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“Oh, I know who you are.” She beamed, shaking his hand. “I love your music—and your content in general is so amazing.”
“Ah, thanks. I happen to love your work as well.” He held her hand for a second longer and my jaw tensed, carefully gauging Olivia’s reaction.
There was a slight crimson hue on her cheeks. “Thank you so much. That means a lot coming from someone like yourself.”
Of course it does.
My knee began to bounce under my desk, and the pang of jealousy in my chest was nearly as irritating as the interaction. “All right, so let’s get on with this meeting. I do have a few things that I need to get done this afternoon.”
Julio gave me a funny look but nodded, turning back to Olivia. “So, I spoke with Harlee Mendez about what you’re doing with her video, and she mentioned the cinematic style that you suggested. I’d love for you to listen to my new single coming out—and the spoken word introduction. I’m really hung up on where to go with it, so I’d like your opinion.”
“Absolutely. I’d love to hear it and offer whatever I can.” She pulled out one of the spare chairs and took a seat as Julio dug out his laptop.
Honestly, normally when a client wanted the opinion of one of the members of my creative team, I never cared whether I was present. However, there was something about Olivia that made me do a one-eighty on that belief.
I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Okay, so do you mind if I just play it right here over my laptop?” Julio asked, looking at me. “We can all agree that this sound can’t be discussed or copied, right?”
“Absolutely,” Olivia answered as I opened my mouth.
I bit the inside of my cheek, deciding not to go there with her. “What she said.” My tone was stiff, and Olivia eyed me for a split second but she didn’t say anything—or maintain eye contact longer than just that short moment.
Julio hit the play button and his music filled my office. However, I could hardly listen to it, too busy caught up in the way that Julio was staring at Olivia, seemingly eating up every single little reaction she had to the music—and she was giving him an eyeful, swaying and nodding along with her eyes shut.
And it was fucking infuriating.
I drummed my fingers on the desk, feeling like the third wheel to some sort of strange creative date.
You’re being ridiculous, Eli.
But the chiding in my head wasn’t enough to make the feeling go away. I wanted to either knock Julio out or just run from the situation entirely. I had never felt this strongly about a very low-key situation—and it just made it that much clearer that I had a problem...
A big one.
I’m catching fucking feelings for Olivia.
Shaking my head, I let out a sharp breath, and it caught the attention of Julio and Olivia both. I had ruined the moment, and Julio hit the pause button.
“Do you not like it?” Julio’s expression contorted with concern. “You’ve always liked my stuff.”
My eyes widened, not having even really listened. “Nah, man, I’m sorry. I was just thinking about something totally different. I’m digging the song.”
“Oh, okay. Cool.” Julio blew out a sigh of relief as the song came to a close. “I’ve been feeling a little conflicted about the spoken word at the beginning. Some people are into that, and others really aren’t.”
“I really love it,” Olivia spoke up, crossing one of her legs over the other. It exposed a little more of her leg and I swallowed hard at the sight, my mind filling with memories of the hot night of sex we’d had. Her skin was a creamy white, and knowing just how soft it felt against my own skin left my cock jumping to life.
“I really love that you love it,” Julio responded, killing the lust that was building in my jeans. “I’m such a big fan, Olivia. I really am.”
Her porcelain face was rosy. “Oh my gosh, thank you.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, unable to think of anything to say that didn’t make me sound like an asshole. I was going to have to just grin and fucking bear the torture of this meeting.
“So, any ideas?” Julio’s eyes stayed focused on Olivia’s, holding them. “I’d just love to hear your thoughts.”
Of course you would.
His eyes dropped for just a split second to the low-cut olive blouse she had on, and I knew he was getting an eyeful of cleavage. I had already checked that out for the day…
