London Calling: BWWM New Adult Romance (Chase Brothers Book 2) (17 page)

"
I
mani
?" Xander called from the other room

"Yeah, Xander?" She jogged out into the living room only partially dressed for the ball. She had her dress on, but she hadn’t had a chance to do anything with her hair or makeup yet. "What's the problem?"

He held up the loan application she’d picked up from the bank that afternoon. "What the hell is this?"

"Oh, uh, just paperwork for a loan. Ebony called yesterday and she got into Briarwood Academy. So I can finally bring her over with me."

He waved the papers again. "Still doesn’t explain these." His brows were drawn in and his lips thin.

"Well, okay. Briarwood costs a lot of money. Like ten thousand pounds a year. My dad clearly isn't going to pay for it if he can’t seem to stay on top of his mortgage payments. So I'm going to get a loan to cover what her scholarship won’t. What’s the big deal?"

"The big deal is you didn't bother talking to me about it. I’ll give you the money. I’ve already wired the money into your account for helping me with LeClerc. I’ll wire more.”

Her stomach twisted. "Please see earlier conversation about how I'm not a whore. You can’t just give me money. Nothing comes for free."

"Of course I can give you money. I have a lot of it, why won’t you take it? How is this at all different than me paying you to pose as my girlfriend?"

And there it was, the white elephant she'd thought she'd been masking with the living room cushions. She could call it whatever she wanted, but she was still being paid to be here in a way. It didn't matter that they’d slept together. It didn't matter that he said he wanted to be with her. Fundamentally, she was paid to be here.

"It just is. You were paying me for a specific job. One that’s over after this weekend. I'm grateful for it. But I can’t go back and tap the source because I’m short on cash. In case you haven’t noticed, Mr. Buffet, I like to do things on my own steam. I was desperate to pay the mortgage. That was the only reason I came to the bank of Xander. I'm not desperate now. I have a way out."

Exasperated, he shook his head. "Woman, why are you so fucking stubborn? I don't want you to be beholden to me. I just want to help."

"But it comes with strings. Think about how I feel about it, Xander. Fe offered to help out with the mortgage. I could have taken his money, but he's my best friend and I know that while he has plenty of it, it's blood money, so I wouldn’t. And it's not who I am. I fix things myself."

"That’s ridiculous, Imani. You want your sister here. I can make that happen. Shit. I should have just brought her here already."

"I think you’re forgetting that on Tuesday, I move out, Xander. We go back to our normal lives. Sure, we’re trying to…I don’t know…date or whatever, but I can’t take your money. That’s not how it works. You can take me to dinner, but you cannot just give me money for my sister’s tuition." Not to mention she thought they were past that now. That was what she got for starting to buy into the illusion.

He sighed. "It's only money."

It was never just money. "No. It's not. It's so much more than that." It was also about control. And she needed to have it over her life. There was no way she was going to be dependent on anybody, let alone Xander. "Now if you give me another thirty, I'll be ready to go."

"So you’re done talking about this. What if I'm not done?"

"Too bad because we're going to be late."

He cocked his head and the intense, focused glare he gave her, sent shivers down her spine. "And I if say we're not going?" His gaze narrowed as he took in the low-cut dip of her dress and the mile-high slit up her thigh. "I could convince you to take the money from me."

The flicker of hope that they might be able to pull this off dimmed a little. Knowing his skills, he probably could coerce her into taking it. But he was doing it again. If she let him, he would use sex to try to control her. To try to make her do what he wanted. He would make it all about her pleasure, of course. But she knew what it was about for him. He wasn't getting his way, so he sought to use the only tools he thought he had in his arsenal. Sex and money.

Whenever they had even the mildest disagreement, he used sex to resolve it. Or at the very least put it on hold temporarily. And he was trying to do that now.

"I've been looking forward to this thing for days. I've got the fancy dress on. I'm going."

"We're not done talking about this."

She shrugged and turned away from him. "If you say so."

Xander kissed her shoulder and Imani shivered. Would he ever get used to touching her? The more he did it, the more he wanted to.

“You know, you're making it very hard to think, Xander."

His chuckle was low. "Well, that's sort of the point. I'm trying to get you to leave early. These benefit dinners are torturously boring." He still felt on edge after their earlier argument. If they could just be close he’d know they were okay. He needed to grow a pair and talk to her about how he felt. He didn't have much time. But he wanted her to want to stay with him. To share things with him. And it seemed like all she wanted was to be on her own.

"Remember, you're supposed to care about these things. You’re about to be named to the board."

"I care about the outcome." He cared more about booting Alistair. "The actual part of the donor glad-handing, I can do without. Besides, my fiancée looks absolutely amazing right now and I can’t seem to keep my hands off of her."
Fake fiancée,
he reminded himself.

She rolled her eyes. "We’re supposed to mingle at these things, right? Why don’t you introduce me to some people."

"Or how about we go home." He lowered his voice so only she could hear him. "You slide off those shoes and brace yourself against the countertop with your hands. I could lift your dress and slide into you, hot and deep. Make you call my name, over and over and over again."

Her skin flushed. "Xander."

"What?" He blinked at her innocently. "What did I say?" Why wasn’t she as on edge as he was?

“You know, Miriam was wrong. You’re definitely a dirty talker.”

He grabbed two champagne flutes and led them toward the balcony, but a striking brunette glided in front of them before they could make it. Every cell in his body seized momentarily before resuming normal function.
Christie
.

She didn’t even look in Imani's direction, just kept her eyes glued to him. "Hello, stranger."

Xander removed his hand from Imani’s lower back. He didn't need to transfer any of his anger to her. But he felt the loss of her heat immediately. He wanted to keep Imani close, but he didn't trust himself. "Hello, Christie."

She deliberately ignored Imani and it ticked him off. "Have you met my fiancée, Imani Brooks?" He couldn’t lie to himself and say he didn't enjoy the pain he read across her face just a little.

Her face fell when she slid her gaze to Imani. "A pleasure. Congratulations on the engagement. I know Xander is a hard one to pin down."

Imani held her own. With a tilted chin, she said, "Well, I guess that wasn't my experience. Everything has been a bit of a whirlwind romance, you know."

Christie's brows rose, then she narrowed her gaze and examined Imani closer. He knew the moment she saw the ring. She should recognize it. After all, it had been hers. She was supposed to wear it forever and never take it off. But a few words from Alistair and that was the end of that.

"Imani, would you mind terribly if I borrowed Xander for a moment? There is something I need to speak with him about."

Say no. Say no
. But ever independent, Imani just said, “Take your time."

He couldn't read her hooded expression, but he could feel her pulling away, feel the distance between them.

He wanted to go after her retreating form. But he knew he had to deal with Christie first. "What do you want?"

"She's a little young, isn’t she?"

"Easy Christie, you really don’t want to go there."

"Sorry. I'd heard you were engaged and I wanted to talk to you. Maybe apologize for how things ended."

Oh really? Was it bad form to make the bitch beg? "You mean the part about where you walked out on me without giving me any chance to explain?"

She slid her gaze around. "Can we go somewhere? You know, and talk?"

"No. We can’t. "

She sighed. "I don't have enough words to tell you how sorry I am. I should have listened to you. Stayed. Worked it out. But the truth was, what Alistair told me, it was an excuse. A reason to leave."

"You're shitting me right now."

"You were always so secretive. Closed off. You wouldn't talk about your past at all. You never opened up, Xander. I felt like I was dealing with a shadow of you most of the time. The only time I saw the real version of you was in bed."

"You could have done a number of other things besides walk out. You could have told me how you felt. You could have tried to talk to me. You could have even told me the real reason then. Anything.”

She shook her head, her dark hair curling around her shoulders. “I’ve always regretted it."

He drained his champagne glass. "Are you done?"

Her already alabaster skin went deathly pale. "All I wanted to do was say I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that."

"Good thing for me, I already figured that out." He grabbed two more glasses of champagne off a passing waiter’s tray. He downed them in quick succession.

She pursed her lips. "Look, I’m going to offer you a piece of advice that you can take or leave. The infant you’re going to marry—maybe try being more open with her than you were with me. Share yourself. Don’t keep her at arm’s length. And maybe she'll never take the ring off."

He noted her shimmering eyes as she took the hallway to the left. But he had zero urge to go after her. The emotions warred inside him—anger, self-loathing, confusion, need, loneliness—almost paralyzed him. But then he caught a glimpse of Imani at the bar. She said something and the bartender erupted in a booming laugh as he shook his head.

No doubt she'd said something sassy. The smile tugged at his lips despite the turn his conversation with Christie had taken.

He needed her. It was more than needing to make his plan work. It was more than the sex. It was so many things. He needed her to laugh, to tell him off, to walk around the house in her socks saying lines out loud. In his bed. He'd grown used to that connection, had come to need it for his basic survival. He wasn't letting it go. Not now.

Standing directly behind her, he leaned down and whispered, "Come with me."

She tilted her head up and raised a delicately arched brow. "I was busy talking to Sean here. He knows where I’m from."

He could give two fucks about Sean. And the git needed to keep his grubby paws off of her.

Xander leaned in right next to her ear. "You left me back there."

"It looked important. I know how private you are, so I left you to it."

A prick of awareness pierced his need. Did he treat her the same way he'd treated Christie? Or was this about her and her tendency to pull back before she had to care about anything?

"I'm sorry about that. I'll tell you anything you want to know. But first I need to taste you. To have you melting on my tongue... I need you."

Her lips parted and for a moment he was worried she'd tell him to fuck off. But instead she nodded and took his hand with barely a muttered goodbye to Sean. He had no idea where he was going, as he wasn’t familiar with the venue. But a map told him exactly where he needed to go. The farther they got away from the crowd, the more he needed her, the more he craved her.

When he found the study located on the second floor, he tugged her inside and locked the door behind them.

"Xander, what's going on?"

The words tripped off his tongue before he could stop them. "I need you. Now.”

Imani's eyes widened. “What’s wrong? What did she say to you?"

"Nothing important. I just need you."

“Okay, then. Talk to me.”

But he wasn’t in the mood to talk. “Fuck now. Talk later.” He kissed her deep without preamble. Unable to wait. She made a little squeaking sound at the back of her throat and he forced himself to gentle his touch. To take it slower. To not push so hard, but the need coursed through his veins and he shook with it. The tension coiled him into a tight string, ready to snap at any moment.

But then she sighed and slipped her hands into his hair and he knew she wanted him too. Backing her up against the couch, he leaned over her. "Sit."

"What?" She blinked up at him in confusion.

"You heard me. Sit."

She did as instructed. "Now hands on the back of the couch. Hold on tight. I don’t want you letting go."

She blinked up at him with heavy-lidded eyes. "Okay."

The red dress hugged each of her curves. Her tits had been teasing him all night. Swelling over the fabric, but never enough to be easy access. But just enough to tease, to taunt.

"Open your legs, sweetheart."

"Xander?”

He dropped his voice. "Open. Now."

Slowly she slid them apart, the slit of her dress making way, giving her some room.

He kneeled in front of her and shoved aside the fabric of her dress. "All night I've been wondering if you were wearing panties. Are you?"

"Why don’t you find out for yourself?"

Shoving away the fabric, he tugged up part of the bodice to give her legs more room.

Fuck
. Her scent surrounded him. Intoxicating him. He was buzzing from the combination of alcohol, need and her. Mostly her. Because he knew even if they were at home, he would feel the same way. He'd still want her this bad.

Xander pushed her legs apart and she whimpered. "That’s it, baby. I want to see how pretty you are." And God, she was beautiful. She'd waxed for him. And her honey-brown skin gave way to swollen lips that he wanted to taste. Merely a breath away from the promised land. When he parted her flesh with his thumbs, she trembled. "Don’t forget to hold on. Beautiful. I'm going to take my time until you melt."

Just the promise of pleasure and she raised her hips in invitation. Xander locked his jaw. He wanted her so fucking bad.