Bring the Heat by Margot Radcliffe (13 ebook reader .txt) 📕

last time to make sure everything was good to go. She’d be taking the small speedboat ashore to Nassau and flying from the little airport there to Florida and then straight to Colorado.

A sigh on her lips, she swallowed as she headed up to the sky lounge, for her last meal with Oliver and the goodbye that she was dreading. She opened the glass French doors and entered the deck, her heart clenching in misery when she saw him there, sitting at the table gazing off into the ocean, the same pain she felt etched on his face.

She could feel Oliver’s eyes on her as she moved to her chair, his pissed-off mood emanating from him in waves. They’d argued again this morning when she’d finished up packing and it hadn’t ended how it had last night with her pouring out her heart to him in bed. Just the thought of what they’d done and then the way he’d held her against him all night, how they’d woken up in the wee hours of the morning and made love, clinging to each other in the dark silence, was almost enough to make her stay. Tears threatened because she knew she couldn’t. What was a couple of months apart for him to have the life he’d dreamed about?

She took the seat beside him, brushing her hand over his knee as she did so. She wanted to soak up every last bit of him she could before she left. He must have felt the same way, too, because he pulled her chair flush against his and put an arm around her back, pulling her into him.

“Are you really going to do this to us?” he asked Molly, his voice hushed.

She hated that she was hurting him, but her mind was made up. Daphne had been a tangible reminder of what she’d known from the beginning: Oliver’s life didn’t include her and the threats to what he was trying to build were legitimate. His sister had flown to the Bahamas all in the hopes of warning him of what was to come, which meant it was serious. All of Molly’s fears from the beginning about how she didn’t fit into his life were realized and while she believed him that he wanted to build a new life together with her, it would never happen if his parents were that threatening.

“You know I need to go.” His eyes were sad and defeated, echoing the desolation she felt.

Molly speared a piece of tomato in her shrimp salad even though she had absolutely no appetite.

“I know you think that,” he said. “I just wish you’d trust me. I have it handled, Molly. Your presence in my life won’t make my dream impossible. You staying with me makes it all more possible.”

Molly shook her head because she didn’t believe him. She ate the meal with her gaze down, just trying to make it through without crying. The minutes were counting down until she left and she didn’t want to spend them arguing, not when every breeze that blew across the deck brought back all her memories of being with Oliver; his laugh, his smile, his hungry gaze, but most of all the look on his face when he’d said he loved her, would haunt her. He’d already been resigned that she wouldn’t say it back but hopeful that she would. And she hadn’t—that would haunt her as well.

The moment he’d said it, she’d known. She loved him so much and knew 100 percent that while she was leaving to help him, she was also doing it because she was terrified of not being enough for his world. And Oliver, whose parents wanted to ruin his life through her, and his own self who was charm personified. She couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t be collateral damage. She couldn’t trust him with her heart yet. Not in these extraordinary circumstances that she could barely wrap her head around.

The last bite of her salad eaten, she set her fork down, the metallic clink a sad sound that meant it was time for her to go.

Oliver rose, holding his hand out to her. His grip was warm and firm as he led her downstairs. Standing together on the stern, mere feet away from the speedboat that would take her to shore, Oliver drew her into his arms. Her luggage was already loaded onto the smaller vessel with a waiting bosun at the ready to take her to shore.

“What can I do to make you stay?” he murmured against her lips, his forehead resting on hers.

Her arms tightened around him and she just shook her head, not able to get words out.

He dragged her more firmly into his arms, her body pressed up against his, the last feel of his hard lines and ridges against her. She wanted to soak it all in to remember, to take out on her imminent cold winter nights alone.

“You could stay here with me, help me,” he urged. “Work together with me on this. We’ll be brilliant at thwarting my parents and building the best boats the world has ever seen, Molly.”

It was a plea and Molly would have to be made of stone not to be affected by it. The tears came, unstoppable, because she loved the idea of being on a team with him. “You know I can’t.”

“Why?” he pressed, pulling back and searching her eyes. “I can handle my parents, Molly. I’ve known I was going to do this for years. I have it under control. You don’t need to leave. And if you don’t want to work for me, I’ll let you buy some of the company and then we’ll truly be partners.”

She just shook her head, any words she might say stuck behind the lump in her throat.

“I don’t know what else I can say, but know that I love you so much, Molly. These weeks have been the best of my life. There’s nothing else that even comes close and