Tempting Olivia (Oxford Romance Book 2)

by Clare Ashton

He was a good-looking man, she supposed, in that utterly unmemorable way men had for Olivia. Tall. Hair. Arms. Legs. A man.

People were disappointingly human.

There’s a reason why the bags under my eyes look like sacks of coal. My life is complicated and sometimes a fucking mess.

“Why on earth bother with men, if you’d already found women?” Olivia blurted.

This was a woman who clearly knew what she wanted and was unwilling to compromise on it. Kate found it both annoying and admirable.

“We’re all human and make mistakes. And no-one completely agrees with another. But I need a good reason to look beyond imperfections and spend significant time with someone.”

Your brain is anything but slow. Yes, you get distracted. But you have a thousand thoughts whizzing around in there, and only one mouth to tell them. You have traffic jams. The last thing you are is stupid, my big-brained lover. Sometimes you take a while to get in gear, but then there’s no stopping you.”

“You’re... You’re queer?!” Charlotte said. “Queer as fuck,” Kate replied.

But sometimes you had to go through it all, to truly believe it was never, ever going to work.

Her annoying brother took after her annoying mother.

These things dragged on for years, like a familiar and perpetual thread of annoyance tying them together.

smile so large it eclipsed the sun.

“I’m very human, with many failings, and someone who’s made mistakes, not all correctable in a burst of heroism.”

“It’s not what you wanted, but can we enjoy it as something else?”

With you, I don’t even know what detached and impartial is anymore. When you’re in the room, my heart beats too fast and my mind spins. It doesn’t matter that we’re not involved, because I’m overwhelmingly attracted to you, in so many ways, and I can't advise you with a level head.”

“Do you hear me? You do not have to be flawless.”

“It’s frustrated me all my life. Knowing that I can do things, but somehow can’t. Or finding stuff difficult that should be straightforward.”

“It’s like I could be clever, or do things, but I had to try harder than everyone else, and I got so tired."

“I still clam up when I’m anxious though. I start spiralling, and worry I’ll say the wrong thing.” “Yet, despite all that worry, you’ll blurt something out at exactly the worst moment.”

“It might sound silly to you, but when I bump into a corner, or forget what you were saying, or fail to do something basic like keep the house tidy, it's difficult not to think I’m useless.”

In general, people are very annoying.”

“You’re allowed to be messy, Olivia. You’ve seen my baggage,”

And they both smiled the saddest smile,

“Apparently, kids are just mini people – mainly annoying, but I like some of them.”

So instead she’d been carrying on, as if holding her breath, hoping she would surface one day and avoid taking the lid off and looking at it all properly. But she couldn’t hold her breath forever.

“I am completely and utterly, bowled over, head over heels, besotted and in love with you,