Page 33 of Crossing the Line
“Okay, now you’re being dramatic,” Waverly rolled her eyes. She leaned her elbows on the bike’s tank.
“I don’t recall you asking me to haul you up against a wall and…”
“Kiss the ever-living crap out of me?” she supplied.
“I can’t get physical with you in any way, violent or otherwise. I’m protecting you. That line can’t be crossed. It puts both of us at risk.”
“Rules are important to you,” she stated.
“Obviously there’s something about you that makes me forget how important those rules are. I’m out of control.”
“I pushed you. Hard. All week I was pushing,” she confessed.
“I know you were, but I’m supposed to be better than that.”
“Above annoyance and physical attraction are we, Saint?” She was teasing him now.
“This is serious shit, Waverly. I mauled you. We can’t work together anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re making me lose my mind. I’m exhausted. I chase after you all day and half the night and then I go home and think about touching you… or strangling you.” His fingers brushed over the line between his eyes. “You might break me.”
Shit.If she had been hot for the demanding and angry Xavier, the wounded one was going after her heart like a master thief in a gallery. He was being candid, and now it was her turn.
“X, do you know why I was trying to shake you lose?”
Xavier shot her a look that said “duh” through the hands he held over his face. “Because your life is a prison, and there’s no freedom being you,” he said as if by rote.
“It’s a prison on another level, too. I can’t be with you every day and be worried about what kind of information you’re feeding my parents or how you’re manipulating me to get what you need. I can’t have that kind of relationship close to me.”
“You think that because your parents hired me, I’m an extension of them. I’m on their side, which pits me against you. They bought a service, Waverly, not a loyalty.” Xavier rubbed his temples as if he was trying to ward off a migraine.
“You’re so by-the-book I didn’t know that it was possible you could be on my side.”
“I want to keep you safe, Waverly. Not in a prison. And I never had any intention of tattling on you to your parents. You’re an adult. Maybe it’s time you start acting like one.”
“It’s not that easy. There are consequences that I’m still exposed to even as a legal adult. But that’s beside the point. If this is going to be a professional, working relationship, we have to be a team, not two people playing each other.”
He looked up at the ceiling of the garage as if praying for patience. “Christ, Waverly, isn’t that what I said from the beginning?”
She smiled softly. “Yeah. But now I’m not trying to shake you loose.”
“You mean since I had a complete mental breakdown and tried to throw you through Kate’s drywall before kissing the shit out of you?”
“Since you behaved like a human and not some snooty security robot.”
From the look on his face, Waverly felt certain no one had ever called Xavier Saint snooty before.
“This can’t happen again.” His tone was earnest. “It can’t, Angel. One of us won’t survive it, and it would probably be me.”
“Relax, X. A torrid affair with you is not something that fits into my plans either.” That was an understatement. The last thing she needed was some orgasmic crush. Sex was like all other areas of her life. It needed to be on her terms. If that kiss was a sneak peek, her “terms” would end up on the floor on top of her underwear. She’d get hurt when it ended. Badly hurt. “Let’s just chalk it up to exhaustion and rage-fueled passion. You were kissing me, but you really wanted to strangle me.”
“You make me so irate and so… hard. Sometimes at the same time.”
Waverly laughed. “This new human Xavier Saint is really honest.”
“I think a dam broke,” he said wryly. “Are you seriously okay? I wasn’t exactly gentle.”
