Chapter Six #2
I meet to you. So yeah, I want something out of it.”
“You want to fuck me out of your system, Keane?” Olivia
asked.
“I want to know if it can work,” Keane replied in a low
voice. “And if it can’t, then I can move on.”
Her expression softened. “It’s not going to work. I’m not
trying to be mean, but I don’t think I’m good at relationships. I always seem
to only want the ones I can’t have.”
“I think we should put an end date on it.” Garrett knew a
shaky client when he saw one. If he pushed too hard, he could lose her. “How
long will your ex be here?”
“A few days. Maybe a week,” she replied, her eyes wary. “My
parents will be back next week. If we’re sleeping together, there will be
questions.”
He fully intended to be sleeping with her. Let them ask all
the questions. He was good with parents. “One week. You’re our submissive for
one week, and we’ll do anything you want us to when it comes to your ex.”
“And if I want you to murder him?” she asked with clear
sarcasm.
Keane’s head shook. “You ask me. Don’t talk about it around
him.”
“Because he’s a delicate flower?”
“Because he’s my lawyer,” Keane admitted. “If I get caught,
I’m going to need him. You don’t talk about potential crimes around your
lawyer.”
He had trained Keane well. What he never told Keane was that
he was the reason he went into law. He was the reason Garrett had studied his
ass off, worked two jobs, and applied for every scholarship he could. So what
happened to Keane when they were teens would never happen again. “I don’t think
she’s going to ask for his head. Just his ego and his self-confidence.”
“That could be harder to deal with than you think,” Olivia
admitted. “He’s arrogant and thinks he’s god’s gift to women. I would like to
know what happened to the woman he left with. He met her here and hired her on
as his assistant. Naturally he needed more assistance than most require.”
“Did you know her?” Garrett was happy this dude had
obviously dug himself a deep hole.
“Everyone knows everyone else here. After the first few
weeks she started working out of the Dallas office. I suppose that was so I
wouldn’t catch on so quickly,” she admitted with a sigh. “I didn’t figure it
out until it was staring me in the face. And he’s still back asking for another
chance. So he thinks I’m a desperate woman.”
“We’ll show him you’re not,” Garrett offered. “We can handle
that. I think you should understand we’re very attentive with our subs. And
affectionate. This whole town will know Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood is a queen and
her men treat her like it. So do we have a deal?”
He thought he had her. It was right there in her eyes. She
wanted to say yes.
That was when the knock on the door came, and he saw her
relief. Saved by the bell. Or the knock.
Olivia walked off to open the door, and Keane looked at him
with a frown.
“Almost had her,” Keane said with resignation.
But Garrett wasn’t willing to give up.
The chase had only just begun.
* * * *
Olivia’s heart was still racing when she opened the
door. Garrett and Keane were far more dangerous in real life than they’d been
as her fantasy Masters. She’d known there was a line and she wouldn’t cross it.
That line was feeling more like a suggestion than something
she would never cross.
It was feeling like something she would jump over and throw
herself into their arms.
Did she want to look like a fool again? She knew nothing
about them. She needed to guard herself.
But the situation with Scott was delicate, and they could
shield her.
She opened the door, thinking it was one of the hands. The
contractors weren’t due at the big house until tomorrow.
Instead it was Miranda and Gigi.
“Surprise,” Miranda announced.
Gigi gave her the biggest grin. “Surprise.”
Yeah, she was totally surprised and not ready to show her
friends that she’d brought home more than a memory of the night before. She
closed the door behind her. “I’m so grateful you’re here. I’m starving. Let’s
go get some lunch. You can drive.”
Miranda grinned. “Sure, but don’t you want to get your
purse?”
That would mean explaining Keane and Garrett being in her
house. Which she would probably have to do at some point, but not this second.
She needed to breathe. She walked toward Gigi’s Land Rover.
“No need. You’re paying.”
Miranda simply shrugged and hopped in the passenger seat
while Gigi got behind the wheel.
And Olivia fled the scene of her crime.
Twenty minutes later they sat at a table in the bar
of The Barn. The crowd was starting to file in for the party that happened
every evening at the only real bar in town. Oh, there were restaurants with
bars, but The Barn was a combination roadhouse and dance hall, and it could get
raucous at times.
She’d spent many a night right here having a blast. Or
feeling humiliated. She’d sat right at that bar the night Scott left.
Miranda looked her way. “Okay, what’s going on? You’re
acting totally weird.”
Olivia realized she could put off explanations for another
minute. “Nope. Why are you here and why didn’t you mention it to me at the
breakfast this morning?”
The entire car ride over had been Gigi taking a call from
her dad about her brother. Gage broke his leg and her mom was on a cruise with
friends so they didn’t want to call her since Naomi would almost surely move
heaven and earth to get home. So Gigi talked her dad through how to take care
of him, including the fact that all her dad needed to do was call the club
where they all played and almost surely he would find five pretty subs willing
to play nurse.
Win Dawson had snorted and asked that she not remind him.
It had been good to have a few minutes to think. She wanted
more.
Miranda sighed and sat back, pushing the menu away. Though
Miranda was from Bliss, she and her brothers had spent plenty of time here. She
didn’t need to study the menu. “I talked to your mom this morning and she’s
having some cool things done to the main house, and I’d like to learn the
techniques. No one does infrared saunas and wine rooms back in Bliss, so this
is my shot at learning. Your mom called the contractor, and he said he was
willing to let me watch. Gigi is working a couple of shifts at the med-spa out
at the resort. It’s a big week out there. Lots of Botox and too few nurses.”
Gigi grinned. She was a woman who could light up a room.
“Dani’s paying me double the usual.”
“You don’t need money. You have a ridiculous bank account.”
“No, I have a trust fund that I can’t actually access until
I’m thirty,” Gigi said.
Like her parents wouldn’t buy her anything she wanted. Her
father owned DawComm and made Olivia’s own fathers’ fortune look like a piggy
bank. Still, Gigi had always been down to earth and seemed to genuinely enjoy
her job. And she was kind. “Who are you covering for?”
Gigi sighed. “Alana. She’s had a trip scheduled for over a
year. Her mom could probably step in, but Gaby has a lot to do. Dani’s doing
some renovations, too. Also, if I stay home, I’ll inevitably get pulled into
Gage’s drama.”
Miranda’s whole body perked up. “I could watch that, too. I
love my mom, but she is particular, and between her and her partner I get
mommed constantly.”
Miranda’s fathers might run a ranch, but her mom was into
home renovation and design, along with her partner of many years, Rachel
Harper. They were both strong women with big opinions and motherly instincts.
Olivia understood. “I get it. Are you staying out at the resort?”
“Your mom said I could stay in the big house. The
construction stuff won’t bother me, and I can work on a project I’ve been
wanting to have some time for while I’m there,” Miranda replied. “Gigi is
staying out here for a few days, and she’ll drive us both back next weekend.”
“My mom gets back on Friday. I’m all for waiting to go home
Saturday so I don’t get hit with hurricane mom when she finds out we didn’t
call her,” Gigi admitted.
Olivia understood that, too. “Well, I’m happy to have some
company.”
A brow rose over Miranda’s eyes. “No, you’re not. Now you
can tell us why.”
Gigi’s expression went soft and sympathetic. “Is it Bobby?”
She had hugged her best friend as he dropped her off at the
private airfield before heading to DFW for his own flight. He was going back to
the college he loved and the young man he was crazy about. She was surprised
that she was at peace with it. She had expected to spend some time crying and
reflecting on her loss, but it didn’t feel like loss now. It felt like
contentment because Bobby was happy and she wanted that for him and she
was…fighting possibilities.
“I don’t think it’s Bobby,” Miranda mused. “I would bet
she’s thinking about those two guys from last night. Olivia, you know we can
probably figure out their names. They looked so into you.”
Gigi bit her bottom lip. “Or it all went bad. She didn’t
look super happy this morning.”
“Because she snuck out on them when she should have
exchanged digits,” Miranda replied like Olivia wasn’t sitting right there.
Nothing they were saying wasn’t true. “I know their names.”
“She didn’t tell them good-bye?” Gigi must not have heard
her reply.
“Not from what Bobby said.” Miranda flushed and looked
Olivia’s way. “Sorry. He was worried about you. He was worried about how your
mom was going to handle it, but it seemed like she was great. Was she not?
Wait. What did you say?”
“I know their names,” Olivia said with a sigh. “Garrett and
Keane.”
Gigi’s head straightened, and she got that look in her eyes
that told Olivia she was trying to figure something out. “Isn’t Garrett the
name of the new lawyer? I heard my dad talking to yours about him.”
“And I heard my dads discussing the new guy at the O’Malley
Ranch. He’s apparently big on protocols, and it’s saved Aidan a ton of money
and time,” Miranda added. “Are they friends?”
It was good to know they didn’t have all the answers. “From
what I can tell, they’ve been friends since they were kids, and it was a
traumatic childhood for both of them. You know the story. Two boys meet and
face challenges and weirdly become halves of a whole.”