Chapter 16

Olivia was acting like nothing had happened last night or this morning.

And it was driving me crazy. She’d tried to sit between two bridesmaids at dinner, instead of by me, not happy at all when I’d smiled at one of the girls and she’d given me her seat without a thought.

“You’re running again,” I murmured as she stared at her dinner plate as if it held the secrets to the universe.

“I just decided that I was an idiot,” she responded, her voice blank. She fisted the skirt of her dress. “Every second I spend around you gets harder. I—I can’t do hard…”

Fuck. She sounded like she was near tears and it was going to make me go insane.

It was also the closest she’d come to admitting that she was feeling something for me too.

“There’s something we could do about that,” I said carefully, and her gaze shot up at me, a dash of resentment there that I suddenly felt very wary about.

“Tell me, Walker. Is there something about me that screams idiot?”

I blinked at her, not understanding what she was talking about.

“Sorry, angel face, but I have no idea what you’re hinting at right now.”

She gestured to me like she had that morning, kind of crazy like.

“Look at you. You could have anything, have anyone. Why would you want me?” She was being quiet, but her gaze darted around us, suddenly remembering we were surrounded by people.

It hit me then, for the first time—because apparently I was an idiot.

She blamed herself for what had happened to her.

She thought something was wrong with her, that she was ruined because of those assholes.

We couldn’t have that.

“I’ve got to go. I—I forgot something in my room,” she stammered suddenly, standing up shakily and rushing out. I frowned after her, catching Harley’s gaze and trying not to roll my eyes at the death glare he was sending my way.

Seriously, dude.

I counted to twenty, which honestly showed I had the patience of a fucking saint…and then I headed towards her room.

She must have been sprinting, because she was nowhere to be seen.

I tried to take my time getting up to her room, giving her a second to calm down…but it didn’t seem to help.

I got to her door and knocked.

No answer.

“Olivia, it’s me. Let me in,” I growled.

Silence.

“Let. Me. In.”

Still nothing.

I sighed patiently, because honestly…a little thing like a door wasn’t going to keep me from her.

I’d swiped a card from a maid’s cart yesterday…just in case my original plan didn’t work. And it was certainly going to come in handy right now.

Her eyes were comically wide as I walked in. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, biting down on that damn bottom lip again.

“What? How!” she exclaimed, her mouth wide, like a beautiful little guppy fish.

“I want to be with you.” I said roughly. “I want you to give me a fucking chance.”

Olivia remained wide-eyed…and wide-mouthed.

I wanted to make a joke that I could put something in her mouth if she wanted and immediately cursed Ari Lancaster—because that was his influence.

I was a gentleman, damnit!

She finally scoffed at me like I’d said something crazy.

“Oh you mean besides the obvious that I don’t have any control of my fucking life?”

“I can help you with that,” I insisted.

Olivia

Hope was a dangerous thing. I’d said that before.

And there was nothing more hopeful feeling than the sight of Walker Davis as he stood in front of me right now. Telling me he wanted to be with me.

That he wanted…me.

Just thinking of the conservatorship left a bitterness on my tongue, but he was clearly not understanding the reality of my life. ‘Everything about my life is suffocating, my mother and my agent control every aspect of my existence. I have no freedom, no autonomy. I’m a puppet, trapped in an ivory tower unless I give them what they want.’

When he didn’t say anything…I continued on.

‘And then there’s the paparazzi,’ I continued, my voice trembling with pent-up frustration. ‘Two years ago they hounded me day and night, invaded every shred of privacy I had. They made up lies about me, and there was no one to stop them. I just had to put on a smile and pretend that it meant nothing to me when they called me a druggie, and a slut, and everything else.’ I glanced away because this was when he was going to leave.

“And some of those things they weren’t wrong about,” I whispered.

I snuck a look at Walker, noting the way his jaw was tightened with anger, the way his hands were clenching into fists at his sides.

‘And if all of those weren’t enough reasons why you should run from the stranger you’ve spent two nights with…you should think about yourself.” The words caught in my throat. ‘You deserve someone who can give you everything, not just shattered pieces.’

“Can I talk now?” he asked, his voice so gentle…and caring…that a piece of my armor chipped away. “I feel like I’ve been searching for something real, darlin’, for a long fucking time. And I don’t know how to explain it…but when I met you that night. I found my real.”

My nose scrunched because I didn’t understand…I didn’t understand how things could be happening so quickly.

I’d always been told you shouldn’t trust something that rises too fast.

And this thing between us…it was moving like lightning.

“How do you do that?” I whispered, staring up at him in wonder.

“What?” he asked, leaning over and kissing away the tear that had been falling down my cheek.

“How do you make me feel like nothing bad’s ever happened to me…like I’ve never been broken before?”

He gazed at me, his expression unfathomable, a tic in his cheek like he was trying to hold himself in. “You make me feel like that too. Like now that I have you, all the sad things are gone. Like now that I’ve got you, all the bad things don’t exist anymore.”

He brushed a kiss against my lips.

“So what do you think, angel face? Are you going to give me a chance?” he sighed against my skin.

“Maybe,” I answered. Because I think that was the only answer I could give.

“I can work with ‘maybe’,” he said with a triumphant grin, like he’d won.

As his lips covered mine and he pushed me back on the bed…it felt like maybe I’d won too.

Walker

If she was fucked up…then I was fucked up too. Because everything about her called to me.

I was still inside her—her pussy was still clenching my dick.

I was basically in heaven.

Olivia shifted, a strange look on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m just realizing we didn’t have the talk,” she said…looking a little sick all of a sudden.

“The talk?”

“Like, um. If we’re clean? I mean—we should have said something before we had unprotected sex multiple times…but…just give me the bad news.”

“The bad news?” I knew I sounded stupid with every word out of my mouth, but I was really confused.

“Do you have…something?”

Ohhhh. I understood now. And I was kind of offended.

Especially because my dick was still inside her.

“Um, I don’t have anything. We get checked constantly in physicals on the team…and I haven’t been with anyone in months.” Hercules flexed inside of her like it was trying to convince her too.

Her face filled with relief…and then confusion.

“Is there…a certain reason that you’re asking that?” I asked.

I flipped her over so that I was on my back and she was straddling me. Fuck, she was sexy.

Focus, Walker. She thinks you have an STD. This is definitely not the time to think about her perfect tits.

“It’s just…you…there’s…there’s something bumpy on your dick now.” She held up her hands. “Don’t get me wrong, they feel really, really good…but I don’t think they were there the first time we…the first time we had sex.”

Shit. She’d noticed.

I mean, on the plus side, she said they felt good. But I’d handcuffed her this morning, I’d just walked into her hotel room with a stolen room card…and now I was going to show her…my decorated dick.

Decorated for her.

I was either going to be cursing Lincoln Daniels and Ari Lancaster after this….or I was going to tell them I was madly in love with them.

It was definitely touch and go at the moment what it was going to be.

“I think this is proof that I’m very invested in us,” I said cautiously as I lifted her off my dick, groaning a little as I did so, because I would live inside her if she’d let me.

“Why am I nervous all of a sudden?” she murmured.

I got up on my knees and presented her with…

“Are those…beads,” she said slowly, staring at my dick with huge eyes.

“Not just beads,” I said proudly, feeling a little more confident because she looked more awestruck than anything. “Look closer.”

“Oh! They’re the beads that are on friendship bracelets! I’ve never seen them like this, but I—” It hit her then…what the letters on the beads spelled out.

You see, in my blacked out state, Lincoln and Ari thought it would be hilarious for me to get Olivia’s name…pierced rather than tattooed on my dick. I literally had beads spelling out her name, speared down the base of my dick.

“That’s my name,” she said with a gulp. “You have my name pierced through…your dick.” She started to back away. “Please tell me this isn’t where I end up as like a skin suit or something.”

I snorted, my dick bobbing in front of me. “I don’t know what a skin suit is, but it sounds like something I definitely wouldn’t be interested in.” I could tell she was trying to look away from my dick, but every time she tried, her gaze went right back to it immediately.

She was silent for another long minute, and I was beginning to plot Linc and Ari’s deaths—well, maybe just Ari’s. I wasn’t sure I could actually follow through with ending Linc.

Suddenly, a small smile crept across her lips, and the next second a giggle slipped out. “Um, you really like me…don’t you?” she finally said, before a few more adorable giggles filled the air.

I grinned, feeling a little light headed with relief because it’s kind of a risky venture piercing your dick with someone’s name when you’ve only had one night with them.

Of course, I also had been stalking her every day for months, but I definitely wasn’t going to be gracing her with that little tidbit.

“I’m fucking crazy about you, angel face. Fucking crazy.”

Her expression softened, and she finally was able to look away from Hercules and meet my gaze. And then she made my fucking day.

“Me too.”

I wasn’t sure how to describe the feeling I was experiencing at the moment.

Ecstatic?

Gleeful?

Melty inside?

Definitely that last one.

I pushed her onto her back and slid my fingers into her pussy, groaning because I couldn’t wait to be inside her again. I spread her wetness across her lips, chasing the taste like it was my favorite drug.

I was about to slide inside her, when I realized I should probably double check something. I paused at her entrance. “You said that…the beads felt good, right?”

I really didn’t want to have them torn out, but I would do it for her if she wanted me to.

Please don’t want me to.

She bit down on her lip in that way that made me crazy and gazed up at me. “I fucking love them.”

I slammed into her and made a mental note to never tell Ari and Linc that they’d been right.

I didn’t want to encourage any more dick accessories when I was under the influence.

But also…I loved those guys.

Circle of Trust all the fucking way.