Page 94 of Xander

He gripped my thighs forcefully, pushing them wider apart as he dominated me with his physical prowess. My body convulsed with every powerful thrust.

“Years, I have loved you for years,” I cried.

An uncontrollable climax took hold of me, my mind consumed by the overwhelming erotic image before me.

“Tell me how you can’t live without me,” he grunted.

He tilted his hips and held himself at just the right angle, extending my orgasm in a way I never thought would be possible. I screamed. “I can’t live without you. I tried so many times to move on after you left, but I couldn’t even get out of bed. I stopped caring about everything the moment you left me because I love you so damn much.”

With one final thrust, he spilled himself inside me and collapsed against me as we both fought for breath.

Chapter

Thirty

JORDAN

As we lay there in the aftermath, I stared at the ceiling. The weight of my confession dragged me to the center of the earth. It should’ve felt more wrong saying those things, especially since Xander still refused to tell me that he wouldn’t pursue legal rights over me.

When I tried to move away, Xander stopped me by circling his hand around my waist. He turned my face toward him, but the brewing resentment made it difficult to look at him. “Look at me,” he said.

I complied stoically but couldn’t hold his gaze. “When you leave for the airport, can you please have the security team take me to a café?” I asked, not wanting to stay cooped up alone in this house. Working for a few hours should take my mind off things.

I felt Xander tense against me.

“Jordan,” he started slowly before his next words cut me open like shards of glass, “You can’t leave.”

I pushed him aside and sat upright, positive that I’d heard him wrong. “What do you mean I can’t leave?”

He turned his head and coughed. “It’s not safe to be out and about while Henry is trying to provoke us.”

I frowned. “But the security guards would be with me.”

He disentangled from the sheets and picked up his boxers off the floor. The duffel bag I had helped him pack earlier was already by the bedroom door. He slowly dressed, with his eyes on me.

“Until we sort out this mess, you know as well as I do that Henry is unpredictable. It’s best if you stay inside this room.”

“What?” My eyes went wide in shock.

Oh God, he was going to lock me up in this room like an animal.

“How could you?” I screamed before I could think better of it. Tears sprung to my eyes, but I refused to let them fall and give him the satisfaction. “This is just what he used to do to me.”

I couldn’t be locked up in a cage again like when I was with Henry.

No. Not again.

“I admit, the optics aren’t great,” he confessed, never taking his eyes off of mine. “But this is for your good, to keep you safe.” He nodded at the walk-in closet. “I had a small safe room brought in and installed while we were gone. I’ll have the security guards email you the instructions. But this is the only room I feel comfortable with you being in while I’m out of town.”

My mind reeled with disbelief. This man who claimed to love me had betrayed my trust in the worst possible way.

A memory of Henry’s similar antics made my body convulse in revulsion. He was a master manipulator, always concocting endless excuses to keep me trapped within the walls of our house. Each one more insidious than the last, slowly suffocating any spark of independence within me.

Xander was doing the same.

“Jordan—”

“Don’t you have a flight to catch?” I asked in a monotone. The tears that had been threatening to spill finally escaped.