Page 66 of Café Diablo

“Fuck off,” she slaps my hand away and stomps toward the parking lot.

“Olivia!” I snag her elbow and whip her back around to face me.

“Seriously, piss off!” she snaps, wriggling against my grip, her face is raw and haunted.

“I’mnotmoving!” I almost yell, because I need her to stop freaking out.

I need her to listen.

“My father is a manipulative shithead,” I explain, orienting her in front of me and then letting go, raising my hands up so I’m not touching her. “Heowns the firm. Voss Associates belongs to him, and everything you just heard back in that ballroom,Ijust heard for the first time too! I’m not trying to pull something over you and treat you like a dick!”

“W—what?”

“I have no intention of moving! None. I never told Connor I was moving because I’m not! I’mnotliquidating the firm. I’mnotmoving to Southern California. But clearly, my father will do everything in his power to show me I’m a pawn he can move around whenever he wants—in this case, quite literally.”

I’m so angry, my hands are in fists and I want to punch something—my father, preferably, if he wasn’t a thousand miles away.

“Y-you’re not leaving?” she says cautiously, her face still damp as she looks at me earnestly.

“Not if I can help it,” I respond, dropping my hands.

She seems to calm, but then a whole new wave of embarrassment flushes through her, a pale of vulnerability blooming over her cheeks. I can see her recalculating everything she just said and did: her wet face, the emotion in her voice that’s plain as day, the fact that I said I was leaving and how she reacted.

“Hey—!” I say softly, catching the back of her neck and pulling her toward me. “I love that you got upset.” I dip my head down to close this space between us, wrapping my arms around her and trying to erase the rest of the world so it’s just her and me. I brush my lips across her mouth gently. “I love that you don’t want me to leave.”

“Piss off,” she rasps out weakly, but I kiss her so she knows it’s not just her who’s smitten.

Hell, I’m more than smitten.

I kiss her hotly, and she lets me, but something in her posture is still not sure. So, I pull back and rest my forehead against hers.

“Olivia, I know this started out as—” My throat goes dry thinking of my birthday and her mouth on my body. “Hell, I don’t even know what to call it. Maybe it was a practical joke you and Connor were playing on me; I don’t really know.”

“You think this is a joke?”

“No!” I cup her head and hold her against me. “I think, against my better judgement, I want to spend every waking hour with you, and—”

“Against your better judgement?” she snaps.

“Olivia Reese,” I scold. “If you don’t shut your mouth for ten seconds and let me talk, I’m going to have to kiss you every time you speak like you just invited me for a second round in your hammock!”

“This isn’t a joke, Edwin, I—”

I cover her mouth again and thread my hands into her hair, massaging and tangling as she struggles against me. I pull back when she gives in and squint at her in warning.

“Edwin, I—”

“Nope.” I smother her again, forcing my tongue inside her mouth this time and making her whimper. When we release, her face is flushed, her neck rosy with blotches.

“That’s not fair,” she responds.

“Still talking,” I scold, kissing her again and walking her over to the side of the building where I lean her up against the wall. She moans as I press into her with the weight of my chest.

“Olivia,” I say, nipping at her lips. “If it isn’t bloody obvious, I’m crazy about you. If you need me to say it out loud—” I look her in the eye, then kiss her softly on the side of the mouth as I whisper, “I’m crazy about you.” I nibble on her bottom lip. “Okay? And it’s kind of nice to think that maybeyou’recrazy about me too. I mean, I’m not the kind of man who knows how to react when you take me down your throat one night, then bare yourself to me on my desk on the next.” She flushes as I say that, only I’m the one who was scandalized when she did it. “You make me lose my mind every time you’re within three feet of me—as witnessed the other night in the truck. I’m not used to feeling out of control! It pisses me off and my concentration turns to shit. But I’m completely bewitched.”

She looks at me, stripped bare, all the sass is gone and replaced with someone completely unguarded.

“Olivia, you can handcuff me and make me paint sexy flowers and take me to romantic coves and do all the things you’re trying to do to seduce me, but just understand, they’ve already worked. I’m already in way over my head.”

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