“Oh, yes, it does.”
His low, emphatic tone makes my gaze lock on his face. And, God, what a beautifully male face it is. Eyes rimmed in thick black lashes any woman would kill for. Hair so dark, it looks black unless he’s in direct sunlight. Olive skin darkened with the day’s beard.
My face tingles where that beard caressed my skin as he kissed me. And just like that, my mind jackknifes to the look in his hazel eyes just before his lips touched mine—the desire, the focus, the affection. For an instant, we were the only people on that deck. For an instant, all my walls and reservations fell away. “Hey, baby. Couldn’t wait to get home to you.”
The sound of the drill startles me, and I’m shocked to find Xavier putting another hole in my door. “What are you doing?”
“Putting in a dead bolt.”
“Why are you so high maintenance tonight?”
&nbs
p; “You’ll thank me when that fucker comes to your door.”
My stomach gives an uncomfortable squeeze. “He’s not going to come here.”
Xavier stops what he’s doing, turns his head, and meets my gaze. “Are you in denial, or are you seriously that naïve?”
Okay, it’s one thing for me to think I’m naïve, and I don’t really care whether or not he thinks I’m naïve, but it’s a totally different thing for him to mock me over it. “Don’t be a dick.”
“Let’s make a bet,” he says. “If he doesn’t come over here uninvited in the next ten days, I owe you dinner. If he does, you owe me dinner.”
“I’m not naïve enough to take that no-win bet.”
“You could see it as a no-win, but I like to think of it as a double win. And that no-dating thing is going to have to change if you want people to think we’re together.”
Well, shit. He’s right. The next ten days stretch out before me like an eternity. I want to tell him to call off the fake relationship. Tell him I can handle Bodhi on my own. But all I have to do is think back to the way my heart rose to my throat when Bodhi apologized and the look in his eyes when he said he wants me back to know I need a buffer. Besides, it’s not about how I feel about Bodhi. It’s about how the assumption that Bodhi and I are together again will damage my integrity, and integrity is my platform, my base, my way of life. Integrity is everything.
Still, needing Xavier for this makes me feel like such a loser.
He unpackages a new door handle KT had picked up some time ago. Levi’s been meaning to replace the door handles and better secure the boat for my personal safety, but since nothing dangerous ever happens in this town and everything required for the marina’s opening overshadowed the small stuff, the doorknob fell way down on the to-do list.
Silence falls between us, one that’s comfortable and supportive despite our bickering. When he’s finished with the front door, he hands me the new keys and prowls around the rest of the boat checking windows and the back door.
His certainty that Bodhi will not only come here but try to get in uninvited is unnerving. The truth is, the day I found out about Bodhi’s infidelity, I realized I didn’t know him at all. That the man I loved didn’t exist anywhere except in my mind. So, to be honest, I have no idea what he will or won’t do.
Xavier returns to the living room, hands on hips, his gaze on the swath of pink covering the floor. “You need to use that metal bar in the track of your sliding glass door.”
“But I need air circulation,” I tell him.
“Look, I know this goes against all your hippie freedom vibes, but I also know firsthand a man will go to great lengths to reach a woman he wants. So, for tonight, please promise me you’ll sleep with your doors and windows locked. I’ll pull in a fan from KT’s shop so you feel like you’ve got air. Tomorrow, I’ll bring over locks for the windows that will allow them to stay open a little bit.”
I slide another book into a bag and fluff the tissue. “You’re freaking me out.”
“The only other alternative is to have me sleeping here with you.” When I look at him, he’s grinning in that hot, sexy way that makes my insides tingle. “Then you could leave the windows wide open. Or you could come to my place and sleep there.”
Xavier’s renovating a little house closer to town, and truthfully, I’d like to see how it’s going, but not this way. The image from earlier in the day sizzles to life in my brain again, all that olive skin against white sheets. Yearning pulls deep in my chest. To cover, I roll my eyes.
“That’s what I thought.” He moves a few bags around, sits cross-legged on the floor, and pulls a schedule from one of the bags, then glances around and says, “Toss me that pen.”
I reach for the pen on the side table and offer it to him.
“Okay,” he says, “what have we got? Welcome and introduction tomorrow morning.”
“You can leave that. I’ll welcome everyone, but I’ll skip his introduction. He can introduce himself.”
For the next five minutes, Xavier scratches my name off three panel discussions, the joint book signing, and a Q&A session.