His eyes were bloodshot, his hair wild from the wind, and I suddenly noticed he’d misbuttoned his shirt getting dressed earlier. I hung on to that small detail to remind myself he was a human and terrified father and not a megalomaniac billionaire who thought I’d wronged him. Not deep down. At least I hoped so.
He turned his head to nod at the pilot over his shoulder and unhooked a set of earphones from his headrest, putting them on. He tapped them and pointed to beside my head.
I turned my face, seeing the headset right next to me by the window.
My stomach lurched as the machine rose, and the pier rushed away beneath us. Fumbling with the earphones and the mouthpiece, I managed to get them on.
Silence.
My ears rang in the void of sound as I adjusted. Then Xavier spoke, something in French. The pilot responded. They conversed back and forth a few times.
Outside the window, the low sun cascaded over the peninsula of La Revellata and over the azure bays. It was hard to believe what had happened down there just a couple of hours ago. I should have been building emotional armor instead of falling all the way in love. Because damn it, my heart was splintering, and I wanted to double over with the pain of it.
Fear for Dauphine was the only thing keeping me functioning.
Then the helicopter banked, causing me to grab onto my seat with both hands, and turned out to sea.
“Josephine,” Xavier said in my ears.
I looked up at his flat mouth and his blank eyes.
“I have told the pilot to put us on a separate channel. Can you hear me?”
I nodded, my belly nauseous.
“Start talking.”
I took a calming breath and counted to three. “About what?”
“Don’t be diff—”
“Difficult? I’m trying really hard right now to give you the benefit of the doubt,” I snapped. “I didn’t resist when you basically frog-marched me onto this death-trap of a machine only because I’m also terrified for Dauphine. And every second you think I had something to do with her being taken is wasting precious time figuring out who actually has her.”
His eyes narrowed. “What did he say to you?”
“Morosto? You already asked me that on the beach that afternoon.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“Because there was hardly anything to say,” I said and leaned toward him. “He made a pass at me. He told me I could come and be a nanny in his house.”
Xavier’s jaw tightened and he bared his teeth. I was guessing he knew Morosto didn’t have young children.
“Or,” I lifted a shoulder, “spy on you for him.”
His head cocked. “And did you?”
I gave a humorless laugh as I shook my head in disbelief, sitting back. “Fuck you.”
Xavier made a strangled sound in his throat, and his fist pounded the seat in front of him.
I gasped, my jaw dropping. “You asshole,” I hissed, my heart leaping into my throat with fright. It was in no way aimed at me or even close, but the violence of it left me shaking. “Calm down or I’m not speaking to you ever again. I had nothing to do with this, and you damn well know it,” I barreled on, shaken. “Alfred Morosto is a creep. He asked me if I was interested in an ‘arrangement.’ I said, no. He called me an icy bitch and asked me if I warmed up more for you. He assumed we were fucking.” I dragged in a breath. “Like father like son, right?”
Xavier flinched.
Fuck. I looked away, squeezing my eyes shut, so I didn’t have to look down and see how high we were over nothing but water. “And he called you a nerd.” I remembered the final detail. “Are you happy now?”
Xavier was quiet and when I glanced back, he was leaning down, cradling his head in his hands.
Silence crackled between us over the airwaves.
His muscular shoulders outlined against his shirt heaved as he breathed deeply, and I itched to reach out and soothe him. To comfort him about Dauphine, to take back my biting words. Even after his actions.
But I turned my head to the window, hanging onto my anger.
“Where was Dauphine?” he asked after a few moments.
“In the bathroom. I was waiting for her outside it. He cornered me in the hallway.”
“Why did you take his card?”
“Because it was either that or he was going to slip it between my breasts himself.” I glared at Xavier, and he stared right back. He was a master of non-expression, and