What happened the last time we laid on this bed together is what started the fucking downward spiral in the first place.
I breathe her in, the sweet smell of coconut wafting under my nose as her breathing finally settles.
“Xander, what does this mean?” she murmurs with a loud sniffle. “Why did he mention Andrew? How could he have known?”
I shake my head, my jaw twitching when I think of all the ways I’m gonna make Lorenzo remember once and for all who the fuck owns him. Spoiler…it ain’t Moretti and his asshole crew.
It’s the Iazettis.
“I don’t know, babe.” I stroke her hair, smoothing it away from her face. “I mean, it’s public record. If he’s got some beef with your dad, it’s easy enough to dig up information to use that’ll scare you. And him.”
“Do you really think his issue is with my father?”
“Why else would he be coming after you?” I ask the question, knowing full well that there’s another glaring reason why and it’s currently stroking her back.
Fuck.
“I don’t know. I mean, I was away from here for a long time. It was much easier to get to me in London without my security all over the place. Everyone knew I was away. Why is he doing this now?”
A loud pinging sound blares out and I grab my phone, trying to come up with a response for her. My eyes narrow at the screen. It’s a message from Dad.
I need you to get to my office. Now.
I roll my eyes. My father just got back to town from his business trip and all of a sudden, he needs to see me? Fucking Jase must have alerted him about something I dropped the ball on. He just can’t wait to take every opportunity to tear me down, especially after seeing how Phoenix chose me to help him with—
Shit. This is about the other night when Phoenix asked me to help him corner Lorenzo after Scarface stalked me and Charlotte at the beach and me casually choosing Charlotte over my family obligations.
I ignore the text and shift on the bed, wondering what kind of bullshit I can make sound the least bit plausible for her inquiring mind while I figure out how to defend my actions to my father. “Maybe because he proved he can get to you right under your controlling asshole of a father’s nose and that was more of a win for him?” I wait, holding my breath. It sounded pretty convincing, but is it enough for Charlotte?
“He obviously has no idea that my father doesn’t give a damn about me, whether I’m in London or Ridgeview,” she mutters. “So if he’s trying to use me to scare big bad Charles, he should know that my father already lost the kid he cared about.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, gritting my teeth. That motherfucker. He’s really the one I want to tear apart limb by limb.
I’ll have to circle back to him after I figure all of this other shit out.
Other shit meaning…is it really me who put Char in Scarface’s path?
Did I almost lose the girl I love for the second time because of my own dumbass decisions?
My phone pings again with another angry text, and I ignore it for the second time. He is seriously going to kick my ass when he sees me, but I can’t leave her.
Now or ever.
She pulls herself up onto her knees so that she can see my face and I sure as hell hope she can’t read my expression right now. I let her down too many times before. I can’t do it again. I won’t. I’ll protect her with everything I have.
No matter what.
She places her hands on my shoulders and straddles me, pressing herself against my chest. “You’re the only person I trust, Xan. The only person I wanted to see after the accident, the only one I want to be around, the only one I want to…” Her lips quiver. “The only one I want, period,” she whispers.
I cup the sides of her face and lean my forehead against hers. “You’re the only one I want,” I say, my voice cracking the slightest bit. “You’ve always been that person, Char.”
“I want to believe that,” she whispers, tears streaming down her face. “I need to, because there is nothing else in this world that can make me as happy as you do. And for as much as you’ve hurt me, I can’t pull myself away from you. That makes me a real glutton for punishment,” she says with a sniffle-snicker.
“I was an asshole when you got back.”
“You were an asshole before I left,” she corrects.
I smirk. “Okay, fine. I have been an asshole for a long time. And I’m sorry. I made bad choices, and I regret them more than you know. But I’m going to make them all up to you. I know what I want, Char. It’s you. It’s always been you. Even when I hated you, I fucking loved you.”
“Same,” she says, hugging her arms around my neck.
When the third ping makes my spine stiffen, Charlotte pulls away slightly. “Who’s so desperate to talk to you? Those schmucks you call friends? Dipshits one and two?”
I snicker. “Nah. Not after the pickup game we just played.”
“You beat their perfectly coiffed little asses and now they’re pissed off and want a rematch?”
“Well, the beating part is true.” I run a hand through my hair. “But that’s not all. Chase was laying into me pretty hard about…stuff.”
Charlotte cocks an eyebrow. “Care to elaborate?”
“Nothing you need to worry about. Just things he doesn’t understand. Things that help keep order.” I shrug. “And since I don’t like to be questioned about the way I deal with those things, especially when they are none of anyone’s business, I took off.”
“That sounds familiar,” she muses, tapping a finger to her cheek, the corners of her lips quirking upward. “Xander hears something he doesn’t like. Xander gets angry. Xander storms away because he bottles shit inside and can’t have a conversation without erupting like a soda can that’s been shaken.”
“I’m not that way with you anymore.”
“Hence, the reason why I can joke with you about it.” Her expression sobers. “But you really need to temper that whole thing. It’s not healthy to let things fester. They eat you alive after a while.”
“That’s a little like the pot calling the kettle black, yeah?” I ask, twisting a strand of her hair around my finger.
“No, see I wanted to tell you all of those things, but you blocked my number,” she teases. “I was very comfortable with telling you what a complete jackass you were.”
“Yes, I remember hearing that a few times over the past few weeks.” I drop a kiss onto her nose. “I’m so glad you feel healthier now that you’ve told me what you’ve thought of me over the past couple of years.”
“I feel like a new woman.” She giggles, the sound dying on her lips a few seconds later. “So if it wasn’t Chase and Asher, who keeps texting you? Your brothers?”
I shake my head. “My dad.”
“And you’re avoiding him because…?”
“Because I don’t want to hear what he has to say.”
“What if it’s not what you think?”
I lift an eyebrow. “If it’s not what I think, it can only be worse, and that’s more of a reason to stay away.”
“I think you need to go to him.”