“Back to what?”
She scoffed. “Back to you spitting your vicious words at me. Back to talking down to me. Back to being a complete and utter jerk.”
I walked around my desk, needing space. “Hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but I never stopped being an asshole. I’m no different now than I was three hours ago.”
“Unbelievable,” she huffed out. “I came back in here to see you because I couldn’t… Ican’tignore whatever this tension is between us. It’s there. I feel it, and I know you do, too. What we did back there… That wasn’t fair to Lennon. But it’s also not right for us to continue to ignore something that is very, very obvious.”
I spun around, my hand clenched in a fist. I brought it up and hit my chest, this unknown fury and frustration coursing through me. “I’m not Lennon, Olivia! You arenotgoing to find in me what you saw in him. I’m not the kind, noble Taylors brother. I’m on the opposite side of the goddamn Earth while everyone else is experiencing summer. I’m in the area that iscoveredin shadows and frigid ice.”
“I’m not afraid of the dark, Weston. Or the cold.”
I chewed on the insides of my cheeks, hating the way those words felt a lot like an embrace. I ground out, “You should be. You don’t find anything good in the darkness, Olivia. It’s a cold, damp place with little life. There’s nothing here that’s going to help you thrive.”
She stepped closer. “Turns out, I’m not much of a green thumb. The last three succulents I owned, I killed.”
“This isn't a comedy show, Olivia. You can’t spend the last year with my brother, break up with him, then make appearances with me. That will destroy him.”
And the both of us, too.
“I’m not looking for that. I…”
I took a step back, running my hand through my hair. She pressed forward, eating up two steps in place of my one. It was a dynamic I wasn’t used to. In every scenario, I was the wolf, especially of late. I sought out situations, people, experiences. It wasn’t the other way around.
But I couldn’t deny that I enjoyed Olivia’s sudden boldness. It lit a fire in my veins, burning me from the inside out. I wanted to touch her again. Damnit, I wanted to feel her.Tasteher.
My gaze zipped down her body, then slowly climbed back up to her face. She was fucking beautiful. Effortlessly sexy in that dress of hers. She had on a conservative amount of makeup, from what I remembered being in the conference room earlier, and it suited her well. Everything suited Olivia Hudson. From the dresses she wore like her body was made for them, to the way she lost consciousness because of a migraine.
She was ordinary and unique all at the same time.
And I wanted to claim that. To call it mine. To embed myself in her in the same way she managed to do to me without even really trying.
“Careful what you say,” I grumbled in response.
“Why? Are you going to make me want to leave again?”
“I have the nagging suspicion that I’ll always say just the right thing to make you want to run in the opposite direction.” Which was another reason we couldn’t do this. It was nosecret that I struggled when it came to people. It didn’t help that I spent months pining over a woman that was out of reach. That was somebody else’s.
“Probably not wrong there,” she murmured, walking up to me, toe-to-toe. Her hands found my shirt, and she gripped enough of the fabric that it tightened around my torso.
My cock twitched.
She rubbed her lips together then said, “Stop looking at me like you hate me.”
I tilted my head, reveling in the notion that her hands were on me. I wondered if they still would be if she knew the truth. If she knew who I really was. What I was capable of.
“But what if I do?” I asked in an attempt to rile her for no other reason than liking the attitude she gave me back.
“I haven’t been with a ton of men, Weston, but I’ve been with enough to know that you wouldn’t have touched me the way you did if you hated me.”
“So fucking sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
When she hummed, I couldn’t stop myself. I brought my hand up and cupped her neck, my thumb resting on that center spot that vibrated.
“I’ve spent long enough questioning things I shouldn’t,” she told me. “I’m not interested in prolonging that habit any longer.”
I lifted my hand from her neck and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, letting my thumb brush over the shell of it slowly.
My question was hushed, my tone a lot gentler than it had been. She was invading my space, my mind. “How’s that head of yours?”
