The French Billionaire(43)

“I’ll see you at one,” she said before walking out of the office.

Xander took her out of the city, north this time, to his country house in Westchester. It was a huge, three story colonial, and looked like a palace on the inside, decorated with white marble and gold. He took her up to the master bedroom, which consisted only of a massive four poster bed, a chandelier, and a dresser. Without speaking, he pinned her down on the bed.

“I know you want this,” he said, roughly. “Don’t pretend to be mad at me.”

Mia kissed him, and gave into what he wanted. She let him strip her down and have his way with her, and instead of being scared, she found herself enjoying it. Despite everything, her heart was still telling her that there was more to Xander than his horrible actions. She couldn’t forget the sad look in his eye when they were sitting on the beach, talking about how lonely and isolated he felt in his life. And of course, she couldn’t forget how he’d made her breakfast. How he’d told her she was beautiful and kind, and easy to be around.

After they’d had sex, she turned over and asked him, “Why did you feel like you needed to pay me last time? You know I’m not some sort of prostitute. I would have kept it quiet. I still will.”

“I was intimidated by you. You weren’t like the other girls I’ve dated, who have no personality and just nod and smile. You can actually carry on a conversation. You have your own life, and your own goals. And that scared me. I wanted to feel in control. I still do. It’s a fatal flaw of mine… it caused a lot of problems with my ex.”

“I guess you’re just not used to not getting everything your way all the time.”

“No, I’m not. And even though you seemed happy with me at the time, I knew you had been having doubts about us being together. I couldn’t let you act on those. So I decided to do something about it first.”

“Xander, I really do care about you. But you’ve done some horrible things. You can’t keep acting like this if you want any of this to work out.”

“How am I supposed to be a perfect gentleman when you’re dating Jayden?! The guy is a total dud. You deserve only the best. You deserve someone that’s going to make you feel like royalty, who’s exciting and powerful and important.”

Mia was taken aback by his intensity. She’d never met anyone so self-important, but she’d also never met anyone who would go to such great lengths to have her. But she couldn’t just let him win. That would be too easy. He needed to learn that he couldn’t just go around breaking her heart.

“This may be true, but I’m still with Jayden. I already feel badly about everything we’ve done here. How am I supposed to explain this to him? I want to be with you Xander, I really do, but this isn’t the right way. He is a good guy. This isn’t fair.”

“I don’t care about him. Or his feelings. You’re meant for me. It’s as simple as that.”

“How about a compromise? I’ll wait until Jayden gets back in the country, and I will break up with him, letting him down easy. We won’t tell anyone about us until it all blows over.”

“I can live with that,” Xander said. He grabbed her and pulled her into a kiss. “I just want you all to myself.”

***





Epilogue


Xander and Mia drove back to the city the next day, feeling tired but contented. They planned to keep everything a secret, until Jayden got back and Mia could break up with him. She hadn’t decided yet what she would tell him. She would probably use a cliché breakup line, something like ‘it’s not you, it’s me,’ or ‘I’m just not that into you”. She figured the less she told him, the better. He would find out about her and Xander in due time, and he was sure to be very upset.

Xander kissed Mia when they were still in the car, and promised to see each other later, when they both had some free time. Then, they got out and went about their usual tasks at work. Mia felt ecstatic. She hadn’t felt this way about anyone in such a long time. Indeed, being in love was wonderful.

At lunchtime, she decided to walk over to Xander’s office just to say hello before she went out, and bought her food. But when she got to the office, she noticed that there was a woman there. Although she couldn’t hear what they were saying, she could tell that Xander was talking to her very intently and seriously. The woman had dark, wavy hair, and after looking at her for a few minutes, Mia realized that it was Lillian!

What is she doing here? Mia thought. They broke up. This cannot be good.

Mia knew that although Xander clearly felt very passionate about her, there was no way she could compete with Lillian. After all, Lillian was rich, gorgeous, smart, and had already been Xander’s girlfriend for years. Worse, she knew that Lillian can actually blow everything about her true identity. What is she going to do?