Olivia didn't speak. She narrowed her eyes at her reluctant opponent and knew that her expression would do the talking for her.
Natalia read it loud and clear. While she knew she should probably be sitting there frantically searching for an excuse for her deplorable actions, she understood fully that there really wasn't one. Even if there was, she wasn't confident she would have offered it anyway. She had decided that she would never apologize to the other woman. It was much safer for them to hate each other at this point. In her rationalization, whatever it was that had happened between them that afternoon, why she had allowed herself to be drawn into temptation so very easily, was irrelevant now. Very shortly Olivia would be leaving California. There would be no other reason for their paths to cross ever again. And Natalia was suddenly grateful for that.
But first, she needed to close tightly the door that Olivia had somehow managed to open. So she waited. But still, Olivia said nothing. Natalia knew she would have to be the one to end the staring contest. She leaned back in her chair and did her best to continue focusing through the blinding pain residing behind her eyes.
"I don't expect you to understand why I have done this," she began.
Olivia leaned back in her chair also and folded her arms in front of her. "I'm so relieved," she said sardonically.
"I've spent far too many sleepless nights trying to figure out how to keep this company afloat on its own. I am not going to sit back and watch my hotels get picked off one by one. Especially not this one."
Olivia simply sat there, listening, not offering any indication that she was going to respond.
"You can believe whatever you wish about my character right now. I certainly wouldn't blame you. But I meant what I said earlier. This decision had absolutely nothing to do with you whatsoever," Natalia continued, doing her best to sound convincing. I am such a horrible liar, she admitted to herself.
You are such a terrible liar, Olivia threw silently at the withering woman.
"Let's just forget, for a few moments, that you have just wiped millions upon millions of future dollars from my bank account with one little email. Ruined my chances for the emergence of my franchise in the west. All that aside, there is just one thing I would like to know."
Natalia steadied her aching eyes and waited for it as Olivia leaned forward and rested both forearms flat upon the table, which seemed to have become a safety barrier between them.
"When were you going to tell me?" Olivia's tone was low and direct. Natalia closed her eyes against the heat of anger flaring towards her from the woman's. "Were you going to wait until after you came a couple of times?" Olivia proceeded with her verbal onslaught. "Perhaps you were going to just casually slip it in there while you were fucking me? Maybe thought you could whisper a delicious little double-entendre into my ear in between the screams, hmm? Something about just how screwed I was really about to get. Was that the plan, Natalia?"
Natalia leaned forward and rested her throbbing forehead in her hands. She couldn't look up. She knew she deserved the wrath. She knew she should offer up a plea for forgiveness, but she couldn't.
"Answer me!" Olivia's tone became louder and more aggressive, causing the pain in Natalia's head to heighten to new levels. "The entire afternoon, Natalia? Really? Is it your usual m.o. to go through the trouble of cooking for your victims? Is it a twisted little "Last Supper" thing that you get some sort of sick pleasure out of?"
No excuses, Natalia opened her eyes and prepared herself. You have no excuses. Just get this over with.
"It was the least I could do to send you on your way with a full stomach.” Natalia heard the disgusting heartlessness of the statement but knew it had to be said. This is for the best.
Olivia seethed at the woman's reply. She had never been a violent woman, but she was suddenly glad for the table in between them.
"The offer came back when we were in your suite, didn't it?"
"Yes."
"Why did you take me with you to the club?"
"Keep your friends close..."
"Why did you put my arm around you in the elevator?"
"Keep your enemies closer."
Olivia paused and closed her eyes. She didn't want to see the emotionally detached gaze, but she knew she had to ask the next question.
"Why did you come to my room, Natalia?"
"Why did you invite me?"
"Answer the question."
Severe the ties, Rivera; Natalia waited until Olivia opened her eyes to look back into her pained ones.
"I was drunk," Natalia lied and steeled herself against her emotions when she saw the flash of hurt spread briefly across the other woman's features. "It was an awful mistake."
Olivia sat motionless, unable to believe what she was hearing. For a long moment she could only stare, wanting the other woman to suddenly retract her answer. But no such retraction was forthcoming.
"You duplicitous BITCH!"
"Please don't yell," Natalia grabbed at her head and hid her eyes behind her hands. "Can we be finished now?" She had nothing left. The fight was gone. The room began to spin as it had upstairs before she passed out.
"Forget you!" Olivia grabbed her purse and pushed herself up from her chair so abruptly that she sent it flying to the middle of the room. She quickly made her way to the door and opened it. Before she walked through it, however, she turned to take one last look at the crumpled side profile of the woman that had captivated her mind since the moment they met. She stopped dead in her tracks.
Natalia kept still, her eyes closed. She wanted desperately to hear the door slam shut. It needs to be closed forever, she said to herself, as though convincing the twinges of regret to flee form her heart. She waited, but the sound never came.
She could sense Olivia's presence behind her. She felt the heat of her body as it seemed to envelope her. Suddenly there were fingers sifting lightly through her hair, moving it to the side. Fingertips ran themselves delicately over her sensitive skin of her neck.
"Natalia..." the voice that was just filled with rage was now calm and even.
"Please don't..." Natalia couldn't finish the sentence. "Please..."
"Natalia, you're bleeding."
-----------------------------------------------------------
Olivia seemed to be talking to her, but Natalia couldn't quite understand what she was saying.
"Give me your phone," Olivia repeated.
"Wh-what?"
"Oh, for heaven's sake," Olivia reached in front of Natalia and grabbed for the purse sitting beside her. She opened it and searched for Natalia's cell phone.
Natalia, in the meantime, had reached back behind her head and immediately felt the stickiness there. "Ow!" She yelped.
"Ya think?" Olivia said, locating and pulling out the cell.
Natalia pulled her hand back around and saw the blood on her fingertips. Her stomach lurched. "Oh God," she quickly brought the back of her other hand to her mouth.
"Ohhh, no you don't!" Olivia rushed to the corner of the room and brought back a wastebasket. She sat it in the injured woman's lap and proceeded cycling through Natalia's 'Contacts' list. "What do you keep your driver under?" She asked.
"Ohhhhhh, God," was all Natalia could offer.
"Fuck!" Olivia stopped cycling and crouched down beside Natalia. "Look at me," she said calmly. When Natalia didn't move, she reached over and placed a finger of the other side of the younger woman's chin. She gently turned her head to face her. "Natalia, your driver's name is..." she said slowly and waited for the answer.
"Bobby."
Olivia quickly stood back up and scrolled to 'Bobby' and pressed the talk button.
"I don't like blood," said the dazed woman below her.
"Really? I thought vampires still needed it to survive... Bobby, hi, Ms. Rivera is going to need you to pick us up at the right side exit immediately...thank you." She hung up the phone and bent back down to the wounded figure. "Can you walk?"
"Can if the floor will stop moving."
"Okay, let's go," Olivia drew Natalia's arm up over her shoulders and slowly helped her to her feet. "Keep your eyes forward and try to only focus on things that are at a distance."
"Technically, evvverything in front of me is at a distance." Natalia stated.
"Head wound and all, and you still just gotta be a smart-ass." Olivia shook her head and they proceeded to make their way to the elevator as quickly as Natalia's unsteady legs would carry her.
"I could just go back to my room and lie down...maybe take a pill, sleep it off," Natalia said drearily.
"Yeah, I suppose you could," Olivia said in mock contemplation. "But then there's that pesky little 'never-waking-up-again' risk."
"Wouldn't you rather that scenario right about now?" Natalia asked honestly.
"It's tempting, now that I think about it," Olivia answered, ushering her into the elevators. "I do have your passkey now. Could just stick you in any old vacant room and go sleep in your luxurious Penthouse Suite for the night."
"You'll do anything to get into my bed, won't you?"
"I didn't knock on your door, Chiquita."
"Touché."
Olivia pressed the number for the ground floor and moved behind Natalia, wrapping her arms around her to steady her swaying frame as the elevator began to move.
"Déjà vu,” Natalia said and leaned back against the stronger body behind her.
Olivia tried not to but couldn't help but smile. "If you can muster up one more French idiom, I will take you back to your room as you are obviously doing juuust fine."
"Haven't got any more... too Latina."
Olivia rolled her eyes and chuckled lightly. The elevator doors opened, and they headed for the limo. When they got there, both Olivia and Bobby helped Natalia into her seat. Olivia buckled her in and ordered Bobby to go run into the kitchen around the corner and ask a chef for a bag of ice.
"À la carte! Ha!" The wounded hotelier laughed. "Can I go back to my room now?"
"Shut up and sit back," Olivia ordered as she climbed over her to get to the seat beside her. She reached inside her purse and brought out a small pack of tissues, which she then opened and wadded together in her hand. She pushed Natalia's hair to the side again to examine her injury. She noticed a deep gash within a couple of centimeters from her left ear just above the base of her skull. Blood had been oozing and drying for a while now, making it impossible to see how deep it really was. The area around it was incredibly swollen.
"Nasty," she said as she pressed the wad of tissues as lightly as possible to the wound to try and stop the small trickle of blood still snaking down Natalia's neck.
Natalia flinched. "Ahh! Hellooo, Fuck! Can still register needless pain here!" She hissed.
"Fine!" Olivia threw the bloody tissue into the Natalia's lap. "Bleed to death for all I care!"
The younger woman leaned the right side of her head against the headrest. Her stomach began turning again and she breathed deeply to try and avoid getting sick. She closed her eyes briefly, only to see bright flashes of light pass before her closed eyelids.
"Oooo, prettty," she droned.
Olivia looked over at her. "Open your eyes, Rivera."
Natalia sighed but kept her eyes closed. "Dead or alive, Spencer. Decide how it is you want me. Can't have both."
Olivia slapped her hard on the thigh. "Open your goddamned eyes, Rivera!"
"Ow! Fuuuck!" Natalia's eyes flew open. "Was that really necessary?"
"Worked, didn't it? Plus it kinda felt pretty darned good to do." The driver came back with the ice and reached over Natalia to hand it to Olivia. "To the hospital," she said as she placed the cold bag against Natalia's swollen skin around the gash.
"Ohhhh, that feels so fucking good," was the response of relief.
"Hold it," Olivia said but Natalia didn't move. "Can you hold it?" She repeated.
"Oh, yeah... yes," Natalia lifted her hand to the back of her head and caught Olivia's accidentally. Olivia hesitated a few seconds before slowly removing her fingers from underneath the other woman's. They both turned to look out their windows and remained silent for several moments.
"Spencer?" Natalia said quietly.
"Yes, Rivera?" Olivia didn't turn to her.
"If I die, I give you permission to marry my brother," she smirked. "You will both make each other tremendously miserable, and therefore, I will be able to rest in peace."
Olivia closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. When she opened her eyes again, she forced herself to remain turned away from Natalia. She wanted to yell again. She wanted to bring up the fact that it was unconscionable that Natalia had clearly initiated sex while keeping the demise of her business deal hidden from her. She wanted to know how the other woman could blatantly call it a drunken mistake when she herself had seen the look in Natalia's eyes when they were finally able to pull away from each other's mouths.
That look wasn't one of regret, Olivia thought. Of that she was certain. She contemplated trying to call Natalia on it without starting another argument but figured it was pointless. Natalia had made it clear that she wanted to forget about the incident. I can make her remember another day. She turned to face the younger woman and found the ice bag had fallen down beside her and her eyes were closed.
"Rivera..." She nudged the other woman's arm but she didn't respond. "Natalia, wake up!" Olivia unbuckled herself and shifted over to cup Natalia's face in both her hands. She slapped her on the cheek forcefully and repeated her name loudly, trying to get Natalia's eyes to open.
"You have to open your eyes!" Olivia's voice was now panicked.
Natalia's eyes didn't open.
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