“See,” she says, “that’s one thing Lionel has over you. You may be bigger and stronger and richer. But he’s kind. Honest. Loyal. He’s capable of commitment.”
“Yet you broke up with him,” I point out. “And then you fucked me in an airplane bathroom.”
She goes bright red once more and looks away from me. She’s so self-conscious all the time. All it would take is for me to bend her over now and fuck her until she realizes that there’s no point to self-doubt. No purpose for awkwardness.
The only thing to do is give in.
“I… I was trying to do something… something…”
“That made you feel alive,” I fill in. “You wanted to know how it felt to come undone. And I showed you, didn’t I?”
I can see it written on her face: her emotion is getting the best of her. She’s regretting asking to talk to me. She just wants to be alone now, to reflect on her life, her choices. The ones that led her here and the ones she never got the chance to make.
“My family means the world to me, Aleks,” she says softly. “They’re the ones that make me feel alive. I… wouldn’t know what to do if something were to happen to them. Just, please… promise me they’ll be okay.”
I touch my fingers to her jaw and push her chin up so she’s forced to meet my eyes. “I don’t make promises I can’t keep, Olivia.”
She whimpers. “My brother’s a good man. He’s spent his whole life doing the right thing. Following the rules, upholding the law.”
“The law?” I repeat. “The laws are made by the very men who break them, Olivia. He’s wasted his life following a bunch of rules that were never intended to help anyone in the first place.”
“Fine,” she says in defeat. “Let’s say that’s true. What about kindness? Isn’t that worth something?”
“You expect me to go easy on your brother because you believe he’s a good man?” I laugh. “A good person?”
“He is.”
“And I suppose in your world, the hero always wins and the villain gets his just desserts?”
She shakes her head. “No, not that. I stopped believing in fairytales when my father died. There’s no happy ending without him.”
That takes me by surprise. I raise my eyebrows, staring at the loss etched across her face.
I have a thick file on the Lawrence family sitting in my desk drawer as we speak. That file told me that Bradley Lawrence died more than seven years ago. Olivia would’ve been a teen then. So much time has passed.
And yet the loss is still fresh. The raw pain boils in Olivia’s eyes, scalding.
“Your father is dead, Olivia. What’s the point in acting like you are, too?”
“He… he was our rock,” she murmurs without looking up. “And when he passed, Rob became that rock for us.”
I nod. “Exactly. Then you wouldn’t want to lose him, too, would you?”
She recognizes the threat in my voice. Her jaw trembles. She raises her gaze up at me, her hazel eyes going round with fear. “Would you really kill him?”
“I think we’ve already established that I will do whatever I need to do to protect my interests. And what’s more, I will get away with it.”
“Let me talk to Rob,” she tries again. “I’ll tell him to recuse himself from the investigation. I… I can solve this.”
I shake my head. “That won’t be enough. He has to end the investigation. Otherwise, some other agent will be assigned to it, and this cycle will begin anew.”
“But… but… but…”
I turn away from her and head back to my desk. “You’ll get a phone call with your brother when I feel it’s necessary. For right now, it’s not.”
“But—”
“You can go back to your room now.”
She breaks off mid-sentence, her expression twisting with failure. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
She lunges towards me and seizes my arm. “You can’t do this.”
I look down at her grip. It’s not remotely strong, but at least it’s determined. Her fingers tremble the longer I keep my gaze on her hand.
“Actually,” I say slowly, “I can do anything I fucking want.”
“Well, I’m not leaving.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Did you come here for your brother, Olivia? Or did you come here for me?”
She frowns. “I… what?”
“You crave danger, Olivia, even if you refuse to admit it. You’ve suppressed your instincts for so long that you’ve forgotten you have them at all. But I see you. I see all of you.”
I can see my words hitting her. She twists them around in her head, trying to deny them.
I take the moment to grab her suddenly. She gasps, her arms coming instinctively around my shoulders. I pick her up and set her down on my desk, wedging myself between her legs. I don’t even have to push them open. They part for me willingly.
“No,” she whispers, pushing me away so weakly that I laugh in her face. “This is not what I want…”
I ignore her words. They’re meaningless. Her body tells me the true story.
I unzip her pants and shove my hand inside. She gasps in shock, but she makes no real effort to stop me. That’s all the confirmation I need.
The moment my fingers find her pussy, she cries out.
“I was right: you’re soaking wet.”
She bites down on her bottom lip, unable to deny or justify her body’s betrayal.
“I wonder what your brother will think of that?” I ponder.
She shakes her head. “No! Please… don’t tell him.”
The innocence with which she utters that fervent plea almost makes me smile. “That depends on your behavior over the next few weeks.”
“Weeks?” she gasps.
I move my fingers inside her, and she gasps again, her knuckles going white as she clings to the edges of my desk.
In the airplane bathroom, I didn’t get to see the war on her face quite like this. But now, I can see it clearly…
She wants me so bad she can hardly breathe.
And she doesn’t trust herself not to give into that impulse again and again and again.
So I make the choice for her.
“Go up to your room, Olivia,” I tell her in a sigh. “Get in bed, pull down your panties, and make yourself come.”
I pull my fingers out of her. A low whimper escapes her lips.
“I don’t have to tell you to think of me when you do,” I say. “I already know you will.”
14
OLIVIA
LATER THAT AFTERNOON
“What would you do, Mia?” I mutter to myself.
I try to channel my sister as I pace between the door to the hallway and the doors to my balcony. Mia has always been the confident one; I was the shy wallflower.
It’s what everyone always said about us. So often that Mia had a ready response for them.
“We’re a team. I have enough confidence to help Liv through her awkward days. And Liv has the imagination to help me solve my hard days.”
“I need you, Mimi,” I whisper to the empty room. “I need some of your confidence. I need you.”