Chapter 37
Camila
Xander pulls me up into his arms, gently stroking the length of my hair as I press my ear to his chest, listening to the still-rapid rhythm of his heartbeat.
“I mean it, Angel. You don’t have anything to fear.”
I look up at him, taking in the way his face glows in the dim light, how his eyes are always studying mine.
I pull my eyebrows in. “What’s your favourite colour?”
“I don’t have one,” he answers quickly. Too quickly.
Pulling away, he pulls the straps of my dress back up to my shoulders and uses his fingers to tidy up the knots in my hair.
“I have something to show you.”
“Okay…” I say slowly.
He grabs his discarded trousers and pulls them up his legs to cover his dick—still glistening with both of our arousals—foregoing his boxers.
Since his shirt buttons are ninety percent ripped off, he puts his blazer on and locates the gun, slipping it back in its pocket in the inner lining.
A phone dings from inside his desk. He sighs and grabs a key from the top of a bookshelf.
With his height, he has no problem reaching for it from right at the back.
I unlock the door, peeking through, while he searches through his desk drawers. I can hear that the party is no more. Everyone must have been dismissed to go home.
I walk back over to Xander, who’s holding my phone in his hand, staring at my screen, lips curling back from his teeth. I take the phone from him, seeing none other than a text from Luke.
UNKNOWN: new boyfriend i see. stay away from him or i will make ur life hell
My head shakes in denial.
“He was here?” I ask, pointing my gaze to Xander, who’s fisting his hands at his sides.
“There’s no way. It’s not possible.” He shakes his head as he takes the phone back from me.
“What happened with Nova?”
“We signed the deal, then she left. As much as I’d like to find someone to blame, I don’t think it was her. If she’s as powerful as she says she is, she would’ve destroyed us years ago. That deal was as much for her as it was for us.”
“But he still thinks I have my phone… That’s good, right? It means he doesn’t know about the burner phone?” I ask, biting the corner of my lip.
“Yes.” He locks the phone back in the drawer. “Robert has direct access to your phone, which means he sees every text message that comes through. This is the first one we received since the last location Nova showed us. He’ll check it out and see if he can track his location from the text.”
“He might not be a threat to you, Xander, but he’s not stupid like Nova seems to think. He has connections. He’s untraceable.”
Xander rushes over to me, grabbing my face in his hands and placing a kiss on my lips. “Don’t stress yourself out about it, Angel. I will protect you, okay? But we need to teach you how to use a gun first. Now, come on.”
Xander leads us back to the house wing of his mansion. We passed the party cleanup crew on the way out and a sign showing that the event raised three and a half million pounds for charity. I saw the look of pride on Xander’s face as we walked past it, and I warmed at his reaction.
Walking down a set of oak stairs, I spot a single wooden door at the end of a short hallway. Xander stops me in front of the door.
“Close your eyes.” He smiles.
I follow orders—no longer scared to close my eyes when he’s near—and hear as he opens the door. The smell of fresh paint hits me first. Xander’s hand guides me into the room. My heels echo throughout as he leads me further in.
“Open.”
I open my eyes, and at first, I don’t see anything. I bring my thumbs up to rub them and reopen them again. There’s a low green light glowing across the room. Blinking my eyes, I wait as they adjust.
“Oh my god,” I breathe as the room becomes clear.
Three poles sit in the middle of the room on big circular podiums. The walls are surrounded by floor-to-ceiling mirrors.
LED lights shine from the top and bottom of them.
Luxury black floors finish off the space, and plants are placed in various places around the room.
Four big speakers are installed in each corner.
I spin in a circle, taking in the space. “Is this for me?”
“That’s not all,” he says, picking up a rectangular, white envelope from one of the podiums and handing it to me.
I carefully rip open the seal and pull out a silky slip of paper.
It’s hard to see in this lighting, but Xander claps his hands twice, and the main lights come on.
They’re low enough to not blind from such a dramatic switch.
I smile wide at him.
“Read it,” he urges.
I look down at the paper in my hands, and I almost drop it.
A cheque.
For one million pounds.
My knees start quaking.
“Xander…” I pause. “What is this?” I lift it up to him. He wears a smile on his face that showcases his dimple.
“For your studio. So you don’t have to work at Diamond Lounge,” he says, like it’s the most casual thing in the world.
“No, Xander.”
His smile drops, and he goes as still as a statue.
Panic quickly starts to cloud my vision, my heart rapid.
“He took everything from me, Xander. Everything. For years. I couldn’t dance. He locked me in that house—” My voice cracks as I ramble, recalling the last nearly half of my life, no longer able to keep it inside me. All Luke did was control me. My life, my body.
My freedom is being ripped away again.
But it’s in the form of the man I thought I was genuinely falling for. Maybe I don’t know what love is after all.
Some sick part of me enjoyed the possessiveness. But seeing that cheque in front of my eyes has resurfaced everything I’ve been trying to fix within myself, shining a light on everything that’s wrong with me, and that this isn’t the way to fix me.
Xander
My gut drops as Camila’s voice cracks, tears welling up in her eyes. Her words stab me right in the chest.
She thinks I want to control her? All I want is for her to be safe. I can keep her safe. I can give her everything she wants and more.
“I’m not trying to—”
She huffs through the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks.
“You don’t get it, do you? You’re trying to control my life, Xander.
This is all too much. The moving in, the phone, the car, the two dance studios…
I can take care of myself. I don’t need you to do it for me.
I need my freedom. I’ve been doing it by myself since I left.
I don’t need a knight in shining armour to come to my rescue.
I’m not some damsel in distress. I made it through two years.
I will do it again. However long it takes.
And if it means moving back into my apartment, then so be it,” she rattles out, her words almost unintelligible through the tears now running from her eyes.
No. No, no, no.
I fucked up. I fucked up.
I reach out towards her. “Angel, please, let me—”
“Don’t call me Angel,” she says, her voice shaking. I can feel my heart cracking by the second. “I’m going back, Xander.”
She paces the room, the sound of her heels scratching through me as I register her words. She’s leaving me forever.
“Fuck, I’ve been so stupid.”
I need to fix this.
How the fuck do I fix this?
Why isn’t she accepting my love?
She’s slipping away. Just like that. Within seconds, my world is being turned upside down. Just when I thought we were getting somewhere.
She sways on her feet, an emotionless laugh bursting through her lips. Her mossy eyes ping to me, but she looks right through me. She stumbles forward, and I catch her in my arms, her laugh still echoing throughout the room.
I drop to my knees, cradling her head in my lap.
“Angel?” I ask, trying to keep her head steady. She continues laughing, almost hysterically, tears rolling down her cheeks. I tap at her face, trying to snap her out of it as her eyes close. “Camila?”
I don’t know what the fuck to do, so I just sit there with her.
Until her laugh fades out, and her eyes close.
I carry her to my room.
I slip her dress off and pull my t-shirt over her.
I tuck the duvet under her chin.
And I wait.