Xavier O’Brien

by Ingro, Jessica

  “Threesome?” He asked in a bit of a daze now that my dress gaped in the front and the top of my areola peeked out.

  “Yeah. I enjoyed my time with Monica. Maybe…” I trailed off not sure where I was going bringing up the female client I had a memorable experience with. Hadn’t I just been asking him if we were all sex? Now I was toying with the possibility of bringing a third party into play?

  “The blonde?” He asked as his hand took over and pulled the material off my breast in order to reveal my nipple to him. The same nipple he quickly descended upon. I gripped his hair as he pleasured me with his tongue. Each flick across the sensitive flesh resonating directly to my clit.

  “Yes,” I breathed both in answer to his question and how good he was making me feel.

  He pulled his head back and studied my face. “You want me to fuck another bitch?”

  “Huh?” I was in a fog from his mouth and struggled to grasp what he was getting at.

  “You want me to stick my cock in some bitch while you watch?” His words were slow and drawn out so I wouldn’t miss them.

  “No,” I shouted. Why did men always go to the obvious? “There’s lots of things we could do that don’t involve your cock inside Monica. She could eat me out while you jack off or I blow you. Or I could eat her while you fucked me.”

  His hand gripped my chin and his words were gentled when he said, “I’d do almost anything for you, Aurora. One thing I will never do is share you. That includes having some bitch lick your pussy.”

  There was no way around it, I really loved this man. Straight down to my soul. He was it for me.

  Getting down to business in an effort to cover up how much that thought rocked me to my very core, I saucily asked, “What if you lick my pussy then?”

  He smirked and without another word, he set about to doing just that.

  It was phenomenal.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Xavier

  Xavier O’Brien awoke with a start. His heart thumped hard in his chest as his ears strained to hear what had woken him up. When no other sounds came, he relaxed marginally and took in the sight of Aurora asleep in bed beside him.

  She was out cold.

  He took a moment to revel in the knowledge that the seven orgasms he gave her before bed were doing what he intended.

  It was on that thought that his dick decided to remember their play session—chocolate syrup, whipped cream, a vibrating cock ring—and how memorable it had been for both of them. It was short-lived though, when the bedroom door opened and Sophie stuck her head through the crack.

  “What’s the matter, Bug?” He whispered to her when she made no move to enter the room.

  “I’m scared,” came her quiet and unsure reply.

  He rose from the bed, grateful his dick had mostly deflated, and crossed the room to where she hovered in the doorway.

  “Why are you scared?” He reached out and stroked her cheek, loving how she leaned into his touch.

  He hadn’t realized how important it was for Sophie to trust and rely on him. He loved the little girl as if she were his flesh and blood, and wanted a connection with her.

  “I had a bad dream.” With her bottom lip stuck out in a pout, she rubbed at her eye with one hand and clutched her stuffed bunny to her chest tightly with the other. It broke his heart to see her so scared.

  “Let’s go to your room so we don’t wake up mommy,” he suggested, taking her by her hand and leading her down the hall.

  Once inside her pink and cream room, he picked her up and set her in bed. After pulling up the blankets, he settled next to her with his back against the headboard. Sophie immediately snuggled into him with her tiny arm laying against his chest.

  His heart swelled.

  So far he hadn’t had a lot of one-on-one time with Sophie and he was going to have to see about changing that. Especially now that Kevin was permanently out of the picture.

  “What was your dream about?” He cleared his throat to rid his voice of the gruffness caused by his sappy emotions. What it was about children that brought out a vulnerable and emotional side, he didn’t know.

  “My daddy,” she whispered.

  His body locked and he had to force himself to speak. He’d kill that bastard again if he could.

  “What about your daddy?”

  “He was sleeping in the big box.” Her voice trembled along with the rest of her body.

  Fuck. He knew it had been a bad idea to let her go to a funeral with an open casket, but how was he supposed to argue with Aurora and Kevin’s parents? He tried to reason with them, but knew he had to play it cool after his role in everything that had happened.

  Aurora would lose her mind if she knew what he had set in motion as far as the Swansons were concerned. He wasn’t about to wade into that shit and come out looking like the bad guy.

  “It’s okay now, Bug,” he tried to reassure her.

  Forcing himself to relax so that she would as well, he began stroking her hair. He closed his eyes and hoped that it would make her fall back to sleep. It always seemed to work with him when he was younger.

  “Will you tell me a story?”

  His eyes opened and he glanced down at the pint-sized girl who owned his heart.

  “A story?”

  She nodded enthusiastically and he knew he was damned. It was no easier to tell her no than it was to tell her mother no.

  “A story… okay… I guess I can do that.”

  He started to get out of bed, but she stopped him when she gripped his pant leg in her tiny fist.

  “No. I don’t want a book. I want you to tell me a story,” she said eagerly and looked up at him intently.

  He settled back against the headboard and suddenly feeling very nervous, he cleared his throat and searched his brain for something—anything—to tell her. He should’ve said fuck it and gotten a damn book to read her instead of thinking he could be creative.

  “There was a knight,” he began, remembering what Sophie had called him the first time he met her in Aurora’s kitchen.

  “No, X. A story has to start with once upon a time,” she interrupted with insistence. Her little nose scrunched up in annoyance.

  “Right. Sorry.” He cleared his throat again. “Once upon a time, there was a knight.”

  “A knight in shining armor?” She asked hopefully.

  “Yeah, except his armor wasn’t so shiny anymore.”

  “How come?”

  Who was telling this story, him or her? He had to fight a chuckle at how precocious she was.

  “Because sometimes the knight has to get dirty when someone he loves gets hurt,” he explained.

  “Okay.”

  It humbled him how accepting an innocent child could be. Beating back that swell of emotion, he continued.

  “One day the knight was riding through the kingdom and he came upon a fair princess. She was beautiful and the knight knew the instant he set eyes on her that his life was going to change forever.”

  “Was she pretty?”

  “She was the most beautiful woman the knight had ever seen. She had long brown hair and bright green eyes. When she smiled it was like the sun shined down on him every second of every day. And whenever she laughed, the knight always smiled.”

  “I want to be her!” Sophie exclaimed and Xavier chuckled.

  “You’re just as special,” he told the girl. “Except your hair is golden and your eyes blue.”

  “Really?” She said in awe.

  “Swear to God.”

  “Yay!” Sophie clapped excitedly and getting up on her knees, shook her butt around in a dance.

  Xavier found himself laughing the more she went on. It had been a long time since he felt this good and lighthearted. Life had become something so great, he hadn’t realized it was possible he could have it. Not since his mom and sister died. He didn’t know what he would do if anything ever happened to Aurora and Sophie. He prayed he never had to find out.

  “Ma
ybe we should settle down and finish the story,” he recommended when she tried to stifle a yawn while jumping around the bed. Aurora would kill him if she woke up and found her daughter wide awake at his late an hour.

  “Okay,” she said with a mock pout before laying back in bed.

  “Now where were we?” He tapped his finger on his chin and pretended to forget, but quickly forged on when Sophie gave him a look of annoyance. “Oh, right. The princess was perfect in every way and the knight knew he didn’t deserve her. He tried to leave her alone in her castle where she would eventually marry a prince, but he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He knew no matter what, he would have to see her again. So even though he knew he shouldn’t, he went back for her.”

  “Did he climb the tower like in Rapunzel?”

  “No, Bug. He wasn’t that cool.”

  “Did he kill a dragon like in Sleeping Beauty?”

  He thought about that for a second and came to the conclusion that he didn’t need to slay any dragons for Aurora. She slaughtered them herself. Her strength was one of the things he loved most about her.

  “No. He didn’t need to. The princess was strong enough to take care of herself. But he did fight for her whenever she needed help against the villains.”

  “Because he loved her?”

  “Yes, Bug. He loved her very, very much.”

  “And she loved him.”

  “Yes, she did. And because of that she fought the bad guys for him too. Together they were unstoppable.”

  “Did they have babies?”

  He smiled a little at the thought. “Yes, they did. They had a gorgeous little girl with blonde curly hair just like yours. She had the sweetest laugh and gave the best hugs.”

  “Hey! I give good hugs.” She scrambled up into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, just like she often did. When she squeezed him as tightly as she could with her head on his shoulder, he couldn’t help the sigh of contentment that slipped past his lips.

  “You sure do,” he said past the lump in his throat.

  “Will you be my daddy now?” She said in a quiet voice.

  His hand rubbing her back stilled and his stomach dropped.

  “Do you want that?”

  Sophie lifted her head and looked at him with a seriousness he wouldn’t have expected from a four-year-old. Then with her hand on his cheek, she leaned forward and gave him the greatest gift imaginable—a kiss to his cheek followed by the words, “Yes. I love you.”

  Drawing her further into his lap, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head where it rested on his chest and allowed a tear to fall down his cheek. He might not be the good guy, but he would do anything to be worthy of that kind of love.

  * * *

  Aurora

  I watched quietly from Sophie’s doorway as Xavier weaved magic for my daughter. If it hadn’t already happened, I would have fallen completely and irrevocably in love with the man right then and there.

  With a full heart and a smile on my face, I tiptoed back to our room and slid under the covers. For as much as I wanted to stay and hear the rest of the story, I didn’t want to intrude on their private moment any longer.

  Xavier’s words were on repeat in my head as I tried to fall back to sleep. The tales of a dark knight who loved the princess even though he didn’t deserve her. There was no doubt in my mind, Xavier was talking about us. For the life of me, I could not understand why he didn’t see that dark or white, a knight was still a knight—a warrior who put the needs of the people who mattered to him before his own.

  That was who Xavier O’Brien was to Sophie and me.

  He might live in darkness and operate under different rules than the rest of the world, but he still did what was right when need be.

  Closing my eyes, I prayed one day he would realize it.

  Chapter Twenty

  “This is a nice place,” I commented when Xavier held open the door to a rustic Italian restaurant.

  True to his word, he was wining and dining me all over the place. This was our seventh date—some had been with Sophie and some just the two of us. All of them were equally special.

  “Yeah. Mauricio is a buddy of mine. He owns the place.” With his hand on my lower back, he guided me to where the young hostess waited with a broad smile on her pixie face.

  “Mr. O’Brien.” Her Italian accent was heavy as she held out her arm to usher us toward the back of the restaurant. As we weaved our way through the tables full of patrons, I took in the ambiance.

  The dining room was warm and inviting with stone arches behind the bar and also separating the front room from the back room. In the center of the front room was a courtyard primarily made up of a large brick planter that had a tree—a real live, huge tree!—coming out of it. Lanterns hung from its branches, casting a soft glow on the neighboring wood tables with wicker club chairs seating patrons.

  As we passed the tree, I looked up to see a faux roof with authentic clay tiles on it, which broke up the first and second floors. Wrought iron railings bordered the second floor so no one would fall while still allowing them to enjoy the giant tree. On the other side of the railings, I could see even more patrons dining on the second floor underneath a glass ceiling. Stars twinkled above them and my mouth gaped at what a breathtaking sight it was.

  This restaurant was so far out of my league; it was no wonder I had never heard of this place before.

  I stopped gaping when at the back of the room, the hostess turned left and led us down a stone hallway and through an arched set of patio doors leading out onto a garden veranda. I spun around in wonder at the beauty of it.

  We stood underneath a stone awning where white fairy lights were strung along the arches that led out to the garden. There were lemon trees in planters at random places. Hydrangeas and various other flowers lined the cobblestone walls along the edge of the property, which gave it privacy.

  It was like a paradise in the heart of the city.

  “Wow,” I breathed, taking it all in and trying to memorize every inch of it. This was what my happy place would look like next time I needed to find one.

  When I glanced over at Xavier, he was standing next to a dark, circular wooden table set for two with a chandelier hanging above it. His expression was one I had never seen on him before. It was almost as if he were in awe of something. It was probably the veranda, I told myself. But there was no mistaking the need that pulsated from him. Or the hungry way his eyes devoured me.

  “Enjoy,” the hostess said, completely oblivious to the sexual tension now thrumming between us. “Your waiter will be out shortly.”

  And then she was gone, leaving us alone in paradise.

  “Come here,” he ground out.

  “Xavier,” I whispered.

  He crooked his finger and I found my feet moving in his direction.

  His hand hooked me around the back of my neck and his mouth crashed on mine. The kiss was one full of passion and longing. It had never felt quite so desperate between us than it did right then. And a small part of me wondered why. The rest of me could have cared less as Xavier’s tongue slid inside my mouth and danced with my own.

  My hands were under Xavier’s suit coat and his were inching up my outer thigh when a throat cleared behind us. It took several seconds for me to come out of my lust-induced fog. When I did, I turned to see an older gentleman smirking at us. Behind him was a boy who eerily resembled him.

  “Mauricio,” Xavier ground out. His arm snaked around my back to draw me into his side.

  “Bella,” the older gentleman, Mauricio, strangely commented.

  “She is,” Xavier returned and I realized then he was referring to me.

  “Happy for you,” the man said with so much feeling, I felt tears prick the back of my eyes. “Ciao la mia bellezza, I will introduce myself since Xavier is so rude. I am Mauricio, owner of this ristorante.”

  “Aurora,” I took his proffered hand. He drew it to his mouth and pressed a soft kiss to the b
ack of it. I felt my face blush under the intensity of his gaze.

  “Fuck,” Xavier bit out. “Stop trying to seduce my woman.”

  “My apologies,” he said insincerely. By the twinkle in his hazel eyes, I could tell he enjoyed riling up Xavier and I instantly liked this man. Too many people cowed to Xavier’s demands and moods. Anyone who could stand under the weight of his personality was okay with me.

  “I see everything is in order,” Mauricio continued after placing my hand in Xavier’s. “My son, Vincenzo, will serve you tonight.”

  “Thank you,” I said when Xavier didn’t acknowledge him right away.

  With a quick wave and a meaningful look at Xavier, Mauricio disappeared back into the restaurant. Xavier held a chair out for me, while Vincenzo poured us each a glass of red wine.

  Once the waiter was gone, I smiled at the dark pink and white gerbera daisies that sat in a low vase on the table. Not long ago, I had decorated my room at The Den with the same exact flowers.

  “You remembered.”

  “Remember everything about you, Féileacán.” His voice was gravelly and did things to my heart. It flip-flopped and pitter-pattered like when we first met.

  “I love you,” I told him. “And I love this place. It’s right out of a dream.”

  “I’m glad.” He smirked at me and took my hand from across the table. His thumb idly caressing my palm.

  “You’re very good at this.”

  “This?”

  “Yes, this.” I gestured around us and between us. “Wooing. Dating. Whatever you want to call it, you’re very good at it.”

  He grunted noncommittally.

  “Do you have much experience wooing women?” I teased.

  “I’m not talking about this,” he griped and shifted in his seat.

  I latched onto that like a dog with a bone.

  “You do, don’t you?” I pressed. “Who was it?”

  I didn’t quite care to think of Xavier spoiling another woman, but I was thankful that he was so good at it.