His Dangerous Love On Ice (Olivia and Zane) novel Chapter 140

Olive’s POV

That I’d gone on a date with another man while we were-what? Broken up? On a break? I didn’t even know what we were anymore.

“It doesn’t matter what it was,” Nikolai said, and there was something almost gentle in his voice now. “What matters is what it will look like to him.”

He took a step closer, and I had to fight the urge to back away.

“Zane Mercer is many things,” he said quietly. “Patient. Calculating. Dangerous. But when it comes to you, Olive Monroe, he is none of those things. When it comes to you, he is a man barely holding on to control.”

My breath caught.

“I do not know what happened between you two,” Nikolai continued. “I do not know why you have not spoken in almost two weeks. But I do know that he has been losing his mind. Making decisions that are reckless even for him. Destroying things that do not need to be destroyed. All because you will not call him.”

Guilt twisted in my chest, sharp and painful.

“And now,” Nikolai said, his voice dropping lower, “I have to tell him that the woman he is losing his mind over was on a date with another man. Do you understand what that will do to him?”

I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think past the panic flooding my system.

“Don’t tell him,” I said, and I hated how desperate I sounded. “Please. It wasn’t-it didn’t mean anything. It was just—”

“Just what?” Nikolai’s eyes were sharp now. “Just a dinner? Just a conversation? Just you moving on while he burns the world down trying to figure out why you left?”

Each word was a knife.

“I didn’t leave him,” I said, but even as the words came out I knew they were a lie.

“Then what do you call it?” Nikolai asked.

I didn’t have an answer.

We stood there in silence, the fluorescent lights humming overhead, my heart pounding so loud I could hear it in my ears.

“He bought your stepfather’s company,” Nikolai said finally. “Did you know that?”

I turned my head sideways with guilt. “Yes, you don’t need to remind me.

“Yes I do. Zane bought it. Paid an obscene amount of money for it. And then gave it back to Grayson Sinclair like it was nothing.” Nikolai’s eyes were locked on mine. “He did that for you. To save your family. To prove he could give you something real instead of just pretty words and empty promises.”

Oh god.

“And you repay him,” Nikolai continued, his voice getting harder now, “by going on dates with other men.”

“It wasn’t like that-”

“It does not matter what it was like.” He cut me off again. “What matters is what it looks like. And it looks like you are done with him.”

“I’m not ” The words stuck in my throat.

Was I done with Zane?

I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything anymore except that every time I thought about him my chest ached and every time I tried to move on my body rebelled and I was so fucking tired of not knowing what I wanted, and it got even more complicated now with the new revelations.

Nikolai studied me for a long moment.

Then he sighed, the sound heavy and resigned.

“Go home, Olive,” he said, stepping aside to clear a path to my car. “Go home and think about what you really want. Because when I tell Zane what I saw tonight, I don’t know wjhat he’s going to do.”

He turned to walk away.

“Nikolai,” I called out, my voice cracking.

He stopped but didn’t turn around.

“Does he ” I had to force the words out. “Does he really care? Or is this just about winning? About not losing?”

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