Chapter 96

Olivia

A sense of confusion washed over me as I watched Nathan charge toward Levi.

I saw the anger flashing in his eyes. My heart was already aching from the disaster of a so-called ‘dinner’ with Ryan, and Nathan’s unfounded rage was an unwelcome addition to the mix.

“Nathan, stop!” I cried out, trying to intervene, to place myself between him and Levi. I bolted down the stairs toward them, putting my hands out to stop Nathan. “What are you doing?”

I didn’t know why Nathan was so furious, but the last thing we needed was another scene tonight.

Ignoring me, Nathan growled at Levi, his voice raw with fury as he balled up two fistfuls of Levi’s shirt in his hands. “Who the hell do you think you are?!” he repeated. “Keep your hands where they belong! Understand me?”

“U-Uh, Sir?” Levi stammered, clearly taken aback by the unexpected attack. “Surely there’s a misunderstanding.”

Nathan’s dark gaze flicked to me. “Go inside, Olivia.” His voice was cold and dark. His eyes flashed, and it was then that I realized it; he had followed me to the restaurant. He saw me cry on Levi’s shoulder.

I didn’t move. “I’m not going anywhere until I know what’s going on,” I whispered, my voice equally as icy.

His eyes turned steelier at my refusal, and he swung his attention back to Levi. “You're here to be an escort, not a paid boyfriend,” he spat. “Next time you touch her…”

I gaped at him. He thought Levi and I…?

“You've got the wrong idea, Nathan," I tried to explain, but he was beyond listening.

Levi held up his hands in a placating gesture, attempting to defuse the tension. “I apologize if I crossed any boundaries, Sir,” he said. “I didn't mean to cause trouble. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

Nathan glared at Levi. A low, menacing growl rumbled in the back of Nathan’s throat, but he released his grip on Levi’s shirt.

“Get out of here,” Nathan murmured. “You’re lucky I don’t fire you right on the spot.”

Without another word, Levi turned on his heel and walked away, leaving me alone with an enraged Nathan.

My heart pounded in my chest as he turned to face me. The night had taken a turn I wasn’t expecting, and my mind was struggling to make sense of it.

“Nathan?” I murmured.

He didn’t respond. He just brushed past me, his shoulder bumping mine as he passed by. I followed him up the stairs, my eyes glued to the side of his head.

We walked into the house, a heavy silence falling between us. I glanced at him as he shut the door behind us, his expression inscrutable.

“What was that all about?” I finally asked, my voice barely above a whisper. The silence was suffocating.

He let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. “I followed you to the restaurant,” he admitted. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

I frowned. “I gathered that,” I said quietly. “But why take it out on Levi? He didn’t do anything.”

Nathan’s face darkened. He shook his head. “I saw the two of you together. I saw how he held you, how you cried on his shoulder. It’s one thing for you to talk to your ex,” he said, his voice low, “but another to try to hook up with your escort.”

I was shocked. “I would never...” I began, my words trailing off. Why was he even saying these things? Why did he care? We were just friends...weren't we?

Admittedly, the thought had crossed my mind for a split second as I looked down at Levi from the porch. But it was the first and last time; it was nothing but a brief machination of my own loneliness and sadness.

I didn’t actually want Levi. I saw him as a decent enough friend, someone to talk to, but nothing more.

“Nathan,” I whispered, forcing myself to look him in the eye. “Even if I did want to hook up with my bodyguard, why should you care? Our ‘relationship’ is only for the public. You and I are not together.”

His body stiffened, his gaze finally meeting mine. For a moment, we just stood there, silent.

Then he was stepping closer to me, his body so close to mine that I could feel the heat radiating off of him. My heart pounded in my chest, a wild drum beat that echoed in my ears and drowned out everything else.

I felt a magnetic pull between us, as though some unseen force was trying to draw us together. But Nathan didn’t reach out to touch me. His hands remained balled into fists at his sides, his knuckles white with tension.

His blue-green eyes bored into mine. They were so intense, so full of emotions I couldn’t begin to comprehend.

But there was one thing I knew for certain. It was the same thing that had made my heart skip a beat every time I looked at him since we met.

Attraction. It was there, raw and unfiltered in his gaze as he stared down at me. And I was sure he could see the same in mine.

His anger about Ryan and Levi wasn't just about crossed boundaries and grudges. It was about something else, something that was somehow more serious than the former.

It was jealousy, plain and simple. He was jealous because he didn’t want me to meet up with my ex, because he… Couldn’t stand the thought of another man holding me while I cried on his shoulder.

I just wished that he would admit that.

“What are your true feelings, Nathan?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

For a moment, he just stood there, silent. Then, he shook his head, his gaze dropping to the floor. “I don’t know, Olivia,” he muttered.

With that, he walked away from me, heading toward his bedroom. The thin space between us was now an empty void, filled only by the lingering scent of grapefruit salt and an ache in my chest.

He jogged up the stairs, skipping two at a time. I heard him shut his bedroom door behind him, leaving me alone in the quiet house. I heard the faint click of the lock after that, and my heart sank as the reality of my solitude set in.

I stood there, staring at the dark stairway. The house was too quiet, the silence echoing off the walls and amplifying the chaos inside my head. We hadn’t even turned on any lights yet.

What was I supposed to think? What was I supposed to feel? I didn’t know.

All I knew was that I had just glimpsed a side of Nathan that he’d never shown me before. I had seen the depth of his feelings, whatever they might be. He might have been too scared to say it out loud, but it didn’t matter; I had seen it all now.

And it scared me, because I was starting to realize that I might be feeling the same way about him.

But, as always, things were complicated. Our friendship was complicated, our feelings were complicated, and Nathan… he was the most complicated of all.