Page 59 of Hunter

My nose wrinkled in disgust from the thought, and Xavier looked back at me, not saying anything.

I took a moment to take in his apartment.

It was even more barren than mine.

There was one large couch, a large wooden coffee table, and a TV stand that housed a wide flat-screen TV.

It was surprisingly clean, and from the looks of it, he lived here alone.

He deposited me on the couch and left for the kitchen. I almost begged him to stay, but he wasn’t gone long, coming back moments later with a glass of water and sitting down close to me. So close our thighs touched.

I focused my gaze on that before he brought my attention back to him by moving the glass of water in front of me. He gently pressed it against my lips. Our eyes met as he tilted the glass forward, and I drank steadily, taking in the cool water on my dry lips and mouth.

When I decided I was done, I turned my head away, and Xavier placed it on the coffee table.

“How did you know where I was?” I asked quietly, staring down at my lap.

“I was already on my way to the bar when I heard a scream in the alley. I went to investigate and found the bastard had pressed you up against the wall.”

I nodded, my bottom lip trembling. How fucking lucky was that? I shuddered to think what would have happened to me had Xavier not heard. I’d hate to think about the state I would be innow.

Perhaps lying on the dirty ground of that alley, with no one around to help me.

“Oh, fuck,” I distantly heard him mutter before he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in close.

I didn’t care that he had seen Trinity that afternoon. I didn’t care that this day was already crappy, and I didn’t care that my family—parents—were so fucking crappy.

I buried my face in his chest and cried. Part from terror over the thought of what could have happened and part from relief so strong, I was shaking.

“Oh, baby. Just cry, okay? I’ll be here. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise.”

I closed my eyes as more tears came out and soaked his shirt. How nice would that promise really be if he wasn’t a stranger to me but someone I could count on?

I knew he was just saying that to console me, but I clung to his words as if they were true.

He was here, and he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.

My arms came up, and I wrapped them around his waist.

Slowly at first, then tightly.

Please don’t let me go.

“I won’t let you go,” he vowed.

I hadn’t realized I had said it out loud.

I whimpered, feeling so exhausted, I just wanted this day to be over. I knew the exhaustion was more than just what had happened tonight. Still, with everything going on in my life, Xavier was strong and steady in my arms, and I just wanted to let go, if not for the rest of the night, then for the next hour.

That would be so nice.

That last memory I had before falling asleep was his words echoing in the recess of my mind.

He won’t let me go.

13

ROMAN

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