24. Xavier
Chapter 24
Xavier
Penelope’s eyes widen, and she’s clearly taken aback by me saying that. I search her face, and there’s a mixture of surprise and guilt there, like she really did expect me to be mad about her buying so much on my credit card, even though I gave it to her and told her to use it.
It doesn’t sit right with me that she’s so stunned that I’d want to treat her well. I don’t like that apparently life has taught her to have low expectations.
A woman like her should know what’s she’s worth.
I push back from the desk and come around it to stand in front of her.
“I wanted to talk about what happened earlier,” I say.
“You don’t?—”
I cut her off before she can argue. “I do because I don’t want you to be upset about it. I’m sorry about what happened with Sienna. It wasn’t anything like it looked, I promise. She’s just always been a bit extra about doing her job, and she noticed that my tie was crooked and wanted to fix it. The image of the company is important to her.”
Penelope’s expression softens a bit, which is a relief, but then she shakes her head. “Is that really what you think?”
“What do you mean?”
“That she just cares about the business.”
I shrug, caught off guard. “What else could it be?”
“Xavier, she’s way more conniving than that. It’s not about the company, it’s about her wanting to be close to you. She was like that when I started working here, tripping all over herself to do whatever you needed her to do while talking down to everyone else, and it’s gotten worse since we got married.”
This is news to me, but I guess I haven’t really been watching the assistants interact. And Penelope hasn’t said anything about it until now.
“What do you mean?” I ask her. “What has she been doing?”
Penelope takes a breath and looks like she’s coming to a decision. “Right after we all got married, she practically cornered me in the office. Said all this stuff about how she knows what I’m doing and she’s not going to fall for it. She basically implied that I only got a nice office and the attention of you three because I’m sleeping my way to the top.”
“What?” I ask, my tone dropping into something angrier.
“I mean, she didn’t use those words exactly, but I knew what she meant. Anyone who might have overheard would have known what she meant.”
I blink, shocked and caught off guard to hear this. Sienna’s always been a bit intense, but I didn’t think she was acting like this when my back was turned. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask.
Penelope shrugs. “It didn’t matter. She was just talking, and it’s not like she can do anything to me. I didn’t want to be the person who goes running to her husbands every time someone’s catty.”
“It does matter,” I say, correcting her. “It matters a lot. Even if you weren’t our wife, she doesn’t have a right to talk to you like that. And you are our wife, so she doubly doesn’t have the right.”
I march back to my desk and open my messaging client, firing off a quick message to Sienna to have her come to my office.
She shows up with her heels clacking on the floor, just a few moments later. There’s already a smile on her face, and she glances at Penelope like she doesn’t even matter as she lets herself into the room.
“You wanted to see me, Mr. Sterling?” she asks.
Now that I know what I’m listening for, I can hear the way she practically purrs my name.
“I did,” I tell her. “So I can tell you that you’re fired.”
She freezes, smile locked in place on her face while her eyes go wide with shock. “You… what? I… Mr. Sterling, there must be some mistake.”
“There isn’t a mistake,” I say coolly. “Your work is excellent, but your manners in the office leave a lot to be desired. I hear you’ve been almost bullying other assistants, as if you have any right to do that.”
Her eyes cut to Penelope again. “I wouldn’t say bullying, sir. It… if I’ve been stern with them, it was because I expected them to hold themselves to a higher standard. The way everyone does here.”
“That’s not for you to ‘expect’. You’re not in charge, Sienna. I always wrote it off as you being passionate about the work, but I see now that isn’t true.”
“It is!” she insists. “I care so much about this company. I care about the people who work here. I just want what’s best.”
I fold my arms, lifting an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes!”
“And you disrespecting my wife does what for the company, exactly?”
Her mouth opens, but she seems lost for words for a moment.
“Did you accuse her of trying to get us into bed to further her own career?”
Sienna’s face goes pale. “I… I wouldn’t say anything like that?—”
“But you’d imply it. I don’t stand for people disrespecting what’s mine,” I tell her. “Clean out your desk and turn in your badge. You’re done here.”
She looks at my face like she’s hoping to find a hint of mercy there, but I just stare back at her, impassive. After a beat or two, she slumps and turns to leave, slinking out of the office and closing the door quietly behind her.
As soon as she’s gone, I turn my focus back to Penelope and trying to fix all the things I didn’t even realize were an issue.
Penelope just stares at me, clearly caught off guard by what just happened.
“I can’t believe you just did that,” she says, her eyes wide. “You just… fired her. Just like that. I can’t believe you did that for me.”
There’s a bit of hesitation in her tone, like she’s not sure if I did it for her or not. “Her acting like that, saying that stuff about you is unacceptable,” I tell her. “So of course I did it. If she can’t respect you, then she has no place here. If anyone else says anything out of line, you need to tell me.”
She chews on her bottom lip a bit, and it catches and holds my attention. That full, soft lip, caught between her teeth. It makes her mouth look even more tempting, the way her lips are so pink and plush, and everything in me wants to kiss her in that moment.
But I keep thinking about what she said earlier, about not being my mate. This was just supposed to be business. Just supposed to be a temporary thing to get the investors and the board off our backs. We’re not supposed to have this attraction between us.
But it’s there.
I don’t think either of us could deny that. I want to kiss her. To draw her close to me and inhale her scent from her hair and kiss her until she’s starry eyed. I’m just not sure if I should. Or even if I can. The lines around this thing we’re doing are so confusing, and it feels like they’re constantly blurring and then reshaping themselves with no real input from us.
Penelope just stands there, like she’s waiting for me to make a move. In the end, I pull her in for a hug. That seems safe.
“So, we’re good now?” I ask her, pulling back to search her face.
She smiles and nods. “Yeah, we’re good. I’m sorry if I overreacted.”
“Don’t worry about it. Do you want to get out of here? It’s about that time, and I don’t want to look at any more work today.”
That makes her laugh softly. “So you mean you and the other two aren’t going to end up on some conference call with clients in Japan or something?”
“Not if I can help it.” I usher her to the door of the office, and we head down to the lobby where Dominic and Tristan are already waiting.
We get in the car, and I smirk, looking at the other two Alphas. “Guess what our wife did today,” I start.
“Oh, don’t,” Penelope says, covering her face with her hands.
“Hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I told you, it’s about time you started doing it anyway.”
Dominic arches a brow, looking at Penelope with something like heat in his eyes. “What did you do?” he asks her.
“It’s his fault.” She points at me. “He’s the one who told me to get stuff for my nest.”
“I did. I didn’t say do it to the tune of almost a million dollars, but no one can deny you deserve it.”
Tristan and Dominic both look surprised at that, and Penelope’s cheeks go pink.
“Most of it is for my nest!” she says quickly. “I found these really soft pillows and these blankets that came in really good colors. I just want it to be comfortable.”
“As it should be,” Dominic agrees. “Although I know you didn’t spend that much on pillows.”
“No,” she admits. “There were some other things too.”
“Our Penelope went on a shopping spree this afternoon.”
“Good for her,” Dominic says, lips twitching in amusement.
Tristan is watching her closely, but not saying much. As usual. All the same, he’s more expressive now than he used to be. Or maybe he’s just easier to read. It’s not hard to tell that his gaze usually lands on Penelope when we’re all together, and it’s like he’s always watching her.
Clearly he’s not as indifferent to all this as he claims to be. He feels something for Penelope, even if he tries to hide it.
Jonas pulls up to the house, and there’s already a small stack of boxes on the front step.
I let out a low whistle when I see the names of some of the places Pen got things from. “Fancy,” I tease her. “Only the best for our wife, as it should be.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to get this all inside,” she says.
Dominic just gives her a look and leans down to pick up a stack of boxes, carrying it like it barely weighs anything. “Make yourself useful,” he says to me, glancing over his shoulder.
I roll my eyes, but I was already going to help, and I gather the rest of the boxes, leaving Penelope to snatch up the remaining shopping bags.
We troop up the stairs to Penelope’s room, and she starts unboxing things, running her hands over soft fabrics and looking at her bed with dissatisfaction.
“What?” I ask her.
“I don’t know if this is the way I want it. Maybe it’s too… open? I don’t know.”
“Let me see,” Dominic says. He gathers some of the blankets she bought and stretches them between the wall and her bed. He starts arranging them so they form a sort of canopy, blocking out some of the open space and making things more like a cozy nook.
“Oh,” Penelope breathes. “That’s perfect.”
“Yeah?” he asks, looking at her.
She nods. “That’s just what I wanted, but I didn’t know I wanted it. How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Read my mind.”
Dom just shrugs a shoulder and keeps arranging blankets. “It was a lucky guess. I’m glad it was right, though. This should be exactly what you want it to be.”
Their eyes meet, and Dominic looks at her with intensity smoldering in his gaze. He’s serious about this, about making this good for her, and Penelope can definitely tell. That’s just like Dom too, putting his whole ass into whatever he does with the single minded drive that got his business off the ground.
“Thank you,” she says softly, obviously touched and pleased by his attention to details. His attention to her.
He just nods and keeps working.
I jump in, gathering pillows and putting them where Penelope tells me to, smiling to myself when I realize the sweatshirt she borrowed from me is tucked in her bed with the rest of her soft nesting things. There’s a flare of possessiveness and the preening feeling that comes along with providing something for someone. It’s stronger than when I do something for my family, more instinctual than anything I’ve ever felt.
“Do you mind?” Penelope asks, her voice soft as she realizes what I’ve seen.
I shake my head, grinning at her. “Shortcake, as far as I’m concerned you can keep that and do whatever you want with it. Although I’d be happy if you wore it again.”
“It smells like you,” she murmurs, cheeks flooding with pink.
“Good,” is all I say back to that.
Dominic steps back and takes a look at what we’ve put together. “I’m not an expert, but this looks pretty good.”
Penelope smiles at him, coming to stand at his side. “It does. There’s just one thing missing, but I don’t really know what to do about it.”
Both of us turn to look at her, head snapping around at the same time. “What’s missing?” I ask.
Her cheeks flush even darker. “I had this blanket for a while that was my favorite thing in the world. It was… sherpa lined, I think? But not that really fancy stuff that they were selling at the shops today. It was fuzzy and warm and soft, and I always had it on the couch to drape over myself when I was watching TV or just lounging on the couch. It got worn out from being washed so much, and I haven’t been able to find anything that’s a good enough replacement for it. None of them feel the same. I think if I had a blanket like that, it would make this whole thing perfect.”
“I’ll keep an eye out for something like that,” I tell her, then I look to Dom. “It’s your turn to handle dinner.”
He makes a face and pulls out his phone to order take out. “Sushi?”
“Thai?” Penelope counters. “I want noodles.”
“Done.”
We leave Penelope’s room, and Dominic heads down the stairs to place an order.
Tristan has disappeared into his own room, but the door is open and I can practically feel the waves of agitation rolling off him. I walk by the door and see him sitting on his bed, hands clenched into fists, jaw tight. His eyes are guarded, but I don’t have to be able to read what’s in them to know he’s battling with himself.
“How long are you going to keep this up?” I ask him, folding my arms and leaning in his doorway.
“What?” he grits out.
“This. Holding yourself back. Waging war with your instincts.”
He just gives me a flat look, but it says everything it needs to.
“You want to help her. You want to be in there with me and Dom, putting her nest together, making her smile. No one’s stopping you from doing that, Tristan.”
His jaw just tightens even more and he shakes his head. “It’s not that simple.”
I smile at him. “That’s the beauty if it though. It is that simple. You can help her, you can get close to her. You can tell she wants you to, even. All you have to do is take the leap to do it.”
“And then she leaves, Xavier. Then this farce of a marriage is over, and she goes back to her life, and then what?”
There’s a raw quality to his voice, letting emotion slip through for the first time in a while, and it’s not lost on me. Hearing him ask that makes my own chest tighten because I don’t like the thought of her not being here.
I don’t want to think about the future, and I’ve been trying to keep myself from dwelling on it because I can admit that I’m getting attached to her. How could I not be when she’s so… her?
But I shake that off because I don’t want to think about it. Not now when we feel so close and things feel so good.
“Just think about it,” I tell Tristan and head back to Penelope’s room.
Dom is in there, asking her for her preferences on noodles, and once the dinner order is placed, we get back to working on the nest until the food comes.
“I might have to get some of these pillows for myself,” I tell Penelope. “They’re so soft.”
“Right? I knew I had to have them.”
“Definitely worth the price,” I tease her with a grin.
She makes a face at me, and I fluff the pillows more as a peace offering.
“You’re good at that,” she says. “Making things comfortable. You’re doing such a good job.”
It’s such a simple statement, but I can’t help the way I react to it. Something low in my belly burns with heat, and I lick my lips, barely biting back a groan of satisfaction.
Penelope’s eyes widen and flick over me, taking in the reaction.
“Okay,” I say, smiling a little crookedly. “I can admit that I have a little bit of a praise kink.”
“Really?” she asks, her eyes wide.
I nod. “Yeah, it kicks in at the worst moments sometimes.”
“So… if I called you a good boy, you would like that?”
It sounds so good tripping off her lips so casually, and my cock jumps in my pants, almost demanding attention. I don’t even bother to bite back the noise that wants to spill out of me, letting Penelope hear it and know that she did that to me.
Everything in me is screaming at me to show her how good I can be. To push her up against the wall and kiss her until more praise is spilling from her very tempting mouth.
But that would probably be a bad idea, so I pull myself away, watching the way her eyes sparkle with good humor.
We keep working on the nest until dinner comes and then all head down to eat. If Tristan is thinking about what I said, he doesn’t show any signs of it. He eats and then disappears back upstairs.
Dom and I stay downstairs, moving into the home office to work on some stuff until it starts to get late. I let Dominic head up first, closing down the home computer and shutting the lights off.
There’s a light still on in the living room, and I backtrack to it, stopping in the doorway when I see Penelope, curled up on the couch with a book. She’s asleep, breathing softly and evenly, the book drooping toward the floor in her limp hand.
I scoop the book up before it can hit the floor, smiling when I see that it’s one of the ones I recommended about business and budgeting.
“You really don’t do anything by halves, do you?” I whisper.
I mark her place in the book and set it on the coffee table, and Penelope doesn’t stir. She doesn’t so much as shift when I reach down and brush hair out of her face, or when my eyes trace the shape of her curves, zeroing in on the place where her shirt has ridden up a bit, exposing a soft stretch of her stomach.
That wanting feeling is strong, so strong now, and I give in to it only to gather her into my arms and hold her close. She shifts toward me, curling up a little, and breathes out a soft exhale.
“Come on, shortcake,” I murmur. “Let’s get you to bed.”