Page 99 of Rear View
My throat was thick, the words lodged deep inside. They refused to come. He hadn’t known. Hadn’t tossed me aside. He’d been blindsided just the same as me.
He’d chosen me.
I stepped closer, my fingers curling tight into his shirt before I tugged, pulling him to face me.
His eyes crashed with mine, then moved between them, the creases there cutting to my soul. “I’d never do that to you, darlin’.”
“I know,” I replied, my voice soft and desperately confident. I set my palms against his chest and skimmed them higher. “I’m sorry I doubted you.”
“Nah.” He exhaled, slow and ragged, as he gripped my waist. Setting his chin on my hair, he shuddered against me. “You had every reason to.”
“I don’t want to interfere with your career, Xavier.” Iburrowed my face against him. “I didn’t realize what all this”—I gestured to the article—“meant.”
“That’s not why I got into it. I drive.That’swhat I’m good at. That’s what I love. Trina’s just tryin’ to capitalize.”
“And you don’t want that?”
His arms banded tighter, crushing me to him. “I want everything this path offers, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of us.”
I smiled against him, my heart falling into a steady rhythm.
“Fuckin’ Trina,” he said, his voice a rough gravel that rolled from the depths of his thorax.
I grimaced. “Can’t say I’m a fan.”
A low laugh rumbled through him. “You okay?”
Slowly, I inclined my head, my lips parting as they grazed the hollow of his throat. “Seeing that headline, it just…” I swallowed hard. “It gave the voice in my head life. Made all those fears real.”
His hands flexed against me. “What fears?”
Crap. Why did I say that?“It’s fine. We don’t need to—”
“What fears, darlin’?”
I could tell him everything.Shouldtell him everything. Xavier wouldn’t cut and run like Christian had. Wouldn’t leave me to facehimalone. I knew that now, but after what’d happened with his uncle and all the things Trina’d said… I couldn’t risk the trouble. Couldn’t risk his reaction and his career like that. I wouldn’t.
Still, he wanted an answer. Sighing into him, my body caved. “I don’t want you to think I’m selfish.”
“You can tell me anything, yeah.”
I thunked my forehead to his chest. God, he was goingto think I was such an ass. “I want the best for you, Xavier. I do. You deserve everything.” Taking a deep breath, I unleashed. “I’m just terrified you’ll find something better and move on and forget about me, and I’ll be alone, and pining over you, and incapable of moving on because I’ll compare every other guy to you, but you’re perfect so they’ll never measure up and then I’ll just die alone.”
His lip ticked up. “That’s a lot, dream girl.”
My heart sagged.
He laughed, easy and low, then kissed the top of my head. “Guess we’re afraid of the same thing.”
I peeked up through my lashes to better see him. “You’re afraid you’ll move on too?”
A grin split his face before he tucked my hair behind my ear. “No. I’m afraid you will.”
My mouth fell open as I balked. “You, the sexiest man alive, a literal rising star, are worriedIwill move on?”
“Well”—he popped a shoulder—“when you put it that way—”
I smacked his arm.
