Mistaken Identity (6 page)

Tired of this lazy yet erotic make out session, Olivia found that she wanted more.  It had been only a couple of days but she had missed him.  “Let’s move this inside,” she whispered and let out a little squeak of surprise when Daniel stood and then scooped her up into his arms. 

Daniel carried her into the bedroom and it was only lit with two candles on her dresser; the firelight reflected off of the mirror and it was the perfect amount of light, she felt, for them to make the transition from the bright lighting he’d been forcing on her to the need for darkness that she wanted.  He placed her gently on the bed and instantly reached for the bedside lamp.

“No,” she whispered and reached out a hand to stop him.  “Not tonight.  I want to make love to you by candlelight.”

“I want to see you, Liv,” he said huskily.  “I love to see you.”

She laughed quietly, seductively.  “You’ve seen me plenty of times.  Tonight I want you to just feel me.  Use your hands, Daniel.  Please.”  She could tell that he wasn’t one hundred percent on board but he moved away from the lamp and came down beside her to kiss her again.  He worked her shirt over her head and peeled her bra away before lowering his head to taste her. 

Olivia was in heaven.  This was the first time she felt as if they were connecting on a more personal level; this wasn’t about sex, now there was emotion.  His hands were gently caressing her from shoulder to knee and then he was working the silky pants down her legs.  He tossed them aside and ran a hand over the smooth skin of her legs and growled his approval.

“You’re so soft, Liv,” he whispered, “always so soft.”

It was as close to a compliment as he’d ever given and Olivia felt herself glowing from it.  It shouldn’t matter so much, these little things, but she was finding that they did.  She had allowed this relationship to get to this point and it was no one’s fault but her own if she wasn’t happy with it.  Thankfully Daniel seemed open to changing things and she was actually beginning to feel hopeful.

He began to peel her panties away when he stopped and straddled her.  Daniel unbuttoned his shirt and took it off, staring intently down at her.  He ran a hand up her rib cage and came around to cup her breast and play with her nipple.  “You’re so responsive to me,” he said gruffly.  “I love the way your body responds to mine.”

Olivia purred at the touch of his hands and the caress of his words. 

“Does it feel good?” he asked and when she merely nodded, he demanded, “Tell me.  Tell me how much you crave my touch, Olivia.” 

The words were the same she’d heard dozens of times before and for the first time ever, they were a complete turn off.  “Get off,” she said and when he didn’t move she said it with more force and shoved at him.  “I said get off!”

Daniel moved and then reached for the light.  “If you turn on that light I swear to god I’ll kill you
with it,” she threatened.

“What the hell’s gotten into you, Olivia?  What’s going on?”

Olivia scrambled off of the bed and found her shirt and pulled it on and then her pants.  “What’s going on?  What’s going on?” she shrieked.  “After a month of sleeping with you, you still don’t trust me!”

“What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded, standing up and towering over her.

“You will never let me forget how this started between us; you’ll forever be asking me who I’m thinking of, whose touch I want…I don’t want David!  I’m here with you, dammit!  It’s you that I want but you’ll make me say it, force me to look at you the entire time we’re doing it because you need to make sure that it’s you that I’m thinking of and not David!  Well you know what?  I’m tired of having to prove myself!”

“You’re being ridiculous,” he said, desperately trying to calm her down even though he knew every word she spoke was the truth. 

“Am I?  It nearly threw you into a panic tonight to be in here with me with the lights out.  Why?”

“I like to watch you when we…”

“When we what?  When we fuck?” she spat.

“It’s not like that, Liv.  I just happen to enjoy seeing you.”

“You know what, I could understand that if it was once in a while, but it’s not.  It’s every damn time.  Have you ever once considered what it is that I like in the bedroom?”

“You seem to like what we do just fine,” he spat.  “I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“The big deal is that the only one thinking of someone else while we’re in bed is you.  Not once since that first night has there been any other man on my mind but you’ll never let me forget it; you’ll never let me forget that I did something so stupid.   Well I’m tired of it,
Daniel,
” she spat his name.  “I want you to leave.  This…this whatever it was between us is done.  I don’t want you, I don’t want your brother, I just want to be left he hell alone.”

Daniel wanted to argue with her but he heard the tremble in her voice.  “Liv, please, let’s just talk about this.”

“No, I don’t want to talk about this,” she said wearily.  “We aren’t good at talking.  I thought that we could be but apparently we’re not.”

“That’s not true!” he countered.  “You’re just not giving it a chance.”

“I think a month is a pretty long chance.  If I hadn’t invited you here tonight you might have shown up at some point and we would have had sex for a few hours but then you would’ve left.  Before I woke up.  You never stay, you never tell me when you’ll be back and like an idiot, I’m here waiting for you.  I thought it would be enough.  I thought that maybe you’d realize that I’m here waiting for
you
and then I wouldn’t have to prove it to you repeatedly that it was you that I see, feel and want.”

“I don’t understand how we went from a nice dinner and agreeing to start seeing each other outside of her
e to right now!  I mean, I can’t keep up with you, Olivia!  What am I supposed to do here?”

“You’re supposed to leave,” she said sadly.  “We’re not as compatible as I thought we were.  I can’t be the woman that you want and you certainly can’t be the man that I need.”

“You’re not being fair; you just changed the rules here tonight and then got mad when I didn’t understand them.”

“I know,” she said quietly.  “I didn’t understand them either until just a few minutes ago.”

“We’ll turn the lights out!  I won’t ask you a damn thing; hell, I won’t say a fucking word!  Can we please just go back to about ten minutes ago and forget all about this?”

Olivia wanted to say yes; she wanted to believe that it could be that simple but she was done being a fool.  “You don’t forget,” she said simply.  “It’s who you are.  It’s the lawyer in
you; you are a stickler for details.  I can’t change what I did a month ago; I wish that I could, but I can’t.  I’d like to forget how we started and just focus on the fact that we did, in fact, start.  But you can’t forget and in turn, won’t let me, either.”

As much as it pained him, he knew she was right.  Slowly, he reached for his shirt and put it back on.  He straightened his clothes and headed out of the bedroom, stopping in the doorway with his back to her.  “I thought I could move on from it,” he admitted quietly.  “I thought that eventually it would stop taunting me.  I don’t even realize that I’m doing it most of the time.”

And with that, he left.

Chapter Seven

Olivia felt like crap.  It had been a week since she’d asked Daniel to leave her home and she ached all over with the loss.  It wasn’t just the sex, she missed him.  She was sitting in her office when she heard a knock at the door.  Assuming it was Tina, she let out a weary “Come in” and was surprised at who walked through the door.

It was David.

“David, what are you doing here?” she asked, forcing the cheery tone that she completely didn’t feel. 
She stood and walked around her desk to give him a hug.

“I came to see how my favorite girl is doing,” he said simply and sat down in the chair she motioned him to.

“Oh, really?”

“Well, actually that’s only part of the reason I’m here,” he began cautiously.

“Uh-oh,” she said.  “That doesn’t sound good.”

“Anna quit.”

“What?  Why?”

David sighed and slouched down further into his chair.  “Because I’m a prick, that’s why.”

Olivia looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.  “I don’t understand.  I thought she was doing great.  Daniel said…”

“When did you talk to Daniel?” he asked, confusion written all over his face.  “You and Daniel barely spoke while you worked for us.”

“Oh, um…I ran into him at one of our events and I asked how Anna was doing.  So what happened?  What went wrong?”

David squirmed in his chair a bit, refusing to meet Olivia’s gaze.  “Well, we sort of…you know…hooked up.”

“Hooked up?” she asked stupidly and then could have cursed herself for her naïveté.

“Remember when I told you that I had company at the retreat?”  Olivia nodded.  “Well, it was Anna.”

Now Olivia was mad.  “At the freaking retreat?” she cried out.  “She had barely been with the company for two weeks and you slept with her?  What is the matter with you?  You’ve never done something so stupid before!”

He looked up and gave Olivia a sad smile.  “Then I’m really good at hiding it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Liv, honestly, you never knew about the others?”

She paled.  “What others?”

David scrubbed a hand over his face, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation.  “This isn’t the first time; it’s just the first time that it happened with my own assistant.”

“I’m still not following you, David.”

He stood up angrily and kicked his chair aside.  “I’ve slept with other women who’ve worked for us.  All of Daniel’s assistants in the last year?  I slept with them all!” he shouted.

Olivia was stunned.  Where the hell had she been that she missed all of this?  “So Daniel wasn’t the reason those women quit?”  David shook his head.  “For crying out loud, David, how have you avoided getting slapped with sexual harassment suits?”

“It was always consensual, Liv, and it was always off the clock.  I just have no desire to do the long term thing.”

“Must run in the family,” she mumbled.

“What?” he asked, pulling his chair back to sit down.

“I said it must run in the family.  You and Daniel make quite the pair.”

David gave a mirthless laugh.  “Are you kidding me?  We’re as opposite as night and day.  The thing is that most people don’t see us for who we really are.  I know how to schmooze; I know how to put on the good ol’ boy charm.  Daniel comes off as a hardass but it’s just a defense mechanism.”

“For what?”

“Usually because he’s pissed at me and the things that I do.”

Olivia’s head was spinning.  For three years she’d worked for this man and looking at him right now he was a stranger.  “You certainly had me fooled,” she said disgustedly.

“Oh, don’t be like that.  We worked well together and I respected you; that’s why I never hit on you.”

It took every ounce of strength that she had to keep from reaching out and slapping his face.  “Gee, thanks.”

“No, I’m serious.  You were the perfect assistant and you made my life so much easier.  And beside that, I genuinely liked you.  I miss you, Liv.  I know that this new career thing is your dream but could you find it in your heart to help me out?”

Now she could see what he meant by putting on the charm.  It made her stomach turn.  How had she been so blind for so long?  The Slade brothers had certainly made her feel like a fool.  “I’m sorry, David, but I can’t.  Things are just starting to get busy around here and I need to keep my focus here.”

He sighed.  “I understand.  I don’t like it, but I really do understand.”

Olivia hesitated a minute and then decided to be brave.  “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“If I hadn’t been your assistant and had just been someone that worked for you, would you have ever…?”

“Hit on you?” he asked and Olivia nodded.  “In a heartbeat.  Hell, Liv, you’re a beautiful woman and if you had even given the slightest hint that you were interested, I might have had a hard time staying away.”

Her expression fell and she quickly looked away to hide the devastation on her face.  “What?  What did I say?” he asked.

Taking a deep breath to fortify herself, Olivia straightened in her chair and admitted the whole humiliating story of her final night at their beach retreat.  Once she finished, she gave a sigh of relief.  It was good to finally have it out in the open.

“So let me get this straight,” he said after a lengthy silence.  “You went to my room and slept with Daniel, thinking he was me.”

She nodded.

“And that’s why you were sneaking out so early Sunday morning?  So that you didn’t have to face him?”

Again, she nodded.

“Have you seen him again, other than at that one party?”

Her hesitation was all the answer he needed.

“Oh my god; are you the reason Daniel’s been acting so weird lately?”  There was a hint of excitement in his voice as if he’d just received the best news.

“I don’t know what you mean by weird but I’m sure it has nothing to do with me,” she said quietly.

“That’s bullshit and you should never bullshit a bullshitter, Liv.  I can tell by the way you’re avoiding the question that this was more than just one night and Daniel has been very distracted in the last month.  You’ve been seeing each other, haven’t you?”

There was no use denying it.  “We were having sex, not seeing each other, but it’s over now.”

“Why?”

Olivia had had enough.  She didn’t want to discuss this, especially not with the man responsible for the real problem in hers and Daniel’s relationship.  “Come on, Liv,” he coaxed.  “I can tell that you’re not happy about it being over and if Daniel’s behavior this last week is any indication, he’s not happy either.  So come on, tell me what’s going on.”

She slammed her hands down on her desk and stood angrily.  “It’s because of you, dammit!  Daniel can’t get over the fact that I had originally tried to seduce you!  He’s fixated on that little bit of information and sex is like some sort of punishment where he’s bound and determined to make sure that it’s him that I’m with – mentally and physically – and you know what?  It’s exhausting!  It doesn’t matter how great the sex is, I refuse to spend the rest of my life proving that I made a mistake!  There, are you happy?”

David stood and walked around the desk and gave Olivia a hug.  “I have to admit that I’m flattered that you even wanted to seduce me,” he said lightly and Olivia squirmed from his embrace and punched him in the arm.  “But,” he began as he took a step back, “in Daniel’s defense, he’s the way he is because of me.  I always swooped in and took the girl away – whether it was a girlfriend or an assistant.  I guess I was too selfish to think about how it would affect him.”

“You really are a jackass, David,” Olivia said with disgust.  “You are not the man that I thought you were and more than ever, I’m glad it was Daniel in that bed.  I’m beyond disappointed in you right now but I would have been sickened if I had slept with you and then found out about this side of you.”

“Like I said, I’m a good actor,” he said sadly.  “I never meant to hurt you, Liv.  That’s why I kept my distance.  I kind of liked that you had that image of me and that we had such a healthy relationship.  Hell, you were probably they most normal relationship I’ve ever had with a woman.”

“That’s just sad,” she said and shook her head with disgust. 

“Let me help make this right,” he said, reaching out to take her hand.  Olivia recoiled from his touch.  “Please, Liv; I am solely responsible for this mess and I need to make it right.”

“You’re not solely responsible but you are a huge contributing factor.”

“Then let me help.”

She shook her head and sat back down.  “There’s nothing you can do.  This is something that Daniel has to get over and I’m not interested in waiting around for the possibility of that happening.”

“I see,” he said, sitting down on the corner of her desk.  “So you’re telling me that your feelings for Daniel were just superficial?  It was just about the sex?”

She wanted to tell him that he was right but she was never a very good liar.  “No.  I was really starting to have feelings for him.  But nothing I did was enough to get through that wall he’s built around him.”

David stared at Olivia, considering her words.  “I have faith in you, Liv,” he said with a smile.  “Now come and have a drink with me.  I’m meeting up with some of the people from the office – not Daniel.  I know they’d love to see you.”

“Oh, I’m not up to going out…”

“Nonsense,” he said, standing and taking her hand and pulling her to her feet.  “I think that you need to get out for a little bit.”

“Who’s going out?” Tina asked, walking into the office.  “Hey, David!  I didn’t know you were here.”

“Hey, Tina,” he said with a smile.  “I’m trying to convince Olivia to come on out for drinks with her former co-workers who miss her desperately.”

“Oh god yes, she definitely needs to get out.”

“I’m standing right here,” Olivia reminded them both.

“We know, Liv,” Tina said, “and we’re just agreeing that moping does not look good on you and it’s time to get out and have a little fun.  What do you say?”

Knowing there was no way to say no to these two, Olivia had no choice but to agree.

****

Two hours later, Olivia was glad she’d given in.  It was good to see her old friends and she was having a great time. 
She was on her third fruity, rum infused drink when David came over and took her by the hand.  “Dance with me,” he said with a wicked grin.

How many times had she fantasized about a scenario like this and now, knowing what she did about him, it made her a little bit sick. 
His hand was soft in hers, not large and rough like Daniel’s and the look in his eyes was a little smarmy, not heated and intense like Daniel’s.  Damn, she had to stop with the comparisons!  She was here to have fun and forget about the man who had consumed her for the last month.

“Sure, why not,” she finally said, taking a final sip of her drink before letting David lead her out onto the dance floor.  Olivia really wasn’t much on dancing but the party atmosphere in the club had her jumping around with everyone else and when the music slowed and David pulled her into his embrace, she simply went along with it.

“I’m glad you came out tonight, Liv,” he said into her ear.  “I really do miss seeing you every day.”

She smiled.  “I have to admit that even though I love what I’m doing and making my own hours, I miss seeing everyone.”

“You know there’s always a place for you at Slade’s.  You say the word and any position you want is yours.”

And Olivia knew he was speaking the truth.  While that thought was comforting, his arms around her were not.  He was holding her a little too close; his breath a little too warm on her cheek and she began to attempt to pull away.  David didn’t budge.  When she clearly began to struggle,
he finally got the hint.  Actually, his grip loosened and she felt him tense up, staring toward the door.  She followed his gaze and gasped.

Daniel.

There was no denying that he’d seen them dancing together; his expression was one of barely banked fury.  Dammit.  Olivia stepped away from David and was about to walk toward where Daniel was standing but he turned abruptly and walked out.

She turned back to David and was ready to unleash her own fury on him
.  He had said that Daniel wasn’t going to be there!  Had that been the truth or did he set this whole thing up as some sick and twisted game to taunt his brother?  Olivia looked at him, the question on the tip of her tongue, but he was simply standing there with a smirk on his face.  “I think that went well, don’t you?”