Step Scandal - Part 2 by Rossi St. James Page B

curiosity. “But you guys were kissing, right? That night at the club? That was real.”
    “None of it’s real,” I said, crossing my hand across my heart. I opened my mouth to explain what was going on, only before that could happen, Hayden was ripped away from me by a higher power.
    “God damn, man! What the fuck!” Hayden practically screeched. Standing behind him was a seething, snarling Xavier. His shoulders tense and tight and his nostrils flaring, he stepped in and stood between us.
    “Xavier,” I said, shooting him a look that begged him to cool it. “It’s not what it looks like.”
    “So you two are together?” Hayden snickered. “I fucking knew it.”
    “What we are is none of your business,” Xavier rushed up to Hayden, towering over him. Hayden was one of those actors who were on the short side but looked taller on camera thanks to lifts and other special effects. I almost felt sorry for him, the way he was trying to subdue his shaking and shivering. Xavier was an unfair match for him. It was like a mouse going up against a lion.
    I spotted Xavier’s hand knotting up into a ball and inching back slowly, as if he were three seconds from clocking Hayden. I lunged forward and grabbed his elbow, stopping it before he had a chance to go flying toward the work of art that was Hayden McDaniel’s face.
    “This is ridiculous,” I scolded them. “Both of you. I don’t belong to either of you, and if I want to have a word with either of you, it’s my choice. I’m not a child. You can’t control what I do or what I feel or who I want to talk to.”
    My hand gripped my pearl encrusted clutch as I headed toward valet and waited for my driver to come get me.
    “Harper.” I turned around to see Xavier had run after me.
    “Go away,” I mumbled, though I was certain he couldn’t hear me above the ruckus of other celebrities waiting for their rides. It was social hour at the pick up lane.
    “I’m sorry,” he said.
    I stood on my toes, peering over the throngs of finely dressed men and woman and spotting our limo. I practically ran to it, paying no mind to the dark haired man chasing after me.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
TWO – XAVIER
     
    “Harper, I’m sorry,” I apologized again. “I thought I was protecting you.”
    The limo driver held the door open and she crawled in, grabbing bunches and handfuls of her black dress as she climbed over the threshold. She still wouldn’t speak to me.
    “All I wanted was to hear Hayden apologize,” she broke her silence. “It wasn’t like I was running back into his arms.”
    “But you snuck off to do it. You have to understand that looks bad.”
    “I snuck off because I had to. You’re this, like, possessive animal.” She glanced out the window, refusing to look at me. “I don’t know what’s come over you, but suddenly it’s like you think you need to control everything I do.”
    “You’re mine,” I said unapologetically. “For the next three months, you’re mine. That means I give a shit about you and what you do. And it means I get to call the shots. If you want this to work, if you want this to look real, if you want to get your little career back on track, you have to trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
    She spun around to face me, her hair flying and falling as her full, cherry lips parted to speak, but I silenced them with a kiss. Claiming her mouth in the backseat of the limo as we headed out of Beverly Hills, I pulled her on top of me.
    “What are you doing?” She peeled herself off my mouth to protest, but my hands grabbed a handful of her silky blonde hair and pulled her lips back to mine. The way she kissed me back told me she had no objections to what was about to go down. Her words may have been asking questions, but her body was not.
    I pulled the hem of her dress up until it was up around her waist, exposing a tiny black lace thong. I pulled the fabric aside and slipped a finger into her pussy. Wet and tight, just like the