Starstruck (Fusion #1) (7 page)

“Very well. I hear Caitlin has been threatening to fly out
and see you. Be careful she doesn’t discover your little love nest.”

“She would be hard-pressed to, as we’re off to Florence in a
couple of hours and there is nothing of Indi’s at my place. I always stay at
hers.”

Indi

“Honey, where are you?” Indi could hear Xander calling
to her from the lounge.

“In the bedroom, panicking.”

She could hear his laughter coming closer. In just three
weeks of them being together, he had become quite used to her freaking out over
not finding the right outfit to wear.  She would usually try on about
three or four things before settling on the first one.

“What is wrong?” he questioned, smiling as he leaned
against the doorframe, drinking in the sight of the clothes half in her
suitcase and half out. 

Indi was still dressed in her underwear; a black lace, all-in-one
body. Her hair was tied loosely in a bun, with some of the shorter, wispy curls
hanging free, framing her cheeks. “I just don’t know what to wear since you
won’t tell me where we’re going!” she cried out dramatically.

Chuckling, Xander moved into the room while Indi continued
to lean over the bed, mumbling as she debated which outfits to place in the
suitcase.  Coming up behind her, he slid his hand suggestively over her
bottom.  “I would be quite happy if you wore this outfit all day,” he
teased.

“Xander!” she chided impatiently.

“Babe, just think summery and comfortable.”  He
continued to caress her bottom as he stood behind her; his hands gliding up
over either side of her hips as he pressed himself against her. She could feel
his growing hardness as he leaned over to kiss her neck and nibble her earlobe
in a way he knew she loved.

She let out a whimper, despite her irked patience. 
“Xander, we don’t have time,” she tried to reason with him.

“The taxi isn’t going to be here for forty-five minutes, and
it wouldn’t matter if we kept the driver waiting for a few more minutes after
that.  I need you now. It’s been ages since we made love,” Xander
grumbled, continuing to rub his hardness against her bottom to emphasis his
point.

“Ages being all of five or six hours!” she retorted.

“I can’t help it if I want to touch you constantly.”

“I know, darling, I enjoy you wanting to touch me, but can’t
we wait till we get there rather than having to rush?”

He sulked. “I suppose.”

“Aw, poor baby, I’ll make it up to you later, you know
that.”  She turned to face him fully, standing on tiptoe to kiss him as if
to seal her promise.  “Now let me sort out the rest of my suitcase in
peace.  Why don’t you go and read the paper, or something.”

“Okay, I’ll call you when the taxi arrives.”

Left alone, Indi managed to finish the task of selecting a
few short and long dresses, flat and spiked-heel shoes, and a bathing suit, all
neatly placed within her Louis Vuitton luggage.  She dressed in a short
turquoise one-shoulder dress, embellished with a pattern of six shooting stars
drifting down from a central point, made up of beads.  

Pulling out the long, extendable handle of the case, Indi
dragged it into the foyer and then went into the dining area where Xander was
seated at the breakfast bar, reading one of the English papers they had picked
up the day before. 

 “Where is your case, Xander?”

“Over by the sofa.  Are we over our panic now?” 
He left the paper and walked over to embrace her.  “You look lovely.” 
His eyes drifted over the short dress admiringly, as his wandering hands
exploring her softness beneath it.

“Yes, the suitcase is packed and ready to go,”  Indi
replied, dismissing his other remark without a response as she knew it only
would encourage him to initiate kissing her again; something she did not want
to get into until they were on the train.  This caused Xander to frown at
her silent rebuttal of his compliment. 

“Indi, is something wrong?”  He reached for her chin
and brought her face up, so her eyes would look at his.

“No, I’m okay, Xander.  I simply don’t want to start
something that may be interrupted by the taxi arriving, and I don’t like
keeping people waiting as I find it rude,” she explained.

Xander raised an eyebrow and shrugged.  “I’m sure he
wouldn’t mind; he gets paid extra for just sitting there, and I always tip
well.”

“I just don’t like keeping people waiting. It’s discourteous,
even if they are being paid for the privilege.” Her tone was sharper this time,
irritated by his casual dismissal of her own opinion on the matter.

Xander stiffened but did not reply as the taxi signalled its
arrival with a small burst of the horn.  Collecting his own suitcase, he followed
Indi out into the foyer, where hers was waiting. 

Glancing at him over her shoulder as she opened the front
door, Indi noticed that he wore a stern expression. Xander stared straight
ahead, avoiding eye contact.  She sighed, thinking that the beginning of his
surprise would be ruined if he maintained such a stern exterior, just because
she had censured him for not considering that another person’s time was just as
valuable as his.

There was a stony silence between them throughout the taxi
journey.  All the time, he wore an unreadable expression. As they drew up
outside the train station, Indi could take it no longer.  “Xander, are you
going to speak to me or shall I just turn the taxi around and go back to the
villa while you continue on to wherever we were heading?” 

His eyes flashed with dark clouds, disrupting the calm
molten silver within them.  “I’ll speak to you on the train.”  The
tone was monotone, but she could tell a storm was brewing.

Indi rolled her eyes in frustration and replied, “Fine.” This
was the first time she had refused him anything and his reaction surprised her.
He was acting like a spoiled, sulky child. 
Surely people had said no
to him before?

Xander looked at her disdainfully, but said nothing,
slipping on his trademark sunglasses before exiting the vehicle. He always wore
them whenever they headed out in public to hide the obvious signs of his
identity from any potential paparazzi or adoring fans nearby.  Xander had
been extremely lucky so far, with only one photographer snapping them as they
exited a restaurant, but Adam had managed to convince the man to hand over the
film in exchange for a sufficient sum of money.

After the driver had helped them to remove their luggage from
the boot, Xander and Indi dragged their luggage along silently.  Since she
had no idea where she was heading, she trailed behind him slightly as her
shorter strides were no match for his.

On the busy platform was a sleek train with many carriages.
As they walked, Indi noticed first-class signage on the initial few, before
second class began.  There was a large monitor showing all the trains due
in, along with their destinations, so she would be able to work out where they
were going once she saw what platform number they were on.  Xander was walking
towards Adam and Hayden, whom she’d become used to accompanying them on their
excursions around the island. 

“Hi, again,” Indi said as the two men smiled and nodded at
her, before turning their attention back to their employer. 

“Have you had the train looked over?” Xander asked.

“Yes, I spoke to the station master, who gave his approval for
us to board and check over the rooms beforehand.  They were quite pleased
to be having such a VIP travelling on their train, so they were glad to oblige,”
Adam answered.

While the men were talking, Indi took in her surroundings,
noted the platform number, and moved slightly away from them to view the large
monitor.  So, they were heading to Florence; Xander had chosen well. 
She had been to Rome and Venice before, but never there.  Indi was
secretly pleased that he’d taken the time to take her somewhere new and she felt
some of her earlier anger dissipate; maybe she had been too harsh.

She was still deep in thought when she felt someone touch
the small of her back lightly. At the same time she felt warm breath against
her ear as Xander spoke into it. “So you’ve discovered the surprise
destination?”

Indi turned around and met his gaze.  “Yes, thank you,
it’s a perfect choice.”

He smiled slightly and nodded.

“I’m sorry about before,” they both blurted out in
unison. 

Xander stepped closer and ran his fingers lightly over Indi’s
mouth before kissing her hard, which she returned eagerly. 

“Come, let’s go board and we can then talk properly,” he
said. Separating from her, Xander slid his arm around her waist and guided her
back through the crowded platform and on to the train.  He showed her into
a cabin that seemed to be one of the premier ones. It was decked out to a high
level of comfort with large armchairs and a table off to one side.

“We can convert it into two beds for tonight,” he
explained as he sat down on one of the large seats.  “We’ve got our own
attendant in this car, who can serve us drinks and some snacks, or we can go
into the restaurant later if you want.  I tried to get a cabin with our
own bathroom, but it seems they don’t have them on this route.”

Indi smiled coyly as she joined him on the seat, half facing
him. “Single beds?”

Xander nodded apologetically. Turning to face her, he took
one of her hands in his. “But, I’m sure we can snuggle up together in one
for a few hours.  And the hotel in Florence certainly has a double.”

“Xander, I don’t mind sleeping in a single if you’re here
with me,” she assured him softly, their earlier argument put to the side
as she leaned forward to nuzzle against his chest.

“I thought we should talk through this tension before we
head off.  I want to give you a true idea of what my life is like, which
is why I might not always appear to care about other people at the time.”

“Okay.”  Indi lifted her head off his chest and turned
in her seat, prepared to listen in earnest to what he had to say.

“I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I lead an opulent
lifestyle, but that wasn’t something I attained via music,” Xander explained. “It
is something I was born into.  My family is beyond wealthy, more than the
largest public limited company. As the oldest of five, I’m the one that each of
the others turns to in times of crisis. Even though I’m not technically heading
up any of the companies owned by my family, I still get daily phone calls for
my input from the people who are running them. 

“I’m always the one who has to negotiate when our father
makes their life difficult. I have more responsibility than one person
should have, and that is what makes my time exceedingly precious. At times
I take for granted that people will just wait around for me to be ready, and I
accept that I come across as pompous, because of this, to people who don’t
truly know me.”

Indi gazed at him, her mouth slightly ajar as he
spoke.  While Xander had already divulged some of the problems with his
father, she hadn’t begun to imagine this kind of pressure; the man sounded
almost as calculating and uncompromising as her own.

Xander squeezed her hand slightly as he continued, “As I mentioned
before, my sister was harassed by a man we knew extremely well. She had a
stalker for months beforehand; unbeknown to us, it was him all along. It ended with
him kidnapping her.  Endless hours of counselling couldn’t help her to come
to terms with what happened.  Even now, three years later, she still has
nightmares.  She’s become the shell of the person she once was – now an uncontrollable,
anti-authoritarian drug taker. I blame myself; if I had paid more attention,
perhaps the kidnapping could have been averted.” 

“My goodness, I didn’t realise that had happened,” Indi
gasped. A cold shudder went down her back as she realised that her own situation
could have easily ended in kidnapping. 

“The majority was kept out of the papers at the time and
they caught him within a few days of her being taken.  He’s been in prison
ever since, but he is due to be up for parole in only three years.”  

“You asked me yesterday why I’ve changed between that first
introduction and now,” Indi cut in. “Before this holiday, I held people at
arm’s length. I wanted to uproot from London to another country, just so there
would be no chance of ever running into him once he was released, but my
counsellor helped me realise that I can’t let him win, and that I need to learn
to face my fears and let myself trust people again.”  Her voice wobbled as
the stark reality of how close she had come to something more serious took its
toll on her senses.

Seeing the tears well up in Indi’s eyes as she spoke, Xander
pulled her into his chest tightly.  “Don’t cry, honey, you never have to
be scared of him ever again.” 

“How can you say that when we won’t even be in each other
lives once we leave here?”  Her sobbing becoming persistent as the realisation
of not having Xander to protect her long-term truly hit her.

“I might not be in your day-to-day life, but I’ll still make
sure you’re safe.  You just need to make contact with the name I gave you
last night as soon as you’re home. He’ll take care of everything.”  He
tried to soothe her by running his hand repeatedly over her hair.

“But won’t it be costly to have someone protecting me?”

“Don’t you worry about that,” he replied. “The bills will
come to me personally, rather than the band or family. No one needs to know.”

The idea made Indi feel that she would always be an
undisclosed facet to Xander’s life. Not just a holiday fling that turned into
more, but his kept woman. A sense of sordidness washed over her as her already
heightened emotions moved from distress to wrath. She pushed herself away from
his embrace and walked to the other end of the cabin, out of his reach. “You
make it sound as if I’ll be your dirty little secret.”

“No, that isn’t what you are at all.” He made a move to grab
her as she moved away, but she was too quick.

“Don’t touch me,” Indi said firmly, her eyes full of hurt.
“I-I thought with all the gifts and these surprise trips, y-you had actually
started to care about having me in your life.”