Page 19 of His Curvy Obsession

“Come in.” A deep voiced sounded on the other side of the door and the woman turned to Olivia. “I’ll leave you to it then. Good luck.” She smiled one more time that turned and walked away.

Olivia opened the door and stopped dead in her tracks as her world slowly collapsed around her.

Seated behind the large oak desk was a man in a dark suit. A familiar man. James. James. Her bartender.

Immediately everything fell into place. The boat on their first date. The very expensive house that he shouldn’t have been able to afford, no matter how good the market.

His sophistication. His charm.

Hell, if she’d hadn’t been staring at him with stars in her eyes, she would have realized he wasn’t an ordinary bartender.

“Olivia!”

James felt his heart drop as he saw Olivia standing in the doorway, a notebook crushed to her chest. He didn’t know what she was doing here, or why. He’d been expecting the consultant from the public relations firm…and that was Olivia.

His heart dropped to his stomach.

Too late, his mind raced. He’d left it too late.

“You lied to me. You’re the owner, not the bartender.” Olivia’s voice shook, though she fought to keep it steady.

“Baby, please let me explain.”

“Oh, there is nothing to explain. Except you lied to me.” She turned to walk back out the door, trying to keep her heart from breaking.

“Wait.” He wrapped his hand around her arm, preventing her from leaving. “I know this looks bad.”

She huffed. “You think?”

“I don’t know how to explain exactly.”

“Let me do it for you. You lied to me for some reason, got me in bed. Made me fall in love with you. Why? Because you were afraid, I’d want your money or something?”

“Exactly.” James’s face hardened. To reveal why he’d lied to her would make him vulnerable. Something he vowed never to be again in life. To this point, he had controlled everything that had happened to him. Now, he had no control over Olivia, just his love to give her.

“So you pretended to be someone else?” Her voice dropped lower. “So how can I believe any of this was real? That you really wanted me, James. All of me.”

“Damn it, Olivia, this is not—”

She held her hand. “Yes. It is exactly about that. You didn’t think I would want you because you had money, and I don’t believe you really wanted me and all me curves.”

She jerked away from him and walked out the way she’d come in.

Olivia ignored James calling after her, hurrying down the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. She needed to get away as fast as possible.

She laughed a little hysterically. The first man she’d felt a real spark with in ages, and he’d lied to manipulate her into liking him. She’d opened up her heart, only to have it crushed completely.

Through her heart was broken, a part of her finally felt free of the fantasy she had built around James. Around what she thought they might have been building together.

A happily-ever-after that would never be.