When it did, my focus went to her and my eyes went back to my knees.
“We need to talk,” she stated.
“I’m not ready,” I replied.
“Right. Then we still need to talk and when I say that I mean about David. I shut him down and shut him out. He hasn’t been able to get into his office since Wednesday. He’s complaining to Dad, saying work isn’t getting done. Dad’s up in my shit about it. You’ve had days. You find anything I can give to Dad so we can move that along?”
I felt Nick’s hand glide around the top of my ankle.
I kept my gaze to my knees.
“Not yet, considering half the time I’m spending looking into that situation and the other half I’m spending doing his job so things don’t get delayed, pile up or missed. Though, I do feel that I’ll need to spend time in his office. There are things there I’d like to review.”
“So you’re finding something,” she guessed.
“I have so much, it’s impossible to find anything without taking weeks, something he well knows, his responsibilities something he can’t be away from for a weeks-long audit. It wouldn’t be smart, naturally. The work he does has to continue to get done. But further, Dad would never allow it.”
Nick’s hand, which was drifting up the inside of my calf, stopped.
I looked to him.
He was down the bed, on his side, head in his hand, elbow in the bed, other hand under the covers, head tipped back, eyes on me.
Listening.
Intently.
“You’re right,” Georgia informed me. “Dad wants him back in the office on Monday.”
“I need at least another week.”
“I can probably buy you a day. That being this day,” she returned. “So my suggestion, get your ass home, grab this coffee and the donuts I got you and get to David’s office.”
“I’m not working today.”
“Li—”
I looked to my lap and my words hissed through the air like a whip. “I’m not working today.”
“You’re gonna have to get over that shit,” she warned.
“I’m over it but I’m in the middle of something else,” I retorted. “That being the stunt David pulled, a stunt the simple fact he pulled it should buy me at least another week of assessing the situation. You can’t get Dad to accept that and he sends him back to his office, so be it. Not the first time such a decision has been made, the consequences of which might not be promising.”
Georgia was silent because she knew I spoke truth.
Nick’s hand started moving back up the inside of my calf.
By the time it hit my knee, I felt his touch in my *.
My eyes went to him.
He was no longer listening intently.
His attention was aimed at my breasts.
I looked down.
My hand with the sheet had slipped. I wasn’t exposed fully but there was a lot to see.
I shifted the sheet up.
Nick’s hand started moving much faster down the inside of my thigh.
“Are we done?” I asked my sister.
“We need to have lunch this week,” she told me.
“Pick a day just as long as it’s later in the week, text me where to be, I’ll be there.”
“Okay, Liv. And—”
Nick cupped me with his hand.
I cut my sister off. “I have something I need to do. Enjoy your Sunday.”
“Li—” I heard before I disconnected, hit the button at the side to turn the ringer off and tossed the phone to the bed.
I was about to lunge at Nick when something moved over his face.
No.
More than one something. It looked like he was at war with himself.
One side won, leaving his expression sharp.
“You know what I do,” he said quietly.
I held my breath and nodded.
“Have a care, Olivia.”
More honesty.
I’d mentioned David’s name. And Dad.
There were things he could read in that but David was the legitimate side of the business. No one would have interest in that.
But still, what Nick said was the first indication he gave that he wasn’t just out for a fuck or whatever else he could get from me.
But that he was looking out for me.
I stared into his eyes.
Then I lunged.
I did not need years of visits with a psychologist to explain to me that I had zero control in my life so that was why I liked control in bed.
The partners I’d chosen, none of them had seemed to mind. All of them had seemed to like it. They had provided varying degrees of pleasure depending on their talents. They appeared to receive the same.
It wouldn’t matter if they didn’t. I never saw them again so their opinion of my performance meant nothing to me.
The battle for control with Nick was entirely different.
There weren’t varying degrees of pleasure.
There were varying degrees of dizzying pleasure.
Everything was a contest from kisses to touches to the ultimate fuck, with each contest having two opponents.
And two winners.