Chapter 18
Olivia
I had dodged most of Wesley’s calls and texts messages since our encounter on the beach. I began searching for him, using the information he gave me, and I found a few more aliases and pictures to add to the file. I raked my fingertips through my hair, feeling tears burn behind the backs of my eyes.
Why had he been doing this? How had he turned into this man?
Washington State. Alabama. Texas. Each time, with different features and a different persona. But each time, the smile was the same. The twinkle in his eye was the same.
The slightly wounded look I found in his features was the same.
The fake documents taunted me for the next couple of days. I knew I had to deliver them to him, and I figured doing it on Friday would give me the weekend to get the last of my things in order. I had to stay away from him, that much was for sure. So, I called the cabana and asked if he was working Friday night. Some guy with a jovial attitude on the other end told me he was, so that was how I would do this.
If we were in public, I didn’t run any risk of falling out of my clothes and hopping on his cock.
I printed out the last of the pictures and phone records before I shoved them in the manila envelope. I tracked down the names of the women he was in the pictures with, but still found no one who had filed a police report. It would take me at least through the weekend to call up the PIs in these cities as well, so the moment I grabbed the fake documents and headed for the cabana, I felt good. I had a purpose and a mission, and delivering these on Friday would buy me the time I needed to complete it.
After all, Destiny deserved to have closure.
The moment I walked into the bar, Wesley spotted me. He smiled broadly and flagged me down, and I held up the papers and waved them to him. I walked up to the bar as he leaned on the edge of it, and then I slid the documents his way for him to look at.
“Ah, so this is why you ditched me Wednesday night,” he said, grinning. “I was beginning to think I was losing my touch.”
“Not in the slightest,” I said. “It just hit me like a ton of bricks, I guess. I get my mind wrapped up into work, and I can’t let it go until I finish something.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “I was beginning to think you’d taken off with my property and was never coming back.”
“I can’t just take off with a piece of ground, Wes,” I said, giggling. “That’s not how that works.”
“I don’t know. You seem to have a way with things. I’m sure you could’ve flashed it a peek of your legs, and it would’ve pried itself up and gone anywhere with you.”
I couldn’t stop giggling at him as he checked out the documents. His sense of humor brought back more memories from high school. It was one of the things that had drawn me to him in the first place. He always had a way of infusing humor into tense situations and diffusing them before they got out of control.
That was one reason I’d had to leave so hastily Wednesday night. If I gave him a chance to speak, I never would’ve left. Hell, I probably would’ve woken up with him, tangled up in his sheets and limbs before fucking him senseless the next morning.
I felt a heat grow between my legs as I cleared my throat.
“If you wanna go over the contract now, I can take my first break, and we can venture into the back room or something,” he said.
“There’s a back room for a cabana on the beach?” I asked.
“Of course,” he said. “There’s a couple chairs and a small desk. I mean, it’s also where we store our overflow cleaning products, but it’ll give us some privacy to conduct business the right way.”
Everything in me was screaming not to do it. A table in the corner would do. A walk on the beach would do. Hell, another appointment where we met up in a restaurant would do. But he was obviously trying to get me alone. He was trying to pull me away from the crowd. I knew the moment I stepped away from these people, I would be weak to him.
And I found myself nodding anyway.
“Hey, Chad! I’m taking my break. Finalizing real estate stuff. We’ll be in the back room.”
“Got it,” he said. “Twenty minutes.”
“Follow me,” Wesley said, grinning.
With every step, I found it harder and harder to keep up my ruse. As we made our way into the back room, I couldn’t help but want to tell him the truth. I wanted to be alone with him. I wanted to be close to him. I wanted to ignore all the things he’d done in the past and try to get to know the man who was standing before me. The echoes of Destiny’s voice soon faded to the background when Wesley shut the door behind me, and as the two of us sat down, he put his hand on my knee.
“Are you all right from Wednesday?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m glad I was able to get the paperwork done on time,” I said.
“I was worried about you,” he said, his face troubled.
“You were?”
“Yes, I thought I’d done something to make you uncomfortable,” he said.
“Besides the sand I got in my vagina?” I asked.
“I didn’t feel any sand in your vagina,” he said, grinning.
His hand was massaging my knee, and my entire body began warming up. My defenses began to drop, and my head whirled with the story I had to keep intact. I settled back into my chair while Wesley’s eyes ran along the lines of the paper, but I couldn’t help but feel jealous of the attention he was giving those documents.
I wanted his attention.
“Wesley, I need to tell you—”
“This lawyer real? Nelson Wainwright?”
My body locked up as Wesley’s eyes slowly panned over to me. The stern look behind his eyes snapped me back from any warmth I felt underneath the massaging of his hands. My palms began to sweat, and I could feel my neck heating up. I tried to keep my breathing steady, drawing in a long breath through my nose before I furrowed my brow lightly.
“That’s an odd question,” I said. “Of course, he’s real. He’s one of the premier lawyers on this side of Malibu.”
“Olivia, calm down. I was just kidding.”
“Looked pretty damn serious to be kidding,” I said as I sat up straight.
“Consider it a bit of payback for ignoring my worried calls and text messages.”
“You’re such a dick,” I said, smiling.
“Well, some things have to stay the same.”
“You weren’t a dick in high school, Wes,” I said.
“But you thought I was a cheater,” he said.
“It was hard not to believe the gossip of dozens of girls, especially when you passed notes and shit to them during class. I was a self-conscious sixteen-year-old girl with my first boyfriend. Forgive me if I was a little lost on the protocol for the popular girls telling me my hot-ass boyfriend was kissing them.”
“Hot-ass boyfriend, huh?” he asked. “What, uh, do you think of me now?”
I watched him lean forward as his face slowly approached mine. I could feel the pulsing of his warm breath upon my lips, and for a second, I paused. This was it. The moment where I would either be the professional I needed to be or the weak little woman who caved to the presence of my high school sweetheart. I could either show him the door, or I could pull him onto my body and have my way with him.
And then, I caved. I closed the distance and connected my lips with his before he melded into me. Wesley’s hand came up to cup the back of my head while his tongue slid across my lips, and I was all too eager to let him in. Shivers ran up his spine while I smoothed my hands up his muscular thighs, but a loud crash came from the cabana, and it ripped me back into reality.
“I can’t do this,” I whispered.
“What was that, beautiful?”
I pressed my hands upon Wesley’s chest and pushed his body back from mine. I smoothed my hands over my outfit before standing to my feet, but before I could move, I felt a pressure around my wrist.
“Olivia, don’t go,” he urged.
“I can’t do this again, Wes,” I said.
“I’m not the man I was in high school.”
Obviously not.
“I know,” I whispered. Pulling my hand from his grasp, I stormed of the back room. My legs carried me as fast as I could run to my car while my mind buzzed with thoughts I couldn’t stop. Why was he doing this? Why did he have to rob those women? Why couldn’t I have just turned Destiny over to another PI? It wasn’t like me to take on cases where I knew people personally. Why had I accepted it from Destiny?
I ripped my car door open and climbed in before I sped off. My hands were trembling around the steering wheel while my tits coursed with unusable electricity. The brewing tears I’d felt for days finally poured down my face, and for the second time that week, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw Wesley jogging behind my car.
How many times did I have to leave him behind before he got the hint?
Please don’t get the hint.