A Hint of Scandal

Her words faltered as a knock sounded on the main door. A curse fell from his mouth and she laughed. His breathing rough and shallow, he leaned his forehead against her bare shoulder. The heat from his mouth singed her skin as he pressed an openmouthed kiss.

“Only Carlos could come knocking at the door right now. And he won’t go away until I—” he said, regret lacing his words.

Liv nodded, her cheeks heating up, shying her gaze away from him. Suddenly, she felt inexplicably nervous.

She tugged the edges of her top upward and tied the knot at her nape. She jumped off the table just as Alexander returned with Carlos. His forehead creased into a frown, he looked anything but the man that had driven her to ecstasy mere minutes ago.

His hand over his nape, he walked around the living room, his movements anything but smooth. Did he even remember she was there? “How did she know where Emily was?”

“Who are you talking about?” Olivia said, before she could curb her tongue.

He glared at her, and she wondered if he would tell her to leave. He didn’t. It was a measure of how much he had changed toward her. “Isabella persuaded Emily to leave with her from her vacation. But I had Carlos plant 24-7 security around Emily.”

Sweat beaded on Olivia’s brow as his words sunk in. He hadn’t said tried to...he had said persuaded like Emily had been ready to go. “Emily had been ready to leave?” she shot at Carlos.

Carlos remained silent. His silence said everything he didn’t.

Alexander frowned. “That’s not the point here, Liv.”

She went to the fridge and took a bottle of water, trying to tune out their conversation. She needed to stay out of this, she was going to. She pressed the cold bottle to her heated cheeks, fighting to ignore the slow churn of anger in her gut.

“Let Isabella know that I will press kidnapping charges if she goes near Emily again.” His words were cold, smooth and bare of anything. “And inform Emily’s school that she’s not returning.”

Her fingers clenched around the bottle and she leaned her forehead against the cold, steel surface of the refrigerator.

She stayed like that, minutes after the door closed behind Carlos. The silence shifted and snarled between them. Her nape prickled as she felt Alexander behind her.

She stiffened as he laid an arm on her.

“Olivia, you’re shaking.” He pulled her toward him, his hard body behind her a deceptive invitation. Her muscles sighed against him, the evidence of his arousal electrocuting sense into her. She went into his arms like a rag doll as he turned her. “I’m going to regret asking this, aren’t I?” He tilted her chin up. “What’s wrong?”

Olivia closed her eyes, fighting for the strength to not care. And utterly failed. “How can you do this to her, to them?”

He clenched his jaw and released it. “Isabella will only bring misery to Emily. I can’t let that happen.”

An image of her mother, blurry, yet swamped in desperation, flashed in front of her eyes. The forgotten memory wrapped its choking fingers around her throat, clawing at her. “No, please, Alexander, listen. What if Isabella’s changed? What if she’s realized the value of what she’s lost? Everyone deserves a second chance.”

“You think I haven’t given Isabella a chance? I have given her a million. Every time Nicholas hit her, I took care of her. I tried to shield her from his blows, I took them myself. I begged her to leave him, and every single time she promised me she would. And the fool that I was, I believed her. Until I realized one day that they were all lies.

“Do you want to know what happened the night she shot him? He smacked her across the face because she flirted with another man in front of him. When I stopped him, he kicked me in the gut. I was so angry. I grabbed the gun from her purse. I had only meant to scare him. To stop him. But Isabella grabbed it from me and fired it by accident. And even then, I hoped she would see how damaging their relationship was. I hoped that she would finally leave with me. And she didn’t. She didn’t care about me, what I did for her, how much I loved her. I meant nothing to her and it destroyed me to walk away, to let go, to fight the paralyzing hold my love for her had over me.”

Tears spilled onto Olivia’s cheeks. God, he had been barely seventeen. Not only had he gotten himself out, but he had taken on his sister. The anguish in his words, the pain in his eyes unraveled something inside her. No wonder he was so good at wiping away any emotion from his life, no wonder he didn’t want to feel anything.