God, he couldn’t wait anymore. He hastily grabbed the condom in his trouser pocket and went back to her.
Eve smiled, standing and leading him to the bedroom. “I don’t think you’ll be comfortable with me sitting there.”
He laughed. “I’m so horny I don’t care.”
Eve ran to the bed and threw herself in the middle of it, laughing. “See? Isn’t here better?”
He crawled on top of her. “Anywhere with you is better.”
“You’re the sweetest guy in the world, you know?”
He grinned. “Really? I’m just telling the truth.”
Eve chuckled, rolling her eyes. “Like I said, sweetest guy.”
Xavier kissed her lips longingly, then sat up to put the condom on.
“I wanna do that.” Eve snatched the packet from him.
“No, you can’t.” He tried to steal it back from her. If she played with his dick with her mouth and hands while she put the condom on him, he’d lose control.
“I want to,” she said playfully, turning around while she tore the wrapping open. Her backside pointed at him as she leaned on her elbows.
Oh, hell. If this wasn’t any hotter…
He caressed her ass before bending down to kiss both cheeks.
Eve laughed, wriggling her bottom.
He gave it a light slap. “Stop that. I need to find my place.”
“What place?”
“This.” His fingers once again found her sex, and he rubbed her clit the way he’d learned she liked.
Eve let out a soft moan, widening her stance to give his hand better access.
He leaned down and kissed her back, her shoulders, her neck, while his other hand played with her boobs. His fingers got slicker, and he knew from her breathing and moans that it wasn’t only from her recent orgasm. She was ready for him again.
“I need the condom, babe,” he whispered in her ear.
Eve handed it to him and lay on her back.
With impatient hands, he put the condom on and poised himself on top of her. He stared into her eyes and saw raw desire in them. But there was more that he hadn’t seen before: vulnerability, trust, and something much deeper. He knew, because he felt the same inside of him too.
He pushed in, holding her gaze, and his face contorted with pleasure. Slowly, he thrust and thrust, wanting to reach the very heart of her with the tip of his need.
His groans of pleasure mingled with hers while their bodies moved in synchronicity, fitting perfectly as they brought each other to heights he’d never felt with anyone else but her. And he drove into her deeper still, not just with his body but also with his… heart. Yes, his heart that suddenly felt whole, alive and beating for her.
Eve healed him.
He stared at her with wonder as he strived to return the sheer rapture she was giving him.
Then Eve tensed, before her body bowed and tightened all around him, and she gasped out her breath in tune with her release.
His own pleasure spiked, reaching a crescendo before he erupted inside her, joining her cries of ecstasy.
Wow. It was more than incredible. It was… glorious.
He planted soft kisses all over her face, caressing her hair as they caught their breaths. He’d have stayed like this for hours, but he had to get rid of the condom. Ah, he wished he didn’t have to break the spell. He kissed her lips before pulling out of her.
Eve made a complaining sound, holding him tighter.
He chuckled. “Condom, babe.”
She sighed. “Come back quickly.”
“Promise.”
And he did. And they made sweet, sweaty love all over again.
Xavier ran soft fingers along Eve’s back and arm as she lay sprawled on his chest. “Sleepy?”
“Hmm,” she acknowledged.
“Me too,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head.
“Xavier?”
“Yeah?”
“I know nothing funny has been happening lately, but Barker could strike at any time. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
He smiled, squeezing her tight. “Hey, nothing will happen to me. It’s you I’m worried about, with your job and all.”
Eve let out a snicker. “There are no big-shot criminals like Barker after me. It’s not comparable to your situation.”
He didn’t answer. If only she knew.
“We need to figure out how to protect you from Barker,” she said drowsily.
“Okay.”
“So what do you suggest we do?”
“Not piss him off,” he said with a chuckle.
Eve nodded. “Yeah. That fake gym sighting was probably him warning you to keep your mouth shut about whatever you might have heard about Ross Anton.”
“Yeah.”
“I can think of one way to appease him so he won’t want to waste his time on you.”
“How?”
“Well, I think every time Ross Anton makes the news, Barker gets worried because it usually means the police and the media will keep on investigating his syndicate. I mean, he can’t be happy seeing his cronies being arrested, even if he himself hasn’t been found. Just in the last couple of weeks, two more men with links to him got arrested.”
Xavier suppressed a chuckle. If only Eve knew that she’d helped with that.
“So,” Eve said, “if you Stirlings don’t appear in the news with anything that might get Barker annoyed or nervous, he might stop wanting to mess with you.”
“Sure. But that’s impossible to achieve when it’s out of our control what comes out in the news about us.”
Eve lifted her head to look at him. “Thing is, news materials are often picked for ratings. The more sensational, the better. Because of your sister, any news about you guys will always be sensational. I can do my bit by not focusing on your family. There are plenty of other topics that are going to benefit the public more than continuing to report about your parents. Same with you. Any more negative news will just hurt your family unfairly. I’ll try to encourage Chester to focus on other issues too, without being obvious about why I wouldn’t want to report about you.”
Tears sprung to Xavier’s eyes. “Thank you,” he said hoarsely.
“That also means we have to continue lying low about seeing each other. People at work won’t understand.”
He caressed the hair off her face. “I know. Thank you.”
Eve smiled and went back to burrowing her head in his chest.
Xavier kissed the top of her head, feeling incredibly happy and peaceful.
God, he was falling hard for this woman. In such a short time, she’d come to mean so much to him.
And, yes, keeping their relationship a secret was of the utmost importance. If Barker learned they were together, who knew what the bastard might decide to do?
Fear gripped him, and he held Eve tighter. If he ever lost Eve like he’d lost Gail, he was certain nothing would be able to un-break him. So, more than anything, her safety was his number one priority.
Chapter 15
Eve turned off the stove as she went to answer the knock on her door. Maybe she and Xavier should talk about giving each other keys to their places.
She opened the door and grinned. Xavier was wearing the shirt she’d given him last night for the fourth-month anniversary of their very first date—when they still hadn’t known each other’s surnames. And she was wearing the perfume he’d given her.
Xavier pulled her close and kissed her lips. “You smell nice.”
She ran a hand over his chest, feeling the material of his top. “And you look nice.”
“You’ll be taking this shirt off me later,” Xavier said, nuzzling her neck, “so it’s only fair that I take the perfume off you in the shower.”
She giggled, leading him to the kitchen. “Lunch first. And as usual, you have impeccable timing. We’re ready to eat.”
“Yum. I’m starving. This is great, you know. Having a lunch date in private.”
&nb
sp; “Yeah. Pity it’s not very often I’m light on work during the day. How was your friend Jaxon’s session this morning?”
“Good, but he hates it that he hasn’t beaten my time on Obstacle X yet,” Xavier said with a laugh.
“I don’t think he ever will,” she said loyally.
“Aw, thanks, sweetheart.” Xavier kissed her cheek. “What’s your plan for work this afternoon?”
“As you know, I’m going to the studio for meetings, so I have to see Aaron. Hopefully, he won’t give me grief, since I have plenty of material for my next story about this company that’s been lying about its food products being certified organic. Then, if I finish early enough, I might go sniff around that second-hand goods store that apparently sells stolen items.”
Xavier frowned. “That doesn’t sound like a very safe thing to investigate.”
She smiled at him patiently. “Thieves aren’t usually murderers, honey.”
“You never know. Besides, you’ll get recognised.”
She shrugged. “So I’m just interested in saving some money and buying second-hand. And I love looking for vintage stuff. I’ll make something up.”
“Eve… why don’t you do that some other time, when it’s daytime? By the time you finish in the studio, it might be dark.”
Eve smiled. She always loved it when Xavier worried about her. “Okay. Maybe I’ll go interview this woman who’s accusing you of something instead.”
“Me? What am I supposed to have done now?” he asked dryly.
She bit back a grin. There had indeed been plenty of anonymous calls regarding the Stirlings, with most of them being total nonsense. It wasn’t surprising, since it was par for the course for a show like Your Eyes and Ears to get malicious or mischievous tip-offs. They seemed to be getting more than the usual number regarding the Stirlings, though, probably because of the Holly Stirling factor. Then there were those still annoyed with Stirling Mortgage Brokers.
“Well, this woman claimed you won’t admit to getting her pregnant.”
Xavier’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Can you think of anyone you could have gotten pregnant in the last few months?”
“Yes—you, and no one else.”
She blushed. “Birth control’s working, honey. It’s not me.”
“Well, she’s lying.” Xavier looked absolutely insulted and plenty mad.
Eve giggled, relenting. “I know. Her name’s on our vexatious callers list. She’s made similar claims before against George Clooney and Tom Cruise and a couple of other people.”
Xavier burst out laughing. “And I was wondering why you didn’t look bothered by it.”
“Well, I most certainly was—before I went to check the vexatious callers list.”
Xavier walked over to her and snaked his arms around her waist. “Only you could possibly have my baby in her tummy.” He kissed her lips before letting her go and grabbing some cups from the cupboards.
She melted.
She’d really fallen hard for this man, and she’d never been happier.
Eve sat on the visitor’s chair in Aaron’s office, not looking forward to this meeting since Aaron had been bad-tempered all day. Apparently, one of the other shows for which he was the program director had been sliding down in the ratings, and rumours had been swirling around that the network was getting ready to pull the plug on it.
“Where are you at with the Barker-in-Xavier-Stirling’s-gym story?” Aaron demanded without preamble. “It’s been almost two months.”
“Nowhere,” she said bluntly. “We’ve got nothing.”
Aaron leaned across the table, scowling. “Almost two months of investigating this and you have nothing? How can you have nothing? Haven’t you been spending a lot of time with that man? How can you not have a single thing we can work on?”
“Even the police haven’t found anything. The tip-off appears to be inaccurate.”
“I think Stirling’s pretty face is distracting you.”
Her breath hitched. “No. There’s simply no concrete evidence that Barker’s ever been near A to X Fitness.” Thankfully, that was the truth.
Aaron sat back on his seat, crossing his arms. “You know, Eve, you started in Your Eyes and Ears with the perfect segment on Stirling Mortgage Brokers. Not that you came up with the topic yourself. Trevor Clarence suggested it for you. Now, not only have you failed to follow up on that, you also haven’t pushed hard enough to get what you need against Xavier Stirling.”
“I have followed up on the Stirling Mortgage Brokers’ issue, and I’d already told you the results of that. To refresh your memory, I’ve interviewed ten of their employees and none of them had seen anything suspicious or been told to do anything questionable. They all said that, as marketing director, Ross Anton was hardly in the office and that all marketing work was contracted to third parties. In fact, some of them hadn’t even met him. Then there were the two ex-employees I’d tracked down. Like I said in my email to you, they’d resigned for personal reasons that had nothing whatsoever to do with the Ross Anton issue. So there’s nothing else we could move forward with regarding that case.”
“Veronica was always good at extricating well-hidden truths. You’re making me question your worth.”
Heat rose in Eve’s face. “The ratings have been on an increase since I joined two months ago. They’re better than when Veronica was here.”
“Which means we’ve been doing a good job promoting a new face. You’re a novelty for the viewers. Soon, that novelty will wear off.”
“I disagree. I think the viewers are happy with me. Having said that, you haven’t been giving me good content to choose from.”
“Because I don’t have confidence in you yet. And nothing you’ve done so far has given me any.”
She forced her next breath to be a slow, calming one. “You’ve been against me from the beginning, Aaron. Why is that?”
Aaron glared at her. “I don’t like it when people jump queues. And you can’t tell me you didn’t do that.”
Eve inhaled sharply, feeling gut-punched. “I think I’m doing a good job, not only as a presenter but also as an investigator. You have to admit that I’ve found great topics to work on despite you not giving me any good leads.”
“You have one of the best leads we’ve ever had in this show with the Stirling family and their connection to criminals! All I wanted was for you to focus on that, but you keep stuffing it up! The rumours about them haven’t died down, and you’re saying there’s nothing newsworthy about them anymore? I find that very hard to believe. Unfortunately for you, we only have two weeks left for this year. Since we need to present something Christmassy for the last show before the holiday break, you have to present a segment on the Stirlings next week. If you don’t, you can expect not to come back next year.”
Eve gulped.
“You shouldn’t have been given something so significant to investigate, anyway,” Aaron muttered as he got up from his seat. “I’ve always believed you’re still too green for a show such as this. But Trevor Clarence thinks that because of what happened to your aunt, you have the necessary nose for this role. I’m seriously not seeing it, and I think he made the mistake of pushing for your employment. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have another meeting.” Aaron stomped out of his office.
Eve gaped at his back, stunned that he’d mentioned her aunt in this discussion. Shaken, she rose to her feet and left Aaron’s office, hoping her distress didn’t show on her face.
She could only imagine how much trouble she’d be in with Aaron if he found out she was going out with Xavier. No doubt he’d accuse her of compromising her journalistic integrity.
She didn’t see it that way. Everyone involved with Your Eyes and Ears, including Aaron himself, constantly pushed for their own likes and dislikes, convincing others of their favoured and loathed topics. That was all she was doing when it came to the Stirlings.
Besides, she wouldn’t be continuing to date Xavier i
f she had any reason to believe he’d been lying to her. She’d simply rather put her time and energy towards investigating and reporting on real culprits. There were plenty of them out there—and her man wasn’t one of them.
So what the hell was she going to do? As far as she was concerned, the Stirlings had suffered enough. She didn’t want them to be the subject of more negative publicity when they’d done nothing wrong.
But…
She’d lose her job if she didn’t come up with something, and the only thing she could think of that would be safe for the Stirlings would be to interview them and discuss the effects of the rumours on their livelihood. It wouldn’t be the sensational slant Aaron was looking for, but it would still be Stirling-related.
She’d have to discuss this with Xavier right now, since he’d be having dinner with his parents tonight. Hopefully, they’d all be willing to face the camera.
The goldfish bowl and the other meeting rooms were taken, so she rang Xavier from the corridor. No one would know who she was talking to anyway.
“Hey, babe,” Xavier said.
“Hi. Am I interrupting something?”
“I have a couple of minutes. My client’s just getting changed for our one-on-one session.”
“Okay, glad I caught you in time. You’re still going to your parents’ for dinner tonight, right?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Mind if I join you?”
“You want to come to my parents’ tonight?” Xavier asked in surprise.
“Yes. This involves them too.”
Xavier was silent for a moment. “I don’t mind, but I’m not sure they’re ready to meet you. They’re still kinda… hurt about the segment you did on them.”
She flushed. “Of course. I understand.”
“Can we discuss what you have in mind first? Then I can tell them about it later? I just know that tonight’s not a good time. They don’t have enough warning to prepare themselves for meeting you.”
“You’re right. Okay. I’ll talk to you about it first.”
“Thanks.”
“So can I see you tomorrow? I have my interviews and investigations packed in the morning, then I’m working from home at around two-ish.”
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