The slight dimming of Olivia’s smile as she reached him with tickets in hand knocked the memory on its head. If nothing else, he would stay to not spoil the day for her.
Her gaze lingered on him as she waved the tickets. “What? Don’t tell me your time is too precious for a roller coaster.”
He fisted his hands in his pockets, striving to keep his tone normal despite the strange heaviness in his throat. “I’ve never been on one.”
She widened her eyes and fluttered her lashes innocently, or as close to innocence as the minx could manage. “Oh, really? Then you’re in for a treat.”
He rolled his eyes and smiled, letting her tuck her arm through his. “I’m glad you’ve given up on being an actress. Because, frankly, you suck at it.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” She nudged him forward and they fell into a comfortable stride. “And before you get ideas, the only reason we’re here is because after almost a week of pretending to be supersmart and in love with you—I’m not sure which was harder by the way—I need to unwind.”
He looked sideways at her. Her skin glowed in the sun, her eyes twinkled. “Why am I even remotely surprised that an adrenaline-pumping roller coaster is what would loosen you up?”
Her teeth dug into her lip, and she stepped to the side, giving him a once-over. His pulse pounded. “Actually, what would loosen me up is a good, hard bout of...”
He wrapped his hand around her wrist and tugged her closer, the mere scent of her skin incredibly arousing. “You think this is funny?”
“No, but what else do you expect me to do? It is either laugh at the whole thing or...” Her brown eyes darkened. “Well, you know what I mean.”
She moved in front of him, her back to the crowd behind her. “All this deprivation and control, it might be good for the soul, but it does nothing for the body.”
* * *
Within an hour, during which they stood in line for, of course, the scariest ride in the whole park, Alexander realized how wrong he was in thinking that Olivia would be in her element on the roller coaster.
Even as excitement rose in his gut as they settled into the car and it gathered momentum across the track, inching upward toward the high point where the track started looping in, he felt Olivia tremble next to him.
She was wedged tight against him as the car careened to one side, and even with everything else around them, his skin thrummed at her nearness.
He opened his mouth and breathed through the rising hum around them, his heart pounding in his chest. He felt the grin spread across his mouth, feeling a liberation he had never felt before.
He laughed, the sound barreling out of him, as they entered a downward loop, the wind blowing in his hair, adrenaline pummeling through him. And this time, he could see their reflection in the water below as the track threw them facedown.
Olivia’s white-knuckled grip tightened on his hand, while her other hand tightened around his arm. He turned to tease her about squeezing too close to him, but the words froze on his lips.
Her skin bereft of color, her features frozen in stark terror, Olivia screamed at the top of her lungs as their car veered into another loop, throwing them upside down from a height from which people on the ground looked like colorful dots.
She screamed, the sound edged with terror.
As the third loop approached, she was shaking uncontrollably next to him, her hands clammy. His threw his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her closer to him, the strange sensation in his gut standing out even amid the thrill thrumming through his veins.
* * *
By the time they had reached the penthouse, Alexander didn’t have words to describe the day. Even in thought. The quiet joy of the evening was, quite literally, something he had never experienced before.
Olivia had been right. It was the most fun he had had in...forever. And it wasn’t just the insane roller coasters, either. It was her company, her pleasure in the smallest things that had done it. They had gone on three rides, gotten their picture taken in a booth and he had even won her a stuffed toy.
He couldn’t remember a time, even when he’d been a kid, when he hadn’t been mired by a sense of responsibility and until this moment, he hadn’t realized how much of that he had carried into his adult life.
He had made millions through sheer hard work, had taken responsibility for his sister when he’d turned twenty and he had never learned to laugh, to live for the moment, to lose himself in the sheer pleasure of everyday things. He hadn’t even known what he’d needed or what he’d been missing. But one thing he hadn’t missed was the fear that Olivia had felt throughout each ride.