Wanted Always (Xander Barns) (16 page)

“Ugh!” I stumble to say anything, still in
shock over his beauty. And those gorgeous blue eyes I’m desperate to swim in…to
do anything with. “I um, I’m trying to calm her down.”

I kneel further down, his deep-blue eyes
turning furious. “Yes, but who are you, and why are you in my brother’s room?”

“Your brother is Xander?” I choke out,
blinking.

“Unfortunately!” he exclaims bitterly.
“Where is he?”

“The bedroom,” I choke out again; and as
he snaps to and heads towards the bedroom, I remember that Xander isn’t alone
in there. “Wait! He’s in there with someone.”

“Like I care,” he says, then kicks open
the bedroom door that had been shamelessly shut to give them privacy while I am
busy attending to Demetria, who is, again, not supposed to be my problem.
“Alexander! Alexander!” he hisses, on the verge of hostility. “Get up, you
fucking piece of…you’re nothing but trouble!”

“Liam!” I hear Xander gasp loudly.

“What?” Irina squeals in shock. “Why is
everyone ruining our privacy? Xander, what is this?”

“Alexander! Move – now!” Liam growls,
entering the bedroom. “Get out. Get the fuck out!”

“Why do I have to leave? I was here
first!” Irina whines. “This isn’t fair.”

“Who is that out there on the ground
crying her eyes out? What did you do now?” Liam growls.

I hear the bed squeak.

“I didn’t do anything,” Xander replies.
“I’m innocent.”

“Like you always are,” Liam growls,
unconvinced. “Why was I called by hotel security, complaining about another
disturbance coming from your room? I thought we talked about this? I thought
you said you were finished with this lifestyle?”

“I’ll do whatever I want, whenever I want,
big brother. There’s nothing you or that old man can say to stop me!” Xander
yells back rebelliously. “I’m not your little brother anymore; I can do
whatever I want. I can fuck whoever I want, and take whatever I want!”

Shit!

All of a sudden, Demetria stops crying.
She quickly wipes the tears off her face, smearing wet mascara marks across her
cheeks. She pulls herself up into a sitting position. My hands are still on her
arm from before.

“Get your disgusting hands off of me,” she
orders brashly, glaring at my hand on her with disgust. “How dare you put your
low-class hands on me; get them off of me or else I’ll sue!”

Um, excuse me?

As I pull my hands off her arm, she yanks
her arm away, snarling in the process. “Don’t you ever touch me again!”

She wipes the spot on her fur jacket where
I was trying to calm her down, as if it would be contaminated soon if she
doesn’t swipe away any of the germs I must have spread on her.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve,” I hiss at her
in disbelief. “I was trying to help your psycho, fucked–up, shitty ass.
Stupid!”

She gets up, holding on to the side table
next to the door for support. “I don’t need your help; I never asked for it
either! Why would I need your help? Who the hell are you? You’re a nobody!”

My eyes bulge.

“You’re crazy. You know that.” I tell her,
getting up. “Bat-shit status.”

She fumbles around in front of the mirror,
checking her reflection for any imperfections, even though her face is covered
in mascara and tears. “Call me that again and I’ll sue.” She turns around
abruptly and leaves the room.

“Hey!” I call out to her as she walks out
the door. “You can’t just leave; you made this mess!”

She shuts the door behind her.

“What’s going on out here?” Liam growls
from behind as I’m trying to go out and catch her. “Trying to leave without
anyone noticing? Where did that other one go?”

I’ve had enough of these ‘people’ thinking
they can talk to me like this. “First of all, don’t talk to me like that. I
don’t have to answer to you.”

His eyes glower, and I blink. “Oh really?”

“Yeah. I don’t owe you anything, or your
stupid, piece-of–shit, good-for–nothing-but-trouble brother,” I snap at him,
then take a huge breath before speaking again. “He’s been nothing but trouble
for me for the last twenty-four hours.”

Liam’s expression softens a little, amused
now. “He’s been nothing but trouble for you; yet you’re here…in his hotel
room…late at night?”

It sounds wrong. But he doesn’t know the
whole story. I had a debt to pay and I intended on paying it and moving on, forgetting
this horrible mess ever happened.

“There was a problem; he helped me out. I
owed him a debt; I’m here to pay that debt and get out,” I snap at Liam.
“Understand now?”

“Well, consider your debt paid. You can
get out now,” Liam snaps back. “A reminder: use your brain in the future before
you trust yourself with the likes of people like my brother.”

“I’m not leaving till I pay him back,” I
reply. “I promised him something, and I intend to keep that promise.”

“Oh really? Well, what promise is that?”
Liam asks snidely. “Come on, hurry up. I’ve got this mess to clean up.”

“I will,” I say, grinding my teeth at his
tone, but then remember that it is not something I want to share with him. “It
has to be done in private.”

His eyes widened. “Oh, I get it; one of
those kinds of deals. Well, I’m sorry; it seems someone else has beaten you to
it. It doesn’t seem like my brother will be in any kind of state to be
performing.”

Performing?

Oh my God, he thinks I’m here to sleep
with Xander.

“I’m not here to sleep him,” I gasp. “I
just have to give him something, that’s it.”

“Then give it to him and leave.” Liam
snaps impatiently. “I want this over with now; get to it before I call
security.”

The sound of high heels stomping against
the hardwood floors comes crashing out of the bedroom and into the living room.
Irina busts through, red-faced and furious.

“I can’t believe this!’ Irina exclaims in
disbelief. “Never in my life have I been treated like this!”

I try to hold back a smile. Liam scowls at
her. “Get out!”

“Don’t talk to me like that. I don’t know
who you think you are, but nobody talks to me like that,” Irina screeches.

A knock on the door interrupts her
power-speech.

“Thank God!” Liam exclaims, and then
shouts, “Come in.”

The door opens, and two large men wearing
dark blue security suits come in. “Mr. Barns, you called, sir?”

“Escort the blonde prostitute out,
please.” Liam orders in a surprisingly calm voice to his security guards.

Irina gasps in shock. “Fuck you! I’m not a
hooker!”

Liam doesn’t answer her, but jerks his
chin towards her, ordering his men, “Now!”

The security men quickly brush past me,
heading towards a now-frantic looking Irina.

“What?” Irina mutters confusedly, then
yells at the security guards who circle around her. “Don’t you dare touch me!”
They grab each of her arms as she flails her body hostilely. “Get your hands
off of me!”

Then, all in a blink of an eye, her
shoulders slump down as if she’s about to fall into a deep sleep. “What’s goin’
on…inside me…you did something to meh,” Irina slurs. “I’m sleepy.”

And with that, her entire body falls into
a slump over one of the security men’s shoulders. He picks her up.

My mouth drops in shock and I turn to
Liam. “What did you do to her?”

Liam glowers at me, but then ignores me
and turns to his security. “Take her to the other room; when she wakes up, take
her down to a taxi.”

The security guards nod and walk out with
Irina, snoring loudly on one of their shoulders.

“What are you guys going to do to her?” I
hiss in disbelief, but scared out of my mind.

Question: what the hell are they going to
do to me?

Seeing the alarm in my eyes, Liam’s eyes
soften. “Mind yourself and you shall not share a similar fate as the blonde
escort.”

“I don’t think she was an escort. I think
they were just having fun together, you know, mutually,” I hiss at him.

Xander walks out of the bedroom in a hotel
robe. He surprisingly has a huge smile on his face. “Well, that was fun!”

Liam glowers at me, and then out of
nowhere, he turns and punches Xander in the face…hard.

My mouth drops.

What?! I can’t believe he just did that!

“It’s time for you to learn your lesson,
little brother,” Liam states, cracking his knuckles. “You’ve got to learn once
and for all, and that time is right now.”

Chapter
Twelve

*Demetria*

I’ll show them!

Show them who they decided to mess with.

Then I’ll get Xander, and this time I’m
going to keep him forever.
I need to cool off before I do something…dangerous.

I pull out my phone, calling Mother.
“Where are you?” I snap at the receiver as soon as Mother picks up. “Pick me up
right now. Same place.”

I end the call and walk back to the place
they dropped me off. They’d better be there by the time I get back to Tim
Horton’s.

Or else, there will be hell to pay.

Chapter
Thirteen

*Marisa*

I can’t move. My legs are glued to the
floor as Liam’s fist meets Xander’s cheek. Xander yelps painfully in surprise
as Liam’s knuckles swipe deep into his skin.

“It’s time for you to learn your lesson,
little brother! Once and for all!” Liam growls at a bent-over Xander, who is
busy cradling the side of his face, moaning from the pain of Liam’s hard hit.

“Oh my God!” I yell at Liam, shocked. “You
just hit him!”

Liam looks up from Xander and stares at
me, his jaw clenched hard. “Stay out of it!”

Xander’s moans quickly turn into
battle–talk, “Yeah, Marisa, you stay out of this. My big bro and I, we’ve got
some business to work through.”

Xander lunges towards Liam, wrapping his
arms around his waist, knocking him to the floor. Liam’s arms are quick to
respond; he begins pounding on Xander’s back as the two begin this
wrestling/boxing thing on the floor beside the couches. My eyes widen as I
stare at the two brothers fighting violently. I don’t know what to do; I’ve
never had to break up a fight before, let alone between two giant beasts of
brothers.

“Stop it!” I march in front of them
wrestling on the ground; blood is spilling everywhere. “Stop it, you guys;
there has to be a better way. You’re grown men for crying out loud!”

They don’t stop. Xander punches Liam’s
side; a painful moan escapes Liam’s mouth as he moves over to the side to
escape Xander’s repeated hits.

Xander’s found his sweet spot. Liam’s side
must have hit the ground hard when Xander first attacked him. The fighting
doesn’t stop.

I don’t have this problem. I have a little
brother and sister who love each other. I’ve never had to deal with sibling
rivalry. Even being the fuck-up that I am, my siblings and I are cool.

How did these two get like this?

“Stop it!” I scream at them. I spin in
circles trying to find something in the expensive hotel room to stop them with.
My body stops when I notice the figurine that I had fought with Demetria over
sitting in the spot I returned it to. I run for it and grab it, then return to
the fighting duo, who don’t look like they’re going to lose steam any time
soon. I throw it to the ground right beside their bodies. The porcelain statue
breaks into a hundred little pieces. The sound echoing throughout the room is
enough to stall the fight for a moment.

“Stop fighting,” I demand, pointing my
index fingers at each of them as they struggle to catch their breaths. “Xander,
get your hands off him. That goes for you too, Liam!”

Using their shock to my advantage, and the
fact that they are no longer on top of each other throwing fists, I march in
between them. They can’t hit each other with me in between them.

I hope not at least.

“Move,” I order them. “Now!”

“He started it,” Xander whines, pushing
his body across the floor away from us. I stare at Liam’s face; his jawline is
badly bruised and bleeding. He grabs the side of his face and slowly gets up,
his eyes never leaving my stare. As he gets up fully, his shirt is completely
torn from the side, showcasing his six–pack of lightly-tanned abs. I briefly
glance at the bruised skin before looking back up at him. As if he’d noticed me
staring there, something in his eyes changes.

“Are you okay?” I whisper to him. His
deep-blue eyes stare into mine for a few seconds before he turns to a moaning
Xander on the ground.

“This was a warning; this shit better not
happen again!” Liam yells at Xander. He looks back at me briefly and marches
out of the room.

Okay, what the hell just happened?
Liam’s presence still lingers in the room
even though he left.

“I’m the one who was attacked, and you ask
him
if he’s okay? What about me?” Xander moans, still on his back on the
floor. I gaze down at his bruised face as he leans his body upwards into a
sitting position. Blood drips out of his nose, sliding down to his lips.

“I guess I’m not the only one,” I murmur.
Xander’s forehead creases as his eyes narrow at me in confusion.

“You’re the not only one what?” He hisses.
“Don’t tell me you’re on his side. You don’t even know him!”

“I know what it’s like to want to hit
you!” I snap at him. “I’ve had to deal with you for over twenty-four hours now,
and you’ve been nothing but a menace toward me. Laughing and giggling like
you’re so smart!”

“After all I’ve done for you?” Xander
belts back, trying to get up but struggling. The compassionate side of me wants
to help him, but the bitter side quickly side-sweeps that notion.

“Done for me?” I yell back in disbelief.
“I’ve been in constant pain since meeting you!”

He holds the side of his head; Liam’s
knuckle marks still visible. I hope that this makes Xander learn a valuable
lesson: not everything in life is funny, especially his tricks.

And he isn’t a misunderstood guy; he knows
what he was doing deliberately.

There is a knock on the door.

“Hello,” an unfamiliar voice calls from
the other side. “We’re coming in!”

The door opens, and three men in
power-suits walk in. Their expressions are worrisome as they eye the state of
the room.

The living room is a mess with couches out
of their planned positions, pillows thrown everywhere, broken figurine pieces
everywhere, and blood is sprinkled across the flooring.

The bill is going to be high.

“Mr. Barns, is everything okay?” One of
the suits asks as soon as they see his bruised and bloody face.

“We’ve received multiple calls for a loud
disturbance,” another man states in shock, as his eyes circle the room.

“Everything is fine,” Xander tells them
calmly. “There was just a little misunderstanding. All is alright now.”

Misunderstanding? How does trying to make
everyone out for a fool just so you can get your kicks on with blonde bitch a
misunderstanding? My eyes narrow at Xander’s explanation.

And Demetria? Try explaining that!

Xander walks over to the three that are
clearly in charge and begins whispering. They nod their heads and quickly
vacate the room. Much to my shock.

“What? Where are they going?” I ask, as
they leave without another word. “How did you do that? Really! How did you?”

A knowing smile breaks across Xander’s
face as he turns back to face me. “Because, like I said, I get what I want. And
you and I have some business that we need to take care of first.”

Oh really? He thinks he’s a big man now.

“First of all, stop staring at me like
that,” I snap at him. “And don’t you worry, I haven’t forgotten, and would have
gladly fixed this whole thing with you way before all this shit—that you
caused—happened.”

I search the room for my thong, looking at
the coffee table where I had put it last. It’s not there. It must have fallen
down during the fight, so I walk around the couches.

“You’re not going to give it to me fresh?
That wasn’t part of our deal.” He walks toward me, now, in just his black
boxers, having taken off his robe. Despite his face being bruised, his body is
perfect. I try not to gape, not wanting to give him any ideas about where we
are never going to go; that ship sailed when I found out who he really is.

Panty-fetish boys, not my thing!

“I came to do that, but you were busy
fucking Irina! What was I supposed to do, interrupt you guys? Erm, excuse me?
Uh, Xander, I know you’re busy drilling this bitch, but can you just take a
five-second breather, and come out here so I can take off my panties for you
like a stripper would?’”

“Honestly, yes,” Xander says back calmly.

“You can go fuck yourself; that would have
never happened. Not even if I owed you a billion dollars. There’s no way I
would ever walk in on you doing the nasty with that skank ass!” I snap at him.

“How I love it when you use that tone on
me,” he whispers lustfully. My eyes roll as I look away, not wanting to give
him the satisfaction of knowing he is annoying me again. I get down on my knees
to search underneath the couch. My hand creeps underneath and stops when it
feels fabric and plastic. The plastic bag must have fallen underneath with the
thong while the boys were fighting all over the living room. I grab both and
pull them out.

“Found it, thank God,” I state in relief.
“Now, I’m done.”

“You’re not done,” Xander says as I get
back up. “Far from it, actually.”

“Go fuck yourself. I’m as done as done can
be,” I tell him sternly. “Especially with the likes of you!”

There’s a knock on the door.

What now? I look back at him. “What now?
Is there someone else out there that you’ve screwed and now they want revenge?
Tell me right now, because I’m going to need the energy that I’ve been holding
out on reserve so I can snap at your ass!”

Xander looks away as if he’s innocent. “I
have no idea what you are talking about.”

He walks over to the door and opens it.

“Yeah, I bet you don’t!” I snap at him, as
a beautiful, tall brunette walks inside.

“Melania!” Xander whispers in relief. “It’s
about time you showed up!” Melania giggles as she hugs Xander. He presses his
lips to her neck and whispers something; her face turns crimson as she bites
her lip.

Obviously dirty.

“Go to the bedroom; I’ll be right there,”
Xander tells her. She nods and walks to the bedroom while swaying her hips and
paying no attention to me.

Hello, I’m here too, bitch!

I turn back to Xander, who has his usual
Xander-twinkle back in his eyes.

“Well, it looks like you have company.
When did you arrange that? I doubt Irina would have been okay with a threesome,
seeing how she reacted to Demetria and me,” I confront him warily.

“Melania was an afterthought when Irina
was about to leave. I couldn’t just let the night go to waste, especially with
the present I’ve been waiting for all day. And knowing how up and down you are,
I wasn’t sure if you’d want to play,” Xander explained.

I jerk my head back in astonishment. “How
‘up and down’ I’ve been? I’ve never given you any indication that I’d be
willing to play in that shit you like!”

Xander’s eyes move down to my hands where
I’m holding the thong and blue plastic bag containing his real present…well, my
revenge actually.

“I’m waiting; are you going to give me
what you owe, or do I have to come and get it from you?” Xander asks sternly.

Now that he has company, I’m not sure if I
want to subject her to the grossness that is in this bag. But then again, she
did walk past me, totally ignoring me like I’m nothing. So I say, fuck that
bitch; she deserves a nice wake-up call for agreeing to hang out with Xander.

I walk up to him and hold out the thong.
“There you go. Take it; it’s all yours.”

Xander takes the thong out of my hands but
eyes the blue bag. “What’s in there?”

I look at the blue bag and then look back
at him. “It’s another present I have for you, you know, to say thank you. But
now I’m thinking you don’t really deserve it.”

His eyes widen. “Another present?” he
whispers in shock.

I nod. “I don’t know if I want to give it
to you now.”

“What is it?” Xander asks.

“Something I know you’ll love,” I tell
him. “Something you’ll have a lot of fun playing with.”

Something in his eyes changes,
determination maybe. “I want it. It was for me from the beginning, so you
should give it to me.”

“I don’t know; you’ve been very bad. I’m
not sure you deserve it,” I tell him as if he’s a five year old.

“Give me! Give me!” he begs. “It’s mine.”

“Oh alright.” Pretending to concede, I
hold out the bag to him. He snatches it out of my hands. “Alright, I’m going
now.”

“Alright,” Xander says while staring at
the bag, transfixed with what possibly could be inside, considering I told him
it is something he’ll love.

A small lie?

A half-truth.

Sweet revenge that I’ll relish in. I walk
to the front door but stop before opening it. I turn back to see him still
eyeing the bag as if it’s gold. “Remember this: if you want to have even more
fun, get your new plaything to open it first. It’ll make things more…
exciting
!”
I tell him lustfully, and his eyes snap up and narrow.

“Goodbye, Xander,” I tell him, opening the
door. He doesn’t say “bye” back as I leave; instead, I hear him run to the
bedroom. “Baby, tonight is going to be the craziest night you’ll ever have.”

I wait in the hallway for a few seconds
before hearing a disgusted scream, “Ewww!”

I laugh and run for the elevators, pushing
the button. Luckily, the doors open and I get in quickly. I push the button for
the ground level, and then repeatedly hit the one to close the doors. I hear
the room door open and footsteps running out. “Marisa!” Xander yells.