Can you even fall in love that quick?
I throw back the whiskey and immediately order another one.
Either way, I know being in love is a problem, whether I am there, or not.
Olivia will forever be a target regardless, but if people know the depth of my feelings toward her, she will have a big fat bullseye on her forehead. She’ll be used, exploited and then spat back out.
You don’t get to where I am now without enemies, and I have a lot of them, both within my organization and outside of it.
She is not safe if I love her.
But I can’t not be with her. I can’t not touch and feel, can’t not breathe her in and drown in her. There’s something so damn special about the woman in the red dress that it has my attention and no matter the threat or the danger, I gravitate toward her.
She’s an obsession…
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I snap at my friend.
He side eyes me, not believing a word I say.
I don’tloveOlivia... There’s just so much about her that captures me. Her attitude drives me crazy, but her laughs send me wild, her body ends me, but her smile? Fuck me, her smile is the one thing that might just very well kill me. Everything about her captures my attention and she’s quickly becoming the reason to breathe.
“Okay, man,” He scoffs, “Whatever you say.”
Granted I’m not being very convincing when I’m following her every move, cataloguing her every smile. I can tell when they’re fake, when they’re real, can sense when she’s uncomfortable based on the way her shoulders lower, like in defeat and when she’s excited by the creases that sink in around her eyes when she smiles.
There’s so much depth to Olivia that drowning in her is merely an inevitability.
Dinner is called around thirty minutes later and when she makes her way back to me, her hand resting on my chest, a level of calm comes over me that I’ve never experienced before.
We are seated at one of the front tables, all six of us. Olivia made sure we were the only table to seat so little when every other one is packed.
“Why the event?” Willow asks me.
I shrug, “Why not?”
She tilts her head back and forth as if in contemplation, “Most throw a party for a reason, Farrow.” She points out, “What’s your reason? It isn’t charity, that’s for sure.”
I lean across the table just as the appetizers are being served, “I wanted to show off my wife, Willow. Tell the world she is mine.”
Chapter Forty-two
“I’m so sorry I’m late!” A beautiful female rushes up to our table, her long flowing blonde hair falling over bare shoulders. She’s stunning, with tan skin and a light dusting of freckles over the bridge of her nose and cheeks. Big, blue eyes, framed by lush black lashes, flick between the six of us sitting around the table, the first course already completed and cleared away.
“Savannah!” Sebastian shoves out his chair, enveloping the blonde in a tight hug. She’s in a floor-length, off-white gown, simple in design but on her, she makes it look elegant and intricate.
I see my best friend wince and look away quickly from the two of them embracing, but then Malakai also stands and hugs her, followed by Dean and then Killian, who holds onto her far longer than the others did.
“You said you weren’t coming,” Sebastian says, glancing at me.
“I know!” She dances between her feet, “I wasn’t sureI’d make it back!”
“Shit,” Sebastian turns to me and Willow, “Olivia, Wils, this is Savannah, my sister.”
“Oh!” Willow stands quickly, offering her hand, “Hi!”
I shake her hand after and quickly find a member of staff to bring up another chair and place setting for her, putting her next to Sebastian and Dean.
Malakai leans back in his chair, throwing his arm over the back of mine. I almost jump when I feel the brush of his fingers down my spine.
