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And so I obeyed, grasping the knob, and slowly opening up to find the tower of man standing with his hands braced on the frame, head bowed in shame.
Then he took one look at me, and the scowl returned. “I knew it.” A vicious shake of his head caused a few locks of tousled black hair to fall over his forehead. “I fucking knew it. What else did that motherfucker do? I’ll break his fucking neck, I swear I will.”
“Nothing!” I gasped, finally able to swallow back my tears. “Oh my God, calm down. He tried to kiss me, and then you stopped it, all right? Nothing else happened.”
“Then what is it?” He turned from side to side in the doorway, as if the beige walls would somehow reveal the answer. He crowded the tiny space, filling it—and my world—with his larger-than-life presence. “Why are you crying in here?”
“Because I’m—I’m—Gah!” I groaned with frustration, both with my own issues and my inability to say them out loud. “Because you’re right, okay? The both of you.”
“Right?” he asked. “About fucking what?”
“Stop swearing so much,” I hissed. “And can you let me out of the bathroom, please? All I really want is a cup of hot tea and a book and my bed.”
I shoved past him and made my way back into the kitchen, ignoring the six-foot-five wildcat on my tail.
“Right about what?” he persisted. “You can tell me while the water boils. I’m a lot more stubborn than you, Ces, so you might as well be out with it. We were right about what?”
“About the fact that this entire night was a big waste of time.” I grabbed the kettle and made for the sink. “That someone like me has no business in this kind of getup, trying to be someone I’m not.”
“Someone like you? What exactly does that mean?”
“Don’t play dumb, Xavi. You know. Someone like this.” I gestured up and down my body emphatically. I was still bound in the short skirt he’d picked, but he had to know what I meant.
His clear befuddlement, however, had drawn a deep line over his brows. “Can you stop talking in gibberish and say it in plain speech? What the fuck are you talking about?”
I sighed impatiently. He really did love to humiliate me, didn’t he?
“I’m a frumpy, bookworm teacher and single mom who’s about as sexy as a mop. Adam as much as said it at dinner, and now you just did too. Good for a lay and maybe a quick bite. A stopover while men like you wait for the real deal to come along. I’m playing dress-up, just like I did at that party. I’m a fool.”
Tears pricked once again, and I turned around quickly to avoid sharing them, focusing on putting the kettle on the stove to heat.
Behind me, Xavier was silent for once. I took that to mean I was correct. Of course I was. How could I have ever thought that someone like Adam, much less the Adonis standing behind me, would ever think I was worth more than a quick fling, whether it was after dinner or on holiday?
“Is that what you really think?” When he finally spoke, his voice was hoarse, incredulous. “That I don’t think you’re worth more than a quick fuck?”
I swallowed, another sob stuck in my throat. “I—well, it’s true, isn’t it? You basically dressed me like one, didn’t you? Look at me.”
“I am looking at you. Ces, turn around so you can see me too.”
As if pulled by a string, I obeyed, turning slowly until I was facing him, my back against the counter once more. I pulled at my skirt and gestured at my ruined makeup. “I’m a joke.”
Xavier stepped forward until he had caged me against the counter, looming over me, tall and imperious.
“Look at me,” he commanded, though the finger under my chin was gentle as he pulled my face upward. “Open your eyes.”
Powerless, I obeyed again, finding his deep blue pools brimming with promise and something else I couldn’t identify.
“You,” he pronounced slowly, drawing out the word like he was reciting a poem, “are the sexiest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. That was true when I met you in that club five years ago. It was true when I saw you at that Christmas party. And when I found you at your school last week. And it’s true now, when your face is covered in tears and whatever that black shit is under your eyes. Fucking gorgeous, inside and out. You’re not a one-night stand, Francesca. You are the kind of woman men wait their whole lives to find, Francesca. That’s what you are.”
My breath deserted me. My legs deserted me. My hands on the counter held me up, and then quickly, it was him. Xavier lifted me onto the Formica and stepped between my knees, crowding into me until our faces were even. Eye to eye. Nose to nose. Mouth to mouth.
“Ces,” he whispered, eyes zeroed in on my lips.
I was staring at his too. They looked soft and supple. Inviting and utterly delicious.
“Xavi,” I whispered back.
He slipped a finger under the collar of my coat, and I shivered when he found my skin and pushed the heavy fabric from my shoulders. Less from the cold and more from the sudden electricity of his touch.
