"That's completely different," Vivienne spluttered. "Olivia's not a wealthy and powerful businesswoman. She's not trying to hurt anyone."
"Are you saying that the women of the Tables don't hold their own power and wealth? That women haven't been targeted by those with grudges or vendettas against the Tables. We all know the risks and rewards that come with being part of our Families. The latest attack by the Suebi was aimed solely at women with immense wealth and power, and it was instigated by another woman who hid her secrets and lies and pretended to be someone she wasn't."
"That's completely different!" Vivienne argued again, becoming frustrated.
"Is it? Secrets and lies never lead to happiness. Especially when you lie to yourself. Olivia is not dead. She is sitting in that clinic with a man who adores her and is trying his best to reach her and bring her back to herself so she can deal properly with everything that has happened in her life. Not just with Remington but the arsehole boyfriend and an overly-strict father, who possibly did more damage to her than anything else. Genesis doesn't want to fight her or force her or frighten her, but he will, because he wants to be able to love her for who she truly is, and all you did tonight was give her another place to hide and keep her secrets," Gideon said sadly. "You make his job infinitely harder when you don't talk to him about your brilliant ideas. Yet you still expect him to talk to you about his plans and ideas for her and take your advice."
"I read the background information. She had a happy childhood, good schools, loving parents and siblings who maintained connections to the Table. Sure, her boyfriend was an arsehole, but it was Remington that hurt her, messed with her head and made her like this." Vivienne had taken on her professional persona as she briefly summarised the information she had on Olivia's background.
"I see, and if I read your background bio would it show anything different? Grew up in a loving home as the daughter of the recently deceased chair of the Papillo. Spoilt and treated like a princess, as all girls of the tables are. Studied and graduated with honours and travelled extensively, gaining experience at some of the country's best facilities, as well as a growing reputation for her work in her chosen field," he said, showing that he had read a similar sort of bio on her.
"You did a background check on me?" she asked incredulously, her anger starting to get the better of her.
"What it doesn't tell me is that you aren't a typical princess of the first Family. You think and act independently and do not work well as part of a team, ever. Including Team Olivia," he paused for a second as her eyes flashed at him. "That you are closer to Leighton than anyone else in your family and shared an apartment with him before he got married. That you bury yourself in work to hide from the world, where you never quite feel at ease, because your heart is bigger than you let on and it gets hurt far too often by thoughtless people," he summed up what he knew of her so far.
"I can't believe you had me investigated!" her voice began to rise, but he merely took her hand and kept talking.
"Olivia and Marcella did not have happy childhoods, thanks to their father, and there was more to the arsehole boyfriend and the way he treated Olivia than was covered in her bio. When Remy found her, she was already conditioned enough to be manipulated and used. Particularly if he kept her drugged and sedated in the beginning. I doubt that she fought him at all, but rather let him hide her in a new life, gratefully," Gideon voiced his own opinion and one that was the most likely scenario according to Genesis. "There is more to Olivia than facts on a page, and there is more to you too. I want to know everything about you, but you have to be prepared to give a little and stop keeping me at a distance and retreating behind the doctor's coat."
"Unhappy childhoods?" she questioned with a frown, "But the background check said..."
"And your background check said you were a spoilt princess prone to tantrums," he chuckled. "Sorry, outbursts."
"I see," she sighed. "And you think that what I did tonight didn't help her and made things harder for Genesis," she said sadly.
"What you did tonight didn't help Genesis the way you wanted, but I think she liked being spoken to as a friend instead of a doctor. I think that seeing you two giggle over being sisters one day, with rhyming nicknames, helped me immensely and gave Genesis hope that Olivia wanted that scenario," he chuckled. "But it was telling her that it was okay not to like or want to be Olivia and giving her an alternative to that, rather than just a nickname others can use occasionally. That was the mistake. We can't make it easy for her to hide anymore. If she is going to recover then she needs to face her past and her fears."
Vivienne could see that he could be right, now that he had explained it to her. She could understand better why Genesis was unbending in his demand that she acknowledge the name. The idea was at the base of her profession. You had to deal with the past to be able to move on to the future. Otherwise, you would be forever trapped in a self-destructive cycle. But Olivia had been through so much, and there was time to make her face what she couldn't right now. She couldn't understand why Genesis was in such a rush to force Olivia to face the things that she feared the most. They sat in silence for a while, sipping their drinks and watching the sunset.
Gideon squeezed her hand. Somehow, he had headed off the angry outburst that he heard in her voice once or twice, and she still held his hand. He'd said what he needed to and gave her food for thought. Now he just needed Noah and Marcella to arrive and take the edge off that conversation, so he and Vivienne could concentrate on each other again, which was all he had been thinking about for days now.
*****
Genesis turned back toward the bed. He felt the now familiar tightening of his heart and twisting of his gut and gave in to the urge to rub his palm into the middle of his chest. While never as bad as the first time he had seen her, the now-muted pain returned with the knowledge that he could lose her at any time if she continued to defy him. He wouldn't be like Remington; he couldn't be like that. He was determined to be better than that, despite the desire that drove him toward her bed and the knowledge that he would never cause her undue harm with his demands on her body. He may enjoy similar pursuits to Remington, and admit to being a sadist with the right woman, but he would never scar her or injure her to the point that it would take weeks to recover.
That wasn't to say that he wouldn't enforce his rules if they were for her benefit. He was determined to make her take back her name. He wanted no lies and secrets between them, and he wouldn't start their relationship by letting her lie to anyone else, especially herself. She was Olivia Gambaro, and he would belong to her as much as he kept reminding her that she belonged to him. His eyes raked over her, noting her shallow breathing and the way it made her breasts rise and fall. The brace also enhanced those pert mounds, and he felt his cock begin to harden, knowing it was finally time to claim her body as well as her mind.
Genesis turned to ensure that he had locked the door to the room, such was the clutter of his mind right then that he couldn't remember. Then he took a breath and walked purposefully back toward the bed. He was still annoyed at Vivienne's attempt to manipulate the situation again by calling her Liv and giving her a way out of accepting his command that she take back her name. He was not going to negotiate and let her take it back with conditions attached, and if she or Vivienne had thought she could use that to manipulate the situation, manipulate him, she was sadly mistaken. He was stronger than that, and a corner of his brain hoped that Gideon would be strong enough to resist Vivienne's manipulations too, despite his love for the woman.
Picking up her limbs one by one, he checked that the cuffs fitted snugly after he had rushed to replace them so that he could talk to Hector without worrying that she would touch herself before he was ready for her to. He adjusted them to fit so that they were not so tight that he would need to constantly check her circulation once he began to play with her body properly, but also not loose enough that she could wiggle her limbs from the restraints.
He knew he must do this, needed to do this, if he was ever going to bind her to him in the way he wanted, but something inside him revelled in just the act of restraining such a beautiful woman for his pleasure alone, and that something had nothing to do with her healing and more to do with his desire. Of course, he would ensure that she had pleasure too, eventually, but only after she had given him what he wanted, and he wanted nothing less than her complete submission to him at that moment. He looked up at her face then and saw her passively watching him, letting him restrain her without fighting the loss of power and control, which he took gladly, as he bound her to the bed the way he wished to bind her to himself.
She had great legs, and he smiled as he pulled the sheet completely away from her body. He had explored her body as he had bathed her each day in the hospital and here in the clinic. He felt that he knew every freckle and mark on her pale skin. It was unusual for women, or men for that matter, in the Families of the Twelve Tables to be as fair as she was, but it only made her that much more attractive to him. He trailed his fingers up her legs as he watched her carefully. Her body almost pulsed with her need as the ache low in her belly grew with his titillating touch.
He moved his legs up to kneel on the end of the bed between her restrained feet and leaned over her so that their bodies were close but not touching, one of his hands resting near her head, taking his weight. The other hand trailed fingers up over her hip and the brace on her undamaged side and up further, to her breast. His fingers barely touched her skin, and he allowed himself a small smile as her breath caught and then quickened further. The heated look in her sea green eyes stirred him, and he knew that he had been right. They both needed this. She needed to be claimed fully, just as he needed to claim her.
