I felt my stomach cramp at the idea. She’d become such an important part of the team in a very short time.
“You go back to your real job, I guess.”
It was a cop out, and we both knew it. Livi rolled over, waiting for me to do the same so we could see each other.
“I want to see you again. After this,” she said. “I want you to be my girlfriend.”
“I wouldn’t be opposed to hanging out and hooking up,” I lied.
The truth was I wanted nothing more than to call this woman my girlfriend, maybe even my wife, but I wasn’t naive enough to think that could ever work.
“This thing that’s happening between us, it’s big Sam. It’s not friends with benefits, it’s happily ever after stuff. I’m falling in love with you.”
My heart stuttered in my chest as feelings hit me fast and furious. Joy. Fear. Happiness. Denial. Hope. The truth was, I was in love with her too. But then my brain engaged, and I shoved everything down deep.
“Livi. I know this feels big, but we’re too ill-suited for any long-term relationship to work out.”
She studied me long enough that I looked away, afraid that she’d see the truth in my eyes.
I wished I could believe her. I was sure she believed herself. But I’d gotten my heart broken by someone who decided that I was too much for them. Too working class. Too opinionated.Too independent. That relationship had taught me an important lesson: I was better off alone than to be with someone who was focused on changing me into their perfect little partner.
Not that Livi had ever given me any indication that she didn’t like me just as I was. Despite her generally put together appearance, there had never been any subtle digs about my clothing, how I needed to do something with my hair, the state of my fingernails. How I would look prettier if I just put on a little bit of makeup and made more of an effort with my appearance.
But we were in a bubble here. She was going to go back to her high society life, and go do the things that heiresses do, and eventually I would be her project, something to work on, something to be embarrassed of. Something to mock and then discard.
No, I couldn’t do that. It hurt back when I was with Savannah, but my feelings for Livi were much, much stronger than what I’d felt for her or any other woman. Being hurt by her would cut much, much deeper. It was something I’d never recover from.
“You’re scared,” Livi said decisively, telling me that she’d read more of my emotions on my face than I’d intended. “I get it. I’m scared too, but I’ve never been one to run away from a challenge. I’m going to do what it takes to make you mine forever.”
“What if I don’t want forever?” I snipped.
“If I thought that was true, I’d take my broken heart and walk away. But there’s no way what just happened between us means nothing, that it was just sex.”
She took a deep breath, and when her hand came to my face I couldn’t help but meet her gaze.
“You’re going to be mine, Sam. And I’m going to be yours, because deep down, you know it’s what we both want. But I’ll give you some time to get used to the idea because when we make a commitment, I want us both to be sure.”
“Let’s just have tonight,” I said placatingly. “And we’ll go from there.”
Olivia
Itold Sam I was going to give her some time, but I never told her I was going to stop trying to convince her that we belonged together. I knew it was too fast, that we didn’t really know each other that well, yet somehow, deep down in my soul, I knew that Sam was the woman I was meant to spend the rest of my life with. Hopefully she would see that eventually.
After a night spent snuggling together, kissing and touching and having sex twice more, we woke up to sunshine and warm temperatures. We stayed in our makeshift bed for a long time, Sam’s front pressed against my back, neither of us talking. Finally nature called and we got up to wait for our rescue.
The county crew arrived late Saturday morning, and after about ninety minutes they were able to clear away the section of the tree that blocked the road. I called a tow truck for my poorcrumpled convertible and once it was out of the way, we were free to go.
Since I didn’t have a car, Sam offered to give me a ride home. I gathered up my belongings and hopped up into her pickup truck. I’d never been inside a truck like this before. It was an older model but clean and well-maintained. I wouldn’t have expected anything less from her.
We were both quiet on our way into the city. Maybe it was because we’d stayed up late having sex. Maybe it was because it wasn’t exactly comfortable sleeping on the floor with only a drop cloth for padding. Or maybe it was because we were both lost in thought, thinking about everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.
When we got to my family estate Sam’s face closed off.
“This is where you live, huh? There was nothing bigger available?”
There was no disguising the judgement in her tone. I’d had a bad feeling that her seeing my home would remind her of our differences and make things uncomfortable, and I was right.
Admittedly, the house was a monstrosity, with two separate wings leading off from the main part of the house. I didn’t even know how many bedrooms and bathrooms we had, but it was a lot. She hadn’t even seen the back where we had a pool, pool house, tennis court, and a nine hole practice golf course.
