Chapter Fourteen
Naomi slid her hands up his arms, feeling the corded veins and hard muscle. She sighed, her head tipping back as he kissed her neck giving it firm licks and bites.
“You have no idea what you’re doing to me, Naomi…
” he breathed, brushing her hair back from her face, and laying another passionate kiss along the curve of her throat.
The club lights flashed overhead, sending beams of purple and red flickering in her view.
She knew this was dangerous, dancing with the enemy.
But she couldn’t help it; he was addictive.
His presence filled the room, his tall figure looming over her like her greatest fantasy and worst nightmare rolled into one.
All of her doubts faded away in his firm hold and with the promise of privacy in the form of his shoulder’s shadow.
She sighed, pressing her body further into his, looking up into his bright…
“Urgh!” Olivia bashed her fingers on the top of her keyboard, panicking when the words she had just written disappeared right before her eyes. “No, no, no! Please have auto saved…”
Hitting CTRL-Z, the mediocre words reappeared, allowing her temper to calm a little at the sight of what she had typed. Despite writing all day and having her leading man in the back of her mind, she still couldn’t even make simple decisions such as what colour his eyes were.
Blue? Green? Brown? Hazel?
Olivia sighed, rereading the passage with uncertainty, pressing the backspace and deleting half of the words she had just written. After a few moments, she panicked, clicked undo again and watched the lacklustre script reappear.
She repeated the motion numerous times before just accepting the words for what they were. Words. And words were progress; however shitty they were. She would revise them after she finished this first draft. For now, she just needed to write.
This is only one of many drafts, she thought, lifting up an old Christmas mug her mother had got her in New York last winter, and taking a painful swig of her now cool tea.
Blue? Green? Brown? Hazel? What colour was her leading man’s eyes? There was almost too much choice.
Why was she finding it so difficult to come up with a character description when there were plenty of options; she should just choose one and stop being so picky. Her femme fatale wouldn’t care if she was dating someone with blue or brown eyes, so why should it matter to Olivia?
But she was stumped. With her word count creeping up, she had somehow managed to plan and write around the leading man character, placing capitalised words, such as INSERT NAME HERE and THINK OF IT LATER, as temporary placeholders for what she had failed to come up with.
Maybe her creativity needed some revamping.
Maybe she should reread her previous novels, try to dissect them and see why they had made the bestseller list. How had she written them with minimal hiccups and formed characters that were loved and viscerally hated by so many people that it had made her stories so successful?
With a defeated sigh, she realised reading her old stuff wouldn’t help anyway.
She was trying to do something new, she was trying to write something real, and she had forgotten what that was like.
Maybe she was making it harder for herself to come up with a character for her leading lady because he wasn’t meant to be perfect. He was just meant to exist.
Theo’s friend opened his apartment door, all dark blond and tall with ruffled hair and a grin that screamed playboy.
He greeted her with a wink, followed by a straightforward, “Sorry Taylor was a dick. I could’ve warned you if I’d had known this dumbass set you up with him.
I’m Finn, by the way. Nice to finally meet the girl Theo has been nattering on about forever.
” He reached a hand forward in greeting, a beer firmly tucked in the other.
“Uh, thank you?” Olivia muttered in response before they were welcomed in.
Georgia, Theo’s sister, elbowed Finn in the ribs muttering an unashamed, “Move out of my way, you oaf,” before placing two kisses, one on each of Olivia’s cheeks, in welcome.
“Olivia! About time I met you. My brother has been incredibly hush-hush about you, so you have to tell me your whole life story, please and thank you.”
“Of course.” Olivia laughed, there was no room for discussion in Georgia’s warm but firm tone, and she suddenly knew how she managed to teach a full class of little rascals.
The girls followed behind Theo and Finn, settling down on the plush grey sofa.
A stocky man sat on the single armchair in the far corner, his brown hair ashy and unkempt. He looked tired, his body rigid and unfitting in the cosy penthouse apartment. “Hi, I’m Ross, nice to meet you.” He smiled at Olivia. She said hi back respectfully, before Finn passed around booze.
She noticed how Georgia jumped up to help bring beer bottles in from the kitchen, swiping a bag of Doritos from the cupboard on the way, despite the complaints from Finn. “George, not the Doritos. Grab the Walkers. Doritos are mine.”
“Doritos are mine,” Georgia mocked him in a low voice. “I’m having the Doritos, Finn. Suck it up.”
Finn grumbled under his breath, but didn’t make any further rebuttals.
The apartment was far fancier than anything Olivia had seen in a while.
It was certainly nowhere near being in the same ballpark as her little north London shabby apartment where hot water turned off randomly, and where you had to jiggle the lock four times before it let you enter the property. She should probably get that fixed.
No, this apartment was sleek and grey, with stainless steel appliances, and a large comfy, grey three-seater sofa that sat in the centre of the open space living.
The place was spacious and clean, and Olivia could imagine the rugby nights happening here, making note of the bathroom door just down the small hall and to the right of the front door.
The same bathroom door Theo had gone through when she had called him after her last godawful date.
As they all sat around the small oak coffee table, Olivia felt relaxed.
“Okay, first up: Trivial Pursuit.” Georgia leapt up from her spot on the couch and opened up the red cardboard box. “Names out of the hat for teams.”
Theo sat next to Olivia, his knee knocking the coffee table as he settled into the grey cushions, causing the small, coloured counters she had just set up to fall over and roll onto the floor.
“Oops.” Theo smirked, leaning back and throwing his arm around Olivia.
She tensed at the movement before settling into his side with a small glance at him.
Georgia sent her brother a deadly look. “You better be nice to me; you’re not making a very good impression of how you treat family to your new girlfriend.”
Olivia felt her stomach pull at the word, butterflies hatching from cocoons and fluttering all around her stomach and chest at the declaration.
It’s just pretend, she thought. I’m just doing him a favour.
“Good thing I can get away with it then.” Finn chuckled, knocking over the pieces once more.
Georgia struck out with lightning speed and slapped Finn on the back of the hand. “Back off, Townsend.”
“Never, Constantine.” Finn’s teasing eyes stayed on Georgia as she read out the instructions before passing a small baseball hat towards Olivia, letting her pick out a name from the hat first.
Reaching in, Olivia pulled out a small piece of paper, glanced at it and looked up with uncertainty as she read out the name “Ross.”
The man on the armchair leaned forward and smirked. “Well, I guess we better get to know each other really well in the next five minutes, cause these three have far too many inside jokes.”
Olivia shuffled closer to Theo, giving the man a small smile. Despite Ross’s words, she felt there was something not quite right about the authoritarian way he sat in the corner, as though playing games were childish.
Georgia let out a loud groan as she glanced at the paper in her hand. Turning to Finn, she sent him a look. “If you make us lose, Townsend, I’ll make Mum force you to eat outside in the cold at Christmas.”
“Challenge accepted, Georgie pie.” Finn shot her a wink.
Georgia rolled her eyes, scooting over and leaning up against the single armchair. She angled her head up and glanced at Ross. “You okay going with Olivia?”
“Are you okay going with Finn?” he rebutted. They glanced at each other for a moment, her eyebrows arching down at his words.
Theo cleared his throat. “Okay, first category. Sports and Leisure.”
Finn leaned forward, elbows on knees and glanced directly at Georgia. “Time to be on your A-game, George. If you get the answer wrong, there’ll be no more Doritos.”
Olivia glanced at Ross. “Are you any good at Sports trivia?”
He shook his head, fiddling with the buttons of his shirt. “No, I’m more of a politics guy, but I’ll try my best.”
“Shit,” Olivia muttered. She felt Theo’s chest move as he chuckled beneath her.
“Ready?” Theo asked, and at the reluctant nod of their heads and a few grumbles, the game began. “What team won the FIFA World Cup in 2014?”
“Argentina?” Ross said, his voice uncertain.
Georgia looked up at him with confusion. “Aw, honey. That was 2022, nice try though.”
Finn jumped up and screamed, “Germany!”
“Move Finn and Georgia one place, won’t you Ross?” Theo asked, picking up his beer and taking a swig while Finn and Georgia were huddled near the armchair, basking in their correct answer with shared grins.
“Next up: Olivia and Ross. Your category is… Geography!”
“I’m sorry in advance,” Olivia groaned. Ross looked as though he had accepted defeat in the first five minutes of the game. Given how Finn and Georgia were enthusiastically playing, even her confidence had begun to waver.
Empty beer bottles and a few glasses of wine littered the coffee table.