Ollie grabbed my hipbones, pinning my center to his until every muscle in his body tensed under his inked skin as he came undone. “Nobody controls my body like you can,” he whispered into my hair. “You take me and make me crazy, love.”
I laughed into the crook of his neck. “Good morning, by the way.”
His hands roamed from my ass and over the scars of my back. “I knew I liked mornings for a reason.” And his nose brushed mine once more before I rolled off of him and to his side.
“Ollie?”
“Yeah?”
“Why do I feel like this is the calm before the storm.”
Ollie rolled onto his side and licked his lips. His mouth opened, about to say something, then closed, stuck in turbulent thoughts. “You’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you.”
“A cemetery,” I questioned, my tone pitched and recovering from the story he’d gone over. Twice, because I asked him to retell it to be sure I’d heard correctly. “You buried the money in a fucking cemetery?”
“Yes.” He nodded, resolved.
“Let me get this straight. You stole all the assets from your brother’s prostitution ring and buried it next to George something’s gravesite because …”
“‘When death comes, it is never our tenderness we repent from, but our severity’, George Eliot,” he quoted, which didn’t help clear this up at all.
“I don’t think Mr. Eliot wanted the earth around him disturbed by fuck money.”
“First of all, George Eliot was a woman and a legend. Second, I think she’d find the irony amusing.”
I rolled my eyes. “Very poetic, Ollie.”
“Thank you,” he said through a smile. “Tonight, we have to break into Highgate cemetery to retrieve the money.”
“Then you’re just going to, what? Hand the money off to Dex?”
“That’s the plan.”
“How much are we talking?”
“forty-three grand, give or take. But Dex doesn’t know how much exactly. I’ll give him half, and drop the other half off to Brad Burn’s family. Leave the rest for his kids and wife. They don’t deserve to struggle without a father.”
“That’s a lot of money you buried.”
“I was pissed off whiskey and a grudge. Lost a grand somewhere between the car and the tombstone, I’m sure,” he shrugged. “Not my greatest moment.”
I shook my head, grinning.
Ollie stroked my side. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Tell me.”
“They say you can’t bury the money with you. You sure showed them.”
Ollie’s head fell back, a small cackle escaping.
“It’s just … I’m glad you told me, you know. Including me in this. You can’t take all your secrets to your grave.”
“Oh, here we go.”
“What?” I arched a brow. “Am I digging myself a deeper hole?”
Ollie’s smile was contagious, and he tried shaking his head through his laughter.
“We’re six feet deep into this mess,” I laughed, “and I could go all day.”
“You do that.” He smacked my ass. “I’m going to shower. You coming?”
“You going to bury yourself inside me again?” Ollie turned his head and walked away, but I felt his smile linger as I watched his smooth tanned ass all the way to the bathroom.
The sound of water bouncing off the tile spilled from the bathroom, and Ollie poked his head through the doorway. “You’ll be in grave danger if you’re not in here in five seconds.”
The car stopped in front of a cobblestone cottage, and my gaze snapped to Ollie, who wore a proud smile. “Welcome home, love.”E
“Ollie …” I whispered, my eyes glued to the charming little house.
He grabbed my hand from my lap and brushed his lips over my knuckles. “Come on. I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time.”
Ollie cut the engine, and we both exited the car. My eyes landed everywhere, the gate with an empty bronze plaque waiting to be engraved, the tiny bridge arching over a creek, the mailbox, which was an exact miniature replica of the cottage. Vines crawled vertically up the front of the house, clinging on to the gray and white stone surface, and the front door was curved and chipped around the antique knocker. We’d left our bags inside the car, and Ollie opened the gate and let me walk ahead of him. “This is … I’m …”
“Gobsmacked?” he finished.
“Yeah, Ollie,” I laughed, “I’m fucking gobsmacked. Houses like this belong in books. Fairytales. They don’t belong in the real world.”
“This is real, and this is yours,” the door creaked open and we walked inside as he continued, “I haven’t been here yet, so please excuse any mess Travis left. Him and Summer stayed while I was away. But they’re gone now. It’s just us …” but I could hardly listen as I took in the nostalgic vibe the home transcended. We walked right into a small living room, and two thick wooden beams stood on both sides of us as a large leather couch sat against a wall, facing a fireplace. An old piano tucked in the corner. “Watch your step,” he grabbed my elbow, leading me off a single step.
Wordlessly, we walked through the living area, over the hardwood floors and toward the kitchen in the back, which overlooked a lake with a dock. The kitchen was small with open shelving, and I ran my fingers over the shelves, remembering what Ollie said back in Pennsylvania on my thoughts about them. Little did I know, he had been serious.
“There’s only two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Figured less square footage and walls between us would be ideal. I never needed much, Mia. I’m a simple man.”
“I love it.”
“You haven’t seen the best parts yet.”
“There’s more?”
Ollie grabbed my hand and led me to the master bedroom. The fireplace from the living room was a shared one with the master, and surrounding the brick were built-in bookshelves. Every detail was timeless, hand-crafted, and quaint. I followed him into the white bathroom where a free-standing tub sat against the back window, potted plants lining the sill.
“Okay, you’re going to love this,” he said excitedly, leading me out of the room and toward a narrow staircase lined in piles upon piles of books. “Ignore those. I’ve had books shipped, but I’m OCD about how they’re organized. I told Travis to set them anywhere.”
When our feet landed on the top step, it was a finished attic, complete with a dark room for my photography. Tears sprung in my eyes. “This is surreal,” I said through a shaky breath. “Ollie, this isn’t real.”
“It’s real,” he smiled, eyes glassy, “I can’t take all the credit. I put Travis to work. To be honest with you, I haven’t been able to come here at all. Not until I had you safely back.”
“This is your first time here?”
“It is. Travis did alright, yeah?”
“I can’t believe this,” I kept repeating. It was in front of me, but for some reason, I couldn’t comprehend it. For so long, I’d never thought I was worthy of not only a place to finally feel accepted and at home, but with a man who was so opposite of me—who was everything I wasn’t. A man who’d never stopped encouraging me or pushing me to be the best version of myself.