A Choice of Fate

by Jezz de Silva

  He’d sworn while waiting outside her apartment like a lost puppy that he’d calmly sit her down and explain what the hell he was doing on her doorstep. Only to have his brain exit stage left the instant he’d seen the woman he’d dreamed about for months.

  It’d taken them two attempts to make it to her room, but the carnage they’d inflicted on each other on the lounge room floor and again in the shower had been nothing compared to the carnal marathon they’d competed in, on, and under her bed. Even when they’d taken a much-needed break to demolish the greasy bag of junk food he’d rescued outside her apartment, he’d been too captivated simply being with her to risk destroying the magic.

  The smile glued to his face while he tidied their debaucherous crime scene wasn’t the result of his exhausted junk or temporarily sated lust. He grinned because he was a selfish arsehole who just happened to be freaking lucky.

  He found his boots under the coffee table and parked them beneath the barstool before standing up her high heels beside them. The warmth flowing through him as he studied the sculpture of domestic perfection he’d created lasted a split second before his filthy mind conjured up images of her standing completely naked above him wearing just those damned heels…and maybe the remains of the blood-red thong he’d chewed off her body. He unfurled said thong on top of her jeans and forced himself to focus on the mission ahead.

  Shaking images of thongs, stilettos, and naked Olivias from his mind, he turned and took in his surroundings. Her two-bedroom apartment was functional, efficient, meticulously clean…and completely devoid of everything that made it a home. The evidence of her bleak lifestyle should’ve had him cringing and cursing out loud, but he didn’t, because he was an arsehole.

  Photos of her parents and Abi and Ryder crowded every spare surface and might have convinced visitors her apartment was more than just a place to sleep. He knew different. He was all too familiar with the truth hiding behind the fake homeliness. Concealed beneath his own apartment’s carefully constructed facade lurked the same bone-deep loneliness they shared for the people they missed every single day. He’d become an expert at burying himself in work and ignoring the constant reminders of what he’d sacrificed for his career, and there was no way in hell he was letting her endure the same torture alone. Now all he had to do was convince her he hadn’t gone nuts.

  His grin vanished as he studied the grainy photo taking pride of place on the bookshelf lining the back wall. Teenage versions of Olivia and Abi hugged their mum and dad in front of a house that could’ve come straight from the set of The Brady Bunch. Even from a meter away the joy and love captured in the image warmed his face despite the photo being snapped more than a decade ago. He regarded the people responsible for creating the woman who’d not only changed the course of his life but finally given it a destination. “Thank you. I’ll take good care of her.”

  He could’ve sworn her mum’s eyes glistened and her dad’s eyebrows narrowed, but that probably had something to do with the sunlight inching up the wall. He nodded and casually half turned to conceal his exposed manhood. “If she’ll let me.”

  A chill skittered up his spine as the questions he’d ignored broke through his defenses. The intel he’d weaseled out of his family had confirmed she was as miserable as he was. Maybe they’d simply seen what they’d hoped to see? Just like he was doing as he skulked around her apartment like a naked stalker.

  He unlocked his jaw and released the breath he held as he studied the brand-new photo slotted onto the bookshelf. He had no idea how his family had squeezed into the selfie Olivia had snapped six months ago, yet there all the deadbeats were. Olivia’s face beamed up at him from the center of the smiling scrum with her eyes dancing and her lips curved into the smile that had become as important to him as breathing.

  The image could’ve served as a photographic summary for his life with the center of his world expanding to welcome the woman who’d well and truly stolen his heart. A year ago he’d have sworn the next phase of his life would’ve seen him wiping sweat and dirt from his face and enduring his family’s insults. But for now there was somewhere else he needed to be.

  “I’m amazed I can still walk.”

  Prehistoric caveman pride washed through him as he turned toward the corridor leading to the master bedroom. She sounded as exhausted as she looked. The left half of her hair lay plastered down her neck while the other side stuck out like an explosion of blond fairy floss. Her eyes remained half closed, and her lips were swollen. The delicate skin around her neck glowed red from being ravaged. And she’d covered all those curves with the comforter they’d wrenched off the bed during the night. The breath he held for no good reason gushed out as he shrugged and shook his head. She was simply the most incredible woman he’d ever met, and there was no way in hell he wasn’t making this work.

  The mouth that’d devoured every part of him curved as her eyes widened and inched down his chest to settle on the erection he feared he’d have to strap down. He’d lost count of the number of times he’d lost himself inside her during the night, yet he wanted her again. He wanted to be the only man to muss up her hair and put that satisfied smile on her face. He wanted to be the one she came home to each night and woke up beside every morning. He wanted to be the lucky son of a bitch she argued with, laughed with, cried with, grew old with. He wanted…her, in ways that pushed everything else into the background. “I’ll never get enough of you.”

  Her playful smile faded as her gaze slowly rose to his. The swollen lips he’d tortured parted only to close again.

  He’d spent a decade negotiating multinational corporate takeovers and still had to suck in a long slow breath to focus his frantic thoughts. He’d run through the scenarios, accounted for all the variables, and prepared for the worst case. There was nothing left to do except crack open his chest and tell her the truth. Then why the hell had his mouth turned into a damned desert?

  She gnawed her bottom lip and pushed off the doorframe only to freeze a few meters away from him. “W-What are you doing here?”

  It wasn’t the reaction he was hoping for. A hysterical scream as she flung the comforter away and threw herself into his arms might have unknotted his guts. But she was almost as beautiful as she was smart, and this was real life, where holiday flings and long-distance relationships rarely survived the pressures of modern life and all consuming careers.

  He’d seen the very same question lurking behind her smile when she’d found him sitting on her doorstep. He’d seen the same concern hiding in her eyes when they’d stopped attacking each other long enough to catch their breath. Yet she’d held her tongue throughout the night. Like him, she’d probably wanted to escape reality for just one more night before confronting the truth.

  He shrugged. “Had some spare time on my hands. Figured I’d go on walkabout.” He cursed himself as his desperate attempt at humor only brought him a raised eyebrow and pursed lips.

  The sex-fueled courage he’d woken with had well and truly evaporated as he mentally kicked his arse for not getting this over and done with earlier. “I made Charlie a partner.”

  Some of his mojo returned as her lips parted, and her other eyebrow rose to join its partner.

  Being the delusional smart-arse he was, he’d started plotting a win-win solution as soon as she’d boarded the plane back to L.A. Months had passed before he’d finally admitted that like all complicated mergers, both sides would eventually have to compromise. Once he’d accepted reality, his role in this merger had been so logical he’d almost asked Charlie to slap the shit out of him for being such a slow-witted dickhead.

  “First thing she did was kick me out of her new office.” He shrugged while taking a step toward her and hoped his white lie would ease her confusion. “I’m pretty much unemployed and homeless. I was wondering if I could hang around here for a while?” There’d be plenty of time for details later. He needed to get this out before he stuffed it up.

  With his heart hammering and h
is lungs burning, he inched closer to the stunned woman gawking at him. “I asked Ryder what love was.”

  The corner of her comforter slid free to expose her shoulder as she clutched her mouth and slowly shook her head.

  He nodded and slowly closed the distance between them. “He said everything suddenly makes sense.” He kissed her bare shoulder before readjusting the comforter. “Where you live.” Capturing her face, he leaned in and pecked her forehead. “What you do.” He trailed kisses down her nose and along her jaw until he reached her ear. “How much money you have.” Retracing his path he pecked his way across her lips to her other ear. “Whether you live or die.” He pulled just far enough away to gaze into her eyes and shrugged. “Nothing else matters; because there’s only her.” He tilted her face up to meet his and dropped his forehead to hers. “I love you, Dr. Olivia Williams.”

  …

  The emotional roller coaster Olivia had clung to for the last twelve hours jerked left, wrenched right, plummeted down, then shot straight into the air, and just kept on going. Her heart slammed into her throat and her lungs threatened to burst with the air she’d gulped in, and her body stiffened before shaking itself into a coma until the naked slab of beefcake holding onto her was the only thing keeping her upright.

  Say something, anything. Yet no matter how hard she tried speaking, her damned mouth just wouldn’t work. She was simply too exhausted, relieved, and mind-numbingly happy to do anything other than stare back.

  Despite her heart squishing into a warm puddle of goo, she had a damned good idea of the mayhem he’d left back in Brisbane. He’d made giving up his job and leaving his home seem like nothing more than a formality. A year ago, there would only have been one place he’d go if he gave up the city. He’d sacrificed life with the family he adored to stand beside her while she chased her own dreams.

  She’d sat naked on a deserted beach in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef five months ago and confessed what she felt for him was the closest she’d come to love. She’d been terrified at the time that lust had clouded her judgment. That was the problem with life-altering realizations. There was never enough time to fully comprehend the magnitude of your feelings, and there was way too much time for fear to swamp the truth.

  She ignored the fireworks exploding around her and fixed a bored expression onto her face while easing free of his embrace. Every part of her from the neck down wanted to fling off her comforter and jump his bones right there on the floor. There’d be plenty of time for bumping and grinding considering she was never letting him go.

  On shaky legs she wobbled to her handbag and opened the peanut M&Ms she’d saved for an after morning sexy times snack. She palmed what she’d been searching for and faced her ominously silent and adorably nervous cowboy.

  Maybe it had been the contrast of seeing her future sitting on the doorstep of her present. Or maybe it had been the revelation he’d just shared. Whatever the reason, her chaotic life suddenly crystalized into high-definition focus. She loved her job, adored the people she worked with, and thrived on the challenges and potential of the treatments they were developing. But the part of her that wasn’t dedicated to her work, the part of her that had been slowly withering away, had finally stepped out of the shadows and into the light.

  With a shrug, she allowed the comforter to slide off her shoulders. Concern warred with lust as his manhood sprang to attention, and his eyes toggled between the show she put on and the smile she tried desperately hiding. He was going to make her pay for torturing him, but she had the rest of her life to make it up to him.

  She added a bit of hip to her performance as she stepped out of the comforter pooled around her feet and closed the distance between them. Fighting every impulse and instinct tingling throughout her, she pulled up just out of his reach and presented him with two M&Ms: one red, the other blue.

  She waited for his shocked gaze to return to hers before freeing the smile she’d held captive for five freaking months.

  “I love you, Jarrah Mereki Harper. Come on a walkabout with me.”

  Epilogue

  “Stop leering at me. You’re creeping me out.” Olivia cursed and dropped her glare to the refurbished iMac sitting on the secondhand desk in Baroona’s freshly renovated medical clinic. “And if you say, ‘I told you so,’ I’m going to prescribe you a colonoscopy.”

  Helen Louise Charmichael, former mayor of Baroona, leaned back in her chair and practically exploded with self-righteous satisfaction before craning her head back and peering into reception. “Lydia gone home?”

  Olivia glanced at the time and instantly regretted it. “Yeah, like I should’ve done an hour ago.”

  Helen pretended the life-threatening five o’clock appointment she’d pleaded for hadn’t been carefully orchestrated to get Olivia alone. “I love how the green livens up the place.” Helen shuddered. “I hated that brown-and-gray color scheme. Reminded me of a damned morgue.”

  Olivia stared at her keyboard, not because she needed to look at the keys, but because she couldn’t stand Helen’s smug grin. What Helen lacked in tact, she more than made up for with interior-decorating skills. But there was no way in hell Olivia was admitting her new clinic looked as vibrant as it was welcoming and professional.

  Olivia added the final notes of Helen’s fake checkup into the patient database she was still figuring out and shut down her iMac.

  “Well, Ms. Charmichael, apart from a terminal case of meddling, you’ve got at least a few more years left to torture us.” Olivia pushed out of her chair and stretched her aching back. “Now, if you’ll get the hell out of my clinic, you conniving old busy body, I can get my man and drag my overworked and underpaid butt back home.”

  Helen sprang from her chair with the energy of the recently resurrected and tackled her. Olivia held out as long as she could before cursing and wrapping her arms around the force of nature who’d manipulated her into a career she loved almost as much as her new life.

  Olivia closed her eyes and squeezed harder. “You scared the shit out of us, you stubborn old cow. And if you don’t start taking it easy, I’m going to get my man to chain you to a rocking chair.”

  “Let him fucking try.”

  Helen’s indestructible spirit remained, but mortality had taken enough of a toll on her aging body to remind Olivia just how close Baroona had come to losing this treasure.

  Helen hugged whatever life remained out of Olivia before smacking a kiss on her cheek and holding her out in front of her like a proud parent. “C’mon, you know you want to say it. Go on, it’ll put a smile on that beautiful big-city face of yours.”

  Olivia had been chewing dust, wiping sweat, and swatting flies for almost three months and the damned locals still reminded her she was a big-city girl whenever they got the chance. She sighed and surrendered to the truth. “You were right.”

  Helen angled her head and aimed an ear decorated with a pound of gold at her. “And.”

  Olivia still couldn’t figure out what had drained her more: moving, earning her Aussie medical license, Outback doctoring, or catching up on all the socializing she’d missed while she’d been back in L.A. She cursed and nodded. “And we were wrong.”

  Helen’s smile almost fractured the industrial strength makeup troweled onto her face as she dragged Olivia into another life-threatening hug.

  “Let go of my girl, you old witch.”

  A weary version of the voice she knew so well thundered through the examination room. Even after sharing a bed with him for months that damned voice still had her lady parts singing.

  Her man had survived even more life-altering twists and turns than she had since he’d inhaled that red M&M. And she tumbled just a little bit more in love with Baroona’s future mayor with every bend in the road.

  It’d taken a few tense months and more than a few heated Skype calls and urgent trans-Pacific flights before Harper & Mackay’s new associates had gotten up to speed, and he and Charlie had finally settled into th
eir new roles. By the time Olivia had handed over her responsibilities, Jarrah had well and truly found his groove as the domestic god of her apartment and sex slave in her bed, shower, kitchen, and pretty much every other square foot of her once-wholesome abode. But the slow transition from the city to the Outback they’d meticulously planned took a vicious detour the day Naya had broken the news that Baroona’s unstoppable mayor had been stopped by a dodgy ticker.

  Helen squeezed Olivia’s shoulders before rounding on Jarrah. “Did you get back to that useless dickhead Perkins and tell him he better grade that airstrip by Monday or we’ll find someone who can?”

  Olivia couldn’t hide her grin. Her cowboy looked even more battered than she felt, which wasn’t surprising considering he spent his mornings getting remotely womanhandled by Charlie, his afternoons being abused by Helen, and his evenings defending himself from the merciless attacks of his less-than-sympathetic family. She hadn’t been completely innocent in his systematic destruction, either. Then again, he hadn’t complained too loudly when she’d kept him working well into the night in their loft hideaway above the barn.

  Jarrah sucked in a breath to fire back only to have Helen cut him off. “And old man Adams, did you check out the building plans for his machinery sheds?”

  Jarrah’s torso deflated just a little more. “Gave him the permit twenty minutes ago.”

  “What about my darling old Fiona? Did you organize that adorable sister-in-law of yours and her magic hands to fix her ute like I promised her?”

  Jarrah shot Olivia a look that had her biting back laughter before locking his gaze on Helen. “Yes. And you do realize you’re three years older than your ‘darling old Fiona’ and seven years older than ‘old man Adams’?”