Page 39 of Breaking the Rules
“It’s like staring in the mirror almost thirty years ago.”
“We arenottogether. We arenotgetting back together. We are… solving a problem and then going our separate ways,” she said in a near shout. Waverly tried to stand up again, but Xavier kept her hand and pulled her back against him.
“Mmm, good luck, darling. He looks serious,” Sylvia said, eyeing Xavier.
“Very determined,” Robert agreed.
“Is there really no alcohol in this house?” Waverly muttered.
CHAPTER TEN
“I forgot what a good liar you are,” Xavier said, starting the SUV. With the dirty business of lying and covering their tracks finished, dinner had been a relatively peaceful affair. Though Waverly was still reeling from the fact that Xavier and her father had maintained a friendship after all these years. And she didn’t even know what to say about his announcement that he intended to marry her. He couldn’t possibly be serious.
“Me? What about you? All that character assassination stuff and then marriage? You can’t mess with my parents about things like that, Xavier. They’ll take you seriously.”
“Angel, I am deadly serious. I intend to make you my wife.”
“I don’t even know how to tell you how insane you are.” She thumped back in her seat so hard, she bounced her head off the headrest. “You make me so mad.”
“It’s because you have strong feelings for me,” he said, pulling down her parents’ drive and heading home.
She shot him a dirty look. “My strong feelings involve fantasies of maiming you.”
The corner of his mouth turned up in a smile, and they rode the rest of the way home in silence.
He unlocked the front door because, of course, somehow he’d made himself a key and then keyed in the alarm code that she’d never given him.
“Make yourself at home, why don’t you?” Waverly grumbled.
She stashed her bag on the table in the foyer and stormed back into the kitchen, her dress swishing around her thighs and her boots clicking against the hard floor.
He locked the door behind him and re-armed the alarm before following her back.
“Do you love Dante?” he demanded, leaning against the refrigerator.
She met his gaze and glared. “Of course I do.” She did. He was the closest thing she’d ever had to a big brother. They were friends, partners, practically family. But that wasn’t what Xavier was asking.
“Did you love me?”
She wanted to lie, wanted to take those words from so long ago back. But she couldn’t. “Yes, I did.”
“Do you feel for Dante what you felt for me?”
Not even close.She took a breath. “This is stupid. I’m with someone else, Xavier.”
“You have no men’s clothes in your closet or anything in your bathroom. You’ve broken up a hundred times, and on every break, he immediately hooks up with someone else. He hasn’t once reached out to you since I came back into the picture.” Xavier took his time, ticking through the reasons.
“Leave it alone, X.” She showed him her teeth and made a move for the beverage cooler. Her throat was tight, and she needed something to loosen it.
But he stopped her and grabbed her arm. “Answer me.”
“I don’t owe you any answers!” She yanked free, but he followed her into the great room.
“Waverly, if I would have disappeared back when we were together, you would have been devastated. You would have stopped at nothing to find me, even if it was just to kick me in the ass. Dante goes missing, and you lay low. Sure, you’re scared, you’re worried. But I don’t see despair. And that tells me something.”
“It should tell you this is none of your goddamn business!”
“I told you before, Waverly. You are my business. I love you.”
