Page 98 of Breaking the Rules
One night, long ago while shooting on location, Waverly had confessed to Dante just how badly her heart had been smashed to bits over Xavier. Dante had patted her head, promised her she’d find someone more worthy of her in the future, and then dragged her out to a karaoke bar. Despite his outward appearance, Dante was a good, solid friend.
“I have no idea if it’s wise or not, but I can’t seem to help myself.”
“He loves you, you know. You can see it in the way he devours you with his eyes every time you enter a room. It’s like a light turns on, and then he’s glaring at me for looking in your general direction.”
“Which you probably do just to piss him off,” Waverly predicted.
“Guilty as charged. Just be careful there, Waves. You’ve got a lot tied up in this guy, and he’s putting his entire life on the line for you. If you aren’t careful, you could get hurt again, or you could wreck him.”
“Whose side are you on anyway?” Waverly asked.
Dante threw an arm around her shoulder and ruffled her hair. “Always yours, my love. But I do have a newfound kinship with your Saint since I met Petra.”
“You’re dead serious right now, aren’t you?”
“I kid you not, my dear Sinner. She’s beautiful, kind, sweet, and she thinks I’m the most incredible man on the face of the earth. What’s not to be in love with?”
Waverly grinned up at him. “I’m happy for you, Dante. Shocked, but happy.”
“She’s not like us,” he sighed. “Not jaded and afraid to be vulnerable. She makes my world bigger.”
“Wow. That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard you say about a woman.”
Dante laughed. “I know. I can’t wait until this bit of nastiness is over. I’m going to marry that girl and find out what all the fuss is about normal.”
“Will it be enough for you?” Waverly asked.What she wanted to ask was if it would be enough for her.
“What does it matter how big my next movie is? Or if I do another twenty missions for some government agency? I’m still going home to my empty house afterwards. I want someone to be there at the end of the day. Someone who cares about me, someone I can’t wait to talk to. That’s the part that matters. It’s the sharing that counts, not the life in between.”
“Holy crap, Dante. Did Petra feed you some kind of love potion? I’ve never heard you talk this way.”
“Love makes everything clearer,” he said, turning his face up to the sun.
In Waverly’s experience, love only muddied things and made them infinitely more complicated.
“So how are you going to get Grigory to give his blessing?” she teased.
“I’ll just sweep him off his feet like I do everyone,” Dante said, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder.
He spun around in the golden sunshine, and Waverly giggled like a girl without a care in the world.
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Xavier watched them through the window. His Angel and the man he’d thought she loved. There was an easiness between them, something that had never been present in his own relationship with Waverly. Nothing had ever been easy for them. Every step forward was a hard-fought battle.
He envied the history she shared with Dante. A history during which he’d never let her down. Xavier, on the other hand, had abandoned her. Where Dante was playful and charming, Xavier was broody and intense. He’d been told so by every woman in his life beginning with his mother and ending with Calla.
His stomach clutched as he watched Dante pick her up and toss her over his shoulder. He could hear her laughter, light and easy, through the window.
Waverly might not have beeninlove with Dante, but she did love him. She trusted him. And Xavier wanted that with her... and so much more. He wanted to be the one to give her everything, to make her laugh, to make her smile, to make her come. He wanted to be her everything.
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Things moved quickly on their end. The Invictus Advance team had ranked their choice of public locations for a sting operation, and while Xavier and Micah weighed the options, Waverly poured over the profiles of employees who would be involved in the operation.
Chelsea set her sights on tracking down Brad’s partner and spent hours staring and swearing at her laptop.
Anatoli worked with the hand-selected security staff from Invictus to keep the house locked down and took on the bulk of the cooking. Dante and Petra were caught making out in a variety of nooks and crannies around the estate.
