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“All right?” he asked as he set me on the ground.
I nodded as the driver left us standing there at the edge of the park. Xavier was still holding my waist, large hands splayed around my hips even after the clip-clop of the horse had faded into the trees.
“You’re so small,” he murmured. “My hands almost touch, even with this coat you’ve got on.”
I gulped. Even through the layers, I could feel the warmth of his fingers. Wanted more of them. All over me.
Lord, how had I gotten here tonight?
Tell him.
“Xavi,” I whispered.
The right side of his mouth twitched with what I thought was pleasure. “Mmm?”
“What are we doing?”
The Plaza wasn’t a castle, and Xavier wasn’t a prince. But right now, he was making me feel like a princess being escorted to her tower.
He pushed a stray lock of hair from my face. “Is it unclear?”
I bit my lip. “No. But I want to hear you say it anyway.”
And I did. I wanted him to open up. I wanted to know he was feeling all the things I was. Confusion. Yearning. Frustration.
Sudden, unexpected desire.
Xavier smirked. “Well, if I’m being quite honest, I was hoping you’d continue the night in my suite. In my bed, preferably. Though I’ll settle for a nightcap to start.”
He traced his thumb over the curve of my bottom lip. As if mirroring the action, his tongue slipped out and traced the edge of his own lip. God, I wanted to bite it.
“You haven’t changed, have you?” he murmured. “Still just as exquisite as ever. Perfect.”
Guilt dropped in my stomach. “Xavier, I’m really not—”
“Yes, you are,” he interrupted gently—or as gently as someone like him could. “Right now, to me, you are.”
He took my hand, then carefully turned it palm up and pressed his lips to its center. Such a seemingly innocent gesture. But I shivered anyway, and my thighs squeezed together.
Tell him. You have to tell himnow.
“Xavi,” I started again.
“My God, Ces, don’t.”
I blinked at his sudden vitriol. “Don’t what?” I asked, just as sharply.
Lord, the man was as mercurial as a thermometer.
“Don’t say it,” he retorted. “Whatever it was you were about to say to ruin the night. ‘I’m really not that kind of girl.’ ‘I’m not sure we should do this.’ Blah, blah, blah. Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter.”
My jaw didn’t drop this time. Maybe in some odd way, I was growing accustomed to his sudden outbursts. But that didn’t mean they didn’t make me angry.
“Excuse me?” I demanded. “You don’t know what I was about to say. Maybe I was going to say yes. Maybe I was going to ask you to keep saying all these nice things to me.”
Maybe I was going to tell you you have a daughter.
“You don’t know,” I finished emphatically.
