by S. Ann Cole
Arrggh! “I don’t like your honesty.” I stood and flounced off into the apartment.
He was right behind me, following. “If you don’t like your job, what’s the big deal?”
Yeah. What’s the big deal, Alina? You’re being a little theatrical, don’t you think? “You scheduled a meeting with my boss to make a career choice for me without consulting me first. We haven’t even been together six months and already you wanna start ruling my life?”
“Not tryna rule your life. Just want you in mine. And if I don’t make the decisions I’m making, then you just might end up being in his and not mine.”
“Xavierrrrr,” I dragged out in high frustration, spinning on him. “I chose you! You! Over a man I once thought I couldn’t, in million years, live without. I. Chose. You. How can that not be enough?”
He shrugged. “It’s just not, Chino.”
Letting out a long, loud, exhausted sigh, I spun again and made a beeline for my bedroom. “I can’t with this. I’m just…I’ll go get ready.”
Minutes later, I was standing in my closet staring unseeing at the racks, seething, when I heard his heavy footfalls thudding into the room, then the air shifted, the temperature spiking as he came up behind me. He didn’t physically touch me, but his presence had its own caressing fingers, and his heat usually had me seduced and wet long before he ever laid a finger on me. That’s one of the many reasons I chose him. He could touch me without ever touching me.
“Does you getting ready mean you’ll do it?”
“I’m gonna quit modeling not because you want me to,” I lied, “But because I’m moving Jacob here and I’m going to need to be a full-time parent for him because I don’t want a bunch of strangers—”
Xavier ate the rest of the lie when he bodily whipped me around and plunged his tongue in my mouth. Tongues dancing the victory tango, he drove me through the rack with my dresses until he slammed me against the wall, crowding me in, firing up my entire body with his own self-conducted heat.
Nipping my bottom lip, he smiled against them and mumbled, “You’re doing this for me, Chino. For once, just tell the damn truth.”
Too soon. He was beginning to read me too well too freaking soon.
His big hand moved between us, and strong, determined fingers dipped into my shorts, delving rudely and unapologetically into my slick folds.
Moaning into his mouth, I sagged against the wall, causing a few dresses to slide off their hangers. They represented how helplessly I was sliding off my high horse and into this man. And I had absolutely no problem sliding.
So, for once, I told the truth. “For you. I’m doing it for you.”
Suffice it to say, Lion was not pleased. Before we left for his office, I phoned him behind Xavier’s back and told him what I wanted to happen, not what Xavier wanted. During the meeting, he would tell Xavier that if I wanted out of the contract, no big deal, he would let me out. This would prevent Xavier from spending his money frivolously on me. Afterward, I would buy myself out of the contract.
Lion had bitched about this decision for a bit, but eventually agreed that this was a good time to take a break what with all the negative buzz surrounding me now with the baby daddy and broken engagement drama.
Therefore, our meeting with Lion was short and hostile free, which left Xavier looking mildly puzzled, sliding me suspicious glances from time to time.
I pretended not to notice. Last thing I wanted was for him to start asking questions, because I found the more time I spent with Xavier, the harder it was for me to lie to him.
“So, what now?” I asked after climbing into the Xavier’s Hummer, buckling my seatbelt.
He was still wearing a deep frown from our short, pointless meeting with my manager. “Got strict orders to take you to Beach Rock.
Without even having to ask, I knew those orders were from Xena. I groaned. “Do we have to?”
“Yep. Sis is our PR. Needs all the deets to do her job properly. Doesn’t do too well with surprises.”
As he rolled out of the parking lot, I huffed out, “How come everyone’s mad at me and you’re off the hook when you’re the one who started this mess?”
Eyes on the road, one corner of his mouth tipped up, and then his tongue darted out and wet his lips as he raised one hand to free the man-bun on top of his head. All that wavy blond hair cascaded past his shoulders, the scent of fresh coconuts wafting on the cool air from the air-conditioner.
Breathing in deep the lush scent of his hair, I bit down on my bottom lip.
His hand went up again to ruffle his waves, and his other hand on the steering wheel flexed at the same. Deliberately.
As my hungry stare remained glued to his deliciousness, enraptured, I realized all his movements were careful and precise. He was doing it to prove a point, and I had fallen right into the trap.
“Cocky bastard,” I grumbled under my breath, fighting my eyes away from him.
Xavier burst out laughing. “You asked a question. Got my own way of answering. Don’t always gotta use words.”
“I don’t think Xena is affected by your, um, physical attributes.”
“Her only living sibling. She never stays mad at me for more than five minutes.” He shrugged. “Can do no wrong in her eyes.”
“Then talk to her for me. Get her off my back.”
Head shake. “Think she’s just mad she didn’t figure it all out from the beginning. Sis never misses a beat. She always knows what’s underground. This just caught her off guard. She’s probably madder at herself than at you, wondering if she’s losing her touch.”
I nodded. He was very right. Xena knew everything, so for her to have been so close to me and never figured it out, never see this coming…yep, if I were her I’d be mad, too.
“She needs a friend, Chino. A real friend. Not someone who’s tryna use her. Not everyone can handle her…colorful personality. You’re one of the first chicks I’ve seen her hold in high esteem. You can handle her. Be her friend, alright?”
“I am her friend,” I told him. “We might’ve had a rocky start, but I hold her in high esteem, too. Our relationship is just weird, raw and hostile, is all. But I do consider your sister as a real friend.”
He nodded. “Good.
Xavier dropped me off at Beach Rock and ordered me to tell Tex he had two minutes to be out or he was leaving him behind, as the band was scheduled to make an appearance at some car race charity event.
Grabbing his face, I gave him a long, air-depleting kiss, before hopping happily out of the jeep and bounding up the steps to Beach Rock.
“Tex!” I yelled once I entered the house and skipped up the stairs, heading to his bedroom. “Xavi says you have two minutes before he leaves your skinny ass.” I no longer cared that he hated me; I was in a happy place, and not even his moody, broody, eyeliner-wearing self could ruin it.
I was halfway down the hall when Tex burst out of his room and breezed past me, almost knocking me over, muttering something including the word “cockblocker” under his breath while tugging a black T-shirt over his head.
Yep, still hated me.
As he bolted down the stairs, I skipped past his room, heading towards the spiral stairs that led up to Xena’s space, when I heard a whispered “Hey!”
Halting, I turned slightly and narrowed my eyes down the hall. A hand poked out through Tex’s door and beckoned me.
Doing a one-eighty, I cautiously ambled to Tex’s room and peered inside. It was rock star messy, dark like its owner and stunk of cigarettes and stale sex. Despite the hand I thought I saw, no one was in the room. Was I going crazy? Were there ghosts at Beach R—
With a sorority sister squeal, I nearly jumped out of my skin when Xena popped her head from behind the door that was swung back against the wall. “Are they gone?”
“I—uh…” Backtracking into the hall, I whipped my head from left to right, tiptoed into the room again like an idiot, and then stared, taken aback. “I guess… Xavi was
in a rush. Xena, what…”
She stepped out from behind the door, wearing one of Tex’s T-shirts, her clothes from the night before clutched to her chest, her long blond hair like a rat’s nest, gray eyes swollen. She looked terrified and blissful at the same time. A rather alarming combination that left me concerned.
For the longest while, we just stared at each other. Xena broke first. Walking over to Tex’s bed, she dumped her clothes and began pacing the length of the room.
“After you left last night, everyone was just really…tense. Xavi chased after you like two minutes after you ran out, then Ice Steam and Benny left, then Leo went to Guest Rest, and Mark went to see this woman he’s secretly been dating, and then it was just me…and him. So I was freaking out about the shitstorm and how everyone had been lying to me and he was trying calm me down and I wouldn’t calm and then…he kissed me.”
To refrain from commenting, I clasped my hands and pressed them to my lips.
“And so I kissed him back,” she continued firing at bullet speed. “And he didn’t stop kissing me and I didn’t stop kissing him and before I knew it we were naked and…oh god.”
Completely befuddled by her reaction, I removed my clasped hands and asked, “So, why exactly are you freaking out about this? Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted?”
“I don’t freaking know why I’m freaking out!” she freaked out. “Shouldn’t I be freaking out? I mean, what if it’s just a one-time thing for him—well, we did go all night—but what if the spell wears off by the time he gets back and he decides I’m not worth the risk?”
Walking up to her, I placed my hands on her shoulders to keep her still. “Xena, relax.”
Nodding, she closed her eyes, breathed in deep, and then slowly exhaled.
“That’s better,” I soothed. “Now, stop giving Tex all the power. You give him all the power in this, you’re gonna get used, you’re gonna get dumped. What you are going to do is get out of this stunk-as-all-hell room, grab a shower, and glamor up. When he returns later, don’t bombard him with any ‘what happens now’ questions.
“Just pretend like nothing happened. Act casual, as if nothing’s changed. Then sleep out tonight. Somewhere. Anywhere but here. If he calls you, don’t answer. That will leave him wondering. Mad, even. Let him feel like he was used. And if he asks where you were and why you haven’t been answering your phone the next time you see him, tell him, with your signature sass, that it’s none of his business. He will be pissed at this response, and this will be your opportunity to initiate sex with him and shut him up.
“This will leave him confused. And from here on out, you will have the power. Never let him into your thoughts; never reveal how you really feel during pillow talk. Play it out until he breaks, until he is on his knees in front of you begging you to let him in. You’ve pined long enough. Time to have some fun with him.”
Xena blinked at me, once, twice, then shrieked, “I can’t do all of that! I’m not like you, Alina. I’ll break the second I fall into his bed again.”
I slapped her lightly on the cheek, waking her up. “Hey, do you want to be used or kept?”
“The answer to that is obvious.”
“Well, then, toughen up and stop whining like the white trash that pass in and out of this room.” I walked over to the bed and picked up her clothes. “And the next time you ‘fall into his bed’, tell him if he wants you in it again he needs to change his goddamn mattress. Only God knows how many skanks’ STD infected secretions are in that thing.” I started out the door, expecting her to follow. “Now come on, I’m tired of holding my breath in here. Dude needs a broom and like twenty bottles of Febreze.”
While Xena showered, I stretched out on her bed and Skyped Saskia to gaagaa chat with Jacob. Though, I was mostly doing all the talking, as Jacob was demolishing a giant Tetris robot that JK bought him, completely ignoring me.
I was still trying to get my son’s attention when Xena emerged from the bathroom. Her gaze landed on me and her eyebrows drew together, but she said nothing and disappeared into her closet.
“…and oh, I forgot to tell you,” Saskia was saying, “he started calling JK ‘daddy’ as of yesterday morning. Not the usual daaadaaa, but flat out Daddy.”
Groaning, I slapped a palm over my face. “Oh, God. Why’d he have to start doing that now when he’s about to leave?”
“I know, right?” Sadness crept into her eyes as she nervously worried her lips. “I really am hoping he’ll be okay once Jacob leaves…”
“It will all be okay, Kia.” My eyes flicked to the walk-in closet, knowing Xena was no doubt eavesdropping and Saskia was a super private person. Not wanting to risk Xena getting a hold of anything on Saskia, I murmured abrupt goodbyes and hung up.
Xena walked out of the closet a minute later, tucking a silk polka-dot blouse into her jeans. “Don’t get offended by this question, but…how do you do it? How do you manage to be away from your kid for so long?”
Because I’m a selfish wretch who thinks only of herself? Because I suck at being a mother? Because I was forced? Because I’m enjoying the freedom a little too much? Because I’m just an overall terrible human being?
Flat-out refusing to answer her question, I deflected, “So, Xavi said you wanted the deets? Where do I start?”
Xena’s frown deepened. “What are you talking about?”
Lazily sitting up, I leaned back against the headboard. “Xavi said you gave him strict instructions to bring me here. That you needed all the details to do your job?”
“Why would he tell you that?” she asked, her face now a mask of confusion. “He already sent me a freaking essay of an email last night on everything that happened from start to finish and ordered me to lay off you.”
My turn to frown. “So…let me get this straight, you didn’t tell Xavi to bring me here today?”
Hands going to her hips, she wagged her head. “If I’d told Xavi to do that, wouldn’t I have been expecting you to show up, and be caught anywhere but in Tex’s room?”
Sitting up straighter, I pensively tapped two fingers to my lower lip, wondering what the hell Xavier was playing at. “Wait, you said he chased after me last night and didn’t come back?”
“Yeah. Didn’t he sleep by you?”
My head shook no. “Xavi showed up at my apartment this morning.”
“So, where did he go?”
If Xavier followed me last night when I left, that meant he trailed me back to my apartment possibly to make sure I got there safe what with how hysterical I was. Maybe he’d planned on sleeping with me but turned back when he saw the paparazzi and Davian in the lobby.
Whatever the reason he followed me, he definitely spun back around because I didn’t see him until this morning. Ergo, my guess was that he came back to Beach Rock and…heard Xena and Tex…and slept downstairs or in one of the other buildings to make them none the wiser…then he brought me here so someone other than himself would catch them together.
Or because he knew Xena would need a girlfriend to freak out to? I mean, he told me to tell Tex to be out in two minutes, not “the guys”. How did he know Leo or Mark weren’t there?
“Oh my God, Xena…”
My eyes shot to her and I could tell she had made her own calculations but came to the same conclusion as I did.
We both stared wide-eyed at each other and whispered in unison, “He knows.”
CHAPTER FOUR
TAP. TAP. TAP. TAP…
Running thin on patience, I sipped my coffee, propped back against Mel’s Range, which was parked outside the address Davian had messaged me the night before, requesting we meet up there at 10 am.
Our original plan had been to meet at Eye Spy at seven last night. Xavier, however, was not having it. Any kind of ‘meeting’ I was to have with Davian now or in the future, he’d made clear, he would be present.
Insisting that he didn’t rule my life, I’d yelled in his face and stormed out for Eye Spy. Xavier, well,
he was dead serious. He practically chased me down and abducted me. Creating a massive scene in the middle of the street, he hauled me from my convertible, threw me in his jeep, and drove us back to my apartment like a madman.
While I raged, completely losing my shit, he, unfazed by my ire, proceeded to soothe me with his expert tongue and gave me the most somniferous orgasm ever received. Knocked me out clean.
I woke up this morning to a ton of missed calls from Davian, and a text message with a new time and location. Knowing Xavier would insist on coming along, I snuck out of bed and tiptoed around the apartment, got dressed, and left him snoring in my bed.
Truly, I understood all of Xavier’s concerns, but he had to get over his insecurities. I get it, he didn’t trust Davian, and he was right not to, but he needed to trust me.
Asking me to quit my job so he could keep an eye on me wouldn’t aid in strengthening our relationship. Demanding to be in the midst of every interaction with Davian was taking it a little too far, and would, in addition to that, only serve to inflate Davian’s ego, not get him to back off.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. My shoes tapped impatiently against the sun-hot pavement.
I checked my watch. 10:22 am.
Wondering idly if Davian planned to stand me up as some kind of sick payback for last night, I withdrew my cell phone from the back pocket of my jeans to find out where the hell he was. Just as I located his number in the recent calls list and hit the call button, Davian’s sports car screeched and dragged and rumbled, and parked butt-first in front of Mel’s Range.
Raising my coffee to take a sip, I simultaneously pressed off the call and stuffed my cell phone back in my pocket. Knocking my sunglasses from the top of my head so they fell over my eyes, I fixed my now hidden gaze on the direction of the sports car.
Davian slammed out of it, balancing a tray with two Starbucks cups. Totally chipper this morning, he skipped up on the sidewalk and elevated up onto his toes like Michael Jackson, grinning like a loon. All but dancing down the hot pavement toward me, he halted in front of me, shoved me aside, checked his hair in the tinted glass as he raked his fingers back through it, then he pouted like a model, turned to me, said, “Mornin’.”