Page 7 of Private Reserve
He drives his hands into his jeans and they drop lower on his hips. I try not to stare, but he’s so gorgeous, even more so with two years of hard muscles added to his once thinner frame. His hair is cut short, the dark color accentuating the blue in his eyes. A light gray T-shirt is snug against broad shoulders and hard abs that I used to go crazy over.
He broke your heart.
Jesus, how many times did I have to remind myself of that? “Why would I ever do anything for you?” I ask, keeping my voice steady and cool.
He dips his head. “I would never ask for something without giving in return.” His eyes darken, and I have to wonder exactly what it is he wants to give me. Can he read the need in my eyes, the want?
How much my heart still aches for him?
“Go on,” I say, trying for casual when my insides are in total chaos.
“I can help you get out of that dead-end job you’re in. One call and you could be working at East Coast Media.”
I gasp, partly because his uncle’s firm is where I always wanted to work, and partly because he knows what’s been going on in my life.
I glare at him. “How do you know where I work?”
“I’ve been keeping tabs.”
He’s been keeping tabs on me? Why the hell would a man who dumped me do that? I stare at his chest and shake my head. I don’t know whether to feel violated or pleased. Either way, what I do know is I can’t—won’t—pretend to be his…anything. Not after everything we’ve been through.
“No,” I say. “I can’t do this.”
“This is all coming at you rather fast. I’m sorry about that, Olivia. I’m just…desperate.”
“Why me. Why now? There are plenty of women in Italy who would say yes to you. I mean look at you.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I stumble and try to gobble them back up. “I…I just don’t know why you asked me.”
“Because I know you.” He touches me again, runs the back of his knuckles down my arm. I shiver, and I want to step away but can’t seem to make myself do it. “It needs to be believable. My parents aren’t going to sign over the vineyard if they think I’m marrying just to get my hands on it. With you, it will be believable.”
“I don’t know why you think that. You ran—”
“It just will be, okay. Trust me on that.”
He wants me to trust him. Fat chance.
“So what exactly would you want me to do?” I ask, curiosity getting the better of me, even though I’m never going to do whatever it is.
“We’ll have a fast ceremony here on the hill tomorrow. Just my mom and dad and grandfather.”
“Tomorrow?” I stare at a bird as it flies overhead, and try to wrap my brain around all this. He actually wants me to go through with a ceremony? That’s insane! “Your parents are not going to believe any of this.”
“I think they will, especially since they asked about you earlier, and then you happened to just show up.”
My head jerks up. “Why would they ask about me?”
He goes quiet for a long time and pinches the bridge of his nose, his expression one of pure and perfect agony. “Because I’ve always cared about you, Olivia. I’ve never stopped.”
I push down the hurt and square my shoulders. “Just not enough to plan a future with me,” I respond, finally understanding why he just upped and left two days after I talked about a future. But as I look at him now, I get the sense there is more to it than that.
“It wasn’t…it’s not like…” He takes a quick breath and lets it out slowly. “I’ll tell them you came looking for me,” he says, redirecting the conversation. “And the second I saw you, I knew it was fate bringing us back together.”
A strange noise sounds in my throat. “But it wasn’t,” I counter. “It was my friend.”
“They don’t need to know that. They believe in fate and will believe that you came looking for me because we were meant to be together forever.”
My stomach clenches. Oh God, how I had wanted that to be true. But it’s too late for that now.
“How long are you here?” he asks.
