As Olivia walked across the sand towards him, the white robe she was wearing melted away and, in its place, was the yellow bikini she wore in Phuket when they were backpacking. With a smile, she waved to Lenny and he opened his arms to greet her but, as he scooped her off her feet and spun her around, the color from his dark skin bleached away. He placed her back on his feet and put his hands to her face, drawing her to him. “Livi…” he whispered as she pursed her lips and closed her eyes.
When their mouths touched, her senses were sent into overload. The distinctive scent of the pink, white, and yellow Balinese frangipani filled her nostrils while strong fingers tangled in her silky hair. Olivia’s hands went to his chest and a tingle of heat raced across her skin and pooled between her legs. Opening her eyes, Lenny’s handsome face was gone and in his place was Nolan. He groaned into her mouth and she responded with a hunger that gripped her. She couldn’t get enough of him, greedily seeking more of his kisses… his hands roaming to the bikini top… his fingers brushing under the thin yellow fabric, her nipples growing hard at his touch…
“Mmm,” Nolan buried his nose in Olivia’s hair and she opened her eyes. As the dream melted away, she was left staring at him in his sleep, her heart pounding against her chest, a sick uneasiness creeping into her stomach. She had an overwhelming urge to stroke Nolan’s face and as she swept away a stray eyelash from her sleeping friend, Nolan’s eyes flickered open.
Olivia became conscious of his limbs entangled with hers, her curves fitting around his hard muscles. Her hand slipped from his cheek, drifted across his jaw, and down his neck. Before she could bring her mind back to the present, she lifted her face, lips parting in anticipation of kissing him. For a moment, their lips met and she responded, her mouth yielding to his, their tongues wrestling, their breathing becoming more rapid. Then, as her first tear slid down her cheek, she pulled away.
“Mmm, you taste good.” Nolan said sleepily and he put his hand to the back of her head, to tug her closer, seeking her mouth again.
Another tear slipped down her cheek but she returned to him, her lips tentatively parting. Nolan’s fingers traced down her side and brushed under the hem of her camisole. “God, Livi…” He pulled her against him and his arousal ground between her legs.
Olivia came to her senses and rolled away from him, her heart clattering against her chest. What the hell was she doing! Scrambling out of bed, she snatched up her jeans and yanked them on. “I-I… sorry, I can’t do this. Shit…”
“Fuck, Livi, don’t go. Look, I’m sorry I…” Nolan knifed up in bed, his hand reaching to her but Olivia’s cheeks blazed with heat and the air in the room seemed to vanish.
What the hell just happened? What on earth possessed her to kiss him? In all the years she’d known Nolan, there had never been anything between them. Lenny was everything to her, the only man she’d ever known, the only man to fill her dreams and her heart.
So what was all that about? Why was Nolan in her dream? Why couldn’t she see Lenny’s face when she was running to him? Jeez, her therapist would have a field day with this fucked up shit!
Nolan climbed out of bed, his hand still outstretched, his face grave, and his shoulders sagging with the weight of what they’d just done. “Livi?”
Olivia pulled her shirt over her head and bolted from the room. She couldn’t process what happened, she needed air and some space.
By the time Nolan arrived in the living room, she was in the kitchen, her back to him as she fiddled with the coffee maker. Should she just leave? God, what was she going to say to him?
“Livi…”
She turned to face him, the packet of coffee in one hand and a spoon in the other. “You want some?” Did her voice sound weird?
He nodded and went to her, his hands settling on her shoulders, the weight of them grounding her. Nolan cleared his throat and fixed her with a stare. “I’m sorry. Shit, I don’t know what the hell I was doing in there.”
She shook her head at him. “You don’t need to apologize, it was my fault. I was dreaming of Lenny and…” Goddamnit, how lame was that?
“Come here.” He opened his arms and she stepped into them without hesitation. As they tightened around her, Nolan buried his face in her hair. “I’m a fucking idiot, will you forgive me?”
Olivia chewed on her lip, there was too much at stake. The thought of not having Nolan in her life would be like losing Lenny all over again. “There’s nothing to forgive.” She managed a shaky smile and tried to ease the tension between them. “It was totally my fault. I should never have made that silly bet with you. Perhaps you should reopen your Tinder account.”
He grinned down at her and she felt what was left of the tension disappear. “Oh, so you are trying to make me lose our bet? Why, Olivia! That is sneaky, even for you.” His grin wavered and his face turned serious. “I was out of order. Please, don’t let this come between us.”
“Nothing could come between us, Nolan, you know I love you. I’ve known you as long as I knew Lenny. Longer, now. I-I couldn’t have gotten through these last two years without you and I can’t ever imagine you not being in my life. It was just a kiss, let’s not beat ourselves up over it.”
He sighed with relief. “I’ve needed you, too, Livi. You sure you’re okay?”
She turned back to the cupboard and, with shaky hands, she pulled out two mugs and poured them both some coffee. “Of course. What do you have planned today?”
Nolan shrugged. “Nothing, I’m all yours.”
Olivia smiled up at him. She suspected he’d deliberately not planned anything in case she needed him today. “Well, I’ve been thinking about what we talked about yesterday, and you’re right. Lenny wouldn’t have wanted me—us—to be stuck in this limbo. I’ve decided, I am going to move out, make a fresh start. You wanna help me search for an apartment?”
“Sure.” He stepped toward her and lifted the wedding ring on her chain. “You ready to make any other changes?”
Olivia chewed on her lip. It was time for a fresh start. She was entering a new year without her husband and she knew she had to make some big changes if she was ever going to start living again.
“Yes, I’ve decided to break up with Michael. You’re right, I’m not being fair to him.” It was long overdue. She’d known weeks ago she couldn’t possibly feel anything close to what she had with Lenny, with Michael. It was time to make a clean break. Perhaps in time, she might find someone but that was still a long way in the future.
“Okay. That’s a good start, but what about this?”
Olivia looked down at the ring between his fingers. “Soon.” She took a long deep breath. “Jeez, letting go is hard.”
Nolan dropped the ring. “You should plan when. Commit to it.”
“What?”
“If we are gonna move on from this, we need to think of all the steps we need to take to get there. Make a list, set some goals.”
“Is this the personal trainer in you talking?”
“Probably. But think about it, it makes sense. Whether you want to make changes to your body, your health, or fitness, you have to make lots of little adjustments, set up a training plan, work toward the goal. This is no different.” He took her hand and pulled her to the sofa. Snatching up a pad of paper and a pen from the coffee table, he glanced over at to her. “We need to make resolutions and stick to them.”
“Resolutions? Like a New Year’s resolution?”
“Yeah.”
“In November?”
“We are starting a new year without him, sweetheart, so why not now?” He wrote on the top of the paper, Resolution: Get the fuck over Lenny underneath he split the page in two and wrote their names on top, then underneath her name he wrote
1. Put Lenny’s ring away
“I don’t know…”
Put Lenny’s ring away
Find a new apartment
“Nolan, please don’t rush me on this.”
“Rush you? It’s been two
years. What is holding you back?” He sounded impatient. “We have to resign ourselves to him never being found. We aren’t ever going to be able to bury him.”
She nodded. “I know. I just can’t help thinking that if we hadn’t come back, if we’d stayed longer, and continued to look for him, then…”
“If he’d have been in one of those morgues we’d have known, Olivia. The American Consulate has monitored all this. We have to face facts—the sea isn’t going to give him up.”
She sighed. “Okay. What’s three then?”
Nolan reached for the paper. “As you said, you need to cut Michael loose but I’m thinking, perhaps not yet. You should sleep with him first. You need to fuck someone, Livi, and it might as well be him.”
“But I don’t love him.”
“All the more reason to screw him. Look, whoever is your first after Lenny, doesn’t stand a chance. Michael’s already toast, you might as well get it over with so when you do meet someone you like…”
“Seriously?” She snatched the pencil from him after he wrote,
Put Lenny’s ring away
Find a new apartment
Fuck someone
“Is that what you’ve been doing? Getting over Lenny by jumping into bed with all these women?”
Nolan thought about it for a minute. “I wasn’t a saint before.”
“I know, but you weren’t a slut either. Come on, Nolan, you at least dated before. Now you show them the door right after you fuck them. You’re over compensating for something.”
“Hmm, you’re right. I guess seeing how painful this has been for you… jeez, you two were so close and this broke your heart, Livi. I don’t know that I want to get that close to someone. I don’t think I have the strength to have someone taken from me.”
Olivia slid the paper in front of her and wrote,
Delete Tinder.
He laughed, “I already said I was doing that.”
“Ah, but have you deleted the app yet?”
When he didn’t answer she wrote under Nolan’s name,
Delete Tinder
No sex until you find someone to love
“You’re setting me up to fail,” he groaned.
“Hmm, but it’s not a resolution if it’s not tough, right? And besides, what you’re asking me to do is much harder, Nol.”
He glanced at the paper and nodded. “Okay, so that’s it? I’ll stop fucking and you’ll start?”
Olivia wrinkled her nose at the list. “Hmm.” She tapped the first resolution on her side of the paper. “Let’s scratch this. I will think about removing Lenny’s ring but… I can’t make that promise this year.”
“It doesn’t have to be today, or even this month. Keep it on the list, Livi, you have a whole year to do it.”
“Okay… it stays, but only because I know you’ll fail to keep your resolutions.”
Chapter 5
Nolan
Five Days Later…
Nolan examined his schedule and noticed a new name penciled in next to his four o’clock appointment. Ronnie Cooper. Thank the Lord. Nolan’s clients were predominantly women today and he’d already had two of them hit on him. Five days into his no sex challenge from Olivia, he was beginning to find it increasingly difficult to keep his mind on his job. Nolan chewed the end of his pencil. Perhaps he should delegate the new clients’ assessments to someone on his team and he could take a spin with the advanced body building section to ease him through his abstinence period. He grabbed his phone and water bottle and went off to locate his new client. At least a dude named Ronnie wasn’t going to torment him.
In the gym reception area, Nolan searched for Mr. Cooper but the only men he saw were other clients he already knew.
“Excuse me, are you Nolan?” A tall redheaded woman decked out in skin tight Lycra approached him.
“Guilty as charged.” He grinned at her, as he tried to focus on the woman’s face and not her extraordinary figure. Jesus! Some of this fitness gear should be illegal! How was a red-blooded male supposed to ignore that! “Can I help you?”
She cocked her head, the polite smile she’d flashed him turning to a grin that revealed perfect white teeth. “I’m your next appointment.”
“You are? Huh, I was not expecting you.” He looked down at his wad of schedules to see if one of the other instructors had a new client.”
“That’s me.” She leaned across him, stabbing her finger on his paper. “Ronnie Cooper. It’s short for Veronica, I’m supposed to get my fitness assessment?”
Nolan’s heart sank. Someone up there hated him and was intent on making him lose his bet and break his resolution. “Ah that explains it, sorry. I was kind of expecting a guy.”
Ronnie flicked her long straight hair over her shoulder and gathered it up into a ponytail, deftly securing it with a stretchy band. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”
For a moment Nolan was lost in her green eyes but he caught himself staring and swept his hand in front of him. “This way then.” And… bad idea letting her walk in front of him. Sheesh!
Normally, he would have enjoyed the view—a perk of the job—but with almost a week’s worth of pent up sexual frustration whirling round his system, it was going to be the longest thirty minutes of his life.
“So, Ronnie, you work out much?” Damn stupid question, the woman was toned to perfection.
“I teach yoga and Zumba.”
He furrowed his brow. “So, why you here? Sounds like you already have your fitness plan in place.”
She placed her hand on his arm and his skin didn’t so much tingle as send a jolt of electricity straight to his groin.
“I just moved from New York and don’t know anyone over here, so I’m looking for a new gym and some connections in the industry.”
“Ah, you know, I usually take sales pitches in the office.”
She shook her head and the red ponytail swished back and forth. “No pitching, I promise.” She ran her finger up and down between her breasts as she made the sign of the cross. The innocent gesture drew his eyes to her small breasts constrained in a sports bra, barely hidden by a sloppy flimsy tank top. “I already paid my membership, just cashing in my free assessment and hoping to get to know you and this place.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, Carol Flannigan has taken me on as a partner. I’ll be taking over her scheduled classes here.”
Another alarm bell went off in Nolan’s head. This woman was so out of bounds—he had one golden rule he never budged on—he never dated anyone at work, clients or staff. There was nothing worse than having to face your one-night stands day in and day out.
“Right then, Ms. Cooper, let’s try to get that heart rate up, shall we?”
Ronnie bit down on her lip. “I’m up for that Mr. Carmichael.” She winked at him, “Just be gentle with me.”
Was it Nolan’s imagination or had her voice grown huskier? “Nolan, please. But, no can do.” He fixed her with a smoldering stare. He was sorely tempted to break his own goddamn golden rule and call off his agreement with Olivia—after all, he had a whole year to work on the resolution thing, didn’t he? “I don’t do gentle.”
Ronnie stepped into him and her hand drifted to his bicep. She squeezed it before her fingers slid across his pecs. “I think I heard that about you.” Her fingers changed direction and skimmed across his abs, heading south, but her eyes remained locked on his. “I like a man who’s rough.”
Nolan had the distinct impression they were now talking about a whole different type of physical exercise, one he was already having withdrawal symptoms from. Ronnie confirmed it when she ran her tongue across her lower lip and winked at him. Nolan almost caved then and there. He was thirty feet from a weight closet where he could close the door and take her against the wall.
His phone buzzed in his hand and he glanced at it recognizing Olivia’s number. “Sorry, I have to take this. Why don’t you start with fifty pushups and I’ll…” He glanced around the room and sp
otted one of his training staff. “Raul, you got a client?”
Raul shook his head and sauntered over. Although slightly shorter than Nolan, Raul had more muscles. A serious athlete, Raul was addicted to weights.
“Could you take over Miss Cooper’s assessment? I have an important call to take.” Nolan thrust the woman’s questionnaire at him and answered the phone. “Hi, so glad you called. Just give me one minute to get by my computer.”
Olivia giggled on the phone. “Oh, sorry, are you with a client? I could call back later.”
“No, of course it’s not inconvenient. One minute and you’ll have my undivided attention.” He turned back to Ronnie. “Raul, will take good care of you.” Ronnie was already looking at Nolan’s replacement with big wide eyes, and he suspected she wasn’t too upset with the substitution.
Raul grinned back at her. “Okay, Ronnie, let’s get you on the floor and I’ll check out your technique.”
Nolan shook his head at the trainer’s obvious double meaning and headed back to his office, closing the door behind him. “Hey, Livi, what’s up?” He glanced at the clock on his wall. At five minutes after four, Olivia would be fixing a coffee and preparing to grade papers after her students had left.
“Same old, same old. Has this been a long week or what?”
After Hurricane Nina, Nolan's Resolution (Hot Hunks-Steamy Romance Collection Book 2) Page 4
