Chapter
1
Olivia Martin could not pinpointthe moment she became the type of woman who wanted to throw dishes, but it might have been when she met Chuck Walsh. Together, they had only two speeds: tearing each other’s clothes off or tearing each other’s heads off. And that morning, someone was going to get decapitated.
“Well, that’s justfine!” Chuck bellowed, arms out as he danced his bare feet away like she might actually let loose the coffee mug in her lifted hand. He’d hardly had time to pull on his pants before they began shouting. She was scantly better in her underwear and his tee shirt she’d grabbed from the floor as they had, in fact, just finished tearing each other’s clothes off.
“Fine?It’sfine?” Olivia yelled, and set the mug down before she did anything else she’d regret, given she was already roiling in self-directed rage for sleeping with him. The mere thought of smashing the mug into his kitchen floor filled her with a satisfying rush, but she let it go. If only she had the same willpower to resist when it came to him.
The dishes were utilitarian at best anyway—something to stock Chuck’s cabinets in an illusion of domesticity when the man lived off fancy restaurant menus and set catering. She could smash up his whole West Hollywood apartment with a bat, and he wouldn’t care. If she really wanted to hurt him, she needed to go for the miniature city skyline of skincare products lining his bathroom sink. Creams and balms and serums made to preserve his gorgeous face in a state of tempting perfection. Or his closet. As much as she loved tearing his clothes off, Chuck loved putting them on, and who could blame him; he looked hot as hell in anything he wore.
They hadn’t even made it to his bedroom that time. They’d done it right there on the kitchen floor in a heated makeup session that turned Olivia’s messy world right side up for all of ten minutes. Ten minutes of Chuck’s hands and mouth, his obscenely flawless body, his knowledge of her body like a cartographer tracing his favorite map. It had been perfect, like it always was, and she’d expressed her appreciation for his skill by digging her nails into his back and kicking the floor in repeated thuds the downstairs neighbors could surely hear.
And then Chuck opened his mouth and reminded her what they had been making up over in the first place.
“Yes, it’sfineif you never want to talk to me again because, quite frankly, I can’t take this anymore!” he said, and threw out his arms in a dramatic show. His wingspan took up half the granite and chrome kitchen. He lived in an apartment well above his means, something truly better suited for an A-lister, which was part of the reason he was so broke.
But Olivia was hardly one to talk. She was broke too.
Olivia grumbled again, feeling cheated thatshewas the one who’d come over to break up withhim, and not only had theyjust slept together, but now he was turning himself into the victim.
He was a magnetic, irresistible, but ruinous force, and she knew what had to be done. Even theTitanicsank, after all. And something as big as what they had together, something electric but fraught with arrogance and egocentrism—belief that their problems would resolve on their own without any work—was always destined to sink anyway.
But she couldn’t deny that the spark was still there, would probably always be there. Standing there in his kitchen, Chuck looking so good barefoot and shirtless in jeans that it should have been illegal, she felt her body aching for him. She sensed the urge in him too. She saw it in the way his tongue flashed over his lips while he stared at her, chest heaving from all the shouting. Even though they’d just had each other, they could never get enough. Even if it killed them both.
They were fire and gasoline—or they had become as much. Back when they’d met, when Olivia had come to interview him for an actor spotlight feature inMix, the entertainment magazine she wrote for, there’d been an instant spark. She’d found herself agreeing to a date that same night and immediately passed the interview assignment to someone else because she knew after one afternoon with him that they had no shot at a professional relationship. The spark quickly exploded into an all-consuming addiction of fighting and making up that she’d tried and failed to kick multiple times over the past six months, but Chuck was so loyal that extracting him from her life left Olivia considering calling an exorcist.
If she was honest, though, it was as much him not leaving as it was her not letting him go.
Until now.
“I can’tbelieveyou didn’t show up!” she shouted, her renewed anger back to boiling now that her blood had stopped speeding from being tangled up on the floor with him.
“I was busy,” he said, repeating his useless defense from earlier.
Olivia scoffed and folded her arms. “You knew about the party forweeks, Chuck. You had plenty of time to plan.” Memory of the disappointed look on her beloved grandmother’s face from the night before stabbed her in the heart all over again. “I reserved a special room at her favorite restaurant. I even got permission to invite her best friend from the care home.Youwere supposed to be there but instead left me alone with two octogenarians wearing their best pearls and wondering why they’d been stood up!”
He flinched at each truth she volleyed at him.
Instead of listening to his excuses last night when he finally calledhourslater, she showed up at his apartment bright and early this morning to give him a piece of her mind.
She ended up giving him her body too, but that was neither here nor there. Whatmatteredwas that it was the final straw, and they were done. Over. No more Olivia and Chuck.
“What wasso importantthat you skipped my grandmother’s birthday party?” she asked, knowing his response would not measure up. Not unless he’d been rescuing kittens from a burning building and donating AB negative blood to save lives at the same time.
“I had a last-minute audition,” Chuck said. He lifted his arms and let them fall at his sides.
Olivia glared at him. It was plausible since they’d gone to dinner while the sun was still high in the sky to suit the guestof honor’s meal schedule. And she knew Chuck had been struggling to find work lately because of the recent incident that had given him the reputation of being difficult on set, so he was likely to jump on any opportunity he had.
A moment of weakness got the best of her.
“Did you get the part?”
Chuck chewed his lip and silently stared at the floor in response.
Olivia instantly regretted her sympathy and went back to fury. “Argh!” she growled, and snatched her denim shorts off the floor to step back into them.
“Where are you going?” Chuck called after her when she marched for the front door.