Tall, Dark_.Westmoreland! - Brenda Jackson [48]
She lifted a brow. “What do you mean?”
“No sneaking around.”
She wondered why he thought that. “No, Reggie. It changes nothing.” She eased out of his arms and began getting dressed.
“Olivia?”
She turned to him. “My father is still running against you, and the election is not until the end of next month and—”
“You would want us to sneak around until then?” he asked incredulously. When she didn’t answer, he said, “I want you to meet my family. I want you to attend my family reunion with me in Texas in a few weeks. I want you by my side and—”
“I have to think about my father. He would not want us to be together,” she said.
“And I told you in the beginning, this doesn’t involve your father. You are a consenting adult. You shouldn’t need your father’s permission to see me.”
“It’s not about his permission. It’s about me being there for him, Reggie. I owe my father a lot, and I refuse to flaunt our affair in front of him,” she persisted.
“And I refuse to sneak around to see you any longer. That’s asking a lot of me, Olivia. I love you, and I want us to be together.”
“But we are together, Reggie.”
He was silent for a moment, and then he said, “Yes, behind closed doors. But I want more than that. I want to take you out to dinner. I want to be seen with you. I want to do all those things that a couple does together when they are in love.”
Olivia sighed. “Then you will have to wait until after the election.”
They stared at each other for the longest time. Then Reggie said quietly, “When you’re ready to let nothing get in the way of our relationship, our love, let me know, Olivia.”
Then he turned and walked out of the hotel room. As soon as the door closed behind him, Olivia threw herself on the bed and gave in to her tears.
Olivia slowly walked out of the Saxon Hotel, with a heavy heart. She’d told a man that she loved him, and then she’d lost him in the same day. She had stayed in the hotel room and cried her eyes out, and now she felt worse than ever.
Crossing the parking lot, she stopped walking when she glanced ahead and saw Reggie leaning against her car. She stared at him, studied his features, not wanting to get her hopes up. Inhaling deeply, she moved one foot in front of the other and came to a stop in front of him.
They stood, staring at each other for a long moment, and then he reached out and pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
Moments later he pulled back slightly and placed his forehead against hers. “I love you, and I want you with me, out in the open, not sneaking around, Olivia. But if that’s the only way I can have you right now, then that’s what I’ll take.”
Olivia felt a huge weight being lifted off her shoulders, but she knew it was at Reggie’s expense. He deserved to have a woman by his side, one that he could take to dinner, take home to meet Mom and invite to his home.
Leaning closer, she snuggled into his arms, close to his warmth and his heart. She knew that this was the man that would have her heart forever.
Ten
“Y ou’ve been rather quiet, Libby. Aren’t you glad to see us?”
Olivia glanced over at Duan and forced a smile. “Yes. I missed you guys.”
“And we missed you,” Terrence said, coming to join them at the breakfast table. “So why haven’t you been your usual chipper self the past couple of days?”
She sighed, thinking there was no way she could tell her brothers what was really bothering her. But she could tell them what Cathy had shared with her. “I’m fine. I’m just in a funky mood right now. It will pass soon,” she said.
Her brothers had flown in yesterday for the barbecue to be held that afternoon. It was an event she wasn’t looking forward to, because she knew that Reggie would be there. It would be hard to see him and not want to be with him.
“There is something I need to talk to you two about while Dad is at campaign headquarters. It’s something that Cathy told me,