She twisted, struggling against his grip. “I’ll punch the daylights out of you if you say one more thing.”
His grip on her arms tightened, and he pulled her closer, until he could see himself reflected in her brown gaze. “That kind of behavior is what landed you here, Liv. I’m trying to help—”
“No, you’re not. You’re being a rational, analytical jerk again and I won’t take it.”
She twisted in his hold again, and this time he forced her against the wall, their harsh breathing surrounding them. Adrenaline pumped through him, anger and arousal roped together inside him. “Stop it, Olivia.
“Why didn’t you report him?”
“Do you believe me?”
He wanted to say yes, yet his mouth wouldn’t form the word.
She slackened against the wall, and sighed, a depth of pain in it. “Either I would’ve gotten the creepy, twist-my-gut silence I’m getting from you or the much worse ‘she asked for it’. I found neither idea particularly palatable. Because, after all, it’s not possible that I don’t want to sleep around with every man that looks at me, right?”
His gut tightened. It was exactly what he had assumed about her, what he had set out to prove that night on the beach in his anger. Was he no different from Vincent, then? “What’re you going to do?”
“There is nothing to do.”
“Is that it? You’re ready to give up so easily?”
She glared at him. “Yesterday, you were telling me to accept—”
“Yes, to make better decisions, to walk away when you feel the need to shack up with the wrong guy again.”
“How long have you been waiting to throw that in my face?”
Alexander could feel his head throbbing, his meager control on the situation slipping. He was doing this all wrong. Why did a simple conversation with her become such an exercise in control? “I didn’t ask you to give up on something you’ve worked so hard for.
“How is anyone ever going to take you seriously if this is how you react to each hurdle? If you do win this contract, you whole agency’s future will rest upon the campaign. And let’s face it, however hard you work now, you can’t wipe away your past. There are always going to be people who will hold it against you.”
Every inch of color fled from her face.
“So maybe it is better for everyone involved if you walk away now. Your kind of quitter mentality isn’t something I want associated with my company’s campaign, even indirectly. And I bet that’s what’s bothering your boss. Not that you might not win the contract but that you will never successfully see it through.”
“I hate you.”
“Do that, Liv,” he said, releasing his grip on her with great effort. The pain in her eyes unraveled something inside him, but he forced himself to utter the words. “Blame me all you want if it helps you cope with the fact that it’s easier for you to walk away.”
* * *
Alexander leaned back against his seat as Olivia regaled one of his oldest friends, Mike, who was also visiting Paris, with another one of her stories. It was their last dinner out before they left for New York the day after. He was waiting for a call from Carlos, he had a thousand things on his mind and he shouldn’t have been able to enjoy even a minute of the evening.
Olivia had shot that theory to hell in a second.
The low lighting of the small pavement café on Champs-Élysées, another of Olivia’s divine finds, threw shadows over her, giving him teasing glimpses of the curve of her mouth, a slender shoulder or, if she bent a certain way, her warm, gorgeous smile.
She had dressed simply in a denim skirt and a gold sequined top. The silky fabric moved sinuously over her torso, hiding and showcasing her lithe figure, driving him crazy. It hooked at her neck, leaving her glorious back bare. It was all he could think of since she had walked past him to the elevator.
He watched, arrested, as she laughed. Her face lit up, her shoulders shook with her mirth. “The next thing we know, our wing warden walks by and all the girls are blowing rings into the air.”
He smiled. He could almost see that teenage version of her, all attitude and sass, the first one to jump feetfirst into one more escapade at the boarding school, the first one, from all the snippets she had shared, anyone in trouble went to.
Her gaze flicked to his instantly, cautious, as she backtracked and added that she had many more stories about her wild twin.
Mike winked at her, a grin curving his mouth. “Olivia sounds exactly like my sort of woman—sexy and fun.”