Dominic (Saint Brothers #1) (6 page)

“Fallon? Fallon?”

“Sorry?” I looked around, seeing everyone at the table staring at me. I guess I had zoned out a little too far that time.

“We were talking about the bridesmaid dresses. I would have thought that would have been important to you.” Olivia glared in my direction.

I could honestly say I really didn’t care as long as she didn’t put me in anything too hideous. Still, for the sake of keeping the peace, I turned to my sister with what I hoped was a look of enthusiasm on my face and asked, “So, what do you have planned for the dresses, Olivia?”

“Well, there is the most wonderful designer,” She started to dig around in her dainty clutch bag and making a small triumphant sound as she found what she was looking for. Olivia quickly clicked through the pictures on her phone, turning the screen towards me so I could check out her choices.

I could feeling myself actually smiling as I let out a sigh of relief. The photo on her phone showed a very flattering column design with floating panels. I had imagined that she and my mother would have gone for some over-the-top kind of frills and everything else I would hate, so this was a very pleasant surprise. “That’s gorgeous, Liv.”

She frowned a little at my use of her nickname, one that I had called her since we were little kids. She soon enough took a disliking to it as we got older, preferring the regal sound of her full name. But, I thought it suited her, softening the hard edges.

Olivia shook her head slightly, as if ridding herself of the name I’d used and smiled widely as she settled back in to talk wedding plans. “I’ll be having each of my bridesmaids in varying shades of lilac.”

The rest of the girls gushed and swooned but all I could think was yuk. Lilac? And she thought that roses were common at a wedding. Everyone had lilac or shades of pink at their weddings. But, hey, it could be worse. I had to count my blessings.

“So, when are we going to be hearing wedding bells from you, Fallon?” Maisie asked. She had been a friend of my sister’s since school, sharing a common love of money and shopping. She was a snob of the highest degree and we had never really got on well.

Before I could say anything, Olivia’s sarcastic laughter tinkled out across the table. “Fallon doesn’t believe in marriage. Not the traditional kind, anyway.”

I rolled my eyes at her words. That was another bone of contention that my mother had against my job. She thought I was married to my career, so much so that I would never let a man into my life fully because of it. She was talking utter bullshit. I could easily juggle a man and my job, I just chose not to at the moment.

“Maybe it’s because no one wants to marry her.” One of the others sniggered.

I didn’t even bother looking around to see who had said that scathing remark because honestly, I didn’t care enough. I couldn’t give a toss what this lot thought of me. These were just the type of girls I had encountered my whole like, looking down their noses at anyone who didn’t follow the only path that they deemed right.

Sipping at my iced water, they soon enough moved the conversation away from my lack of love life back to Olivia’s wedding plans. Thank God for that.

“I’m going to the bathroom.” I nodded over to Olivia who barely glanced in my direction as she launched into yet another discussion about table decorations or something equally as mind numbing.

The club was relatively quiet, but it always was compared to other night clubs. You had to have a shit tonne of money to get in here, ensuring an elite clientele. This was the ultimate VIP experience. I had to shake my head and smile when I saw Taylor still out on the dance floor, champagne in one hand and a different man in the other. Clearly, she was moving on.

The bathrooms were bigger in Decadence than most people’s houses. There was a small sitting area, which was something I could never understand. I had come across this a lot when I was growing up and going to galas and balls with my family. The attendant was sat there with a pile of fluffy towels, a fresh one for each woman that came in to use the facilities. What was wrong with good old paper towels, eh? Behind her was an array of perfume bottles, including one of my favourites that I happened to be wearing tonight so I happily took a couple of spritz before leaving the rest room.

“Oh! Sorry!” I apologised immediately as I walked out of the door and collided with a solid chest.

“Not a problem, darlin’.”

Looking up in surprise, I saw a huge hulk of a man in front of me. There was something different about him to the rest of the men that came in here. He looked simply delicious in his suit which clung to his body in the most mouth-watering way possible.

It was his eyes that drew me in. I had always been a sucker for a beautiful pair of eyes and his were winners. Dark green ringed with lashes that any woman would have given her right arm for, their depth was enough to pull you in and leave you drowning.

I almost had to crane my neck to look at him and I wasn’t small at 5’7”, but he made me feel tiny.

Green eyes and dark hair. Did it get any better than that? The bonus was that this guy was muscular and ruggedly good looking. He didn’t look like he belonged behind a desk or in a bank. I imagined him to be an outdoorsy type, working with his hands on some kind of construction site. I could see through the deception of the suit he was wearing.

“Are you okay?” He asked, his brow furrowing slightly.

I realised I’d been stood there open-mouthed staring at him. What a bloody fool. There was probably a puddle of drool at my feet. But none of the women in here could blame me. This was one damn fine specimen of a man. “I’m fine, thank you.”

“I didn’t hurt you?”

“Not at all.” I couldn’t help the little smirk that pulled at my lips. There was no way I could have not felt the firmness of his chest as we collided. I only came up to his shoulders and I could have easily broken my nose on those rock-hard pecs of his as I walked out with my head down. Ah, but it would have been worth the pain.

“Do you have a name?” He asked with a small smile and that quirk of his lips had my stomach clenching. The low rumble of his husky voice made me want to cross my legs.

Surely this man had to have a flaw? Did his personality suck? Maybe he was a serial killer? Okay, maybe that’s a little drastic, but he was a hot as hell and from this brief moment of conversation, he seemed nice enough. Plus, someone this nicely wrapped couldn’t be as sweet as sugar all the way through, could they? Oh, what I wouldn’t give to find out…

“Fallon.” I grinned as he held out his hand to me.

“Well, it was nice bumping into you, Fallon. Maybe we could do it again sometime?”

Laughing, I nodded. On first impressions, this guy had it all. I bet he was a dud in bed. No one could be that perfect.

He turned to walk away and I realised I didn’t even know his name. I couldn’t call out to him, what would I say? I would only look an idiot, so all I could do was stand there and watch his firm ass move further and further away from me.

I stood there for a few minutes even after he was out of sight before walking back to the girls’. I wasn’t looking for a man, really I wasn’t. But, perhaps it was like I had told Taylor, it found you when you were least expecting it? Not that I wanted to read too much into the situation. After all, he had only bumped into me and asked for my name, it wasn’t like it was a marriage proposal. But, still, it was nice to dream.

“What took you so long?” Olivia asked as soon as I sat back down at the table.

What a rude question to ask? How was she to know I hadn’t been in there throwing my guts up or stuck sat on the toilet? My sister was never one to be too sensitive about these things. “I bumped into someone.”

She glanced over at me, not believing me for one second, but I wasn’t about to elaborate. He was my little secret. One that I would be taking to bed with me tonight to join me and Mr B.O.B.

“We were just talking about ice decorations for the reception.”

I kept my sigh to myself and tried not to look too bored. “Let me go and get Taylor and then you can fill me in on what I’ve missed.”

If I was going to go down this road of boredom, Taylor was coming with me. She was my wing-man and was going to live up to the responsibility of saving me from my sister, whether she liked it or not.

The rest of the evening went pretty much as I expected. The girls didn’t like to stay out too late, wanting to get home and get their beauty sleep. The wedding ideas were tossed around but Olivia kept everything very hush hush with regards to her final decisions.

I didn’t see Mr Hottie again. And it wasn’t for lack of trying. I think I must have gone to the toilet so many times that the others thought I had cystitis. But, I didn’t see him. After our little encounter, it sucked going home alone.

Dominic

Coming out of my office, I was pleased to see that things were finally winding down. The club had been heaving tonight, but I was stuck in my office dealing with one problem after another.

This wasn’t my kind of place. I know that sounds crazy seeing as I own the joint, but I didn’t build it out of love. I started this place because I knew it would be a money-maker.

Rich bastards came in here to exchange stories on how much money they made, which of their wives or girlfriends they were entertaining that night and all that crap. That wasn’t my thing at all. But as long as the drinks kept flowing and the cash kept coming in, I wasn’t going to complain.

The last thing I needed to do tonight was see Mitch Hanniger. He was a rich stiff who was having problems with one of his business. In all fairness, I liked Mitch and he worked hard for what he had, which was something I respected. Apparently, money was disappearing right, left and centre and he wanted to speak to me and my brothers about investigating it.

I said I would meet with him as a favour, as a friend. This wasn’t my kind of deal, but Mitch preferred to meet me here at Decadence, and Kellin and Austen didn’t have the time to make it tonight. They had enough on their plates already and I agreed to take over this initial meeting. Mitch was an old pal and I would help him out if I could. All I needed to do was find out the bare bones of what was needed and then my brothers would be able to take it from there.

Even though things were starting to come to an end, there were still plenty of people out in the main room. I couldn’t see the bridal party that had been sat there earlier. They had left a bit back, taking with them that stunning girl I nearly sent flying on her ass.

I couldn’t recall seeing her in the club before, but I knew of some of the women at her table well enough. To them, I was some kind of enigma. Not many people knew the face behind the business and that was the way I wanted to keep it. Hell, even half my staff didn’t know who I was and they worked for me. They didn’t know me, but I knew them. I made it a point to keep an eye on my business, whether it was Decadence or Sinners.

But, her, I didn’t know. There was something about her that made my cock throb, but it was also more than that. However, I hadn’t had time to do anything about it tonight and now she was gone. It was probably for the best, seeing as I had to sit with Mitch, but it was disappointing. She wasn’t a regular in here and I had no way of finding out who she was.

I would remember her if I had seen her in here before. She had a hell of a figure that she didn’t seem aware of, hiding it behind clothes that covered her. All I wanted to do was wrap that long chestnut hair around my fist as I pounded into her from behind.

Shaking the thought from my mind, I needed a drink. I didn’t need a woman on my mind. I didn’t need sex clouding my thoughts.

Moving over to the bar, no one seemed to bat an eyelid at my presence. It seemed that if the suit was expensive enough and the ink was covered up, my face fit into this scene. Little did they know I was the one that owned this place, paid their salaries and provided them with this crazily expensive place to party. And that was just how I wanted to keep it.

It wasn’t that I was ashamed or anything like that. I just didn’t want the hassle of having my face plastered all over the place as the next eligible bachelor. Flitting between Decadence and Sinners suited me perfectly and would provide a nest egg for the future.

That was what I was working towards, it was all I was working for. I wanted the future to be secure for me and my girl. Nothing else mattered. Obviously, the extra money that was coming in was handy to help out my brothers, but my girl came first. She was the most important thing to me.

Moving over towards the bar, I smiled at Sheena. She was an exception to the rule. She knew exactly who I was and what I was doing at the club. But that was because we’d grown up as next door neighbours and I had helped her out of a rough spot and given her this job to when she needed it. She was a nice girl and was slowly turning her life around.

She already had a shot lined up for me when I sat at the bar. “Thanks, darlin’.”

Sheena smiled back at me sweetly, “Not a problem, Dom. How are you tonight?”

“I’m good, thanks. How’s things with you?”

“The apartment is finally coming together.” She looked excited at the prospect of her own place and I was pleased for her and happy that I could help.