Page 5 of The Ties That Bind

Hurt flashed briefly across her features before she smiled ruefully. “I’m sure you did, but can you blame me?”

“Can I blame you that you tricked me? Yes, I can.”

“Oh, come off it Xander. If you had waited another minute, I would have told you who I was. Need I remind you that it was you who approached me? That it was you who kissed me? You didn’t want to know who I was any more than I wanted to tell you. The only difference between us is that I knew what we were doing was wrong whereas you simply didn’t care.”

“If you knew, why’d you let me?”

“Honestly?” she asked.

“Yes, honestly. And if you fucking lie to me, I’ll know.”

Arabella eyed me speculatively for a few beats and then shrugged. “Maybe. Then again, maybe not. I know you’re a man of many talents—trust me, I’ve heard all about it—but I’m not without my own skills. You’d be wise to remember that.”

I could have argued with her but that would have been a giant waste of precious time. She might be the best goddamn femme fatale on the face of the planet, but that didn’t really matter to me right now. I needed to know why she let me kiss her and why she hadn’t already tried to get me murdered. The seconds were ticking by and her friend could only stall for so long. Hell, the fact that he hadn’t already laid me out told me Royce needed to invest in some better henchmen to guard his most prized asset.

“Cut the act and answer the goddamned question or we’re through here.”

“Fine,” she hissed, crossing her arms over her ample chest. “But you’re not going to like what I have to say.”

“I’m sure that’s the only truthful thing you’ve said since we met.”

“Met again,” she stressed, reminding me of the day we’d played side-by-side as if our families weren’t mortal enemies.

“Fine, met again,” I agreed, my anger somewhat abating and the steel in my voice lessening.

Her eyes flicked between mine, searching, and I raised my brows in question.

“That’s why,” she answered softly, knowingly. “For that one moment in time you were my friend.”

Like a moon drawn to Arabella’s gravitational pull, I stepped closer. This time when I laid my hands on her, it wasn’t in anger. I couldn’t explain what was happening, but I was compelled to touch her again, to have her skin pressed against mine. I needed that connection again.

“You’re not my friend, Arabella,” I reminded her on a whisper.

Our eyes locked and she licked her lips and nodded her understanding. “I know.”

“We can’t ever be friends,” I pointed out.

“I know that too.”

“I have plenty of friends,” I added.

“I’m sure you do.”

“I don’t need any more friends,” I murmured as I stroked my hands up and down her arms and her skin pebbled beneath my touch.

“Neither do I,” she breathed.

“But fuck me, I want you just the same,” I cursed, dropping my lips to hers in a feather light kiss. “Tell me to stop Arabella,” I warned her after a few more strokes of my lips against hers.

“Don’t stop, Xander,” she smiled against me. “Please don’t ever stop.”

“Arabella!” came the roar from behind me seconds later, snapping us both to attention. “Where the fuck are you, goddamnit?!” her bodyguard shouted as he thundered down the corridor.

“Fuck!” I grimaced, realizing how close we’d come to getting caught.

From the startled and angry exclamations coming from other shoppers, I didn’t think he’d seen us yet, giving me just enough time to get away before he spotted Arabella in the arms of some guy he didn’t know. I should have high-tailed it out of there right that second, but I couldn’t make my feet move. Instead, I cradled Arabella’s face in my palms and placed one last, lingering kiss on her lips. “This isn’t over,” I promised her … and then I ran.

That afternoon was the beginning of what turned out to be the best year of my life. Every chance Arabella and I had to spend together, we took it. Whether it was 15 stolen minutes or entire days holed up away from the rest of the world, each spare minute we had was devoted to one another. We both understood the giant risk we were taking but nothing could have kept us apart.

That was, until everything fell apart.

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