She shook her head, but more tears came.

"Don't cry, sweetie."

"I'm sorry," she murmured, but when he tried to pull her gently against him, she refused to let him comfort her. Comfort wasn't what she needed. Instead she surged up to kiss him, rolling her hips into him.

He thrust and kissed her back, so she rolled her hips again, sucking at his tongue until he moaned and stroked deep into her mouth at the same time he thrust deep into her sex.

For a while it was slow and good and hot as he primed her body, easing her toward a climax, but that desperation was back, clawing through her. Olivia put her hands to the table and eased back until she was flat against the cold wood. "Fuck me," she ordered, bending her knees to slide them higher up his body.

He looped his hands behind her legs and pulled them even higher. This time when he thrust, she cried out at the strength of it. She was totally open to him, totally vulnerable, and he slid deeper than ever with every thrust.

Olivia spread her arms and curved her fingers over the table edges, holding tight as he began to pound into her. She'd wanted this. Wanted him to take her just like this on a table, as if she'd been served up for his pleasure.

His hands tightened their grip and eased her legs wider. He was a glorious work of art as he worked himself inside her, his muscles flexing beneath his skin like an animal's. Olivia couldn't look away. Instead she watched him as she forced one hand to let go of its death grip on the table. She slid that hand down her body, and stroked her fingers over her clit.

"Yes," he snarled. "I want to see you come."

Oh, he would. Her body was already humming. Her nerves already pulling tighter around her clit as she rubbed it. She wanted to come for him. Wanted him to see what he did to her.

His teeth bared in a snarl, Jamie let go of any restraint. His thrusts became brutal as he watched her touch herself.

"Oh, God," she whispered as her body seemed to draw itself in. She felt nothing but his relentless invasion and her circling fingers. She was nothing but this in that moment. Nothing but an animal act. "God," she prayed. "Jamie."

Her body seemed to shiver and float up for a split second, and then it crashed hard back into her. She threw her head back and screamed, and Jamie growled his pleasure like an animal as her hips bucked against him.

Her body was numb by his last thrust. She couldn't even open her eyes as the last tremor shook through his body. She'd wanted to watch him, but she couldn't summon the will to be sorry.

Her skin was slick against the table. Jamie's hands eased their hold on her legs. But she couldn't open her eyes.

"Come 'ere," he muttered, bending down to ease one arm behind her back. When he lifted her, she managed a frown of displeasure and tightened her legs around him, so he wouldn't slip free of her body. She wasn't ready for that. But when he collapsed onto the couch, he was still deep inside her. Olivia snuggled close with a happy sigh.

"I don't want this to just be fun," Jamie said, his breath sliding over her shoulder. "I want it to be everything."

The last horrible remnants of that desperation stirred inside her. It dug its claws into her throat and pulled itself higher. She let it free on a sob. Her tears fell down her cheeks and slid over his skin. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "I'm sorry for what I said to you."

"Shh. It doesn't matter. And you were right. I did need to grow up."

She shook her head. "So did I."

"I think I'm in love with you, Olivia."

Her eyes popped open. She must have tensed, because she felt him chuckle. "I know it's harder for you. There's the divorce, and... I don't expect you to return the feeling. Yet. But I've never said it before, and I wanted to say it to you. Now you can tell me I don't know what I'm talking about."

She leaned back and framed his face in her hands. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Screw you."

Her gaze slipped down to their laps.

"Exactly."

"Jamie..." She tried hard to think what to say. How to dissuade him or herself or- "Hush," he ordered. So she closed her mouth and just looked at him. His gaze slipped to a place past her shoulder. "What's this?"

She tried to look without moving too much, but Jamie was easing her up. She closed her eyes as he slid out of her.

"Good Table Consulting," he said, and her eyes popped open.

"Oh," she said, twisting around to sit beside him. "That's... That's me."

"Are you kidding?" His face lit up. For her. He grinned and touched the logo on the screen. "That's you?"

"It is." She ducked her head when he looked at her, but his finger eased her chin up.

"You're doing it."

"I am." She couldn't help but answer his smile.

"You're amazing, you know that?"

"I'm just doing something I should've done a long time ago."

"I guess we're just a couple of late bloomers, huh?"

She kissed his sweet smile. "Some of us later than others?"

"Just a little, Ms. Bishop."

"I..." She couldn't say it. Not yet.

"I know," he whispered.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.

OLIVIA BURST FROM HER FRONT door as if she were breaking out of a starting gate. She was late. Late.

Well, she wasn't quite late, but she wasn't early, either, and she couldn't stand the idea of being late for her first dinner with Jamie's family. She was driving to Jamie's place first, so she could spend the night and still leave early enough to make it to Denver on Monday morning for an eight-o'clock meeting with a commercial real estate agent. She didn't need new space herself, but she needed to keep up with what was available on the local market.

Rushing for the parking lot while she balanced her bag and the chocolate cake she'd made for dinner with his family, Olivia didn't notice the girl standing next to her car. In fact, she'd already hit the locks and reached for the door when she caught movement close by and jumped with a little yelp. The cake slipped, but she held on to it.

"Allison?" she gasped as the girl stepped away from the bumper. "Good Lord, you scared me."

Allison set her jaw and didn't say anything.

Olivia blinked in shock at the sight of her. Not just because her presence was unexpected-and it was-but because she'd changed completely in the three weeks since Olivia had last seen her. Gone was the girl with the long ponytail and slightly bohemian dress. She'd cut her hair into a shaggy, trendy bob and she was wearing dark jeans and a black maternity top that was clearly designed to emphasize her pregnancy rather than hide it.

"Um. Were you waiting for me?" Olivia asked. The cake started to slip again, so she opened the door and set it carefully down.

When she straightened, Allison was glaring. She put her hands on her hips. "We're getting married," she said, each letter deliberately crisp.

"Oh. Well. Congratulations."

"I want you to stay away from him."

"Allison," she sighed. "That really won't be a problem. We've been living separate lives for quite a while now."

The girl smirked. "Yeah, right."

Good Lord. "Listen, I don't know what he's told you, but-"

"What he's told me is that he's still in love with you and that you're going to get back together."

"That's not true."

"Oh, I know it's not true now. I took care of that."

She looked so proud, the stupid girl. As if she'd won herself a prize. As if she'd trapped some valuable animal who- Olivia blinked and stared at Allison's smirk. "Oh, my God, you called the dean, didn't you?"

Her smirk wavered for a split second, but then she smiled as if she'd wanted Olivia to figure it out. "I had no choice. Victor was obsessed with you. He claimed I tried to trap him by getting pregnant, as if he had nothing to do with it."

"Did you?"

"No! But once I found out I was pregnant... He just wanted to walk away."

"I'm sorry. That's..." Olivia could understand how terrifying that must be, but, then again... "Did you ever think about letting him walk?"

"I'm not going to be like my mom. Kids by three different men, none of whom ever stuck around for more than two years. I didn't work my ass off in college to end up back where I started. I wasn't going to let him walk away."

"So you told the dean."

"You don't understand," she snapped, pointing her finger in Olivia's face. "After you started dating that guy, Victor couldn't stop thinking about it. It was driving him crazy. I kept telling him that he had me, but he just... Do you know what he did when I told him we were having twins?"

Olivia's eyes flew to the girl's belly in shock. She watched Allison curl a protective hand around her stomach.

"He went to your boyfriend's bar and got drunk and started a fight with him! As if that was going to change anything! He was panicking, so I did what I had to do."

"How does getting him in trouble fix anything?"

Allison shrugged. "It's not much of a scandal if we're married when the girls are born, is it?"

Oh, she was smart. Olivia could just imagine Victor's conversation with the dean. This isn't sordid, sir. In fact we're getting married in a month. Everything here is on the up-and-up. Not a scandal in sight.

Olivia crossed her arms and looked down at her feet. She wanted to tell Allison she was making a terrible mistake. Why would she want to marry a man who didn't want to marry her? But anything she said would be shadowed by the specter of the jealous ex-wife. The spurned woman. She- "Oh, my God," Olivia breathed. "You're the one who called Lewis, aren't you?"

Allison shrugged again. "I figured things would be easier if you had to leave. Then Victor wouldn't see you every day at the U."

"You know what? You deserve him. Congratulations."

"Just stay away from him," Allison repeated, her eyes glowing with triumph.

"You got it, girl."

Olivia got in her car and tried not to gloat as she pulled out. After all, she was on her way to see her cute boyfriend. The one who wanted her around and wasn't in love with another woman. But as she drove away, Allison grew tiny in the rearview mirror and Olivia's smile faded. Ten years from now, maybe Allison would wake up and realize she had bigger dreams than Victor Bishop. Olivia took a deep breath and wished her luck. The girl was going to need it.

All thoughts of Allison and her reluctant fiance disappeared like a popped bubble when Olivia pulled up to Jamie's house and found him sitting on the porch waiting for her. "Am I late?" she asked as she scrambled out of her car.

"Nope." He leaned in for a kiss as he stole the cake from her hands.

"I'm sorry. We'd better hurry. I don't want to make you late."

"Oh, I doubt anybody would be shocked."

"Don't say that."

"It's true." He transferred the cake to his truck and dropped her bag inside the house before locking up.

Once they'd pulled out onto the street, she took his hand and squeezed it. "Everything's going well now, right? With your family?"

"Everything's great, but it'll take a while to build up trust. I spent a lot of years breaking it down."

"I don't understand. From what I've heard, you didn't do anything too awful."

"I think it was more quantity than quality. When I was a teenager, I was always skipping school and blowing off assignments and hanging out where I shouldn't have been hanging out. Sometimes I'd take off for a couple of days, then just waltz back home like nothing had happened. But mostly, I just blew them off. I wanted them to leave me alone. I didn't want to owe them more than I already did."

She frowned at him, trying to figure out what he meant.

"But that was in high school," he said. "I mostly screwed around in college like any other kid at a notorious party school. Since then, I've just...gotten by."

"Why did you feel like you owed them?"

His eyes flew to hers before sliding away again. He shrugged. Traffic stalled out as a huge crowd of bicyclists passed in front of them. A police officer held up his hand when the light turned green. More bikes passed. They must have accidentally cut through a race route.

"What did you owe them?" she pressed.

He shook his head. "Everything."

"You mean Eric? He took care of you guys, right?"

"Yeah. It's complicated."

"By what?"