Page 30 of True Abandon

He’s calm—too calm and too controlled for my liking. All while I stand here completely dumbfounded.

“You flew all the way to Hawaii to tell me you’re upset I wasn’t there when you woke up from anesthesia?”

Unfazed, he stares.

I stare back.

He settles back on his heels, letting me know he’s willing to stand here all night if he has to.

In the hospital, I carried an air of authority—I was in the position of power while he was rendered immobile. But here, now, this man in front of me is neither the boy of my youth nor is he the patient who lay in a bed in pain and in need of my help.

No. Here is a tall, viral man.

His six-foot-two stature is overpowering in the large space.

His presence, commanding.

His look, disarming.

And the way he makes the hair on the back of my neck stand straight and my stomach flutter is more than I can take.

“Are you Olivia Benson?” I ask, now realizing how dry my mouth is.

His full lips spreading to showcase that damn smile I hate.

I stomp my foot. “Is this all a game to you?” My voice echoes over the marble.

He levels his gaze. “No game.”

“Then what is this?”

“This is me finishing what we started.”

I reach for my throat with one hand and wrap my other around my stomach.

This can’t be happening. Jackson Davis cannot be sabotaging my life again.

This was my fresh start—the third in twenty-five years. He can’t keep appearing in my life and forcing his hand.

“Why are you doing this?”

“What am I doing, Trish?” His words are a dare.

“Destroying my life.”

It’s hard to miss the tick of his jaw and widening of his eyes. “Is that what you think I came here for?”

“If not to cause more damage, then what?”

“To make it up to you,” he says with a slight rise to his voice. The calm and cool demeanor fading before me. His fists clench as he pulls in his lower lip, those brows furrow deep. “You think you know everything, but you’re wrong. Seeing you in the hospital…” He takes a deep breath and looks down as if recalling a memory. “It’s all I’ve been able to think about. Waking up and seeing you for the first time,” he pauses. “It was surreal.”

Those caramel-colored eyes find mine again. They’re glazed with a look so severe it almost reads as remorse as he continues, “But then I saw the look on your face and knew you weren’t the same person. The once boisterous and fun girl with the most beautiful laugh was gone.”

“I’m still fun. It’s just you I can’t stand to be around.”

He flinches as if my words are daggers thrown into his heart.

Feeling myself gaining control of the conversation I ask, “So you had an epiphany. Why wait seven months to track me down?”