Page 4 of Between Desire and Denial
“Are you crazy?” I heard him gasp. “You bitch!” Maybe I’d taken it too far. I saw his face contort in fury, but it was then and there that a large figure stepped around the corner.
Dimitri Hardy stood taller than all of us, his hair ruffled, but otherwise looking completely put together. The two women hehad with him stood off to the side, lingering. His attention wasn’t on them though. His gaze, instead, burned a hole into Rufford’s face.
“You’re not calling my friend that, are you, Rufford?” Dimitri Hardy’s voice came out like a smooth drawl, not at all concerned about the domestic dispute he was stepping in the middle of.
“Get out of my way,” Rufford growled, and his face reddened.
But Dimitri didn’t move a muscle. “You know that’s not going to happen. Go on now. Leave unless you want to address the woman you supposedly love in a nicer tone than—"
“I don’t love her. I loved fucking—”
“God damn it.” Dimitri’s hand shot out fast to grip Rufford’s throat and shove him up against the wall. My eyes widened at how quickly the situation escalated. Even the women Dimitri was with gasped.
He glanced over at them and said, “I’ll call you both later. Get out of here.”
They listened immediately and then his gaze went back to my boyfriend, struggling like a rat caught in a trap.
Dimitri’s grip didn’t waver, and he stood tall, so tall and powerful that he probably never ever had to exert power and authority. Seeing him do it for me, for a person he couldn’t possibly care much about was shocking. “Tell me, Rufford, why is it that you think I’ll let you even mumble a sentence like that without pummeling you, man? Come on now. You that dumb for a professor?”
Rufford thrashed and kicked to no avail, trying his best to loosen Dimitri’s hold in his struggle for oxygen. Even if I wanted him to suffer, I didn’t want him to have a heart attack.
“Dimitri.” I put my hand on his shoulder gently. “You need to let him go.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose with his other hand, and it was a perfect representation of how feeble my date was incomparison to him. Dimitri looked completely unbothered by the other man’s wriggling, but his eyes held fire as he looked down at me. “Fine.” He yanked his hand back and let Rufford crumple to the ground. “Your boyfriend is a prick, Olive. I’m on a dateanda work deadline. I hope you’re aware I don’t particularly enjoy breaking up spats between my best friend’s girl and her old fuckboy. So, let’s end the night easily rather than with Rufford’s bloody nose, huh? You leaving now?”
He didn’t glance at Rufford getting up and pulling himself together, but my date was keen on having the last word as he straightened his tweed jacket. “Olive, I’ll be in touch about your thesis.” He stomped off and left me standing in embarrassment in front of Dimitri who looked me up and then down to stare at my feet.
“You barely cracked his watch.”
I glanced at my heels and winced. Great, so he’d seen that. I lifted my chin and crossed my arms. Now was not the time for me to be embarrassed. Instead, I stomped on it five more times before it cracked slightly. “There.”
“You done?”
“I don’t know.” I gulped back the ache in my throat that threatened to cause more tears in my eyes.
“I hope so, because he’s old enough to be your grandfather. He’s not worth the tantrum.” Dimitri was always more honest than I wanted him to be.
“He’s not that old.” I rolled my eyes at him. “And love can transcend all age brackets. It doesn’t discriminate, Dimitri.”
He lifted a brow like he didn’t agree at all.
I waved him off. “You wouldn’t understand.”
And that was the problem. Most people didn’t. Yet, Rufford had given me life, helped me through my master’s program, taken an interest in me like no one else had. He’d given me confidence in myself and direction. Except now I knewhe’d actually exploited my lack thereof, and suddenly I felt completely naked without him.
“Oh, Jesus. Are you going to cry?” Dimitri looked disgusted. “Please don’t. Everyone will think I did something wrong, Olive. I don’t have time for that.”
Chapter Two
OLIVE
“You know what really sucks?”I sniffled, not at all worried whether Dimitri wanted to listen to me rant or not.
He’d been around long enough. He had to call me a friend, even if it was begrudgingly. Sure, more so he was now my best friend’s brother-in-law, but before that, we’d all been sort of friends. Dimitri was there to support her, of course, and he mostly endured my presence more than anything as I navigated Kee’s business. “This was my fallback after Kee. I was supposed to finish my thesis and continue researching with Rufford. I mean, we never said it out loud, but that was the plan.”
“You’ll come up with a new plan,” he told me, completely uninterested. He was already glancing back toward the reception. The man was a well-known part-owner of a hospitality empire and a ruthless real estate investor. He didn’t have time for me.
I didn’t have time for this either. I might not have found my way to the right man, but over the past year, I’d thought I’d finally found my way in what I wanted to do. I’d enjoyed researching with Rufford. I thought it was the start of my career. I’d formed that path, dedicated myself to it, and now it waslike he was snatching it away. “What if I don’t?” I whispered, a sudden ball of fear building in my gut. “I loved him, and he took advantage of that. I wasn’t even a smart enough journalist to see—”
