Page 71 of Crossing the Line
Now, she sat at a long glass conference table, Xavier on her left arguing a point on safety with Gwendolyn while her parents, Kate, Phil, and a handful of studio execs chimed in with their opinions. Micah and a few of the Invictus team filled out the empty seats.
Everyone had a say but Waverly. And as she took in the scene with an eerie sense of calm, she felt the reality she’d built begin to swallow her whole. Somehow, she’d allowed herself to become this valuable, delicate thing. An asset of great worth yet easily damaged in capricious hands.
And so an army of agents, executives, and security experts rallied to protect her from harm while keeping her on display in her gilded cage.
She took a lull in the debate of her future and excused herself from the room. She needed a break so she didn’t break, not in front of all of them. Waverly quietly let herself into Xavier’s office and closed the door behind her. She didn’t bother turning on the light, just stood in the dimly lit office and wondered how she’d gotten to this point.
The door opened and closed behind her, and she could sense Xavier’s presence. He didn’t order her back to the conference room. He didn’t say anything at all as he pulled her into his arms. She let herself sink into him. Breathing him in, Waverly let the heat that pumped off of his body start to thaw the ice collecting in her veins.
His heart beat slowly, steadily, under her ear, soothing her. There was no danger right here or right now. Just the unknown of the future she needed to face and the reality of the present that she’d allowed to exist.
She felt his lips brush the top of her head before moving to her forehead. Somehow he knew. He sensed that she was just hanging on by her fingernails, ready to rail at the ridiculousness that had become her life. The intimacy of last night had bled into the light of day, and she once again felt bared to Xavier.
But she couldn’t lean on him. She couldn’t depend on Xavier to protect her from everything, couldn’t trust him not to betray her. She needed to start standing on her own two feet and stop expecting everyone else to take up the fight. She would get through this with the help of her army, and once Ganim was behind bars, she would take her life back. And maybe then she would figure out if she and Xavier fit together.
Decision made, Waverly felt fortified. She smoothed the lapels of his jacket under her palms and straightened his tie. And then she’d stepped out of his arms and walked back to the conference room, a new layer of calm protecting her.
She walked into a heated debate.
Sylvia was on her feet shooting a withering screen goddess glare at one of the studio suits. “I understand your point, David,” she said, color rising to her cheeks. “But this is my daughter we’re discussing. And we’re not compromising her safety so you can sell more movie tickets. Parading her around the talk show circuit to discuss her psychotic stalker is just going to bait him into making another move. And I’msurethat’s not what you want.”
It was a glimpse of the mother she’d known and loved. She was still in there somewhere. Waverly offered Sylvia a small smile and received a regal nod in return.
Gwendolyn smoothly assumed control. “I agree with Sylvia here. If anything, we could put more focus on the international tour by keeping Waverly under wraps until the London premiere. The press will be clamoring for a personal statement. I think this—” she paused and glanced in Sylvia’s direction, “unfortunate situation could provide a great deal of publicity for the film.”
“So what do we do with her for eight days?” one of the suits wanted to know.
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She woke as the jet began its slow descent. Stretching, Waverly craned her neck to catch a glimpse outside the window. Idle Lake, Colorado, spread beneath her, a tiny lake town basking in the late afternoon sun.
There were no high rises, no snarls of traffic, not even an international airport. They were putting down on a skinny municipal strip used mainly by the local flying club.
“You grew up here?” she asked Xavier as she peered out the window.
They were the first words spoken since take off. And in the silence, Waverly had done a lot of thinking.
A plan had been crafted at the offices of Invictus. Xavier had ushered everyone out of the room except for Waverly, Kate, Micah, and Robert and Sylvia. Robert had offered up a last-minute family vacation on the Mediterranean. It would put her closer to her London premiere, and he just happened to know a friend with a yacht.God, Waverly hoped his friend was a man.
With one phone call, it was arranged, and Monday, the Sinners would convene on a cozy one-hundred and sixty-foot luxury yacht for six days before Waverly kicked off her six-city international publicity tour forThe Dedication.
Until then, Waverly needed to get out of L.A., away from Ganim. She hadn’t known where until they got to the airport. Two days in Xavier’s hometown at his parents’ house. Even Kate, who’d returned to the Sinner estate under guard and packed for Waverly, had no idea where she was.
No one but Xavier and the pilot.
What made Waverly nervous wasn’t being out of touch with everyone. If she was being honest, the idea of being incommunicado for two days was incredibly appealing. What did get her pulse jumping and the butterflies fluttering was meeting Xavier’s parents. It wasn’t like she was meeting a boyfriend’s parents for the first time. But it certainly felt like it. She wanted them to like her just as she wanted to see him at home in an environment he was comfortable in.
He leaned forward to look through his seat’s small window, and his fingers drummed a beat on his knee. Maybe she wasn’t the only one who was nervous?
“This is it,” he said finally, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. She doubted he knew it was there. Though he’d gotten even less sleep than she had in the past twenty-four hours, there was an energy, a lightness about him that she’d never seen before. Right now, he was just a man recognizing home. And she was going to get an up close look at Xavier Saint’s personal life.
Waverly knew virtually nothing about Xavier’s family. His parents were married, his mother was a professor, and he had two younger sisters. But she’d walked into more enigmatic situations before. After years of being interviewed, Waverly had learned how to get information out of people. She’d get to know them and, through them, Xavier.
They still hadn’t talked about what had happened the night before. Her skin heated at just the thought of their lovemaking. She wasn’t sure either of them was ready to face the consequences of last night, and the longer they went without acknowledging it, the longer they could pretend that everything was normal.
As normal as their lives could be, she thought wryly.
She leaned back in her seat and slipped on a pair of oversized sunglasses as the jet touched down on the skinny ribbon of a landing strip.
