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My head hurt from having this argument for what felt like the millionth time. What didn’t he understand here?
“Fucking hell!” he finally exploded. “What more do you want from me?”
His roar shook the delicate crystals dangling from the chandelier above us.
I fought not to cower.
“I brought you to London. Bought you all them fancy clothes and what. Took you to the best restaurants, gave Sofia the fucking world. But it’s not enough, is it? It’s NEVER FUCKING ENOUGH!”
By the time he was finished, I was already on the move. Something in me clicked, something deep down. The part of me that was still that scared little girl listening to her parents rage after a bender or when her grandfather used old-school discipline alittletoo harshly. She woke up and was screaming for help.
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t be here.
“Where are you going?” Xavier demanded.
“Out. I need some space.”
I dodged around him and strode out of the bedroom, down the hall, and back into the kitchen, where I swiped my keys off the counter, then made for the elevator. Sofia was with Elsie. There was no reason for me to stay here—with this. I could wait him out. I could.
But Xavier was quicker.
He stepped in front of me, blocking my way to the elevator. For a moment, it was like playing chicken with a linebacker. If I hadn’t been so upset, I might have laughed.
I darted around him, but he caught my arm. “Why the fuck are you running again?”
“Because of this!” I shouted finally, whirling around and wrenching my arm free.
I was done.Done. He wanted a fight? Well, now he was going to fucking get it.
“Because ofyou!” I continued. “Because of your neglect, your jealousy, your fucking temper! Xavi, I cannot do this anymore, tiptoeing around, worried that if I step wrong, or someone looks at me wrong, or I say the wrong thing, I’m going to get belittled, ignored, screamed at or worse! I am not a vending machine you can stick money into and get what you want. I am a fucking PERSON, XAVI!”
“Worse?” he parroted, looking genuinely confused. “What do you mean, worse? You can’t possibly think I’d ever really hurt you or Sofia?”
I gulped. I didn’t think that.
Did I?
“I’ve seen you threaten violence more times than I can count,” I told him. “And it’s been like this since the beginning. The night we met again, Xavi—the night we met—you were at my front door screaming like a madman because you had convinced yourself I had a man in my house. I’ve watched you practically strangle an employee, and today you actually assaulted someone for checking on me.” I shook my head. There were too many red flags to count. “As for you and me…can you really say what you did to me today was out oflove?”
His mouth fell open, but nothing came out. It was as if he couldn’t argue with the facts.
Then another thought appeared to cross his mind. “Maybe not,” he admitted. “Maybe not that time. But can you honestly say a part of you didn’t enjoy it?”
Shock was replaced with something else—something knowing. Calculating. And as his gaze dropped down my body, I knew exactly what it was.
“Absolutely not.” I immediately ducked around him and sped to the other side of the kitchen counter.
A rakish half-smile spread across Xavier’s face. “Don’t run away from me, Francesca. It’ll only make it worse.”
I hated myself for being even the slightest bit confused. A part of me wanted to obey, wanted to go to him, let him soothe our anger and troubles with his deft touch. He could take his frustration out on my body and help me learn to do the same.
But another part of me, a bigger part, hated him for even trying.
“Stop it,” I told him. “Seriously.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said as he prowled into the kitchen.
I moved to the other side of the counter. He blocked that passage. I tried the other way. He was still too quick.
