Chapter 30: Chapter 30

XAVIER

She was gone. I knew before I opened my eyes. My bed felt cold. I felt cold without her in my arms. A feeling of emptiness consumed me for the first time in years.

Never in my life had I thought I would want someone as much as I wanted her. She was everything I’d ever wanted.

No woman had ever captured my attention before, and now I couldn’t imagine my life without her.

Now that fate had given me a second chance, I was determined not to waste it.

My phone vibrated on the side table, and I rolled over and picked up without looking at the caller ID. “Hello,” I said sleepily.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” said the voice, and I knew it was Gunner. “The client is waiting for you. Where the fuck are you? What time did you go to sleep last night?” he growled.

“What time is it?” I asked, sitting upright.

“It’s past twelve. You never sleep past noon. Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine. Can you please—” I stopped. I didn’t know how to tell him I wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. Today, I needed to be with her to prove she was the only one for me.

I’d known all along that Melody was the woman for me. Now, I just had to prove it to her.

“What?” he asked.

I sighed. “I found her. I’m with her. I won’t be back until tomorrow,” I said in one breath.

Dead silence.

“Holy shit… How? When? Where?” he asked. I could feel the smile on his face.

He knew about her. I shook my head and laughed mentally. How would he not know? He’d also asked her for a drink, but she’d declined politely.

“She happens to be Lisa’s little sister.” I grimaced as I told him everything, how I’d met Sara at her graduation and everything that had happened since then.

“Fuck. How does Lisa take all this…” He trailed off. “I mean, she’s been in love with you for the last two years,” he said.

“Things are more complicated than I thought they would be. Sara—I mean Melody wants to talk with her sister before she thinks about us,” I said with a frown.

Deep down, I was scared as shit. What if Lisa told her what she’d said to me a few months back or what she’d told me a few days before?

“Fuck,” I growled. “I’ll call you later.” I hung up before he could respond. I needed to find her before she talked to Lisa.

A bad feeling in the pit of my stomach developed at the thought of her talking to Lisa about our relationship.

That was what she thought, but we weren’t in a relationship. It was a mutual agreement between us. With my heart pounding, I sent her a text.

Xavier

Come and give me a one kiss

I sent another.

Xavier

I miss you already

After several minutes, there was still no response. I sighed. Maybe she was busy with her family.

Despite my growing insecurity, I held onto the memory of the look in her eyes when she’d told me she loved me.

Maybe I was overreacting. She’d told me last night she had been thinking about us. She wanted to give us a chance, exactly like she’d said in her note that she’d left for me a year ago.

I shook my head to clear the memory. It didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was she was here with me, and I wouldn’t stop until I proved to her I was serious about us.

This might seem hard to believe, but I’d never actually picked up a woman from the club. I still remembered the day I’d gone to the club to chill with my buddies.

~^First Meeting^~

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~They were constantly talking about the girl in a purple dress, how hot she was and how they wanted her. I wasn’t interested until I got one look at her.~

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~My body reacted the instant I saw her, sitting there on a stool, talking to herself. I looked at her from head to toe. She was a vision.~

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~Thick, gorgeous curls of black hair flowed down her neck and draped across her collarbones. She wore a shimmery, short purple formfitting dress. Her plump lips begged for one taste.~

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~One by one, they approached her. She declined every one. I waited an hour to see if she was waiting for her boyfriend or her friends. After an hour, she was still sitting alone.~

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~“Don’t waste your time. She’s a cold fish,” Gunner said, sensing my gaze on her.~

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~“Can I join you?” I turned to find a cute girl with curly red hair, eyeing the stool next to me. She was short and curvy.~

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~She licked her lips. Yeah, she was looking for something. A little fun.~

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~Before I could respond, Gunner pulled her into his lap. “He isn’t interested, but I am,” he said and smirked. She giggled and wrapped her arm around him.~

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~I focused my attention back on the purple girl.~

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~Rather than debating with myself any longer, I walked right up to her. I called her, and she turned.~

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~That was when I noticed her deep, deep brown eyes turned to me, and my world turned upside down.~

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~She was young, very young compared to me. I was almost thirty-five, but I’d maintained myself well with a daily fitness routine and a healthy diet. I still looked like I was in my late twenties.~

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~I smirked when I caught her checking me out. It gave me a glimmer of hope that maybe I had a chance. I was a man who was used to getting what he wanted, and when I saw her, I knew I had to have her.~

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~I looked at her closely as I waited for her to reply, her plush lips, her high cheekbones, and fuck, those eyes. They were making me weak.~

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~I let my eyes feast on her delicious body, and my eye traced the mouth-watering curves of her plump breasts to her thin waist and down to her wide, feminine hips.~

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~What I wouldn’t have done to have her in my arms, to feel her softness, to make her need me, to make her moan for me.~

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~I wanted to give her everything she wanted. I wanted to fulfill her every filthy fantasy.~

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~“Be my guest.” She smiled, causing my bulge to double in size. I quickly sat down beside her. My eyes were drawn to the milky-white skin of her legs.~

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~Her thighs were creamy and warm, and all I wanted was to bury my face between them and taste the sweetness between her legs. My cock pulsed between my legs.~

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~“Xavier Clark,” I introduced myself.~

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~“Sara Hudson,” she replied. I whispered her name mentally a few times. My leg brushed up against hers, and my bulge pulsed strongly between my thighs.~

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~She was driving me crazy the whole time we danced. I pressed my hips against her, showing her how hard I was for her. Her breath hitched, and her pupils dilated. I couldn’t take it anymore.~

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~I crashed my lips on hers. She kissed me back, her tongue probing hungrily into my mouth. I kissed her like I wanted to devour her whole.~

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~I knew the moment our lips met I was in trouble, because I’d never known kissing someone felt like this. I’d had my fair share of women.

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~I was no saint, but with her, everything felt like I was doing it for the first time.

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~I knew I should walk away the moment I felt a tug in my heart. I didn’t do relationships. I didn’t want this, but the thought of leaving her to the hungry wolves made my stomach clench.~

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~I stayed with her. I didn’t hide my intention nor my boner during the dance. I knew she wanted me as much as I wanted her.~

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~The night I slept with Sara was the most passionate and earth-shattering experience I’d ever had.~

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~I thought I would leave before she woke up, but everything changed in a second when I saw her sleeping beside me.~

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~I felt all the impossible kinds of emotions toward her. My mind filled with all kinds of thoughts.~

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~I couldn’t let her go.~

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~She was it for me.~

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~I just knew it.~

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~My grandmother always used to say, “You will know when you find the one who was made for you.”~

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~I’d always loved and wanted what was between my grandfather and grandmother. Even after seventy years of marriage, they were still in love.~

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~I wanted what they had. To find that one special person that would turn my life upside down and make me want to be a better man. It felt like I had found the one for myself.~

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~This girl was mine now, and I was never going to let her get away, no matter what.~

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~I had never felt this type of connection with anyone else. She had shaken my world last night, and I had no intention of letting her go.~

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~There was something greater going on inside me, a feeling I couldn’t deny but was having a hard time accepting.~

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~I loved her.~

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~The thought overwhelmed me, but I knew she was mine and always would be mine. All of a sudden, my future was clear to me.~

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~I made a few calls to cancel my meetings before she woke, and we made love a few more times after breakfast.~

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~Everything was fine until I opened my mouth and said I would pay for the room, just because I wanted to spend some more time with her.~

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~Deep down, I was afraid of losing her and never seeing her again.~

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~But she left me anyway when I confessed about the connection I felt with her.~

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~^NEXT MORNING^~

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~I stretched and sighed as every part of my sore body strained in the movement. Besides my body, everything felt good. Everything felt right for the first time in my life.~

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~I stuck my arm out, and the coldness of the sheets shocked me awake.~

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~I lifted my head, and Sara wasn’t there. She wasn’t in my bed. I looked around for her bag or for something that belonged to her. There was nothing. It was like she hadn’t ever been here.~

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~I jumped out of bed and went in search of her. I looked in the bathroom. She wasn’t there. I called the lobby, and they told me she’d checked out in the morning, and she’d paid for today as well.~

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~The rage I had never felt before was bubbling inside me. I’d told her last night what I felt for her. I’d told her we would talk in the morning, but she’d left me.

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~When I turned to pick up my phone from the side table, I saw the note.~

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~She’d left me a note… But she hadn’t waited for me to wake up. I opened the note and read it, again and again, to make sense of it. If she felt the same connection I felt, then why had she left?~

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~I absently rubbed my chest. It still hurt like a bitch. I thought of calling her, only to realize I didn’t have her number. I knew nothing about her except for her full name.~

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~I almost threw my phone for being stupid. Why hadn’t I asked anything about her?~

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~After showering, I went to the receptionist, asking if they could give me anything, a single piece of information about her.~

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~I didn’t care how long it took or how hard I had to look, but I would find her again. And this time, she wouldn’t get away. For almost a year, I searched for her.~

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~ I hired the best private investigator. I met several girls named Sara Hudson, but not the one I was looking for.~

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~Finally, after almost a year, I stopped looking for her and left everything to fate, thinking that if we were meant to be together, we would meet again.~

~

I jumped, startled when I heard the knock on my door. “Xavier,” Lisa’s voice came from the other side.

“Just give me a minute,” I called, looking around for my underwear or something to cover up.

She opened the door and walked in. “It’s not like I haven’t seen everything before,” she said, looking down at my dick.

“I told you I need a minute,” I said through clenched teeth and walked into the closet.

She followed me and wrapped her arm around me. “I missed you, Xavier,” she whispered and kissed my shoulder.

I stiffened and untangled myself from her arms. “What the fuck are you doing, Lisa?” I hissed, stepping away from her.

I turned. Her eyes were glossy. I took a deep breath to calm myself.

“I’m sorry, Lisa. I have told you before, I don’t feel the same about you, yet you wanted to continue”—I motioned between us—“this thing between us. I made it clear before now.

“I’m saying it needs to stop. I can’t do this anymore,” I said softly and pulled on my shorts.

“I love you, Xavier,” she whimpered, taking a step toward me. Her jade-green eyes were teary, and guilt tugged at my insides.

I immediately took a step back. I didn’t want anything, any misunderstanding, between Sara and me.

“Everything was fine between us, Xavier. What changed overnight?” Her eyebrow arched in a challenge.

I could have told her what had changed, but I wouldn’t.

Our deal had been to just relieve each other whenever we felt like it. The very first time we’d had sex, I had made it clear to her. I didn’t owe her any answers.

“I care for you, Lisa; I do. I really do, but I don’t love you. I have told you so many times. You need to understand and move on,” I told her, running my fingers through my hair in frustration.

I walked out before she could say anything.

I walked through the quiet house.

She wasn’t in the kitchen, dining room, or living room.

I searched through the guest rooms, and she wasn’t there either. I walked onto my back porch and checked the front. I didn’t see anyone except Asher on the beach.

Where was she?

Her parents?

Her brothers?

Unlocking my phone, I dialed her. I frowned when she didn’t pick up my call. She wasn’t returning my texts or my phone calls. I sat and stared at my phone for five minutes.

Something wasn’t right. I knew that. I searched for Lisa. I needed to know where she was. I knocked on Lisa’s door. “Come in,” she called.

I pushed the door open and walked inside. She was working on her laptop. I stood there for a minute, trying to come up with a plan so I didn’t give away anything.

I cleared my throat, and she looked up, waiting for me to speak. “Well. I was hoping we could go out for lunch. I mean your family and everyone.”

“Why are you doing this, Xavier? You made it clear you don’t want anything between us, so why so nice with my family?” She narrowed her eyes.

“I just wanted to thank you for being nice to my parents, even when they weren’t,” I lied, keeping my features impassive.

At least, I hoped she couldn’t see through my mask how anxious I was to see her sister, how fucking worried I was for her sister.

“You already did, coming with me to my sister’s graduation,” she said.

“I—”

“Anyway,”—she waved her hand—“they can’t go, because they all left in the morning.” She shrugged and started working.

It was like a bomb had been dropped.

My mind was whirling. My eyes darted everywhere as I tried to understand what she meant. “They all left? All? Why? They were supposed to stay one more day.”

“Yeah, but Dad had some emergency, so he left with Mom, and Jake and Nick went with them,” she said, working again on her laptop.

“And S—Melody and her boyfriend?” I asked.

She looked up. There was something in her eyes, but before I could decipher it, it was gone. “She left too, with Dan,” she said, placing her laptop beside her. “Excuse me.” She left, leaving me frozen.

She’d left.

She’d left me again.

The anger swelled in me like a balloon ready to pop and threatened to overwhelm me.

“I will never forgive you this time, Sara. Now you will see the real Xavier,” I growled. She still didn’t know who I was and what I could do.