She made a sound that clearly meant she was annoyed with me. “Fine. I’ll call you later. Don’t be stupid about this, Olive. You better have good news for me tomorrow. And try to ask him what he thinks about adopting me. He is even hotter when he is fuming. Be a good friend for once and ask him.”
She hung up while I was still shaking my head.
I pushed my phone under the pillow.
“So?” Jason asked into the silence. “Do you believe me?”
“I didn’t have to call Lucy to confirm what you said, Jason. I believe you. This type of stupid drama is supposed to happen with the costar you are working with. I’m supposed to hate Lindsay, not my best friend. She is supposed to fall in love with you and then mess with our marriage.”
“Is that what is supposed to happen?” he murmured, a small smile curling around his lips.
“Yes,” I said miserably. “That’s what happens in books. There is always an evil costar or ex. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. I’m really sorry for what my—”
His lips crashed into mine and the angels started singing above us.
With his unexpected movement, I gasped into his mouth; he made sure to take advantage of that opening and slipped his tongue inside. I clutched his shirt and pulled him closer to me, his fingers biting into my flesh, but right when I was getting more into the kiss, he pulled away.
“That’s all I wanted to hear,” he said roughly, his hot breath mixing with mine.
I slowly pried my fingers open, let go of his shirt, and took a deep breath to clear my mind.
“This is not a game any more, is it?” I asked.
“I thought about that on my way over here. I’m not sure if it ever was, baby.”
“So what happens now?”
“Tomorrow, I’m taking you home with me.”
“And then what? We act like nothing happened?” I twisted away from him and plopped onto my back. “I’m not sure if—”
“Don’t finish that sentence. Yes, we act like nothing happened because nothing happened. You are my wife, Olive. You already made the mistake of saying yes, and I’m not letting that go. You can’t take it back.”
See if I’m letting you go, buddy.
In my next breath, Jason was on top of me and was making himself a place in between my legs.
When I felt his erection, I gasped. “What are you doing?” I asked in panic, glancing at the door over his shoulder.
“Falling in love with you.”
“Right now? You’re falling in love with me right this minute? Sure.”
Dipping his head down, he gently nipped at my lips.
“No, you little smartass. I already fell—a little too hard if you ask me. Now it’s your turn.”
“My turn for what?”
“To say you love me so I can close my eyes and fall all the way.”
“I didn’t exactly hear you say you love me so why am I saying it? I think you should say it first.”
He tilted his head and this time lowered it slowly, giving me the option of stopping him. When our lips were barely touching, he murmured, “Kiss me, Olive.”
Without meaning to, I lifted my head up and gently kissed his lips. The bastard was playing with me. “What’s with the ordering around all of a sudden?”
“Shut up and kiss me, woman.”
“I thi—”
He shut me up and kissed me, for several minutes—several glorious minutes. When it ended, we were both breathless. “Say it. Please,” he murmured again, ghosting small kisses around my lips.
“I love you, Jason Thorn,” I admitted.
I’ve loved you for a disturbingly long time.
My heart was going crazy. The butterflies he had awakened in me the very first day I’d seen him were multiplying by the second, and I felt sick.
And vulnerable.
And hopeful.
So very hopeful.
His eyes closed and then he rested his forehead on mine. “The night I came to the bar and saw you singing with your friend…that’s when I started falling for you.”
“Can you say the actual words?” I asked.
He smiled down at me. “I love you, my beautiful little Olive. My wife.”
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Keep repeating that. You can do it!
“Okay. That was okay,” I said, patting him on the shoulder and barely holding back a heart attack.
He chuckled quietly. “So my love is acceptable?”
I made a noncommittal sound. “Eh, sure. Why not?”
He started kissing my neck while he was still chuckling, so I closed my eyes to keep my sanity. “You are more than ten years late, but damn if it isn’t good to hear those words in this room,” I whispered quietly.
His hand sneaked under my top and he started stroking my waist, slowly moving upward. “What else did you want to hear or do in this room? I’m all about making your dreams come true.”
Suddenly the door to my room opened and I saw Dylan’s shoulder. He was trying not to peek in.
“You’ve been in here for an hour now, you son of a bitch. Did you think I wouldn’t notice? How about you get your ass out of my sister’s room and we have a nice little chat, you piece of shit!” Dylan whispered furiously and closed the door without waiting for an answer. Not a second had passed when he opened it again. “I’m waiting for you!”
Burying my forehead against Jason’s neck, I quietly laughed.
When the door had opened the first time, his hand had frozen on my skin, his whole body going taut, but as soon as Dylan closed the door, he started stroking again and sighed.
“I guess I wasn’t as sneaky as I thought I was.”
“I guess not,” I said and started laughing again.
“He’s not gonna make this easy on me, is he?”
I dropped my head on the pillow and looked at his handsome face. “Doesn’t look like it.”
“I thought I would be happier to see him, and for a second there I thought I was, but it looks like I was wrong,” he said with another heavy sigh. “At least it wasn’t your father who busted us. Thank god.”
I smiled without saying anything.
He fell silent, too, and smiled back at me.
“I love you so very much, Jason,” I said, having a hard time keeping it in.
His smile grew bigger.
“There’s that dimple,” I mumbled, reaching with my finger to touch it.
“You like it?” he asked roughly.
I nodded.
“There are a lot of things I like about you, too, wife.”
“Like what?” I asked breathlessly as I lost myself a little bit more in his eyes.
“Like that little birth mark you have on your waist,” he murmured, his fingertips finding it in the dark as if he had painted it on there. “Like that little smile you always have on your lips when you are writing and you think no one is looking at you.”
There was a rude knock on the door and Jason sighed.
“Do you know what else I learned today?” Jason asked conversationally as he pushed himself up with a sigh. “I learned that you texted me when I was eighteen, pretending to be someone else.”
I lost my breath and my smile melted off my face. “Wh-hat?”
“Interesting isn’t it? Because I certainly thought so. And you know what? Apparently I texted you back saying my friend’s sister was being sticky, or something like that.”
By then he had already gotten out of my bed and was standing over me as I held the covers in a death grip in my hands.
“You know why I can’t remember what my exact words were? Because—wait for it—it wasn’t me who wrote them. Hilarious, isn’t it?”
“What?” I repeated again. “What do you mean, it wasn’t you who wrote them?”
“Oh, you didn’t know? It was your loving brother trying to protect you from me. Or maybe the other way around, who knows with him.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, but I am sweetheart. I am.”
I threw the covers off and scrambled out of my bed. “I’m gonna kill him!”