“I am so sorry that happened to you and some of the things we’ve done, things I’ve said, I wouldn’t have if I’d known—”
“Which is why I am glad you didn’t know.” She glances up at me with a glimmer of a smile. “This can’t change things between us, I mean sex mainly, but also the way you speak to me and treat me, or he wins again. Sarah taught me that I couldn’t be shaped and defined by this any more than I had been, Janet too. She helped me to enjoy intimacy, to trust my mind and body and although with Ridley it was youthful and naïve, I realised that it wasn’t wrong or bad for my body to react to stimulation. Then with Brad more so, just because he knew more, was more experienced and with you, well, I think you may have picked up on how much I enjoy the things we do. Even when there have been seconds of doubt or hesitation with you, they quickly pass because it’s you. With Ridley and Brad, I did freak out a few times or panic, which shocked them, but I can’t seem to help but trust you.”
“Under different circumstances I would want to kiss you for that,” I say and seeing her face at myunder different circumstancesI understand what she meant about things changing and quickly back track. “Except there are no different circumstances, so…” I lower my lips to hers with some serious doubts in my mind about whether this is perverse or wrong but as I feel her lips soften beneath me all doubts leave my mind and for several minutes I am lost in the moment, the kiss, the togetherness. The feel of her tongue brushing against mine, the way she digs her fingers into my shoulders, pulling me closer and those little moans and mewls she makes are making me dizzy, delirious and then almost abruptly she pulls back.
“There’s one more thing I should probably tell you.” Suddenly, I am breathless with anxiety rather than from our kiss.
“I am struggling to think of what else you could tell me, Olivia,” I say frankly.
“Well this isn’t quite so shocking, although it is problematic for me. You said about women envying me and me having a job that’s on the up, well that’s not quite true because as of this afternoon I no longer have a job.”
Chapter 28
Olivia
I don’t have a job. Just hearing those words outside of my head hit me like a shovel to the face.
“What do you mean, you don’t have a job? Is this what I missed earlier, with you, Christian and Dec?” Mason has a very confused expression as I nervously nod my head.
“He has employed a new designer, which you know, but by the time he told me he had already told me that he saw me as a receptionist. Only as a receptionist.”
“What? Why? I don’t understand his resistance to you working on designs,” Mase says, becoming annoyed judging by the strange twist of his mouth.
“He just doesn’t see me beyond the reception desk, never has, or maybe he refuses to be manipulated by who I am sleeping with. I think he thought he was doing me some kind of favour by speaking to me about us—” Is as far as I get when Mason’s burgeoning annoyance moves straight into pissed off.
“Speaking to you about us? What does that mean? He has no right to express an opinion on us. We are fuck all to do with him. What did he say?”
“I, erm.” I don’t want to cause trouble between Mason and any of his family members, of which Christian is one.
“Olivia, you might as well just spit it out or I’ll be calling him and getting it from the horse’s mouth,” Mase says and I know that it’s a clear threat he’ll follow through with.
“He was nice, kind of, but he inferred that when we’re over I’d have nothing to go back to without being embarrassed and uncomfortable. I got pissed off with him, especially when he said he understood why I’d be so forthcoming with you, which I took to mean why I’d shagged you.” With a wry smile I continue, “Then he told me that you must be a very attractive proposition for a girl like me. I did call him a judgemental, depreciative, pejorative arsehole at that point. He never really took much notice or interest in me before us and I did tell him that he knew nothing about me because he never wanted to and then told him he knew less than nothing about the two of us.”
“Too fucking right. When I usually threaten to slaughter Christian, I am referring to the squash court, but I am going to fucking kill him, actually end him,” Mason says shaking his head.
I look down into the space between us in Mason’s lap thinking he has heard enough of my exchange with Christian and if he hears much more, he may actually have some kind of seizure.
“What?” I frown as two of his fingers pull my chin up so I am facing him again. “Just tell me what else he said. I can see there’s something and Dec hasn’t featured yet.”
“You’re not going to like this,” I warn.
“Baby, I already don’t like it, so spill.”
“He contradicted that he knew less than nothing about us, unless that included the fact that we are almost permanently disappearing into your flat reappearing freshly showered and wearing different clothes.”
“Fucking Sean, not that it is anything to do with him either,” Mason snaps furiously.
“Mase, I was pissed off when Christian said that, but people can think what they want.” I raise my hands until they rest flat against his chest. “And people have said and done much worse about and to me.”
I look into Mason’s eyes and immediately see my words resonating; Christian is a knob, but means me no real harm, unlike Raymond and the doctor.
“I think I gave as good as I got anyway, even when he said,I don’t doubt he has you seeing stars or that you bring him to his knees by being on yours but that is never going to last.”
“Olivia, you have to know that I can’t let that go. Nobody has the right to speak to you that way and Christian will be in no doubt about that by the time I’m done.”
“Mason, I tore a strip off him too, mainly for thinking I am still a receptionist. I may have confirmed his thinking on why you might have helped my career by suggesting had it not been for your intervention he would never have given me a chance. He just fucking shrugged, so I told him I was terminating my employment with him. He suggested I should wait until after the design job here, but I explained that it was with immediate effect and that I wouldn’t be the one telling you why I don’t need to get up on Monday morning. I told him I’d refer you to him, which I clearly haven’t. Then I stormed out and found Dec standing just beyond the doorway. I may have eavesdropped a little and heard Dec laying into Christian.”
“He will be giving you your job back baby, the designer job not a receptionist one.”
