Page 129 of Breaking Point

“Olivia….”

“I’m asking you to stay,” I say finally. “I want you to stay.”

“As your bodyguard?” he says carefully, and I feel myself stall at the question. I hadn’t expected to get this far..

“I- I don’t know. I just know that I can’t stop thinking about you. It’s getting ridiculous at this point,” I say on a laugh, but what I don’t expect is for him to nod.

He doesn’t say anything, and part of me wants to just quit now while I’m ahead because maybe he doesn’t feel the same and-

“I can’t work for your father anymore.”

He leans against the seat of his bike, putting him directly at my height. I swallow down my pride at the words, but I can’t find it in myself to accept them. He doesn’t want to stay.

That’s fine, I assure myself, but then he surprises me again by saying,

“I gave your father my notice the day we came back.”

I feel my breath stall in my chest.

“I’m in love with you.” He says the words so casually. As if hearing them doesn’t set my skin ablaze. “I’ve known since the very first moment you lied to me at Skar and Charlotte's wedding. Do you remember?"

I shake my head, still is disbelief.

"You were alone in the chapel after the ceremony... It was dark. Everyone else was too busy watching the first dance, and I saw you sitting at the foot of the altar."

I remember that day. It was a whirlwind. I was so focused on getting Charlotte down that aisle that nothing else mattered. That one moment before the reception was the only moment to myself. And even then, I was barely keeping it together.

The one moment I had alone, I spent crying.

Some of it was grief. Most of it was just being so goddamned tired of having to brave face.

I thought he'd forgotten.

I laugh, my throat tight as I look up at him. "You asked why I was crying."

He hums. "You looked me right in the eye, wiped your tears, and said-"

"'I'm not crying,'" we say together.

He laughs, finishing, "And then you stood tall and walked right back out to the party. I almost wondered whether I imagined it. You looked happy. You were smiling and laughing- and no one could tell otherwise. But the one time you caught me looking at you, you had the deepest frown. And I thought you looked so fucking pretty."

The words make my head spin, and I’m not quite sure my knees haven’t given way.

“I can’t work for your father and pretend that I’m not in love with you. It’s clear in the way that I look at you. My parents called me on it… and I tried my damn hardest to tell them that things were just…” he rubs his neck before shaking his head and gazing at me again. “Things were just what we agreed, but I can’t lie to myself anymore. I can’t lie to you either.”

I don’t realize that I haven’t said anything until he stands to his full height and bridges the gap between us, cupping my face in his hands.

“I’m so in love with you, Olivia Hughes.” His nose brushes mine in the barest of touches. His next words are soft. Slow. “You make me feel more like myself than I ever have in my life.”

He kisses the need for words away, hands guiding me up onto my toes to kiss him. I can’t help the sound that escapes me. Something between a sigh and a gasp, and he smiles, walking me back until my thighs hit the back of his bike. I’m propped against the seat as he kisses me deeper, but this time, I don’t worry about whether this will be the last time.

I grip the hair at his nape, pulling him infinitely closer until kissing him leaves me dazed and more than a little drunk. I laugh when he leans in to kiss me again, a smile playing at his lips.

“I knew I’d get a real smile out of you,” he says softly, and when he gazes down at me again, I know I could spend the rest ofmy life living for just that. For his smiles, for his laughs, for every secretive glance and inside joke…

“Does this mean you’re going to stay?”

His nose brushes mine as he tugs a strand of hair behind my ear. “It means Taylor and I are out of a job.”

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