Sleeping with the Enemy

"You're doing it again X," she said quietly.

Xavier didn't even look at her. "Doing what?"

"That thing where you act like I'm not even here."

His jaw clenched and smoke curled from his mouth. "Jesus Christ, B."

His tone made her chest tighten instantly.

He rubbed a hand down his face, already irritated. "I've had a long fucking week."

"You've had a long fucking month."

That finally made him glance at her.

Dark eyes. Sharp. Exhausted. Dangerous.

"What? You keeping score now?"

Bella pushed herself up slowly, pulling the sheet tighter around her chest.

"I just don't get why you're being weird with me."

"I'm not being weird with you B." He sighed.

"You barely touch me anymore unless we're having sex."

His jaw flexed.

Then he laughed once under his breath, cruel and humourless.

"There it is."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means you're starting to overthink something that was never complicated." He pointed the cigarette toward her lazily. "You know what this is."

Her stomach twisted.

The words still hurt even after four years.

"No strings," she whispered.

"Exactly." He took another drag. "You're not my girlfriend."

Her throat burned.

"I know that X, you don't have to remind me."

"Yeah, and you're definitely not my fucking wife."

For a long time, to each other they have just been X and B.
Simple and easy, no real names exchanged - just sex, no feelings, no complications.

What they don't know is they are already intertwined in complicated ways.

He spent years hating her.
Building a version of her in his head that made everything make sense. So when he finally realises that his 'fuck buddy' who is connected to him he doesn't hesitate. He takes her. Keeps her. Breaks her. But somewhere between the silence, the tension, and the moments they shouldn't have shared- he starts to realise something terrifying. She's not who he thought she was. And the truth? Might destroy him more than she ever could.