She heard Jessica inhale sharply. “And if I ask is it quantity over quality?”
“I’d say why choose when you can get both.” She groaned. “What am I doing? I don’t talk about sex, I don’t do casual sex.” She’d spent the past two days in a mental fog. During the earnings call she’d listened to yesterday, her mind had actuallywandered.
“And is that all it is, casual sex?”
It was the question she’d not dared to ask herself. Of course that’s all it was, but... her eyes fluttered closed and a reel of the past two days flashed through her mind. Connor interlacing his fingers with hers as they walked along the wharf eating ice creams. Connor pressing a tender kiss to her temple as he pointed out a group of snapping turtles in Long Pond. And the powerful thump of her heart in response. “It’s a fling, Jess.” She didn’t lie to her sisters. “But between the hot sex, the sightseeing, the pushing me to do crazy things like ride on quad bikes and try surfboarding—which I was useless at, by the way—he’s considerate, careful with me. It’s like he can read me. He knows how far he can push and when to step back.”
Silence. It lasted so long she was about to check if Jessica was still there.
“I’ve never heard you talk like this, Liv,” Jessica said finally. “I expected you to ignore my threat to hang up and grumble instead about what you’re missing at work, about the promotion gossip, what Stuart’s doing to cement his chances while you’re not there. No way did I expect a conversation not just about Connor and sex but about Connor and how in tune he is with you.”
“Well, don’t go reading anything into it,” she countered quickly, hoping she was the only one who could hear the edge of panic in her voice. “He’s likable, you know that. Doesn’t mean I’m about to arrange to see him when I get back.”
“But you could,” Jessica replied softly. “Didn’t we overhear him say he works in Chiswick? That’s only, what, forty-five minutes on the tube?”
The panic bubbled. She pressed a hand to her chest and took a deep breath. “I’m going to be knee-deep in a battle for my dream job when I get back, the job that’s the sole reason I’ve stayed with Techtonic all this time. I’m not going to blow fifteen years of dedication by losing my head over a guy a decade younger than me. No matter how good the sex is.”
“Okay, okay, point taken.” Olivia could hear the smile in Jessica’s voice. “And now you sound likeyouagain.”
They talked for a few more minutes and when she put down the phone, Olivia reached for her computer and opened a new document. After typingPROMOTION STRATEGYin bold capital letters at the top, she listed everything she needed to do when she got back to the office.
An hour later, she let out a satisfied smile. Now she felt like herself again too.
And she had only one more hour to kill.
As he helped Olivia off the quad bike, Connor watched a smile cross her face at the sight in front of them—the perfect stretch of golden sand nestled between two dunes. One of the knots in his stomach relaxed. At least she was happy.
As for him, he still felt churned up inside. Frustrated that he’d missed seeing her on a Jet Ski. Pissed off at having to do overtime and guilty that he was pissed off when it meant more money for Ellie’s riding pot. Worried about the look Felix had given him when he’d asked Connor to cover the extra hours.I assume you haven’t got anywhere else more important to be.
“Connor?”
Damn it. “Sorry, got caught up in my head.” He reached inside the bike’s box for the picnic blanket.
“I asked how it went with the menu ideas. Did Felix like them?”
“Said he didn’t have time to go through them today.” That was another thing that churned in his gut. It had sounded like a brush-off. Like he’d only dangled the possibility to get Connor to do the extra hours because he knew something had changed from the first two weeks, when Connor had grabbed any opportunity for overtime.
After laying the blanket on the sand, he turned to find Olivia staring at him. “You said you came to Nantucket to learn because you want to open your own place, so I know your time here is important to you. Are you putting it at risk by seeing me?”
He flinched. She’d hit the nail on the head without even knowing about the interaction with Felix. “I’m not going to stop seeing you, if that’s what’s worrying you,” he said. He let out a humorless laugh. “Or maybe that’s what you’re hoping for.”
“If I wanted to stop seeing you, I’d stop.”
He cursed under his breath. First, turn up late, then don’t listen to her, and finally, act like a truculent kid. Yep, he knew how to impress a woman.
Exhaling heavily he drew her to him, wrapped his arms around her waist, and buried his face in her hair. “Sorry.” He dragged in a breath, and as he inhaled her scent, the other knots in his stomach finally started to unravel. “Just need a minute to unwind.”
For a few moments they stood in silence, arms around each other, listening to the waves roll up the beach and the gulls squawk above them. When he felt the tension finally ebb away, he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Thank you.”
Her hazel eyes were soft, her expression full of understanding. “You know you can talk to me if you want to.”
“I know, thanks.” He pulled out the dinner boxes he’d prepared and set them on the blanket, then tugged her down to join him. “You’re right. I’m putting my temporary placement here at risk seeing you.”
“And your job back home.” When he gave a start of surprise, she leveled a look at him. “You said Felix and Aaron were friends. I can put two and two together.”
“Okay.” He heaved out a sigh, the burden of that risk weighing heavily on him as he thought of Ellie, of the importance of his job, not just what he earned but the fact he could earn it while taking care of her. “But don’t tell me to stop seeing you. Because I won’t. I can’t.” How could he work in the hotel knowing he might bump into her? And that if he did, he wasn’t able to be alone with her, touch her? The knots in his stomach began to retie, tighter this time, and something was happening in his chest because he was finding it hard to breathe. Fuck.
“Right, let’s eat.” He busied himself opening the containers, hoping to distract them both from what he’d just admitted.
