by Cora Reilly
He opened the bottles then handed me one. We clanked bottles. “Cheers,” I said.
“Cheers.”
For some reason, the atmosphere shifted slightly. Maybe it was because it was the first time we were in his apartment without it being work-related. I took a sip of the stout, and smiled around the bottleneck. “That’s what I call beer.”
“It’s one of my favorites.”
“If Fiona knew I wasn’t stopping you from having an alcoholic beverage, she’d blow a gasket.”
“I don’t think that’s what would piss her off the most about this.”
I frowned. “Did she say something to you at the barbecue?”
“She doesn’t want us to spend time together.”
“We work together.”
“Outside of work. She thinks I have ulterior motives.”
“And? Do you?” I said with a laugh.
He grinned. “Always. But you don’t have to worry. You aren’t the focus of any of them.”
Ouch. I took another sip. “Does it make sense to start with the movie?”
Xavier nodded.
We settled on the sofa together, which felt strange. We’d sat there before when we’d worked, but not like this. Xavier made sure to keep an arm-length between us when he sank down.
Luckily the food arrived soon and together with the movie managed to relax me. Xavier and I quickly resumed our banter while drinking beer and eating the most delicious ribs I’d had in a long time.
“You are the only girl I know who enjoys drinking and eating as much as I do,” he said with a laugh.
I flushed. That was because I wasn’t a size zero. I stared down at my upper thighs, which were touching. No thigh gap for me. Ever.
Xavier leaned back again, his eyes returning to the movie but now his arm was stretched out on the backrest, his hand behind my back. For some reason it was awfully distracting.
“You can’t possibly prefer him as Spiderman,” Xavier said when the famous kissing scene flashed across the TV screen. “He kisses the girl as if he’s a limp dishrag. There’s no passion. Nothing.”
“For me the kiss looks okay,” I said with a small shrug, but discussing kissing techniques really wasn’t on my agenda when alone with Xavier, or at all.
Xavier turned to me. “Then you’ve never been kissed properly. Trust me, if I kissed you, you wouldn’t let me disappear—you’d rip my bodysuit off and fuck me in that alley.”
I swallowed because I had a feeling he was right. His gray eyes held mine with an intensity I hadn’t seen in them before. I nodded toward the screen. “Spiderman isn’t about kissing,” I said, my voice a bit breathless to my ears.
After that kissing was off-limits and we found less awkward topics, though I had a feeling I was the only one who felt uncomfortable. Xavier was cool as a cucumber as usual.
After the second movie, I prepared to leave. “Should I drive you home?” he asked as he brought me to the door.
“Usually I’m your chauffeur,” I teased.
“True. But we’ve both had a couple of beers, but I’m much bigger and can hold my liquor better.”
“I doubt that,” I said with a laugh. “I’m not the one who usually drinks light beer.”
“It’s late, Evie. You shouldn’t be out alone.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ll be fine. I’m not the only woman taking public transport from this house. It’s only midnight. And you can’t risk being caught behind the wheel with alcohol in your system. The Rugby League might ban you for a few games.”
He grimaced. “Then let me bring you to the bus station.”
“Okay,” I said, grabbing my purse and following Xavier out of his apartment. We walked in comfortable silence toward the station, where an older man and a young woman were also waiting for the bus to Bondi Junction.
“This was nice,” I said quietly when the bus finally approached.
Xavier looked down at me. “Yeah.” I couldn’t quite pinpoint his expression. He looked almost…apprehensive.
I got onto the bus. Xavier watched with his hands stuffed into his jeans pockets, and my heart thudded a bit quicker in my chest.
Even Fiona’s interrogation couldn’t dampen my mood after the movie night with Xavier. I enjoyed his company, even if she couldn’t understand. I knew he could be a major prick, but he wasn’t to me.
The chances of me misinterpreting his motives were blown right out of the window when I entered his apartment two days later to wake him for training as usual. A female voice sounded upstairs.
My smile dropped and I headed for the espresso unit and flipped the switch, announcing my presence.
For a moment, the woman quieted down, but then her voice rang out again. I didn’t listen, didn’t want to, too worried by the realization that for the first time it really bothered me that Xavier had a girl over to bang her brains out. I’d seen him do it from the start, so what had changed? And more importantly, how could I return to my previous indifference?
I grabbed the pitcher, filled it with milk and began to froth it. From the corner of my eye, I saw Xavier make his way down the staircase, looking royally pissed. Behind him one of the women who’d tried out for a position in the cheerleading team, a lithe girl with long black hair, followed, talking to him without pause.
“We could work out together. I’m sure you can show me a few new moves.”
Xavier stopped next to the kitchen island, in his usual Calvin Kleins. “Listen—” he began, then paused.
He looked at me. He didn’t know the girl’s name. Of course.
I fought the urge to let him get through this situation on his own, but it would embarrass him less than the girl. Xavier was lucky I had a good memory, and that Fiona had bitched about the candidates almost nonstop while she’d watched the tryouts on repeat at home. Still, I wavered between two names. Samantha or Cameron.
Cameron, I mouthed at him.
“Listen, Cameron, our coach is kicking our asses right now, but if you give my assistant your number, I’ll give you a call as soon as I have time.”
Never.
The girl told me her number and I put it into my mobile. Xavier led her out of his apartment with his hand on her lower back. She stole another kiss from him that turned my stomach into ice before he finally closed the door. And just as quickly, he would have forgotten all about her. I deleted her number from my phone again.
“What’s on today?” he asked me.
I paused, resisting the urge to ask for the name of the girl just to make a point. He had already forgotten anyway. “You have a fan meeting in the afternoon, and please don’t land in bed with any of them. The press will tear you apart if you do.”
“They do anyway. But I don’t take fans into bed on general principle.”
I frowned. “Xavier, you sleep with everything that qualifies as female.”
“No,” he said firmly, almost angrily. “Not fans. They fall for me because they think I’m someone I’m not. I only fuck women who don’t care who I am, only what kind of attention I can bring them. There’s a difference.”
I tilted my head. “Don’t bang any journalists either for a while if possible. I’m really trying to improve your image here. The season is about to start. You have your first test match in two days. You should focus on what really matters, not meaningless flings with women who take advantage of you.”
Xavier touched my shoulder. “Are you worried about me, Evie?” he teased in that deep rumble his voice took on in the morning. His strong, big hand was warm even through the thin material of my blouse. “You really don’t need to be. I’m taking as much advantage of those women as they do of me. It’s a symbiotic relationship.”
“Most of those women leave your symbiosis hating your guts.”
“I don’t care if they hate me or love me. They are not the people I care about.”
“Who do you care about?”
Xavier’s expression became guarded, but he answered anyway. “Connor, yo
u, my family.”
Despite the giddiness his mentioning of me had given me, I said, “You never talk about your family. And they haven’t come to visit.”
“I don’t want them here where the press circles over my head like vultures. My mother and sister live on a farm in the countryside, near the Blue Mountains. I visited them two weeks ago.”
“When you were gone for two days?” I said as I poured the milk foam on his espresso and handed the cup to him.
He nodded.
I’d thought he’d been on a sexcapade trip with one of his conquests, but the truth sat much better with me.
“How old is your sister?”
“Willow is seventeen,” he said, and I could practically see his protective brother mode snapping into place and I had to stifle a smile. It was a side of Xavier I hadn’t seen so far, but one I liked. He was eight years older than his sister, so it was normal he wanted to protect her.
“I bet her friends ask her about her superstar brother all the time. What does she say to your scandals?”
He set down the cup. “Willow is being homeschooled. And she doesn’t read the tabloids. She knows who I really am.”
Sometimes he let me see that side of him as well, and in the last few days, it had become more frequent. Like during our movie night or when he’d bought me a cherry popsicle when we’d filmed his second beach workout. And it was a side of him that posed a bigger threat to my resolve than any jock strap ever could.
I had premium seats for the first test match of Xavier’s team, right behind the coach bench, and I was oddly nervous. Not just because it was the first time I’d see Xavier in action, but also Connor and Fiona. I had seen Fiona’s cheerleading skills in high school but never cared much about it.
After the referee tossed the coin and pointed at the guy from the opposing team who got to choose which half his team would play, Xavier grabbed the ball and positioned himself in the middle of the halfway line. He looked incredibly hot in his rugby uniform. All these men had muscled thighs to die for, muscled everything. But Xavier…he stole the show. When the referee gave the sign, Xavier did the dropkick, sending the ball flying the length of the field as his teammates charged forward. A member of the opposing team caught the ball, and then both teams clashed and then there was a big huddle. It was wild and confusing, and with the cheers and screams of the crowd, utterly intoxicating.
I didn’t understand all the details of the game, but I cheered whenever Xavier and his teammates cheered, and shouted obscenities when the crowd around me did.
I had a splendid time, and when Xavier’s team did their little victory dance at the end, I felt like dancing myself. Fiona waved me down, then jogged over in her cute little cheerleading costume and told the stewards to let me through. I climbed down onto the edge of the field and hugged my twin. “I’m not part of the team,” I protested. “I belong on the bleachers.”
“For making sure Xavier is on time, you deserve to be here,” Connor said as he jogged toward us, sweaty, muddy, and disheveled. He kissed Fiona and pulled her tightly against his side.
My heart did a stupid little loop when I spotted Xavier heading our way. He was smiling, a huge smile, an honest one. He clapped Connor’s shoulder in passing, then shocked me by wrapping his arms around me and lifting me off the ground for a moment. My fingers clutched his shoulders, my eyes widened and I let out an embarrassing cry. When he released me, he and I both hesitated a moment. Fiona and Connor were watching us with wide eyes but fortunately a few teammates joined us, stopping Fiona from a comment.
I didn’t hug girls after games like many of the other guys. Not a girlfriend because I’d never had one, and not the cheerleaders because half of them wanted to clamp my balls in a vice. And I definitely didn’t talk about my family, not with my teammates, except for Connor, and definitely not with any women of the past, but with Evie my guards seemed to be crumbling and I didn’t even mind. I knew she wouldn’t sell me out to the press. She had absolutely no ambitions to gain attention, and she was responsible and loyal. I liked having her around. With my previous assistants they’d worked from home, not in my apartment. I’d spent as little time as possible with them, but with Evie I found myself giving her tasks just so she’d have to be in my penthouse more often.
“I can’t imagine you on a horse,” Evie said during our next movie night after I’d told her my mother and sister lived on a farmstead with stables, a place where I’d spent part of my youth. “What kind of poor creature can carry your body?”
“Horses are strong. They can carry a lot of weight, trust me.”
She looked doubtful. “Still. I can’t really imagine you as a cowboy.”
I chuckled. “I’m not wearing a cowboy hat or cowboy boots when I ride, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
She tilted her head in that thoughtful way where she wedged the corner of her lower lip between her teeth. It was fucking distracting. “Now I want to see you on a horse,” she said with a shake of her head and a laugh.
“Why don’t you come with me next time I visit my family?” I hadn’t considered asking Evie, but oddly enough I realized I wanted her to see where I came from, and meet my family. Marc was already completely enthralled by her, and from the few things I’d let slip to my mother, she was too.
Evie blinked. “Really? Wouldn’t they wonder why you’re bringing your assistant along for family time?”
“You’re more than that, and they’ll be ecstatic if I bring any woman home.”
“You’ve never brought a girl over?”
“No,” I clipped. “Never dated, never will. I didn’t want any of the women I slept with to go anywhere near my family.”
“So you’re bringing a woman you don’t sleep with,” she said with a twitch of that pink mouth. “Ask your family if it’s okay. I really don’t want to impose.”
“You won’t.” I had a feeling both my sister and mother would enjoy Evie’s quirky nature.
Evie regarded me for a couple heartbeats before she let out a small sigh. “My mom had breast cancer,” she said softly.
I angled my body toward her, but didn’t say anything. She was searching for more words.
“Fiona and I were fifteen when she was diagnosed with stage three. At first it looked like she could beat it, but then it flared up again and…” She swallowed, her green eyes sad and teary, and I reached out and touched her shoulder, rubbing it with my thumb.
She gave me a small smile.
She was soft and warm to the touch, and smelled of that mix of honey and a hint of cinnamon. “How old were you when she died?”
“Seventeen. It was in my last year of high school.”
“That must have been hard.”
“It was,” she admitted. “It would have been easier if Fiona hadn’t left right after graduation. I’d needed her at my side.”
“Why did she leave anyway?”
“That’s Fiona’s story to tell,” Evie said. That was another reason why I knew I could trust her with personal information.
She wiped at her eyes, then squinted with an embarrassed smile. “I didn’t mean to ruin our movie night with an emotional outburst.”
“I asked,” I said. “How about something funny like The Hangover?”
“Why did I know that was a movie you’d like?”
“Connor and I experienced something very similar when we were in Las Vegas a few years back.”
She perked up. “Do tell.”
“I think I’ll pass. Don’t want you to get the wrong impression,” I drawled with a wink.
“It’s a little too late for that, Xavier.”
I realized I was still touching her shoulder and removed my hand, then turned back to the TV and searched for the movie. Evie curled her feet under herself and leaned her head against the headrest with an expression I had trouble reading, so I didn’t bother.
We were halfway through the movie when Evie’s head slumped forward and her breathing deepened. I let her
sleep. When she didn’t wake before the end of the movie, I decided to let her sleep here. It was already past midnight and we’d have to get up early. If Evie still needed to return home, she would hardly get any sleep at all. I carefully rose then grabbed a folded blanket from the second sofa, unfolded it and covered Evie with it. The position she was in looked slightly uncomfortable, so I lowered her gently to her side. For a moment, I regarded her peaceful face, then her lit-up mobile screen caught my attention. The sound was off.
Fiona.
I picked it up and went upstairs before taking the call so I didn’t wake Evie.
“Where are you?”
“She’s with me.”
Pause. “Xavier?” Fiona asked, sounding caught off guard.
“The one and only.”
Pause.
“It’s late. When will she be home?”
“Evie will spend the night.”
“I warned you to keep your hands off her!” she muttered. I could hear Connor’s deep voice in the background, probably trying to calm his crazy girlfriend.
“She fell asleep on the sofa.” I was too tired to annoy Fiona with a half-truth, just to see her outburst.
“Don’t do kinky stuff to her while she’s asleep.”
Fury burnt through me. I’d never touched a woman who wasn’t one hundred percent willing and conscious. Connor spoke again.
After several moments of silence, Fiona said, “Sorry. That was out of line.”
“Yeah, it was. Good night.” I hung up.
I set the alarm, a new experience, then with a last glance down the landing at the sleeping woman below, I went to bed. This was the first time a woman spent the night in my penthouse without spreading her legs.
Evie got to me in a way I couldn’t quite understand.
A loud hiss tore me from sleep. I woke with a stiff neck, disoriented. Staring up at a high ceiling, it took me several moments to gather my bearings. When I sat up and my surroundings came into focus, I realized where I was. Xavier’s apartment.
