14. Fourteen

14

FOURTEEN

O livia was reticent as I led her to the dance floor. I could feel the unease rolling through her but I didn’t care.

She was driving me crazy in that dress.

She was beautiful when hanging around in her sweats and tank top. Okay, she was sexy. Still beautiful, but sexy. This dress was otherworldly, though.

I tugged her against me and started to sway. I wasn’t much of a dancer, but I could keep a beat. I’d been to enough parties where dancing was required that I wasn’t in danger of embarrassing myself.

When her body melted against mine, a sense of calm washed over me. She was still short, but it was as if our bodies had been designed to fit together. And didn’t that make my head want to implode? The calmness that had been there a moment before disappeared when I started thinking of other things, like how else our bodies might fit together.

“You move pretty well,” she said, breaking the silence that was threatening to drown us. “How do you even know how to dance like this?”

I looked down and realized we were actually doing a sort of dance, not just swaying. When did that happen?

“I don’t know,” I replied, my hand massaging over her hip. The sequins were rough but the flesh below was soft. So soft I wanted to strip her dress off and feel it all, taste it all.

“How did you figure out where we were?” she asked. “You don’t have an AirTag on me, do you?” Suspicion lit her eyes when I glanced down.

“How would I have gotten close enough to put an AirTag on you?” My voice was lower than normal, husky. She was having an effect on me, and it was one I didn’t know how to describe. I’d never felt this way around a woman before.

She pushed every button I had. The good and the bad.

She made me want to shake her one moment and kiss her senseless the next.

When she was a kid, it was easy to shutter the affection I felt for her. She was Rex’s younger sister. I needed him because he was the only regularity I had in my life. My parents never understood our friendship. They didn’t have any ill feelings toward him, but more than once they’d said he was destined for a “normal” life. To them, that was an insult. I thought a normal life sounded good.

The Carter house wasn’t full of belongings. It wasn’t a dump or anything, but it was well loved. When I walked through the doors, I felt something I’d never felt in the overblown mansion monstrosity I’d grown up in. I felt as if I were coming home.

As Olivia got older and started filling out, I realized that I was feeling something else for her. At first it was amusement. Then it was genuine fondness. The way she looked at me—her crush obvious—caused something to burn in my chest. Sure, I knew that it wasn’t love or anything. At least not romantic love. Not then. It was real, though. Then when she turned eighteen and finally hit her growth spurt, the things I was feeling turned hotter.

She was beautiful. Somehow she’d grown into a beautiful woman. The braces were gone and her smile was unveiled. It was flirty and sweet, even though she had no idea what she was doing with boys. My sisters hadn’t been late bloomers, so all the stuff they figured out when they were fifteen and sixteen Olivia was figuring out as an adult. I’d been so afraid that somebody was going to take advantage of her because of that.

I’d started watching her. From afar of course. Rex was protective, but he was King Kong thump-your-chest protective. If a boy made Olivia cry, he would tell her she was better off without that sort of drama in her life. Then he would threaten the boy with bodily harm if he even looked at Olivia funny.

Rex didn’t see it of course. In his mind, he was just doing what a brother was supposed to do. His parents had drilled it into his head that Vegas was a dangerous city. Women especially could be taken advantage of, and Olivia’s na?veté meant that she was open to be manipulated. Rex was determined to make sure that didn’t happen. What he didn’t see was that I was on board to help.

My sisters being older meant that I was never protective of them. They had each other. Also, I pitied the man who ever wronged one of them because they all joined together as a pack of wild hyenas for retribution. They were clever, vindictive, and more than capable of taking care of themselves. They were all hard edges and snark.

Olivia was different, though. Once, when Rex and I took her to see an Irish dance group when she was nineteen, I’d spent more time watching her than the show. Wonder poured off of her in waves. It was as if she couldn’t believe what she was seeing, like she’d been stuck in a world with only black and white televisions and now she was finally seeing color for the first time. She’d made soft gasping noises that struck a chord inside of me. I was constantly readjusting myself because those gasps were sending zings to a part of me that had never reacted to her before. Or, maybe I had reacted to her that way and simply didn’t realize it.

In that moment, I understood that Olivia had crawled into my heart and taken up space. That corner would always belong to her. Nobody else would be able to inhabit that part of me that was now dedicated to her.

I couldn’t act on those feelings, though. It wasn’t just that Rex was my best friend and I couldn’t fathom the idea of losing him. His parents had become my touchstones, too. When I had a problem that I needed legitimate advice on—whether it be women, work, or just my general wellbeing—I went to them.

Olivia was always there in the background, getting more and more beautiful. She was blossoming without even realizing it.

She grew into a strong woman, with opinions and beliefs all her own. She wasn’t afraid to go toe to toe with her parents. She absolutely loved giving Rex a hard time. She learned to make her way in the world all on her own, which gave her the sort of strength my sisters didn’t possess. They could take care of themselves, but they always had my father’s money fueling them.

That only made what I felt for her even stronger.

I buried those feelings because I had no choice. I’d developed a reputation as a playboy by then, and I didn’t hate it. I got a charge out of people looking at me and seeing power. My father saw weakness but others saw strength, and I fed on that. I couldn’t risk chasing what I felt for Olivia because losing Rex and his parents wasn’t an option. I just couldn’t deal with that possibility.

I needed them.

So, I pretended I didn’t feel anything when I looked at her. I joined in when Rex was giving her a hard time. Then, as she graduated college and went to work, I saw her less and less. She was no longer in her parents’ house, and even though I still went there for dinner occasionally, I only saw her once or twice a month. I convinced myself that momentary attraction I’d felt was gone. It had been a fluke. That’s all it was.

Then Rex suggested I marry his sister. It was a bad idea from the start. I didn’t grasp that at the time, though. I’d convinced myself there was nothing to worry about. It had just been a childhood … something. Okay, I was an adult at the time. It wasn’t as if I was mature, though.

Being in close proximity to Olivia had sparked something inside of me. Even when we were arguing—something I enjoyed—there was always a feeling simmering under the surface. It wasn’t until I saw her in the dress that I realized what that feeling was.

I was attracted to her. That was the easy answer. Just attraction could be dealt with, though. This was something more. It wasn’t love. It couldn’t be. Even if we had the foundation for that, it was too soon. That didn’t change the fact that I felt more for her than I’d ever felt for anybody else in my life.

Before her, all the women I’d been with were temporary. I somehow knew that going in. Being with Olivia felt somehow inevitable, though. It was as if my soul had sighed with relief when I married her. I was just now realizing it.

What did that mean for us, though? Rex would not take kindly to us developing real feelings for each other. All of the angst I’d felt when dealing with Olivia was starting to make sense to me. I wanted her. So much.

I still couldn’t lose Rex.

The beat changed to something low and sultry, and I pulled her tighter against me, my hand wandering over her hip, stroking and teasing. It wanted to roam elsewhere, but I managed to keep my wits about me enough to make sure that didn’t happen.

A small gasp escaped her mouth when I dipped her low and brought her back up, our eyes laser focused on each other. That gasp reminded me of the dance performance we’d seen together, and my body reacted.

“What’s the goal here?” she asked, her voice a husky whisper. “What are you doing?”

I went with the truth. “I have no idea.”

“You still haven’t told me how you even found us,” she pressed.

“Ruby posted a photo on Instagram. I saw it when I was scrolling.”

“You have an Instagram account?” Olivia looked confused. “Do you post on it?”

“No.”

“You just scroll?”

“I…” How could I tell her that I’d taken to looking at her Instagram account so I would know where she was? Olivia was one of those people who took artistic photographs of her drinks. She liked pretty things. She was pure, and beautiful, and enjoyed the simple things in life. To her, a sugar-rimmed cocktail was extravagant.

I liked that about her. She hadn’t lost sight of normal life. Somewhere along the way, I had.

“I scroll,” I said finally. “I wondered where you were going in that dress.”

“What is it with you and this dress?” She looked legitimately curious. “It’s Vegas. I got this dress at a consignment shop. There are a hundred women here in better dresses.”

It wasn’t actually the dress. Instinctively, I knew that. It was her in the dress. I managed to keep my wits about me and didn’t say that.

“I guess I like the color,” I lied.

“Okay.” She made an exaggerated face. “Why are you acting so weird?”

I shrugged. “I’m not acting weird. I’m just dancing with my wife.”

“Your fake wife.”

Hearing her say it—even though it was the truth—was an arrow to the heart. “People will see us together. Word will spread about who you are. Doors will open for you.”

“Like … jobs?” Her brow knit in confusion.

“All sorts of jobs … and parties … and friends.” I pressed my hand to her back and marveled at the warmth I found waiting for me there. “Just … be quiet.” I didn’t mean for it to come out as harsh as it did. My mind wasn’t firing on all cylinders, though. “Just … dance.”

She stared into my eyes, as if trying to suss out some sort of mystery. “Fine,” she said finally. “You’re still not the boss of me.”

My lips quirked at her new mantra. “I’m well aware.”

“Just so long as you don’t forget.”

I had news for her. There was nothing about her, not a single thing, that I could ever forget. What was I supposed to do with these feelings? They were easy enough to ignore when I didn’t know they were there. Now, though, I did know.

Just how impossible was my life about to become?

REX, RUBY, OPAL, TALLULAH, AND PEARL DECIDED they were making a night of it. I’d told them not to wait for us, but they hung around, and I had to wonder how much of the show they’d taken in. Rex didn’t even start his shift until two in the afternoon—he was needed on late afternoons more than mornings—so there was no worry about missing his shift the next morning.

I begged off when they approached us for another stop—I had to be up bright and early—and when I cast a sidelong look toward Olivia, my heart clutched in my chest.

It would be better for both of us if she went with them. Inherently, I knew that. If we went home together, we would be climbing more than the walls the second we crossed the threshold. If she stayed out, Rex would make sure she made it back safely. I would already be in bed, locked behind my bedroom door, and we would have time to cool off. We would be able to regroup.

“I’m going home,” Olivia announced.

Excitement overruled worry and ran through me like an electrical current.

“I have stuff to do tomorrow,” she added.

I didn’t ask what sort of stuff she was doing. It honestly didn’t matter.

“Aw.” Tallulah’s lower lip came out to play. “I’m going to head out with them if you don’t mind.” She looked worried that Olivia might actually shut her down. She needn’t have.

“Have fun.” Olivia waved her off. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Absolutely.” Tallulah darted a quick look toward me—it was as if she could read the vibe between Olivia and me—and her smile grew larger. “Have fun, newlyweds.”

Rex was in his own little world because he was Rex. He might’ve been a great security guy—he was amazing at reading the intentions of other people—but he couldn’t see his sister. It made me angry on a level I didn’t quite understand, but he was absolutely blind where Olivia was concerned.

“Yeah, have fun.” Rex let loose a haphazard wave. He didn’t even look at us. He was too focused on something Ruby was saying to him.

“And then there were two,” I said once they were gone.

Olivia gave me a considering look. Could she ascertain where my mind had gone? I wasn’t an expert on reading her emotions, but if I had to guess, yes. She knew exactly what was going to happen when we got back to the penthouse. It seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

I was still on the fence, wondering if there was a way out of our predicament, when she slipped her hand into mine.

“Let’s go home,” she said in a throaty voice.

My body reacted instinctively, and I clutched her hand tightly. “Yeah, let’s go home.”

WE WERE ON EACH OTHER THE SECOND WE walked through the door. We didn’t even make eye contact. Something broke between us, and we were like wild animals.

My mouth collided with hers, a tangle of tongues and soft moans. My hands didn’t know where to go. They started off tangling in her hair as I tugged out the bun. Then they moved lower and cupped her bottom, which had been driving me insane for weeks at this point.

As for Olivia, her fingers were like claws as she tried to finagle with my buttons. She was so worked up, she didn’t seem to be having a lot of luck.

“Get this off,” she ordered bossily, tugging at my shirt.

I was breathless as I debated how to get the dress off her. “You get that off,” I snapped. I didn’t want to rip the dress. More than anything—okay, maybe not anything —I wanted to see her in it again.

We stood apart from each other and stripped. It was like a competition to see which one of us could get naked first. I won.

My breath came out in short rasps and everything inside of me seized when I saw her standing in front of me without a stitch of clothes on. I’d seen her naked before of course—she’d taught me a lesson I would never forget—but this was different. This time I would be able to touch her. This time I would be able to taste her. This time?—

“Hey, drooly.” Olivia snapped her fingers and jerked me out of my reverie. “Stop staring and start touching.”

My lips curved up. “Are you going to be this bossy the whole time?” I asked as I edged toward her.

“Yup.”

There were things we were going to have to deal with. What did this mean going forward? Was this a one-and-done thing? Was it more? These were all questions we should have tackled before we started pawing at each other.

It didn’t matter, though. We were both lost to the moment.

Would there be regrets? I hoped not, but it was likely. Would we even be able to make eye contact in the morning? I had no idea.

It was going to happen, though. Even if I wanted to call time on what we were doing—which I didn’t—there was no going back now.

Our relationship would be forever changed by this moment. I didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. I just knew, in this moment, I had never wanted anything more. It was time to take what I wanted, consequences be damned.