Worth It

Chapter 51: Detour

"And so is---"

I held my hand up and cut Oliver off. "Quit while you're ahead. Don't even say it."

He laughed. "I was gonna say this," he said pointing to a beautiful house. "We're here."

I looked out of the passengers window. "Wow. It's gorgeous."

"Yeah. I thought so."

"So you live here?"

"No."

My brows furrowed. "So why are we here?"

"I wanted you to see it before it gets sold."

"I don't understand. Why?"

"Before you ended the engagement I had one last payment to make on this house," he said pointing to it. "This was gonna be my wedding gift to you." I looked at Oliver and put my hands over my mouth. "Oh my God. Really?"

He nodded his head. "Yep."

I didn't know what to say other than, "Ollie. I'm sorry."

"Me too."

I looked down at my hands. I started to feel really bad about how things ended with us.

"Do you wanna see the inside?"

"What? Can we do that?"

"We better be able to. It's my house."

"But you said that you didn't live here."

"I don't, but I do own it, however."

"What? How does an average twenty-six year old own a house?"

"Ah. How quickly you forget that nothing about me is average," he winked. "Come on." We got out of the car and walked over to Oliver's house. When we stepped inside the first thing I noticed was the huge painting by Jacob Lawrence. I gasped. Oliver looked at me and smiled. "You like it?"

"I love it."

"I figured you would."

He grabbed my hand. "Come on. Let me show you the rest of the house." He whisked me away to the living room first, followed by the dining room, and then the kitchen. "Wow this kitchen is---immaculate," I said as I wondered around it. "I had it made with you in mind. I knew how much you loved to cook."

"Wow. That was very thoughtful of you."

He just smiled at me. "Okay. let me show you upstairs." I followed behind him and up the steps. When we got up there he showed me several of the guest bedrooms and the bathrooms. Everything was so beautiful.

"I thought that having a lot of rooms would be good for when we had our families over for the holidays. I guess a got a little ambitious. No one's ever been in here." He walked me over to another room. "I always thought that this room would be perfect for a nursery if we had a child together. Their crib was gonna go right here and I thought it would have been nice to have the dresser somewhere over here and---"

I zoned out. Standing in the middle of the room filled me with much grief. I tried hard to fight back tears. My phone buzzed in my hand. It was Kevin. I cleared my throat. "Hold on real quick," I said to Oliver, "I have to take this." I left out of the room and walked into another. I shut the door behind me.

"Hello?"

"Hey baby. Where you at? I've been waiting for you for over an hour."

"Shit. I meant to text you, but it slipped my mind. I had to take a detour. I'll be home shortly."

"Okay baby. If you not back within the next thirty minutes I'm going to bed without you," Kevin teased.

I laughed. "Okay."

"I love you," he replied.

"I love you too baby. See ya later."

I hung up the phone and tried to gather myself to face what was soon to come.

"So I'm just a detour?"

I jumped and turned around. Oliver was standing in the doorway. "Damn. Were you standing there the whole time?"

"Maybe," he grinned. He walked further into the room. "I see you found your way into the master bedroom." He turned around the room and looked at me. "This would have been where all the magic happens."

"It's beautiful."

"So are you," Oliver said standing behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist. I placed my hands over his. "Lee. What are you doing?" He leaned forward and placed a soft and gentle kiss on my neck. "Trynna win you back from the other man you fell for." His teeth gently grazed my ear. "Lee. We can't," I said moving his arms from around me. Before I could take two steps away from him he pulled me back into the safety net of his embrace, a place I always felt safe; a place that could be dangerous if I wasn't careful.

He crooned in my ear. "If I remember correctly you liked it when I kissed you here," he said lightly kissing the back of my neck, "and you liked it when I touched you here," he said as his hands slid down my stomach and slowly up my dress. I jumped when his hands caressed me in ways that only he could. It was then that I remembered just how quickly one match can ignite a flame and burn the whole city to the ground. In that moment I knew that I was the flame and that if I stayed any longer I damn sure would be the city. "Lee," I whispered. "Lee," I quivered. "This is wr---" I couldn't finish a damn sentence. He pushed me onto the bed and pulled down my dress. He placed my leg on his shoulder; his lips delving hungrily into me. I could not utter a word because I couldn't think of any. He had always been a generous lover and tonight he reminded me of that.
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