by Shelly Ellis
“Dawn, are you busy?” Kevin asked an hour later.
She had asked him to come with her to Sawyer Gallery when she quit the Templeton. “Like I would ever let you leave me behind,” he had joked before also turning in his resignation.
He gently knocked on her office door and pushed it open now. “You have someone out here who’d like to speak with you if you have some time.”
“No more busy than usual,” Dawn grumbled with a frown as she tore her eyes away from her laptop screen. “Is it about tomorrow night’s exhibit?” Her shoulders fell. “God, don’t tell me it’s the florist or the caterer coming in with some issue. I don’t think I can take it, Kev!”
He shook his blond head. “No, it’s not the florist or the caterer.”
“OK, well, at least there’s that. Send them in, I guess.”
Kevin nodded.
“Oh, and Kev,” she whispered.
He paused. “Yeah?”
“Pop back in my office in like . . . fifteen minutes and make up a lie about how you really, really need me out on the exhibit floor. I don’t want to get sucked into a long conversation. I’ve got too much to do today.”
Kevin nodded again, pushed the door open, and stepped into the hall. She heard him mumble something to someone in the hallway. Dawn busied herself with neatly arranging the stacks of papers on her desk. When she looked up and saw who was walking into her office with his head bowed, heat flared along her cheeks, chest, and neck. Her heartbeat accelerated.
Well, speak of the devil, she thought.
“Hey,” Xavier greeted her softly as Kevin shut the door behind him, leaving them alone.
Xavier wasn’t wearing a suit today. Instead, he wore dark jeans and a powder blue button-down shirt that was open at the collar. His curly hair looked a little shaggier than usual and he sported a five o’clock shadow. But despite his disheveled appearance, Xavier still looked handsome. He reminded her of what he looked like when she woke up next to him the morning after they spent their first night together. He reminded her of the heartache and disappointment she had experienced days later at the funeral when he acted as if she meant nothing to him.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
She hoped her voice didn’t betray how shaky she felt on the inside, because her skin, muscles, and bones felt like a quivering mass of Jell-O.
“I told you that I was going to check on you,” he answered, slowly walking toward her desk. “You haven’t returned any of my phone calls, so I just decided to come and see you myself. I went to Templeton and the receptionist told me that I could find you here.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have come.” She rose from the chair and glared at him. “I don’t want to talk to you. I’d hoped you would take me ignoring your messages as a hint. But I guess not.” She stepped around her desk, giving him a wide berth as she walked toward her door. “Now I’ll just have to skip the hints, be a straight-up bitch, and tell you to leave.”
“I quit my job at Allen Enterprises,” he blurted out, making her pause.
He quit? Why the hell did he quit?
“Sorry to hear that,” she muttered blandly, pretending to have little interest in his announcement. She turned the door handle.
“I cut off all contact with Constance and Raquel too . . . especially after I found out that they’re planning to cut you out of Herb’s will.”
“Really?” she said as she swung the door open. “Well, you didn’t have to do that on my account.”
He raised his hand and promptly slammed the door shut, making her stare at him in shock.
“Yes, I did,” he said. “It’s the least I owe you.” She watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. “Look, Dawn, I know I hurt you. And I know you’re angry at me. It’s well deserved. But I just want to—”
“Do what? Apologize?” she choked, trying to hold back her tears. She took a step back from him when he started to reach out for her. “Is that what you’re about to say? Is that what you came here to do?” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Frankly, I’ve had enough of your apologies. They don’t mean a damn thing if you’re just going to do it again.”
He cringed. “I never meant to hurt you, and I’m not going to do it again!”
“That’s what you say now!” she chided as she opened her eyes and began to cry. “You always say that! But you can’t please everybody, Xavier. When are you going to figure that shit out? When you’re torn between disappointing other people or hurting me, your choice has always been clear, hasn’t it? Well, you don’t have to make that choice anymore. I’ve pulled myself out of consideration. So for the last time, go back to Constance! Make up with her and—”
“I’m not going back to Constance! I told you. I’ve cut off all contact with her! There’s nothing between us anymore.”
“Nothing between you? I saw you two together at the funeral! I saw how—”
“You didn’t see anything! What you saw was an act! I don’t want to marry her and Constance doesn’t want to marry me. She never did! The whole time we’ve been together, she’s been fucking some other guy! She was pretending that she loved me to save face, to impress her father!”
Dawn paused again. She stared at him in amazement. Constance cheated on Xavier? “Bullshit,” she whispered.
“No, it’s not bullshit! She told me herself, and I was just as shocked as you are. The Constance that I knew—that I’ve dated since I was nineteen years old—would never do that. But I guess I never really knew her.” He raised a hand to Dawn’s cheek, wiped at one of her tears, and caressed her. “I never really knew myself either, Dawn. Because if I did, I would have ended it with Constance the moment I met you. What I felt for her is no comparison to how I feel when I’m around you.”
Her heart started to flutter at his words and his touch, but she ignored it, reminding herself that she had been sucked in by his captivating spell before and it had only led to disappointment.
“So things fell apart with Constance and . . . and now you’ve come here to collect the consolation prize?” she asked bitterly. “Is that it?”
“You’re no consolation prize.” He cupped her other cheek, and despite the alarm bells that went off in her head, she didn’t pull away. She gazed into his eyes, feeling herself sinking faster than the Titanic into those gray pools. “You’re the ultimate prize, Dawn. You’re the woman who’s right for me. You’re the one I want to be with . . . to spend my life with, if you’ll have me.”
She was falling for it. The stone fort she had erected around her heart was being torn down piece by piece again despite her best efforts.
“You talk a good game,” she whispered, “but—”
“I’m not talking game. I’m not lying to you, and you know it. We should be together. You feel it, just like I do.”
And she did. Despite everything, she wanted him and it made her feel weak and vulnerable, which was everything she had been taught all her life never to be.
“Don’t do this to me again,” she said desperately, feeling the tears tumble down her cheeks more profusely now. She licked her lips as she trembled, unable to keep up her cold front any longer. “Please, don’t do this to me, Xavier. I can’t . . . I can’t take this. Not again. I know I come off as strong, but I’m not always! I can’t—”
Xavier silenced her by bringing his mouth to hers. He moved his lips against her lips, coaxing them open, urging her to kiss him back. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tightly against him so that their bodies were plastered together and she couldn’t get away from him even if she tried.
“I love you,” he whispered. “I want you and I love you.”
With that, the last wall fell.
Dawn kissed him back, tentatively at first but then more vigorously, until they were both panting and drinking in one another. She felt herself being pressed against her office wall. Her head grazed one of the paintings’ frames. Her shoulder bumped her metal shelf and several books and c
atalogs tumbled to the floor, but she barely noticed. With his tongue in her mouth and his hands on her body again, the world around her faded.
“Damn, I missed you,” he murmured before hungrily kissing her again. She whimpered in response.
She felt his hand reach up to caress her breast and she shuddered. When he began to fiddle with the buttons of her blouse, she let him, even helping him to undo a few. When her shirt was open and her bra was bared, Xavier lowered his mouth to her collarbone. She loved the dual sensation of his wet tongue and the rough bristles of his chin and cheek on her skin. He switched his focus to the swell of her breasts over her bra, kissing them both and nipping at her.
“Oh, God,” she groaned breathlessly as her eyes fluttered closed. A dampness formed between her thighs.
When he kissed her again, fisting his hands in her hair, she blindly reached for the zipper of his jeans. At that moment, she didn’t care that they were in her office and that only a few feet away gallery staff and contractors were preparing the exhibit floor space for tomorrow night’s show. She wanted Xavier. She wanted him inside her and she wouldn’t feel whole again until he was.
He must have felt the same, because he shimmied up the hem of her pencil skirt until it was around her waist. He shoved his hand into the front of her thong, needing the wetness on his fingers.
“Dawn,” Kevin said as he knocked gently on her office door. “Hey, Dawn,” he said again, pushing the door open, “sorry to interrupt, but you’re needed on the—Oh, shit!”
At the sound of Kevin’s voice, Dawn opened her eyes, popping out of her lust-filled haze. Xavier jumped back from her. She turned toward the doorway, closing her shirt and shoving down her skirt. Meanwhile, Xavier raised the zipper of his jeans.
“Sorry, Dawn!” Kevin’s face went beet red. He flapped his arms helplessly. “I didn’t mean to . . . you know . . . I thought you said to—”
“Um, no, it’s . . . it’s OK, Kev.” She reached up to smooth her disheveled hair but then realized that her shirt only popped open again when she did that. She brought down her arms and clenched the front of her blouse closed. “Mr. Hughes and I were just . . . just about done. I’ll be out soon.”
“Oh, don’t rush on my account!” Kevin said with a grin. “I can take care of everything out here.”
“Th-thanks, Kev.”
He nodded and began to close the door, but paused to give her a saucy wink before shutting the door completely behind him.
“Good Lord, that was embarrassing!” Dawn said, dropping her face into her hands.
Xavier chuckled. “Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad. He seemed to find it amusing!”
She looked up at him, astonished. “Wasn’t that bad? My assistant caught you with your hand shoved down the front of my crotch. I’m surprised you’re not embarrassed.” She squinted, eyeing him more carefully. “In fact, why aren’t you embarrassed? The prim-and-proper Xavier Hughes that I know would go rushing out to apologize.”
He shrugged. “I guess the events of the last couple of months have forced the old Xavier Hughes to pull that stick out of his ass.”
She redid the buttons on her top. “He wasn’t that bad.”
“I was a self-righteous, judgmental know-it-all. Admit it.”
She held up her index finger and thumb. “Just a little.”
“But I’m not anymore.” He grabbed her shoulders, making her drop her hands to her sides. “I’ve been humbled and I’m prepared to beg you to take me back . . . to love me again. If it means making an ass out of myself doing it, I will.”
“I don’t want you to beg or make an ass out of yourself, Xavier. That’s not—”
“I will if it’ll work.” He rubbed her shoulders. “This past week without you, not seeing you or hearing from you, has been the shittiest I’ve had in a long time.”
“It has been for me too,” she admitted softly.
“The way that we met wasn’t the greatest. Point taken. But frankly, I don’t care anymore. If I had to do it all over again, I would. I want to be with you! Just . . . just give me a second chance, Dawn, I swear I won’t—”
She placed a hand on his lips, stopping him midsentence. “So this is what it’s like to be with a lawyer. You’re really set on pleading your case, aren’t you? You think if you keep talking that you’re going to convince me?”
He tugged her hand away from his lips and held it against his chest. “I figured if I keep talking, it doesn’t give you a chance to say no,” he answered honestly.
She snorted. “And that’s where you have me wrong, Xavier.”
He grimaced.
“Because I wasn’t going to say no.”
Xavier suddenly broke into a smile, looking every bit like a boy who had just wandered into his perfect idea of heaven. His elation at having her back made a warmth surge in her chest. He loved her and he wanted her: a straitlaced, no-nonsense guy like him had fallen for a woman like her, and she hadn’t used any of the Gibbons family arsenal of wiles to seduce him.
Wonders never cease, she thought.
He leaned forward to kiss her again.
“No!” she said, shoving her hand against his chest, holding him back. She laughed. “No more of that! This is my office and a place of business, Mr. Hughes. I just started working for this gallery a few weeks ago. I’m not trying to get fired this soon for inappropriate behavior!”
“I see.” He looked a little crestfallen, but quickly recovered. “Well, how about we save that inappropriate behavior for tonight, then? I’ll make you dinner at my place and—”
“Have me for dessert?” she finished for him.
“Exactly!” A twinkle returned to his gray eyes. “Are you sure I can’t get just one . . . just one more kiss before I leave?”
She pursed her lips, pretending to consider his question for several seconds. She sighed dramatically. “Well, all right. I guess you—”
She didn’t get a chance to finish. He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her, knocking the breath out of her.
Epilogue
“I think I’m more anxious tonight than I’ve ever been for any exhibit,” Dawn said as she wrung her hands. She nervously looked around Sawyer Gallery, watching as the throng of people mingled over hors d’oeuvres and champagne while ogling the paintings on the wall.
She then jumped in surprise when she felt someone wrap an arm around her waist. She looked up to find Xavier smiling down at her.
“Calm down,” he urged, turning her around to face him. He kissed her and she felt herself relax a little. “Don’t be so worried.”
It was funny that he was the one uttering those words, considering only seven months ago he had been the one who looked tense when he set foot in her gallery. Now he looked like the image of cool in his jeans, T-shirt, and fashionable sport coat. She rarely saw him in his staid business suits anymore now that he no longer worked as general counsel at Allen Enterprises and had become the new director at the community center. He had even talked about donating a few of his old getups to Goodwill.
“How can I not be worried?” Dawn asked him, glancing over her shoulder at the room again. “There’s a lot riding on tonight.”
Maddie had been kind enough to let Dawn use the space for a fund-raiser for the community center. Dawn had some of the more talented art students at the center contribute pieces to the exhibit. She also had asked (and begged) a few local artists to do the same. She’d even contributed one of her own works. The proceeds from the art sales would go toward getting laptops for a new computer lab for the kids.
A few of those kids were in attendance tonight, mingling with the rest of the exhibit patrons. Tanisha, the girl whom Dawn had coaxed into skating at the ice-skating rink, was here with her mother. For the special occasion, Tanisha wore a purple and black taffeta dress and her braids in ringlets. She stood proudly in front of one of her canvases talking to a curious patron while her mother beamed as she stood at Tanisha’s side.
Dawn smiled
at Tanisha then squinted as she gazed across the exhibit hall, eyeing what looked like an empty champagne glass sitting on one of the sculpture podiums.
“Are you kidding me? I can’t believe some people!” She started to walk toward the offending glass. “I swear if you want something done right, you have to—”
Xavier followed her gaze and grabbed her arm before she could go stomping off. “It’s all right,” he said softly. “Look.”
He pointed to one of the waiters, who grabbed the glass and placed it on his silver tray already filled with dirty glasses and used napkins.
“See,” Xavier said, rubbing her shoulders, “everything’s covered. It’s one of the few times when everything is going as it should. No drama.” He grinned. “Take a deep breath and just enjoy the night.”
Dawn slowly exhaled. Xavier was right. Considering what they had been through in the past several months, she should treasure these blissful moments.
At least she was no longer warring with the Allens, though truth be told, that war had been mostly one-sided. Raquel, who had already been furious at Dawn, went on a rampage when she found out that Xavier had left Constance to run away with Constance’s older half sister. Raquel went forward with her smear campaign and pushed even harder to have Dawn prove that she was Herbert’s legitimate daughter.
When Raquel started attacking both Dawn and Yolanda publicly, Dawn decided she couldn’t take it anymore. To attack her was one thing. To attack her mama was something completely different. Gibbons girls didn’t go out like that! To keep Xavier out of it, she got a lawyer on her own—the one that Cynthia recommended who could “kick ass and take names.” The lawyer immediately submitted a motion to the court that if Dawn had to prove she was Herbert’s legitimate daughter, so did Constance. Dawn would therefore submit to a blood test if her sister also did one. Dawn wasn’t sure of the purpose of that tactic, since Constance was obviously Herb’s daughter, but her lawyer said to trust him.
“I don’t get paid this much money to waste your time, sweetheart,” he had proclaimed before propping his Cole Haans up on his office desk.