One Chance(5)

The waiter arrived to take our orders and the mood was effectively ruined. William politely sent him away. “What are you thinking?” he asked nervously.

It wasn’t very often that William Connor sought someone else’s approval. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one completely flummoxed by our relationship. “I think I’m not hungry anymore.” I tilted my head and smiled slyly. “Not for food anyway.”

“So…” William started to return my smile.

“So it looks like you are getting out of buying me dinner yet again.” I gulped down the last swallow of my scotch. “Let’s go home.”

“Home,” he agreed, and was on his feet in an instant. He pulled out my chair for me and threw some money on the table before helping me into my coat. His hands lingered on my shoulders and then he brushed my hair to one side and kissed my neck. “Your place is closer,” he said.

“You want to go to my place?” I had never even invited William past my front door. His house was much nicer than my one-bedroom apartment. “I thought you wanted to go home?”

“I do want to go home. Home is wherever you are.” It would have been a very sweet moment if William’s phone hadn’t started buzzing. He glanced at it and frowned. “Sorry, love, but I need to take this.”

I was amazed at how smoothly he stopped being William and slipped into the role of Connor, Gravity’s CEO.

“Hey, good to hear from you. Yeah, I spent some time on the files today, and my team has some ideas on how we can make this go away. Are you available to meet on Monday?” William frowned and squeezed my shoulder. “I’m actually at dinner right now.”

I saw his face darken at whatever was being said. “Yeah, okay. I’ll stop by. See you soon.”

“Excuse me?” I poked him in the stomach. “Who will you be seeing? I thought we had an agreement that we would be getting naked very soon.”

“We will. I promise.” William kissed the tip of my nose. “That was our baseball player. He’s at a bar close by with his buddies and he wants to introduce us. We could really use these clients, Liv.”

“Fine. I’ll keep it in my pants. For now.”

If I hadn’t been so distracted by my lust for William, I may have given a little more thought to the situation. And if I had done that, I may have predicted what was about to happen. But I never saw it coming.

I followed William into McClary’s Pub thinking only of one thing- leaving as quickly as possible. William headed straight to the bar while I excused myself to use the ladies’ room. The scotch from the restaurant had gone straight through me. By the time I found William, he was deep in conversation. His eyes were focused and his jaw clenched and unclenched as he listened to his companions. I recognized that look and knew that he was bothered by what they were saying.

I didn’t want William to be upset, but I had to admit that he looked even hotter when he was brooding. I was so busy thinking about William’s hotness that I didn’t pay attention to the guys around him. It was only when I got a few feet away that I finally noticed them and stopped dead in my tracks.

One of them noticed me and he flinched violently. William noticed his reaction and turned. “Livy,” he started to smile but then noticed my obvious distress. “What’s wrong?”

The room started to spin. I opened my mouth a few times, but no noise came out. My skin began to burn as if I was on fire and I thought I might throw up. William grabbed my arm and asked me again what was wrong. I saw his lips move, but his voice sounded far away. My chest tightened and I couldn’t breathe. I shook my head several times and yanked my arm away. My legs were shaky as I ran for the door and I only just made it outside before I collapsed to the ground.

“Olivia.” William knelt on the ground next to me, his hand on my back. “What is going on with you?”

Now that I was outside, I was finally able to breathe again. I still felt weak and I wasn’t entirely sure I wouldn’t throw up, but at least now I could speak. William’s face was full of concern when I lifted my head. “Paul.” It was just one word, but it was all I had to say. He understood instantly.

“P.J. Jackson is Paul?” His face grew hard and his eyes clouded over. “Your ex-boyfriend who almost killed you?”

I felt nauseous again and rested my head on my knees. I don’t know how it never occurred to me that Paul might be one of the athletes involved in the drug scandal. It was a huge coincidence, sure, but my life was full of unseemly coincidences.

“Olivia. I need you to focus.”