She inhaled a deep breath and then started waving her hand like a fan in the middle of church service. “It’s hot out here,” she mumbled.
Xavier glanced up frowning. “It’s forty-eight degrees.”
“I know. Ridiculous, right?” she said, ignoring his response.
He cocked his head and then just shook it as if deciding to let it go. “Go ahead, try to turn it over.”
Cheryl jumped back behind the wheel. “Nothing.”
“Did your lights even come on?”
She glanced around again and felt her heart sink. “No.”
Xavier walked back up to the car and wiggled a couple of cables around, but the results were the same. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but this battery is a goner.” He started removing the cables. “If you want, I can give you a lift to your place. Your car should be safe here for the rest of the night.”
“Um…” She glanced around as if she was going to find an excuse lying around somewhere.
“Are you kidding?” he asked, irritated. “You don’t even trust me to drive you home?”
“I didn’t say that,” she answered defensively. “I was just…looking to grab my stuff. I’m not afraid of you driving me home.”
Clearly, she wasn’t convincing because he just rolled his eyes and slammed his hood down. “Well, come on if you’re coming,” he said.
Everything from the tightness of his voice and the tension in his shoulders told her that he was beyond pissed off. Maybe that meant that she didn’t have to worry about the short ride. Still, the last thing she needed was for him to know where she lived.
Xavier opened his car door and hopped inside. Given the look on his face, she guessed that she had about two seconds to get out of her car or he was going to leave her right there in the parking lot.
“I’m coming. I’m coming.” She grabbed her bag and then raced to get into the passenger seat of his Escalade. But the moment she slammed the door behind her, she felt as if she’d climbed into a small cage—a comfortable, warm cage—but a cage nonetheless.
Chapter 15
“So, where to?” Xavier asked, shifting his SUV in Reverse and steering away from her dead-battery car to exit the parking lot.
She had two seconds to make up her mind about where to have him drop her off. She knew that if she told him some lodge motel or something like that, it would only stir up more questions that she didn’t have the answers to. So she took one look at him and just decided to go with the truth and gave him her address in Marietta.
If Xavier had any complaints about driving so far out, he kept them to himself and just hit the highway. For the first ten minutes, they rode in complete silence. Cheryl pretended that every building they passed was completely and utterly fascinating to her. But the silence just grew louder and louder.
“So…is this the way it’s going to be between us?” Xavier finally asked.
“What do you mean?” She cringed at her own question.
“Okay. Never mind. I see how you want to play this.” He sighed and shook his head.
A few more minutes elapsed before Cheryl caved. “It was just a mistake. I don’t see why you can’t understand that.”
“If memory serves me correctly, there were two people in bed that night. It seems that both parties should have equal say as to what should and shouldn’t happen moving forward.”
“There’s no point in our moving forward,” she reasoned. “There’s no chance of a relationship ever working out between the two of us.”
“So you’re a bartender as well as a psychic?” He released a sarcastic chuckle. “Damn. I wish you’d put that part in your résumé. It might’ve come in handy.”
“You’re upset.”
“Did your ESP tell you that?”
She cut her gaze over at him. “Why can’t you just let it go? What is it with you men? Do women give you as much trouble when you give the ‘let’s be friends’ speech?”
“Oh, now I’m just like all the other men you’ve had in your life. Great.”
“All the other men? What makes you think there were a lot?”
“Hey, I’m just using your own words. Do you hear me sitting here comparing you to anyone else? I was talking about you and me. Period! I’m just saying that I don’t like how you handle your business. It’s not always about you, you know.”
“So now I’m selfish?”
“You’re definitely something. I’ll give you that.”
“For your information, you’re no picnic, either,” she tossed back at him. “You want to give me grief, but you’re no angel. How am I supposed to take a man who runs a strip club and has a bevy of women who smile and bat their eyes every time he comes around? I’m supposed to trust you in a serious relationship? Hell, you’ve never even been in one in your entire life.”
“How in the hell would you know? You don’t know anything about me.”
“Oh, I know about you,” she said, and then turned her head away from him before she was stupid enough or too emotional to blurt out about the background check and police report on him and his entire family.
“Let me guess,” Xavier ranted. “You’ve been listening to gossip around the club. Is that it? I know how women love to gossip when they get together.”
“And men don’t? You don’t tell Quentin or your brothers everything? You guys don’t get together and compare notes about who slept with whom, and how good or bad someone was in bed? Please, men gossip more than women. That’s a fact!”
“I don’t know how many times I’ve told you that I’m not like other men. So please quit with all the comparisons. It’s getting old.”
“Got it, Mr. Boy Scout! You’re Mr. Perfect, Mr. Honesty—whatever!”
Xavier glanced over at her, his face contorted in anger. “What the hell is with you? Why are you so bitter?”
“I’m not bitter!”
“No. You’re a bowl of sunshine, tossing smiles and rose petals to everyone you see.” He rolled his eyes. “You have to be the most difficult and frustrating person I’ve ever met.”
“Aha! Now who’s doing the comparing?”
“Trust me. The only comparing I’m doing is the short list of crazy people I’ve met over the years. And let me tell you, sweetheart, you’re shooting to the top with a bullet.”
Cheryl huffed and folded her arms. “Then count yourself lucky that I’ve spared you the headache of getting involved with me.”
“Believe me. I’m counting.”
As fast as the argument started, it ended just as abruptly and that damn silence started ringing in her ears. They flew past a couple of more exits before Cheryl said, “Get off here.”
Xavier did as she asked without saying another word.
Cheryl snuck another look to her left and saw how hard his jaw was clenched. Then it surprised her just how much it bothered her that he was so angry. “I’m sorry.” She turned back and glanced out the window as he cut his gaze over at her.
Those simple words were like a needle puncturing an inflated balloon. She even swore she heard a loud pop!
“I’m sorry, too,” he said.
It should have ended there, but Cheryl started wondering about which part he was sorry about. Sleeping with her or because there was no future together. What in the hell is wrong with you? You broke up with him.
“Turn at the next right,” she said softly, and then had to clear her throat because it suddenly felt as if her larynx was closing. But when she coughed, tears sprang to her eyes and wrecked her whole program by trickling down her face. Once that started, it was damn near impossible to try to shut them off.
“Hey, hey, hey. What are those for?” Xavier asked, clearly stunned at the sudden turn of events.
“Nothing,” she choked out, but her performance would definitely qualify for a Razzie Award for Worst Actress. “It’s the third house on the left,” she squeaked out, wiping at her tears as fast as she could.
Xavier sped up so that he could whip into the
driveway.
There was a brief rush of relief when she saw that her sister’s car wasn’t in the driveway. “Thanks. I really appreciate your driving me home,” she managed to say before shoving the car door open and then running toward her front door. Not until she began scrambling for her keys did she realize that she’d left them in her car.
“Damn it!” She slapped a hand across her forehead and couldn’t see how the night—or early morning—could get any worse.
Xavier shut off his vehicle. “Is there a problem?”
She turned to him with her bottom lip trembling. “I left my house keys in the car—and now I can’t get in!” And the waterworks started again. She covered both hands over her face while her entire body shook with heart-wrenching sobs.
“Whoa. It’s okay.” He rushed over to her and pulled her into his arms.
Instantly, his body heat enveloped her and calmed her like a strong sedative. She clung to him and wished fervently that they could remain like this for—hell, she didn’t know for how long—as long as it took to ease the guilt that had been eating away at her for the past nineteen days.
She never knew how much strength it took to push something you wanted away. It drained almost everything from her—her heart, her love, her sanity. If she didn’t get pulled off this case, she needed to march into Mackey’s office and just hand in her badge. Never in her life could she have ever dreamed of screwing up this badly, and frankly, being pushed past the point of even caring.
“It’s all right,” he whispered again, and then planted a kiss on top of her head. “I’m sure that we can figure something out to get you inside.”
Cheryl sniffed but then burrowed her head deeper in the firm muscles of Xavier’s chest. Lord. Why does he feel so much like home? The notion that you could feel like that with someone was foreign to her, but there was simply no other way for her to put it. She would cling to him forever if she could. She could lose herself in just his strength.
Xavier pressed a kiss to the top of her head as more tears streamed from her eyes and soaked his shirt.
“C’mon.” He leaned back so that he could get a good look at her. “It’s going to be all right.” He smiled with an openness and honesty that completely melted her heart.
Cheryl sniffed again and then reluctantly pulled back so that she could dry her eyes. But once again Xavier surprised her by sweeping the pads of his thumbs under her eyes to help erase the tracks of her tears. After a minute, she felt a little better and tried to flash a smile up at him. “I guess this should clench the title for me on your crazy list, huh?”
“No. Believe it or not, you have a ways to go if you’re going to bypass my cousin. Trust me.”
She laughed while she continued to try and pull herself together. “Good to know.”
At seeing her smile, Xavier’s mood lightened. “All right, then, let’s see about getting you in here.” He winked. “Do you happen to have a spare key around? Maybe under a potted plant or mat?”
Cheryl wanted to hit herself in the head again. “Yes. Just a minute.” She strolled around to the back of the house and reached for the magnetic holder tucked under the lawn mower. When she returned to the front door, she held up the key. “Looks like I was freaking out for nothing.”
Xavier smiled. “Is it wrong for me to say that I kind of enjoyed you freaking out? It’s the closest I’ve been able to get to you in weeks.”
“Yeah. I’m…really sorry about that,” she said, and meant it. “It’s just a lot of…things I have going on right now. I shouldn’t have overreacted like I did. I could’ve handled it better.”
“Yeah…you could’ve.”
“You’re not going to let me off the hook easily, are you?”
“Not by a long shot.” This time when he laughed, his eyes twinkled. This was a lot better than the tension that had been festering between them.
But with nothing else to say, Cheryl turned toward the front door and slipped her spare key into the lock. Even then she was slow to turn it.
“Is there something else wrong?” Xavier asked, moving up behind her until his chest pressed against her back.
She closed her eyes while the marrow in her knees weakened. “I was just thinking…”
Xavier pressed a kiss to the back of her head. “About what?”
“About…inviting you inside.”
His arms slid around her waist and his hands dipped low to squeeze her pussy through the seat of her jeans while he pressed another kiss to the back of her head. “Would you like for me to come inside?”
Cheryl exhaled shakily. “Oh, God, yes.”
“Then I would love to come inside.”
Chapter 16
Cheryl was certain that she came the moment he squeezed her crotch outside the front door. After that she was in a mad rush to get this man into the house and into her bed as fast as possible. They stumbled into the house, tugging and pulling at each other’s clothes as if their bodies were experiencing three-alarm fires, and the only way to put out the fire was to join their bodies before they both went up in flames.
They were going at it so hard it was a wonder that they even remembered to kick the front door closed. After that, Xavier pinned her to the wall in the foyer where he ripped her shirt and bra from her body in just a few seconds. She relieved him of his shirt just a second later. However, when it came to removing their jeans, it got a little tricky, and before either of them knew it, they had collapsed to the floor while they kissed and squirmed their way out of the remainder of their clothes.
Neither of them was interested in foreplay. Tender kisses and caresses would come later. At least, that was the understanding they came to after the simmering looks that passed between them.
Xavier locked his lips around her mouth while she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist, so that she clung to him like a layer of skin. He completely lifted her body off the floor. From that position, he had no trouble entering her tight pussy, which greeted his thick cock with a firm squeeze.
Almost all the air in Xavier’s lungs oozed out of his chest in one long, steady stream. Judging by the way Cheryl’s mouth popped off of his, she experienced the same phenomenon. He loved watching as wave after wave of euphoria washed over her beautiful face and the glow that accompanied it.
I can spend my entire life making love to this woman.
The moment that thought drifted through his head, he recognized the truth. No one had, and he imagined no one ever could, make him feel exactly what he was feeling right now. What was happening between them was more than just sex, whether she wanted to recognize it or not. He’d had his fair share of sex, but this was something else entirely. This was more powerful than anything he’d experienced before, just as it was sweeter than anything he’d ever known.
Is this what love feels like?
The question stunned him, but it was one that he suddenly felt he needed an answer to. If it was, he suddenly felt cheated for never having known that something that felt this good even existed. He suddenly understood, profoundly, the pain that his cousin and his older brother Eamon had gone through when something this powerful had been snatched from them.
What if in the morning she pushes me away again? What will I do? How could I possibly handle it?
Xavier slammed his eyes closed and tried to push the thought as far out of his mind as he possibly could. All that mattered at the moment was for him to try and make her feel what he was feeling. He hoped that it would be his salvation in their relationship. “Where’s your room, baby?”
“F-first room on the right,” she answered, panting and then bringing his lips back toward hers so that she could have another taste of him.
Xavier didn’t bother trying to stand. Instead, with her clinging to his waist and neck, he simply crawled while she continued bouncing her thick, juicy body on his hard cock. This was surely how they did things in the animal kingdom. No need to disconnect or disengage. Judging by the way she was panting and trembli
ng, she was more than just enjoying the ride.
Then he felt that tremble he was waiting for, the one that let him know that Cheryl was on the verge of her first orgasm. Then he felt it again. On the floor by the foot of the bed, Xavier stopped and unwound her hands from his neck so that he could plant her upper body against the floor and watch her face when he started hammering his hips into hers.
“Look at me,” he ordered.
Cheryl’s eyes fluttered open just as his strokes started picking up speed. He didn’t have to ask her how it felt or whether he was tearing up her G-spot. He knew, because it was written all over her face; it danced in her eyes. There was only one thing that he wanted her to know.
“I miss having you like this,” he panted. He took her wrists in one hand and then pinned them high above her head while he substituted fast strokes for deeper ones. “I love the way you feel. Do you know that?”
She thrashed her head from side to side.
In no mood to give her any mercy, he wanted to show her that he knew how to work her body. With his one free hand, he slipped two fingers under the base of her clit while he continued to stroke as deep as he could.
Cheryl gasped as she arched her body. But that just gave him better access to all the goodies that he was having fun playing with. With her orgasm rocketing through her body at a clip she wasn’t prepared for, a hoarse cry rang out from her throat at a pitch she had never been able to hit before. Her mind soared so high that she thought she was having an out-of-body experience.
When she finally came down, Xavier’s sexy-as-sin grin greeted her. There were no words to express how it felt to get that one big explosion out of the way. One thing for sure, thank you certainly didn’t seem like enough. But she surely could try to repay the favor.
Smiling, Cheryl unwrapped her legs from Xavier’s waist and eased him out, momentarily disconnecting their bodies. “Let’s try out the bed,” she suggested.
To prove that she didn’t have to ask twice, Xavier jumped up from the floor and then offered his hand to help her up. But once she climbed onto her feet, she gave him a hard shove so that he would fall back onto the bed, his glazed cock standing as tall and as high as a flagpole.
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