Ten Thousand Words (33 page)

As we waited for my food to show up, Xanthe sat quietly, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose and gazing out the window. I wished I had my camera with me. I was going to spend a lot of time capturing her daily life.

“Do you like working at the bookstore?” I asked her.

She looked at me in surprise. “I do. Why?”

“I thought it might get boring.”

“Not really. Mostly, I write when I’m there. Or read. Aunt Ellen is a trip, so she’s happy to provide entertainment if needed.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I can totally see that.”

“She really enjoyed spending time with you,” she said, a sweet smile turning up the corners of her mouth.

“I did, too.”

Once more, she grew silent, internalizing. When the food showed up, I spent most of the time watching her. After I finished and paid, we headed back outside, and she slipped her hand into mine.

“I’m going to head home,” she said.

“Will you at least let me walk you?”

“Sure.”

Again with the silence. What had once been comfortable now had me squirming inside.

What is she thinking? Is she regretting giving in to me? Is she still worried about Bianca and Gabby?

After a few minutes, I couldn’t take it anymore. “What’s going on with you, Xanthe?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been very quiet tonight.”

She sighed. “Just trying to take it all in, I guess.”

“How so?”

“Well, I haven’t been in a relationship for a long time. When you left before, I thought it was a sign that maybe I wasn’t cut out for one.”

I found it hard to swallow. “Why would you think that?”

She looked up at me. “Because my first boyfriend ended up gay. The second…he wasn’t really ever a boyfriend in the normal sense, and you—”

“Won’t leave you alone?”

“Left me high and dry after twelve hours of being in a relationship with me.”

“Yeah, I guess that would do it. You know I’ll never do that again, right?”

“It’s what I’m hoping.”

That hit me deep, somewhere below my heart. “I know you’re not one to think this way, but if I could go back and change it, I would. If I had just let myself calm down before making any rash decisions, I would have seen the situation for what it was. I won’t make that mistake again.”

“Okay.”

Her fingers squeezed mine, sending a flood of relief through me.

“If I could go back and tell you sooner…I would,” she confessed. “I regret that.”

For Xanthe, admitting that was huge.

“So…can we just wipe the slate clean? Just give each other the benefit of the doubt?” I asked.

She nodded. “All right.”

I stopped walking and pulled her into my arms. The feel of her, the warm scent of her…I was in heaven. It was so natural to press my mouth to hers. Xanthe molded herself into me, parting her lips, allowing me to deepen the kiss. She tasted sugary, laced with caffeine and the promise of amazing sex.

My hands slid up her back, her neck, to tug down her hair and bury my fingers in it. She moaned, and I was a goner. She was so fucking sexy. Blood rushed into my cock and strained against my jeans. Here I was, a grown man standing in the street with a boner.

Gasping for breath, I pulled back, nearly dizzy from that kiss—or loss of blood to my brain. Looking down onto her heart-shaped face, I could see she was just as effected. Her eyelids were heavy, her cheeks the prettiest shade of pink. She made to step back, but I slipped my arm around her waist and pulled her in tight.

“Don’t move yet.”

“Wha—” Her eyes grew wide. “Oh. Yeah, all right.”

I grinned. She giggled, and my dick twitched. That just made her laugh even more. It was music to my ears, hearing her carefree laughter. I had missed it to my soul.

“How long is it going to take before it goes down?” She snickered.

“I don’t know. Holding you isn’t helping.”

“We’re not too far from my house.”

I glanced over her head. “And there’s no one walking this way.”

“We’ll be there in less than two minutes.”

“Let’s do it.”

Xanthe and Rex’s home was in an old building, tall and narrow, like all the other houses packed in together along this strip.

Walking her to the door as she fished out her keys, I was going to beg her to let me inside. My knees were preparing to kiss the ground. I needed to touch her, hold her, taste her, and smell her more than I already had today.

“Do you want to come in?” she asked, her voice husky and shy.

Thank you, God!

“Yes.” That had come out a little more forceful than I meant it to.

She opened the door, and I was engulfed in a warm cloud of Xanthe-scented air. I groaned in my chest, filling myself up with her spicy goodness.

“Hey, Beefcake,” she said as she squatted down, leaving me just enough room to get in behind her and close the door. When she stood back up, she started shrugging out of her jacket, unwrapping her scarf, and kicking off her shoes.

I did the same. She took my jacket and my scarf and hung them on the coat tree next to the door. Then, I grabbed her and pinned her to the wall, slamming my mouth down on hers and grinding between her legs.

“Argh!” I cried out as my calf blazed with searing hot pain. “What the fuck?”

Beefcake
really did not like me. And he
really
did not like me manhandling Xanthe. That fat orange motherfucker had sunk his claws into me.

“Fuck me running!” I hissed, not knowing what to do. I seriously doubted my woman would appreciate me kicking her cat off.

“Don’t touch him! He might bite you.” She stooped down and removed Beefcake’s claws from my flesh. “Oh, damn. I think you’re bleeding.”

She cradled my attempted-executioner in her arms, and his evil yellow eyes narrowed at me.

Motherfucker!
He was purring, too!

Well, that had certainly taken care of my hard-on. It was rapidly deflating, and I was able to follow her back to the living space where she dropped Beefcake on the couch.

“Come on, we need to get that cleaned up.”

“He’s evil.”

“He saw…” She blushed and looked away. “He stayed by me until Jaime and Lilla showed up. I think big men around me make him nervous, except for Rex.”

I found I had a completely new respect for Beefcake. “I’m sorry,” I told her.

“No need to apologize. I liked it.”

I looked down at Beefcake. “Sorry, little man.”

The cat settled into the couch.

“Follow me,” she said. She led me up two winding flights of stairs.

“Where are we going?”

“My room and bathroom are all the way up top. I’ve got Band-Aids and antiseptic.”

Now, I was getting excited. I was going to see where Xanthe slept. If I were lucky, I’d be in her bed, on her, and I wouldn’t be leaving until morning.

She said we’re not having sex.

We could do a lot more than sex.

The door to her room was cracked wide enough to fit a fat orange assassin. She pushed it open and flicked on the light switch, showing me her private domain.

Large windows with sheer cream drapes opened to the back garden and the houses beyond. She had a big desk with a computer and accumulated things that looked like organized chaos. Picture frames along with some posters of classic paintings decorated the walls. A massive bookshelf took up the wall to the left while a large bed in a wooden frame and headboard were to the right. The bedspread was a simple dark green.

Xanthe headed into the bathroom on the right side. “Coming?”

Rummaging around in a cabinet beneath the sink, she pulled out some containers. It was a small bathroom. A shower cabinet stood in the far corner, and I doubted the two of us would be able to fit in there.

“Pull up your pant leg,” she told me, placing a bottle of antiseptic, a tube of cream, and bandages on the counter.

Bending down, I tried to pull the cuff up, but the denim was too tight to get very far. So, I straightened up and began unbuckling my belt instead, watching her face as I did so. A blush crept into her cheeks, and her eyes grew wide.

“It’s nothing you haven’t seen before,” I told her.

“I know.”

Grinning, I stripped out of my pants and tossed them on a towel rack. Xanthe got down on her knees beside me and checked over the damage.

“It’s not too deep,” she said, reaching for the antiseptic. “I’m sorry. I should have mentioned that he’s a little protective.”

I couldn’t care less. My brain was entertaining me with all sorts of things that Xanthe could do to me while she was on her knees. My cock was swelling once more.

“Jeez, man,” she said, eyeing my groin. “Are you a pain junkie?”

Fuck me.
“Only if you’re the one delivering it.”

“Hmm. I’ll keep that in mind.”

The antiseptic stung, but the cream soothed, and she bandaged up the punctures. By the time she stood back up, I was panting and desperate to rub myself all over her.

“Love—”

“We can’t have sex tonight,” she said sternly.

“Why not?” Shit, I was going to beg.

“I’ve got my period.”

Oh.
I eyeballed the shower, wondering if maybe we
could
fit—

“No!” she told me, her tone telling me it wasn’t an option.

“Don’t make me go home,” I said. “I just got mauled by a cat named Beefcake. I’m feeling vulnerable, and I need skin-on-skin contact to make it better.”

“Pfft.”

Heading into the bedroom, she had a smirk on her face. That was good enough for me. I checked around for the furry assassin. I didn’t see him, so I tackled her facedown onto the bed.

“Ah!” she squeaked.

Slipping my fingers through her hair at the back of her head, I fisted my hand and angled her face to the side.

“I want to be inside you so bad, woman,” I whispered in her ear, grinding my throbbing groin into her bottom. “You’ve totally fucked with my head.”

“You could always go back to Gabriella,” she said.

“No, I couldn’t,” I replied, feeling a spark of irritation. Sitting back, I delivered a hard smack to her arse. “You’ve ruined all other women for me.” I smacked it again for good measure. “Take off your pants.”

“What? No!”

Another smack. That one made my hand sting. She gasped and wiggled her bum.

“Get off me then!” she said hotly.

Untangling my fist from her hair, I swung myself over her thighs, allowing her to get up. She hesitated, and I knew she was embarrassed. It was something she’d have to get over. I wasn’t going anywhere, no matter what time of the month it was.

“I don’t care,” I told her. “It doesn’t bother me.”

“It bothers
me
,” she said, glaring.

“Well, get over it,” I told her, unbuttoning my shirt. “I want to feel as much of you as I can get.”

Huffing with exasperation, she undid her jeans and kicked them off. She was wearing those plain black cotton panties I adored, and I didn’t see any evidence of a pad.

Good.
I’d be able to touch her if she was wearing a tampon.

Sitting before her, legs spread, feet on the floor, resting back on my elbows, I demanded, “The rest.”

She crossed her arms over her chest in an effort to have some control in the situation.

“Love…” I said warningly.

She sighed. “I’m not sure I want to.”

“Why not?”

She took off her glasses and set them down on the nightstand next to the bed. “Because…”

I sat up and reached out, grasping her hips and pulling her close. Nudging up her shirt with my nose, I pressed a soft kiss to her belly.

“Xanthe, you are, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman I have ever known.” My hands slid up her back, caressing her silky skin, and I rubbed my fuzzy face over her midriff. “I spend every waking moment fantasizing about all the things I want to do with you. And I promise you, it’s not all sex.”

Her fingers threaded through my hair, cradling my head to her warmth. I breathed her into me and held her in my lungs.

“I’ve never felt this for anyone,” I confessed to her. “It’s so fucking foreign and so right all at once.”

Her left hand slipped down from my hair to my face, and she pulled her fingertips through my beard, reaching the skin. Goose bumps shivered over my flesh as I closed my eyes. Her heartbeat pulsed against me, my own heart skipping a beat to match hers. Then, her hands left me, and she pulled her shirt over her head. My hands went to the catch of her bra and unhooked it. She slid the straps off her shoulders and tossed the bra aside, all with my face pressed against her.

“All right,” she said, her voice soft and soothing.

Lying back, I pulled her on top of me, her breasts on my chest, her face just inches above mine. My vision filled with hazel, pink, and auburn, colors of autumn. I couldn’t breathe around her beauty. It knocked the air from me.

Her hands came up to hold my face while mine went straight into her hair. I pulled her face toward me and fused our mouths with a kiss. Her tongue stroked against mine, just the perfect amount of pressure and teasing to drive me mindless.

My hands went to her arse, and her thighs parted slightly, embracing my aching cock in her heat. Dragging her along my length, I arched up, squeezing her arse hard.

Xanthe gasped and pushed back, so I rolled her onto her back, trapping her.

“Don’t pull away from me anymore,” I harshly told her. “I hold nothing back from you. Don’t fucking do that.”

She swallowed audibly but nodded her head. “I won’t,” she whispered.

Grinding hard against her, I told her, “All of you is mine. Whatever you’re insecure or embarrassed about, it’s all mine, and I can’t get enough of any of it.”

I slipped my right hand between our bodies, touching her most tender place, and she was burning hot there. Her eyes closed, and her cheeks stained a brilliant red, but she let me. Shifting my weight to one side, I pulled her with me so that we were lying face-to-face on our sides. I put my hand between her legs once more, rubbing slow circles into her clit through her panties.

“Did you share this with anyone else since you last gave it to me?” I demanded, sounding angry as fuck.