Another Lifetime

Chapter 6

DeAnna Kastell

Waking up next to him again just felt right. I'd slept through the night for the first time since he'd been arrested. I could feel his eyes on me from the moment I started to wake up and it didn't feel wrong, like the few times I'd stayed overnight at Brian's.

"Stop staring at me," I mumbled and pulled the covers tighter around me.

"Not whilst you're mine," he told me, "until you go back to him," he said and sounded incredibly irritated about it.

"He doesn't mean even a quarter as much to me as you do, Xavier," I told him and pulled the sheets from over my head to look at him. "I love you so much that without you, it was like I couldn't breathe," I told him and I meant every word.

"You're the one that wants to stay broken up," he pointed out and I pulled him into a kiss to get him to shut up.

I pulled back first, "not my finest decision," I told him and ran my fingers through his hair, "and I'm seriously rethinking it," I added, brushing his hair back from his eyes.

"I know, I need to get it cut," he said and I liked how that was what he'd picked up on, not that I was rethinking us being apart.

"I like it longer," I told him, "gives me more to grab onto during sex," I added and he kissed me again.

"So what are you going to do about the dick?" He asked me, pushing my hair back behind my ear.

"There's a school dance on Friday, a few days after, I'll tell him that it isn't working and we can start spending more time together without it seeming so suspicious," I told him and pushed myself up from bed.

I started getting dressed. "So you told Jessie," he said and I buttoned up my jeans.

"She took it really well but I don't know if she was doing that to deal with the situation before telling everyone today," I said as I pulled my tank top back on.

"She won't tell anyone Dea, she's your best friend and she loves you," he assured me and he was probably right. "Besides, I want to talk about why you didn't get any of your ink removed," he said and I opened up his draws to find a shirt to borrow instead of wearing the same sweatshirt home.

"I like my tattoos, they tell my stories," I said and they did. I looked down at my wrist and I was going to get the date we met again tattooed on my anchor.

"I remember when you got the first one," Xavier said as I pulled on a navy button down.

"Trey was a bastard about digging that needle in," I recalled and it had really hurt but that's what I get for getting a prison tattoo.

"Told you to go to Yolanda, she may charge more but she doesn't dig in too deep," he said and he had his smug face on.

"Don't be a dick, Xavier, it's not sexy," I told him and threw my sweatshirt at his face.

"Come back to bed?" He asked me and I rolled my eyes. "Just like five more minutes?" He suggested and I couldn't. I had to get home and out of his room before someone came to check on him.

"I have a piece to finish and a new piece to start," I told him, "and I need to go see Frank about what happened to our house," I said and dropped down onto his desk chair.

"Really think it was corporate espionage?" Xavier asked as he pulled on boxers.

"Wouldn't put it past the people that Kastell goes up against," I told him and my phone started jumping around on the floor. Xavier beat me to it then threw it to me.