Xavier: (Indestructible) (8 page)

The African, who sat the vehicle keeping watch, finally drove
away in the early hours of the morning. The time to strike hadn’t arrived yet,
but it would come soon.

Cassandra opened her eyes as the loud knock on her bedroom
door came again. She looked around, surprised that she was back in her bed and
Xavier was not in the room. “It’s open, come in,” she rasped out, more than
disappointed that Xavier wasn’t beside her. Today was Sunday, so she didn’t
have to go to work today.
Thank God for small mercies!

“Girl, it’s after one p.m. When are you getting out of that
bed?” Monique teased as she came farther into the room. “I never thought I
would see the day you oversleep and played hooky from your relentless training.
Thank God, finally there’s proof that you’re human like the rest of us.”
Monique laughed.

“Hey, Monique, what’s up?”

“Duane’s looking for you. It seems that people are talking
about your boyfriend making Nado and his gang disappear.”

“Wait, what?”

“Your boyfriend—”

Cassandra raised her palm and held it in front of her. “No, let
me take a shower and wake up properly before y’all start talking nonsense.”

“Whatever,” Monique muttered. “Anyway, Duane and the guys are
waiting downstairs for you. They think you’re feeding this guy information about
their business.” Monique left the bedroom and closed the door behind her.

Cassandra watched her go and shook her head at her family’s
foolishness. She marched to her bathroom, took a shower, and washed her hair.
Back in her bedroom, she rubbed on her favorite lotion, pulled on a peach
spaghetti-strapped dress, and slipped on tan high-heeled sandals. After the
night she had with Xavier, she wanted to dress more feminine than the jeans and
sweatpants he was used to seeing her in. She let her long hair air dry down her
back into its natural glossy curls. Taking care with her makeup, she applied
natural highlights and spent time accentuating her eyes, cheekbones, and lips.
She smiled at the results and couldn’t wait to see Xavier’s expression when he
saw her.

Not in least worried about her irate brothers downstairs, she
picked up her iPhone to check her messages. Xavier had left her a message
instructing her to message him as soon as she woke up. He was picking her up
for lunch. Without looking at the other messages, she immediately texted him
back.

Be ready in 10 minutes
was his terse response.

Cassandra grinned as her heart rate accelerated; she couldn’t
wait to see him.
Oh God, I love that man!
She skipped down the stairs
eight minutes later with the same bat-shit grin on her face.

“It took you fucking long enough,” Duane yelled as soon as her
feet hit the last step on the stairway.

“Good afternoon to you too, Duane.  Hi, fellas.” She grinned at
him and her other four brothers. “What’s up?”

“Who is this American mudderfucker you’re screwing around
with?” Anton demanded.

“As far as I know, I’m not screwing around with any
mudderfucker, American or otherwise.” Her voice was laced with mocking humor.

Dylan advanced on her and gripped her forearm.

“I wouldn’t touch her if I were you,” Xavier said menacingly.
No one had noticed his soundless entry into the house.

Damn, he moves like a ghost!
Cassandra’s lips stretched
wider in amusement and admiration; she loved his virile presence.

His gaze devoured her, roaming over her with ill-concealed
hunger but with obvious trepidation. While she had wanted to impress him with
her femininity, she had not anticipated he would again have the beauty and the
beast comparison. His dark eyes remained steady on her, but his desire of
moments before was now hidden.

Still holding onto Cassandra’s forearm, Dylan turned toward
Xavier. “You’re that fucking tourist from a few weeks ago.”

Xavier held his palm out toward Cassandra. “Come.”

Cassandra rolled her eyes at his still unreadable expression.
Hell
yeah, he’s pissed!
She smiled harder, happy to realize she’d learned to
read his moods so well. She devoured him with her eyes. Dressed in dark blue
jeans, a light blue designer shirt, a white gold chain around his neck, and a
diamond earring in his ear, he was a gorgeous, suave-looking man. Pulling out
of Dylan’s grasp, she forced herself to walk and not run toward Xavier. She
placed her hand in his. His fingers closed around hers and pulled her against
him. Her head barely reached his shoulder, making her feel intensely fragile
and feminine next to his blatant masculinity. She snuggled into him and melted
as his arms tightened around her.

With an arm anchored around her waist, he turned to leave.

“Hey! What the hell? Y’all ain’t leaving out of here until you
tell us who the fuck you are!” Duane shouted.

Cassandra stepped out of Xavier’s arm and started to move
toward Duane. “Look, Duane—”

Xavier palmed her stomach and pulled her back against him.
“Cameron?” Xavier looked at her younger brother.

“Wassup?” Cameron nodded at Xavier.

“You good?” Xavier asked.

“Yeah, man, everyting cool,” Cameron mumbled in gravelly
Bahamian dialect.

Xavier nodded, turned again, and coolly walked out the front
door.

“Hey! What the fuck?” Duane yelled, pissed at being ignored.

After handing her into his SUV, Xavier moved around to the
driver’s car door. Her brothers, who had followed them outside, looked as
though they were edging for a confrontation.

With a gun drawn in his hand, Duane rounded on Xavier. “Look,
man, you didn’t answer me. Who the hell are you?”

Cassandra opened the car door to climb out.

Xavier turned and gave her a hard stare. “Stay where you are,”
he told her softly.

Cassandra jumped out of the vehicle. “I can handle my brothers,”
she said, sure her annoyance at her brothers’ antics was etched in her face. “So
don’t get your panties in a twist.”

“This idiot has a gun. I don’t want you in the line of fire,”
Xavier growled. “Get back in the damn car,
please
.”

Cassandra stomped back in the car, grumbling under her breath,
and slammed the car door behind her.

Xavier looked down at Duane. “I would suggest that you never
point a fucking gun at me.”

Anton moved forward with his gun also drawn.

“Come on, guys. X saved my ass last night. Why y’all trippin’?”
Cameron complained.

“I just don’t like some mystery dude hanging around us when we
gat shit going on,” Duane insisted.

“Well, y’all need to thank this dude. Nado and his crew could
have come here at us,” Cameron argued.

“I still say we smoke this sucker before his boys come for us,”
Dylan suggested. “How the hell can we trust someone who can clean out an entire
gang and no one knows where the fuck they are?”

“Yeah, mudderfucker, we don’t trust you. Ya know what I’m
sayin’?” Duane drawled.

Xavier moved swiftly, removing the gun from Duane’s hand and
then pointing it back at him.

Duane widened his eyes in shock.

Anton looked on with a slight hesitation now, uncertain about
their foe. His hands were no longer steady.

“Next time you point a gun at me, I’ll empty the clip in your
ass. Ya know what
I’m
sayin’?” Xavier muttered before climbing into the
SUV and starting the ignition. He threw the gun he had confiscated from Duane
into the car’s glove compartment.

“Hey! Come back here,” Duane yelled, trying to save face in
front of his brothers.

Xavier reversed the vehicle out of the driveway.

Cassandra shook her head in disgust. “Sometimes I wonder how
they’re not dead yet. They’re so bloody incompetent.”

Xavier glanced over at her. “Didn’t we have a discussion last
night about you following instructions?”

“It seems you were having that discussion with yourself. Ask me
to do something nicely, and if I think it’s appropriate or makes sense, I will
decide whether to obey you or not.”

Xavier placed his palm on her knee. “You look beautiful,” he
said coolly and slowed the car down to ten miles per hour, causing other
motorists behind them to get agitated and blast their horns. He ignored the long
line of traffic behind them and instead inched his hand up her left thigh.

“Okay, I’m confused.” She frowned at him. “You go from fussing
at me for not listening to you to telling me I’m beautiful, and now you’re
caressing my thigh?”

Xavier kept his gaze on the road ahead and continued to roam
his palm slowly over her thigh.

Her breathing hitched as his rough palm inched almost to the
apex of her thighs.

“I want to show you another reason why you should listen,” he
murmured. He leaned over her, rubbed a thick finger along the seam of her panty-covered
folds, and tenderly kissed her cheek, her nose, her ear, and her neck, all
while driving at a sedate pace.

Cassandra widened her thighs, trying to encourage him to caress
her more intimately. She turned her head toward him and tried to kiss his lips.
He avoided her lips and instead kissed her forehead. His caresses between her
legs were feather-light touches of his fingers. She tried to press her
throbbing flesh against his hand, but he kept his touch light, teasing. Cassandra
squirmed in her seat in agitation, still trying to capture his lips. “X,
please,” she begged.

Xavier removed his hand and his lips. He returned his attention
to the road and increased the car speed.

Cassandra quivered with need, breathing in and out deeply to
try to restore her equilibrium. Xavier’s scent, his presence, was everywhere, and
desire reeled through her. She closed her eyes in an effort to block out the demands
of her body, but that made her other senses only sharper.
What the hell is
that?

Too soon the car came to a stop outside the Poop Deck
Restaurant. Xavier came around to her side door and opened it for her. When he
reached for her hand, she ignored him and climbed out of the car without
assistance. “Don’t touch me. And don’t ever do that to me again,” she hissed. “I
will not be controlled by my desire for you.” She marched past him through the
car park. Cassandra smiled and greeted the taxi drivers who waited outside the
restaurant for their next fare. However, she ignored Xavier and stalked up the
stairway leading into the restaurant.

He followed silently behind her.

A hostess met her at the entrance and escorted her to a table
by the window overlooking the harbor and a clear view of Paradise Island.

Xavier ordered a beer for himself and lemonade for her.

“Who says I want lemonade?” Cassandra muttered.

Xavier looked at the confused server and smiled. “It’s okay. She’ll
have the lemonade.”

The server left them quietly.

“So, is this how you think our relationship will be? Will you
tell me when to breathe, when to go to bathroom as well?”

“You know you’re being ridiculous, right? I explained to you
why it’s important that you listen when I give you an instruction,” Xavier said
softly.

“My brothers are imbeciles; they’re not dangerous.”

“I didn’t ask you to obey me when you perceive a threat. You
will listen to me when I consider you in danger. The way they were shaking with
those guns, anything could have happened.”

“Now who’s being ridiculous? If I leave it to you, I would
never leave the house. You think every situation is a threat.”

“I’m not going to apologize for wanting to keep you safe,”
Xavier said, starting to lose some of that cool.

“I’m not asking you to. But, X, you have to start trusting me
too. This is my country, and I know the players a little better than you.
Believe it or not, I managed to survive twenty-one years without you.”

Xavier leaned across the table and held her gaze. “When there’s
a weapon around, or someone appears even slightly dangerous, the rule is you
will listen. No question.”

The server chose that moment to return with their drinks. After
taking their order, the server left them again.

“Did we just have our first fight?” Cassandra asked him.

“You haven’t given me your promise that you will obey
instructions, so I guess we’re
still
fighting.”

“You didn’t promise to stop trying to control me, so you’d
better not hold your breath on
my
promise.” Cassandra took a sip of her
lemonade and, with irritated, jerky motions, buttered the warm bread the server
had left for them.

Xavier drank his beer and stared unwaveringly at her, his
molten gaze roaming over her face and her cleavage in a soft visual caress.

Despite shivering in response, Cassandra diligently ignored his
scrutiny. Sensing another’s gaze on her, she looked up at the man approaching
their table from behind Xavier. She stiffened, anticipating the coming
unpleasant confrontation.

“Hello, Cassandra, you’re still looking fine as ever,” the Chinese
man said, grinning at her and ignoring her lunch companion.

“What do you want, Qin?” Cassandra asked him impatiently. Qin
was annoying as hell. He was a gorgeous man, and he knew it. He had smooth
olive skin, long jet-black hair that he usually kept in a ponytail, beautiful dark
eyes, and adorable dimples in both cheeks. At a little over six feet tall, Qin
was not a small man, especially for a Chinese. He had arrived on the Island about
two years ago with his crew of men in tow. He’d seen her out one night at a
restaurant with her sisters three months into his stay on the island and had
been sniffing around her ever since. He was always flanked by two of his men,
as he was now. They were as Asian as he was, and she had never heard them
speak. This was the man who had been having her followed all summer. However,
she hadn’t seen them since yesterday. Qin’s visit now was very interesting indeed.
What the hell is he up to?

“Is this any way for you to address a long-time friend of your family?”
in asked with his head tilted and a sly smile on his lips.

“Qin, you and I both know that you’re not into black girls. So
why are you sweating me?” Cassandra wondered if Qin realized her double meaning
in the question. She had never seen the Chinese man with a black woman. He’d
probably slept with a few of them, but she knew Qin would never be seen in
public dating a black woman. He appeared to be a traditionalist, always with
Asian women whenever she saw him out on a date.