Bondage Buddies (Masters of Marquis #1) - Golden Angel Page 0,69

she was seeing him. Or maybe she’d only told them a vague ‘someone.’

Whatever. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that his parents were kinky. Kinky. Hell, his dad owned a BDSM club. Was meeting with Stronghold and Marquis’ owners to talk about their clubs and expanding his own club.

All this time, Mitch had thought…

Fuck.

BDSM, kink, it wasn’t the saving grace he’d thought.

He didn’t doubt for one second his dad was a good Dom, which meant the failure in his parents’ relationship still happened despite BDSM.

I can’t breathe.

“Excuse me,” he said suddenly, standing up with the same abruptness. “I need to use the bathroom.”

Splash some cold water on his face. Figure out what the fuck was going on. What he was going to do next. How this changed things.

He stumbled away from the table.

The revelation did change things, didn’t it? Hell, it changed everything. Not that he thought BDSM would be some kind of magic bullet, a guarantee things would work out with him and Domi, that he wouldn’t end up in a relationship like his parents… but he’d thought it gave them more of a chance. He’d seen the happy couples around Stronghold and thought it meant something.

But everything was still a crapshoot.

“Mitch… Mitch!” Domi caught up to him before he could reach the safety of the men’s room. Grabbed his arm. He turned around reluctantly, emotions simmering and bubbling under the surface, barely contained. “What’s going on?”

“I need a minute, Domi.” His voice came out distant, harsh, and she flinched, but he couldn’t do anything about that. It was all he could do to keep his emotions under control, which meant locking them down entirely.

“Fine then, just one question.” Her dark eyes flashed with hurt. “I introduced you to my parents, but your dad clearly doesn’t know who I am. You didn’t tell him about me, did you?”

Fuck. No, he hadn’t, but he wasn’t going to stand here in the hallway and explain things to her when she was supposed to be eating dinner with her family.

“No. I didn’t. Did you tell Ana’s dad and stepmother you’re seeing someone?” It came out more accusatory than he meant. Domi took a step back. From the way she pressed her lips together, guilt tingeing her expression, he knew he was right. She hadn’t mentioned him to her family either. Sure, he’d met her parents, but they were far away, weren’t they? It wasn’t a big deal to her. She hadn’t even asked him why he hadn’t told his dad, just jumped on him about not doing so. “You’re here having family dinner, all dressed up, and I wasn’t invited, was I? Because I’m not part of the family.”

He knew he was venting his frustration about his own parents on her, but he couldn’t seem to stop. Hell, he wasn’t even sure he should. She’d followed him when he’d clearly needed space and had been ready to throw accusations at him.

“If I’d known you were going to be here, I would have told you,” she said, clearly trying to keep a hold of her temper. For some reason, that made him even angrier.

“Why? So, I would take my dad for dinner somewhere else?”

“No… I mean… I don’t know.” She clenched her fists by her side. “It’s Ana’s birthday, and she wanted to come here—” She cut off as a cold, resigned laugh burst from Mitch’s lips.

“I didn’t even know it was Ana’s birthday.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “This was a bad idea.”

“What was?” Hesitancy crept into her voice, but it was too late.

“This.” He opened his eyes, sweeping out his arm. Hell, he was never going to be able to come back to this restaurant without thinking about tonight. His favorite pasta place was going to be tainted forever. That’s what relationships did. They got people all hopeful, then they shit on everything, ruining it by association. “All of it. You, me. Probably everything. I didn’t even know it was your daughter’s birthday. I have no idea if you were ever going to tell her or your co-parents about me. I didn’t tell my dad about you. Maybe that’s for the best. Makes it easier.”

“Easier?” she repeated, staring up at him as though she didn’t understand what he was saying. Fuck. Was this what breaking up was like? This sucked even more than he’d ever thought it would.

But it was the right thing to do.

“I’m a bad bet, Domi, I always was. We should end this now, while