“Yeah, well too fucking bad because we’re gonna. You have what I felt for Anita. I can see it.”

“Bullshit, you and Anita were perfect for each other.”

Gray’s voice got quiet. “I know.”

Dom lifted himself to a sitting position. The room swayed but not as much this time. Good, getting better, he thought. “I want to bed her. That’s all. There’s something about her...I don’t know what it is but it drives me wild.”

Grayson’s body straightened. “Yes, I know, Dom. I know because I felt the same thing for Anita once.”

Dom wanted to reach out an embrace his brother. “But not anymore?”

Gray’s eyes were raw with pain. The strain around his eyes and mouth were etched in deep lines. Line that hadn’t been there ten years ago. “Not anymore, but I will not abandon her. She deserves better than that.”

“I’m sorry, Gray.”

Gray’s eyes twitched. “You need to choose. Felicity’s right, you know. You can’t have both. Felicity doesn’t deserve that and neither does Julianna.”

“How am I supposed to pull through the campaign in less than two weeks with Felicity on my side? No one knows of her. She’s from a poor background. She has no political ties to help me pull in votes. It can’t be done.”

Gray lit a cigarette as he strode to the bar and poured himself a tall glass of Jouteax. He took a deep swig. “When have you ever backed away from a challenge?”

Dominic growled. “This is too important. If we cede the third seat to a were, to Zeke of all people, you know what kind of madness he could ensue.”

“Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. Maybe he’s not as crazy as everyone thinks.”

Dom leveled him a hard look and Gray shrugged.

“Maybe he is fucking bat shit crazy,” Gray admitted.

“Why do you care about all this anyway, Gray? It’s not like us to share such intimate stories together in my bedroom.”

Gray took a long pull on his cigarette. Dom could almost feel his own throat burning from the smoke. “Because you deserve some happiness for yourself. Everything you’ve ever done has been for someone else—the community, vampires, father, even me and Anita. What have you done for yourself?”

Dom started pulling off his day-old clothes in slow, drunken movements. “I married Helena.”

“I think, if you’ll recall, father also suggested her to you.”

“Yes, but I wanted her anyway.”

“You wanted to fuck her.”

Dom thought back to those early days when Helena and he were just mated and she still accepted him in her bed. She’d been wild then and he’d answered her need with vigor of his own. “And I did, often.”

“Helena’s another rich, blue-blooded aristocratic with a long, pretty lineage. You mated her because father wanted you to. I’ve seen the way you look at Felicity. You want more than just a bedding. I bet you already care for her.”

Had to be the liquor speaking because Dom saw red. He caught his brother by the collar of his jacket. “What the fuck do you know? You know nothing about us.”

His brother could have broken away easily considering Dom’s drunken state, but he didn’t. He let Dom shout in his face and take his rage out on him. Disgusted, Dom let him go.

“I know more than you do apparently. That’s why I let her go.”

Dom growled and knew his eyes began to glow like the animal that lurked inside him. “You did what?”

“I had my men drive her back tonight while you were shitfaced slobbering on the floor.” Dom curled his hand into a fist and let it fly. His fist met Gray’s lip with a fleshy crack. Gray pivoted, and then his own fist came too fast for Dom’s drunken gaze to see it.

Dom flew a foot in the air then landed on his ass on the floor. He sat there, panting.

“Why did you do that?”

“Because she deserves better than you.”

Dom curled his finger into the floor, crushing the wood into splinters. “You are supposed to help me. You’re supposed to protect her.”

“I have a guard on her. She’ll be safe from Zeke or anyone else. Besides, I don’t think Zeke cares a lick about her. He wants you dead, that’s all. If she means that much to you then you know what you’ve got to do, brother.”

Dom stood slowly and wobbled. “I’ll get her back.”

Gray shook his head sadly. “Not with my help then.” Gray walked to the door then turned around. “If anyone can win this election with a woman like Felicity at his side, it’s you.”

With that, he left.

Dom finished undressing and showered, his mind filled with muddled thoughts. Those thoughts soon turned to plans and then to a strategy. By the time the sun started to rise and he settled in for a fitful sleep without Felicity next to him, he was ready to go to battle.

Felicity went on at home as if nothing had happened. She hadn’t heard anything of Dom since she left him two days ago.

It felt like so much longer than that. Two days since Grayson let her leave, tears swimming in her eyes, and her begging him to let her go. He’d let his men take her home. They still guarded her with the one named Graham filling up her kitchen with his bulk while the other guarded outside.

That was fine with her. She buried herself in work. Beth came over to help on her days off. Also, she’d been slowly breaking Beth down. Today, she planned to make her friend divulge her juicy gossip about what happened that night with Lucas Blackmoore at the theater.

At precisely seven o’clock Beth sauntered in with prompt timing. The girl was the complete opposite of a procrastinator. If she said she’d be somewhere come rain, snow, or a flat tire she’d still manage to make it there on time.

Beth wore a little smile. Felicity poured her a cup of tea with her already boiling water then they took a seat in her mess of a living room. Boxes, trash, and wrappers littered her room like a tornado had been through it.

With few words said to each other they started making progress on printing out invitations, gluing the silver ribbon across them, and about five dozen other things. There were two hundred and twenty-four names on the guest list and she had to make spares just in case. Felicity had the patience of a saint. Together they worked, mostly in silence except to compliment the other on their good work gluing ribbons. When they finished with all the invitations, Felicity set her work aside, put her chin on her hand, and waited.

Beth took a sip of her tea. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“It’s about damn time.”

Beth grinned as she started on their next job. Next they had to line the bottom of dozens of square, tall crystal vases with a silver glittering foil. They’d fill them with water before the ceremony then put fresh cut flowers inside. Lady Blackmoore had also helped to choose the flowers since Felicity could not talk to either Dom or Julianna for help. It should have been Julianna’s choice but the woman had been incognito since she tried to escape from Dom’s clutches—not that Felicity blamed her—at all. It surprised her that actually they shared something. She understood the need to get away from the man.

For the flowers they were going with creamy white lilies tied with a dark grey ribbon in a perfect bow. They put in special orders from more than a dozen shops all across the city to get the amount they needed in such a hurry. Luckily they were all in season right now, and no one said no to the Blackmoores.

“So what happened with you and Lucas?”

Beth darted her eyes away as she pretended to focus on hot gluing the foil in a vase. “So he chased me out of the theater, right?”

“Right and I have no idea why.”

Beth sighed, the soft sound fluttering. “I didn’t know he did until I went outside and felt him behind me.”

“Why did you run?”

Beth was a hard woman or at least she tried to be but Felicity saw that she had just as many weaknesses as anyone else. Beth simply hated to air them out. Leaning forward, Felicity touched Beth’s hand. “It’s okay you know, I won’t tell anyone. It’s not like I have a lot of friends.” True, Beth was her only friend but they were close and that’s all that mattered. She’d take quality over quantity any day.