Wrecked (The Blackened Window) (14 page)

That answers that question—he hadn’t told them much.
Since my internal editing mechanism clearly was broken, I blurted out, “Oh, we’ve had some time alone.”

Jason and Christy cracked up and we wrapped up the conversation, but not before Christy and I made plans for lunch together soon.

Friday afternoon seemed to go quickly, but came to an abrupt halt in my histology lab, when those dumb bitches came over to bother me again. Stacy and Barbie sat at the same lab bench as me, and after a while, Stacy leaned over to me.

“You know, everyone knows what is happening with you and Xander,” she said with a sneer.

“I highly,
highly
, doubt that, Stacy. But how about you tell me what ‘everyone’ thinks is happening, just for shits and giggles.” As much as it was bitchy bullshit, I was actually so amused by the thought of what people might think was happening compared with what I knew was actually happening that I wasn’t just going to tell her to fuck herself. I wondered what it would be like if everyone really did know what was happening, that he wanted to control me and, to my own shock, I was opening up to the idea and letting him.

“Well, everyone knows you two are sleeping together and you barely know him!”

For the first time, I heard a note of whining in her voice.
Does she want him? Oh that would be too easy
.

“Oh, honey,” I said with sugary-sweet sarcastic sympathy in my voice, “I haven’t slept with him. He’s just friendly. But who knows? Maybe that’s the direction we’re going in. From our conversations, he doesn’t seem
at all
interested in anyone else here.”

Her jaw dropped as her eyes hardened.

I added, just for spite, “But hey, thanks for letting me know the way people gossip here. I’ll make sure Xander knows how worried you were about our reps.”

I was done talking with her, but I refused to flinch so I went back to studying, looking at slides. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her and Barbie whispering together. Stacy looked furious and worried, even as I heard her mutter ‘slut’ as she walked by me.

I made a mental note to talk with Xander about her, wondering if he would be as amused as I was, or maybe just pissed off, wondering if he knew her very well.

Chapter Thirteen

Xander

Ladytron,
Destroy Everything You Touch

I had looked for Leda all day at school but never found her. I did, however, find Stacy.

“Hi, A—Xander.” She saw me start to get totally pissed and watched what she said. She recovered quickly, saying, “Hey, what are you doing tonight? My dad’s in town. I’m sure he’d love to see you.”

God, this bitch is twisted. Maybe it is time to really put the kibosh on this shit.

“I have a date tonight. With Leda. And are you fucking kidding me right now?” I grabbed her upper arm and pulled her into an empty room. “Stacy, what the fuck is wrong with you? Your dad doesn’t ever want to see me again.” Tears welled up in her big brown eyes and my anger lost some of its heat. “Why’d you come here for med school, Stacy?”

Her tears stilled, unshed, and she pulled away from me, defiance in the set of her features. “I came here to be a doctor.” She dropped her head for a moment. “I came
here
to be with you. We should be together. We’re the only ones who know what it was like.” She shrugged, the tears now dried, her face blank.

“Stacy. Maybe that’s the exact reason we shouldn’t be together.” My voice was full of pity and not a small amount of regret as I walked out of the room.

I got home about an hour before Leda was supposed to pick me up. Each time I thought of that, the Dom in me kind of growled and I laughed at myself. It was a role reversal, I knew that. But I also knew that I was humoring her. It was only happening because I was allowing it. It wouldn’t change the dynamic between us, wouldn’t change what I wanted.

She sent me a text at about six forty-five and I made my way downstairs to wait for her. The air was still humid and I rolled my sleeves up while I waited. She pulled up in a white Jetta. Just cuteness.

She got out of the car as I was walking toward her and opened the fucking door for me.
Nope.
I kissed her and said, “You may be planning things tonight, but you’re still a lady and I’m still a gentleman.” I put my hand on the small of her back and guided her around to the driver’s side. She looked sweet in a short, light-weight white summery dress and cute, but excessively tall yellow sandals. Her hair was loose and a little wild. Beautiful.

“
Gentle
man? I don’t think that is the right word, but I got it, Boss.” The whole ‘gentleman who isn’t necessarily a gentle man’ was an old joke in the BDSM community and I was amused by it all over again, knowing that she had gotten there on her own. But my hope was that maybe she really would understand now. The small things matter. I tucked her into the driver’s seat and chuckled to myself, enjoying the moment as I walked around the car.

Once I folded myself in half to get in her car, I asked, “Where are we going tonight, baby girl?” I smiled, but I was ready to be in control again.

She fucking smirked at me and said, “I’m not telling you. You just need to know that we’ll have fun. How’s that?”

I wanted to tie her up and tickle her till she gave in.
How’s that? Not nearly good enough.
“Allll riiiight.” I kept my smile on because it was hard to be growly when she was having this much fun.

“We’re going to Jason’s place first, for a few drinks and just relaxing. Our dinner reservation is at nine.”

A late night planned. I liked it. In DC, we often ate really late when Dad would be done at the office. It was a sort of luxury thing to me. No one ever wanted to eat that late with me, but I liked that it felt like you could linger over the meal and not have to worry about getting somewhere else.

We got to the bar and she took my parking spot in back. Inside, it wasn’t busy this early, but Frank was behind the bar and I gave him a nod. We sat in the same booth and she wouldn’t let me get the drinks. When she got up to get some drinks from the bar, she waved me back toward her as she walked into the little game room. She wanted to play darts.

She was surprisingly competitive, talking a bunch of shit. It was like hanging out with Jason and Christy, plus sexiness. It was a pleasant surprise for those two things to go together. A cat-call whistle across the bar drew our attention and Christy was standing there. She must have had the night off. She laughed as she walked over to us. “You two are having too much fun.”

About ten minutes later, Jason joined us, coming out of the office. He looked at Christy with his usual talking—shit smile on his face. “So, has anyone burst into flames?”

Christy shook her head and I thought very seriously about slashing his tires.

He turned to Leda, adding, “I know we said we wouldn’t intrude.”

They knew about the Sadie-Hawkins date we were having? And didn’t tell me. Those little fucks.

“But I just wanted to see this uptight asshole not in complete control of every little thing.” He turned to me, a genuine smile on his face, “It looks good on you, man.”

I smiled back at him and shook his hand. “What are you two doing tonight?”

He smiled like a total pervert and said, “I don’t know, maybe we’ll just go home early and entertain ourselves.” He goosed Christy and she giggled.

Fucking exhibitionists.

Once we finished our game of darts, we sat at the bar, talking with Jason, Christy and Frank about the stupid inconsequential shit that friends talked about. Leda fit right in and I kept catching myself getting comfortable with her in my world. I loved it and it scared the shit out of me.

Dinner was at Soona Mee, a great upscale Japanese restaurant and I knew that Jason and Christy had given her help. They didn’t really like sushi and would have recommended it because I do. I smiled as we sat down.

She ordered a bottle of prosecco, which was a refreshing start to the meal. I asked about her last few days and she asked about mine. And it felt just right, like we had been together for a long time and we still wanted to be together. She looked like she wanted to talk about something, but we were interrupted by a voice I didn’t want to hear.

“Xander! Hello.”

Stacy was walking across the restaurant.
Did she fucking find out where we were going? Too much of a coincidence.
She leaned across the table, nearly falling out of her dress and air-kissed my cheeks.
I hate that shit and she knows it.

“Hello, Stacy. How are you? Have you met Leda? She’s in your class.” Too long in Washington to not know how to surface-fake a greeting while making it clear I was pissed at her.

I knew she knew it, but she ignored it and answered, “Yes, we’ve met briefly. Leda, how are you?”

Leda didn’t know the game and looked at her blankly.

Stacy’s lips twitched in triumph as she turned back to me. “Are you going back home for the fundraiser? It’s not ideally what I’d like to do on New Year’s Eve, but I think I’m gonna go anyway. Maybe we can travel together.”

“I don’t think I’m going. Focusing on studies and all,” I lied to her, just wanting to get her off my scent. And the dismissive way she looked at Leda pissed me off. I looked past her and saw her dad, scowling in my direction. Just to fuck with her, I added, “Is that your dad? How is the Congressman doing?”

She looked sullen and answered, “Oh, he’s how he always is.” A venomous smile crossed her lips and she grabbed my hand. “You should come say hello.”

Strong work calling me out.
She knew I had no desire to speak with her dad.

I felt my jaw pop when I clenched my teeth against the desire to slap her face. “Please just give him my regards. Have a nice night.” I turned back to Leda, ignoring Stacy, who knew I still saw everything she did as she turned around and walked away, switching her hips in a sexy stomp. Spite driving me, I leaned back to see past her and caught her dad’s eye, waving. His face flushed with anger he held in to avoid making a scene. I smiled to myself. Stacy’s dad was going to bitch her out when they got to the car.

I snapped back to the moment when Leda snarled, “You know that bitch?”

My eyebrows shot up and I nodded. “Stacy’s father is Congressman Jackson. The Senator my father works with is one of his biggest supporters. They’ve co-authored a few bills together. I’ve actually known Stacy since we were kids. A few years ago…”
Shut the fuck up! Don’t fucking get into that now.

Leda’s face was hard and hurt at the same time. “I’m sorry if you are friends, but she is such a bitch! She’s been harassing me about what may or may not be happening between you and me. I thought she probably just had a crush on you. I never would have guessed that you knew her.”

I’m gonna fucking kill her.
“I will take care of it, but tell me exactly what happened.” I had to know what Stacy had already told Leda, but knew it couldn’t have been all of it because she was still sitting here with me.

She told me about the frankly childish shit that Stacy had pulled and I could see why Leda thought she was just a bitch with a crush.

“Okay. I’ll talk to her, but full disclosure—a few years ago…we hooked up… I mean, we have a bit of history between us.” Huge fucking understatement. “But she seemed so young and she is…not my type.”

Leda still looked pissed off, maybe more so now after learning that I had had something with Stacy. We still needed to decide on what we going to order and I tried to change the subject to move on to the rest of the night with her. “What should we order?” But Leda didn’t respond, didn’t even seem to register than I spoken to her. I grabbed her hands on the table and squeezed a little to get her attention.

“I’m sorry. What was that?” She brought herself back to me, but still wasn’t completely present and definitely wasn’t having a good time.

“Baby girl, is she really that much of a problem?” I made my voice soft when I wanted to yell, because Leda wasn’t who I wanted to yell at.

“I don’t know. Something about her really bothers me and now… It’s just a gross, new level of unpleasantness. I’m sorry, give me a minute and I’ll get over it.” She took a breath and centered herself. “Let’s decide what to order.”

We ordered a California roll, salmon roll and some nigiri with some deep-fried edamame, which was a favorite of mine. We shared the meal and talked, but the intimacy was gone. She was distant, instinctively protecting herself, expecting me to hurt her now. She didn’t want dessert and I understood. She wanted to get away from me, wanted the night to be over.

The check came and she tried to take it. I grabbed her wrist before she opened it. She held my gaze, but said nothing. I squeezed her wrist and felt her flesh give a little under the pressure. She still didn’t give, didn’t even flinch. I fell in love with her a little in that moment.

“Baby girl, I let you plan this and my stupid past ruined it. Just let me do this.” And, of course, Rodriguez’s background check included a credit report and the balances of her accounts as well as her parents’ accounts. I had more money than her, thanks to my trust fund and investing in everything Jason did. That and she’d only ever really been a student. She was living on her loan money, like most med students did.

We held each other’s gaze in a little stalemate. I kept myself calm, kept my heart rate controlled, but her breath picked up and her pupils dilated. I felt her pulse leap under my fingers. I tightened down more and felt the bones shift, watched her flinch a little. I kissed her fingers then let go, a sick satisfaction in that. I laid my credit card down, feeling victorious.

She sat there, eyes downcast, like a cute little possession, and all my anger at Stacy shunted into lust for her. “Go to the ladies room, freshen up and wait for me back there.” While I thought about fucking her in the bathroom, I knew that wasn’t going to be the way I first fucked her. She wasn’t moving. “Leda, now.” My voice was sharp and she snapped out of it and got up.