A Beautiful Mess (35 page)

He stopped at the very end of the dock next to a yacht and turned to Olivia, beaming.

“What is this?” she asked skeptically.

“I don’t want you to freak out, so just let me explain. This is my boat.” He glanced to the enormous vessel behind him.

Olivia raised her eyebrows. “I don’t know if you could call that thing a boat. It’s more like a floating kingdom. That thing’s got to be over a hundred feet,” she marveled.

“Yeah. It is,” he answered excitedly. “And I named her after my childhood best friend, who you recall shared your name. I didn’t want you to freak out, but I really wanted to share this with you.”

Olivia’s heart raced as she looked into Alexander’s brilliant eyes. There was an excitement in them she had never seen before.

She returned his smile and planted a soft kiss on his lips. “Thank you for sharing this with me, Alex,” she whispered.

He grinned as he clutched Olivia’s hand in his, leading her toward the gangway. Martin appeared on the main deck and Alexander dragged Olivia up the ramp to where Martin stood. Olivia was surprised to see him there. She made a mental note to ask Alexander what his job description was.

“How was your drive, sir?”

“Great, thanks. Please go get our things out of the car. The valet is holding it for now.”

“Yes, sir.” Martin walked briskly off the yacht and onto the dock.

“After you, darling.” Alexander led Olivia into the main cabin, his hand on the small of her back. He gave her a brief tour of his yacht. To the left sat the living room, which Alexander referred to as the salon. It was rather large with gorgeous wood flooring throughout. Just past that was an exquisite dining room complete with a state-of-the-art kitchen. To the right led to a small hallway with a rather large master bedroom. There was another small bedroom across the hall, as well as a study.

Downstairs, there were three guest rooms and the crew quarters. The upper deck housed another lounge area in addition to an outdoor dining area. The entire yacht was rather spacious and Olivia was floored at the largess of it all. She immediately felt overwhelmed by Alexander’s wealth.

As they stood admiring the view off the main deck, she turned to him. “So, um, business must be good.”

Alexander laughed. “Yes. You could say that. Lots of people needing my trained mercenaries,” he winked. “But don’t call them mercenaries. The U.N. doesn’t really like that word.”

She hung onto his arm as he led her toward the master bedroom suite. “Don’t worry,
Love
. Your secret’s safe with me,” she said, mocking Alexander’s term of endearment.

“Are you mocking me, darling?”

“I would never,” Olivia replied in faux shock.

“You better run, Olivia. I have plans for you.”

She squealed and ran down the hallway into the owner’s suite, tripping over Martin as he was dropping off their bags.

“Oh, Miss Adler. I apologize.”

“Don’t worry about it. Blame your boss.” She laughed.

“I’d rather keep my job,” he winked.

Alexander appeared in the doorway.

“Thank you, Martin. Please co-ordinate with Carter. I have additional security arriving later in the day.”

“Yes, sir.” Martin turned to Olivia. “Enjoy your day, Miss Adler.” He walked out of the master suite and down the hall into the study.

Olivia looked at Alexander when she was sure they were alone. “Additional security, Alex?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Yes, Love. Sometimes it’s an occupational hazard.” He shrugged.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“I can’t really talk about it, Olivia.” He turned to his suitcase and began unpacking his things. “It’s nothing important and you shouldn’t worry about it at all. It’s more of a precaution than anything.”

Alexander hated misleading Olivia. The additional security had nothing to do with him and everything to do with her. He always made it seem as though someone could come after him for a job-related issue, but the chances of that were slim to none. However, Carter had seen a black sedan tailing Olivia several times now. He wanted additional security in Newport, just to be on the safe side.

“Come on, Love. Get that worried look off your face,” Alexander said, coming up behind Olivia as she put some of her toiletries in the bathroom. She looked up, gazing into his eyes through the mirror. He could see that her eyes were red and puffy. “Have you been crying?” He spun her around, making her face him.

“No. Don’t be stupid,” she stated, wiping her eyes. “Just let me finish unpacking.” She tried to push Alexander out of the way. He stood in place, not letting Olivia pass, staring down at her for an explanation.

“What if something happens to you, Alex?” she asked, her chin quivering. “That scares me to death. I’ve lost too many people I was close to. I finally let myself get close to someone again and now I’m frightened I’ll lose you, too.” She started sobbing again as Alexander pulled her into his chest. She struggled to suppress the urge to grab her bags and run as far away as possible. A voice in her head was telling her to push Alexander away. And she started to think that she needed to listen.

“Hey. Hey. It’s okay. You have nothing to worry about with me. I’m not going anywhere. Someone will have to drive a stake through my heart to ever take me away from you. I mean that. I promise that I will always be here to look out for you.” He continued soothing her tears.

Olivia took a few deep breaths and pulled away from Alexander’s chest, looking into his eyes. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why that set me off. I’m just overly emotional for some reason. I think nerves about this weekend are getting to me a little,” she lied, not wanting to admit to Alexander that she felt everything had started to spin out of control. She hated the feeling and could only think of one way to regain control. The only thing that had worked in the past. She wanted to run. But she kept hearing Kiera's words in her head telling her to take a risk for once. She wanted to, but at what cost?

“That’s understandable, sweetheart.” He grabbed a tissue and wiped Olivia’s eyes. “Come. Let’s go to lunch and then do something fun. Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Alexander took her hand in his and pulled her out of the master suite and off his yacht.

~~~~~~~~~~

“I have to say, Miss Adler. I’m looking forward to christening my yacht with you this weekend,” Alexander said after the waiter dropped off a dozen oysters as they sat at an outdoor cafe right on the water.

“You’ve never had sex on it?” Olivia glanced at him, wide-eyed.

“No. I haven’t,” Alexander replied very matter-of-factly.

“Hmm.”

“What is it?”

Olivia grabbed an oyster and slid it down her throat. “I don’t know. I just figured you would have taken some girl on it at some time and, well, rock the boat.”

Alexander laughed. “Cute.” He exhaled loudly. “No, Olivia. Sadly, she is still a virgin ship.”

“Well, let’s see what we can do about that.” She winked.

Alexander felt his phone buzz again. He reached into his pocket and took it out. It was Martin. It was his fifth call within the hour. “I’m sorry, Love. I should take this.”

“That’s okay. I understand.”

“Thank you.” He pressed the answer button on his cell phone. “Yes, Martin. What is it?… What?!… When did this happen?… Okay… Yes… Handle it for the time being and we’ll discuss how to proceed…” Alexander hung up, fuming.

“I won’t ask if everything is okay, because it does not appear that it is,” Olivia remarked, taking a drink from her wine glass.

“Well, something has happened,” he replied, eyeing Olivia and taking a deep breath. “I don’t mean to frighten you, but the alarm on your system went off about an hour ago.”

Olivia looked down at her watch. “It wouldn’t have been Kiera. She’s at work. She’s not supposed to feed… Oh my God! Is Nepenthe all right?” Olivia looked terrified.

“Yes. He’s fine. A window triggered the alarm. Martin had another agent go over and check the house. They took Nepenthe to my place for the time being until we can sort everything out. I’ll let my pet sitter know to keep an eye on him, too.” He grabbed another oyster and tipped it back into his mouth.

Olivia stared off into the distance, breathing deep, trying to resist the urge to leave the table and run. With every passing moment, things were spiraling downward.

“Olivia, darling. Are you okay? Talk to me.”

“What is going on?” she hissed. “I mean, really going on? I just feel like you’re keeping information from me. And I would really appreciate it if you were straightforward and honest with me. If you don’t think I’ve noticed your little protection details lately, you must think very little of my intelligence. I know you’ve been having one of your guys watching me whenever we’re not together. So why? What is it?”

Alexander stared at her, contemplating what to tell her. “I’m just trying to keep you safe.”

She glared at him. “If you really wanted to keep me safe, you would tell me what the fuck is going on.”

Alexander exhaled loudly, throwing his napkin onto the table in front of him. “I know. I should have told you this earlier. And I wish I had, but I was hoping it was nothing.”

Olivia’s heart began to race.

“Remember that guy from the bar all those weeks ago?”

She nodded.

“Well, he’s the same person that bailed Simon out of jail and probably paid for his attorney as well. He’s using a fake name, but his real name is Mark Kiddish and he is a very bad, very powerful man. He is a professional “cleaner.” Do you know what that is?”

Olivia shook her head as she took in everything Alexander told her.

“A professional cleaner is someone who ties up loose ends, mainly for politicians and other high ranking government officials. Why he’s interested in you, I am not sure of, but he is not a good guy. So, yes. I am absolutely guilty of having some of my protection teams watching you. But I need to know you are safe, okay? This guy is a very real danger. I know no one has tried anything yet, but I don’t want to take any chances with you.” Alexander felt guilty for not telling her everything, but he just couldn’t. Not yet anyway.

Olivia processed his words, trying to make sense of everything. Why would anyone want to harm her? She had money, yes, but that’s no reason for a professional “cleaner” to target her. “I appreciate that, Alex. I really do. But you should have told me. You can’t keep trying to protect me by withholding information from me. If you don’t tell me these things, how can I trust you? I need to be able to trust you. You’ve never given me a reason not to, but you can’t just make decisions based on what you think is best for me without asking.” She still couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't telling her the whole story.

“So you approve of the additional security?” Alexander looked at her, hopeful.

She thought about that for a minute before sighing loudly. “If it makes you happy, yes. Fine.”

Alexander swooped her hand from the table and held it to his lips. “That would make me extremely happy.” He placed a kiss on her hand as he stared at her. Olivia needed to do something to silence the voice in her head that was growing louder with each passing moment. She knew her time was running out.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Donovan. It’s Cheryl. It worked. She is out of town this weekend with Burnham, but upon her return, I have been assigned to her security team.”

“That’s wonderful news. But we need to continue to give Burnham a reason to think she needs that security, so don’t back off.”

“I won’t.”

“Now that we can get you close to her, I need you to start getting information from her. The old man hid her identity and faked her death. I need to tie up these loose ends. That box containing all those documents is still out there somewhere. We need to get our hands on it. You’ll need to help her try to remember where it is.”

“And you’re certain she’ll know?”

“I’d bet my life on it.”

T
HE
sun filtered through the master suite, waking Olivia on Saturday morning. She rolled over and looked at Alexander as he slept, a peaceful look across his face. He didn’t wake up in the middle of the night screaming or crying like Olivia did. She wondered how much longer he would want to be woken up every night with her cries. The little voice in her head was back, telling her to run. She needed to quiet that voice. So she did the only thing she knew would dull the pain of her constant nightmares and silence the voice telling her to run before she had fallen too far. She swung a leg over Alexander, sitting on top of him, thinking she may already be in too deep.

His eyes flung open. A look of surprise crept across his face, turning into a mischievous smile. “Mmmmm… This is a nice way to wake up,” he said sleepily. Olivia could feel his erection grow. She leaned down and planted kisses down his jaw as she ground against his hips. “Don’t start anything you have no intention of finishing, dear,” Alexander groaned.

She looked at Alexander, his eyes hooded as he moved his hips beneath her, the voice in her head finally silent. “Oh, Mr. Burnham,” she batted her eyes. “I have every intention of finishing.” She lowered herself and pulled on his earlobe. “Again. And again. And again.”

Alexander growled and flipped Olivia onto her back. She looked at him, a smile on her face. “I’ve been quite enjoying myself as we’ve christened your boat this weekend, Mr. Burnham.”

“As have I, Miss Adler,” he replied, positioning himself between her legs. He leaned down, kissing her neck. “As have I,” he whispered as he slid into her. She gasped in surprise. “I’m glad to know I can still surprise you after all these weeks,” he grunted, filling her to the brim. Fire coursed through her body as he moved gently inside of her. His movements were slow and deliberate as he took his time, savoring every moment. Olivia didn’t want him gentle. She wanted him to be rough with her. The voice was back and became louder with each soft thrust.

He gently nipped at her neck, tracing a line down her jaw and tugging at her earlobe. “You are one incredible woman,” Alexander said. “God, I love being inside of you, Olivia.” She ran her fingers up and down his back, her touch sending shivers through his body. “Just one touch and I’m ready to lose my mind, Love.”