I pull my car into the parking lot of the aptly named Retox Bar. If Lily isn’t here, I don’t know what I’ll do. Over the last hour, I’ve been to Alexis’s house and driven around town trying to figure out where else Lily might go at this time of night. The drive has made me realize I’ve lost touch with my wife. When she’s not at work or at the gym, I don’t know how she spends her free time. I never ask and she doesn’t tell, and as a result we’ve drifted apart.

Lily isn’t like Alexis, who lets it all hang out. She keeps things inside, bottles up her true feelings. Years ago, I figured out it was her way of protecting herself after her father’s brutal rejection when she was only nine years old. All she wanted was love, and that bastard gave her hate. But am I any better? For the last year, I’ve pushed her away. And now, when she has been brave enough to open herself up, I rejected her, too. She deserves the kind of happiness I can’t give her. If she tells me tonight she doesn’t want to see me again, I’ll do the right thing and let her go.

“Chris!” Aiden waves me over to the bar as I push my way through the crowd. He has a blonde on his lap and a tiny redhead under his arm. The dude is a player, no doubt about that.

I’m not a good judge of looks when it comes to guys, but it’s clear women find him attractive. The few times we’ve met up in the bar to talk through his basement renovation, the ladies have been all over him. Maybe it’s the dentist thing. From what I’ve seen tonight, women like a man in a lab coat.

Aiden tips his glass toward me. “What are you having?”

“I’m not here for a drink. I’m looking for Lily. Have you seen her?”

“Yes.” He eases the blonde bombshell off his lap and gives her ass a pat. “You and Stacey go dance for me. Give me a good show. I need a few minutes with Chris.”

“Where is she?” I ask as the girls totter away on their insanely high heels.

“Maybe you should have a drink before you talk to her.” Aiden motions to the bartender, who slides a beer across the bar toward me.

“Drinks are on Retox,” the bartender says when I reach for my wallet. “Business has doubled since you built the stage and dance floor.”

Aiden raises an eyebrow. “Looks like I wasn’t your only side job. I thought we were exclusive.”

Any other time, I would have laughed. After I finished Aiden’s playroom, I started getting calls from people all over town. I never asked how they got my name or where they’d seen my work, but the side jobs kept me busy most evenings when Lily was at work, and took off some of the financial pressure that had been weighing heavy on my shoulders since I got laid off.

“I’ve got more work now than I can handle.” I sip my beer, letting the bitter liquid slide over my tongue. “But no one else has asked me to build them a dungeon.”

And no one else could have helped me understand why the layoff had affected me so deeply. Talking to Aiden as I built benches and crosses and installed beams with pulleys and chains, I realized I’d been suppressing the dominant aspect of my personality for most of my life. But by the time I understood why I hadn’t been able to move on after being laid off, it was almost too late. Lily and I had drifted so far apart I dreaded going home at night because I was afraid I would open the door and discover she had finally decided to leave me.

“Assuming you’ve resolved your marital issues, you and Lily are welcome to come by any time,” Aiden says. “I’m happy to give you lessons about using the equipment and practicing the lifestyle in a safe, sane, and consensual manner. And of course, it would be delightful to see the lovely Lily restrained and at your mercy—or our mercy if you’re interested.”

Jesus Christ. I can’t even imagine sharing Lily with someone else, much less a dominant like Aiden who has women falling to their knees in every sense of the word. Despite the fact Revival is a fairly small town, Aiden doesn’t keep his lifestyle a secret. The rumors Lily related to me are true, including the one about Aiden joining married couples for an evening of “fun.”

“I’m not.” Inviting another man into our bed is definitely not my idea of a good time, unless Lily gets off on watching me tear him limb from limb. She is damned well the most beautiful woman in town, and she belongs to me.

Aiden shrugs. “The invitation is always open in case you change your mind.”

A growl rises up in my throat at the thought of Lily in Aiden’s dungeon, chained to that big cross that I built, polished, and bolted to the wall. Would she scream when he whipped her? Would she call out his name?

Fighting for calm, I wrap my hand around the glass to hold back from punching Aiden in the face. For a man who is supposedly a dominant, I’m showing very little self-control.

Seemingly oblivious to the fact that I am fighting the urge to do some serious damage to his chiseled face, Aiden sips his beer. “How did it go with the package?”

The package was Aiden’s idea. He suggested shaking things up with something new to us both that would let me explore the dominant side of my personality after I shared my concerns about Lily.

“Wasn’t expecting the role-play stuff. The whole doctor thing triggered a bad experience from my past, and I just lost it. Lily gave me a piece of her mind before she walked out the door.”

“She left you?” Aiden’s eyes widen with what I’m damn sure is interest. He looks over his shoulder and the skin on the back of my neck prickles.

“No,” I say with a conviction I don’t feel in the least. “We just had a disagreement. She was upset, so I came to make sure she was safe.”

“She doesn’t look upset now.” Aiden gestures behind him. Through the crowd, I see Lily, sitting at a table with Alexis and a tall, muscular dude with hair past his shoulders. She’s laughing, her eyes sparkling, and the fucking dude is holding her hand.

Except he isn’t just any dude. I blink and blink again. “Is that . . . Rex Morgan from Stomp?”

“A world-famous musician in our small-town bar. Imagine that.” Aiden takes another sip of his beer. “Apparently the three of them went to high school together. Alexis told me he was Lily’s high school crush.”

What the fuck? She left me and walked straight into the arms of another man? I give the dude a quick once-over, sussing out my competition. Pansy. I could floor the skinny bastard with one hand.

“She’s a very attractive woman,” Aiden says quietly. “I’m not surprised he’s trying to pick her up. If he hadn’t gotten to her first . . . ”

“You looking to have your face rearranged?” My hand curls into a fist.

Aiden shrugs. “If my wife had walked out on me when we were trying to reconcile, and I found her at the bar with another man, I wouldn’t be wasting time punching my friends.”

“What would you do?”

“I’d take her home and show her I cared in my own special way.” He laughs. “But then, I have a dungeon.”

I take a last swallow of my beer. Aiden is right. Instead of giving up or giving in, I should show her the man I want to be. A man who follows his dreams and makes no apologies. A man in control.