“And off to a terrible start no less,” he said, regretfully.
“Nothing a delicious dinner can’t fix.”
He smiled then, saluting with his glass of wine. “In that case I think you’ll be happy.”
There was a moment of silence as they sipped their wine simultaneously. Olivia broke the silence. “But just so we’re clear...if you and I were in a serious relationship and something like that ever happened I wouldn’t be nearly as understanding. Just so we’re clear.”
Alistair laughed. “I sense we’d have ourselves a little problem.”
“No—you’d be the one with the problem,” Olivia said with a laugh. She suddenly looked around. “Now are you going to show me around this place or what? I’ve been dying to see this little country gem you’ve been bragging about.”
“Well come let me show you around then,” Alistair said, motioning with his hands.
For the next several minutes he gave her a tour of the house. He took her downstairs into the basement and introduced her to Thunder. He’d made an effort to keep the dog safely tucked away in the basement just in case Olivia had an aversion to canines. But she seemed fine at the sight of him and Thunder seemed to take to her right away. Alistair was relieved.
After showing her his home office, the guest room and finally his bedroom, they returned to the living room where he went over and turned on some John Coltrane. When the opening strains of the first song started up, her face light up in surprise.
“You’re a fan, too?” she asked as she began moving in time to the music.
He wasn’t, really. Truth be told, he hated jazz music. All those random chord combinations leading nowhere and completely void of any danceable beat. No thanks. Give him the Tupacs and the Biggies of the world any day over that random bullshit. But he respected her tastes and wanted to make her happy, so at Jazlynn’s suggestion, he’d gone out and purchased the CD.
“I don’t listen to it all the time but every now and again something different I suppose. I didn’t have any Coltrane in my collection but Jazlynn mentioned he was your favorite so I went out and bought the CD just for you.”
She looked impressed. “You should have just called and asked me to bring one of my CDs. At least it would have saved you twenty bucks.”
“Oh, but I aim to please. Anything for you,” he said with a smile.
She looked equally surprised when she saw the Coq au Vin presented on his dining table. “Okay now I’m really impressed. Who would have guessed you were this domesticated? This is absolutely delicious,” she complimented between bites.
“I am my mother’s son, I admit. She showed me my way around the kitchen at a very early age. She taught me well.”
After dinner they returned to the living room. Alistair lit a fire in the fireplace then changed up the playlist to some of his favorite R&B tunes.
“So is this the part where we dance off the calories?” Olivia asked, smiling suggestively.
He laughed on the surface, but inside his mind raced with possibilities. He could certainly think of more efficient ways to burn calories off, but all in good time he figured.
In a sudden and spontaneous gesture, he went over and pulled her up off the sofa onto her feet. She looked at him with surprise, but went along with it as he held her close to him and slow danced with her. They danced quietly for a few moments, their bodies moving in time to the slow jam that had begun playing.
“Hmm...this is nice,” she murmured into his chest where her head rested just below his neck.
“Remember the first time we danced together?” he asked as he inhaled her scent. The smell of her perfume was about to drive him crazy. It smelled feminine and sweet and seemed to embody who she was.
“Umm-hmm...at the wedding,” she said lazily. “Well I was pretty loaded for parts of it. But I do remember...”
“I wanted you from the first moment I saw you,” he said in a gentle voice.
Moving her head away from his chest she glanced up, staring into his eyes. “Are you serious?”
He gazed down at her, looking deeply into her eyes as he drank every ounce of her in. He nodded. “Of course, then you bruised my ego by telling me you were already involved with someone. And that’s a lot of ego to bruise.”
“Awww...you poor baby,” she said, reaching up and caressing his cheek with the back of her hand as the two of them continued moving to the music. “Now you got me feeling all bad.”
“When I saw how into him you were at the housewarming I realized I didn’t have a chance. It was awful.” He was smiling down at her as he said it but was dead serious. He’d wondered how he’d go on with his life knowing a woman like her existed and worse yet, him knowing he couldn’t have her.
“And here all those time we talked, at the wedding and Simon and Jamal’s housewarming, I thought you were just being friendly,” Olivia said.
“Oh come on...you couldn’t possibly have been that naïve.” Alistair laughed.
“Who, me?” Olivia asked with a look of innocence.
Alistair stopped swaying to the music abruptly, glancing around the room. “I don’t see anyone else in here do I?”
“Humph.” Olivia folded her arms, giving him a ‘don’t mess with me’ look.
“Saucy gal,” he said with a sexy grin.
She laughed. “I am my mother’s daughter and no one can take that away from me.”
“And I wouldn’t dream of trying...”
“And yes, for the record, you were flirting hard that day.”
“I was smitten, what can I say?”
He kissed her full in the mouth just then, enjoying the taste of her soft, sweet lips. She responded turn by taking his face into her hands and letting her tongue meet his. Their kisses were raw and real and born out of pent up desire. Alistair knew tonight was the night. He’d waited a long time for this opportunity and it was finally here. Intense desire for her surged inside him.
“Come on...follow me,” he said, gently leading her by the arm out of the room, down the hall, and into his bedroom.
Chapter Seventeen
“Can you meet for lunch so we can talk?” Olivia asked, snuggling the phone between her ear and her neck as she shuffled papers around on her desk. She was dealing with a larger than usual Monday morning workload. She’d probably end up staying late into evening to finish most of it. But for now, a meeting with Simone to engage in some girl-talk was definitely in order.
“Is everything all right?” Simone asked, immediately sounding worried.
“Hmph...I should be asking you that question, since you’re the one so pregnant you’re almost ready to burst,” Olivia said.
“So you’re okay then?”
“I’m fine,” Olivia said, smiling broadly on the other end of the phone.
“How’s the flip coming along, anyway?”
“Great. Alistair already started tearing walls down, so, so far, so good.”
“Well I think you’re doing a good thing, you and him. Two people with good business savvy...it’s a win-win situation.”
Olivia listened to Simone, not really hearing her. She was going to burst inside if she didn’t tell her the news. “So I went to Alistair’s Friday night,” Olivia said.
“Girrrrrl...no you didn’t!” Simone said. “Yeah girlfriend, we definitely have to talk. I was planning to go shopping for baby stuff with mom but I can see that’s going to have to wait. I want all the gory details...God, girl, I don’t even know what to say! So much for just being business partners. See...I told you things would lead elsewhere.”
“Can’t a girl mix a little bit of business with pleasure?” Olivia said with a grin. Truthfully, part of her didn’t think it was such a great idea. But the other part of her was begging for it.
Simone cackled loudly into the phone. “Humph, you forget you’re preaching to the choir.” She was right. Her philosophy had always been if it feels good now, do it. Worry about the consequences later on, which was why it was n
o surprise she was married to one man and possibly expecting a child with another. “What time and where do you want to meet?” Simone asked.
“Why don’t we meet at one o’clock that way I can be back here by two-thirty? What about Antonio’s? I could stand a good clubhouse sandwich right about now.”
“Sounds good.”
“Help me...I think I’m falling in love,” she blurted out to Simone later on over lunch. Her admission shocked the hell out of her. “There. I said it. I can’t believe I said it, but I said it.”
Simone’s eyes widened in amazement. “Girl you better get out,” she said, grinning broadly. “That’s kind of soon isn’t it?”
Olivia shot her a look. “Now don’t you be discouraging me,” she said, picking up her clubhouse sandwich. “Would you rather me be the stick in the mud I’ve been this past few months?”
“Hell no. You were a mess. All down and depressed, not going anywhere other than work and home. No, I prefer this Olivia much more.”
“That’s what I thought,” Olivia said. “I prefer this Olivia, too. And for what it’s worth, so does Jazlynn.”
“You actually opening yourself up to someone new is a good thing.”
“Hmm...I guess.”
“See...remember I was telling you months ago Alistair was a great guy?”
Olivia shot Simone a look from under her eyelids as she dabbed her mouth with a napkin. “Of course you’re conveniently leaving out the fact that I was in love with Theo at the time, but whatever works.” She rolled her eyes.
Simone smiled, bursting into laughter. “Why...what do you mean?”
“Oh come on...you know full well the last thing I wanted to hear about when I was in love with Theo was another man. Geesh.”
Simone looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well I always liked Theo and everything but to be honest, I never really thought he was the one for you,” she confessed.
Olivia gave her a stunned look. “Oh so now you tell me. Any particular reason you failed to tell me this important piece of information before?”
“I didn’t tell you because you were so hopeful things would work out. And besides...it’s not like I hated him. I liked him and thought he was a great guy, just not a great guy for you. And he was a little too clingy. Anyway enough about Theo already,” Simone said, rubbing her hands together in anticipation. “I want to hear about you and Alistair.”
Olivia thought about it for a moment. It had been everything she had expected and more. After having sex, he’d begged her to spend the night but she’d refused, feeling she needed to keep control of the situation and slow things down a bit. “It was perfect,” she said dreamily. “He treated me like a queen.” Suddenly she frowned. “Oh I don’t know...maybe it is too soon to be feeling so strong about him already. Is that weird?”
“How could it be weird? When you know, you know,” Simone said pointedly. “I knew Jamal was the one for me from day one. Regardless of me screwing up, I still know we’re meant to be together.”
“How?” Olivia wanted to know.
“It’s just a feeling you get. Intuition I guess.”
“Well my intuition was obviously broken where Theo was concerned. For two whole years I thought he was the one. So much for intuition.”
“Yes, but you also knew a lot of things needed to be fixed in the relationship, too.”
“We were working on it...or at least that’s what he led me to believe.”
“And then when he realized it wasn’t happening, he bowed out.”
“Well at least he finally got what I wasn’t prepared to give him at the time—living together. Frankly, I couldn’t be anymore indifferent about it. I guess somewhere deep inside being rejected by him still hurts but other than that I really could care less about it. Who would have guessed?” It was true. If someone had told her six months ago she’d be over Theo and on to someone else, she’d have never believed it.
“Well good for you. I’m proud of you for moving on. Amazing how unpredictable life can be sometimes.”
Olivia nodded in agreement. “Yes, and this is why I’m so leery about stumbling blindly into something serious with Alistair now and finding out after I’m all emotionally hooked that all we were ever meant to be was business partners.”
Simone looked at her and shook her head. “Girl, you need to stop so damned analytical all the time. He’s clearly nuts over you so now you need to let yourself go. If this is happening right now, even though you think it’s too soon, it’s because that’s the way it’s supposed to.”
“Umm-hmm...I suppose you’re right.” Olivia wished she could convince herself that Simone was right. She hated overanalyzing things.
Olivia maneuvered the car to a curbside stop on Vanier drive. She turned the ignition off and hopped out. There was just enough time to make a quick stop by the house to see how things were progressing. She opened the front door and was accosted immediately with the sounds of hammers and the smell of sawdust. She heard Alistair and Trey’s voices from the other end of the house above the din of a portable radio. She maneuvered carefully through stashes of debris and followed the direction of the sounds finally coming to a stop at one of the north facing bedrooms. Standing about eight feet high on a ladder, Alistair glanced down at her, his eyes lighting up when he saw her.
“Hello lovely lady,” he said in a welcoming yet suggestive tone, his hooded eyes fixed intently on her.
“Hi, hun. Hi, Trey,” Olivia greeted. She looked around, nodding in approval at how differently things looked now compared to the first time she’d seen the house.
Trey grinned and waved at her with a plaster spatula in hand. “Hi, Liv. Is that food I see?”
Olivia set a box of donuts and two cups of coffee down on one of the window sills. “Just a little burst of sugar to give you busy boys some energy.”
Both Alistair and Trey were putting in full days working on the house then working their regular jobs at night. Alistair had been so busy this past week, Olivia had barely seen him. She had been missing him terribly.
Immediately climbing down off the ladder, Alistair came over and gave her a kiss. Then he stood back and gave her the once-over, a look of amusement appearing on his face. “Are you going to be okay? I’d hate to see you mess up those fancy boots.”
“Oh please...” Olivia looked down at her stiletto black boots then up at him and grinned. Something about seeing him standing there in his dusty, grimy overalls made Olivia’s heart flutter. He looked as handsome as he did in his fancier clothes. “I had an appointment with a client not too far from here and decided to stop in to see how things were coming along.”
“And?” Alistair said, diving into the box of donuts. He selected one with colorful sprinkles and took a big bite before clearing a space in the bay window and sitting down. “Come sit down,” he said, patting a space beside him. “It’s clean, I promise.”
Olivia went over and sat down, nudging in close beside him. “I have to say, I’m very impressed so far. You guys are working like mad crazy around here.”
“Looking good so far, eh?” Alistair leaned in and kissed her on the neck.
“I’ll say.”
Trey put down his tools and wiped his hands on his pants. He took a donut and took a bite while removing his cell-phone from his pants pocket. He grinned and left the room with his cell-phone to his ear, leaving Alistair and Olivia alone.
“You made my day stopping by unannounced. You really did,” Alistair said, caressing her hair with sawdust covered hands before it hit him. “Oops...sorry about that baby. Don’t know what I was thinking. I’m a mess right now and you’re looking far too fine to mess up.”
Olivia thought he could do just as he pleased. When she was next to him, somehow nothing else mattered. She was just happy to be by his side right then—sawdust and all. She gave him a swat. “Oh would you stop it already? Do I look like the delicate little flower type to you? Okay, so it was a bad choice to enter a construction zone in my
fancy high-heeled boots, but at the end of the day they’re just boots.”
“I’ve missed you,” Alistair whispered in her ear.
“I’ve missed you, too,” she whispered back, taking hold of his hand and leaning into him as he kissed the side of her neck. It amazed her that in such a short span of time this man had become such a fixture in her life. With him being her business partner and her lover, things were deep between them. She was already feeling that she couldn’t be without him, and it scared her to death.
Chapter Eighteen
“Are you comfortable?” Alistair laced his fingers through Olivia’s as they lay in front of a roaring fire in the fireplace. He’d invited her over and this time she’d cooked them dinner. Afterwards they’d retreated to the living room with their glasses of wine to enjoy a warm fire on a cold winter evening.
“Umm-hmm...” Olivia said lazily.
“Having you here is the best early Christmas gift a man could ever ask for.”
“You’re not that bad either.” Olivia nudged closer to him. “Rumor has it you might even be worth keeping.”
“Hmm...I hope so,” he moaned softly as he kissed her neck.
“I don’t see myself re-gifting you anytime soon.”
“Whew...thank God.”
The two of them laughed before their lips met again and they shared a gentle kiss.
With Christmas music playing softly in the background, they lay quietly for a few moments. “I’m really happy with the progress you guys are making on the house,” Olivia said, breaking the comfortable silence between them. “Honestly, this whole process hasn’t been nearly as complicated as I thought.”
“Try being the one knocking down walls and tell me if you still feel that way,” Alistair said with a grin.
“Come on now...you knew from the beginning that I don’t have much time to devote to helping. I wish I did, but I don’t,” Olivia said. “Between finishing up this month’s article for the newsletter and seeing clients, I’ve been swamped.”
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