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Franco: DO YOU HAVE A CRUSH ON A FRENCH GUY?

Colum: … No.

Franco: LIAR.

Franco: Take a pic of his ass and I’ll tell you if he’s really hot or not.

Xavier leaned one shoulder against the wall, head cocked as he studied Colum O’Connor.There was something tragic about the other man.Xavier saw the bone-deep sadness that had healed only on the surface, the wound below still there.

Someone poked his back, and Xavier turned to look at Annie, who stood just behind him at the top of the staircase.

“Excuse me,” she said with a sunny smile.

Rather than step out of the way, Xavier turned, putting his back to the wall—making space but forcing her to walk past him.

He’d been told before that his habit of antagonizing people made him an asshole, but he didn’t consider it antagonizing.He liked to know what was real.Not truth—a concept he considered almost a fairy tale—but the reality of who a person was.Maybe Annie really was all sunny smiles and social niceties, but he always assumed there was more to someone.

With Colum, he knew there were layers to be unwrapped.The man seemed both shy and unafraid of confrontation, which should have been a contradiction.Add that to the sadness and the way that Colum brushed back his hair with an arm corded with subtle muscles…

Xavier realized his gaze had slid back to Colum, so he refocused on Annie.

She was still smiling, still waiting for him to move so she didn’t have to brush by him to enter the second-floor rooms.

Xavier arched a brow and looked her up and down.

Annie blinked, then returned the favor, the same sunny smile on her face.Her eyes told him she liked what she saw.

He liked what he saw, too, the thin sweater dress hugging her breasts and ass just enough to make him think dark things.

As far as he was concerned, there were two options.Kind, smiling Annie was either a virgin or a treasure trove of kinks.There was no in-between.

He felt himself smile at that thought, and his smile must have given away the flavor of his thoughts because Annie’s lips parted as she inhaled slowly.Her lower lip looked very biteable.

“Excuse me,” she said again, stepping past him.There was plenty of room, so the fact her hip brushed against his crotch was deliberate.

Behind her back, Xavier grinned.He loved when people knew how to play the game.

“Colum,” Annie said, “Xavier’s here.”

Colum didn’t look up.“Who?”

Xavier winced, and Annie snorted out a laugh.

At that, Colum looked up, blinking behind his glasses.“What’s funny?”

“You, taking Xavier down a peg,” Annie said cheerfully.“At least, I found it funny.”

Colum’s gaze hopped to him, and Xavier arched a brow.

“Oh.Xavier.”Colum’s words sounded dismissive, but the look in his slightly wide eyes was telling.

Still, Annie started cracking up, dropping onto the couch and picking up her cup of tea.

“Do you want to know what I found?”Xavier asked, exasperated.

“Found about what?”Colum asked.

Annie sputtered, hand over her mouth full of tea, as she started laughing.She put her cup down and collapsed sideways on the couch.