

Since he met me, he’s been hitting on me relentlessly, unprofessionally, and unsuccessfully. “Looking good, boss.”

“Luna,” Dom says smoothly, speaking over Jason, like my name tastes good in his mouth.

“Uh-huh,” I reply to both of them in one go as Dom takes a seat across from me.

Him versus me.

“All, Tommy wants his interior designer to be part of these meetings”—he pauses when Camy freaking Channing walks in, hips swaying, eyeing Dom like he’s dessert—“I believe you all know Camy.”

Everyone nods.

I keep my face stony.

Nova raises both eyebrows and purses her lips.

Lia, who comes in right behind Camy, shakes her head and gives Dom a death glare. She knows Dom, partly because she knows my brother, Lev. They recently became friends, and even though Lia’s husband thought Lev was his competition, Sebastian Boone now mentors Lev as a leadership coach.

“Hi, y’all,” Camy says and giggles.

The woman freakin’ giggles .

I let out a slow breath. This is going to be a long fuckin’ project.

Camy sits next to Dom and giggles some more.

He looks at her indulgently and breaks my heart again .

You have no business getting hurt! He’s not yours. He’s hers. And it’s not like you’re celibate. Remember that time in Charleston?

That was a one-night stand. Camy is dating the motherfucker! And Charleston was over a year ago!

And that brings me to another question: how long has it been since I had sex?

I ignore the happy couple and focus on the screen as Nova turns on. “All right, folks,” she says cheerfully. “Let’s kick off the biggest project Savannah’s seen in a decade.”

I go first, and after the general ‘ thanks for being here ’ nonsense pleasantries, I dive into the meat of our kick-off discussions.