Olivia Sparks

"And I asked Dad if we could postpone our engagement announcement."

"Oh." Olivia's hands froze midway from shaving Maxen's facial hair under his chin. She was wondering why Maxen would bother on something as trivial as their engagement, so she peered up to meet his gaze, and found the answers to her questions in his eyes—he was afraid of her getting caught in the crossfire.

Smiling at him, she still asked him and joked, "Why? You still want to enjoy your pseudo-bachelorhood?"

"Of course, why else would I postpone it?" Maxen snorted. It was clear she was just teasing him, and he didn't want to give her the advantage in the game she initiated to play with. However, what he didn't expect was Olivia snapping at him.

Slapping the shaver on the counter, Olivia then folded her arms over her c.h.e.s.t. Call her a hypocrite or a double-standard brat, but she was half expecting Maxen to contradict what she said, although in her heart she knew he would retaliate to her.

In her moment of hissy fit, she blurted, "Works for me then. Just scheduled a flight to London in two days' time to attend a conference. I might fish investors with swelling t.h.i.g.hs. Wanted to enjoy my imaginary singleness too."

Maxen raised a single brow at Olivia. He wasn't expecting for their conversation to turn out this way. They were just bantering and now she's mad at him? And what's that comment about swelling t.h.i.g.hs?

"First of all, just in case you forgot, your husband didn't just have a swelling t.h.i.g.h, he also happened to have a swelling d.i.c.k too," Maxen said, his posture oozing with confidence as if it was his cologne. 

It sent a kaleidoscope of butterflies in Olivia's stomach, the flutter of their wings tickling her insides. 

She had to admit that there were times Maxen looked cute when he's looking high and mighty. She bit her bottom lip to stop herself from grinning as her anger dissipated into thin air. But just as she recovered, it was now Maxen's turn to unleash his fury.

"Do you mind explaining what's that conference you're going to? You never said anything about a conference. Baby, I thought we're working on this communication barrier between us?" Maxen spoke without pause and scratched the skin above his eyebrows. "I need to know your schedule beforehand so I can arrange security for you and we can't just easily change their schedule overnight," Maxen exasperated. 

He hated how Olivia would suddenly change her schedule without notifying him first but he was a bit distracted with how she flirted with him, seductively fanning her long lashes.

Going back to what incensed him, he was well aware that Olivia was adjusting to the life of having to share every detail of her schedule with someone else other than her secretary. It was that one thing he begged her to work on that it even reached to a point where they had a private talk about this bad habit of hers—her knack for changing her schedule at the eleventh hour.

The hands which he planted on the vanity tightened and his knuckles turned white from the amount of anger that he had to taper in.

Seeing that she went a little extra with her poking, Olivia did her best to behave and decided to stop confusing her husband. "You have to relax, Max," Olivia coaxed and skimmed her hands on his c.h.e.s.t, smoothening his crisp white suit dress. She hoped her touches would mollify Maxen.

"Okay. Let me relax first," Maxen agreed, closing his eyes when he felt his temper rose from the pit of his stomach. He basked in Olivia's c.a.r.e.s.ses and the sound of her humming a soft tune he couldn't make out of but still sounded sweet to his ears.

Nevertheless, she kept her mouth shut and committed to memory his little comment at the back of her head just in case it would come in handy in the future. 

For the meantime, she had to make sure to give her husband a little taste of normalcy in his life whenever they're together, especially now that he had enough on his plate.

Smoothening his eyebrows, Olivia then planted a soft kiss on each of his closed eyes. "I booked a ticket for you too," she uttered, dusting the pad of her thumb on Maxen's lips as she informed him. She hoped it would somehow ease Maxen's fury. 

She then added, "I thought it would be nice if we could make a quick trip outside the country plus it's better if you're around when I spoke with Madam Chanel and Konstantin. I know we shouldn't be running around especially now that there's the Huks all prepared to fight but I had this crazy idea earlier."

"You always have a crazy idea, baby. That's what I love about you," Maxen said, exhaling heavily that his shoulders sagged from releasing a breath. "But next time, before you book something, let me know first. I know you. If you set something in your head, you always go for it and there's no way I can talk you out of it."

"Who said you can't?" Olivia scrunched her nose. "You're the only person who can talk me out of anything."

"Really?"

Olivia nodded.

"Then can I talk you out about doing 'it'?" 

"What's 'it'?"

Maxen tried not to laugh when the image of Olivia watching p.o.r.n on her phone in the dead of night flashed in his head. 

Maxen wanted to disrupt Olivia that night but he got curious, so unbeknownst to her, he was watching that sinful video over her shoulders that night while he did his best to pretend that he was asleep. "That thing you were watching on your phone last time. The girl with a toy in her tushy."

Olivia's hands flew to her mouth. She was out of words to explain herself. "I�� I was just curious, okay? I'm not interested in doing that sordid thing."

"Shh. I'm not judging you, baby." Maxen grinned like a Cheshire cat. "What's the best way to quench your curiosity but to do an experiment, right? On top of that, you said I can talk you out about anything."

Biting the inside of her cheek, she peered at Maxen, and her eyes squinted. She had a feeling that Maxen had an experience in that department already and was pushing her buttons so she would agree to him. "Before I agree on anything, let me make this clear. This is your chance to come clean, Max. Have you tried anal before?"

Dumbfounded, Maxen's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of the water. "Wo–would I be pestering you if I already did?"

"I'm not satisfied with your answer."

"I haveeeeen't. I sweaaaaaar."

"Nope. Your nostrils are flaring. That's a sign that you're lying."

Why did he even push his luck when he knew convincing Olivia to do something would boomerang and hit him in the face?

"So, back to our engagement… it's a go. Let's postpone the announcement, and then we'll have to fly to London in two days. I have to be back after a week though."

"That's fine with me."

"And you have to stay there until the matter with the Huks is solved."

"Oh." Olivia's legs stopped dangling and she pursed her lips in a thin line. She didn't expect to be staying longer than a week in London, not with Oakwood Capital's business in full swing. "But I can't sleep without you beside me." She pouted, even though it was obvious it wasn't really the reason why she wanted to come home after the conference.

"Olivia…"

"Maaaax…"

"There's no point in postponing our engagement announcement if you will be sticking beside me. I wanted to make sure you are as far away from the Huks as possible. Father will be sending Mom and Maya away too. It's for everyone's safety."

"Not sure if Mom would leave The Highlands. Maya would, but Mom? Who are we kidding here?"

"I don't want to lose you, baby. Just… please stay where I tell you to stay," he pleaded, squeezing Olivia's waist.

"The Huks will know that we know about them if all the Sui ladies were sent away. We both know that their attack is inevitable. We just need to be more prepared than them."

Maxen didn't want to deny it, but Olivia sure sounded convincing. However, as much as he wanted to be swayed by her words, he still wouldn't let her stay in The Highlands for the meantime. "How about you stay with Ollie until we iron this security nightmare? Can you do that for me?"

"Well… will we see each other every day?"

"Does a video call count?"

Olivia scrunched her nose, thinking of ways other than a boring video call. "How about chance encounters? Oh, that's exciting."

Maxen roared with laughter, his head tipping back. "Maybe we can start that today," he suggested and his Adam's apple bobbed when the excitement of sneaking out with his wife sn.a.k.e.d in his veins, giving him a high like no other. "By the way, why are you flying to London again?"

"Oh that. I just want to confirm something," Olivia answered and her words succinct. It intrigued Maxen, but he didn't dare ask more questions than he should. 

For all he knew, his wife would surprise him yet again.