on, Livy.” Blaze turns his wide, calloused palms up. His hands are beautiful in their roughness and wickedly talented in multiple areas. She’s going to miss the magic they wield in his metalworks studio and her bedroom.
Her cheeks flush with warmth and she scowls at her traitorous thoughts.
Blaze dares a step in her direction. He arches a brow. His gaze smolders. “You know it’s not mine, baby.”
“How would I . . .” She stops, exasperated over her own naivete.
A naughty smile frames his jaw.
“Oh, my god,” she says, appalled. He thinks she knows it’s not his because she’s seen his, and touched his, and . . . She is not going to let her mind go there.
Olivia stoops to pick up his PUMA high-top, one of the last items she hasn’t relocated to the front lawn. She gave him a drawer last year after he and his team finished the remodel on her house, and since then, he’s taken over half her closet. He doesn’t live here, not officially. Though he’s at her place all the time. He has his own house past the country club among the wineries, but she got lax and let him encroach on her space. Until an hour ago she liked having him in it. Who can blame her? The sex is phenomenal. He cooks a mean Bolognese. And maybe, just maybe, dating Blaze let her recapture some of the feelings she lost when summers at the lake house stopped.
She swings her arm back, aiming to toss him the shoe. If he gets anywhere within arm’s reach, he’ll kiss her, distract her, and before she knows it they’ll be on the bed messing up her sheets because she’s a sex-crazed monster. She has no willpower when it comes to Blaze’s charm, which is why she ended up back in his arms after she’d sworn off men when the last guy she dated back when she lived in San Francisco keyed her Mercedes. Big mistake.
Every time she’s opened her heart to someone, even a little, they’ve betrayed her. Yet again, she’s been hoodwinked.
Blaze points a warning finger. “Don’t do it. You’ll break something.”
She underhands the shoe. He doesn’t even duck or try to grab for it, her aim is that far off. They both watch the shoe arc across the room like a puma leaping over a narrow river and connect soundly with the bureau top, shattering her favorite bottle of Jimmy Choo.
“No!” She sulks. She loves that perfume, and it’s not cheap.
Blaze starts to pick up the glass shards.
“Leave it,” she barks, more upset with herself than with him. How could she have been so gullible? He cheated on her with Macey Brown, of all people.
If it weren’t for Macey, Olivia wouldn’t have broken up with Blaze. She wouldn’t have met Ethan.
And Lily wouldn’t have run away.
“Whoa, Liv. Chill.” He holds up a hand. “Just getting my shoe.” He slowly bends over, his gaze locked on Olivia as if she’s a wild animal ready to pounce. He picks up the PUMA and tucks the shoe under his arm.
“Let me explain,” he begs not for the first time, standing to his full height.
“Please don’t.” She retreats into the walk-in closet. The other shoe has to be in here somewhere. She nudges her own shoes with her foot and pulls designer handbags off the shelf, leaving them in a heap on the floor. There isn’t any logic behind her search, but right now she isn’t thinking logically. She wants him to leave, and he won’t go anywhere until she finds the cherished mate to his favorite pair of sneakers. But the shoe, like its namesake, remains elusive.
“Liv . . . Liv . . . Olivia.”
“I’m looking. Damn.” She moves aside the laundry basket and returns to the room. “I can’t find—”
Blaze holds up the second shoe. “It was under the bed. Hey, baby.” He crosses the room to her. “I—”
“Don’t ‘baby’ me.” She wags a finger. “Macey Brown? Really?” When Macey’s name flashed on Blaze’s phone, Olivia felt like she’d been tackled from behind while at a full sprint. It knocked the wind from her, leaving her gasping as decades of old hurt and sorrow flooded her lungs.
“It wasn’t me. It was Shane.”
Does he take her for a fool?
“Not buying it. We are over.”
“The hell, Liv.” He looks thoroughly bewildered.
She leaves the room that’s starting to smell like a perfumery—and memories of another relationship that soured long before its expiration date. Ethan had gifted her a bottle