Page 45 of Crossing the Line
“How long ago did he leave?” Xavier wanted to know.
“About five minutes before you pulled up. He was real squirrely. Didn’t talk, just stared at the house and then us for a while and then walked away. Douchebag wanted to open the envelope when the guy left it at the gate.”
Xavier eyed up Joe again. The man had bandages and gauze wrapped around his good arm and a nice scrape along his jaw. He walked like a ninety-year-old after a marathon. Apparently he was still healing from his near death experience with Waverly on the highway.
Another Tahoe rolled up behind Xavier’s, and two Invictus staff members got out. “Is there a problem, Mr. Saint?” one of them asked.
“Do me a favor, run a patrol through the neighborhood. Our person of interest was here. He’s got a five-minute head start heading south on foot.”
The men took off and Xavier handed Arnie a business card. “You see this guy again, you call me.”
“Is he dangerous?” Arnie asked, frowning.
“What’s in the envelope, man? You could at least show us, let us take a few snaps,” Joe whined.
“How do you stand hanging out with this guy all day?” Xavier asked Arnie.
“Hey, I’m standin’ right here!”
Arnie shrugged his skinny shoulders again. “Tuning him out really helps me work on my Zen.”
Xavier left the bickering photographers and pulled up the driveway. He called into the office and talked to the monitoring department. They had the gate footage, which corroborated Arnie’s story. Ganim had walked up to the gates coming from the south, deposited the envelope, and stared at the house as if waiting for someone to magically appear. He’d walked off but not without staring directly into the camera mounted over the intercom.
Xavier decided that he’d review the system footage himself. He parked behind Kate’s Explorer and stared at the envelope on the seat beside him. Whatever was inside wasn’t going to be good. But it wasn’t going to open itself.
Carefully, he worked the seal open. A dozen photographs spilled into his lap. All of Waverly. All recent, he noted, his mind working calmly, methodically even as his body registered the threat with a surge of adrenaline. Waverly leaving her gym alone. Waverly and Kate entering a designer’s studio. Waverly through a window, half-naked being pinned into a gown. Waverly and Xavier entering Nobu. The two of them on the carpet at the awards show yesterday. And another one of Waverly last night in Kate’s Explorer at a stop sign. He’d been so close, and Xavier hadn’t known.
He shoved his way out of the SUV and tried to calm his need to run. He wanted to see her, to touch her, and make sure she was okay. The pool house felt like it was a million miles away, and he was in a half-jog by the time he burst through the front door.
Startled, Waverly looked up from a pot on the stove and then smiled brightly. She was wearing leggings and a tank top with her hair piled up on top of her head. Her feet were bare. “I thought you were going to text me when you were on your way?”
She was safe and here and smiling. She was okay.
His momentum carried him into the kitchen and then he was reaching for her. He pulled her into his arms and his mouth found hers in a fierce, possessive kiss. He wanted to brand her, to claim her so no one else could touch her.
He spun her away from the stove, bumping them against the island. His tongue invaded her mouth with a swift thrust. She moaned into him, and he clamped his hands possessively on her hips.
“Holy shit! I mean—”
Xavier spun around, pinning Waverly against the island with his back.
Kate stood in the doorway of Waverly’s bedroom gaping like a guppy and peering through her fingers.
“Uh, X?” Waverly’s voice was breathless from behind him. He moved off of her, turned to face her. She looked as though she’d just been ravaged, her gray-green eyes were wide, her lips swollen. It made him want to kiss her again, but he backed off.
“Should I, uh, leave?” Kate asked, still in the doorway.
Xavier shoved his hands into his pockets. Less than twenty-four hours prior, he’d vowed never to touch her again, a promise he’d also made to his partner this morning. And here he was devouring her in her own kitchen.
“We need to talk,” he told Waverly.
She nodded wordlessly, her mouth still open as if the kiss had stolen her senses.
“I can just go home,” Kate suggested again.
“We’re all staying,” Xavier said flatly.
For the first time, the state of the kitchen registered. The counter tops were littered with ingredients and utensils and something that smelled like heaven was simmering on the stove. “What’s going on here?”
