Page 33 of Breaking the Rules
He pounced like a jungle cat, one second relaxed and the next second hauling her up against his side. “The way I see it is you have the drive back to your house to decide whether you’re going to let me in, or I can go public with what I do know. I’d be defending your honor, of course. I hate to see your reputation smeared with a fake rehab story, especially since it’s causing you problems at work. I’ll start with your parents, but I’m sure the media and gossip sites would be happy to have a statement from me about you.”
She let the anger spiral through her. It was a safe emotion. She went for a low blow. “If you’re trying to blackmail me into a relationship with you, it’s not going to work.”
He pushed her along toward the parking lot, his arm anchored around her shoulders. “Angel, we’re already in a relationship. You just don’t want to accept it.”
She tried to shrug him off. “No,I’malready in a relationship,” she reminded him. So what if it was fake? Xavier didn’t know that.
He paused and let his arm drop from her shoulders to take her wrist. “I don’t see him here, do you? And I sure as hell didn’t see him when you got shot. So unless Wrede is dead, he deserves an ass-kicking, which I will provide when I find him.”
Oh, he was angry. She could feel it flowing through his grip on her wrist, see it in those molten eyes. Waverly glared up at him. She could go toe-to-toe with him, wanted to even, but she knew what happened when they met in the middle with anger. They always ended up in bed.
She saw headlights coming from the parking lot above, heard doors closing and voices. The day was beginning for the rest of the world. And she was just getting started.
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The ride home was a quiet one. Xavier refused to let her take her bike home and stuffed her into the passenger seat of his SUV, buckling her seatbelt himself. She thought about what fun the pepper spray would have been but realized the quarters were too close.
Instead, she closed her eyes and thought through her conversation with Brad. He didn’t know where Dante was either. She was sure of that now. Which meant there was a good chance that he was alive, somewhere. He’d given her the information she’d been looking for, and as soon as she heard back from Chelsea, she’d have a clearer path to what needed to happen next.
But first she had to survive dinner with her parents and Xavier tonight. She wasn’t looking forward to dancing that tight rope of assuring her mother that she wasn’t turning into a second-generation alcoholicandkeeping Xavier under control.
She felt Xavier bring the SUV to a stop and opened her eyes. She frowned at him. “What are you doing?”
“You promised me breakfast,” he said innocently.
“Every time we’re seen in public together people are going to assume things,” she reminded him pointedly.
“What a pity,” he grinned.
“Ass.”
She followed him out of the car to Zia’s Café. The people at the miniscule bar tops at the front of the café basked in the autumn sunshine that poured in through the front windows. The floors were a gray washed oak, the walls alternated with splashes of cream and khaki. A handwritten chalkboard menu hung above both registers. The entire place smelled like a dozen different coffees and fresh baked goods. The baristas all followed a similar dress code. Black on black with green aprons and facial jewelry. There were several early birds already in line and a dozen more patrons scattered about the tables and barstools.
It could have been worse, she reminded herself. He could have rolled up in front of a Starbucks on Hollywood Boulevard. It wasn’t likely they’d run into any paparazzi here. But she still heard a gasp and felt the weight of a half dozen gazes on her when Xavier held the door for her.
No paparazzi. But fans, on the other hand, were a different story.
The cell phones were up in seconds, and Waverly did her best to ignore them. Xavier leaned in to whisper in her ear. “You’d better smile and look happy and healthy, or else I’ll be forced to plant a kiss on you that no one will forget.”
Waverly looked up at him with a smart-ass smile on her face. “Try it, and I’ll kick you in the balls so hard you’ll be shooting blanks for the rest of your life.”
He grinned wolfishly.
“Angel, if you’re going for my balls, we both know it won’t be to kick them.”
She didn’t like where that statement took her mentally so she turned her back on him to study the menu. The girl in line in front of her held up her cell phone pretending to take a selfie but was clearly lining up to get Waverly and Xavier in it.
Waverly sighed and grabbed Xavier by the shirtfront, pulling him in with her over the girl’s shoulder. “Smile pretty, Saint.”
It opened the floodgates, of course, and by the time they walked out of the café—coffees and breakfast sandwiches in hand—they’d posed for a dozen pictures with customers and staff.
The first time someone asked for a picture with just Xavier, Waverly couldn’t stifle her laughter. She’d insisted on taking the picture herself and thoroughly enjoyed Xavier’s discomfort. It was fun to be on the other side of the camera for a change as she’d found with the handful of production projects she’d done.
“You’re up to something,” Waverly said with suspicion as they got back in the SUV.
Xavier flashed her that smile that always sent her heart stumbling. “The way I see it, someone’s after you. So it can’t hurt to let them know that you’re not going to be easy to get to.”
“And there’s the added bonus of making it look like we’re dating.”
