The fuzziness in my head starts to clear, and I can remember the feeling of air being sucked out of my world as the mob closed in around me. I shiver a little at the memory.
“And…” And him?
“K? I don’t know why he was there. But he was. Lucky he was, too! They were going to make minced meat of you. Crazed women are the worst!” Xavier shudders a little and stands up, reaching for a switch on the wall.
The room is suddenly illuminated and I can finally see where I am. It’s a large but cozy guest room. The decor is minimal, not sterile but bright and tasteful. And for the first time I notice the bed I’m in. Firm and covered in soft, luscious linens. I already feel comfortable in this place. This… wait, where am I?
“So, he saved me, again. And brought me here?”
“Yup.” Xavier reaches for a chair and I notice my bag and jacket are hanging over it.
As I’m slowly feeling more alert, I’m growing frustrated at Xavier’s reticence. “Man of many words, are you?”
He laughs and I can’t help but like him.
“When you’re used to charging by the letter, you learn to value each word.”
“At the rate we’re going, I’ll be able to pay you from the change in my couch!”
He laughs again and join him, the interaction making this weird day feel not so weird.
“Fine.” He gives in and winks at me before continuing, “You’re at K’s apartment. But, now you’re up, I’m to make sure you’re okay and take you home.”
The laughter empties from my lungs.
“He’s not here?”
“No, he left once I got here to watch over you.”
“And when’s he coming back?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well. I’m not leaving until he does.” I cross my arms and lean back against the bedhead.
“Miss. er, Jade. I’ll be honest with you. He’s not going to come back with you here. He’s a very, very private man.”
I pull the covers off me, and for a moment, Xavier looks relieved. He obviously doesn’t know me well yet.
“I told you once that I wasn’t going to give up finding him, so I can thank him. So, now that I’m standing inside his house, what chance do you think there is that I’m leaving before I get a chance to talk to him. You’re a smart man, Xavier. Surely you can figure it out.”
I bite back a tremor but refuse to break my gaze. Poor guy, he looks like I just made him choose between eating his pet rabbit and a live cockroach.
Then, without answering, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone, pressing “1” on the keypad and holds it out to me.
“You tell him,” he says to me as the dial tone starts to ring.
And I wonder if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.
Before either of us can speak another word, the call is answered.
“Yeah.”
It’s him.
And something in the bottom of my stomach drops. Drops all the way onto the floor and through to the other side of the earth.
One syllable that’s all it takes. Something in his voice that undoes me. It’s just cos that’s the voice you connect with being saved, an uncertain voice inside my head tries to convince me. But it’s not doing a very good job. My hand reaches out to take the phone while my voice simultaneously retracts deep into my throat.
“What is it, Xavier?” The same voice, annoyed, speaks again. I snap my hand back.
Xavier cocks an eyebrow and looks a little too amused.
“I’m here with Jade.”
Apparently, he charges K by the word as well.
There’s a pause on the other end, a long pause. So long I wonder if he’s still there.
Xavier breaks first.
“You’re on speaker.”
“And?”
Apparently I’ve found myself in the middle of a skirmish of monosyllabic men.
“She won’t leave.”
I think I hear a snort, but I can’t be sure. It might’ve been a snicker, or a sigh. All I know is it’s a sound. And I want to hear more.
“Make her.”
I didn’t want to hear that.
Fuck this.
“I’m not going,” I say. My hand is now pressing against my chest to calm the vibrations.
I’m definitely hearing snickering, but it’s not coming from the phone. Xavier is biting his lip so hard I think I might have to take him to the ER for stitches. But I’m not focused on him right now; I’m focused on the man on the other side of the phone. This mysterious, intriguing, man who with his seven words has me mesmerized.
And I hang for the eighth.
“Miss Sinclair.”
Oh God, he said my name.
“Go.”
And the phone goes quiet.
HIM
It’s only seconds after I hang up before I realize my cock is hard. Rock hard. Achingly hard.
And allow myself 15 seconds to consider how long it would take for the car to drive me home, and for me to be driving myself home into her.
That mouth, that body, twice now, warm, giving, in my arms, completely at my mercy.
And then I shut it down.
But it comes back.
Her.
In my house.
Not leaving.
My worst nightmare and my newest fantasy all at once.
Fuck.
HER
The apartment is deathly quiet even though it’s only about 9 p. m. I’ve never heard it so quiet in Manhattan before. Even at 3 a. m. with my window open only a crack for air, it sounds like a whole life is being lived on the streets. Life coming, and at times with the ambulance sirens blaring, life being taken away. Loud, garrulous, scary, fun. But never quiet.
Fifty stories up, I guess sound waves get lost in the wind.
I’m standing in the living room in front of a giant expanse of clear glass. Other than the white couch behind me, the soft, cloudlike white shag rug under my feet and a large tv on the far wall, the room is almost completely empty. And I know why. He doesn’t want anything to interfere with this view. I walk up to the streakless window and press my body against it. Reaching my arms out, stretching my fingers out, I feel like I’m flying over the Manhattan skyline.