Exposed by Fate (Serve #2)(48)

How the mighty have fallen. As far back as he could remember, women had been interchangeable to him. Now he’d found one who shined so bright, he couldn’t see another woman if he wanted to, and she wanted nothing to do with him. The very notion of being with someone besides Eliza after what he’d experienced with her made his stomach rebel. Made him want to take a scalding shower to rid himself of anyone’s touch that came before her. They’d damned him. He’d damned himself.

It took him a moment to realize the buzzer had gone off in his apartment and didn’t just exist inside his head, joining all the other noise. He pressed the button to allow her inside and unlocked his apartment door. She walked in a minute later and the glue holding his heart intact gave out, sending shards ripping into his internal organs. It hit him hard that he’d never experience this again, the pleasure of her coming home to him. And he wanted it so bad. Every evening for the rest of his life. In the red strapless dress he’d requested she wear, and black high heels, she looked so enticing, his body readied itself for her pleasure immediately. He wanted to take her against the door, but after the way they’d ended things last time he’d seen her, he knew that would be a huge mistake. It would be too easy when he planned on savoring every second he had left.

“Hey,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “You have any of that ouzo left in the fridge?”

I love you. I love you so much. “Yeah, I think so. Enough for a couple of shots.”

“Good.” She set her purse down on his dining room table. “It looks like we both need one.”

He tried to smile at her attempt at humor, but the command didn’t reach his mouth. Finding it hard to look at her when she looked so excruciatingly pretty, he grabbed the ouzo out of the fridge while she hunted for shot glasses. She set them down at the same time he plunked the nearly empty bottle of ouzo onto the island. They locked eyes.

“I guess it’s only fitting to end this how it started,” he said.

After watching him for a beat, Eliza nodded and poured. The sound of swirling liquid sounded like a gunshot in the thick silence. “I want to tell you something. It’s important.”

His heart tried to lodge itself in his throat. God, please let her tell me she wants me. Not just tonight. Not just in bed. In every way. He’d spend the rest of his life worshiping her. “After you left last night, your father insisted we order take-out and stay for dinner.”

Disappointment gripped him. Not what he’d been expecting. Or praying for. “Yeah?”

She hummed in her throat. “He was so quiet through dinner, I think even Caroline was worried.” Her finger circled the rim of her shot glass. “When she asked him what was wrong, he said, ‘Me. I’ve been wrong. I underestimated my own son’.” When she looked back up at him, she had tears in her eyes. “I just wanted you to know he said that. You deserve to hear it. No matter what happens here.”

Oliver felt like he’d been coldcocked. His chest ached so bad his hand rose of its own accord to check for damage. He’d spent so long convincing himself he didn’t care about anyone’s approval, he’d started to believe his own bullshit. With Eliza standing in front of him, so soon from leaving, he felt whole and incomplete at the same time. “What is going to happen here, bunny?”

Eliza handed him his shot of ouzo, but kept her gaze on the floor as she lifted her own. “I don’t know.” She tossed back the shot. “But we have to get it over with.”

Anger mingled with pain in his bloodstream, but he ignored both. She had every right to be mad at him. He took the shot glass from her hand and set it on the island, alongside his own. The movement brought their bodies closer, and he didn’t even try to resist her gravity. He cupped the back of her head and kissed the corner of her mouth, lingering there as he spoke. “I’m sorry for how I treated your mouth, babe. You made me feel so f*cking good. I got carried away.” He traced his lips over hers, ending at the opposite corner, which he kissed softly. “So sorry, Eliza.”

Her breasts swelled over the top of her dress with each accelerated breath. “I loved it. Mostly.”

Hearing her say she loved sucking him off made his cock throb in his pants. He ran a finger over the supple cleavage on display above her neckline. Thought of what it would be like to come on that very spot the next time she got on her knees for him, before he remembered there wouldn’t be a next time. “Mostly?” he managed.

She smoothed her palms up his chest, making him want to growl. “I loved it until you made it about someone else, when it was just the two of us there.”

“Isn’t that where this all leads? Someone else?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “It has to.”

Oliver took several deep breaths to calm the beast inside of him. He couldn’t taint their final time together with his jealousy, but damn if he didn’t want to f*ck Porter right out of her head. He could do it, too, for a couple blessed hours. She wouldn’t think of a damn thing but him tonight. He reached behind Eliza and picked up the bottle of ouzo, tipping it to her lips. Those pink lips opened for the glass bottle, curling around the end in a way that threatened his sanity. After she’d drank her fill, they both stared at the dwindling contents of the bottle, only a few drops left in the bottom. An hourglass that had run out far too soon.