Page 41 of Breaking the Rules
“Maybe don’t think. Just feel. This connection is real. Nothing you tell yourself is going to make it go away, believe me. I’ve tried.”
“I’m sure there was a long line of women helping you try,” she muttered.
“There have been two since you. Two in five years, Waverly. Same as you.”
“What do you mean, same as me?”
He ignored her question. “I think part of me always knew I was meant for you.”
She pushed away from his chest but didn’t leave his lap. “How exactly were you keeping track, Xavier?”
“I didn’t want you to be with anyone who would hurt you,” he said by way of explanation.
“Are you kidding me? You ran them? You ran background checks on anyone you thought I was interested in, didn’t you?”
“You never stopped being important to me.”
“I suddenly know how your sisters feel,” she said, with a heavy sigh. “You can’t do that kind of stuff, X. You have to trust people to make their own decisions.”
“It’s what I do,” he protested. And her heart cracked open just a sliver for the man who would do anything to protect the ones he loved from hurt, however misguided and controlling his actions were.
A thought hit her. “Are you the reason Trent transferred in the middle of a semester, never to be heard from again?” She’d casually dated Trent her junior year at Stanford. He was cute and charming in a preppy fraternity brother kind of way. They’d never gone beyond kissing, though. She’d never trusted him enough, and there’d been good reason why.
“He was still seeing his ex on the side,” Xavier protested.
“Oh my God, Xavier! You didn’t have him killed, did you?”
“Jesus, Angel. No! I just had someone scare the shit out of him, and he left Stanford on his own accord.”
“I’d found out he was still seeing his ex becauseI’m not an idiot! And when I did, I handled the situation.”
“He was still calling you,” Xavier pointed out.
“I don’t even want to know how you knew that.”
“I had a couple of guys have a talk with him. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“X,” Waverly took a deep breath. She felt a war of emotions within. She’d spent so much of her life surrounded by people who used her. Just knowing that Xavier had tried to keep her safe even after they were through undid her. Yet his methods were insane. “You can’t run people’s lives like that, especially not from a distance.”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“How about let everyone make their own decisions and deal with their own consequences?”
“I let you make your own decisions, and you got yourself shot,” he pointed out.
“I need to process all of this,” she told him. “I’m going to go to bed.”
“Did you mean what you said about Dante?” She heard it in his voice, the hope and fear, the need to hear it again.
“I’ve never felt what I had for you with anyone else,” she whispered, closing her eyes for just a moment and burrowing into the warmth of his chest.
“Kiss me goodnight,” he ordered, his voice gruff.
“Xavier—”
“Just a kiss. I promise.”
She knew she’d regret this, just as she knew if she didn’t kiss him, she’d spend the entire night tossing and turning and thinking about what an idiot she’d been to turn down that masterful mouth.
