63. Victor

Chapter sixty-three

Victor

O livia rubs her finger along my thumb ring as I drive her to work. “I can’t believe you kept this all these years,” she murmurs. I flip my hand and interlace our fingers.

“Of course I’ve kept it.”

I watch her out of the corner of my eye. Olivia runs her fingers up to my wrist and over my bracelet before she rubs her thumb over the bracelet I gave her. She leans down and grabs a box out of her purse as I pull up to the curb in front of her office building and hands it to me.

I stare at the box for a moment before glancing at her. “What’s this?”

She smiles at me. “I ordered that a while ago, but it finally came in yesterday. Leo gave it to me last night after he stopped by my house.” I watch her closely. When she gave me the present from the Braves game, she was excited, but this time she seems hesitant. “Could you open it after you walk me in?” she asks.

I want to open it now, but I’ll wait since she asked me to. I walk her into the lobby and we’re both surprised to see Lincoln and Ansley.

“Hey!” Ansley greets Olivia.

Olivia smiles at her in surprise. “Hi! What are you doing here?”

“Lincoln and I have an appointment downtown to look at a place for my boutique, but I told him I wanted to see you first.” Ansley glances at Olivia to me without any surprise in her eyes that we’re together. I wonder if she knows about us. “Would you be interested in building me a website and app for my boutique?” Ansley asks.

Olivia looks surprised as she glances from Ansley to Lincoln. “You want me to do that?”

“Of course, I’ll pay you. I know you said you’re working on a gardening app.”

Olivia nods. “I am, but it’s been stalled by everything going on. I need to learn a few other coding things to get it where I want it. Lane…” She looks up at me. “Ummm… One of Victor’s security guys is going to teach me, but like I said with everything going on, we haven’t had a chance.” Ansley steps forward and touches her wrist.

“It’s going to take some time to get this up and running, so if you’ll consider it,” Ansley says.

Olivia nods. “Yeah, of course. We can set up an appointment or something.” Ansley smiles and claps her hands as she looks between Lincoln and Olivia.

“This is really happening,” she says to Lincoln.

He smirks at her and wraps his arm around her waist, then pulls her close. Olivia glances from them back to me. There’s a look of sadness that flashes in her eyes so quickly I’m not sure if I’ve imagined it.

“Thank you for driving me to work. I’ll see you later.”

Olivia walks away, and into the already open elevator before I can say anything. I watch her closely, but she doesn’t look at me again before the door closes. A knot forms in my gut.

“We’re going to come by your pub today for lunch,” Lincoln says. I nod absentmindedly, unable to keep my thoughts from trailing back to Olivia.

“Alright, I’ll see you two later.” They walk to the elevator, probably going to take it down to the parking garage as I walk over to James.

“Have you noticed anything unusual lately?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. “No, not since the flowers were sent last week.” James glances around. “Since the events of the past couple of weeks, Malachi has sent a few other Outsiders to keep watch as well.” I nod, even though I’m not sure of the specifics. I’m assuming it has to do with whatever had Malachi all riled up the day he came to the pub. With a nod, I turn to leave.

“Hey,” James calls out to me and I turn around. “I’d put a label on whatever you have going on with Olivia.”

I squint at him as I try to decipher his meaning. “It is labeled,” I tell him.

He nods, but the doubt is evident in his eyes. “Does she know that?” he asks.

I pat my pocket where the box is that she gave me. Doesn’t she know that?

I sit in my office, holding the bracelet Olivia gave to me as a present. The bracelet is black leather, similar to the one I already have. It’s morse code like the one I got her, and says Love You Big . Just like the ring she got me and the bracelet I got her. I read the small card that was inside the box again.

This time I used my own money. This time it means more. Love, Olivia

Is that why she didn’t want me to open it in front of her because of what the card says? Is this her telling me she loves me? I think back to what James said, then the past several months. I have tried fighting my feelings for her. And I’ve tried denying this is more, but it is more. So much more.

There’s a knock on my office door. “Yeah, come in,” I say distractedly.

The hostess for today walks in. “Mr. Valentine, there’s a couple here that’s asking for you.”

I nod, and she walks out. Putting the bracelet on, I take a picture of it, then send Olivia a text message.

Victor: I love it. Thank you.

I wait for a few minutes to see if she’s going to respond. When she doesn’t, I exhale slowly and walk out into the hallway to go to the restaurant. I already know it’s Lincoln and Ansley before I see them, so I step behind the bar and greet them.

“How did things go this morning?” I ask them and hand them two menus.

Ansley smiles widely as she looks from Lincoln to me. “I think we found the space I want. It’s close to where Julian and Bailey’s office will be. I’m going to see if Bec will help me decorate it. If Liv will help with the website and app, I’m sure I can have it open in less than a year.”

Olivia has mentioned the gardening app she’s been working on. She talks about it along with gardening a lot in the journal she keeps and shares with me. Grant is supposed to be picking up all the supplies for her to begin planting and gardening at the house. I should have done that sooner. Lincoln pushes the menu away.

“What do you recommend?” he asks.

Ansley looks at me expectantly. “Liv said the pretzel rolls here were amazing.”

Smiling, I nod. “Those are her favorite,” I say. “The grilled chicken salad is good. The grilled chicken is great.” I glance at Lincoln. “So is the steak.”

“I’ll take the grilled chicken salad with balsamic vinegar dressing.” She glances at Lincoln with a smirk on her face. “I don’t need anything too heavy with the plans he has for us later.”

Lincoln rolls his eyes and runs his hand through his hair. “Jesus woman. You’re really asking for a red ass later, aren’t you?”

She shrugs one shoulder with a smirk on her face. “I’ve told you time and time again, I like your punishments.” I look between the two of them. Ansley winks at me and Lincoln gives me a questionably apologetic look.

“I’ll take the steak with some mushrooms and a side salad. Medium rare.”

I nod at them and walk back into the kitchen to give the order. The pub is beginning to fill up for lunch hour, but no one else comes to sit at the bar. Lincoln glances at Ansley and they have a conversation with their eyes I can’t decipher, but I’m sure they’ll let me in on whatever this is about soon enough.

“We have some questions for you,” Lincoln finally says. I lean against the bar and wait.

“Liv talked to me at Caroline’s house. She told me a bit about your relationship,” Ansley says. I narrow my eyes. Olivia didn’t tell me that and she didn’t mention it in her journal entry this week. “I talked to Lincoln about it, and we have some questions.”

“About me and Olivia’s relationship?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.

“No,” Lincoln answers. “That’s your business.” Ansley scoffs, but doesn’t say anything else. “Ansley and I have some elements of BDSM in our relationship. We were hoping you’d be okay with us asking you questions about it.”

“Oh,” I’m surprised and glance around. “I can answer questions, but not here. You two are welcome to come over and eat dinner with us. I can talk to Olivia and see if she doesn’t mind talking about it, and we can both answer your questions.” Lincoln nods, but Ansley gives me a skeptical look.

“Are you sure Olivia would want to talk about that?” she asks me. I raise an eyebrow at her.

“Well, she did talk to you, so I’m assuming yes.”

She thrums her fingernails on top of the bar. Lincoln glances at her with a skeptical look, but he doesn’t say anything.

“Is she just your submissive?” Ansley asks.

Lincoln sighs and sits back in his chair. I stare at her for several seconds that turn into minutes and she returns my stare waiting for me to answer. Is she just my submissive? No. She’s more than that.

“No, she’s more,” I say, trying to figure out exactly what I should say. Ansley nods slowly and places her chin in her hand as she continues to watch me, her gaze never wavering.

“I suggest you tell her that,” she says just as their food is brought out.

I wait until their food is placed in front of them and their server walks away before saying anything. “Why would you suggest that?” I ask her.

Ansley takes a bite of her salad and nods appreciatively as she chews it. “This is good,” she says before taking a sip from her water. I want to shake her and tell her to hurry up and answer my question. “I don’t think she knows she’s more,” she says before taking another bite of her salad.

James said something similar earlier. I rub my hand along my jaw as I look between Lincoln and Ansley. Lincoln digs into his steak and keeps his thoughts to himself.

“Why wouldn’t she know that?” I ask. “She stays at my house, and I make sure she’s safe. When we have sex, it’s not just in our roles…”

Ansley raises an eyebrow at me that makes me stop. It wasn’t until recently that I’ve taken things beyond our roles. The first time I did that was the night I told her about my fantasy of fucking her on my bike. That wasn’t a scene. That was Victor and Olivia.

“Listen, I’m not going to apologize for sticking my nose in your business. Liv is one of my best friends. Obviously, there are things I don’t know and I’m learning about her because she’s a very private person. But there’s one thing I do know. You’re the very first relationship she’s ever had, and she’s going to take everything you say at face value. If you’ve only told her or talked to her about the Dominant/submissive relationship between the two of you, that’s all she’s going to think it is. She won’t ask for more because that’s not who she is. She’ll take what you give her, but only up to a certain point. If this is more, you have to tell her it’s more or she won’t know.”

I exhale deeply as Ansley’s words sink in and I think back to the question James asked me earlier. Fuck, she doesn’t know.