When he’s within arm’s reach, he hooks a knuckle under my jaw. “My eyes are up here, handsome.” He leans in to kiss me, but I take a step back.
His brows scrunch. His eyes search mine, and his shoulders slump. He knows. Without me even saying a word, he knows what’s on the tip of my tongue, waiting to be shoved out of my mouth. Of course he knows. Running has become my fucking love language.
A pulse of panic thunders behind my ribs—the boardroom shouting, the headlines, my father’s disappointed voicetelling me I’m not enough, I need to try harder, push harder, do more. It all crashes over me in one sharp, suffocating wave, and my bedroom feels too small to hold the mess I’ve made.
“Nope.” Xavier shakes his head. If he could fold his arms like a fence across his chest, he probably would, but his sling works as a barricade just fine, like he’s trying to protect his heart but we both know it’s too late.
“No, what?”
“Don’t fuck with me, Artemis. I’m saying no. End of discussion.”
“No, what, Xavier?”
“Duende.” His nostrils flare as he corrects me to his pet name. “I’m not letting you put up boundaries or push me awayagain. Not this time. I’ve let you do it time and again, but here and now? In this moment, respectfully, go fuck yourself.”
My heart speeds to a gallop, my chest pulling tight. I open my mouth, ready to tell him we need to stop seeing each other, that I’m bad for him, that the reporters will keep coming, that my father won’t stop until he’s destroyed everything, dragged Xavier’s family name in the tabloids, and left my business, my whole world in tatters.
But I don’t get to say any of it, the smooth fingers of his good hand cover my lips. My pulse is a jackhammer. The words I don’t mean stack up behind my teeth.
“I said no.” Xavi’s voice is softer, but still firm. His forgiving eyes connect with mine and hold my attention, even though every second he keeps my stare makes me feel more and more exposed to him, more vulnerable. He clears his throat. “Answer me this.”
Oh shit.
“Truthfully.”
Fuck. Shit. Run. Flee. Leave. Play dead. Just… don’t get caught in a situation where you have to lie to him over something. But I’m stuck, frozen in place.
“Is beating your father more important than whatever this is between us?”
I’ve never hated how deeply someone could see me until this moment. A huge rush of air flows from my chest, and it’s my turn to search his face because… shit, he’s serious.
I guess he doesn’t have anything else to think since I keep fucking running from him, but the realization that he doesn’t realize how important to me he has become needles my heart so deeply it hurts to breathe.
“I’d burn it all down for you,Duende. It’s why we need to break up. He’s going to target you, destroy you, use you against me. Hurt you.” My voice cracks right there with my heart. And it’s pathetic, how true it is. My father is a monster.
Xavier steps back into my space, cupping my jaw with both hands—despite how painful it must be to use his busted arm—and stroking my beard with his thumbs. “Then we won’t let him. We’ll burn him down instead. Together.”
I shake my head. “It’s not that simple.”
He sighs, dropping his head against mine. “You really think I’m going to just throw my hands up and give up on this? On us? Shit, Arte, baby, you really don’t know me at all, do you?” This fucking man starts chuckling.
I’m soul-tired, the kind of exhaustion that comes from years of carrying battles alone and calling it strength. I don’t know how to let anyone shoulder the weight with me without feeling like I’m failing. “Please tell me what’s so funny because… I don’t see it.” And I could do with a fucking laugh.
“You know, you’re one of the smartest, most capable men I know. But sometimes your intelligence just evacuates the building.”
My muscles tighten. “Thanks?”
“You read romance novels at your team’s book club justlike I do. This is the moment.” He grips my head with both hands again, wincing but not letting me pull back or look anywhere but in his bottomless eyes.
“The moment?” The words are hard to force out around the constriction in my chest.
“Bottom of the ninth. Bases are loaded. The part of the book when the couple face that challenge, the big, bad thing that’s going to make or break them. Sometimes it breaks them, they go their separate ways and learn and grow. That sulking montage where they realize they fucked up and can’tlive,can’tbreathewithout the other person.”
I do know that moment. It’s bleak, it’s heartbreaking, and you spend those chapters internally screaming at the book that they can do it. I just nod, because the words are still jammed at the back of my throat.
“We’re going to skip that part, the part where we’re alone, sad, and weaker because we aren’t together? We’re skipping to the stronger together part.”
My muscles tense even more, and he feels the rigidity in my body. I’ve never been strong together with anyone. I don’t know how. I’ve been strong for people, I’ve been strong by myself, but in a team? Only Apollo. Ares and Athena when I have to. But mostly… it’s just me.
