Page 28 of Crossing the Line
A flurry of activity near the security desk caught his attention.
Waverly.
“What the hell, X?” she pushed away from the chair that Jim was trying to make her sit in. “You disappear to check out a security threat and then tell me nothing? I have to hear from Kate who isn’t even here that you chased some guy out of the crowd?”
Xavier grabbed her arm and started dragging her toward the stairwell. “I told you to stay upstairs.” He shoved the door open, pushed her inside.
“And I did,” she snapped. “Until I didn’t hear from you. And then I see you’re hanging out outsideflirting.”
He pushed her up on the first step of the stairwell so they were eye-to-eye. “When I tell you to do something, Angel, you do it.”
He was working his way up to being good and pissed. Not only had he had and missed a shot at talking to Ganim, but he now had to reiterate for the millionth time that he was in charge. “I’m protecting you,notcontrolling you. The sooner you get that through your thick skull, the better for us both.”
“I don’t like being left in the dark.”
“I was coming back upstairs when I got waylaid.”
“Oh, isthatwhat the kids are calling it these days?” Waverly shot back, her tone laced with sarcasm.
Xavier gripped the railings on both sides so he wouldn’t give in to the desire to strangle her. “Now who’s the jealous one?” he asked coolly. For a second, he thought she was going to slap him. He could read the impulse in the flash of anger in those beautiful gray-green eyes.
But she pulled it back inside, and her expression shifted imperceptibly until she looked bored. “It’s none of my business what you do or who you do it with.”
He showed his teeth. “Well, isn’t it too bad that what you do and who you do it with is my business.”
“We’ll see about that, X.”
Before he could argue, she was pushing her way past him.
“I’m ready to leave now.” She arched an eyebrow at him. “That is, if you’re done with your friend out there.”
Xavier followed her out of the stairwell taking slow deep breaths. He’d never wanted to throttle someone so much in his entire life. And he wouldn’t be able to get away with it here. Too many witnesses.
He texted the driver while Waverly sashayed off toward the security desk. He watched her shake Jim’s hand and then take a few minutes to chat with the rest of the team, signing autographs and posing for pictures. There wasn’t a hint of temper on her face, at least not until she shot a look at him that would have had a lesser man withering in his shoes.
But Xavier Saint was no lesser man, and he would put her in her place…even if it killed him.
CHAPTER SEVEN
It was a chilly, silent ride home. Waverly stayed glued to the limo door and refused to even glance in Xavier’s direction. The man’s expertise at pissing her off continued to reach new heights. And her overwhelming awareness of him sitting just inches away pissed her off.
Why couldn’t she just ignore him? Tune him out? Pretend he didn’t exist?And why did it bother her that he’d been turning on the charm with someone else. They didn’t even like each other. Yet when she’d spotted him on the security monitor grinning down at the adorably disheveled tech, she’d felt a sharp flare of something she didn’t like.
Waverly stewed in her thoughts even as Xavier obliviously texted next to her. Her phone rang in her Ferragamo clutch. Her mother, of course.
“Hi, Mom,” Waverly answered, biting back a sigh.
“Darling! I’m coming to meet you at whatever fabulous after party you’re headed to. Just text me the address,” Sylvia chirped in her ear. That manic level of happiness was often reached by her third martini. That’s when everything became a party to Sylvia.
“I’m actually headed home. I have a huge headache.” She glanced at Xavier. It was the truth. It was a man-sized headache.
“But, Waverly!” her mother wailed. “I just put on a new dress, and I can’t think of the last time you and I went to a party together.”
It was two years ago, and Waverly had to drive her mother home in a borrowed car because Sylvia had gotten so drunk she couldn’t stand up.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Waverly said. “We’ll go out another time. Why don’t you and Dad go out to dinner tonight instead? Make him buy you something shiny.”
“Well…”
