‘Nope,’ he replied, his lip curling derisively. ‘Definitely not.’
‘I don’t understand.’
Suddenly she straightened but didn’t say anything. He could almost see her brain furiously ticking over.
‘So what did happen at Ben’s party?’ Her words were flat.
‘I blew it big time at your brother’s party.’
‘Tell me about it. I spent all evening chatting you up. Disappear for two minutes. Come back and you’ve got your tongue down Emily’s throat.’
He winced at the disgust in her voice. ‘It wasn’t like that,’ he protested.
She scowled and snorted.
‘Emily made the first move.’
‘What? And you couldn’t fight her off?’
She had a point. ‘Sorry, Olivia. I’m a guy, we do guy things. She was coming on to me seriously flirty and well... she’s easy on the eye and...’
She rolled her eyes.
Bugger it, he might as well be totally honest with her. ‘I was pissed off with you.’
‘Me?’ she squeaked indignantly. ‘Why?’
‘You’d been leading me up the garden path all night. Like a trained puppy on a lead. So close and yet so far. I thought we were finally going to get it together this time—’
‘This time?’
He risked a glance at her. ‘You don’t remember, you’d had a few too many, but we kissed one night.’ He winced. ‘I took advantage of you but I’d fancied you for ages and you kissed me back.’ She’d done more than kiss but he didn’t think it would be gentlemanly to remind her of that.
‘Actually I did remember but I was too embarrassed to admit it. I’d thrown myself at you and you were just being nice.’
‘Nice!’ He took his foot off the accelerator for a second, hastily replacing it as the engine whined in protest. ‘Olivia there was nothing nice about that kiss. If you hadn’t been drunk... well, who knows where it would have ended.’
‘Oh,’ she said in a small voice that immediately lit a spark of satisfaction low in his belly.
‘I’ve had a lot of time to think about that kiss over the years and then when I think we’re going to get it together, I’m suddenly confronted with the news you’re having an affair with a married man. I felt a right fool. Suddenly there was Emily, green light flashing, looking at me like I was Brad Pitt, James Dean and James Bond rolled into one. When she started kissing me and you showed up I... you know...’
Now he’d blown it, maybe there was being too honest.
She stared at him, comprehension dawning. ‘You were trying to make me jealous.’
He flashed her a grin. ‘I had no idea that Emily was—’
‘So, how come you carried on seeing her?’
He squirmed in his seat, not really wanting to answer but there’d been so much misinformation between them he wanted to get everything out in the open. God knows over the last couple of years their timing had been out of sync. Looking back, he could see he’d fancied Olivia forever and a day. It really was now or never and he didn’t want to screw it up this time. ‘OK. We ended up in bed together. I’m not a total bastard.’ Surely that would count for something in his favour. ‘I had to see her after that and let’s face it, you were otherwise engaged. There was nothing to lose.’
She didn’t look impressed. ‘So you just kept seeing her. What? Because it was convenient?’
You didn’t need a degree in body language to determine her mood from the arms firmly crossed over her chest.
‘Don’t be like that. It was a mistake. Anyway, part of it was your fault—’
‘How do you figure that?’ she spat.
