“Yes, Alexander. Fuck, yes!” she screamed out, waves of pleasure coursing through her body as her orgasm overtook her entire being.

He watched her shake beneath him, loving that he could make her fall apart that quickly. “That was fucking hot,” he said, pumping into her one last time before finding his own release, grunting her name while he helped to steady her legs. She collapsed on her stomach, her legs shaking from the orgasm still ravaging through her body. Alexander fell down next to her, pulling her body against his, wrapping his arms around her, and biting her shoulder as she drifted off to sleep from pure exhaustion and ecstasy.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

THE "L" WORD

THE FOLLOWING MORNING, OLIVIA awoke after a fitful night of sleep, waking up several times in the middle of the night, screaming. She glanced beside her in the bed to see Alexander still fast asleep. She was completely restless so she slipped on a pair of yoga pants, a t-shirt, and her sneakers before going downstairs to check on Runner to see if he needed to go out.

Olivia walked over to her purse and checked her cell phone, surprised to see several text messages from Kiera.

Kiera: Oh my god, Libby! You’re famous! Cell phone photos of that kiss last night are ALL over the internet. They want to know who Alexander Burnham’s mystery woman is! EEK!

Olivia’s heart dropped into her stomach. She had forgotten that he was a bit of a local celebrity. He was wealthy, but so was she. They had been dating on and off for several months, and only a few photos had turned up on the internet. Most of them were fairly blurry. She knew that Alexander had been trying to keep her out of the spotlight as much as possible and she appreciated that.

Grabbing her laptop out of her bag, she waited for it to boot up as she walked over to the large couch in the living room, noticing how dreary it looked outside. It looks like a cold day to be outside watching the St. Patty’s day parade, she thought to herself.

Once her MacBook had finally started up, she immediately went to the Google image search page and typed in Alexander’s name. She was not too surprised when she was immediately inundated with various photos of the man with green eyes. Some were from different charity events. Some from various sporting events. They were mostly photos she had seen months ago during her darkest time. She noticed one, in particular, that she had missed before. It was from the Red Sox game the weekend they had met. There she was, sitting next to Alexander, watching the game rather enthusiastically through her sunglasses. Then she noticed Alexander. He wasn’t looking at the game. He looked at her as if she was the only person in the world. As if the game wasn’t going on at all. Her heart fluttered from the obvious affection that he had for her early on in their relationship.

Olivia clicked on the photo and a gossip website popped up. The caption read, “Wealthy Bachelor spotted at ball game with mystery woman”. She scrolled down, reading the article speculating on whom Alexander was with. The comments were all over the place. Some saying she was a prostitute. Some saying she was a family friend. She couldn’t believe that people would actually waste their time caring about who dated whom. Olivia wondered how many other stories were out there and why she never bothered to look at any of them before.

Then she found a newer story, time-stamped just a few hours earlier. The article contained a relatively clear cell phone picture, taken the previous night when Alexander jumped up on stage and dipped Olivia back, kissing her passionately. She stared at the photo, her face flushing from the memory.

“Good morning, beautiful,” Alexander said, walking over to her and planting an affectionate kiss on her neck.

“We’ve been outed, darling,” Olivia laughed, showing him the gossip website.

“Oh, do tell. What have they been saying about us?” He joked, trying to hide his true feelings. He was worried. He was scared. He was concerned for Olivia’s safety.

She started to read the article to him: “‘Sad day for the ladies of New England and possibly the entire country. It seems that Alexander Burnham is officially off the market. Again. For those of you who don’t remember, it has only been a month since he so unceremoniously left Miss Chelsea Wellington at the altar. Rumor had it that it was for another woman. Finally, a month later, we know who the mystery woman is. Our sources say that he has been seen around the greater Boston metropolitan area these past several months in the company of one Sarah Olivia Adler. They have been rumored to have dated last fall and have recently re-kindled their relationship, but we didn’t have confirmation until late last night.

“‘Miss Adler is a wealthy heiress who runs Downtown Wellness, located in the Financial District of Boston. She is a Boston College graduate who is apparently not only ‘smoking hot’, according to one of our interns, but also a talented musician. At least we know she’s not a gold digger.

“‘Suffice it to say, we are all heartbroken over here at Blush Magazine. But did you see that kiss? I’m all hot and bothered just thinking about it. I don’t ever remember seeing him kiss Miss Wellington that way. Sorry, Chelsea. You clearly didn’t stack up close to Miss Adler’.”

Olivia glanced at Alexander. “Did you hear that? I’m smoking hot!” She laughed. Normally, she would be worried about being outed in a gossip magazine, but she didn’t care. She wanted the world to know that Alexander was hers and that she was his.

“I’m sorry, darling,” he said, a nervous look on his face. “I was rather careless. I didn’t mean to bring attention to you. I shouldn’t have done that. I’ll have my publicist do some damage control.”

“It’s okay, Alexander.” Olivia nuzzled into his arm as he draped it around her, holding her close. “It was bound to come out eventually.” She looked up into his eyes. He still looked unsettled at the news. Why was he so upset? Surely he had dealt with this type of publicity before, unless…

Olivia shot out of his embrace. “You’re ashamed of me, aren’t you?” she asked, staring at him. Everything finally made sense. Throughout the previous evening, every time a photographer came by, Alexander made sure that Olivia wasn’t in the photo with him. Why? “It’s because I’m not part of your perfect little social circle, isn’t it?”

“No, love. How could you say such a thing? I’m not ashamed of you. I want the world to know you’re mine and only mine.” He smiled, trying to put Olivia at ease. “But I’m concerned for your safety now that this news has gotten out. You’re going to be inundated with phone calls. They’ll be camping outside of your house. I just need to know that you won’t get hurt.”