New Beginnings (4 page)

“I’m fine. It’s all right, really.”

He glared at me as he continued to pace. “It’s not all right,” he said angrily.

“Stop it!” I demanded, reaching out for his arm. He stopped pacing and gave me a surprised look. “I will not have you blaming yourself,” I said, taking a deep, calming breath. “You were right. I needed that time to think, and to do just that I went out for a quick hike. If it wasn’t for the swirling mist, I wouldn’t have had my head down, and I never would’ve spotted the footprints by the door when I got back. But you needn’t worry. Marissa was here in a matter of minutes.” I paused and frowned. My cell phone. Xavier gave me a quizzical look. “My phone.”

“What about your phone?” he asked.

“When you went to get ready to leave earlier, my cell phone was buzzing. It was from a restricted number again. I answered but nobody was there and then the line went dead.” I frowned up at him. “Do you think my calls and our unexpected visitor could be related?”

A dark look came over Xavier’s face. “It’s possible,” he said quietly.

We headed out to the living room after I got dressed to tell Stewart about the phone calls I had been receiving. He felt it could be connected to our visitor since Xavier had the GPS feature enabled on my cell phone. Stewart advised that we disconnect it, which had Xavier scowling and backtracking. Stewart instead told me not to answer any future restricted calls and if they persisted I was going to need to change my number … again.

Stewart and Marissa were going to head back to their house on the property. After the last time we were here and I had an uneasy feeling that someone was watching us, Xavier had cameras installed. Stewart assured me that they would be monitoring the exterior of the house for the remainder of our stay. He was also going to check the recordings to see if he could get a glimpse of whoever had been at the house.

Xavier headed to the bedroom to take a shower after his day of hiking with Stewart. I pulled out my laptop and sat at the breakfast bar surfing for wedding dresses. Minutes later, Xavier grabbed my waist from behind making me squeal and jump. He just laughed.

“What are you doing?” he asked. As he rested his chin on my shoulder, his fresh, musky smell, stronger from his shower, assaulted my senses.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” I asked, trying best to control the sudden urge to tackle him to the floor.

“Well, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were looking at wedding dresses. Is it safe for me to assume that your hike was a productive one?” he asked, sounding pleased.

I nodded.

He turned the stool around and positioned himself between my legs. He was wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. Drops of water dripping from his wet hair onto his shoulder and running down his chiseled chest immediately enraptured me. “You want to talk about it?” he asked, forcing my attention back to his beautiful face.

“I don’t know what happened at the wedding yesterday. When I looked up at you, I saw Stephen. For whatever reason my mind took me back to that wedding.” I paused for a moment. “It’s not what you think,” I said in response to the anger that flashed in his eyes. “I don’t have any feelings for Stephen, and it wasn’t a pleasant flashback either. I was just scared.” I took his face in my hands. “I was scared of the unknown things that could take you away from me, but I know I have no control over that. I can no longer allow it to stop me from moving forward with you. I’ve also been foolishly scared of the possibility of you having an affair.” I sighed as he scowled at me. “You’ve given me no reason to believe otherwise. I know that. I trust you. Completely. I trust you with my heart. I trust you with my life. I know there is nowhere else I would rather be than right here with you. Forever,” I whispered.

“Thank you,” he said softly. He lifted me from the stool. He winked at me as I wrapped my legs around his lean waist and my arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders. I snuggled into his neck as he carried me to the bedroom.

I woke the following morning feeling completely rested after our exploits from last night. I glanced over to find Xavier staring down at me. He had his head propped up on his hand.

“Good morning, beautiful.” He gave me a wide smile that I couldn’t help but emulate.

“Good morning, handsome.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “What were you doing?” I asked curiously.

“Watching you sleep.” The smile slid off his face as his voice took on a serious tone. “I could watch you forever. The way your lips part so a sexy little sigh can escape just drives me crazy.” He ran his finger along my bottom lip as he stared intently at my mouth.

“And do you do this often?” I asked softly.

“Every morning, baby,” he whispered, before moving in for a kiss that he broke away from all too soon. “Relax a bit. I’ll go fix us some breakfast.” He playfully smacked me on my behind as he jumped out of bed.

I fell back against the pillow and just stared at the ceiling. Damn, that wasn’t exactly the wake-up call I had in mind.

By the time I made it out to the kitchen, Xavier was spooning egg onto plates on the breakfast bar. The smell of bacon and freshly brewed coffee filled the room making my stomach growl. I hadn’t realized just how hungry I had been until I smelled it.

“That smells fantastic,” I said. Climbing up onto one of the bar stools, I immediately started digging in. “Mmmm. These eggs taste even better than they smell,” I managed to say around a mouth full.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this hungry,” Xavier smiled at me.

“So, what do you have planned for today?” I asked.

“We need to head back to Seattle,” he said without hesitation.

“Oh. Okay. I thought maybe …”

“No,” he said brusquely. “We won’t be able to stay. You’ll need to get ready to go as soon as you’re done eating.”

“Okay,” I said. I didn’t have to ask. I knew this had everything to do with the mysterious footprints I found outside the house yesterday.

By one in the afternoon, Stewart was sitting in the driveway in the black BMW SUV waiting for Xavier and me. Marissa was already on her way back to Seattle in my silver SUV.

While I was waiting for Xavier and Stewart to finish loading the car, it dawned on me that Renatta was going to be gone all week. I’m going to be working with Devlin. Shit. Remembering Xavier’s jealous reaction to my working with him last time, told me I better bring it up on the long drive home.

“That was really very sweet what you did for Tom and Renatta for a honeymoon. I meant to say thank you, but we were a bit distracted when we got to the house,” I said apologetically.

“I felt it was the least I could do for them. Renatta has been a very good friend to you,” he said.

“She has,” I said in agreement. “So, you’re going to be okay with me working with Devlin all week?” I asked apprehensively. I peeked at Xavier, carefully watching his reaction.

He let out a rather big sigh. “Of course I am.” He turned and smiled at me. “Why don’t you stop by my office tomorrow and we’ll have lunch. I’ll text you with a time.”

“That sounds great. Thank you.” I reached over and took his hand in mine. “I love you.”

He squeezed my hand in return. “I love you back.”

The following morning went by rather quickly. Xavier sent a text asking me to be at his office at one o’clock for lunch. Devlin and I didn’t have a lot of stops, and the places we did have to photograph were fairly close together. We aimed to be done with work before lunch.

By 12:45 p.m. Marissa was pulling up to Xavier’s office. I quickly made my way into the lobby, and was pleased that I was able to catch an elevator up to the forty-second floor without much of a wait. As soon as I stepped off the elevator, Carmen waved and quickly buzzed me into the office. As I walked down the hall, I noticed Xavier’s door was closed and Patrick wasn’t at his desk. As I got closer to Xavier’s office, I could hear raised voices. I froze just outside the door until I realized one of the raised voices belonged to Carline.

“Carline, I’m done discussing this with you. Ella will be here any moment for lunch. I need you gone before she arrives,” Xavier said angrily.

“Like I give a shit. I hope I run into her. I would love to tell her …”

“Tell me what?” I asked, striding into his office. Carline gasped and whirled around to face me. Xavier glared at me and shook his head in warning.

Carline quickly composed herself and stalked towards me. “You just aren’t going to be happy until you have completely ruined Stephen. Well, I’m not going to allow that to happen.” She pointed a perfectly manicured finger in my face.

I let out a heavy sigh, and shook my head at her. She gave me a vicious look. “I don’t need to try and ruin Stephen. Given time, he will do it all by himself.”

“He wasn’t the one outside Xavier’s home this weekend.” I suppressed the gasp of surprise that tried to escape my throat at what she just said. Is that what Xavier thought? Did he think it was Stephen who had been at the house? “He was called into work. A twenty-four hour clinic had an x-ray machine that needed servicing,” Carline said confidently.

Xavier rose out of his chair in a steady and deliberate manner and stalked over to us. He grabbed Carline by the elbow and escorted her to the door. “This discussion is over. Get out. Now.” His voice was soft but demanding. Xavier wrenched the door open. Stewart was standing on the other side waiting. He grabbed Carline by the arm and swiftly pulled her from Xavier’s office.

Carline just had to have the last word. Turning around quickly, she focused her icy glare at me. “This isn’t over,” she said venomously.

“Yes, it is,” Xavier growled, shutting the office door in her face.

He turned around and looked at me warily. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to hear any of that,” he said regretfully.

“Why was she here?” I asked, demanding to know.

“Please, Ella. It’s nothing you need to worry about,” he said in a pacifying tone.

Sometimes I really hated how hard it was to stay focused during a conversation with him, especially when I was angry and he looked so dangerously handsome. He was wearing my favorite charcoal gray three-piece suit with a crisp white dress shirt and a simple black tie. He placed the jacket on the back of one of the chairs at the conference table before stopping before me. The vest was form-fitting and really showcased his muscular arms, his broad chest, and lean waist. I knew he was trying to distract me from my question he had yet to answer, and he wasn’t holding anything back based on the way he had sauntered over to me. I gave up trying to focus on his face and continued to visually feast on his lean, hard body.

Stopping in front of me, he looked down at me with hooded eyes as his unique and musky smell wrapped around me. I could feel the heat coming off his skin as he grabbed the strap of my pocketbook and lifted it off my shoulder. Sliding my bag down, he placed it on the floor next to me. “We don’t have a lot of time,” he said quietly, seductively. His piercing, blue eyes never left mine. My breathing kicked up a notch.

Grabbing my scarf, he slowly unwound it from my neck. The soft material moving against my overly sensitive skin had me fisting my hands at my side. The scarf fell from his hand and landed on top of my pocketbook. “We need to make the most of it,” he said, unzipping my jacket slowly.