Page 69 of Last Comes Fate

“Good.” He bent down and placed a tame kiss on my forehead. “Night, Ces.”

As if by their own accord, my arms rose and wrapped themselves around his neck, holding him close. His mouth hovered just an inch from mine, close enough that I could smell his fresh breath and feel its heat on my skin.

“Xavi,” I whispered.

He gave a low groan but kept completely still.

God, it was hard not to do it. I wanted to kiss him more than I wanted coconut LaCroix. More than any of the weird stuff I’d been craving night and day. More than I had ever wantedanything.

But to my surprise, he didn’t try to kiss me. He just stayed as he was, immovable. Waiting.

“I…” I stared at his mouth, feeling as parched as I was only thirty minutes ago.

“I know,” he replied. “Fuck, babe, I know.”

We sat there together in a standoff as each of us dared the other to make a move.

No one blinked.

And so, eventually, I pulled my arms back.

Xavier sighed.

“I’m…” I trailed off, thinking about apologizing but not really sure what for.

I wanted to kiss him again. But I knew we shouldn’t. Maybe we’d just crossed a line, but for some reason, kissing in my mind seemed to go well beyond “pretend.” Kissing Xavier had never been anything less than vividly real.

“Ces, relax.” He grabbed my chin, thumb brushing over my lower lip, then dropped it with a rueful glance. “It’s all right.”

“Do you…do you want to stay? You could just sleep here.”

I couldn’t for the life of me tell you why I asked.

That rueful smile broadened, but to my disappointment—relief?—Xavier shook his head. “I’ll be back in the morning before Sof wakes up. Seven, right? I just need to get some sleep. If I stay here, I’m going to stare at you all night in those bloody shorts.”

It was then I noticed how turned onhestill was—thick and obvious through the thin material of his pants.

My God, the poor man.

Poorme.

I settled back into my pillow, unsure how to decipher the emotions roiling inside me. “All right, then. Night, Xavi.”

“Sweet dreams, babe,” he whispered.

And then, quick as a shadow, he was gone, leaving me in my bed with my hand to my mouth, touching the spot that still seared from his touch.

SIXTEEN

“You almost ready?” Xavier called from the kitchen, where he was finishing up the remnants of breakfast dishes.

Just like every morning since moving in and the two weeks since our little midnight interlude, he had come upstairs to help and spend a bit of time with Sofia. Today had been his day to take her to school while I tutored a student in Alabama. But instead of leaving for work afterward, he had come back and made us both a healthy breakfast of rice, sautéed spinach, and scrambled eggs. Plus the prenatal vitamins he made sure I took every morning.

I honestly wasn’t sure what to make of it. It was so…normal. So much like the early part of the summer before Kendal had happened.

But then, our lives had still been separate. Sofia and I had been visitors, tourists in his world while he went on basically living the way he always had. Here, he was stepping up as a partner, the kind I’d always wanted, right down to being elbows-deep in dishes instead of hiring the housekeeper we both knew he could afford.

It would have been great. Except now, with the lines blurring more than ever, it was growing even harder to put those boundaries between the two of us that I used to be certain were necessary.

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