“Not personally, but she’s a friend of a friend, and I’ve seen her around a few times,” Xavier said with a shrug. “Luca mentioned she was supposed to be shooting a Delamonte campaign in Europe this week, but I guess not.”
“Ah.”
His eyebrows arched. “What happened? Did the meeting not go well?”
“It went fine.” I stared at my screen, willing myself to get over whatever was roiling in my stomach. “She’s great. Obviously. Since she’s the first thing you mentioned when you walked in.”
Silence greeted my curt response.
When I looked up again, Xavier wasn’t staring at me in shock like I’d expected. The bastard was laughing.
Great, rolling waves of silent laughter shook his body and sent a rush of heat to my cheeks.
“Luna.” Mirth gleamed in his eyes. “Are you jealous?”
“No,” I snapped. “It was merely an observation.”
I returned to my screen and glared at the lines of text until they blurred. Prickles bloomed behind my nose and eyes.
It was stupid and irrational because I didn’t really think Xavier was interested in Ayana, but I couldn’t fix the valve leaking inside me. The one that held back a flood of insecurity, which I thought I’d turned off until little moments like this dripped self-doubt into my stomach.
Too cold. Too dispassionate. Too unlovable.
Xavier was the opposite of me—full of warmth, easy to like, and a charmer at his core. He’d been honest and committed since we’d started dating, but a part of me was waiting for him to run.
One day, he’d wake up and realize I wasn’t the person he wanted me to be, and he’d leave.
“Sloane.” He didn’t sound amused anymore. Soft footsteps preceded the clean scent of his cologne; firm hands turned me around. “Look at me.”
I fixated stubbornly on his neck. One of his tattoos peeked from beneath his sweater, and it was the only thing that kept me from falling apart.
What the hell happened? One second, I was working and smiling so much I scared Jillian. The next, I was on the verge of a breakdown over a man.
Past me was disgusted with myself, but past me didn’t know what current me knew: this trial period I’d proposed had backfired spectacularly.
I’d thought we could have fun for two months and say we tried. I’d thought I could walk away at the end of this and be okay.
But I couldn’t. Not when jealousy gnawed through my insides at the mere thought of Xavier with someone else.
“Look at me.” Fingers grasped my chin and notched it up. Xavier’s eyes bored into mine, stripping me bare. “You have nothing to be jealous of. I mentioned Ayana because I was just talking to Luca and that was at the top of my mind. It doesn’t have anything to do with how I feel toward her because I don’t feel anything.”
“She’s a supermodel. Everyone feels something toward her.”
“I don’t,” he said. “I don’t care how beautiful or famous someone is, Luna. None of them hold a candle to you.”
If he were anyone else, I would’ve dismissed his reassurance as empty words. But this was Xavier, and because it was Xavier, his reply had the effect of a thousand fluttering wings. Their velvety tips brushed my heart, sealing the leak and soaking up the insecurities.
I managed a smile over the steel drum of my heart. “You always know what to say.”
“It’s easy when it’s the truth. Now…” He leaned down and gave me a soft, lingering kiss. He tasted like coffee and warmth. “That’s a proper hello.”
I laughed, my skin tingling from either our kiss, the end of our previous conversation, or both. I was a bit embarrassed by my uncharacteristic outburst of jealousy, but I was too pleased to see him to care.
“Do we have a meeting today?” I asked, trying to shift back into work mode. “I thought we were going to talk on the phone.”
Xavier had said he had a plan for getting Vuk to sign on as his business partner without a location first, and he wanted to run it by me.
“We don’t, and we were. But I’m not here for business. I’m here to see you.” Xavier nodded at the coffee cup he’d set on my desk. “Black, no sugar.”
I took a sip and narrowed my eyes at him over the rim. “I have a lot of work to catch up on.”
I’d been so distracted since we started dating that I wasn’t ahead by two weeks like I usually was. I was on schedule, which was unacceptable.
“It’s lunchtime, and Jillian said you don’t have any meetings until two.”
“Jillian needs to stop telling you my schedule, and I’m not hungry.”
“No.” Xavier’s voice turned to silk. “But I am.”
I didn’t get a chance to react before he picked me up and set me on the desk in one smooth, swift motion. He shoved my skirt up around my hips and slipped his thumb beneath the edge of my underwear to find me already slick and wanting.
“Xavier,” I hissed, glancing behind me at the unlocked door. “Someone will hear.”
Despite my protest, my clit throbbed with need. Heat gathered like a firestorm in my lungs as those strong, deft hands caressed me, molding to my hips and thighs, stoking the fires higher and hotter until they incinerated my reservations.
“Good.” Xavier sank to his knees and pushed my knees wider, granting him an unfettered view of my soaked arousal. His eyes gleamed up at me, dark and bright as volcanic glass. “Then they’ll know exactly who you belong to.”
A humiliating little whimper left my mouth when he bent his head and closed his teeth around delicate silk. A woozy, breathless second of anticipation sent my pulse skyrocketing, followed by something between a cry and a gasp when he ripped my underwear off and dived in.
