Chapter 19 #3
"Xavier..." she whispered, her voice barely steady. "What are you doing here?"
She never got to finish.
His hand shot to the back of her head, his fingers tangling in her hair as he pulled her sharply against him.
Before Elise could even gasp his mouth crashed onto hers.
The kiss was nothing like the one they had shared ever before.
There was fear in it. Jealousy. Desperation. Possessiveness.
It was rough enough to steal every thought from her mind.
His lips claimed hers over and over, his tongue sweeping insistently across her mouth before slipping between her lips to find hers.
He kissed her as though he couldn't get enough, sucking gently on her tongue before releasing it, only to capture it again a heartbeat later.
Again and again, he kissed her with growing hunger, his breaths turning ragged as every taste of her only seemed to make him crave more.
Elise's fingers instinctively curled against his shirt as her heartbeat spiraled out of control.
The intensity of the kiss left her dizzy, every breath stolen before she could fully take it.
She tried to pull back for air, but Xavier wouldn't let her.
His hand remained firmly cradling the back of her head while the other wrapped around her waist, holding her flush against him as he deepened the kiss once more, his desperation pouring into every movement of his mouth.
The soft ding of the elevator echoed through the silence.
The doors slid open.
Only then did Xavier finally tear his lips away from hers.
Both of them were breathing hard.
Elise was still struggling to catch her breath when Xavier finally tore his mouth away from hers.
He rested his forehead briefly against hers, his chest rising and falling violently.
Her lips were swollen, her chest rising and falling rapidly, and before she could even gather herself, he bent down without a word, slipped one arm beneath her knees and the other around her back, and lifted her effortlessly into his arms.
She instinctively wrapped a hand around his shoulder to steady herself as he carried her out of the elevator.
The hallway was quiet.
There were only two apartments—one on the left and one on the right.
Xavier's sharp gaze swept over both doors before dropping to the woman in his arms. His jaw was locked, his breathing still rough, and the muscle in his cheek ticked with impatience.
"Which one?" he demanded, his voice low and gravelly.
Elise looked up at him, still dazed, barely able to form a coherent thought after what had just happened.
"What?"
His expression darkened.
"Which fucking apartment, Elise?" he ground out, his grip tightening around her. "Either you tell me right now, or I'm breaking into both of them until I find the one that smells like you."
She stared at him for another second before finally lifting a trembling hand and pointing toward the apartment on the left.
"That... that one," she murmured.
Without another word, Xavier carried her straight to the door.
He stopped in front of the keypad and lowered his gaze to her hand as she reached forward. His eyes followed every movement of her fingers as she entered the passcode, silently committing each number to memory. The lock clicked open.
Xavier pushed the door open with his shoulder and carried her inside.
The automatic lights flickered on the moment they stepped inside the apartment, flooding the space with a warm glow.
Xavier didn't stop walking.
Still holding Elise against him, he carried her straight into the living room before finally setting her on her feet.
The moment she was standing, he reached for the purse hanging from her shoulder, pulled it off, and tossed it carelessly onto the floor.
Her phone disappeared from her hand the next second, landing on the coffee table with a dull thud.
Then he dug into the pocket of his trousers, pulled out his own phone, keys, wallet, and cigarettes, and threw them into the corner of the room without so much as a glance.
His entire focus remained on her.
"What are you doing?" Elise asked, staring at him in shock.
Her brows knitted together as she looked around at the mess he had made before her gaze snapped back to him.
"What's wrong with you?" she demanded, taking an instinctive step backward.
"You just broke into my apartment, Xavier. What the hell are you doing?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he closed the distance between them, slipped his hands around her hips, and lifted her off the floor once again as though she weighed nothing.
"Xavier—"
Ignoring her protest completely, he carried her farther into the apartment.
Two doors stood at the end of the hallway.
He pushed open the first one with his shoulder, glanced inside, and saw a bedroom. Without stopping, he backed out and opened the second door instead.
The bathroom.
Still carrying her, he stepped inside and reached toward the wall, his hand sweeping across the switches until the lights came on.
The bright light flooded the room.
He walked directly to the glass shower enclosure, slid the door open, and stepped inside with her still in his arms. Only when they were standing beneath the showerhead did he finally lower her onto her feet.
The moment her shoes touched the tiles, Elise shoved both hands against his chest, trying to push him away and slip past him.
"Xavier, move." Her voice came out breathless, equal parts angry and confused. "What is wrong with you?"
He didn't let her leave.
The moment she tried to slip past him, his arm wrapped firmly around her waist, pulling her flush against his body before he reached behind him and turned the shower on.
Ice-cold water came crashing down over both of them.
Elise gasped, her entire body jolting as the freezing water soaked through their clothes within seconds.
The fabric clung to every inch of them, her hair quickly plastering against her face and shoulders.
Instinctively, she pressed closer to him, trying to escape the cold, but Xavier didn't move.
He stood there with the water pouring over both of them, his eyes never leaving hers.
She tried to push past him again, but he only tightened his hold around her waist.
Then his hand slid to the back of her head.
Tilting her face up, he lowered his mouth to hers once more.
This kiss was different.
Gone was the frantic desperation from the elevator.
Instead, he kissed her slowly, almost reverently, as though trying to convince himself she was really there.
His lips moved gently over hers, lingering with a tenderness that contrasted sharply with the fierce grip he had on her waist. Every kiss carried everything he had been unable to say—the fear of losing her, the jealousy that had been consuming him, and the desperation that had left him unable to think of anything except her.
The cold water continued to cascade over them, drenching them completely, but neither of them seemed to notice anymore.
Xavier rested his forehead against hers for the briefest moment before finding her lips again, kissing her with quiet, aching hunger. His hand remained cradling the back of her head while the other held her securely against him, as though he feared she would disappear the moment he let go.
The image of her standing with another man, smiling at him, letting him stay by her side, had been burning through his mind ever since he had seen it. It had haunted every breath he had taken, making it impossible to think, impossible to find peace.
But she didn’t seem to care at all. And that’s what broke him completely.
As though losing him no longer mattered.
So he kept kissing her, slowly, tenderly, lingering over every kiss as if trying to erase every moment she had spent away from him, unwilling to let the distance between them exist for even another second.
The cold water continued to pour over them in relentless streams, drenching them from head to toe until their clothes clung heavily to their bodies.
Xavier never once took his eyes off her.
Still holding her against him, he reached up and shrugged off his suit jacket before carelessly tossing it onto the wet bathroom floor.
His hands immediately went to the buttons of his shirt.
One after another, he ripped them open with impatient fingers before pulling the shirt off and throwing it aside without a second glance.
It landed somewhere beside his jacket, but he couldn't have cared less.
Nothing around him mattered.
The only thing his mind could process was Elise.
He needed her to look at him.
To see him.
Only him.
The thought of another man standing beside her, making her smile, hearing her laugh, had been eating him alive ever since he had witnessed it. Every second away from her had felt like torture, every breath weighed down by the fear that he was losing the woman he loved.
It was driving him mad.
If giving up everything he had could make her love him the way he loved her, he would do it without hesitation. Pride, dignity, reason—none of it mattered anymore. All he wanted was to reach into her heart somehow and make her choose him again.