I lower my head. I can’t look at him so lock in on the frayed edges of the Persian rug. “Yeah, the app broke.”
He stares at me, expressionless and silent, for what feels like hours.
I patch the silence, my shoulders pulled tight and high like a slingshot. “I’m so sorry; everything happened so quickly and I panicked, I just—”
Oliver bursts out laughing.
Chapter 28
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My head shoots up to confirm I’m not imagining it.
Despite everything I’ve said, Oliver is smiling. A wide, toothy, genuine smile, his eyes creased as he tries to contain his laughter. “You’re completely insane.” He puts his hand on mine and squeezes. “I mean, who does that?”
“Be that stupid?” I ask, feeling the tension around my body melt like butter.
His laughing slows. “No, believe in something so much that they risk everything to make it happen?”
I start laughing too, so hard the tears I’ve been holding back come out. I’m laughing at how ridiculous this all is, how far I’ve come, how I would have never thought I’d end up here.
“Hey, it’s all right.” He moves in front of me, pulling the pocket square from his jacket and using it to wipe the tears from my flushed cheeks. It’s a gentlemanly gesture I didn’t think happened outside of historical romance books.
I shake my head. “It was a mistake, but I don’t regret it, because I got to meet you. But I’m scared you’re going to meet the real me and change your mind. You like Violet, not Jess. Jess is boring and serious and not fun. I wanted to try something new, be someone new. Someone who doesn’t have this demon on their back weighing them down all the time.”
He takes my face in his hands, stroking his rough thumb across my cheek as he studies me, eyes soft and relaxed. He smiles. “My attraction to you is choiceless. If you let me, I’d have you with any name. Jess, Violet, fucking Gertrude, it’s all the same to me. You are you.” He smiles onto my lips. “But I could get used to Jess.”
I let out a teary laugh and kiss him lightly, a long exhalation of relief coursing through me. We kiss again, soft but longer this time, slowly morphing into something more. Our tongues clash, and his arms wrap around my waist, lifting me onto the desk. We giggle as we both realize the skirt of my dress is so tight I have to sit sidesaddle to him.
His hand runs up the silk encasing my thighs in soft, caressing strokes until I can’t take it. I slide the undone bow tie from his collar and unbutton halfway down his shirt. My dress is too long and there’s too much fabric between us. My breath hitches as he reads my mind, wraps his arms around me, and starts to unzip my dress, the vibration pulling down my back as his fingers follow, smoothing over my bare skin until they hit the lace bra.
He drags me off the desk, lets my dress drop to the ground, and crouches on the floor to untangle my stilettos from the pooled fabric. With everything going on, I forgot about my gala-worthy underwear situation. Watching as his gaze travelsback up my body, studying my matching stockings, black underwear, and bra with preternatural concentration, I cringe at the contrast between my immaculate lingerie and my messy hair and post-cry makeup, but he doesn’t seem to care. His hands smooth over the backs of my calves, urging me back onto the desk as he parts them.
He snaps the edge of a stocking gently against my thigh. “These will make me forgetbothour names.” Any resolve to get out of this situation intact drifts away.
After a swell of confidence, I ask, “What about these?” And move his hand to my underwear, his fingers running along the edge of the lace. My head droops to the side as he kisses the skin just below my navel.
“Name, location, year, everything. Nothing is as important as these.” He laughs, warm breath tickling my skin as he moves back up my body until he reaches my lips.
I make light work of the rest of his shirt, my heart racing harder with every button until I can run my hands over the smattering of hair across his chest, perfectly framing his toned torso. I’ve seen his body before, but this feels like the first time. The first time we’re being honest. The first time we’re being completely ourselves. The first time we know this isn’t going to be the only time.
I wrap my legs around him, my heels digging into his lower back and deepening the kiss. His hands smooth over my legs and up my waist, melting me to my core. His erection is hard between us, the muscles flexing and throbbing as my tongue glides over his.
“Sure you’re okay with this?” I ask, already out of breath as he breaks to work his mouth over my neck.
He pulls back, furrowing his brow. “Why wouldn’t I be? Got something else to confess?”
“You know everything now, but that makes you complicit.” I hold his broad shoulders, more saying this to myself than him as the realization sinks in. “I’vemadeyou complicit. You should be running for the hills.”
He strokes a finger over the fabric of my underwear. “That may be the sensible thing to do, but unfortunately evil masterminds with a penchant for reckless behavior turn me on.”
My head comes to rest in the crook of his shoulder as I shudder from his touch. “Just for the record, none of it was on purpose.”
