Time Will Tell (Maybe #3)(37)

“Have I told you how sexy you look tonight?” he whispers in my ear, running his hand down my bare back.

“Only about ten times,” I reply, my cheeks heating. I’m wearing a black backless dress with long sleeves and a high neckline. The back is the focal point of the dress, of course, showing everything from my neck to just above the dimples on my lower back. I let my curly hair run wild, curls framing my face and draping over my shoulders. I put a little eyeliner around my blue eyes to make them pop, a little pink gloss, and I’m good to go.

“You’re distracting me,” he murmurs. “I don’t even want to talk to anyone. I just want to take you home and do dirty, dirty things to you.”

“Xander,” I giggle. “We have to stay at least another hour. You haven’t seen these people in a month. You need to socialise.”

He buries his face in my hair. “I know.”

“Xander, let the woman go for one second,” Tag mutters, smirking. “She isn’t going to run off.”

Xander ignores him and kisses me instead.

“Okay, Xander, seriously,” Summer interrupts. “I’m going to dance with Trillian. You go and have a drink with the guys.”

She grabs my hand and pulls me to the dance floor. “Never seen my brother behave this way. In fact, if someone told me he was, I wouldn’t believe it.”

I don’t know what to say to her, so I just give her a small smile.

She takes me to the centre of the small dance floor and starts to move to the music. After a little while, I relax and do the same. I notice the men never approach Summer or get too close to her. I wonder if that has anything to do with Reid and the fact that he’s a trained mixed martial arts fighter. When I feel a pair of hands on my hips, I know instantly that it isn’t Xander. I push the hands off me, turn, and shake my head. The man before me grins charmingly and shrugs in a ‘well, I had to try’ kind of way. Unable to stop myself, I grin back. Unfortunately for me, he takes this as a yes and takes my wrist, pulling me into him.

“I’m sorry, I’m taken,” I tell him. “I’m not interested.”

Instead of being deterred, he decides to grope my ass.

Before I know what’s happening, I’m pushed behind Xander, who says something to the guy. The man then pushes Xander, whose body doesn’t even falter, instead standing still and strong. Just how strong is Xander? Horrified, I watch as Xander raises his right arm and punches the man right in the jaw. The man staggers back, cupping his jaw. Xander takes another step toward him. Suddenly, I’m grabbed and pulled away from the commotion. I look back to see Reid with his arms around my waist and my back pressed to his chest. He carries me like I weigh nothing.

“Stay here,” he demands, putting me safely behind the bar, right next to Summer. Reid goes back to Xander, who just hit the man again.

“Holy shit,” I mutter, not knowing what the hell to do right now.

I look at Summer, who is staring at her brother wide-eyed. “Whoa.”

Whoa? That’s all she has to stay?

“What the hell do I do?” I ask her.

“Stay here like Reid said. He will sort them out,” she says, taking my hand in hers and squeezing gently. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen my brother lose his temper like that.”

She looks at me as if seeing me for the first time. “Don’t hurt him, Trillian. He’s got himself so worked up over you, I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

I don’t know what to say to that.

I see Xander searching the crowd for me, then heading toward me. Jumping over the bar, he wraps me in his arms, crushing me to his body. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I tell him. “You didn’t have to hit him, Xander.”

He shudders slightly as I rub his back. “He f*ckin’ grabbed you. No one gets to touch you, Trillian. You’re mine and they should f*ckin’ know better, and now they will.”

I bury my face in his chest, listening to his racing heart and ragged breaths. “Let’s go home.”

He nods and kisses the top of my head.

“Too beautiful for your own damn good,” he rumbles into my ear.

Then he drags me out of the bar and takes me home.





Chapter Nineteen


Xander


I scared her.

I’m an idiot.

Trillian puts a bag of frozen peas on my knuckles, but I just watch her. I saw her face after I hit that guy, and she looked scared. I never want to see that look on her face again. When I saw him putting his hands on her, I lost it. I saw red. I don’t think I’ve ever been that angry in my life. What’s happening to me?

All I know is I didn’t like seeing another man touch her. She’s mine and that’s final. At first, I told him to back off. I controlled myself. But when he pushed me first, all bets were off. I’ve never been so possessive of a woman before. I’ve never really cared that much if I’m honest with myself. Even with Sephie. After being with Trill, I realise that all Sephie and I had between us was an attraction that turned to friendship. There are always plenty of available women around, and one is just as good as another, but it’s so different with Trillian. I’m f*ckin’ whipped, is what I am. The worst part is that I don’t even care. She’s worth it.