It seems only fair. My insides are a shredded bloody mess from the razor-sharp slash of lust she inspires.
I move my hand lower, my fingers skimming the sweet curve of her ass and she trembles against me. I can’t help sweeping my hand over her again, my fingers brushing lower.
She sucks in a breath. “Carter.”
I smile, press my lips to her temple. “Olivia.”
“You have to stop that.”
I give her taut flesh a gentle squeeze. “This?”
“No. Yes. No.”
“No? Yes? No? Which is it?” I move us effortlessly over the dance floor, making my way to the far side and a promising looking dark hallway.
“Why are you calling me Olivia?” She tries to pull from my embrace but I hold her tighter. “Carter?”
“It’s your name.” I’m not sure what she’s getting at, but I don’t like the quiver in her voice. It doesn’t sound like my confident Livi at all.
“But you don’t call me that. You’ve never called me that.”
Ah, now I understood. “I didn’t think you’d want me to call you Livi or Princess here.”
This time when she pulls away, she does it so quickly I can’t stop her. “Why?”
I look around us. Look at the men and women wearing clothes and jewels that cost more than my weekly profits and wonder how Livi doesn’t get it. “Because here you’re Olivia.”
She shakes her head. “But this isn’t who I am with you.”
“I know that.”
Livi frowns. “But I don’t want to be this Olivia with you.”
I tug her close again. This is a huge moment. I can feel it. And for the life of me I won’t fuck this up.
“I’ll take you any way you come. Olivia. Livi. Princess. I love them all because I see what’s beneath each one of them. I see everything, Livi, and nothing about you, not this perfect woman in my arms or the fake smile she puts on her face, makes me love you any less.”
“But—”
I press my fingers to her lips. “No. There’s nothing you can say that will change the way I feel either.”
“I don’t?—”
“C’mon.” I release her to grab her hand. “Let’s go somewhere less noisy. More private.”
Without a clue where I’m going, I tug her behind me into the dark passage I spotted earlier.
Having worked in a five-star hotel before buying the bar, I recognize the hallway as a service way and lead her past the kitchen and deeper into the darkness.
“Carter?”
“Hang on. Almost there.” I try the handle on a storage room door. It turns so I push it open and step inside.
“Carter?”
“Shh.” I pull her in with me and close the door. The room is pitch black leaving my eyes useless, but I’m good with my hands—really good—and I have no trouble at all feeling my way down Livi’s body.
“Carter?”
