Xavier

by Miranda P. Charles

  Seven months later…

  Xavier stirred from sleep and turned to his left. He opened his eyes when he didn’t feel Eve lying next to him.

  He saw her checking out the wardrobe, pulling out some clothes and appearing to carefully inspect which tops went well with which bottoms. Best of all, she was stark naked.

  He took a deep breath, filling with warmth and love. Today was the day. He didn’t know if she’d think it was too soon, but he didn’t want to wait.

  He was sure. Absolutely sure.

  But first…

  He silently got out of bed and sneaked up behind her. “Hello,” he breathed, snaking his arms around her waist.

  Eve gasped before smiling. “Hi. I was about to wake you. You should get ready.”

  He nuzzled her neck. “It’s still early.”

  “We can’t be late. What do you think of this top with these leggings?”

  “You look sexy in anything, sweetheart.” He cupped her breasts.

  Eve sighed. “It’s my first time hosting a work party with you. I want to look good in my gym gear, but not overly, if you know what I mean.”

  “I don’t think you can help but look overly good.” He tweaked her nipples.

  Eve turned to face him. “No amount of flattery will get me back in bed, Mr. Stirling. We need to be at the gym before the caterers arrive.”

  He pouted. “Can I at least have a proper good morning kiss?”

  “I guess I can do that.” Eve dropped the garments in her hands and placed her arms around his neck.

  He gave her a slow, deep, yearning kiss, his tongue coaxing hers to come out and play.

  Eve let out a moan, pressing herself harder against him.

  Ah, she was tempting him just as much as he was tempting her.

  He left her mouth to press kisses to her neck and throat, his hands roaming the sides of her body. To his delight, Eve lifted a leg and wrapped it around him.

  Good. He pushed her back against the closet door and bent to lick a nipple. Then he ran his hand down her mound, groaning in approval at finding her moist.

  “You’re making a liar out me,” Eve complained even as she widened her stance to give his hand more access.

  “We’re not in bed, baby,” he soothed. “Besides, this isn’t flattery.” He kneeled on the floor and parted her folds, then let his tongue loose on her clit.

  “Oh, God,” Eve gasped, clutching a fistful of his hair. “Oh, yes.”

  Yes.

  He indulged himself with a few more licks of her honey before getting back on his feet. Eve was quick to grasp his cock, tugging it.

  “I’m happy to stay right here,” he murmured. “But do you want to change your mind and go to bed?”

  “Here’s good,” she said with a giggle.

  He chuckled, lifting her off the ground and cradling her butt.

  Eve wrapped both legs around his hips, then guided the erection in her hand to her waiting core.

  He pushed in, his moans of pleasure mixing with Eve’s. He kissed her neck, her face, her mouth as he thrust his hips against hers, driving in deep, until his manhood was completely sheathed in her warm, moist channel.

  “Yes, honey, more, please,” Eve cried, holding on to him tight as she tried to meet his thrusts.

  He didn’t need any encouragement. Over and over he took her, working his body to give Eve the pleasure she craved and groaning at the rapture he received. Nearing the crest, he drove into her faster, his every breath a loud gasp of ecstasy.

  “Oh, God.” Eve tightened her legs around him and pressed her hips against his for more contact.

  “Yes, come for me, baby,” he panted. “Squeeze me tight.”

  Eve moaned out loud as she convulsed with her release.

  “Arghh!” he cried out, exploding inside her powerfully.

  Eve sagged against him as he gently put her down.

  “See? We won’t be late,” he murmured in her ear.

  “Mm. I’m in need of another shower. Join me?”

  He chuckled. “Good idea, babe. But first… wait here.” He went to his bag, heart pounding with nerves and excitement. He grabbed the little box he’d been at pains to hide from Eve, then walked back to her, his hands behind him.

  Eve gave him a questioning look. “What have you got there?”

  He smiled, then got down on one knee and opened the box.

  Eve clapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes instantly misting.

  “Eve Marrin, before I realised it, you’ve pieced my heart back together. I didn’t think I needed anyone, but now I can’t imagine a future without you by my side. I love you so much, and I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

  Tears rolled down Eve’s cheeks. “Yes,” she said, then cupped his face and gave him the sweetest kiss he’d ever had. Well, one of the sweetest kisses he’d ever had, because her kisses were always the sweetest.

  Ah, she made him such a sappy fool sometimes. But fuck if he cared.

  He placed the ring on her finger and stood. “I wish I’d set up a video to record this. I’d love to watch us getting engaged in the nude.”

  They laughed together, and he carried her to the shower.

  Xavier chuckled as small kids navigated Obstacle X—their parents straining to hold them up.

  He’d reserved this room for three hours this Sunday morning so he could celebrate the fourth anniversary of the gym’s opening with his family, friends and staff. And now, because Eve had said yes, they were also here to help celebrate their engagement.

  Everyone had cheered when they’d announced the good news, and Eve had been happily showing off her engagement ring.

  Right now, though, she was giving Holly some coaching while his sister concentrated hard on the rope walk, striving to maintain balance.

  He was thrilled that the two women were getting along so well, and he was glad Holly would be staying in Australia for an indefinite period after her exhausting ten-month North American tour. Fortunately, Holly hadn’t known much about the drama that had gone on while she was gone. She’d been able to perform spectacularly well, concert after concert.

  “Hey, bro!”

  “Hey!” Xavier greeted Jaxon with a man-hug. “Glad you can make it.”

  “I almost didn’t,” Jaxon said in a low voice. “But we’ve finally cracked it. Tipped off the police and they’re swooping in right this moment.”

  “Grats! Now you can really celebrate today.” He patted Jaxon on the back.

  “How are you and Eve doing with your one?”

  “Getting somewhere. But this one’s a matter of patience, more than anything. So, you still an initiate?”

  Jaxon chuckled. “Aidan kinda hinted that one more big case and I’d probably graduate. Can’t wait to see if other people I deal with on an everyday basis are IRs.”

  Xavier smiled. Jaxon would be surprised to learn that Chester Blunt was one of them. But, yeah, he too was keen to find out the identities of other Indie Rebels. He’d often wondered if one of his other one-on-one clients could be an IR, sent to him by the chiefs to improve their physical fitness and abilities.

  “Whoa,” Jaxon suddenly said. “Why are people having a look at Eve’s left hand?”

  He laughed. “If you can’t figure that out, I’ll tell them to keep you an initiate for a long while yet.”

  “Wow, congrats, bro.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I need to give Eve a big hug.”

  They made their way to where Eve was flanked by some of the girls who were having a better look at Eve’s ring.

  Holly noticed them approach and broke from the group. “Hi.”

  “Hey, Hols, this is my friend, Jaxon.”

  “Pleased to meet you, Jaxon. You must be a new friend of Xavier’s, because I haven’t met you before.”

  Jaxon chuckled. “Not that new. You just haven’t been home for months.”

  “That’s right,” Holly said with
a giggle. “I’m so glad to be back, though. How did you meet my brother? By the looks of those muscles of yours, I daresay you work out in this gym.”

  Xavier narrowed his eyes at his sister. She was flirting with Jaxon!

  “Hey,” Eve said, turning up at his side.

  “Hey,” he said with a smile. “Enjoying our engagement party?”

  Eve laughed. “Yes, this has become our engagement party too, hasn’t it? I’m so happy.”

  “Glad you are, babe.” He kissed her on the lips before glancing at Jaxon and Holly again. Didn’t Jaxon want to congratulate Eve? He seemed to have forgotten, too busy chatting with—or chatting up—his sister.

  “What’s that look about?” Eve asked in a low voice.

  He shook his head.

  “They look good together,” Eve teased.

  He sighed. “Jaxon doesn’t want to date a non-IR because it’s too hard. He’s waiting to become a full agent so he could meet single, available women IRs.”

  Eve’s mouth formed an ‘o’.

  “I agree it will be too hard. It’ll be further complicated by Holly’s superstardom.”

  “Listen to you,” Eve chastised. “They just met! And they’re just talking.”

  “I hope so.”

  Eve placed her arms around his waist. “I’m glad we’re both Indie Rebels.”

  He smiled. “Me, too, babe. Because I want to share everything with you.”

  Everything.

  His whole life.

  His whole heart.

  ###

  Thank you for reading!

  * * *

  Jaxon and Holly’s story is next in Jaxon: The Assignment (Indie Rebels, Book 2).

  Turn the page to read chapter one of this book.

  Jaxon: The Assignment Extract

  CHAPTER ONE

  Jaxon Caine pressed on the accelerator of his SUV, ignoring the stop sign at the side of the narrow, quiet residential alleyway. The black sedan coming from the left of the intersection swerved to avoid him and ended up hitting a parked car.

  Ah, he’d timed it perfectly. He’d only been hoping to slow the burly man down, but he’d managed to stop him altogether.

  He glanced at an oncoming vehicle and knew it was an unmarked police car chasing after the sedan driver. He got out of his SUV, relieved that the burly guy appeared too dazed to make a quick escape. At least he wouldn’t have to tackle the bastard or do something equally obvious.

  The burly man fumbled with the door and stumbled out, then attempted to run.

  Jaxon hurried to grab his arms. “Hey, are you okay? I’m so sorry.”

  “You fucking moron! Get off me!” The guy tried to ward him off.

  But Jaxon tightened his grip. “Hey, really, I’m sorry. I saw you coming, but I think you accelerated? You wouldn’t have had to avoid me otherwise. Are you okay?”

  The police car screeched to a halt in front of them, and Jaxon let his captive push him away.

  “Police! Freeze or we’ll shoot!” shouted one of the detectives as he and his partner aimed their guns at the sedan driver.

  Jaxon pretended to look shocked, raising his arms in surrender. He kept his astonished expression as the police cuffed and patted the other guy.

  Finally, one of the detectives approached him while his partner took the perp to the car.

  “Don’t worry. We haven’t come for you,” the officer said jokingly, flashing a badge.

  Jaxon let out a laugh. “That’s a relief.”

  “Can you tell us what happened?”

  “Well, I did look and I did see him. I was sure I had plenty of time to cross, but I mustn’t have noticed him accelerating. I think we both surprised each other. Anyway, he swerved to avoid me and he hit the other car.”

  “You stopped him from running away.”

  “Well,” he said with a snicker, “I actually thought he was dizzy and disoriented. I was holding him up because he didn’t look all right.”

  The cop chuckled. “We’re lucky you were at the right place at the right time.”

  “What’s he done?”

  “He’s wanted for multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault.”

  Jaxon let his mouth drop. “Glad I was of some help, then.”

  The detective nodded. “Mind if I get your details for our report?”

  “Sure. You’re not gonna give me a ticket for some driving offence, are you?”

  “Nah. Just don’t be in too much of a hurry next time.”

  Jaxon grinned in relief and gave his details to the officer.

  “Thank you, Mr. Caine. Have a good afternoon.” The cop headed back to the police car.

  Jaxon watched them drive away before returning to his vehicle and making a phone call. “Aidan,” he greeted the Indie Rebels agent who manned the control centre.

  “How did you go?” Aidan asked.

  “He’s in police custody now. And there are no complications. We don’t need to cover any of my tracks.”

  “Excellent work. I’ll let Florence know about this. She’ll be relieved he’s finally caught. And she’s mentioned she’d want to meet the agent working on this case one of these days.”

  “Does she live here in Sydney?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’ll be easy for us to meet then.”

  “I’m just waiting to see if the chiefs will give it the go-ahead. As you know, you’re still both initiates.”

  “Okay. So when will I become a full agent?” Frankly, he couldn’t wait to pass the Indie Rebels’ initiation phase. Then he’d be privy to restricted information regarding this secretive group he’d joined when he’d needed their help. Most of all, he’d finally learn the identity of the other Indie Rebels, or IRs as they liked to call themselves.

  “Patience, Jax,” Aidan said with a chuckle. “Even though this assignment is very important, it’s not considered big. I’d say completing a couple more will get you there. You’ve already proven you’re trustworthy. So it’s just a matter of the chiefs being satisfied that you’ve balanced the scale with the assignments you’ve been completing against what the IR team has done for you. You’re almost there.”

  Jaxon started driving towards his office in Sydney’s central business district. “Can’t wait, you know.”

  “Can’t wait to see what I look like?” Aidan teased.

  He laughed. “Yeah, sure. But I have to say you’re not the one I most want to meet.”

  “The chiefs?”

  “Nope. Not even our billionaire founder, even though I’m dying to know who he or she is.”

  “So who, then?”

  “The women IRs,” he answered, hoping he didn’t sound as embarrassed as he felt.

  “Dare I ask why?” Aidan said dryly.

  “Are you dating someone?”

  Aidan chuckled. “Sort of.”

  “Is she—or he—an IR?”

  “No, she’s not.”

  “Does she know you’re an IR?”

  “’Course not.”

  “See, that’s my problem. We can’t tell our partners about this.”

  “Funnily enough,” Aidan said with a snicker, “she read in the papers about one of the cases we closed a couple of weeks ago, and she asked me if I’ve heard of our team. I said, oh, that vigilante gang? The police hate them, don’t they?”

  Jaxon chuckled. “What did she say about that?”

  “Well, she said the police had to stop being so arrogant and admit the Indie Rebels are helping them. Then she started Googling because she wanted to see what the IRs look like. She was sure the ones mentioned in the news were hot. She was so disappointed she couldn’t find a single picture that showed our agents’ faces.” Aidan chortled.

  “So have you ever dated an IR?”

  “No. Unlike you, I’m not looking for a serious relationship, so I actually avoid dating one of us. It’ll be messier if I happen to break an IR’s heart.”

  Jaxon snorted. “It’s not that I’m looking for anythi
ng serious…”

  “You just said you can’t wait to meet women IRs. I assume you want to be completely open to her for the sake of a good relationship. Ergo, you’d want it to progress to something serious.”

  “It’s more like I don’t want to have to worry about hiding this role, even if I’m just casually dating. I went out with this girl five months ago, and she wouldn’t stop bugging me about why I couldn’t see her on certain nights. She thought I was cheating on her, but I was actually working on my IR assignment. I had similar problems with the girl I dated before her. So I think it’s just not worth the hassle dating non-IRs.”

  “I guess it’s harder for someone like you who also has an actual brick and mortar office that you need to manage. Me, I can tell my dates I’m an IT consultant working with international clients, so they don’t question why I work funny hours. Anyway, you can ask the chiefs to give you simpler assignments that would work better with your schedule. But it would extend your initiation phase.”

  “Nah. I enjoy the heavy stuff. There’s nothing like ridding Australia of big-shot criminals. Makes me feel more useful.” In fact, Jaxon had hired a manager to take over some more of his work for his tax agency franchisor business. Luckily, his company was established enough that he could take himself out of the day-to-day tasks.

  “Speaking of useful…” Aidan suddenly sounded serious. “I just got a new report… Let me check this out, and I’ll give you a ring back. Looks like this will involve Xavier too, so I’ll speak to you guys at the same time.”

  “I’ll go to his gym, then. I cancelled my session because I thought this would take up my whole afternoon. I’ll tell him I can turn up, after all.”

  “Good. Give me an hour to find out everything about this, then I’ll call you guys.”

  “Okay.”

  Jaxon pressed the hang-up button on the steering wheel, then left a message on Xavier’s voicemail. Twenty minutes later, he arrived in his city office. He changed into his exercise gear then took the elevator down to Xavier’s A to X Fitness gym on the ground floor of the high-rise commercial building.

  Xavier was still wrapping up a one-on-one session with another client, so Jaxon did some stretching and warm up exercises while he waited.