“Marook messed up my careful plan.” His expression was sardonic. “I asked him to handle the details. He evidently decided to delegate to you. I did not know, until you emailed me, that he had done this.”
Olivia squeezed her eyes shut. “So what? What was your plan?”
“To take you for dinner. To speak with you. To make you understand.” He clasped her hands in his and lifted them to his lips. “Most importantly of all, to apologise to you.”
Her eyes were still closed but she could feel his breath, warm against her temple.
“I acted like a spoilt, rude, arrogant fool. You gave me something beautiful and special, and it is a gift I will always cherish. In return, I was petulant and unkind.” He kissed each of her fingertips, all ten of them. “I have regretted it every day since.”
She blinked up at him, his genuine explanation doing something strange to her insides. “I would never trick you into getting me pregnant.”
“I know.” He shook his head. “It was a stupid accusation that I made simply because I couldn’t understand how and why you were inexperienced.”
She tilted her head to the side and he cupped her cheek gently. “I have been taught to believe in others’ ulterior motives. I have been raised to seek hidden meanings in all that is said to me. Only a few people, like Marook and Ra’if, do I take at face value.”
“I understand that your upbringing was different to mine. You and I are worlds apart. But I am not a liar.” She swept her eyes shut again. “I was so close to telling you. But,” her cheeks heated in response to the confession she knew she had to make, “I wanted you so very badly. If I told you, and you put a stop to what we were doing, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to manage.” She swallowed convulsively. “It was selfish. But I … had to …”
“It was not selfish. If I had bothered to look beyond your obvious assets, I would have spoken to you more about your experience. I looked at you and I saw a woman who is uniquely desirable, and I therefore decided you must have had a long line of men before me.”
“It’s not like I haven’t had opportunities,” she said haltingly.
He laughed quietly. “I believe you.”
“But everyone does what you did. People look at me and think that biology must equal inclination. It doesn’t. Big breasts and long blonde hair don’t equal slut.”
“I know.” He shook his head. “As I have said, I was wrong.”
“I got sick of going on dates with guys who expected me to go home with them straight away. Like I must be desperate to jump into bed with them.” She shrugged her shoulders, too embarrassed to meet his eyes. “Nothing is more off-putting than feeling like a guy you’re seeing just wants to get straight to the end-game.” She gnawed at her lower lip. “That’s what I liked about you.” She cleared her throat. “You were the one who put the brakes on. You told me you wanted me to be ready. That it needed to be my decision. No one had ever done that before.” She spun away from him. The memories, and how wrong she’d been, were too hard to process. “You were the first person who made me feel like you wanted to get to know me. That you enjoyed hanging out with me, not just because you thought sex was inevitable.”
Regret was acid in his chest. “I craved our tea dates as much as I craved you,” he promised earnestly.
“But you don’t.” She sat down on the edge of the bed, and stared at the carpeted floor. “You discarded me as soon
as you’d slept with me.”
“Discarded you?” He crouched in front of her. “I have been trying to get through to you but you’ve built a wall up around yourself. You’ve locked be out.”
“Only after you …”
He held up a finger to her lips. “I know what I did. I know what I said. But I felt, and I feel, the opposite.” He ran his hand over her hair. “I can’t give you anything more now than I could then.”
“Meaningless sex?” She pushed, her eyes flashing at him.
“No. Nothing about us is meaningless. But I do not belong in Vegas, and you do not belong in Dashan. While I am here though, I want you by my side.”
“I quit, remember?”
“Yes, good. I do not want you to work for me. I want you to stay with me. As my lover, and my confidante.” At her sharp intake of breath, he knelt higher. “I cannot offer you more than this, Olivia, but rest assured, it is far more than I have ever offered another woman.”
“And if I say no?”
He scanned her face with a strong sense of certainty. “I had not thought that far ahead. But I will devise a plan if necessary.”
“Your plans don’t seem to work out so well.”
“Don’t they?” He kissed her gently, and felt the moment she gave in to the intimacy and relaxed against him.
“Well,” she murmured, “perhaps this one turned out okay in the end.”