Plan in mind, he showered, dressed, and headed out.
His car was parked in front of the house, and he opened the door to find Sasha, her hand in the air about to ring the doorbell.
Chapter Twelve
Sasha pulled her sunglasses off and Xander immediately saw how exhausted she was. She had dark circles under her eyes and her mouth was drawn tight. He had no doubt she was in pain.
All the apologies he had planned fled in the wake of seeing her hurting. “What the hell are you doing here? You shouldn’t have been on such a long car ride with a concussion,” he grumbled, pulling her inside.
“I closed my eyes and rested on the way here,” she said defensively.
“Is that why you look like you’re about to fall over?”
“I was too pissed off to wait until I felt better.” She glared at him, her anger at him massive.
He deserved every bit of it.
Thanks to him, they might be technically broken up and she might not want him to touch her, but fuck it. He’d do what he needed to. After kicking the door closed, he picked her up and settled her in his arms.
“Xander, what are you doing?” she asked, but she wrapped her arms around his neck to hold on.
Without answering, he carried her down the hall and into the master bedroom, placing her gently onto the mattress. “Kick off your shoes, lie back, and rest. I’ll be right back.”
Turning, he strode to the kitchen to get an ice pack and Aleve for her head and a glass of apple juice and a box of graham crackers in case she was hungry.
Then he headed back to the bedroom and braced himself for the fight of his life. Because he planned to do everything he could to convince Sasha they had what it took to make things work for the long haul.
* * *
Sasha had intended to show up and give Xander hell, not to be the one being yelled at and carried to bed. Of course, she understood his reasoning, but his reaction put her at a disadvantage and made her look weak. But with her head pounding and nausea threatening courtesy of both the concussion and the car ride, that’s what she was.
When he returned to the bedroom with juice, a snack, and medicine for her head, her heart thawed a bit, and she got angry all over again.
“No. You are not going to get out of what you did by being nice to me now.” She folded her arms across her chest, and instead of feeling like she was in control, she felt like a petulant child.
Damn him.
He placed everything on the nightstand and sat down on the side of the bed, not asking her to move over, just letting his hips push her legs aside.
He was really pissing her off and she growled at him. His lips twitched and she knew he was holding back a laugh because they weren’t in a place where anything was funny.
He placed one of his big, warm hands on her legging-clad thigh. She’d borrowed clothing from Cassidy since her stuff was still at his apartment.
“Sasha, listen … I was on my way to see you.”
That statement took her by surprise. “Well, I came all the way out here and I want to have my say first.”
He nodded. “Okay. Talk to me,” he said, but he didn’t move his hand from her leg, distracting her in all sorts of ways she didn’t want to think about. Like the heat between her legs. How damp her sex had grown since he’d picked her up and she’d smelled his familiar, masculine scent.
She cleared her throat and met his gaze. “I think there are a few things you forgot about,” she said, drawing on the many times she’d practiced this speech on the way over here so she didn’t forget anything. “For one thing, I’m an adult. And I’m not the same person you met five years ago. I’ve grown up and taken charge of my life. So I did not appreciate you telling me what I should do. Nobody makes my life choices anymore except me. And this time around, they’re well thought out with a plan behind them.”
She didn’t miss the way his gaze softened behind those sexy glasses as he listened. Or the way he nodded while she spoke. “Are your head or eyes bothering you today?” she couldn’t help but ask.
He nodded. “Both. A little too much tequila last night.”
She raised her eyebrows, surprised. Normally he wasn’t a big drinker, so maybe he’d been as upset as she’d been.
But she didn’t want to get further distracted. “Back to my point. You made assumptions. I never said I was going right back to California. I never said I was going to jump into another role. And I sure as hell never gave you any indication that, despite our agreement to begin a short-term affair, that’s what we’d ended up being to one another.” She paused for a deep breath and to let her head, which pounded harder the more worked up she got, relax a bit. She leaned her head against the pillow and sighed.