“Spoiled rich boy?” She tried, half-jokingly, her smile sincere. He chuckled at her expression, shaking his head softly.
“You know, the funny part is that I thought I changed after my undergrad days. I guess I’ve still got a bit of that mentality.” Helena licked full lips, making his blood run hotly for a split second before she answered.
“What are you going to do? You can’t help who you are. Who your family is.” Her words made his mouth turn down into a scowl. As if he needed a reminder. He now had less than seven months to come up with the money to fund his start-up, and despite the amount of hours he was spending outside the classroom on freelance jobs, things were moving slowly. Of course, his parents had no problem giving Brandy the money she requested to start her own law firm, or lavishing funds on his younger sister Emily for her ballet camps and exhibitions. But they, of course, were engaging in respectable Thompson family pursuits.
He wasn’t. “Sometimes, I wish I could.” He sighed, gesturing to the waitress to bring them more bread. His words had Helena setting her fork down on the table as she leaned forward, her expression somewhat concerned.
“Wish you could what?”
“Xavier, is that you?” All at once, he winced at a very familiar, high pitched voice. Stiffly, he turned to see none other than his perfectly groomed, smiling elder sister standing at his shoulder. She was flanked by her eternally whipped husband, Hank, who was smiling at Xavier in greeting. Before he could answer Brandy, she swooped down to kiss him twice on each cheek before straightening. “I just knew it was you. I told Hank so. We just finished our dinner and came over to say hi. Oh!” Her eyes finally fell on Helena, who was rooted to her seat across from him, staring up at the impeccably groomed lawyer with apprehension in her gaze.
As much as he loved his sister, Xavier groaned inwardly. Now was certainly not the time. “Xavier, are you going to introduce me to your lovely date?”
He would have given anything at that moment to take Helena and leave the restaurant. Unfortunately, that option had already been made unavailable to them. So, instead, he cleared his throat before making the introductions. “Helena, this is my sister Brandy. Brandy, this is Helena. She’s a pre-med undergrad at Antioch.”
To his surprise, his sister gasped, quickly rounding the table to take Helena’s hand in her own. “My dear, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Do you know, I knew your father?”
Instantly, Helena’s eyes widened as Xavier gaped at his sister, utterly nonplussed. She what?
“You did?” The dark-skinned woman’s voice was laden with surprise.
“Well, I didn’t know him, but he treated me. I got some nasty bug that somehow morphed into a very dicey lung infection. Our private doctor was away on holiday, and the only one who could see me on such short notice was Doctor Graves. Isaiah Graves. He was very kind to me.” Brandy’s voice softened slightly as her eyes took on a gentler sheen. “And he saved my life.”
Come to think of it, Xavier did remember the event vaguely. He’d been young – only twelve or thirteen, and his parents had been absolutely furious. Being the age he’d been, he’d never heard the full story. All he’d known was that Brandy was sick and that she refused to go to the doctor they mandated for her. Instead, she’d gone to someone they called common, and had been treated at the state hospital instead. At the time, all he’d been concerned with was his sister’s health. He’d been elated when Brandy had come home during her next school vacation looking ten times healthier.
Now, the truth came out – and he had to admit that it made him slightly ill. If what Brandy said was true, had she waited for their private physician to return, she might not be standing where she was today.
“You were such a tiny thing.” His sister was saying, her smile bright as she stared down at Helena. “And I was recovering, so things are a little fuzzy, but I remember: he brought you into the room and you said hi to me. I could never forget those eyes. They really are lovely you know.”
And just like that, she turned to face Xavier once again, her smile never wavering. “It was supposed to be a surprise, Xav, but I’m in town for the week working on a case. We should have dinner sometime – and bring Helena, if she’d like to come, that is.” She winked winningly at the younger woman before taking her husband’s hand. “Let’s get going, Hank. Love you, Xavier.”
In the space of ten seconds she was gone – a whirlwind, powerful force of nature, as always. Both Xavier and Helena stared after her for a moment, before the young woman smiled broadly. “I like your sister.”
Xavier merely shook his head in awe. “I think I remember your father treating her, actually. I wasn’t there, but I remember when it happened.” It was for the best that he didn’t tell her the drama that had followed Brandy’s decision to be treated outside their private circle.
What mattered was that she had lived, and that Helena’s father had been the one to save her. An inspiring doctor indeed. “Dad would have loved to meet her again.” Helena’s smile was fond, her expression peaceful – and in that moment, Xavier’s heart stumbled in his chest.
He was quite obviously in trouble. Any other man his age would have finished this dinner convinced that Helena Graves had too much baggage to contend with. He, on the other hand, only saw her perseverance, and the outstanding love she had for her father. Not to mention, she’d met his sister, and hadn’t been bowled over by the wave of pure force that was Brandy. Impressive, to say the least.
It made him want to kiss her all over again…among other things. His lips curving into a smile, he gestured towards the front of the restaurant. “You finished? Shall we make like a banana?”
Helena rolled her eyes. “You’re definitely a nerd. I can’t believe every female student on campus is clamoring for this unique experience.”
Xavier smirked. “I don’t really give a damn what every female on campus wants. Only one.”
Helena’s face turned a very becoming shade of pink as she looked away, clearing her throat pointedly. It was apparent that he’d have to continue working on her.
But Xavier didn’t think he minded in the slightest.
Chapter Four: Release
It was another week before she let him kiss her again. The first time, he had caught her by surprise. After their little dinner date, however, she had been more reluctant. In a very ‘Helena’ fashion, she’d informed him that she didn’t have time for boyfriends. And so, Xavier had consented to merely being her friend.
A friend who was insanely attracted to her.
He began making excuses to run into her around campus. Doing his programming for the day in the wee hours of the morning just so he could walk her to her first class. He’d never been an early riser, but for her, he was willing to make an effort. He braved the cutting eyes of the young women on campus – some of whom he’d been a little too intimate with- as he found her every day for lunch. Being a grad student, he wasn’t nearly as tied to the campus as an undergrad, but he found himself spending much more time on Antioch grounds.
When Helena was in class, he rushed to his own, infuriating his teachers when he crept in late, only to soothe their ire with his latest programming designs and HTML projects. He, who had done only the bare modicum of what he needed to get by his entire college career, suddenly found himself working double time in an attempt to finish everything he needed to.
So he could spend time with her.
More than a few of his peers probably thought he was out of his mind. He was their best programmer, and suddenly he’d left the computer lab to spend time with an undergrad. Technically, he was at the point in his life where he should be concentrating on flings – not a single girl. But, Xavier had been the victim of plenty of flings. While they had been fulfilling enough in his early twenties, he didn’t really find the idea of waking up next to a stranger as attractive as he once had.
He wanted to wake up next to Helena – and damned if she was doing everything in her power not to see it.
She seemed obs
essed with the idea that she was less than him – that because her name wasn’t plastered all over campus, that she was somehow unworthy of him. He hoped to show her that he didn’t care what anyone else thought – or indeed, if every girl on campus suddenly decided that he was about as attractive as a bullfrog. As long as she still got flustered around him.
And she certainly did.
As the semester faded from winter into spring, they fell into a strange kind of camaraderie. Whenever he would comment that she studied too much – that she needed to take a breather - she would rebut that how could he possibly know, as he had no comprehension of the courses she was taking. Whenever she lost it on her computer because it was very clearly defying her, he would come in and tease her about being computer illiterate. He couldn’t help but bait her. As high and mighty as she was about her own coursework, the simplest little computer glitches drove her into fits of panic.
These issues were usually of the caliber that he could come in and fix with about twenty minutes of tinkering. Of course, when he did fix the problems, Helena was so grateful that she usually wrapped him in her embrace for long enough for him to remember that he wanted her like he’d never wanted anything else. Sometimes she even let him kiss her, though there was an unspoken agreement between them that things would never go further than that. Her mouth was just as enticing as the first time every time drawing him in until his sanity was taxed to the breaking point.
During one of these kisses, her roommate, Magda, walked in on them. The girl was a year older than Helena and an absolute bombshell. Blonde, curvaceous, and titillating. The moment she laid eyes on her, Helena had stiffened and scrambled away from him – only to have Magda wink at her and leave the way she had come in a rush. The dark-skinned girl introduced her companion in a low mumble, which only incited Xavier to draw her mouth back to his.
“Not my type.”
And he meant the statement sincerely. He’d had no other type than Helena since he’d met her, much as it pained him to admit. They were utter and complete opposites, but he found he enjoyed hearing about her research into different medical disciplines. He loved the look she got in her eyes when she contemplated medical school and spoke of her father’s work with different patients or the surgical procedures she’d seen. Unlike other women of her age that he’d dealt with, it was her ambition that drove her through her university years, not the urge to black out drink every night and make her mark on campus.
She was refreshing in a way he’d never contemplated; and slowly, he found himself opening up to her in a way he never had to anyone – not even his sister. She asked him what he wanted to do with his life – whether he planned on following in his father’s footsteps or his elder sibling’s, and she was genuinely surprised when he told her about his company.
He knew that, compared to his family’s vast business empire, there was nothing impressive about it. It was small, and mostly run by the goodwill of his buddies in the IT department – but he had huge goals. Goals that had nothing to do with his family or their influence. For once in his life, he wanted to coast from his own steam.
He was surprised when, instead of scorning him like some of his friends did – instead of asking why he didn’t just appreciate his family’s wealth and fall into line with their desires for him – she encouraged him. She told him that she admired that he didn’t simply take his family’s name and run with it – and apologized for calling him a spoiled rich boy. Though, Helena assessed, he still behaved like one sometimes.
She even came into his miniscule office a few times to scope out the layout and joke with the few people that conceded to work with him for next to nothing. Her presence there comforted him – and she seemed to like the small, cozy space as well. So much so that she sometimes took to studying in a plush armchair in the corner while he worked. She got so absorbed in her work that she didn’t even see when he glanced over at her – several times an hour – admiring the way she stuck her tongue out when she was trying to remember anatomy terms, or the rhythmic way she tapped her pencil against the page as she memorized the periodic table.
His greatest triumph, however, was when she agreed to go with him to dinner with his sister and her husband. Brandy was in and out of town for the case she was working on a few times over the course of the semester, and though it seemed to take forever, he finally managed to get Helena to agree to her proposed outing. When Brandy had named the restaurant, however – a high end place on the edge of town that catered mostly to families like his - Helena had backpedaled rapidly. She’d tried to worm her way out of the arrangement, only to be halted when he told her that she couldn’t.
That he’d already bought her a dress.
It was a ridiculously overt gesture, he knew – but he hardly ever saw her dress up. In fact, he doubted that she even had anything dressy in her wardrobe. The fanciest getup he’d ever seen her in was jeans and a button down – which, while tantalizing, hardly did her figure any justice. He’d been in Nordstrom the previous day to get a pair of slacks for the occasion, and a dress had caught his eye that he simply couldn’t leave the store without.
It was perfect for her.
The hypothesis was only confirmed when, after an hour of arguing, and swearing up and down that she was not going to keep it in her closet, he finally got her to put the damn thing on.
She was utterly breathtaking.
The dress was a light cream color, with a low cut sweetheart neckline that fell down about her shoulders. The bodice was tight, cinching in her waist to the flare of her hips. There, the fabric smoothed over her curves and down long legs, stopping just shy of her knees. Helena professed that she looked ridiculous – that the garment was hell to walk in and that she could hardly breathe – but her mouth snapped shut when he professed that she looked absolutely gorgeous.
At that point, conveniently, Magda arrived. When she saw Helena in her dress, she affectively lost her shit, demanding to do the young woman’s hair and makeup before she went out. Xavier watched, trying to stifle his laughter as the dark-skinned girl was bowled over by her roommate’s ‘persuasion’, and relented only grumpily. As Xavier watched the transformation happen before his eyes, he couldn’t help but be fascinated. Helena’s hair was twisted into a high, elegant up-do with a few pieces framing her face, her magnificent eyes outlined in black to emphasize their shape and her features accented with just a touch of color, bringing out the fullness of her lips and her high cheekbones.
By the time Magda was done, Helena fairly glowed. She looked like she would be at home at any high class social function – and having been dragged to a plethora of those in his lifetime, Xavier would know. Even she had to admit that she looked pretty damn good when she looked in the mirror, though she fussed that her meal would undo all the time that Magda had spent on her lipstick.
Said lipstick was in her purse, a present from her roommate, when they got to the restaurant, and upon discovering it, Helena’s smile was worth its weight in gold. Despite how nervous she’d been about the dinner, Xavier knew she was ready.
And she was radiant. He would have marched her into the establishment in her sweats if she’s refused the dress, but this was definitely the better option. Now, all he had to do was manage to keep his eyes from wandering to where they shouldn’t be for the rest of the night.
His sister, of course, was flawless as well. She greeted them enthusiastically as they were guided to their table to sit, and Hank parroted her, dressed in a dark tux that emphasized his eyes. Of course, Brandy had to comment that Xavier himself never wore suits – and he hadn’t. Not since he’d stopped allowing his parents to dictate what he wore after he’d started college. A crisply ironed dress shirt and slacks suited him just fine.
“I just think you would look amazing in a suit, Xav. You’ve certainly got the body for it. Doesn’t he, Helena?”
The dark-skinned girl flushed, glancing at the man by her side as Xavier swallowed his embarrassment. “Yes. He does.”
<
br /> Helena’s soft answer made his stomach tighten in arousal. Christ, he’d spent so long battling the urge to bed her that even the slightest reminder of her interest was enough to set his heart racing. Brandy smiled, flashing almost inordinately white teeth. “See? There you go. Two female opinions. You have to buy a suit now.”
“Damned if I do.” He returned his sister’s grin with a dogged one of his own, that had her shaking her head.
“That’s Xavier for you. Always going against the status quo. Which reminds me, how’s that company of yours going?” Xavier sighed. The subject had always been a controversial one in his family, but Brandy had once wanted to support him. She’d offered to invest fifty thousand in his business – right before their parents had forbid it. They’d gone so far as to threaten to take away her trust fund – and her house, which they had co-signed on – if she dared to support something they hadn’t authorized.
“It’s going, I suppose. I’m going to need to find some funds soon or it’s going to be gone.” He scowled into his glass of wine. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand our parents. Do they think they can control us forever? I’m twenty six fucking years old.”
Brandy glanced at her husband, her expression torn. “They love you, Xavier. They love all of their children. They’re just very…particular in the way that they show it.” That was, of course, putting it lightly. Clearing her throat, Brandy brightened her expression as she went on. “What about your family life, Helena.” The moment she mentioned the words, the woman at Xavier’s side stiffened, her face not unlike that of a deer caught in headlights. “I was so sorry to hear that your father passed. He was a great man. But surely your mother must be very proud of you for following in his footsteps?”
There was a very pregnant pause at the table – the silence almost deafening. Helena looked as if she were struggling for words, and Xavier knew that she couldn’t tell the truth. As far as he knew, he was the only person she’d ever spoken to plainly about her mother. “She doesn’t see her mother very much.” He jumped in to her rescue, his smile feigned. “They’re not very close. She lives across the country – moved there for work.”
A Kiss of Color: A BWWM Interracial Romance (Book 1) Page 6
