Chapter 41
“Erminegard?” he asked, trying not to get too wound up. What kind of a fucked up name was that?
His mother was trying to set him up with some New York socialite princess, and it pissed him off.
“Hollister,” his mother replied. “Erminegard Hollister. She’s from good stock.”
“Good stock?” he echoed, in disgust. “She sounds like a horse.”
Savannah sniggered, and tried to cover her mouth with her hand.
“What a thing to say,” his mother grumbled. “I’m only trying to help you, darling. Look at your brother, all settled and with a baby on the way.”
“You’d help more if you butted out, Mother.”
He was taking Izzy out later this evening, once this soiree was done with. Tobias and Savannah had invited everyone over. It wasn’t dinner, thank fuck. “Just cocktails,” his mother had told him.
“Tobias has an announcement to make,” his father said.
Xavier assumed it was probably the news that Jacob had accidentally let slip, that he and Izzy already knew.
Tobias cleared his throat, as he and Savannah stood with their arms around one another, and Jacob stood in front, in the middle. His brother had been politely civil towards him, as was he to Tobias. Neither of them have spoken or met up since that last time when Xavier had gone to Tobias’s office.
Xavier was glad it was only cocktails. A dinner to get through would have been awkward. He knew it was only a matter of time before things smoothed over between him and Tobias, but it was getting to that time that made things uncomfortable.
“You’ve kept us in suspense long enough, son. What is it?” Their father asked the question that was on everyone’s lips. Tobias didn’t often invite everyone over unless he had an announcement to make, or there was a celebration.
“The baby? Everything’s fine, isn’t it?” their mother asked, for once showing some concern.
Tobias looked at Savannah. “The babies are fine, yes,” he replied, unable to wipe that huge grin off.
“The babies?” It took a while for their father to process the news, and their mother looked suspicious.
But Jacob was grinning from cheek to cheek.
“We’re having twins,” Savannah confirmed, with a proud and wide smile on her face. Her hand smoothed over her now huge baby bump.
“And what are we having, Jacob?” Tobias asked.
“We’re having boys!”
A house full of boys. Xavier couldn’t help but smile. It was truly the best news.
It was his parents who moved towards the happy trio, first, congratulating them, then Xavier stepped in. He hugged Savannah. “It’s fantastic news, Savannah,” he told her, kissing her on the cheek, before turning, with apprehension, to his brother, “Congrats, bro.” He held out his hand, and waited for Tobias to shake it. Which he did, after a split-second delay.
“You’re going to be an older brother to twins, dude,” said Xavier, high-fiving an excited Jacob. “It’s a big responsibility.”
Jacob smiled, looking beyond excited. “I know!”
“We don’t want the news to get out,” Tobias warned. “Savannah’s parents know, and that’s it. Not even Kay knows.”
“But it’s going to be hard to hide soon,” his mother countered, “Especially when she balloons up like an elephant.”
“She?” Tobias asked, curtly.
“When Savannah balloons up. You’re already looking bigger than usual, dear,” his mother said. Xavier quaked in his shoes for his mother’s sake. She could be tactless at the most inappropriate of times.
“I think she looks lovely.” Their father, the diplomat as usual, stepped in.
“Shall I give Erminegard your number, darling?” his mother asked, turning to him.
“Only if you want me to talk dirty to her.”
“Xavier!”
“You shouldn’t make ridiculous suggestions, Mother, and I won’t give you stupid answers. Shouldn’t you propose a toast, dad?” he suggested, wanting to get this evening over and done with.
His father raised his glass, and proposed that everyone do the same. “Congratulations, Tobias, Savannah, and you Jacob. This is quite some news.”
“And it’s for your ears only, dad, remember,” Tobias reminded him.
~ ~ ~
Cara had fallen back on the bed when Izzy had told her that Xavier was taking her out on their first official date.
“I knew you liked him!” she’d countered, indignantly.
“I didn’t at first. But he grew on me.”
“Why is it that you have all the luck?”
Izzy turned around and made a face, “If you think I’ve had all the luck,” she said, “you haven’t been listening to me.”
“Have fun,” Cara had called out, as she left the house.
She had thought it was sweet when he had called and told her they were going out for dinner, ‘to get to know one another better.’
“But we already know one another,” she’d replied.
“I want to do it properly.”
That had made her laugh. “How do you normally do it?”
“Backwards.”
She’d tried to second guess him, “You mean, bed, dinner, and drinks?”
“Bed, usually, and sometimes after a few drinks.”
Xavier had picked her up and told her they were going to a hip new restaurant in the city. He’d risked picking her up in his Ferrari, telling her that it didn’t seem right going out on a date in his BMW.
“But you don’t like vegetarian food,” Izzy said.
“I’m open to trying new things.”
“All because of me?” She cocked her head, pretending to be all shy, and overdoing the fluttering of her eyelashes. She didn’t usually do shy, because it wasn’t her, and the way Xavier was looking at her, he knew she was being facetious.
“Maybe, because of you. Maybe because veggie food doesn’t taste as bad as I thought it would.”
And so they had gone to a newly opened restaurant where the line had spilled out onto the street. Xavier marched up to the front and they were allowed straight in, and shown a table over in the corner, in an area that was raised slightly above the floor level. Maroon silk tablecloths dressed round tables, and black candle holders showed off mustard yellow candles. They ordered food, shared starters, and talked, and stared at one another, and he told her about the get together at Tobias’s earlier.
“It was that thing that Jacob accidentally let slip,” he told her, peering around discreetly, “And it can’t get out.” She nodded, understanding, and touched that he hadn’t told her in as many words, and had honored his brother’s request for the news to remain secret.
After dinner they walked around Central Park, talking and enjoying one another’s company, and then he drove her home. Her heart sank when he suggested he take her back to her place, because she knew that Cara would be at home, all eyes and ears and waiting to find out.
He dropped her off, then surprised her by turning down her offer to come inside, and so they sat in the car, and talked some more.
“You’re not the womanizer I imagined you to be,” she said.
“You shouldn’t always believe what you read in the press. That’s what my brother always says, and I agree.”
“It was my mistake.”
“At least you’ve owned up to it.”
“I haven’t owned up to it,” she cried, slapping his arm lightly. “You were quite obnoxious when we first met. You were so full of yourself.” She reminded him of a few instances.
“That’s because I wasn’t used to being around someone who didn’t think I was god’s gift to women.”
She roared. “You see what I mean? You were so obnoxious.”
“You threw me for a loop,” he protested. “I wasn’t used to someone like you.”
“I’m not like the girls you’re used to.”
“No, you’re not.”
After a while, when he declined her second offer to come back to her apartment, they made out for a while, light kisses at first, until they deepened into long, wet ones. They held hands, touching, and exploring one another lightly, and the thrill of being outside, in a car, not having privacy but hidden under the darkness of the night, lent a touch of risk to their intimacy.
But it wasn’t comfortable, sitting with her body twisted inside the car. Sitting close and doing her best to avoid the handbrake. Making out like this wasn’t the most romantic way to end the evening, but when he kissed her, making her body tingle and spark, and crave for more, she soon forgot the discomfort and lost herself in the animal heat of the moment.
“Do you want to come in?” She wished they had gone to his place instead, and part of her wondered why he hadn’t. Cara would be in, and she would get talking to Xavier, and they wouldn’t have the privacy they’d have had at his place.
“This is fine, for now,” he said, his hand on her waist, his fingers squeezing her flesh gently. They were face-to-face, breathing in each other, lips nuzzling, and moving over one another. “I don’t want you to think I’m after one thing,” he said, his face somber.
“I know you’re not after one thing.”
“How do you know?”
She shrugged. “I just do.”
He kissed her again, making her feel those same things again, turning her to liquid heat, as she arched her back anticipating good times. The very thing she had hated Xavier for, the way other girls turned into complete idiots, was the way she was behaving now. He’d touched her intimately, made her come, made her think of that moment over and over again, making her more aroused each time, until she could think of nothing but wanting him more.
“Please come on in for a while,” she begged, kissing him across his jaw, inhaling his cologne, getting used to it.
“I can’t.”
“Can’t?”
“There’s no rush, is there?”
“No.” She’d been wrong. So very wrong about him.
“Maybe when you have a weekend free from exams and coursework, we could go away for a couple of days.”
“Like where?” Going away sounded like heaven. The only going away she ever did was to go back home, and that wasn’t the most relaxing of places.
“The Hamptons. We’ve got a place there. I love it. It’s private, but relaxing. I can’t think of any place nicer where we can be alone.”
Sweet.
So sweet.