Chapter 29

Twenty-Nine

XAVIER

Finishing up the mid-term for the spring semester in my film class, I rush over to the student center. It’s my last semester, so it’s not like I have a lot of work to do. I’ll graduate with honors and start my MBA in the fall.

Cardell Enterprises stocks are plummeting, but I’d let it crash if only I have her. She saved the company for us by agreeing to marry me and bear my child. Once I’m done with school, I have ideas to make it profitable again. But I won’t hesitate to burn it to the ground if it threatens what I have with Marissa. We can be poor and happy somewhere with our kids.

Meeting her just outside the therapy offices, Marissa opens the door. Her therapist gives me a nod and I mimic the motion. Despite my absolute compulsion to pay Charley to break into the student center’s computers and show me her session notes, I have resisted. Marissa asked me not to, and I’m being a good boy, learning to respect her boundaries. For now. But if she’s ever showing signs of discomfort, I’ll know where to look first.

Okay, really, there was just one note I had Charley get for me. And it was right after we spent the weekend at the cabin in bed. Marissa confessed how much she loves me and doesn’t want me to lock her up again. So as slyly as I could, without letting her know how I knew it was on her mind, I told her it will never happen.

And it can’t. Not if I want her to have a life, which is all I want for her. A life with me.

Lacing my fingers through hers, she gives me that seductive smile I can’t get enough of.

“Did you listen in?” she asks, arching a dark eyebrow.

“Nope. I told you. You wanted your privacy for that hour every week and you got it.” Pulling her in front of my body, I lean my face into the crook of her neck and urge her forward. “But the rest of the time is mine.”

She giggles and the sound lights up my abdomen with heat. “It is prime lake weather, you said.”

“I did say that, and that’s exactly where we’re heading. You got that new lens, right? You said you wanted to get some shots of the water today before nightfall?”

Turning to face me, she stops our momentum with a light touch at the end of my nose. “You listen so well, daddy.”

Growling, I mock chomp with my teeth at her. “Not daddy yet. Fuck, hurry to the car. I gotta unload.”

Hustling out to the Maserati, I help her inside, then we jet to the cabin. Most nights we cook here and stay here, even if there’re early classes. The only time I’m apart from her is golfing with her father or mine. Do I wait for her outside of every class? Yes. But that’s because she may need something.

And I’m going to be the one to provide it. Whatever she needs. For the rest of our lives.