Chapter 3

Morning After

I woke up to the feel of a hard body pressed against my back and a large hand between my legs.

Xavier’s fingers moved slowly, almost lazily, stroking through the slick mess he had left inside me hours earlier. His mouth was at the back of my neck, open and hot.

“You’re still wet,” he murmured against my skin. “Good.”

I tried to close my legs. He pushed them apart with his knee and kept touching me.

“Xavier—”

“Quiet.” His voice was rough from sleep. “I’m not done.”

He slid two fingers inside me without warning. I gasped and grabbed the sheet. My body was sore, sensitive, and still greedy. Every small movement sent sparks up my spine.

Xavier fucked me with his fingers in slow, deep strokes, curling them until my hips started moving on their own. His other arm locked around my waist, holding me still.

“You left marks on my back last night,” he said. “Scratched me like you couldn’t get enough.”

Heat flooded my face. I remembered. I had dug my nails into him while he held my legs open and drove into me until I cried.

“I—”

“Don’t apologize.” He bit the side of my neck hard enough to sting. “I liked it.”

His thumb found my clit and pressed. The dual sensation ripped a broken sound from my throat. I came fast, shaking against him, embarrassed by how easy it was.

Xavier pulled his fingers out and wiped them on my thigh like he owned the mess. Then he rolled me onto my back and settled between my legs. His cock was already hard, heavy against my stomach.

He didn’t ask this time.

He pushed inside me in one long thrust. The stretch burned in the best way. I arched up, mouth open. Xavier braced his forearms on either side of my head and started moving. Deep. Steady. Possessive.

The only sounds in the room were skin against skin and the soft, helpless noises I couldn’t stop making.

“Look at me,” he ordered.

I forced my eyes open. His gray stare pinned me harder than his body.

“This is what you agreed to,” he said between thrusts. “Every time I want you, I take you. No hesitation. No guilt. Understand?”

I nodded, breathless.

“Say it.”

“I understand.”

He rewarded me with a harder thrust that made my toes curl. “Good girl.”

The words should have felt wrong. Instead they sank into me like heat.

Xavier fucked me until I came again, then followed with a low groan, pulsing deep inside me. He stayed there for a long moment, forehead pressed to mine, breathing hard.

When he finally pulled out, I felt empty and full at the same time.

He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. I stared at the side of his face. Morning light cut across the sharp line of his jaw. There was a faint red mark on his shoulder from my teeth.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand.

Nathan’s name lit up the screen.

Xavier turned his head and looked at the phone, then at me. He didn’t say a word. He just waited.

I picked it up.

Nathan: Just landed. Can’t wait to see you tonight. Missed you so much, baby.

Eight months of lies sat in those two sentences.

I typed back with steady fingers.

Aria: Missed you too. See you soon.

I set the phone down. Xavier’s expression didn’t change, but something darker moved behind his eyes.

“You’re going home to him,” he said.

“I have to. For now.”

“Wear a skirt.”

I blinked. “What?”

“When you see him tonight. Wear a skirt. No panties. I want him close to what’s already mine and not know it.”

The order should have disgusted me. Instead my stomach clenched with something sharp and hungry.

“You’re serious.”

“I don’t say things I don’t mean.” Xavier sat up. The sheet fell to his waist. “This bargain only works if we commit to it completely. Half measures are useless.”

I sat up too, pulling the sheet higher. “And what about you? What do you do while I’m with him?”

“I wait.” He looked at me over his shoulder. “And when you’re ready to leave that house again, you come straight back here. Day or night. Clear?”

“Clear.”

He stood and walked naked to the bathroom. I watched the muscles in his back shift. There were faint scratches down his spine. Proof of what we had done.

I forced myself out of bed. My body ached in places that made my face heat. I found my clothes scattered across the living room floor and dressed slowly. Every movement reminded me of him.

Xavier came out wearing black sweatpants and nothing else. He handed me a glass of water. Our fingers brushed.

“I’ll drive you home,” he said.

“I can call a car.”

“I said I’ll drive you.”

There was no point arguing. I followed him to the elevator.

The ride down was silent. In the underground garage he opened the passenger door for me like we were normal people. Like he hadn’t spent the night wrecking me.

We didn’t speak until he pulled up two blocks from my building.

“This is close enough,” he said. “I don’t want cameras catching my car.”

I nodded and reached for the handle.

Xavier’s hand caught my wrist. He tugged me sideways and kissed me hard. It was deep and claiming and over too fast.

“Remember what I said about the skirt,” he murmured against my mouth. “And Aria?”

“Yes?”

“When he touches you tonight, think about how much deeper I was.”

Then he let me go.

I walked the rest of the way on unsteady legs. My phone buzzed again. Another message from Nathan.

Nathan: Home in an hour. Want me to pick up dinner?

I stared at the screen until the words blurred.

Inside the apartment everything looked the same. The framed wedding photo on the shelf. The throw blanket Nathan always pulled over my legs when we watched movies. The faint smell of his cologne in the hallway.

I walked straight to the bathroom and turned the shower on as hot as I could stand. Water poured over me. I watched it swirl down the drain and tried not to think about the fact that Xavier’s come was still inside me.

When I stepped out, my phone was ringing.

Nathan.

I answered on the third ring.

“Hey, baby.” His voice was warm. Familiar. Fake. “I’m ten minutes away. Miss me?”

“Yeah,” I said. The word tasted like ash. “I missed you.”

“Good. Because I plan on showing you how much I missed you tonight.”

My stomach turned.

I hung up and walked to the closet. My hands moved on their own. I pulled out a soft black skirt that ended mid-thigh. No panties, just like Xavier ordered. A simple blouse. Nothing special. Nothing that said I had spent the night getting fucked by another man.

The front door opened twenty minutes later.

Nathan dropped his bag and pulled me into a hug. He smelled like airport and the cologne I used to love. His arms felt wrong now. Too familiar. Too soft.

“God, I missed you,” he murmured into my hair. His hands slid down my back and rested just above my ass. “You feel good.”

I stood stiff in his arms.

He pulled back and smiled the same smile he had given me for years. “You okay? You seem quiet.”

“Just tired.”

“Long week?”

“Something like that.”

Nathan kissed me. Soft. Gentle. The complete opposite of how Xavier had kissed me that morning. I let it happen. My mind stayed somewhere else. Somewhere darker.

He ordered takeout and talked about the fake business trip. I nodded in the right places. Laughed when I was supposed to. Inside, I counted the hours until I could leave again.

After dinner he pulled me toward the bedroom.

“Come here,” he said, voice low. “I need you.”

I let him undress me. The black skirt slid down my legs. Nathan’s eyes darkened when he realized I wasn’t wearing anything underneath.

“Fuck, Aria. You planned this?”

I didn’t answer.

He laid me down and moved over me the way he always did. Careful. Predictable. His hands were soft where Xavier’s had been rough. His mouth was gentle where Xavier’s had bitten.

I closed my eyes and let him finish.

When it was over he fell asleep with one arm around my waist, breathing evenly, completely unaware.

I stared at the ceiling for a long time.

My phone was on the nightstand. I reached for it carefully and typed a single message.

Aria: He’s asleep.

The reply came in under a minute.

Xavier: Come over.

I slipped out from under Nathan’s arm, pulled the skirt back on, and left the apartment without looking back.

Xavier opened the door before I could knock. He was still in the black sweatpants. His eyes dropped to the skirt, then back to my face.

“Good girl,” he said quietly.

He pulled me inside and kissed me like he had been waiting all day. This time there was no slow build. He pushed me against the wall, shoved the skirt up around my waist, and groaned when he found me bare and already wet.

“You listened,” he muttered against my mouth. “Did he notice?”

“Yes.”

“Did he make you cum?”

I shook my head.

Xavier’s smile was dark. “Of course he didn’t.”

He spun me around, bent me over the entryway table, and thrust into me in one hard stroke. I cried out. He didn’t give me time to adjust. He fucked me fast and deep, one hand in my hair, the other gripping my hip hard enough to bruise.

“This is mine,” he growled. “Say it.”

“It’s yours.”

“Louder.”

“It’s yours—”

He reached around and rubbed my clit in tight circles. I shattered with a broken sob. Xavier followed a few thrusts later, burying himself to the hilt and holding me there while he came.

For a long moment the only sound was our breathing.

Then he pulled out, turned me around, and cupped my face with both hands.

“Tomorrow,” he said, “you’re going to tell him you’re going out with friends. You’re going to come here. And you’re going to stay the night. Clear?”

I looked up at him. My legs were still shaking.

“Clear.”

Xavier kissed me once, softer this time, almost like a reward.

Outside, the city kept moving.

Inside, the bargain had stopped feeling like revenge.

It was starting to feel like something much more dangerous.