Intrigue (Elvis Presley Story)

Chapter 10

"I swear, I didn't know they were going to be here," Elvis apologised over half eaten burgers and fries on the tabletop between them.

"Really, it's okay." Tucked away in the corner of a new booth at the diner, sharing her seat with sawyer and his grandson, Benjamin, olivia was a quiet anchor in the chaotic storm that was Elvis's family-especially when they were in celebration mode as they were tonight.

The news that sawyer and his wife Adalynn were expecting their second grandchild. Along with Elvis's mother Gladys and her good friend Susan.

"Is it as long as me?" Sticky four-year-old fingers tugged at one of olivia's loose curls hanging over her cheek. Benjamin was a curious little tike who'd developed such a fascination with olivia's golden-caramel hair that he'd climbed up on the bench seat beside her to play with it.

He laughed when he released the curl and it sprang back into place. Olivia laughed, too. "Here let me help you."

Much better. Pale and frightened was not a look Elvis wanted to see on olivia's face ever again. Sitting across from her while everyone chatted around them, his analytical brain couldn't help but compare olivia's beautiful, dimple-to-dimple smile to priscilla's sculpted lips. There was no comparison. He'd take interesting.  Real. Honest over sculpted any day.

Olivia had lips you could touch without thinking twice about smearing makeup or playing games. He had touched them. Hell, he almost leaned down and kissed them back there in the parking garage.

Must have been her big brown eyes staring up at him. Wanting him. Welcoming him. Any man with blood pumping through his veins would have been tempted by such an innocent yet blatant invitation. The desire to kiss Olivia Miller must have been an extention of the comfort and shelter he'd offered her.

Nothing more.

Right. That's why he tuned out his mother, Susan, Adalynn and sawyer while they debated baby names, and stared across the table with the same rapt attention as a Four-year-old Benjamin.

Olivia removed the clip, and sent her long silky thick hair tumbling down her back. A blue-and-white vinyl booth was hardly the setting for a seduction scene, but there was something sensuous about the dramatic fall of hair that made him reconsider the notion that olivia wasn't just an attractive woman. She was sexy as hell.

She didn't wear a lot of makeup but there were a remarkable beauty about her that awakened something a tad territorial inside him. He'd noticed those things about olivia-her eyes, her mouth, those gorgeous legs. They were his treasures, his discoveries.

The creep with the laugh and the roses who was playing this game of psychological terror with her didn't deserve any part of the hidden treasure that was olivia. And whether her stalker turned out to be Tony Fierro or some other bastard, he would have Elvis presley to deal with.

"Now pull it straight." Olivia guided a curl into Benjamin's hand. Elvis watched, too. As Ben tugged it behind her, maybe a little too hard as olivia winced. But, like a trouper, she didn't complain. "My hair was even longer a couple of weeks ago."

"Wow. My hair only goes to here." He pulled his black hair down to his eyebrows, then seemed disappointed that it didn't spring back the way hers had. Bored with that bit of research, Ben moved on to the next thing that caught his eye. He climbed into sawyer's lap and dug into his shirt pocket. "I want to give olivia a cigar."

"Oh, no, Ben, I don't smoke."

Sawyer scooped the boy into his arms "Don't worry, kiddo, we have special cigars for big Ben and his friends." Sawyer pulled two 'cigars' one pink, one blue-from another pocket. "Here, give this one to olivia."