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I cut her off by raising my hand. I don’t want her manipulating me with her apologies. I have every right to be angry.
“I’m only allowing you in here because I know that the others would be upset if I treated you badly. I don’t want to talk.”
“This is ridiculous,” she says, raising her voice.
“No, you know what’s ridiculous? You coming here without an invitation. You just assumed I was going to forgive you, didn’t you? I’m not the same sap that took care of you or flew to Chicago and punched that asshole that you left me for. Then to top it off, you did it again.”
“I didn’t do it again! You ran away before I could explain.”
“I heard you, Olivia. I watched you fawn over Jake. You told me to give you time and be patient. I told you I loved you. Didn’t that mean anything to you?”
She steps closer. “It meant everything to me.”
I grab her by the shoulders, squeezing lightly. “Then, why? Why would you do this to me?”
“I didn’t mean for things to happen the way they did.”
“You did it twice. It’s who you are.”
“I didn’t mean what I said to Jake. He wasn’t who I wanted.”
“It sure sounded that way—like you wanted him. I heard him tell you that he was moving to Manhattan to work for Jordan.”
“He was.”
“You let him kiss you,” I whisper.
“Then you didn’t stay long enough. I pushed him away. I told him that I was happy to see him and wanted to be friends. I never kissed him back.”
I don’t know whether or not to believe her. Her hood is still up from when she trekked to the house, so I pull it from her head and put my hands on either side of her face. I want to believe her so much. I hold her gaze as I stare into her beautiful green eyes.
“I saw you,” I insist.
“You didn’t stay long enough,” she repeats. “Please, Luc, I love you. You don’t know what these three weeks have been like without you. I moved out of your apartment the next day. Lexi said you didn’t want me there. I stayed with her until my place was available.”
I break her stare and look downward. If she’s right, I jumped to conclusions and never let her explain. Zane never said anything to me about her not being with Jake; I didn’t even give him a chance to explain further. I didn’t want to hear what he or anybody had to say.
My hands drop from her face, and the weight of my emotions presses down on me. I back over to the couch and sit down, scrubbing my face with my hands. The sound of a zipper fills the room, then Olivia sits next to me, coat hanging open. She puts her arm around my shoulders and leans her head against mine.
“I really fucked this up,” I mutter.
“No, we really fucked this up. I wanted to take my time with you. We had sex so quickly in our relationship that we had no time to process it. When you left, I thought I’d done something wrong. Then you avoided me like I was a one-night stand for you. That hurt, Lucian.”
“No!” I protest, breaking away. “You never were that. I was dealing with too much, and we moved too fast, but it was only because I had such strong feelings for you. Then the guilt came, and I didn’t know how to deal with it. When you went to Chicago, it was like a knife in my heart. When you came back, I was determined to show you I was committed. You hurt me, too, when you said to wait. I was patient and then saw you with Jake…”
“I know. I wanted to see you, and finally, Rory asked Noah where you were.”
“Olivia, what are you doing here now? You’re going to miss Thanksgiving.”
“I needed to see you even if I missed the holiday. I have many things to be thankful for this year, but if I had you, I would be even more thankful. Don’t give up on us.”
“I’m not giving up on us. With the snow, I don’t think you’re going to be able to get out of here until after the holiday. Not that I’m complaining.”
“Do you mean I can stay?”
“I think you have no choice. Of course, I hope you find the couch comfortable. I don’t want to give up my nice new bed.”
“Lucian!” she shouts with a laugh. “Not funny.”
