I glanced down at Imani and held her tight. We’d come to an arrangement already. She’d said she wanted me. But I had no guarantee. If we didn’t have this, there was nothing binding us. She could still decide I was more trouble than I was worth. I had six days to convince her to stay. I had my work cut out for me. "We will be there."

  4

  Imani

  "Imani?" Xander called from the other room.

  "Yeah, Xander?" I jogged out into the living room only partially dressed for the gala. I had my dress on, but I hadn’t had a chance to do anything with my hair or makeup yet. "What's the problem?"

  He held up the loan application I’d picked up from the bank the previous afternoon. "What the hell is this?"

  "Oh, uh, just paperwork for a loan. Ebony called, and she got into Briarwood Academy. So I can finally bring her over with me."

  He waved the papers again. "Still doesn’t explain these." His brows were drawn and his lips thin.

  Why was he so mad? "Well, okay. Briarwood costs a lot of money. Like ten thousand pounds a year. My dad clearly isn't going to pay for it if he can’t seem to stay on top of his mortgage payments, so I'm going to get a loan to cover what her scholarship won’t. What’s the big deal?"

  "The big deal is you didn't bother talking to me about it. So much for wanting to talk more. I’ll give you the money. If you won’t accept, consider it a bonus for how well things have gone with LeClerc.”

  My stomach twisted. "Please recall our earlier conversation about how I'm not a whore. You can’t just wave a magic money wand at me. Not now. Things are supposed to be different now."

  His frown deepened. "Things are different now, so I can take care of you. I can give you money. I have a lot of it. Why won’t you take it? How is this at all different than me paying you to pose as my girlfriend?"

  And there it was, the white elephant I'd thought I'd been masking with the living room cushions. I could call it whatever I wanted, but I was still being paid to be there in a way. It didn't matter that we’d slept together. It didn't matter that he said he wanted to be with me. Fundamentally, he thought he could buy me.

  "It just is. You were paying me for a specific job. One that’s over after this weekend. I'm grateful for it, but I can’t go back and tap the source because I’m short on cash. In case you haven’t noticed, Mr. Buffett, I like to do things on my own steam. I was desperate to pay the mortgage. That was the only reason I came to the bank of Xander. I'm not desperate now. I have a way out."

  He ran both hands through his hair. "Woman, why are you so fucking stubborn? I don't want you to be beholden to me. I just want to help."

  "But it comes with strings. Think about how I feel about it, Xander. Fe offered to help out with the mortgage. I could have taken his money. But he's my best friend and I know that while he has plenty of it, it's blood money, so I wouldn’t. It's not who I am. I fix things myself."

  "That’s ridiculous, Imani. You want your sister here. I can make that happen. Shit. I should have just brought her here already."

  "I think you’re forgetting that I move out on Tuesday, Xander. We go back to our normal lives. Sure, we’re trying to… I don’t know… date or whatever, but I can’t take your money. That’s not how it works. You can take me to dinner, but you cannot just give me thousands of pounds for my sister’s tuition." Not to mention I thought we were past that now. That was what I got for starting to buy into the illusion.

  He sighed. "It's only money."

  It was never just money. "No. It's not. It's so much more than that." It was also about control and how I needed to have it over my life. There was no way I was going to be dependent on anybody, let alone Xander. "Now if you’ll give me another thirty minutes, I'll be ready to go."

  His frown deepened. "So, you’re done talking about this? What if I'm not done?"

  "Too bad, because we're going to be late."

  He cocked his head, and the intense, focused glare he gave me sent shivers down my spine. "And if I say we're not going?" His gaze narrowed as he took in the low-cut dip of my dress and the mile-high slit up my thigh. "I could convince you to take the money from me."

  The flicker of hope that we might be able to pull this off dimmed a little. Knowing his skills, he probably could coerce me into taking it. But he was doing it again. If I let him, he would use sex to try to control me. It was entirely different than Ryan, but it was still control. He could try to make me do what he wanted. He would make it all about my pleasure, of course. But I knew what it was about for him. He wasn't getting his way, so he would seek to use the only tools he thought he had in his arsenal. Sex and money.

  Whenever we had even the mildest disagreement, he used sex to resolve it. Or at the very least to put it on hold temporarily. And he was trying to do that now.

  "I've been looking forward to this thing for days. I've got the fancy dress on. I'm going."

  "We're not done talking about this."

  I shrugged and turned away from him. "If you say so."

  Xander

  I kissed her shoulder and she shivered. Would I ever get used to touching her? The more I did it, the more I wanted to. Then fix your bloody fight.

  “You know, you're making it very hard to think, Xander." Her voice was soft, but even after an hour at the gala, she was still miffed with me, and I hadn’t been able to shake our argument either.

  My chuckle was low. "Well, that's sort of the point. I'm trying to get you to leave early so we can finish our conversation.” So I could get her into bed and make her take my money. But something told me that was the wrong answer. Or at least not the one she was looking for to the money question. “These benefit dinners are torturously boring." I still felt on edge. Like somehow, I’d let more of her slip through my fingers. If we could just be close, I’d know we were okay.

  Or you need to grow a pair and talk to her about how you feel.

  I didn't have much time if I wanted her to want to stay. If she left this week, it would make everything that much more difficult. I just wanted her to share things with me. And it seemed like all she wanted was to be on her own.

  She sighed in my hold. "Remember, you're supposed to care about these things. You’re about to be named to the board."

  "I care about the outcome." Ruining Alistair. "The actual part of the donor glad-handing, I can do without. Besides, my fiancée looks absolutely amazing right now, and I can’t seem to keep my hands off of her." Fake fiancée, I reminded myself.

  She turned in my hold even as she rolled her eyes. "We’re supposed to mingle at these things, right? Why don’t you introduce me to some people?"

  "Or how about we go home?" I lowered my voice so only she could hear me. "You slide off those shoes and brace yourself against the countertop with your hands. I could lift your dress and slide into you, hot and deep. Make you call my name, over and over and over again."

  Her skin flushed. "Xander."

  "What?" I blinked at her innocently. "What did I say?" Why wasn’t she as on edge as I was? Didn’t she feel the tension between us? Why wasn’t she eager to fix it?

  “You know, Miriam had it wrong. You’re definitely a dirty talker.”

  I grabbed two champagne flutes and led us toward the balcony, but a striking brunette glided in front of us before we could make it. Every cell in my body seized. Christie.

  She didn’t even look in Imani's direction, just kept her eyes glued to me. "Hello, stranger."

  I removed my hand from Imani’s lower back. I didn't need to transfer any of my anger to her. But I felt the loss of her heat immediately. I wanted to keep her close, but I didn't trust myself. "Hello, Christie."

  She deliberately ignored Imani, and it ticked me off. "Have you met my fiancée, Imani Brooks?" I couldn’t lie to myself and say I didn't enjoy the pain I read across her face just a little.

  Her face fell when she slid her gaze to Imani. "A pleasure. Congratulations on the engagement. I know Xander is a hard one to pin down."

  Imani held her own. With a tilted chin, she said, "Well, I guess that hasn’t been my experience. Everything has been a bit of a whirlwind romance, you know."

  Christie's brows rose, then she narrowed her gaze and examined Imani closer. I knew the moment she saw the ring. She should recognize it. After all, it had been hers. She was supposed to wear it forever and never take it off. But a few words from Alistair and that had been the end of that.

  "Imani, would you mind terribly if I borrowed Xander for a moment? There is something I need to speak with him about."

  Say no. Say no. But ever independent, Imani just said, “Take your time."

  I couldn't read her hooded expression, but I could feel her pulling away, feel the distance between us.

  I wanted to go after her retreating form, but I knew I had to deal with Christie first. "What do you want?"

  "She's a little young, isn’t she?"

  "Easy, Christie, you really don’t want to go there."

  "Sorry. I'd heard you were engaged and didn’t believe it. I wanted to talk to you. Maybe apologize for how things ended."

  “Oh, really?” Was it bad form to make the bitch beg? "You mean the part about where you walked out on me without giving me any chance to explain?"

  She slid her gaze around. "Can we go somewhere? You know, and talk?"

  "No. We can’t."

  She sighed. "Fair enough. I don't have enough words to tell you how sorry I am. I should have listened to you. Stayed. Worked it out. But the truth was, what Alistair told me, it was an excuse. A reason to leave."

  "You're shitting me right now."

  "You were always so secretive. Closed off. You wouldn't talk about your past at all. You never opened up, Xander. I felt like I was dealing with a shadow of you most of the time. The only time I saw any real version of you was in bed."

  "You could have done a number of other things besides walk out. You could have told me how you felt. You could have tried to talk to me. You could have even told me the real reason then. Anything.”

  She shook her head, her dark hair curling around her shoulders. “I’ve always regretted it."

  I drained my champagne glass. "Are you done?"

  Her already alabaster skin went deathly pale. "All I wanted to do was say I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that."

  "Good thing for me, I already figured that out." I grabbed two more glasses of champagne off a passing waiter’s tray. I downed them in quick succession.

  She pursed her lips. "Look, I’m going to offer you a piece of advice that you can take or leave. The infant you’re going to marry— maybe try being more open with her than you were with me. Share yourself. Don’t keep her at arm’s length. And maybe she'll never take off my ring."

  I noted her shimmering eyes as she took the hallway to the left. But I had zero urge to go after her. The emotions warred inside me— anger, self-loathing, confusion, need, loneliness. They almost paralyzed me. But then I caught a glimpse of Imani at the bar. She said something, and the bartender erupted in a booming laugh as I shook my head.

  No doubt she'd said something sassy. A smile tugged at my lips despite the turn my conversation with Christie had taken.

  I needed Imani. It was more than needing to make my plan work. It was more than the sex. It was so many things. I needed her to laugh, to tell me off, to walk around the house in her socks saying lines out loud. In my bed.

  I'd grown used to our connection. I’d come to need it for my basic survival. I wasn't letting it go. Not now.

  I strode over to the bar, leaving my empty glasses on the counter. Standing directly behind her, I leaned down and whispered, "Come with me."

  She tilted her head up and raised a delicately arched brow. "I was busy talking to Sean here. He knows where I’m from."

  I could give two fucks about Sean. And the git needed to keep his grubby paws off of her. To Sean, I lifted a brow. “Piss off, Sean.”

  She shook her head. “Sorry. He’s a mite possessive.”

  “Too fucking right,” I muttered, glaring at the knob who was busy staring at Imani’s cleavage. I leaned in right next to her ear and said, "You left me back there."

  There was mischief in her eyes but also pain. I’d hurt her. "It looked important. I know how private you are, so I left you to it."

  A prick of awareness pierced my need. Did I treat her the same way I'd treated Christie? Or was this about her and her tendency to pull back before she had to care about anything?

  "I'm sorry about that. I'll tell you anything you want to know. But first I need to taste you. To have you melting on my tongue... I need you."

  Her lips parted, and for a moment I was worried she'd tell me to fuck off. But instead she nodded and took my hand with barely a muttered goodbye to Sean. I had no idea where I was going, as I wasn’t familiar with the venue, but a map posted in the hallway told me exactly where I needed to go. The farther we got away from the crowd, the more I needed her, the more I craved her.

  When I found the study located on the second floor, I tugged her inside and locked the door behind us.

  "Xander, what's going on?"

  The words tripped off my tongue before I could stop them. "I need you. Now.”

  Imani's eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong? What did she say to you? Swear to God, I will kill her."

  The swell of pride in my chest eased my desperation some. She might be angry with me, but she was willing to fight for me if I wanted. "Nothing important. I just need you."

  Her gaze searched mine. “Okay, then. Talk to me.”

  I wasn’t in the mood to talk. “Fuck now. Talk later.” Before she could argue, I kissed her deep. Those pulling, drugging kisses I knew she liked. She made a little squeaking sound at the back of her throat, and I forced myself to gentle my touch. To take it slower. To not push so hard. But the need coursed through my veins, and I shook with it. The tension coiled me into a tight string, ready to snap at any moment.

  I expected her to push me away. To tell me I was too intense, too much. But she sighed and slipped her hands into my hair, and I knew she wanted me too. Backing her up against a chaise, I leaned over her. "Sit."

  "What?" She blinked up at me in confusion.

  "You heard me. Sit."

  She did as instructed. "Now hands on the back of the couch. Hold on tight. I don’t want you letting go."

  She blinked up at me with heavy-lidded eyes. "Okay."

  The red dress hugged each of her curves. Her tits had been teasing me all night, swelling over the fabric, but never enough to be easy access, just enough to tease, to taunt.

  "Open your legs, sweetheart."

  "Xander?”

  I dropped my voice. "Open. Now."

  Slowly she slid them apart, the slit of her dress making way, giving her some room.

  I kneeled in front of her and shoved aside the fabric. "All night I've been wondering if you were wearing panties. Are you?"

  She cocked her head. "Why don’t you find out for yourself?"

  Shoving away the fabric, I tugged up part of the bodice to give her legs more room.

  Fuck. Her scent surrounded me. Intoxicating me. I was buzzing from the combination of alcohol, need, and her. Mostly her. Because I knew even if we were at home, I would feel the same way. I'd still want her this badly.

  I pushed her legs apart, and she whimpered. "That’s it, baby. I want to see how pretty you are.” And God, she was beautiful.

  She'd waxed for me. And her honey-brown skin gave way to swollen lips that I wanted to taste. Merely a breath away from the promised land. When I parted her flesh with my thumbs, she trembled. "Don’t forget to hold on, beautiful. I'm going to take my time until you melt."

  Just the promise of pleasure and she raised her hips in invitation. I locked my jaw. I wanted her so fucking bad.

  I slid my tongue over her lips, and she immediately cried out. Sweet, spicy and so good. I licked at her again and again.

  Imani grasped onto the couch and raised her hips, begging me silently to keep loving her.

  And then, as I held her legs wide with my hands, I fucked her with my tongue. She screamed and forgot all about holding on to the back of the couch. Her hands slid into my hair, holding me to her. Her essence practically dripping down my chin.

  "Xander?” Her voice was shaky and raw.

  “Just trust me, Imani.” I sipped at her lips again. "Can you trust me?” I knew she had problems with trust. Problems opening up. So did I, but I wanted to show her that I would take care of her.

  “Y-yes,” she whispered hoarsely.

  With a grunt, I grabbed her ass and lifted her more to me, spreading her cheeks slightly. I licked at her forbidden hole and made love to the tight pucker. Licking and pleasuring her while my thumb pressed hard on her clit.

  Her breathing went choppy, and I loved the desperate gasps she took as she ground her hips into my face, begging me not to stop. With my thumb on her clit, I slid a finger deep inside her and curved it until the pad of my finger rubbed over her G-spot.

  Imani blew apart, her body convulsing as the orgasm hit her hard. Yes. Fuck yes. I loved nothing more than watching her come.

  As her body convulsed, I drew back with a growl and flipped her over onto her stomach. Her limbs moved easily as I positioned her. I slipped on a condom quickly, then, in one swift stroke, I slid into her to the hilt. “Fuck. So fucking good.”

  5

  Imani

  Xander shook behind me, and I panted as the aftershocks from my orgasm pulsed around his hard length. He was so big. But it felt so good as he rubbed against my G-spot.

  He kissed my neck and nipped it gently as he reached under me and cupped my breast. With the slightest movement of his hips, he sent shockwaves through my body.

  "I love you in this position, that perfect ass of yours offered to me as if on a platter."

  "Xander." Deep down, I had sensed this part of him. The darker him. The unrestrained him. I’d seen flashes of it before, but he'd tempered it for me. Like he didn’t want to hurt me. I didn’t want it tempered. I’d been holding back my whole life. Now was not the time to do that. I wanted to feel alive. I liked how I felt in his arms. Possessed. Like this was where I belonged. "More."