Chapter 28
The next day, Olivia sipped her coffee and took a bite of cookie—in between running the bath, giving her a foot rub, and making
delicious seafood pasta, Connor had whipped up another batch—while she listened to Stuart ramble on about his returns.
Finally, their two-person catch-up meeting came to an end.
“What’s that you were eating?” Stuart asked as they made their way out of the room. He bent to sniff her. “Cookies again?”
“And none of them for you.”
“You’re going to want to take your hand off her.”
They both turned with a start to find Connor, looking totally out of place in his jeans and battered leather jacket, staring
at the Savile Row–suited Stuart like he wanted to physically manhandle him out of the office. And was a second away from doing
it.
Stuart’s hand, which she’d not noticed, dropped from her arm.
“Connor?” Her brain scrambled to make sense of the sight of him in her workplace. “What are you doing here? Is everything
okay?”
“It’s fine.” He nodded stiffly toward Stuart. “I want a word with him.”
Oh, no. No, no, no. Embarrassment scorched through her. “Whatever it is you want to say needs to remain in your head.”
“But Connor has come all the way here,” Stuart interjected smoothly, eyes glimmering with amusement. “It’s only polite to
give him an opportunity to say what he came to say.”
He indicated the now-empty meeting room, and Connor strode in, big shoulders barely fitting through the doorway.
Unable to believe this was happening, Olivia followed them inside and closed the door. When Connor turned to her in confusion,
she pierced him with a look. “You’re going to do it in front of me or not at all,” she said tightly, angry at him for putting
her in the position of providing entertainment for Stuart.
“Fine.” Connor turned to face Stuart, shoulders set, face stony, his five-inch height advantage magnified by the small meeting
room. “I know Livvy can defend herself.” His voice was low, controlled, but laced with steel. “I also know she’s going to
hate me doing this, but the last bit of bullshit you said to her involved me, so I’m here to put you straight. I take care of my daughter.” He pointed to his chest. “Not Livvy but me. And neither me nor my daughter will ever get in the
way of Livvy’s career, so you need to cut the crap and try and beat her fair and square.” He let out a humorless laugh. “I’m
guessing you know you can’t do that, hence the bullshit.”
Just as he finished, there was a tap on the door. Meera gave her a wide-eyed stare through the glass. Meera and, right behind
her, Sally, Simon’s PA.
“We’re being watched.” Olivia drew a shaky breath. “Connor, you need to get out of here, now. I’ll walk you down.”
He exhaled heavily, stalked to the door, and pulled it open.
“Hi, I’m Meera, Olivia’s friend.” She gaped at him like he was something from another planet. “And you are?”
“Connor.” He gave her an ironic smile. “I was the boyfriend. Not sure that’s still applicable.”
Jaw clenched, his movements stiff, he stepped into the corridor, Stuart behind him. Olivia went to follow them but Meera grabbed
her arm and pushed her back into the room. “Please tell me the drop-dead sexy guy in the leather jacket who’s currently giving
off so much testosterone my ovaries are weeping came to beat up Stuart.”
Olivia wasn’t in the mood to smile. “Worse. He came to tell Stuart off.”
“Wow. Just—wow.” Meera patted her heart. “The man has your back. That’s so romantic.”
“What’s romantic about a man thinking he needs to rescue me?” She was too angry to listen to her friend right now. Too embarrassed.
“Please excuse me. I’m about to have a very ugly conversation.”
Clearly not put off by her bad mood, Meera waggled her eyebrows. “Can I watch? Pretty please?”
“Whose side are you on?”
Her friend didn’t miss a beat. “His.”
“Then no.”
Olivia brushed past the now-pouting Meera and darted into the corridor. Connor was leaning against the wall, hands in his
pockets. When he saw her, he stood up straight.
“Hi.” His low drawl still whipped the butterflies in her belly into a frenzy, despite how cross she was with him.
“Let’s take this outside.”
Tension hummed between them as she called for the lift. “You shouldn’t have come here,” she muttered as they stepped inside.
He nodded. “Figured you wouldn’t be happy.”
“Yet you came anyway?”
“Looks like it.”
He was so unruffled, it irked her even more. She was the one who prided herself on calm. The lift pinged, the doors opened,
and she stormed across the foyer, all too aware of him walking unhurriedly beside her, one of his long strides to two of hers.
The moment they were outside, she whirled around to face him. “I don’t need you fighting my battles.”
“I know you don’t need me fighting your battles. Hell, you don’t need me at all.” A muscle jumped in his jaw. “But I protect
the people I care about, Livvy, whether they want me to or not. So you’ll have to deal with it.”
“Protect me? I’m not in danger. This is my place of work, for God’s sake. How would you feel if I swanned into your restaurant and
told your manager, Aaron—”
“Technically Pat’s my manager.”
She felt a stab of shame that she hadn’t known that when he knew everything about her work. “What if I demanded that Pat stop
being mean to you?”
“She isn’t. Never would be. She’s the one who let me come in late today so I could see Stuart.”
“You told her about my business?” The anger continued to surge. “What are you going to do next, put an advert in the Times? ‘My girlfriend’s being bullied at work and needs a big strong man to help her because she can’t sort it out herself’?”
He stared back at her, gaze unflinching. When he finally spoke, his voice was level, even. “I told Pat I needed to take care
of something. I wouldn’t have said that about my girlfriend because I know she’s strong and immensely capable. Far stronger
and more capable than I am. But you can only control your own actions, you can’t control mine. I went to see Stuart not because
I thought you needed me to but because I needed to.”
Oh, boy. Anger that had burned bright a moment ago deflated under his quiet words. “Is that the same voice of reason you use
when Ellie throws a tantrum?”
He let out a low laugh. “Probably.”
“It’s good. Very good.” Taking in a breath, she let the tension flow out of her. “I’m still cross with you coming into my
office without telling me first. But I appreciate you did it from a place of caring and not because you think I needed the
help.”
“I should have told you, but I knew if I did, you’d stop me.” He rubbed the back of his neck, the leather straps shifting
on his wrist. “I’m going to fuck up again, do things that piss you off.” His eyes settled on hers, expression earnest. “It’s
one thing learning how to be in a relationship. Another being in a relationship with a woman who’s strong and smart and so
capable, I’m struggling to see what I can bring to the table. It’s going to take some getting used to.”
In the space of ten minutes, he’d sent her emotions in a total one-eighty, from anger to holding back tears. “I don’t need
you bringing anything to the table. I just need you turning up and sitting at it, like you did last night. Listening to me,
talking to me.”
“I can do that.”
“I know you can, because you already do, and it helps. Really, really helps.” Sod who might be watching. Standing on her tiptoes,
she planted a soft kiss on his mouth. “Now I need to get back to work. And so do you.”
It was a different woman who walked back inside. No longer angry, but reflective. He wasn’t the only one finding his feet
in their relationship. It was sobering to realize how much he gave, pushing her to take better care of herself, listening
to her gripes with Stuart, picking her up when she was down. Even today, he’d come because he cared, wanted to help. Yet what
had she given him? How much interest had she paid to his life?
It was Friday night, two days after he’d shown up at Olivia’s office without telling her and chewed her work rival’s ear off.
Connor wasn’t proud of what he’d done, not now he’d been forced to look at it through her eyes. But he’d not been able to
sleep, his mind replaying the sight of her when he’d walked out of the lift at her place. His tough, confident, courageous
I can move mountains all by myself girlfriend had looked defeated. He’d be damned if he’d let that creep do it to her again.
Still, he’d been rash. Irresponsible, as his parents would say. He’d not considered how it would look, her boyfriend storming
in like some thug. He’d wanted to support her, fight not for her but with her, but in doing so, he’d made her look weak.
It would take him a while to forgive himself.
Tonight, though, he opened his front door to let Olivia in, and when she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, he knew
she, at least, had forgiven him.
He sank into her embrace, inhaling her, pushing her against the wall of their tiny porch, and returning her kiss with everything
he had.
“Much as I want to continue,” he mumbled, trailing kisses down her neck, “I don’t want Mrs. Briggs opposite having a heart
attack when she lifts those net curtains.”
She laughed and bent to pick up the case she’d brought and dropped to the ground during the kiss. Immediately he took it from
her.
“I can carry it myself, you know,” she protested. “I managed on the tube.”
“I respect your need to be strong and independent, but you need to respect my need to be a guy. And guys carry women’s cases.”
She rolled her eyes but let him take it.
“Ellie, Livvy’s here!” he shouted down the hallway.
Immediately his daughter barreled out of the living room. “Come and see my new ball.” She grabbed Olivia’s hand and led her
to the front room, where the new exercise ball he’d bought, on the recommendation of the riding school, was planted in front