My gaze turned to her. "You have got to be fucking kidding me."
Rian
They were gummy dicks, but they were still a bag of dicks. I’d opened up the website a friend recommended, checked to see if they shipped to the UK, and then put in an order. It took me all damn week to see the fruits of my labor, but when I finally did, it was heaven.
He'd come back from some kind of fancy meeting, one I hadn't been invited to. But to be fair, Olivia and Jessa hadn't been invited either. When he came back, he looked drained, exhausted. When he saw a package on his desk, he lifted a brow. "Do you know who delivered this?"
"I'm sorry, but I'm not your receptionist."
He frowned, threw me a scowl, and then sat down and opened his package.
It took everything I had not to smirk at him as the bag of dicks was unwrapped.
The cellophane made that very satisfying crinkly sound. It was fantastic. And then under his breath, I heard him mutter, “What the fuck? Are these dicks?”
That was possibly the best part of this whole scenario. His utter confusion.
I lifted my head and then blinked up in surprise. After all I hadn't seen them except in a photograph until that moment. Each one was about an inch long and basically like a gummy bear.
"Oh look, someone knows exactly how big your dick is. That's impressive."
He lifted a brow, and then his eyes went dark. His pupils expanded so far they almost consumed the stormy gray portion. "I feel like you remember exactly how big my dick is."
"Now, I have no recollection of any such thing. Besides, we don't know each other, remember?"
He snorted. "Who the fuck would send them to me?"
"Probably a very knowledgeable woman." I chuckled to myself.
He scowled at me again. "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, this is bullshit."
I grinned. "I want to meet whoever sent you those. I feel like she's my hero."
He rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
God, I'd been relishing my self-satisfaction that day.
Also my satisfaction when we had another Kensington call and I killed it because he was distracted.
Probably trying to figure out the mystery of the gummy dicks. Score one for me.
His retaliation, though, came swiftly.
After running back from a meeting with another client that Jessa had wanted me to sit in on, I moved my mouse to unlock my computer screen, and the screen was upside down.
I frowned at him. "What the fuck did you do to my computer?"
He chuckled. "Like I have time to dick with you or your computer. I have real work to do."
"Oh yeah, real work. What did you do?"
"I keep telling you I don't know."
"My whole screen is upside down."
He shrugged. "Sorry can't help you."
That one took me most of the afternoon to get sorted out. I was useless and hamstrung. Having to take all my notes by hand and then transcribe them when IT finally came back and undid whatever damage he'd done.
The dicks, however, were the gift that kept on giving. I’d gotten a monthly subscription. For about fifty pounds, they were delivered every damn day.
A few days of it and he was already tired of them.
"I know this was you," he growled at me when he came back from the mail room.
I forced a completely placid look onto my face. It was quite the effort because all I wanted to do was dance with glee. "What was me?"
"You know what I mean."
I took a long sip of my water. "Honestly, I have no idea what you're talking about. Also, you've got a new package."
He growled under his breath. "Jesus fucking Christ. You should admit that this is you."
"I don't know what you're talking about." When in doubt, deny, deny, deny.
"This has to be you."
"You're assuming that I'm the only person you’ve pissed off in the last several weeks. They could be from anyone."
"Make them stop."
I grinned. "Make what stop?"
"I don't want any more dicks sent to me."
"Well then, maybe don't act like a wanker."
He growled at me again. "You are a piece of work."
"Takes one to know one." Perhaps not my most mature comeback.
"We can keep going back and forth like this all you want. I will wait you out.”
“Do me a favor and hold your breath while you do so."
He shook his head and narrowed his silvery gaze at me. “What happened to you to make you like this? I liked the old Rian so much better. Speaking of the old Rian, Her employment and school record has a one year gap. Where were you during that time?”
Icy beads of sweat rolled down my back as my adrenaline spiked. He didn't know anything. All he’d done was look at my CV. He was fishing. That’s all this was. It had to be. The problem was, when I was angry, sometimes my mouth got carried away with me. “Oh you know around. Since we’re playing catch up and all, how is Max? You two still thick as thieves?”
The moment Ollie lost control…or rather let it go was palpable. His silvery-gray eyes went raging stormy and the muscle in his jaw ticked. His enormous hand wrapped around my forearm in a snap and the next thing I knew he was dragging me out of our office, down three doors until he not so gently shoved me into the small conference room on our floor. “The fuck are you asking about my brother for?” A hint of his working class south London accent snuck in, but he shoved it back into its box as he leaned forward. “The real question is, have you seen Max? You always did have a penchant for stupidity.”
The icy lick of fear had me snatching my arm back and putting the small conference room table between us. The room was bland, a six by six room with a small table with a phone and ethernet jacks to wire in. The walls were bare save one watercolor of the Thames. His question…simple enough as far as he’d see it, shook me. Did he know? The hallucinations that had plagued me. Could he tell that for too long I thought I was losing my mind?
There was something in the way he narrowed his eyes at me. He didn’t know. He was fishing for information. He wasn’t making commentary on my mental state. He didn’t know. If he did, would he morph into the Ollie from that night? The gentle one who had looked after me?
Doubtful. That Ollie is gone.
By now, we were both standing over the conference table, hands planted firmly on the wood surface, practically hissing at each other. And that was how Olivia found us.
When Olivia cleared her throat from the door, her arms were folded as she leaned on the doorjamb. "Are you two finished? In my office. Now, please."
We jumped apart, plastered smiles on our faces, and both grabbed our notebooks.
We were fucked.
Rian
"Which one of you wants to be the one to explain to me what the fuck is going on?" Livy demanded.
All I could do was blink owlishly at Olivia. Had she just sworn? Holy shit.
Ollie sat forward. "I understand you're angry, and with good reason. We were just having a disagreement."
I slid him a glance that said do you think she's dumb?
And Olivia mirrored what I was thinking. "Ollie, please don't insult my intelligence. There's something going on with the two of you."