Bad Boys Do (27 page)

His arms were so warm when they curved around her back. He tucked his face against her hair and breathed in. “Don’t say it like she…like I… It would’ve been over and done if nobody had found out. I’m fine.”

But she wasn’t sure he was fine. He sounded more than angry. He sounded
hurt.

“So, there hasn’t been anyone, Olivia. Not until you. And it did mean something to me. It
does.
”

“God, I’m so sorry.” She hugged him, wanting to hold on forever. But there was more. “But…your brother said you also got into a fight with a jealous husband.”

He eased away, holding her in front of him so he could meet her eyes. “Olivia, that was
your
jealous husband.”

“What?” Her hands curled, grabbing on to his T-shirt. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“I’m not. He came into the brewery last Friday night, looking for a fight. Unfortunately, I gave it to him.”

“Oh, no.” She let go of him and covered her mouth in horror. “I’m sorry. That was when you left. He’s the one who—”

“It’s no big deal. I shouldn’t have punched him.”

“Are you okay?” Reaching for his face, she stroked his jaw. “Did he hit you?”

“Hell, no, he didn’t hit me. Hard to reach my face from the floor.”

“Oh, my God.” She tried to look serious, but her lips kept curving up. “I’m so sorry.”

“Are you? You look a little bit thrilled.”

“Shut up!” she said, laughing despite her best attempts to stop it.

Jamie’s face softened. “Does that mean you forgive me?”

“For hitting Victor? No forgiveness necessary.”

“No, I mean for lying. About Monica.”

Olivia forgot her amusement and slipped back into his arms. “Of course, I do. Of course. And I’m so sorry if I caused you any trouble.”

“Never. You made everything better.”

Olivia closed her eyes, but she felt a tear escape and slip a jagged path down her face until it disappeared into the warm cotton beneath her cheek. He felt so good. He smelled so familiar. And she had no idea what this meant. He wasn’t her boyfriend. He wasn’t her lover. Yet she wanted him so much. So much that it hurt like a coal inside her chest, burning through everything.

“Christ, I’ve missed you,” he whispered.

She couldn’t respond or she’d cry all over him and beg him to stay. Just stay. Olivia tightened her hold on his shirt and pulled him even closer. His heart thundered at first. She held him until it started to slow. Then she held him some more. All of his tension was gone. She should really let him go.

After a few minutes, she was strong enough to ease her hold and draw back. “Will you tell me what you’ve been—?”

Her words were cut off by his mouth on hers, his tongue sliding in to taste her. Lust slammed through her so hard that she whimpered and sank her fingernails into his back. The same urgency seemed to take him over. His hands were everywhere, shaping her body as if he needed to remember everything about it.

She was panting, whimpering, immediately desperate. She wanted closer. Impossibly close. When he lifted her, she wrapped her legs around him just to feel more of him. Jamie swung her around and set her on the dining room table.

“Yes,” she urged, drawing back to shove his shirt over his head. She kissed his chest, licked his nipple, while Jamie struggled to lift her shirt, as well.

“Your arms,” he ordered, and she raised them to help. She took her glasses off and heard them fall to the floor, but Jamie was unhooking her bra so she didn’t give a damn. Instead of scrambling for her glasses, she reached to unbutton his jeans. Jamie pressed his palms to her breasts with a sigh of pleasure.

But she didn’t have time for this. The last button of his jeans had given way and she stroked her hand down the ridge of his shaft. “I want you inside me,” she rasped. “Now.”

He groaned and kissed her again. She felt the sharp catch in his breath when she slipped her hand inside his underwear and touched the bare heat of him.

Turning her face away, she begged, “Please. I need you.” And she did. Desperation clawed through her, hurting her heart with its brutality. “Please.”

His hands reached for her jeans. One heartbeat later and he was tugging them down, taking her underwear with them, and she was totally naked, her knees spread around his hips. Jamie’s eyes glittered as he pulled his wallet free and slipped a condom out before tossing the wallet to the floor.

She licked her lips as she watched him roll the condom down his thick shaft, and then he took himself in hand and rubbed the head against her. He slid and slipped until she moaned. Finally, he pressed forward and Olivia sobbed in relief as his shaft stretched her pussy. “Yes,” she said, watching him disappear into her body. “God, yes.” When he’d finally sunk as deep as he could go, she sighed.

“Shh,” Jamie whispered, his thumb wiping a tear from her face.

She shook her head, but more tears came.

“Don’t cry, sweetie.”

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, but when he tried to pull her gently against him, she refused to let him comfort her. Comfort wasn’t what she needed. Instead she surged up to kiss him, rolling her hips into him.

He thrust and kissed her back, so she rolled her hips again, sucking at his tongue until he moaned and stroked deep into her mouth at the same time he thrust deep into her sex.

For a while it was slow and good and hot as he primed her body, easing her toward a climax, but that desperation was back, clawing through her. Olivia put her hands to the table and eased back until she was flat against the cold wood. “Fuck me,” she ordered, bending her knees to slide them higher up his body.

He looped his hands behind her legs and pulled them even higher. This time when he thrust, she cried out at the strength of it. She was totally open to him, totally vulnerable, and he slid deeper than ever with every thrust.

Olivia spread her arms and curved her fingers over the table edges, holding tight as he began to pound into her. She’d wanted this. Wanted him to take her just like this on a table, as if she’d been served up for his pleasure.

His hands tightened their grip and eased her legs wider. He was a glorious work of art as he worked himself inside her, his muscles flexing beneath his skin like an animal’s. Olivia couldn’t look away. Instead she watched him as she forced one hand to let go of its death grip on the table. She slid that hand down her body, and stroked her fingers over her clit.

“Yes,” he snarled. “I want to see you come.”

Oh, he would. Her body was already humming. Her nerves already pulling tighter around her clit as she rubbed it. She wanted to come for him. Wanted him to see what he did to her.

His teeth bared in a snarl, Jamie let go of any restraint. His thrusts became brutal as he watched her touch herself.

“Oh, God,” she whispered as her body seemed to draw itself in. She felt nothing but his relentless invasion and her circling fingers. She was nothing but this in that moment. Nothing but an animal act. “God,” she prayed. “Jamie.”

Her body seemed to shiver and float up for a split second, and then it crashed hard back into her. She threw her head back and screamed, and Jamie growled his pleasure like an animal as her hips bucked against him.

Her body was numb by his last thrust. She couldn’t even open her eyes as the last tremor shook through his body. She’d wanted to watch him, but she couldn’t summon the will to be sorry.

Her skin was slick against the table. Jamie’s hands eased their hold on her legs. But she couldn’t open her eyes.

“Come ’ere,” he muttered, bending down to ease one arm behind her back. When he lifted her, she managed a frown of displeasure and tightened her legs around him, so he wouldn’t slip free of her body. She wasn’t ready for that. But when he collapsed onto the couch, he was still deep inside her. Olivia snuggled close with a happy sigh.

“I don’t want this to just be fun,” Jamie said, his breath sliding over her shoulder. “I want it to be everything.”

The last horrible remnants of that desperation stirred inside her. It dug its claws into her throat and pulled itself higher. She let it free on a sob. Her tears fell down her cheeks and slid over his skin. “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m sorry for what I said to you.”

“Shh. It doesn’t matter. And you were right. I did need to grow up.”

She shook her head. “So did I.”

“I think I’m in love with you, Olivia.”

Her eyes popped open. She must have tensed, because she felt him chuckle. “I know it’s harder for you. There’s the divorce, and… I don’t expect you to return the feeling. Yet. But I’ve never said it before, and I wanted to say it to you. Now you can tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

She leaned back and framed his face in her hands. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Screw you.”

Her gaze slipped down to their laps.

“Exactly.”

“Jamie…” She tried hard to think what to say. How to dissuade him or herself or—

“Hush,” he ordered. So she closed her mouth and just looked at him. His gaze slipped to a place past her shoulder. “What’s this?”

She tried to look without moving too much, but Jamie was easing her up. She closed her eyes as he slid out of her.

“Good Table Consulting,” he said, and her eyes popped open.

“Oh,” she said, twisting around to sit beside him. “That’s… That’s me.”

“Are you kidding?” His face lit up. For her. He grinned and touched the logo on the screen. “That’s you?”

“It is.” She ducked her head when he looked at her, but his finger eased her chin up.

“You’re doing it.”

“I am.” She couldn’t help but answer his smile.

“You’re amazing, you know that?”

“I’m just doing something I should’ve done a long time ago.”

“I guess we’re just a couple of late bloomers, huh?”

She kissed his sweet smile. “Some of us later than others?”

“Just a little, Ms. Bishop.”

“I…” She couldn’t say it. Not yet.

“I know,” he whispered.

O
LIVIA BURST FROM HER FRONT
door as if she were breaking out of a starting gate. She was late.
Late.

Well, she wasn’t quite late, but she wasn’t early, either, and she couldn’t stand the idea of being late for her first dinner with Jamie’s family. She was driving to Jamie’s place first, so she could spend the night and still leave early enough to make it to Denver on Monday morning for an eight-o’clock meeting with a commercial real estate agent. She didn’t need new space herself, but she needed to keep up with what was available on the local market.

Rushing for the parking lot while she balanced her bag and the chocolate cake she’d made for dinner with his family, Olivia didn’t notice the girl standing next to her car. In fact, she’d already hit the locks and reached for the door when she caught movement close by and jumped with a little yelp. The cake slipped, but she held on to it.

“Allison?” she gasped as the girl stepped away from the bumper. “Good Lord, you scared me.”

Allison set her jaw and didn’t say anything.

Olivia blinked in shock at the sight of her. Not just because her presence was unexpected—and it was—but because she’d changed completely in the three weeks since Olivia had last seen her. Gone was the girl with the long ponytail and slightly bohemian dress. She’d cut her hair into a shaggy, trendy bob and she was wearing dark jeans and a black maternity top that was clearly designed to emphasize her pregnancy rather than hide it.

“Um. Were you waiting for me?” Olivia asked. The cake started to slip again, so she opened the door and set it carefully down.

When she straightened, Allison was glaring. She put her hands on her hips. “We’re getting married,” she said, each letter deliberately crisp.

“Oh. Well. Congratulations.”

“I want you to stay away from him.”

“Allison,” she sighed. “That really won’t be a problem. We’ve been living separate lives for quite a while now.”

The girl smirked. “Yeah, right.”

Good Lord. “Listen, I don’t know what he’s told you, but—”

“What he’s
told
me is that he’s still in love with you and that you’re going to get back together.”

“That’s not true.”

“Oh, I know it’s not true now. I took care of that.”

She looked so proud, the stupid girl. As if she’d won herself a prize. As if she’d trapped some valuable animal who— Olivia blinked and stared at Allison’s smirk. “Oh, my God, you called the dean, didn’t you?”

Her smirk wavered for a split second, but then she smiled as if she’d wanted Olivia to figure it out. “I had no choice. Victor was obsessed with you. He claimed I tried to trap him by getting pregnant, as if he had nothing to do with it.”

“Did you?”

“No! But once I found out I was pregnant… He just wanted to walk away.”

“I’m sorry. That’s…” Olivia could understand how terrifying that must be, but, then again… “Did you ever think about letting him walk?”

“I’m not going to be like my mom. Kids by three different men, none of whom ever stuck around for more than two years. I didn’t work my ass off in college to end up back where I started. I wasn’t going to let him walk away.”

“So you told the dean.”

“You don’t understand,” she snapped, pointing her finger in Olivia’s face. “After you started dating that guy, Victor couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was driving him crazy. I kept telling him that he had me, but he just… Do you know what he did when I told him we were having twins?”

Olivia’s eyes flew to the girl’s belly in shock. She watched Allison curl a protective hand around her stomach.

“He went to your boyfriend’s bar and got drunk and started a fight with him! As if that was going to change anything! He was panicking, so I did what I had to do.”

“How does getting him in trouble fix anything?”

Allison shrugged. “It’s not much of a scandal if we’re married when the girls are born, is it?”

Oh, she was smart. Olivia could just imagine Victor’s conversation with the dean.
This isn’t sordid, sir. In fact we’re getting married in a month. Everything here is on the up-and-up. Not a scandal in sight.

Olivia crossed her arms and looked down at her feet. She wanted to tell Allison she was making a terrible mistake. Why would she want to marry a man who didn’t want to marry her? But anything she said would be shadowed by the specter of the jealous ex-wife. The spurned woman. She—

“Oh, my God,” Olivia breathed. “You’re the one who called Lewis, aren’t you?”

Allison shrugged again. “I figured things would be easier if you had to leave. Then Victor wouldn’t see you every day at the U.”

“You know what? You deserve him. Congratulations.”

“Just stay away from him,” Allison repeated, her eyes glowing with triumph.

“You got it, girl.”

Olivia got in her car and tried not to gloat as she pulled out. After all, she was on her way to see her cute boyfriend. The one who wanted her around and wasn’t in love with another woman. But as she drove away, Allison grew tiny in the rearview mirror and Olivia’s smile faded. Ten years from now, maybe Allison would wake up and realize she had bigger dreams than Victor Bishop. Olivia took a deep breath and wished her luck. The girl was going to need it.

All thoughts of Allison and her reluctant fiancé disappeared like a popped bubble when Olivia pulled up to Jamie’s house and found him sitting on the porch waiting for her. “Am I late?” she asked as she scrambled out of her car.

“Nope.” He leaned in for a kiss as he stole the cake from her hands.

“I’m sorry. We’d better hurry. I don’t want to make you late.”

“Oh, I doubt anybody would be shocked.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true.” He transferred the cake to his truck and dropped her bag inside the house before locking up.

Once they’d pulled out onto the street, she took his hand and squeezed it. “Everything’s going well now, right? With your family?”

“Everything’s great, but it’ll take a while to build up trust. I spent a lot of years breaking it down.”

“I don’t understand. From what I’ve heard, you didn’t do anything too awful.”

“I think it was more quantity than quality. When I was a teenager, I was always skipping school and blowing off assignments and hanging out where I shouldn’t have been hanging out. Sometimes I’d take off for a couple of days, then just waltz back home like nothing had happened. But mostly, I just blew them off. I wanted them to leave me alone. I didn’t want to owe them more than I already did.”

She frowned at him, trying to figure out what he meant.

“But that was in high school,” he said. “I mostly screwed around in college like any other kid at a notorious party school. Since then, I’ve just…gotten by.”

“Why did you feel like you owed them?”

His eyes flew to hers before sliding away again. He shrugged. Traffic stalled out as a huge crowd of bicyclists passed in front of them. A police officer held up his hand when the light turned green. More bikes passed. They must have accidentally cut through a race route.

“What did you owe them?” she pressed.

He shook his head. “Everything.”

“You mean Eric? He took care of you guys, right?”

“Yeah. It’s complicated.”

“By what?”

The last of the bicycles appeared to have passed, but the light had turned red again. Jamie shifted in his seat.

“I’m sure it’s perfectly normal for a teenage boy to act out after his parents die, Jamie. Anyone would. You can’t blame yourself for that.”

“That’s not what I blame myself for.”

“Then what is it?”

He set his jaw and didn’t answer, and Olivia decided to let it go. He’d talk about it when he wanted to, and she didn’t want to start a fight. They’d only made up a week ago and they were on their way to see his family. Now was not the time for tension.

She took his hand and squeezed it. “All that matters is that you’re getting along now. I thought you were happy when I first met you, but now it’s almost like you’ve found peace.”

“Yeah,” he said, squeezing his hand again. “It’s something like that.”

The traffic jam finally gave way, and Jamie seemed to sigh with relief.

“We’re late, aren’t we?”

He laughed. “We’re not late. I told them we’d be there around six.”

“You told me five-thirty. I’ve been so worried!”

He leaned in and stole a quick kiss. “You know how hot it gets me when you’re responsible.”

“Jamie!” She shoved him back to his side of the car. “Why did you say five-thirty?”

His smile faded and he cleared his throat. “I thought we might stop somewhere else real quick.”

The nervous way his fingers tightened on the steering wheel confused her, but she nodded. “Of course.”

They drove down the street, then took a few more turns until they were in a part of town she didn’t think she’d ever driven through. Jamie pulled into an entry gate that made her sit up straighter. It was a cemetery.

He eased slowly down the narrow lane before he stopped and cut the engine. “I wanted to bring you here because…my parents are buried here.” He gestured up a hill dotted with large trees.

Olivia gasped and reached for the door handle. “Do you want to go up? We can. I don’t really care about being late, Jamie.”

His hand closed over her wrist. “No. I don’t want to. I…I don’t go up there.”

“Ever?”

“Only when Tessa insists.”

She settled back into her seat and watched Jamie as he stared out the window.

“They were really great parents,” he said.

“I’m sure they were. Do you look like your dad?”

His lips turned up for a moment. “Yeah. My mom used to complain that she did all the work of having babies, and we got all of his genes.”

She didn’t know what to say. That she was sorry he’d lost them? Those words seemed so paltry in the face of what had been taken from him. “I’m so sorry,” she said helplessly.

“Me, too. I wasn’t…I wasn’t the son they deserved.”

“Oh, Jamie—”

“It was my fault, Olivia.”

“What was?”

“The accident.”

Her heart clenched and her lungs seemed to freeze. “What do you mean? You were there?”

“No. None of us were there. Tessa was spending the night at a friend’s house. Eric was already living in Denver. And I was out doing what I always did—getting into trouble.”

“So how could it have been your fault?”

Jamie closed his eyes for a moment and swallowed hard, but when he opened his eyes they were dry. “I told my parents I was going to a school dance, but there was no dance. Some rich girl was having a party at her house up in the mountains. I had a car, so I volunteered to be the designated driver. I wanted to do the right thing. But I didn’t. When we got to the party, I started drinking along with everyone else. But then we had to go. My friend had to be home by midnight or he’d be grounded. I was drunk. Everyone was drunk. So I called my parents. I told them I’d had a drink and I needed a ride home. Of course, Mom and Dad jumped in the car. But they never made it. It’d been raining for three days. There was a rockslide. They drove right into a boulder. Never even hit the brakes.”

He let Olivia take his hand, but he didn’t look at her. She tried to swallow her tears. My God. He’d been sixteen. He must have felt… “It was an accident, Jamie.”

“It wasn’t an accident. It was me being irresponsible. ‘Oh, sure, I’ll drive. I’ll just have one beer.’”

“You called them because that was the right thing to do!”

“No,” he said firmly. “The right thing to do would’ve been to not lie and go to the party. Or stay sober when I told my friends I would.”

“You did the right thing by not getting in the car with your friends and driving home drunk. Then
you
would’ve been dead.”

“I know. But at least my little sister would’ve been raised by a mom and dad instead of two clueless brothers. At least—”

“Stop. Jamie, you can’t blame yourself for an accident. Your family doesn’t blame you, do they?”

He finally looked at her then. “You’re the only one I’ve ever told.”

Oh, God. She saw it in his face then. The reason he’d pushed his brother and sister away. The reason he felt he owed them so much.

“I couldn’t tell them. I didn’t want them to hate me as much as I hated myself.”

“Jamie, no.” She reached for him, getting as close as she could in his car. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true. I was a coward. I never wanted them to know how worthless I was.”

“Don’t say that,” she managed to say past her tears. “It’s not true, Jamie.”

“It’s okay,” he whispered into her hair. “I’m finally figuring it out. I think I deserve something better than how I’ve been living. At the very least, I want to live in a way that would have made them proud. I owe them that. My parents and my siblings.”

“Jamie, you don’t owe anybody anything. You were sixteen. You made a stupid mistake, but then you did exactly what they would’ve wanted you to.” Tears spilled down her cheeks, but she kept her face against his shoulder so he wouldn’t see. “And no matter how hard you tried to throw your life away, you couldn’t do it, because you’re a good man. You took care of your sister and graduated from college and you worked with your family every day. I’ve never seen you be unkind to anyone. Ever.”

She felt his cheek rise in a smile. “What about that time I punched Victor?”

“That was an act of mercy. For me, anyway. I’m just saying that you were trying to do the right thing. And you’re no more at fault than your sister would’ve been if she’d asked them to pick her up at the mall. You wouldn’t have blamed her, because it was an accident.”

“I can’t see it that way, but I’ve started learning to forgive myself.” He took a deep breath. She watched his chest expand and felt his breath tease over her hair. “I told you about this so you could understand. I’m working on it. I’m trying. And I know I said the wrong things that day we fought, but…”

“It’s okay.”

“Olivia, I don’t like you because I think you’ll make me a better person. Or because you’re smart and mature and I need that in my life. I like you because I think there’s a chance I might actually deserve you. Just a chance.”