Page 118 of Pervade London
He caught his bottom lip between his teeth to stop himself from answering. He even made uncertainty look sexy.
I took a sip of my tea and it was warm and refreshing.
“Your father worked there?” I pushed.
“No.”
My mind searched for the reason he’d grown up away from England.
“Are you warm enough?” He gestured to the fireplace. “I can light it if you like. If you want to stay and read.”
I gestured to the bookshelves. “Have you read any of them?”
He looked surprised. “Of course.”
“It would take a lifetime.”
“I started young.”
“You live alone?”
“There are staff.”
“That’s not the same.”
“They’re like family.” James gave me a smile.
With each passing second, I saw why Xavier liked him. It was as though he was finally pulling down his wall and letting me in—even if some of the details were sketchy.
“How do you feel about us being together again?” I asked.
He mulled it over. “It pleases him.”
Still.“Xavier seems happy now.”
He looked away and sighed. “Well, he got what he wanted.”
“Are you only sleeping with me for his sake?”
“I don’t think it was the sleeping together that necessarily pleased him.”
“The fucking then.”
He avoided answering me, instead taking a sip of his hot tea.
“I’m the only one who truly gets him,” I chided.
“If Xavier was a country, you would merely have visited the capital.”
“I lived with him.”
“His biggest fear?”
“He doesn’t seem scared of anything.”
“His biggest fear is of anything happening to you.”
I raised my mug in a toast. “And you threaten him with that to control him.”
