“He didn’t attack me, Olive. Let’s not blow it out of proportion.”
“And you tell me about it the next day. After you go to the cops. Cops, Lucy! And he did attack you. I don’t care what those cops say, he assaulted you.” She started squeezing the bottle in her hand, so I carefully reached out and took it from her murderous grip.
“Let’s just say he was overly eager, and I did punch him after all, so one could say I attacked him back and it was all good. The only reason I didn’t tell you about it as soon as it happened was because I wanted you to have the best night. You were having fun. You’ve been waiting for so long for that movie; I didn’t want to mess that up.”
She raised a brow and gave me a hard look. “It was all good only because Adam took care of it.”
A party full of people and he had to be the one to save me, hadn’t he? My freaking luck. Not that I wasn’t grateful he happened to be there, but couldn’t it have been someone else?
The killer dick I was waiting to find, maybe?
“Took care of it?” I balked at her. “Whose side are you on anyway? He sent me to prison, for God’s sake, the least he could do was help me kick Callum’s ass. And I can take care of myself, thank you very much.”
“And no one should help you, right?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t need to.”
I tried to stand up, but Olive grabbed my hand and roughly pulled me back down. “Jesus!” I exclaimed, half mortified and half amused. “I was just going to the kitchen to get rid of the bottle. A little feisty tonight, aren’t you?”
She gave me her don’t try me signature look, and I closed my mouth. Maybe she was right…just a little bit. I’d grown up expecting nothing from Catherine, not love, not kindness, not respect, just a whole lot of nothing. Even my own mother had decided to move on with her life without me, so I’d learned to take care of myself and not expect anything from others.
“I asked you if I could come and live with you guys for a while, didn’t I? That should count as asking for help.”
Olive was my exception; I sometimes didn’t mind asking for her help.
“It does count.” She nodded and snatched the bottle from my hand to put it on the coffee table. “But it’s not enough. And because it’s not, you’re gonna answer my questions right now. After that I’ll send you the book.”
That got my attention. “So you lied? You didn’t send it to someone else before me?” Was it so lame that I was hopeful?
“No, I did send it to Jasmine, this morning, and I was planning on sending it to you tonight, after we plotted the next one.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. As long as this Jasmine chick knows I’m the alpha beta reader or whatever the heck it is called, I’m okay with her reading it too.”
“Thank you for the permission,” she said sarcastically.
I gave her a big smile. “You’re welcome, my green Olive.” She shook her head, but I saw the small twitch of her lips. “Should we hug? I could use the softness of your boobies,” I asked, already leaning toward her.
“No, you don’t deserve a hug, not yet.”
“Ouch.”
“Let’s start with Jameson.”
I groaned and leaned back again. “What about that jackass?”
“Did you text him back? No, wait. I don’t trust you anymore. Give me your phone, I’m gonna check.”
“You should start writing again, stat,” I said, but still rose up to go get my phone for her. “You’re starting to act all weird.”
“No, I’m acting like a good friend.” She took the phone from my hands and thoroughly checked my recent messages and calls.
“Happy now?” I asked, holding my hand open.
She slapped the phone into my palm and nodded. “I am. Don’t text him. He can go to hell.”
“My sentiments exactly. Okay, next question.”
She twisted her body and faced me. “Tell me about Adam Connor. Are you sleeping with him?”
A laugh escaped my lips. “What? I don’t even like the guy. What are you talking about?”
“You stayed at his place after the incident with Jake.”
“And?” I waited to hear the rest of it, but she didn’t say anything more, just waited for my answer. “In case you missed it the first time, or the hundredth time I said it, I’ll repeat: I don’t even like the guy. He was there, so I asked him for a ride, or he offered one, I don’t even remember. And then since you guys were still at the party and I didn’t have a key, he invited me to stay at his place. It’s not like I haven’t stayed there before.”
“But this time around Aiden wasn’t there, was he?”
“Yeah, so, what does that have to do with anything?”
“Fine.” She sighed. “Be difficult about this.”
“I’m not being difficult. I’m telling you, he put some ice on my hand, and I went to bed.”
“Aha! He iced your hand? Now we’re getting somewhere.” She hugged a pillow to her chest and waited to hear more details. Unfortunately, I had none.
I started to tell her exactly that, but her phone started ringing and interrupted us. She held up her finger and ordered me to stay put as she talked to Jason.
Of course I got up and walked toward the sliding doors. It was a little over eighty outside and the weather was beautiful.
“I haven’t started yet. Did you want something specific? Wait a second, I’ll ask her,” Olive said into her phone and turned to me.
“Jason is going to have Alvin grab some Chinese. What do you want?”
I loved Chinese, but at that moment, I couldn’t even stomach the thought of it. Apparently I wasn’t a wine girl or I was still feeling off. She frowned at me then kept talking to Jason. When she was off the phone, she was on me again.
“Where were we?”
“Nowhere, because there is nothing more to tell.”
“You like him.”
“I don’t like him.”
“You like him like him.”
“Does it change the fact that I don’t like him when you say it twice?”
“You like him more than you want to sleep with him.”
“Please,” I huffed, offended. “I’d happily fuck his brains out, but I don’t even like him that much. Every time he talks I want to smack him upside his head.” Actually, I would’ve fucked him any hour of any day. If you heard that sweet, thick, deep voice of his, you’d jump in his bed too, or on any flat surface really; I could go at it with him anywhere.
Forget about the voice; if he could just shut up and stand there, you’d still jump in his bed, begging him to take you. Besides, it wasn’t my fault that I had woman parts; there was nothing I could do about that. His penis would fit perfectly into my vagina, and I had come so close to touching it. Come to think of it, I should have, even if it was just to see what his reaction would be. Too bad I’d chickened out because I was afraid of what he’d do next.
Long story short, Adam Connor was still a bastard in my book, but he was a hot DILF. But sleep with him? Nah, he was too tempting, especially when he was around Aiden. When I watched him interact with his son, the way he smiled at him or simply carried him to bed to tuck him in…boy, did it made me purr and melt faster than snow. Worst of it all, it made my battered heart skip a beat, which I did not like at all.