Perfectly Inappropriate

“All right…all right.” The reporter shifted in her seat a little. “So then, Mr. Grant, you have no regrets then?”

Again, Noah glanced at the camera, as if he knew Olivia was watching. “I wouldn’t say that. I do have one regret.”

“And what’s that?” the reporter asked.

Noah gave a slow-building smile. “That I didn’t defend her sooner.”

“Dear God,” Paige breathed, waving her hand at her face. “I know it’s weird for me to say this since you were with him and all…but that man is hella sexy.”

Olivia agreed, still unable to take her eyes off Noah as the reporter said, “Thank you for the interview, Mr. Grant.”

When the screen faded back to the news anchor, Paige said, “I’m with your dad on this one. That guy is crushin’ hard on you.” She pointed at the television screen. “You may think he’s out of your life, but I say good luck with that.”

A rush of emotion swept over Olivia right there on the sidewalk, allowing her to feel all the things she had been fighting. That was the side of Noah she missed. The one that seemed so invested in her. “Come on, let’s go eat,” she finally said, avoiding all the things her heart was screaming at her.

Paige laughed softly and nudged her shoulder into Olivia. “You’ve become very good at avoiding conversations you don’t want to have.”

To remind her heart why it needed to slow the jets, and to answer to Paige’s statement, Olivia nodded. “Of course I have. I learned from the very best.”

Chapter 15

A week had passed since Noah’s face flashed across every television set in the country. Long days passed where Olivia wondered if he’d come to her. Agonizing days where she questioned if she should go to him once all the dust settled and the media focused their attention elsewhere. But in the end, the answer was always the same.

The reasons she walked away were still there. She could not ask him to change as much as he could not ask her to. Obstacles that in the beginning of a relationship were impossible to overlook. Not now. Not when she had hit rock bottom and finally climbed out of it. Because sometimes having feelings for someone was not enough. And all she saw with Noah in the future was a life of loneliness while he traveled, and she stayed behind in New York City. Her heart would not let her go into that, no matter how much that sucked.

Nothing seemed the same anymore. She had changed for the better, of that she was certain, and yet a part of her was missing. Absent.

Those thoughts, and so many more stayed heavily on her mind while she hurried down the sidewalk, her umbrella over her head as the rain poured down from the skies, sending water splashing up around her ankles on a dreary night. This art show that Paige had invited her to better be worth it.

When she reached L’amour’s front door, the very place that had started her adventure with SiR, she hurried inside. As always, whenever the cocktail bar put on an art show, the place was packed. She closed her umbrella and took one step inside before she froze, sure as shit that her eyes had betrayed her.

There, straight ahead of her, was the photograph she’d taken of Noah in bed. His face was hidden but his body was even more impressive in the blown-up and framed photograph. Confused, she took two more steps inside and saw the photograph of the couple that Noah had admired in Paige’s apartment. She twirled in a circle, seeing all her photographs from the apartment, and even some she had taken in Bedford displayed on stands.

Before she could even reconcile that Paige had brought all her photographs here for display, a deep voice broke through the noise. “Quiet, please,” Noah said into a microphone. “The woman of the hour has arrived.”

A few people moved aside and that’s when Olivia caught sight of him standing near the photograph of his face. The memory of them making love after she took that filled her with heat and so much more.

Noah lifted his glass of scotch. “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my great privilege and honor to introduce to you, Olivia Watts.”

Applause filled the bar. All eyes on her. But she couldn’t look away from Noah and the smile he was giving her. Because that thing that had been absent was not missing anymore.

Tears welled in her eyes in the same instant steely arms wrapped around her. When the warm body leaned away, Ol

ivia discovered Paige. “I’m so confused,” she admitted.

Paige smiled. “Noah did this. He called me and asked me to bring all the photographs here. He did this all for you.”

Olivia had one second to take that in before stronger arms were around her.

Her dad said in her ear, “I told you that man was more than a blip in time.”

Before Olivia could respond to that as well, her mom wrapped her arms tightly around Olivia. “I am so proud of you.” She leaned away. Her eyes twinkled. “Noah’s mother was speaking so highly of you. Can you believe that? Mrs. Grant, wife of a past governor, talking about my daughter. All these people love your photographs, speaking about how talented you are.” Her mom grinned proudly. “My daughter.”

Olivia looked from her mom to her dad to Paige. “I’m so confused.”

Paige burst out laughing. Her mom and dad joined her.

Oliva felt like she had walked into a dream. She kept expecting to wake up and realize she was enduring another day of missing Noah. But her toes in her high heels were damp. That wouldn’t happen in a dream.