Page 10 of Her Jealous Valentine

“Guess I couldn’t wait any longer,” I answer the question she couldn’t finish. “Two days has been hard enough. I don’t think I’d survive another night alone.”

Olivia jumps out of her chair and sprints toward me. She collides with me with so much force that the roses go flying across the reception floor.

“Thank you,” she whispers before hoisting herself up to gently peck me on the lips.

Fuck that. There’s no way I’m going to let her get away with a tender peck after all the torment she put me through today.

Hooking my arm holding the chocolates around her neck, I bring her in for a passionate embrace. She gives in to my desires, allowing me to part her lips with my tongue and explore her mouth for way too long before she remembers we’re still in her office.

“Victor,” she scolds me and pulls away. But the smile on her face and her rosy cheeks are enough to tell me she isn’t upset at all.

“It’s your fault. You’re the one who put all those naughty thoughts in my head.” I wink and hand her the chocolates and stuffed toy before collecting the scattered roses off the floor.

“Ah, that’s what this is about. Well, if you give me another twenty minutes, we can go back to your place and explore those thoughts.” She spins around with the elegance of a ballerina and skips back to her desk.

“Then I’ll suffer those twenty minutes in silence while thinking about all the things I’m going to do when we’re alone.”

6

OLIVIA

“You didn’t have to do this, you know?” I say, cuddling the big teddy bear to my chest. I mean it, too, but I’m so grateful that Victor did. “I would’ve gone back to your place anyway.”

As instructed, Victor waited for me to finish work. He sat quietly in a waiting room chair and awkwardly greeted Dr. Sinclair as she passed by to leave for the evening. She couldn’t help but smile and laugh at the sight of this burly man with a teddy bear sitting on his lap.

“I know, but I wanted to.” Victor cranes his neck down to meet my eyes. He’s still holding the remnants of the roses I destroyed out of pure excitement for his romantic gesture. “You deserve a hell of a lot more than chocolates and flowers, but it was the best I could do on such short notice.”

“You’re sailing pretty dangerous waters with that one, captain.” I’ve got no idea why my mind went with nautical wordplay. Then again, maybe I do. There has to be a filthy joke about whatwe’ve been doing, how wet I get around him and seamen here somewhere.

“And why’s that?” Victor snakes a hand up my arm before slipping it over my shoulder. He pulls me tightly against his body as we walk to his car.

“Because if you’re not careful, I fear I might start falling in love.”

He stops dead in his tracks so suddenly, I nearly topple over as his arm around my neck pulls me backward.

I want to believe I meant it as a joke. That I’m just having some fun. But there’s something about Victor that I can’t seem to shake. It’s the way he acts around me. How he gets tongue-tied and twisted when I burrow into his brain with a silly comment like this one. And I’d be deluding myself if I didn’t say the way he looks at me sends chills down my spine.

Every time our eyes meet, it’s as if he sees me for the first time. There’s nothing but genuine warmth and happiness that flood his beautiful eyes.

“Only start? And here I thought we were returning to my place to plan the wedding.” He plays his shock off with charismatic charm.

“Play your cards right, mister, and we just might.” I wink at him and roll my shoulders to say we should keep moving.

As fun as it is to flirt in the parking lot, we could be doing it in his bedroom instead.

The thrill of it all is short-lived when we stop in front of Victor’s Bentley, and from the corner of my eye, I see someone approaching us. Had we been anywhere else, I’d have thought nothing of it. But Dr. Sinclair’s office has a fenced-off parkinglot, and when Victor’s car is the only one here, no one would have any reason to be in it.

Shit. That could only mean it’s one person.

I choose to keep my attention focused on Victor instead of looking over. Maybe I’m wrong about who I saw. Vague shapes in my periphery hardly make up a man, right?

“Not interested, pal.” Victor waves a hand toward the guy, no doubt thinking him a bum.

“The fuck’s this, then?” The British accent confirms my fears. It’s Adam Hughes, the dickhead who followed me here from England.

My heart starts thumping faster in my chest.

Not here. Not today.

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