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She blinks in surprise, but it's clear that she understands. After a few moments of silence between us, I continue, "Please come back, Olivia. I would never forgive myself if you didn't. It's a good opportunity. It'll help you get ahead, and I'm asking you to come back because I see potential in you and would hate to see you not realize it. I read your resumé. You're smart, ambitious, and fucking brilliant. Youngest to graduate in your year, valedictorian, involved in grassroots activism. Why let all that go to waste? I am so, so sorry for not heeding your words. Come back, please."
"Adrian ..." She says my name as if it's the answer to all her questions. She hesitates for a moment before continuing, "I'm willing to give this another try ... if nothing else happens unless I initiate it."
If she initiates it? The words taste like honey to me. It means that not all is lost and that at some point, somewhere in the future, there is a chance that I could hold her in my arms again. I can feel my entire body calm down; the tension I’ve been holding in my neck dissipates.
“Yes,” I whisper. “Only, and only if you initiate it.”
She nods. After dinner, I get the bill. She offers to split it, but I refuse. I invited her, and I owed her.
“Can I drop you home?” I ask. “Where do you live?”
I feel a shiver go down my spine when she tells me her address. After all, I don’t believe in destiny but what the hell is this if not that? “Olivia,” I say, clearing my throat, “guess what?”
CHAPTER 7
OLIVIA
Iwakeuptothe sun streaming in through the curtains. Shit, I had forgotten to close them last night. In fact, I had forgotten to do a lot of things, considering what I had learned. Adrian Carter wasn’t just the billionaire boss I accidentally hooked up with. Turns out – he’s also my fucking neighbor.
I had noticed his face turn white when I gave him my address. He told me he was my neighbor like it was no big deal and continued to play the music really loud and didn’t say a word on the drive home. But just when we were about to pull up at my house, he pulled his window down, lowered the volume, and yelled at a little girl playing in the yard next to my place – “Emily, stop watering the plants at night and go back inside. Where is your nanny?”
“She’s standing right there,” the little girl had yelled back, pointing at a woman standing under the tree. She waves at us, and I smile back politely. Then it hit me! I had met the angelic little girl before – his daughter – cute as a button. The little one had spoken to me when they were moving in, and my car was barricaded in my own driveway by the packers and movers! The woman with her, whom I had assumed was the mother, must have been the babysitter. I had noticed them since then too, but with everything else happening, I just never had the time to strike up a conversation. She plays in the garden a lot, always accompanied by the same woman. In my mind, I had assumed it was just a new family in town – with a doting mother and cute daughter and a working father I never saw because he must have been busy. Of course, back then, it was all assumptions. Now, I know better. It was Adrian Carter’s daughter and nanny!
What the actual fuck? He quickly dropped me off and explained that he has full custody of his daughter, that his ex-wife is somewhere on the east coast, and he has to go and make sure his daughter gets into bed since it’s way past her bedtime. He apologized for the rush, threw in a “small world,” and “see you in the morning,” which I repeated back to him, and sprinted off towards his daughter. He was evidently in such a hurry to put his daughter to bed, that he left the car in my driveway! I think he was taken aback by this turn of events and wasn’t thinking straight. God knows I wasn’t.
He did pick it up half an hour later and also dropped me a text apologizing for rushing off like that towards the end of the night. However, I was left confused because while I appreciated his apology, I also felt disappointed in myself for feeling thrilled by it. I am the one who wants a professional relationship, and there is no reason why I should expect to feel happy at the thought that I was on his mind. This revelation scares me.
But Adrian Carter is going to be the end of me! He has a daughter. He grew up poor. His childhood was full of misery. He and his daughter live right next to me. All these days, I never really knew. All of this was too much information to have gathered over the course of the last two days and this morning, I feel grateful that I made the decision to keep it casual. If there is one thing I have learned in life, it’s to follow the path of least resistance. And growing an attachment to my boss Adrian Carter, a 42-year-old billionaire divorcé with a daughter would certainly be nothing short of complicated. Thank God I put a stop to it! This isn’t going to go anywhere.
I’m 23 years old. These are supposed to be some of the best years of my life, and I don’t plan on ruining them with complications. I want easy, breezy, Goddamn lemon squeezy.
I don’t even know why his ex-wife left him, but maybe she did because he was too complicated for her too.What could it be? I wonder.Too many hours in the office? Too little time to spare for her? Did he cheat on her? Unlikely. Did she cheat on him?
Curiosity takes over, but I realize I’m dwelling a little too long over this.
It’s just a coincidence, I tell myself. It means nothing.
I step out of bed and move towards the windows to close the curtains, but as I do, for the first time in my life, I notice both of them on their front lawn, right next to mine. This is the first time I’m seeing a father with his daughter, but then again, it’s also the first time in ages that I’m up this early in the morning. Now I know for sure that if I had bothered waking up earlier in the past, I would have noticed Adrian. He’s a busy man, the first in the office and last to leave, and it’s obvious he’s carved out time for his daughter before he heads off to work.
Adrian throws a frisbee to his daughter as she chases it down. He does a funny dance every time she catches it, making her giggle uncontrollably. She has bright brown eyes, probably like her mother's but has his smile.
It is such a beautiful sight to behold, and I can't help but freeze in admiration. They are so full of life and love – an absolute antidote to all my anxieties about life. Emily, his daughter, turns on the sprinklers and Adrian pretends to look upset but then laughs, picks her up, and pulls her under it too! He takes off his shirt.
My cheeks get warm from embarrassment as I watch him, but there's no denying the desire I feel in me. His muscled abs glimmer in the sun, and all I can think of is his arms lifting me over his shoulders, smacking my ass as he leads me to bed. My heart starts to beat faster, and my mind begins to imagine all sorts of naughty scenarios involving Adrian and me. I imagine reaching out to him, running my hands over his chest as I nuzzle his neck with tiny kisses. While doing that, he slides one hand up my shirt, gently caressing my breast and squeezing my nipple softly. I moan in pleasure and feel my pussy becoming wet with desire. I imagine his breath tickling my neck as his strong fingers trail down my sides, grazing past the soreness in my breasts from all the little bites he's given me. I can feel Adrian's excitement mounting as he begins to move inside me with tender thrusts that soon become harder as we start to find a rhythm - each faster than before until I'm moaning out loud with pleasure.
I gasp and close the curtains. I've made my stand clear, and I cannot allow one shirtless sighting of him to weaken my resolve.
But I also know my fear is not just related to my desire for him or what might happen if we end up in bed together again. Watching him with Emily makes me want him, but not just for carnal pleasure. While watching them, I had a thought I couldn't have prevented from rising, no matter how hard I tried. I imagined how we'd make love if we were making babies - would it be sweet and kind and gentle or strong and full of purpose? Would he be on top or me? I don’t know the answer to those questions, but I feel my body shiver in anticipation of finding out. I remember our first night together, when I was at his mercy, and his strong arms glistened at me from the corner of my eye - how my legs cradled around his waist, his cock digging deep into my core, thrusting into me with such a repetitive force that my entire body lurched to his movements. I remember the way little beads of sweat trickled down his forehead as his eyes remained fixated on my heaving breasts while he thrust into me, with resoundingly powerful depth. It had been raw, carnal, wild. I had been so wet, but my pussy still clenched onto his throbbing dick and when he came ... if he hadn't been wearing a condom ... I know he would have unloaded so deep within that I could have gotten ...
While lost in thought, I had a sudden yearning to give him a family of our own, a son or daughter who will run in circles around us just like Emily is doing now, laughing and exuding hope and life into this world. I can't help but imagine how beautiful our kids would be, with Adrian's smile, my eyes, and their combined innocence.
And this daydream scares the fuck out of me.
“Stop it, Olivia,” I tell myself out loud. “You just want kids. Not Adrian Carter.”
And that is the truth. I’ve wanted a husband, kids, a home, and the whole package ever since I was a teenager. Now, an old fantasy was making me rush to conclusions. Just because I want babies doesn’t mean I need to dive into it with the first man in my periphery. I clear my head with a few deep breaths and prepare for the day.
I shower with cold water and rush out to our office before even eating breakfast, trying to leave earlier than usual so as not to have an awkward encounter in the driveway with him.
