Page 15 of Her Jealous Valentine

“Coming.” I launch out of my chair, nearly running to the door.

Gosh, he brings out the best in me. The thought of seeing his face makes me giddy and takes such a firm hold over my body that I can’t stop myself from sprinting to his side like a puppy chasing its master.

When I pull the door open, expecting to have my man’s chest at eye level, a cold spike of fear stabs into my heart. Instead of Victor waiting with arms open and ready to receive me, it’s Adam, a shoulder awkwardly slumped onto the wall next to him, trying to look cool.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Right. I guess we’re going straight for aggressive, then. It’s for the best. Maybe this time, my rejection will actually penetrate his thick skull.

“I came here to see you.” His brow furrows, confused, as if his being here is something I want. “Look, Livvy?—”

“Don’t call me that.” I try to slam the door in his face, but Adam sends his foot forward and blocks it from shutting.

“I know what you’re doing, you know?” He pushes himself off the wall and takes a step forward, breaching the doorway. If nothing else, I can nail him with a trespassing charge.

“And what’s that?” I’m not afraid of him. Hell, with how scrawny Adam is, I like my chances in a fistfight. But to avoid any unnecessary confrontation, I walk backward from him anyway.

“You and that freaking gorilla. You’re trying to make me jealous,” he says. “And it’s working. But you don’t have to, Olivia. Maybe I haven’t made myself clear, so I’ll say it plainly. I love you.”

Holy shit, his delusions have gotten out of hand. I’ve barely spoken a word to him in two years, and this is what he’s picking up from my budding relationship with Victor?

Maybe I should be scared of him. He’s unhinged and unstable, and now I’ve trapped myself, with Adam blocking my only exit.

“You need to stop this, Adam. I’ve told you already, I’m not interested.” I have to stand my ground. Buckling will give his twisted mind reason to think he has a place in my future.

Even if it means I have to do it with a quivering lip and fearful ache building in my tummy.

“But that’s just the thing.” Adam’s accompanying smile says he thinks he knows what I want better than I do. “You are. I can see it when you look at me. Your face always ligh?—”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Victor’s voice booms from the doorway before Adam can finish his sentence.

Just like that, relief replaces terror.

My heart starts fluttering in my chest for completely different reasons than Adam’s intimidation.

Victor is here.

I’m safe.

No one can scare or hurt me anymore.

9

VICTOR

Iwouldn’t classify myself as a particularly violent man. I don’t live my life by the ideology that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I do believe that words can often lead to a better outcome than swinging fists.

But standing in this doorway and seeing the little fucker cornering Olivia in the back of the room, I’m willing to make an exception. I gave Adam the carrot, the ability to walk away from this unscathed with his teeth still firmly slotted in his jaw.

Now, it’s time to give him the stick.

“Listen, big man, I’ve said it once.” He spins around to face me, and his eyes nearly pop out of his skull as he takes me in again. It’s only been a few days, but somehow, Adam forgot what an imposing force he was dealing with. I guess the look of fury twisting my face in a scowl can’t ease his nerves. “This doesn’t concern you.” The rest of his sentence doesn’t hold the same conviction as the start of it.

“From where I’m standing, you’re backing mywoman into a corner. Scaring her.” I take a step forward, and he cowers from me the same way he made Olivia recoil from him.

“It’s the twenty-first century.” His rattling jaw makes him stammer over the words. “You can’t own people anymore.”

“Don’t play smart with me, fuck-face.” I look over his head as if he’s a tall obstacle and at Olivia. The look of fear that flooded her features when I entered has already melted away to a sheepish grin that I’ve started associating with the succubus that dwells deep inside her core. Good girl. Don’t ever let this piece of shit bring you down. “Are you okay, beautiful?”

“I am now that you’re here.” Her sultry voice emboldens my next few steps toward Adam.

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