“Davis thinks I belong here.”
“Davis is naïve. You and I know the harsh realities of the world don’t always compute in his sweet little brain. He thinks you two can be together and that the past will never resurface. He’s just that foolish. Ask him about it. Ask him if he wants to be with you.”
“And if he says that?” I demand, pushing down the ill-timed butterflies at the thought. “If he says that he wants to be with me, what do you expect me to do?”
“I’ll give you a hundred thousand dollars to never speak to him again.”
The number is so beyond the bounds of what I’ve ever fathomed that my jaw actually drops a fraction of an inch.
Unsurprisingly, Kieran spots my reaction like a hawk and cocks his chin in my direction. “I see I’ve made a tempting offer.”
My eyes narrow. “Don’t be cruel. You know that money would change my life.”
“So take it.”
“Think about what you’re asking me to do,” I counter. “You’re ordering me to hurt someone who I care about.”
“If you cared about him, you would do this for free. You’re not dense, Olivia. You know that this doesn’t work out for the two of you. Walk away with more than heartache. Take the money I’m offering and change your life. This way you both win. You get more than your due, and Davis doesn’t throw away the position and future he deserves on a woman who wasn’t even savvy enough to ask me for a higher offer back in Amsterdam.”
The floodgates burst with that comment. I slam my hand down on the surface of my desk and rise out of my seat. “You’re a monster. No wonder Davis wants nothing to do with you.”
As soon as I say that, I see Kieran pull his head back with surprise. His eyes scan me again, scrutinizing and illegible. When he finishes surveying me, there’s this vague look of hurt on his face. Oddly, he reminds me of my own brother, back when he used to tell me that he often tried inviting other kids to play with him after school, but they always turned him down because we didn’t have game consoles or a nice house for them to use.
“A hundred thousand dollars,” he finally repeats, his features locked into a stony, indecipherable expression. “Ask Davis what his plans are and then turn him down. The money is yours, and unlike you, I’ll never tell him the truth.”
Kieran leaves after that with a promise that he’ll “be in touch.” Once he’s gone, I’m alone with my thoughts—my sick, horrible thoughts that can’t stop tallying what I could do with that kind of money.
“Davis, Olivia Nolan is here. She’s early for your meeting. Can I send her in?”
Davis must have approved it because Kelsey goes on to say, “Perfect. She’s heading in.”
When I enter Davis’s office, he’s sitting behind his laptop with a gigantic smile on his face. He rises out of his chair. “Great news. Gus called and he says that FundRight’s Board feels comfortable with signing with D-R. That’s huge.”
“It is,” I agree, feeling uneasy as Davis comes around his desk to hug me.
“My father is over the moon. I’ve genuinely never seen him this happy, and I was at his last two weddings. Anyway, I invited Gus to his birthday party so he can meet him, and Gus said he’d show, so it’s all coming together.”
“Wow, no kidding.”
“You were fantastic—I told you,” he insists as he holds me. When he pulls back, he gazes down at me admiringly. “You’re amazing, Olivia Nolan.”
“Don’t,” I say as I dig my nails into his shoulders. “Don’t do that.”
He plants a kiss on the tip of my nose. It’s so frustratingly doting and sweet that I can practically feel tears welling as I prepare for my next move. “Do what?”
“Talk to me like before,” I request before I begin to kiss his neck—anything to keep from looking at him. “Say whatever you want to me.”
Davis’s hands slide down from my waist to my ass, spurred on by my kisses. “I want to tell you that you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Olivia. That I’d do anything to make you happy.”
Frustrated, I bite down on his skin, making him hiss from the pain. “No,” I protest—my never-before-used safe word teetering on the tip of my tongue. “Like before, Davis.”
He pulls back to stare at me, his expression tight with uncertainty. I don’t let him get a good look at my face. Evading eye contact, I reach between us and undo his belt.
“Olivia…”
“I want this,” I insist before I stand on my toes to kiss his lips. “I need this.”
“Now?”
“Right now,” I confirm as I work his cock out of his pants. “Fuck me. I mean it.”
Davis’s frown shifts into heat in a matter of seconds. Without questioning it, he pulls our bodies closer together. “Whatever you want.”
“Yeah—I want you to make me scream and I want you to muffle it with your hand so that nobody hears us. Is that so complicated?”
“Jesus, fuck,” he murmurs as he reaches down to lift my tight skirt up over my hips. It’s clear that he doesn’t yet realize that I’m on the brink of a break. “You’re amazing.”
“Like before,” I reiterate as I work my hand along his length. “Talk to me like before. I’m not amazing. I’m a slut. I’m a slut who wants to fuck you in your office.” When I finish speaking, I notch his cock up against my entrance. “Do it,” I implore. “Fuck me like you hate me. That’s what I want.”
He does. I feel the pressure of his thickness enter me and I gasp, somehow still transfixed and surprised despite the countless times I’ve had this cock in my body before.
“You’re sick, you know that?” he grits into my ear as he sheaths himself fully in me. “I’m willing to give you anything, and all you want is to be used like a whore. That’s what you want, right? You’re sick, Olivia.”
“More.”