King of Sloth (Kings of Sin, 4)

I’d worked with Xavier for years, and I’d never seen him angry. Frustrated, yes. Annoyed, definitely. But angry? No.

Until now.

The shift in his countenance was subtle but unmistakable: The tightening of his jaw. The glint in his eyes. The way his muscles coiled.

He was seconds away from losing his temper, and I needed to take control fast before we landed ourselves on Perry fucking Wilson’s blog again.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” I finally found my words and pinned an annoyed glare at the man standing across from me. “Since you asked, I haven’t answered your calls or texts because I already made it clear: We’re over.”

“I thought you were joking. We had such a good thing going. Why would you want to end it?” Mark demanded. He appeared genuinely baffled.

Oh, for Christ’s sake. This was what I got for indulging in a regular hookup instead of one-night stands.

I didn’t want a relationship, but I had physical needs like everyone else, and having a consistent booty call was easier than wading into the sewage of online dating or waiting for lightning to strike in real life.

The problem? Men always got so attached. Sleep with them a couple of times and they suddenly thought we were going to ride off into the sunset together.

I didn’t even like sunsets. They were depressing.

“I told you our time together has expired.” I looked around for our server. There had to be a rule against unlawful loitering at diners’ tables. “Now, as Xavier mentioned, we were in the middle of a conversation. Please leave.”

My talk with Xavier had been uncomfortable, off-putting, and surprising in a multitude of ways, but I’d rather spend the entire day rehashing our kiss than speak with Mark.

I’d broken things off with him right before Greece. We met when he was bartending at the happy hour spot my friends and I frequented, and we hooked up for a few months until he booked us a weekend getaway at a bed-and-breakfast. That was when I knew it was over.

“Oh, come on,” Mark wheedled. If I hadn’t been sure we were over before, I was now. There was nothing more unattractive than a grown man whining. “If you—”

“She said leave.” Xavier cut him off, his voice lethally soft.

He hadn’t moved since Mark called himself my boyfriend, but his eyes smoldered with deadly warning.

Despite his relaxed pose, one arm tossed over the back of the booth and the other resting on the table, tension filled every line of his body. He resembled a predator lying in the weeds, waiting to strike.

A shiver breathed cold down my spine.

Xavier wasn’t the violent type, but I had a gut feeling that if he and Mark went head to head, one of them would end up on the ground—and it’d be the one standing right now.

“This doesn’t involve you,” Mark snapped, but he took a tiny step to the right, away from Xavier. “I still don’t know who the fuck you are.”

“You don’t need to know who I am.” Xavier’s affable smile didn’t reach his eyes. “You do, however, need to take a hint. Sloane broke up with you, and you didn’t listen. She told you to leave, and you didn’t listen. That’s two strikes. I highly suggest you don’t make a third.”

Some people’s anger ran hot, exploding in outbursts and impulsive violence.

Xavier’s ran cold, smoothing his tone, frosting the air, and sending another breathless shiver over my skin.

I could and did take care of myself. I didn’t want to play the damsel in distress, and I didn’t need a man barging in to reiterate things I’d already said.

But fuck, sometimes it felt good to have backup, especially when it came wrapped in muscles and devastating charm.

Mark’s gaze slid from Xavier to me and back again. Whatever he saw in our faces must’ve spooked him because he turned tail and fled without another word.

My fork clattered against my plate when he disappeared from view. I’d clutched it in a death grip this entire time, and the metal left a cold imprint against my skin.

Xavier dropped his arm from the booth, tension unwinding from his body like a spool of rope. The dangerous gleam vanished from his eyes, and he observed me for a quiet moment.

“Luna,” he said, “you have unequivocally shitty taste in past men.”

I groaned, already over this day even though it was only noon. “Thank you for brunch, but we’re done here.” I tossed a twenty on the table for tip, grabbed my bag, and stood. “I have…” He knew about my cleared calendar. Dammit, Jillian. If she weren’t such a great assistant otherwise, I would fire her for sharing that information with Xavier. “Emails to check.”

“I certainly hate to keep you from your emails, but we haven’t finished our earlier conversation, as you kindly pointed out to Meathead Central.” Xavier flagged down our server and paid our bill before following me out of the restaurant. “Give me a good reason why we can’t date besides our working relationship.”

“That should be enough reason.” I purposely turned away from him and scanned the street for a passing cab. A quick phone check told me it would be faster than trying to hail an Uber.

“Working relationships come and go, Luna. Personal ones don’t.” A small pause. “At least, they shouldn’t.”

“Are you firing me?”

“No, I’m saying we can work around the publicist-client thing. Hell, we can watch one of those rom-coms you love—er, love to hate-watch—so much for inspiration,” Xavier amended when I glared at him. “Hollywood must’ve come up with a dozen strategies for this sort of thing.”

“I told you, rom-coms are unrealistic. Hollywood isn’t real life.” I whirled to face him. “You just told Mark to know when to take a hint. Why are you being so insistent about this?”

“Because I want you.”

Simple. Matter-of-fact. And a fierce, unexpected blow to my chest.

The air evacuated from my lungs as I stared at Xavier. His eyes and mouth had sobered, wiping away the irreverence and leaving only sincerity behind.

“I don’t want a kiss or a one-night stand,” he said. “I want you. I want to know you outside work. I want to take you on real dates. And I don’t know if it’ll work out in the end, but I want us to at least try.”

For God’s sake, Sloane, no one wants to date a block of ice.

A thick sensation crawled into my throat and curled up there. “Trust me.” I strangled my bag strap with one hand. “You don’t want to know me outside work.”

When I was working, no one blamed me for being cold or direct. They expected it. When I was dating…that was a whole different matter.

“Let me be the judge of that.” Xavier’s voice softened. “What are you so afraid of?”

A wretched tingle spread behind my eyes and nose. “Nothing.” I averted my gaze to the street, where honking cars and jaywalking pedestrians provided enough stimulation to obscure my real answer.

I’m afraid of letting someone in again. I’m afraid of getting my heart broken.

I’m afraid that, if you get to know the real me, you’ll find me unlovable like everyone else, and it’ll hurt so much more because it’s you.

My past was my past. I’d been young, stupid, and inexperienced, and I’d dated plenty of other men since my first heartbreak. I hadn’t been afraid of giving them a chance because I knew they wouldn’t breach my defenses.

Xavier? He had the potential to destroy the entire system. “Sloane.” His light touch seared my arm. “Look at me.” “No.” I hardened my resolve and thrust out my arm to hail a passing cab. “We’ll go over your PR plan later. I’m taking the rest of the day off.”

By that, I meant I was going to catch up on my emails at home, take a nice long bubble bath, indulge in a glass of wine and a movie…and not think about Xavier Castillo in any way, shape, or form.

The cab screeched to a halt in front of me. I opened the door and climbed in. Xavier climbed in after me.

“What are you doing?” I demanded. “This is breaking and entering!”

“It’s a cab.”

“That you’re breaking and entering into.” I rapped my knuckles against the divider separating us from the front seat. “You have an intruder in your car. I don’t know this man. Please dispose of him immediately.”

The driver glanced in the rearview mirror, unimpressed. “Weren’t ya just talking to him a second ago?”

“He was talking to me.”

“We were talking to each other,” Xavier corrected. “I—”

The driver released a huge sigh. “Look, lady, I don’t got time to deal with a lovers’ spat. You wanna go or not?”

“We’re not—”

“She wants to go. Just keep driving around until we say otherwise.” Xavier slipped a hundred-dollar-bill through the opening in the divider. “A pre-tip for your service. Thanks, man.”

The driver snatched the bill from his hand and sped off. “This is kidnapping,” I said furiously. “You are committing a crime.”

“You broke into my room twice in the past month, so consider us even.” Xavier smiled, but his eyes remained serious. “You can’t keep running from the hard stuff, Luna. Eventually, you’ll have to face what you’re so afraid of.”

“That’s ironic, coming from you.”

Xavier had spent half his life avoiding responsibility. He was the last person who should lecture me on running.

“True,” he acknowledged. “But I’m working on it.” I didn’t have a good answer to that.

I slumped against my seat, suddenly exhausted.

It was too much. Spain, Colombia, seeing Pen, getting my father’s email and finding out my sister was pregnant, kissing Xavier…The past month’s bombshells had hammered dent after dent into my walls, and I was so tired of holding them up.

“If you truly didn’t feel anything during our kiss, I’ll stop the car right now, and we’ll never discuss this again,” Xavier said quietly. “It won’t affect our work together, and we can pretend it never happened. But if there’s even a tiny part of you that thinks this can work…” He swallowed. “I’m not saying we have to get married or jump into a long-term relationship, but I want us to let each other in. Doesn’t have to go all the way to the rooms where we keep our secrets. Even the entrance hall will do for now.”

My laugh broke free of its own accord. “My God. That is the worst metaphor I’ve ever heard.”

“Hey, I never said I was a poet.” He gave me a crooked grin. “So, what do you say? They’re just dates, Luna. We’ll keep them discreet, and if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. No harm, no foul.”

The responsible thing to do was shut this down once and for all. Nothing good could come of letting any man in, much less one as clever and charming as Xavier, and saying yes went against my vow not to get involved with clients.

But I would be lying if I said I felt nothing for him. Our kiss had made me feel more than anything else in recent memory, and I had the unsettling feeling that if I walked away, the what-ifs would haunt me for the rest of my life.

I hope I don’t regret this.

“Two months, effective immediately.” Just saying the words made my chest tighten, but I pushed back the worst-case scenarios threatening to surface. “We have until the end of December to determine whether this can go anywhere.”

“Like a trial period.”

“Yes.” I lifted my chin. “Do you have an issue with that?”

“Not at all.” Xavier’s grin deepened as he held out his hand. “We have a deal.”

It was my last chance to back out, but fuck it, I hadn’t come this far to chicken out now.

I slid my hand into his and tried to ignore the swoop of butterflies in my stomach. “We have a deal.”