Xavier: (Indestructible)

by Mortier, D. M.

  “Blue what?”

  “Blue holes. They are oceans in the middle of the forest.”

  Xavier stopped abruptly. “What are you talking about?” He stared down at her in confusion.

  The wind whipped around them, sending heat and smoke toward them. It was becoming difficult to breathe and almost impossible to see.

  “I don’t have time to explain now, but we have to be careful running through the forest. There are these huge vertical caves in the ground that are filled with water. We can barely see two feet in front of us. We have to tread carefully before we fall in one of them.”

  “Okay,” Xavier agreed. “Let’s go.” He grabbed her hand and started running again, but a little more slowly. They were running for about five minutes before bursting through the tall pine trees and coming upon a clearing of low shrubs.

  Cassandra again stopped suddenly, forcing Xavier to stop as well.

  “What is it?” he asked her.

  “There is some sand on the ground, and I think that’s poison ivy in front of us.”

  “So?”

  “Most blue holes are surrounded by poison ivy.” She grabbed his hand and started moving in another direction cautiously. They had barely moved a yard before a mass of darkness with no shrubs or trees expanded before them. “This is a blue hole,” Cassandra whispered. “It’s a bottomless mass of black water that leads out to the middle of the ocean.” She looked behind them to the blaze of fire and then to the space of nothingness in front.

  “Come.” Xavier carefully skirted around the huge hole of water.

  They stumbled upon a dirt road a few minutes later and ran along the road for another ten minutes. It was a good thing that they were so fit. Otherwise, Cassandra was convinced they would have never made it out of that forest alive. However, they did survive and soon found themselves on a large paved road.

  There were a number of vehicles parked on the side of the road with numerous people milling about. They had obviously come to investigate the fire. Several people moved toward them as they stumbled onto the road.

  “Hey, you okay?’

  “Y’all was in dat fire?”

  “What happen’? Was dat a plane crash?”

  “Where y’all come from?”

  Questions were being hurled at them, but she and Xavier had their hands on their knees trying to recapture their breath. They had inhaled too much smoke while running to safety.

  Two police officers approached them. “Please come with us. We have a few questions for you.”

  She and Xavier climbed into the back of the police car, offering no resistance or protest. Xavier held her hand and squeezed it.

  Hours later, they were finally allowed to get a hotel room at the San Andros Hotel. The hotel was across the street from the small airport. There were few other buildings around. It was almost midnight before they were settled in their rooms. Luckily, Xavier had his wallet and cell phone in the back pocket of his jeans. He was able to pay for their lodging. However, that had been the only thing they had salvaged. Torn and bloodied, even the clothes they wore were permanently damaged.

  Cassandra sat on the bed dressed in an oversized T-shirt Xavier had purchased from the hotel’s gift shop, which the manager had opened for them when they checked in. They had been able to get a few other provisions— a dress for her and a shirt and shorts for Xavier as well. He washed his jeans and hung them to dry.

  Everyone had been extremely nice to them. The story of how they survived was met with incredulous stares, as neither she nor Xavier had been able to give a plausible explanation of how they’d walked away from a plane crash with only minor scratches. In Xavier’s case, despite the blood, there were no obvious wounds. As far as she was aware, they had both been unconscious at the point of impact, so there wasn’t much she could add to clarify their story. When Xavier omitted the mention of their pilot’s defection, she went along with it.

  Xavier had a hell of a time trying to convince the local police to not call in the fact that they had survived the crash. Xavier wanted to be able to return to Nassau after the storm without Qin, or whoever had paid the pilot to kill them, knowing that they had survived.

  Xavier exited their tiny bathroom with just a towel around his waist.

  Cassandra was helplessly mesmerized by his tall, sculptured physique. My God, I will never get tired of looking at him. He is truly beautiful. His tattooed muscular biceps, massive chest, chiseled stomach, lean waist… Wait, didn’t he get shot in the chest several times a few hours ago? And what about that bullet wounds to his head?

  “X, were you wearing a bulletproof vest today?” Cassandra frowned at him, starting to doubt her own recollection of events. Didn’t the pilot shoot him? “I thought you got shot in the chest.”

  Xavier stilled in the center of the room.

  “And what about the shot to your head? Did I imagine that?”

  Xavier stared at her for a long minute.

  “X?” Her heart started beating fast, even though she had no idea what he was going to say. She felt it in her bones that what he had to say would be monumental and would forever change their life.

  A knock sounded at the door.

  Xavier moved toward her and pulled the duvet on the bed over her bare legs. He cupped her cheeks in his rough palm and held her gaze. “Remember that I love you,” he told her tenderly before he kissed her forehead and stood to go open the room door.

  What was he going to tell me? How could I have imagined him being shot? I must have imagined it, right? Otherwise, what is the alternative?

  The hotel was more like a motel with all rooms on a one-story structure shaped like a U, so the door of each room led to an outside courtyard. The knock came again.

  Xavier opened the door, and the hotel manager stood there with two other men. The men did their best to try to look into the bedroom behind Xavier’s big frame. Xavier stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him, effectively eliminating their ability to stare at her.

  Cassandra had no idea why her appearance was causing such a stir among the men on the island. She tried to listen to their conversation but could hear only the muffled sound of their voices.

  Xavier re-entered the room a few minutes later with a tray of food in his hand.

  “What’s going on?” Cassandra asked him.

  “They came to tell me that they will be boarding up the windows of this room. Apparently, the storm has changed directions and has strengthened to a Category 3 hurricane.”

  “What? That’s not good. We could be here for days!”

  Seconds later they heard the loud sound of hammering as the men installed plywood over the various windows of the building.

  Xavier walked deeper into the room and placed the tray on a table in the room.

  Cassandra was shocked at how hungry she was. Her stomach growled loudly as the scent filled the room, reminding her that they hadn’t eaten since lunchtime. She sprang from the bed and eagerly removed the chrome coverings from their plates. There were four huge plates heaped with fried chicken, French fries, steamed vegetables, and a plate of salad with vinaigrette dressing. Cassandra piled food on two plates and offered Xavier one of them. He sat in the only armchair in the room while she sat in the middle of the bed and dug into the delicious food.

  The room was quiet except for the scrap of the fork on their plates and the sound of their hungry consumption of their meal. I know I’m being a coward. I just don’t want to know.

  Xavier started eating more slowly, and he stared steadily at her face, willing her to look at him.

  Cassandra saw him from the corner of her eye but refused to look at him. She was terrified to hear what he had to say.

  “Don’t be afraid of me,” he whispered. “That would kill me if you stop seeing me and instead see a monster.”

  Cassandra stopped eating, shocked by his words. Monster? What monster? What is he talking about? Her gaze flew to him.

  Xavier had also stopped eat
ing. He looked tortured, his gazed fixed on the wall away from her. It was now his turn to avoid her gaze. “Cass?” he pleaded.

  She carefully placed her plate on the bedside table, wiped her hands and mouth with a napkin, and climbed down from the bed to go to him. Silently, and with infinite tenderness, she took his plate of unfinished food from him and placed it on the nearby dresser. She straddled his hard thighs and finally met his gaze. It almost broke her heart to see the uncertainty and fear in them. X, angry, cold, passionate, loving and tender are emotions I’m used to. This will not do. “X, when I told you that I loved you, I meant it. I love everything about you. And I have faith in who you are to love you, despite the secrets that I don’t know about you. Never doubt my love, baby.” She bent her head and kissed him briefly on his lips.

  His dark gaze devoured her, glistening with emotion.

  She smiled gently. “I thank God for allowing you to survive bullets to the head and chest today. I thank Him for bringing us through a plane crash, a fire, and a mad dash through the treacherous forest of this island. There is nothing you could tell me that would make me sorry for that.”

  “I…” His voice sounded hoarse, and his throat seemed clogged. He swallowed and tried to speak again. “I’m a freak,” he whispered achingly.

  “No, baby. You’re God’s gift.”

  “How can you…?” Folding her close to him, he covered her lips with his and kissed her passionately. He lifted his head and held her gaze.

  Her heart felt as though it would jump out of her chest, expanding and beating with love for him. She saw that same love reflected in his onyx gaze. “Tell me,” she encouraged him.

  At first his voice was hesitant, halting, and then he gained confidence, as she continued smiling at him encouragingly. “I don’t know why I survive when others don’t. All my life my body has blocked bullets and knives from any mortal wounds. My body has survived car crashes and even bombs. While I feel pain the same as any man, my body heals within hours of the injury.”

  “I don’t understand,” Cassandra said softly. “What are you?”

  “I’m a flesh and blood man, Cass.” He bent his head and his voice lowered further. “I feel pain and will die like any other man. I’m just a little more difficult to kill. I have some theories on why I am this way, but I don’t know for sure.”

  She placed a finger under his chin and lifted his head so he could meet her gaze. “So I get that you’re basically indestructible, but how did I survive that plane crash?”

  “I refuse to lose one more person I love. I shielded you as best I could,” he said hoarsely.

  “You did a fantastic job. I barely have a scratch on me.” She smiled tenderly at him. “Thank you for protecting me.”

  He inclined his head in acknowledgement. “My father died when I was a baby and probably had the same capability since no one on my mother’s side had it. If anything happens to me, I need you to prepare our son.”

  “Whoa!” She placed her palms in the middle of his chest and pushed away from him. “We don’t have a son. And when we do, I expect you to keep your ass safe to tell him yourself.”

  “I will certainly try, baby. God, how did I get so lucky?” He gazed at her in wonder.

  “I don’t know, X. I think I’m the lucky one.”

  He pulled her closer to him, captured her lips again, and kissed her deeply. Gripping the fleshy cheeks of her ass, he pulled her tight against his hard length.

  Desire settled low in her belly. She ached to get closer to him. Wiggling until the oversized T-shirt rode high above her thighs, leaving her completely naked to her waist, she slid closer to him on his hard thighs. Her effort to feel him beneath her was hampered by the towel around his hips. Impatiently she pushed the towel from him.

  He laughed deep in his throat at her frustration. He was soon groaning, though, when she resettled her damp folds over his steely shaft. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she ran her palm over his close-shaved head and held him in place as she sucked his tongue deeper into her mouth. He growled as she ground her hips down on him. She glided her sensitive flesh over his length from tip to base over and over again. The feel of his thickness between her legs made her quiver violently with lust. She gripped him tighter and rolled her hips hard on him, coating his sac and his broad cock with her juices.

  Holding her hips steady, he drove slowly, deeply into her heat.

  She screamed into his mouth at the bone-liquefying feel of his possession.

  He released her lips, pulled the T-shirt over her head, and discarded it. Continuing with deliberate, measured thrusts into her, he bent his head and took the hard tip of her breast into his mouth. He sucked lustily of the beaded nipple as he drilled up into her.

  She tried to thrust down on him faster, but he held her hips firmly, forcing her to endure his achingly slow loving. Popping one nipple out of his mouth, he latched onto the other, wringing lusty cries from her lips. Over and over again, he stroked his cock into her snug walls, abrading the sensitive cluster of nerves deep inside of her.

  “Oh God, Xavier,” she whimpered, her limbs trembling as she helplessly splintered in ecstasy. Her inner muscles closed tight around him, forcing a growl from his lips. He sank into her one last time as his seed exploded from him.

  After a quick shower, where Xavier held her under the warm cascading water, his trunk-like legs braced apart as he lifted her to wrap her legs around his waist, Cassandra purred with contentment, as though she was a feline, as her swollen clit scraped against his granite phallus with every sensual piston of his hips. With exquisite tenderness, he held her hips as she rode him to another orgasm.

  They made a makeshift picnic blanket on the floor and ate cold chicken and salad after making love again on the queen-sized bed. Falling into an exhausted sleep hours later, Cassandra snuggled against Xavier’s chest as he held her throughout the night.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Qin pivoted with graceful fluidity on the balls of his feet as he thrust his rapier forward. His opponent, an instructor he had brought with him from Hong Kong, jumped nimbly out of his reach. They were both dressed in all-white full-body armor with the exception of the protective head mask. He hated the mask—it hid his opponent’s fear—so he never allowed it in his gym.

  Qin was relentless, anger fueling his every movement. He slashed and cut forward, no longer caring whether he injured or killed the instructor. After he’d been told of the plane crash that had taken Cassandra’s life earlier in the evening, all rational thought had deserted him. His men had been ordered to intercept Cassandra before she boarded the ill-fated flight, but they had gotten to the airport too late. Fucking imbeciles!

  Slash, cut, thrust. Qin coldly launched the vicious attack. The instructor barely blocked his advances, but he didn’t dare retaliate. Three of Qin’s bodyguards stood in the room watching the proceedings.

  Slash, cut, thrust. Qin persisted with deathly intent.

  Sweat covered the instructor’s face, and fear filled his eyes. There was no possible way for him to survive what was coming.

  “Master—” The instructor started to speak, but the sharp tip of the blade was thrust across his throat almost severing his head from his body. He crumbled lifelessly to the floor.

  Pissed at the amount of blood now pooling on the tiled floor, Qin glared at his guards. “Get this piece of shit out of here and clean this mess up,” he snarled.

  As his men dragged the body out of the room, Qin wiped his blade before stalking from the room with the rapier still in his hand. Despite his recent violence, he had still not dispelled the anger surging in his veins. His movements were agitated and impatient.

  “Master, one of the brothers is here to see you,” Sai said, intercepting him in the hallway. “He has news,” Sai advised calmly, standing perfectly still, waiting for further instructions.

  “Get rid of him, permanently,” Qin said coldly.

  “You may want to hear what he has to say,” Sai
persisted.

  “Come. I have some excess energy I wish to expend. I don’t mind doing it myself.” Qin continued into the other room, where Dylan paced nervously.

  “Mr. Kelly, you are quite stupid to show your face here,” Qin drawled.

  “They survived, Qin. My God, they survived,” Dylan said excitedly.

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Some of my contacts on Andros Island were supposed to do a drop for us. They said that a plane crashed hours ago, but two people, a man and a woman, walked out of the burning forest.” Dylan continued pacing in agitated amazement. “They scared the fuck out of the Androsians who saw them. Can you believe this shit?”

  Qin stared at the other man for a long minute. Although his cock had jumped to attention with the thought of having Cassandra at his mercy, he was still pissed that this piece of shit had failed to deliver her weeks ago. “Why are you here?” No way am I going to show this bastard that I’m still interested. This time he would get Cassandra on his own terms.

  Dylan laughed nervously. “I…I thought you would want to know,” he said lamely. “Man, Cassandra would make a beautiful wife for you. We can take our business to a whole new level.”

  “I see.” Qin twirled the handle of his rapier between his fingers. What makes this ass think I would ever marry a black woman? Why would I taint my children’s blood? I should just kill him and be done with it.

  “Perhaps Mr. Kelly can assist us in retrieving his sister from the island,” Sai said coolly.

  Qin gazed at his Dragon Tail and knew Sai was only trying to soothe his temper. He turned on the balls of his feet and started out of the room. “I will leave you to work out the details.” Qin stopped in the doorway. “Sai?”

  “Yes, Master?”

  “Don’t fail again.” Qin strode to his playroom, anticipating the young girl strapped to the padded wall.

  This captive was extremely defiant. She believed herself in love with her fiancé and had fought his men to the bitter end. Qin was looking forward to her resistance. Having her beg him to take her was going to be especially sweet since she hadn’t had sex with her fiancé yet. This one he intended sending back so that she could remember how stupid the concept of love was. She would remember every moment of being with him and begging him to take her.