Forever Love

Book 4: The Heart's Way

by Elizabeth Castle

Genres: Contemporary Romance; Romantic Suspense; Workplace Romance; Romantic Suspense; contemporary romance; office romance; workplace romance; steamy romance

Synopsis

A bruised and battered heart. A wounded hero. The heart finds a way.

Olivia Knight didn't like Ellis Wallace when she first met him. He oozed charm, and charm was something she doesn't trust. She has learned the hard way that there were plenty of men out in the world who can't be trusted. When they met, she did her best to ensure he would keep his distance. But when she learns Ellis is hurt, she finds herself wanting to rush to his side.

Ellis Wallace doesn't want to be attracted to Olivia Knight. She's the complete opposite of the type of woman he dates. Not to mention, the woman is prickly and annoying. When he sees her again, he wants to ignore her presence but finds it impossible. And when she shows up at his home determined to help him regain his health, he can't help but wonder what her motive is.

The pair finds, much to their surprise, that the attraction between them is quite real, despite their rocky past. But when an ex-fiancée from Ellis's past comes between them, they will discover whether their love is fleeting or the kind that lasts forever.

Note from author: “This is the fourth book in The Heart's Way series, approximately 55,000 words. Before I wrote Ellis's story, I knew he needed a woman who could stand up to him. I like Olivia's spunk and knew she was perfect for Ellis. All The Heart's Way books can be read separately, but like most series, it's more fun in order. Please note this is an open-door romance. I hope you enjoy.” – Lizzy Castle.

Release date: May 4, 2018

Publisher: In The Air Publishing

Print pages: 216

Content advisory: Open door romance.

Sample

Chapter One

Ellis Wallace sat in the corner of the room, watching the festivities going on around him.  He would have skipped the wedding, but Lindsay had pleaded with him when he’d declined her wedding invitation.  He wasn’t sure why his ex-fiancée wanted him to attend her wedding, but he always did have a problem saying no to her.  They hadn’t been a real couple in ten years, hadn’t been lovers in five, and hadn’t spoken for the past year and a half.  He hadn’t known it, but that’s when she’d gotten engaged.  But when she’d shown up at his office asking him to please attend, he’d found himself agreeing.  Of course, that had been before he’d been shot.

This was the second wedding he’d attended in the past month.  The first had been his employer’s wedding.  He was happy she’d found happiness with her new husband Carter.  Though he’d still been in a lot of pain, he wouldn’t have missed that wedding for the world.  Selena had not only been his employer for the past six years, but she was also his friend.  And as of a month ago, he was her vice president instead of her bodyguard.  Though he never imagined himself in the role of a corporate executive, he now held the title.  And once his body stopped hurting and he could stay on his feet without tiring, it would be in fact, and not just in title.

So here he was at his ex’s wedding, sitting in the corner, wishing he could crawl into his bed and stay there.  The bullet that had torn through his upper chest was the one that bothered him the most.  Scar tissue had formed, but beneath the surface of the knotted scar tissue, he could still feel where the bullet had torn through, missing his spine by a mere half inch.  The bullet had also missed his heart.  His lung hadn’t been so lucky, but all in all, he had lucked out.  Three bullets, almost point-blank range, had managed to do very little damage to his internal organs.  A nicked liver, a hole in his lung, and a slug lodged in his left arm were what he got for his troubles.  But he was being paid to protect Selena with his life.  It had very nearly cost him that.

About an hour into the reception, Ellis started wondering if it was too soon to make his exit.  He’d listened to a toast, eaten rubbery, flavorless chicken, and drunk the glass of champagne put in front of him.  He wasn’t interested in the overly decorated cake that was currently taking center stage.  He figured that, as the ex-fiancé, he had more than fulfilled whatever obligation he had to the bride.

But before Ellis could struggle to his feet, he saw her.  He thought he had caught a glimpse of her earlier but thought it must have been his imagination.  There was no way Olivia Knight was attending the biggest social event of the year.  His ex, Lindsay, was now married to a Hollywood producer.  Lindsay didn’t come from a wealthy background, but she hung around some very influential people, and with some careful investing, investing he had done for her, she was now a wealthy woman.  Anyone who thought they were someone tried to get an invitation to this wedding.  Olivia was a cybersecurity agent with a PI firm.  The firm was one of the most well-known agencies in the country, but Olivia was just another cog in the wheel, no one special.  So what was she doing here?

But as he strained to get a better look at the woman in the darkened ballroom, he realized Olivia was indeed a guest at the party.  She wore a black dress with a slit up the left leg.  If he wasn’t mistaken, it was the same dress she’d worn to Selena’s wedding, where she had been working as a security guard.  He’d been furious to see her working out on the front lines instead of behind her computer.

Ellis didn’t consider himself old-fashioned, but Olivia wasn’t cut out to be a bodyguard.  Jack, her employer and his friend, had informed him that Olivia wanted to get out from behind her desk.  As a previous employee of Jack and as his friend, he’d felt no compunction telling him to get her back where she belonged.  Jack’s eyes had danced with humor, and he hadn’t followed Ellis’s advice.

Instead of leaving the reception, Ellis leaned further back in his chair and watched Olivia as she made rounds through the ballroom.  He didn’t have a hard time spotting her.  She stood out like a sore thumb.  The women attending the reception were wearing thousands of dollars in jewels and gowns with designer labels.  Their hair was styled and lacquered in place, not a strand allowed to stray.  Olivia was quite the opposite.  She wore a plain black dress paired with nothing more than a pair of black high-heeled sandals.  Her hair was loose and flowing down her back in waves.  She’d let it grow out over the past year, and it was now halfway down her back.  He had to admit he approved.

Olivia looked like an average California blonde.  Her honey-blonde hair was bleached from hours spent under the sun.  Her skin glowed with a natural tan.  Her bright blue eyes finished off the California blonde look.  He supposed she looked very girl-next-door.  He preferred brunettes, the more exotic the better.  The last woman he’d dated had been from Brazil.  Her honey-toned skin had been accompanied by exotic brown eyes and thick black hair that fell to her waist.  She’d come to California to be an actress, as so many other young women did.  But Natália had ended up with a modeling contract instead and had found success.  He’d met her through his work, as he did most of the women he dated.  Whatever social events Selena attended, he also attended.  And if the venue allowed it, he’d do a little socializing himself.  He was well paid for his services, and he looked the part of a rich, successful businessman.  And he supposed his hard edges attracted as many women as they deterred.

It still puzzled him why he had a hard time getting Olivia out of his mind.  She wasn’t his type.  He’d met her a year ago when he’d been working on a case for Selena.  Selena was a successful antiquities dealer, and she owned a huge corporation that specialized in various antiquities and artifacts.  She also helped catch those who were involved in the underbelly of the antiquities trade.  There had been one particular case where Selena had enlisted Jack’s help.  Both he and Selena had other matters to attend to, so Jack had sent them Olivia.  Jack claimed she was the best computer hacker he had, and that Olivia had some experience tracing missing property.  Jack hadn’t elaborated on what that property had been, but both Ellis and Selena trusted Jack’s judgment.

Olivia had been difficult and prickly the entire time she had been working under him.  Ellis admitted his first problem had been with her looks.  She had shown up at Powell Trading on her first day on the job wearing a pair of white capris and a tank top, paired with a pair of cheap sandals.  She’d not been wearing any makeup, and her damp, sun-streaked hair had been pulled back in a ponytail.  She’d hardly looked the part of a professional investigator.  She’d looked more like she’d just come from the beach.

His second issue with her had been her attitude.  She’d taken one look at him and dismissed him.  She’d asked him to show her where the investigation team was so she could get started.  When he’d told her he was the lead investigator on the project, she’d looked down her nose at him, brushed past him into Selena’s office, and asked Selena if she was really supposed to work with the macho man standing behind her.  Selena had been taken aback at first; then she had smiled at the woman.  Selena assured Olivia that Ellis was the right man and not to let the slick hair and fancy suit throw her off her game.

And when he was feeling honest, his third and final problem with Olivia was that despite her casual appearance and feisty attitude, he wanted nothing more than to strip her naked and have his way with her right there in his office.  Olivia was the exact opposite of every woman he dated, including Lindsay, and he couldn’t pinpoint the reason he found her so attractive.  They’d spent the next two weeks bickering and fighting like a couple of children.  He’d threatened more than once to fire her, but Olivia had told him to shove it and got back to work.  In the end, Olivia traced the man they were looking for quickly and efficiently, and the authorities had the man in custody within a few short hours.  Olivia had thanked Selena for the opportunity to help with the case.  Olivia had then subsequently refused every job Selena offered her through Jack.  She even turned down a job offer to come work for Powell Trading, which would have resulted in higher pay and steadier work hours.

Ellis found himself watching Olivia for the next half hour, all thoughts of leaving having fled.  She didn’t seem to be enjoying herself, and she didn’t stay in one place long.  She seemed impatient to leave, much as he had been before he saw her across the room.  She didn’t appear to be with a date, and she didn’t engage any of the partygoers in conversation.  When she did finally stop to talk to someone, he saw it was Lindsay’s best friend Mandy.  Mandy had been a constant fixture in Lindsay’s life.  She had also been one of the two reasons his relationship with Lindsay fell apart.  The first, and main reason, had been Lindsay’s brother, Baxter.  Baxter had hated Ellis on sight and had put a wedge between them.  Ellis had gotten tired of Lindsay’s devotion to her brother, who spent most of his time in a wheelchair, though he could walk.  Baxter was hardly an invalid, and Ellis had finally gotten tired of her brother’s negative attitude.  Ellis had told her to choose.  She’d chosen her brother.

Not that he blamed her.  It hadn’t been fair to make her choose, but Ellis had had enough.  Then Mandy had swept in after the breakup and made an already bad situation worse.  Mandy had tried to smear his reputation and destroy his career.  Thankfully he met Jack shortly after the breakup, and Jack hadn’t cared about the gossip surrounding him.  Ellis was one of the best hackers in the country, and Jack knew a good thing when he saw it.  He’d hired him immediately.  A few years later, he’d ended up employed by Selena Powell as her bodyguard and security expert.

Ellis realized he was staring when Olivia raised her eyebrow at him.  He’d been so absorbed in his thoughts that he hadn’t realized she had stopped circling the room and was now watching him watch her.  He pulled his gaze from hers, but he could still feel her watching him.  He swallowed the last of his champagne and told himself he’d spent enough time at the reception to fulfill whatever weird obligation he had to Lindsay.

“Let me help.”  Olivia stood in front of Ellis, extending her arm to him.  She saw his dark eyes once again find hers.  Those eyes, Olivia thought, were enough to make any woman swoon.  His looks weren’t too bad either.  He stood six-one to her five-six.  His hair was pitch black and kept a little long on top but short on the sides, where hers was blonde and long.  His eyes were dark brown pools, whereas her eyes were bright blue like a summer sky.  His skin was dark olive, while hers was just lightly tanned.  Two people couldn’t be more different.  And she had never been so drawn to a man as she was Ellis.  He was exactly what she didn’t want in a man.  He was rich.  He was classically handsome.  He was incredibly smart.  But buried beneath his polished good looks was a hard edge he couldn’t quite conceal.  If he chose to, he could easily overpower her, or any woman he wanted.

What frightened her the most was that she wasn’t really frightened of him.  They’d spent hours confined in his office, but not once had he made a move on her.  Most men, when confronted with her prickly personality, tried to find the soft woman beneath the prickly exterior.  Those men failed, of course, because they didn’t want to know the real Olivia.  They wanted to prove they were man enough to tame her.  When their charm didn’t work, most men resorted to name-calling, or worse, trying to force her into submission.  Ellis hadn’t done that.  He’d fought with her, argued with her, but he hadn’t called her names, and he hadn’t tried to force himself on her.  He didn’t know it, but just the fact that he’d given as good as he got, without resorting to brute force, had gone a long way toward softening her attitude toward him.

So here she was, extending her arm to him to help him up.  She knew he’d been shot.  It had made the papers and the local news.  But even if it hadn’t, she would have known.  Because Olivia’s employer, Jack, was good friends with Selena Powell, she would have heard about it at work anyway.  Jack knew why she had turned down several job offers from Ms. Powell.  Olivia couldn’t go back and work with Ellis again.  He set off every feminine alarm bell she had ringing.

But despite the warning bells, her first inclination when she heard about the shooting had been to rush to his side.  Knowing he wouldn’t appreciate the gesture, she stayed away.  Instead, she had kept track of his progress via her computer.  Though highly illegal, she’d accessed his medical records to make sure he would make a full recovery.  What she’d read had reassured her.  But when she’d seen him last month, she’d been anything but reassured.  Ellis had lost a lot of weight since the shooting.  She’d been acting as security at Ms. Powell’s wedding, where Ellis had been a guest.  Olivia could only be grateful she’d been there in an official capacity because she would have gone over to him that night.  Her heart had ached at the dark circles under his eyes and the way his tuxedo hung on his frame.

So what did she do the first time she came in contact with him outside her work?  She found herself offering him her arm as he scowled at her.  And instead of digging down deep for some feminine charm, she found herself getting defensive again.  “Come on, Ellis.  I won’t bite.  And you look like a good breeze would knock you over.”

Ellis was tempted to shove her arm away, but not only would that probably please her, it would also be stupid to turn her down.  Despite the progress he’d made with his physical therapy, by the end of each day, he was worn out and tired.  Grudgingly he took the offered arm.  He felt her slide closer to him, bracing some of his weight against her.

Olivia felt her heart twist in her chest.  Now that he was standing, she could see he still hadn’t gained all the weight back he’d lost.  It had only been a month since she had seen him last, but she supposed she had expected him to have made more progress in his recovery.  She didn’t know much about gunshot wounds, but she’d studied his medical files religiously.  The doctor was recommending that a personal trainer and a nutritionist be sent to his home.  He had refused both.

Ellis leaned on her a bit as they walked through the crowd.  “I certainly didn’t expect to see you here.  These people are not exactly your kind.”

Instead of being offended, Olivia nodded.  “No, they are not my kind.  And despite my earlier opinion of you, I don’t think they’re your kind either.  Why are you here?”

Her comment about her earlier opinion caught his attention.  “Are you saying you might be wrong about me?”

Olivia nodded.  “In some ways, perhaps.  But not all.  I still think you’re arrogant.  And I still think you’re a bully.  But I’m beginning to wonder about the rest.”

Ellis would have pushed away but didn’t have the strength.  “You mean there’s more?”

Olivia nodded again but went back to her earlier question.  “I wouldn’t think you would come to Lindsay’s wedding, considering your history.  And her new husband is probably not thrilled that his wife’s ex-fiancé is in attendance.”

Ellis frowned at her.  “And what would you know about my relationship with Lindsay?”

Olivia led him outside.  She held her hand out to Ellis for him to hand her his valet ticket.  When he obliged, she handed the ticket to the man waiting.  “I know more than you think.  I’ll tell you on the drive.”

“The drive where?”  Ellis let go of Olivia’s arm and leaned against the brick half-wall surrounding the front of the hotel.

“You’re not in any shape to drive yourself.  As I said, you look like a good breeze would knock you over.”

Ellis scowled, but he didn’t feel up to arguing with her.  Instead, he took the opportunity to admire the graceful line of her neck and back, the nice curve of her backside, along with her leg exposed by the dress.  Despite his exhaustion, he felt his body stirring to life.  It was always that way when he was around Olivia.  She ticked him off, but he still wanted her.  He wanted to feel those claws of hers digging into his back.  He wanted to feel her soften beneath him as he made love to her.  He wanted to kiss her until she couldn’t fight him, only surrender to him.

“I probably don’t want to know what you’re thinking about right now, do I?”  Olivia took the car keys from the valet and opened the passenger door for him.

“Probably not.”  Ellis eased himself into the passenger seat of his car.  When she climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine, his common sense kicked in.  “Do you drive a stick?”

Olivia shifted the car into gear and pulled out of the parking lot.  “For the sake of your car, you had better hope the answer to that is yes.”

Ellis felt his lips kick up into what was almost a smile.  As she drove through the city and beyond, she handled his sports car effortlessly.  “So what do you know about my relationship with Lindsay?”

“Just about everything, I suppose.  You dated for a couple of years, then ten years ago the two of you got engaged.  Not long after, she ended the engagement.  You two hooked up now and again until five years ago.  Since then, you’ve had a steady stream of women in your life.  None of them serious.”

Ellis couldn’t make out her features in the dim light of the car.  “And how do you know all that?”

“I’m Mandy’s half-sister, and she recently married Lindsay’s brother, Baxter.  Not to mention, they’ve been best friends since high school.”

Ellis’s curse was loud in the quiet confines of the car.  “I knew there was a reason I didn’t like you.”

Olivia shrugged and tried to tamp down the hurt his words inflicted.  “Yeah, Mandy feels the same way about you.  But don’t take it personally.  Mandy hates everyone.  Well, except for Lindsay.”

Ellis was having a hard time believing Olivia was related to Mandy.  “You didn’t mention you were related to Mandy when you came to work for me.”

“Of course not.  She’s hardly a good character reference.  Besides, my reasons for disliking you have nothing to do with Mandy or Lindsay.  You remind me of someone.”

“And who is that?  I’m guessing it’s not someone you like.”  Ellis tried to understand the odd turn their conversation had taken.

“You would be right about that.  You did remind me of someone I didn’t like.  But like I said, I’m reassessing.”

“So what, now you want to be friends?”  Ellis looked over at Olivia, who was glancing between him and the road.

“Let’s just say getting shot makes you more human.  Less intimidating.”

“Great.  Just what I was hoping.”

Olivia smiled at that.  “I think I actually missed your sarcasm.  I think I missed you.  Which is really odd, given our previous relationship was so adversarial.”

“I think you’ve lost me again.”  Ellis adjusted the seat belt where it was digging into his chest in an uncomfortable spot.

“Don’t worry about it.  I don’t think linear.  It’s why I’m a better hacker than you are.”

Ellis took offense to that.  “You are not better than I am.”

“I would have to disagree with you on that.  But like I said, I think differently.  You’re a very black and white kind of man.  You take the straight path set out before you.  I wander off course, color outside the lines, so to speak.  It makes me better than you.”

Ellis glanced out the window. They were outside the gates of Selena’s estate.  Even though he was no longer her bodyguard, he still lived on the grounds.  He had offered to move, but Selena and her new husband, Carter, assured him that it wasn’t necessary.

“I’m still bigger and stronger than you are.”  Ellis leaned over Olivia to punch in the key code for the gate.

“On that, we can agree.  But right now, you’re not exactly in fighting form.  I hate to take advantage of a man when he’s down.”  Olivia drove straight to the front door of the smaller house on the left.

“How do you know where I live?”  It suddenly occurred to Ellis that he hadn’t told her.

Olivia shrugged and pointed to the GPS that had guided her to his home.  She really hadn’t needed the GPS, as she had looked up his address when she’d heard he was shot.  She had wanted to come and see him at the hospital.  Then she had thought about visiting him at his home.  Though security was tight around Selena, it hadn’t taken Olivia that long to track her down.  Everyone knew Ellis lived on the property with Selena.  Rumors were they were lovers at one point, but somehow Olivia didn’t believe that.  She had seen Selena and Jack together, and if anyone was involved with someone, it was those two.  But even that hadn’t lasted long.  Olivia didn’t know Selena well, but she had seen in Selena’s eyes the same reserve Olivia felt around the males of the species.

“So now what?  You drove me home.  How are you getting home?”  Ellis tried to get out of the sports car by himself, but in the end, took Olivia’s arm when she offered it to him again.

“I’m going to take your car.  You don’t need it.  Tomorrow is Sunday, and you should be resting.”

“This car costs over a hundred grand.  You are not taking it.”  Ellis’s hand was trembling as he tried to fit the key in the lock of his door.  He felt Olivia’s fingers take it from him.  He turned the alarm off and headed straight for the back of the house.

Olivia stood in the entryway, interested in the surroundings.  The house was mostly white.  There was not a lot of color, but the dark wood tones of the furniture contrasted nicely.  There was a colorful area rug in the living area that brightened everything up.  She didn’t see a television, but a very expensive laptop sat on the coffee table.  She slowly followed the path Ellis took, stopping to admire the white kitchen cabinets and the light brown granite counters.  Again, not much color, but the overall effect wasn’t cold.

She stopped outside what she thought was probably Ellis’s bedroom door.  “Are you okay?”

“Go away.”  Ellis’s voice was faint.

Olivia bit her lip, then decided things couldn’t get much more awkward between them.  When she pushed the door open, Ellis’s half-naked back was to her.  He had discarded the tux jacket and was trying to get the shirt off.  Trying to be clinical about it, she came around to stand in front of him.

“You just can’t follow a simple order.”  Ellis moaned a bit as the muscles in his chest tightened as he tried to pull off the shirt.  The end of the day was the worst.

Olivia stilled his arm.  She carefully eased the shirt off.  She tried not to stare at his chest, but that was impossible.  The three mostly healed bullet wounds were impossible to miss.  The skin was pink and puckered where the tissue was still healing.  She couldn’t help but touch the spot on his upper chest.  This one could have been the one to end his life.

Ellis tried not to savor the soft touch of Olivia’s fingers on his chest.  He had imagined her in his bedroom, but this was not the way the fantasy went.  Suddenly angry, he grabbed her hand and crushed her fingers.

“You’re hurting my hand.”  Olivia tugged her hand, and for a moment she was afraid he wasn’t going to let go.  Then suddenly she was free.

“Go home, Olivia.  I don’t need your help or your pity.”  Ellis’s hands went to the fastening of his pants.  He kicked off the trousers, leaving him in a pair of boxers, and slid under the covers.

“Oh, yeah, that’s right.  You’re made of steel.  Nothing can keep you down for long.  Blah, blah.  I get it.  You don’t need a woman taking care of you.  You can take care of yourself.”

“Nothing wrong with a woman taking care of me.  I just prefer it to be one that doesn’t annoy the crap out of me.”

“Well, you’re stuck with me.  As far as I can see, all your fancy girlfriends are nowhere to be found.”  Olivia tugged the covers up to Ellis’s chin.  He had been fruitlessly struggling to cover himself with the blanket.

“Give me the phone, and I’ll call one.  Now get out.”

“Suit yourself.  But she’ll probably be useless.  Too afraid she’ll break a nail or something.”  Olivia left his room in a huff.  She knew she fell short of the type of woman he was attracted to.  She would need to grow a pair of double D boobs and dye her hair black to attract him.  And she’d probably need to learn to speak with some kind of exotic accent.

Ticked off and hurt at the same time, Olivia shut the door behind her with a slam.  She thought she might have heard him call her name, but decided she was hearing things.  She jingled his car keys as she reset his alarm.  She’s seen him punch in the code, so she could get back in later if she needed to.  She also saw him punch in the code to the gate.  No one got in or out without a code or the electronic device attached to the dash of the car.  He had installed some pretty slick security, then he’d upgraded it after he was shot, but with his car and access code, she’d have no problem returning.  She slid into the driver’s seat and shifted the car into gear.  She gazed back at the huge mansion Selena and her husband occupied.  The house could probably fit twenty of her apartments inside.

Olivia accessed the gate and headed home.  She was glad she had a garage unit she rented along with her apartment.  Ellis’s car would be stripped and sold for parts in a hot minute if left on the street.  Thankfully it was dark outside her garage space, and no one was likely to notice the crazy expensive car she was putting inside it.  She didn’t own a car at the moment but rented the garage space for when she did.  Of course, by the time she had the money for a car, she should probably consider moving to a better neighborhood first.  But one thing at a time.

Olivia secured the garage door and made her way to her apartment.  She rented a ground-floor apartment that was accessible from outside the building.  She closed the door behind her and leaned against it.  All in all, it had been a crazy night.  And despite her previous resolve to stay away from Ellis Wallace, she was now devising a way to spend more time with him.  He frightened her and attracted her at the same time.  A year ago, she had let her fear overwhelm her.  But time had passed; she had worked hard to become a stronger woman, and now it was time to explore her attraction.  She wasn’t sure how that was going to work, or if it was going to work, but knowing he was shot and seeing firsthand the damage that had been done, Olivia wasn’t sure she could simply walk away from him again.

Step one would be returning his car.  Step two would be gaining his acceptance of her help.  And step three would be seeing if she could learn to trust again.  If she could do those three things, then perhaps she could take the first step in exploring the feelings she had for him, and maybe knock down some of the barriers she had put up to protect herself.