Chapter 10
Olivia watched Sophie and her husband—wow, that was a phrase it would take a while to get used to—laugh together as they swayed
on the dance floor. The newly married couple looked so joyous, so in love with life and each other, it filled her with a warm
glow of contentment. To think, there had been a moment when she’d contemplated not being here.
“They look happy, don’t they?” Beside her, Ashley beamed with pride.
“They look ecstatic. Exactly like a young couple in love should look,” Olivia agreed. For the first time in her life, she
felt a twinge of envy, but it quickly disappeared when her mum joined them. Love wasn’t always what it was cracked up to be.
“Like them?” A haunted look crossed her sister’s face.
Olivia followed the direction of Ashley’s gaze. “That’s not love,” she murmured, watching Paul, Ashley’s ex-husband, share a highly raunchy dance with his new girlfriend. “How old
did you say Melissa was?”
“Apparently not old enough to recognize a lying, cheating bastard when she sees one. Then again, she probably knew he was
married when she started shagging him and didn’t care.” Ashley sniffed and dabbed at her eyes. “Twenty-nine,” she mumbled
finally.
Almost twenty years younger than Paul. And here Olivia was, balking at eleven years between her and Connor.
As if just thinking of him conjured him up, Connor appeared in the doorway. Wearing a fitted sky-blue collared shirt with
the sleeves rolled up above his tanned forearms and smart cream trousers with brown suede loafers, he looked coolly sexy and . . .
her heart did a slow flip. Dashing.
Their eyes met across the room, and a riot of butterflies took off in her belly when he shot her a crooked smile.
“Isn’t that the chef?” her mum asked as Connor strode over to them. “The man you went for a walk with yesterday?”
“The walk you came back very flushed from,” Ashley added dryly, taking a sip of champagne.
Olivia could barely hear them above the sound of her heart thumping in her ears. Crazy that he had this effect on her. But
after yesterday, the awareness that had always hummed between them had rocketed up a thousandfold. Now she knew, in intimate
detail, how he felt. And the need to feel him again, to experience his touch, his heat, without the barrier of clothes . . .
it was a sharp, almost vicious pull in her lower belly.
“Is it my imagination or has the temperature in here just gone up a hundred degrees,” Ashley teased, fanning herself.
A beat later Connor was there in front of them, smiling into Olivia’s eyes. “Hey.” He bent and kissed her on the cheek. As
she inhaled his fresh male scent and tried to unstick her tongue from the roof of her mouth, he greeted her mum and Ashley
the same way.
“How was the wedding?” he asked, gaze skimming across the three of them before landing on her. And God, that shirt made his
eyes pop.
“Good,” she managed, then berated herself for using such a lackluster word. And berated herself again for allowing a man to
leave her tongue-tied.
“Beautiful,” her mum corrected. “The setting, the ceremony, the speeches—”
“And the food,” Ashley interrupted. “Mum was definitely going to say that.”
“I was,” her mum huffed, then glanced up at Connor with a coy smile. “I was going to compliment the starters. They were delicious.”
Unbelievable, Olivia thought.
Ashley clearly thought so too, because she raised an eyebrow. “Mum, are you actually flirting with Connor?”
Connor chuckled and kissed her mum’s hand. “You have excellent taste.”
“Is that in men or in food?” Ashley asked drolly, but the smile slipped from her face when Paul and Melissa appeared a few
feet away from them. “The bastard’s dancing there on purpose. He’s making sure I can see him.”
“Which shows how insecure he is,” Olivia stated, squeezing Ashley’s hand. “You have to ask yourself why he feels the need
to do it.”
Connor frowned, his eyes jumping questioningly to Olivia’s.
“Paul is Ashley’s ex-husband,” Olivia explained. “And Melissa’s his new girlfriend.”
“Girl being the right word,” Ashley muttered. “I didn’t mind him bringing her, life moves on. But he didn’t have to flaunt her
in front of me at our daughter’s wedding.” They watched as Paul ran his hands over Melissa’s plump and admittedly firm-looking
backside. “Those wandering hands? They’re saying, Look, Ash, this is why I traded you in for a shiny new model.”
Her voice caught on the last three words, and Olivia’s heart went out to her. It was another reason to avoid relationships.
First her mum, then Ashley—she’d seen firsthand how love could mold you into someone different. And devastate you, if you
let it.
“Shiny and new is rarely better.” Connor’s low drawl punctured the emotional bubble.
“Well said.” Ashley squared her shoulders and cast her eyes around the room. “Maybe I should start looking for my better.”
Olivia felt Connor’s warm hand smooth down her lower spine. “I’ll be right back,” he whispered, lips grazing the sensitive
skin behind her ear. “You look stunning, by the way,” he added, his gaze resting on hers for one brief, intense beat before
he turned to Ashley. “While you’re looking for Mr. Better, how about a dance?”
Her sister’s eyes almost popped out of her head. “You want to dance? With me?” She glanced sideways at Olivia. “Okay, I know
who you really want to dance with, but damn it, that isn’t going stop me gleefully saying yes and hogging you for a while.”
“I’m not going to deny I’ve got a massive crush on your sister.” He winked at Olivia. “But it doesn’t mean I don’t want to
enjoy a dance with you too.”
Ashley let out a delighted chuckle. “Then what are we waiting for!”
Gratitude flushed through Olivia, so warm it felt like it was melting her from the inside, as she watched Connor effortlessly
guide her short, slightly overweight forty-six-year-old sister around the floor. A dip here, a twirl there—he had her shimmying
and laughing like the carefree Ashley of old.
“What a charming young man.” Olivia felt her mother’s eyes on her. “And something tells me Ashley isn’t the only one enamored
with him.”
“He’s . . . nice.”
Her mum frowned. “Just nice?”
She could have added considerate, funny, interesting, kind, and makes my toes curl. But she’d never talked about men with her mum, and she wasn’t about to start now. Especially when the man in question was
clearly all sorts of wrong for her and the only interaction she was contemplating was one involving hot sex. “Yes, Mum, he’s
nice, and he’s been good to Sophie and her friends. Now let’s go and get another drink.”
Connor had danced with every female member of Olivia’s family except the one who was the reason he’d turned up tonight. Ashley
had been a riot, Jessica sweet, Sophie bubbly, and Linda shy. He’d even twirled Mia around the floor, a bittersweet reminder
of his own little girl back home.
But he’d see Ellie in two weeks, and regular video calls assured him she was enjoying her holiday with Amy’s parents. Horses
were currently more important to her than her dad, for which he was profoundly grateful. It meant he could be selfish, focus
on what he wanted for a little longer. But what, or rather who, he wanted was proving elusive.
He felt a hand at his waist. As he inhaled a lungful of sophisticated scent, his heart ricocheted against his ribs. “I’ve
been looking for you.”
Olivia smiled, and it caught him right in the center of his chest. “Well, now you’ve found me.”
Words tumbled around in his head. Should he ask her to dance, sit down and talk, go outside and wrap those gorgeous legs around
his waist while he pinned her to the wall and kissed her until she couldn’t stand . . .
He jolted when she pressed a light kiss on his lips. “What was that for?”
“For being sweet to Mia. She couldn’t stop giggling after you danced with her. Said you called her the Dancing Queen.” She
gave him a soft smile. “I didn’t take you for a guy who’d be good with kids, especially not girls.”
Shit, was he blushing? Part of him wanted to tell her why talking to Mia was easy, but a bigger part of him didn’t want anything
to put this woman off spending the next week with him. “What can I say, the female of the species seems to like me.”
“It’s certainly true for my family. Thanks to you, Ashley has started to realize she’s still a vibrant woman with a whole
new chapter of her life to look forward to.” She slid him an amused look. “I didn’t miss how you accidentally bumped into
Paul while the pair of you were dancing.”
“Yeah? And did you see how he looked at Ashley? Like he was seeing someone he didn’t recognize. His loss.”
“It is.” A laugh bubbled out of her.
“What’s funny?”
“You, me, this situation.” She
shook her head. “You sweet-talk my mum, give my youngest niece an evening to remember, make my eldest sister feel like a twenty-year-old
again.” Her breath floated out in a soft exhale. “You’re making it very hard for me to ignore you.”
He encircled her waist with his arm and guided her to a quiet, dark corner of the room behind a pillar, shifting them so his
body shielded her from prying eyes. Then he placed her hand on his chest, over his heart. “Feel how hard that’s beating?”
She nodded, eyes on him, watchful. “Not being able to ignore me is a step in the right direction,” he told her quietly. “But
I want your heart beating for me like mine is for you. I want you looking forward to spending whatever time I can get off
next week with me. I want you thinking of me at night, wishing I were with you. Picturing me when you close your eyes, feeling
my hands on your body, my mouth skimming across your skin. Aching for me as much as I fucking ache for you.”
Probably he was being too open, definitely he shouldn’t be saying this here in the hotel, where staff could be watching, but
time wasn’t on his side. This was no longer about sex, not for him. It was about a week where he could pretend to be someone
different. A guy a classy woman like Olivia didn’t mind being seen with. A week he could look back on when he was struggling
to be the dad Ellie deserved and remind himself he was no longer a teenage fuckup.
She worried at her bottom lip. “I did think of you last night.”
“Yeah?” His gaze tracked that plump lip and he swallowed, hard, before lifting his eyes to hers. “What was I doing?”
She huffed out a breath. “Oh, no, we’re not having one of those conversations. Especially not at my niece’s wedding.”
Amusement jostled with arousal and he planted his hand on the wall above her head, angling his body closer so it brushed against
hers, sending the sexual tension meter soaring. “What sort of conversation?” he asked roughly.
“The one where you try and get me to talk dirty.” The pulse in her neck fluttered. “News flash, I’m far more comfortable having
sex than talking about it.”
He couldn’t stop the grin. “So you admit you were thinking about having sex with me?”
Her gaze darted around the room before finally connecting with his. “I’ll admit to thinking about you and what we did on the
rocks.” He watched her throat move as she swallowed. “The way you made me feel.”
She was the sort of woman a guy sent roses to, seduced. Kissed under the stars, then made love to on a four-poster. Yet he’d dry-humped her behind the lighthouse. “And how was
that?” he asked gruffly, heart in his mouth.
“Wanted. Desired.” Her tongue licked at her bottom lip in a move he knew was totally unconscious. “Attractive.”
Warmth pumped through him, heating his blood, filling his chest. Arousal, relief . . . and, bugger it, pride too. Pride that
he’d made this woman see herself for what she was. “You should never not feel attractive, wanted, desired.” He ran his hands up her arms, palms gliding over soft skin, and felt her shiver. “Anyone
who’s made you feel less than that didn’t deserve to share the same air as you.”
“God, Connor.” Her lids lowered. When she opened her eyes again, confusion swirled in their green-brown depths. “I’m not a
nice woman. I’ve hurt men, decent men who were kind to me, men whose only fault was they wanted more from me, more attention,
more time, than I was prepared to give.”
“You’re worried you’ll hurt me.”
“Yes.” She sighed. “It’s been an embarrassingly long time since I last had sex, but our . . . encounter yesterday reminded
me how good it could be. I think I might want that, sex with a guy I find attractive.” She gave him a level look. “But that’s
all I’d want.”
“What if I said I don’t care? I’m not expecting anything to carry on when we get home.” As if it could. Home was Ellie. “I
just want a week with you. Something I can look back on and smile about when I’m having a shit day.” He leaned closer, hands
sliding round to settle low on her back. “Memories to replay when I’m alone in bed.”
He heard the hitch of her breath, felt her tremble. “If I were the sort of woman who had flings,” she whispered, “I’d want
one with you.”
“But flings are spontaneous,” he stated. “And you’re still working out the pros and cons.”
She gave him a wry smile. “Yes.”
“You’re on holiday, Livvy. It’s a chance to let go, live for the moment. Let someone else take control for a while.” He pressed
a brief but firm kiss to her mouth. “Tomorrow night, when your family have gone home, we’ll go through those cons and cross
them out, one by one.”
Her husky laughter sent prickles of arousal skating across his skin. “I’m not that easy to convince.”
He leaned in closer, brushed her ear with his lips. “And I’m not that easy to dismiss.”