Free Lessons in Rule-Breaking by Christy McKellen

dragging feeling of gloom had come from.
    It must be down to not having slept all night.
    When Xander had suggested she move in here with him, her first instinct had been to categorically dismiss the idea, but with her head feeling as if it were stuffed with cotton wool and her body aching with tiredness she’d actually been pathetically grateful when he’d insisted on it. Just the thought of spending another sleepless night in that awful hotel had made her insides clench and squirm.
    She’d been surprised at his offer, considering how resistant he’d been to giving her anything personal of himself the previous night. Perhaps she’d looked so pathetic when he’d found her there he’d had a crisis of conscience?
    Anyway, whatever his reasons, logically it would be a whole lot easier to stay in the same place as Xander as it meant she could get a really good feel for how he spent his days while he worked on his paintings.
    She took a hot, reviving shower in the beautiful, mosaic-tiled en-suite bathroom and dressed in her most comfortable clothes: a pair of indigo boyfriend jeans and a loose, long-sleeved, white cotton T-shirt and slipped her feet into a pair of flip-flops.
    Taking one last, deep breath, she went back out to the garden to find Xander, ready for the session.
    Blood thundered through her veins at the thought of him scrutinising her from every angle, and flashbacks from being bullied about her weight when she was younger flittered through her mind, but she refused to feel cowed by those awful memories. It had been a long time since she’d let her eating disorder get its teeth into her, and she’d come so far since then. She refused to let it drag her under again.
    Xander was sitting on the terrace with his sketch pad and pencils, making large swirling motions over the paper. He tilted his head and smiled, eyebrows raised, as she drew closer to him and she wrapped her arms around her middle and gave him her bravest smile back. She had no idea what he must be thinking right now and blood pounded in her head as her agitation increased.
    Suck it up, Jess. You’re doing this to save your career, remember?
    If she could get through this modelling debacle, hopefully she’d have more opportunities to pump Xander for information.
    The thought of ‘pumping’ in relation to Xander almost made her lose her cool for a second and she had to suck in a deep breath to steady herself. The low throb of arousal refused to budge from where it had nestled itself between the apex of her thighs, and she had to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other to stop herself from swivelling on the spot and making a run for it.
    She sat uncomfortably in the chair opposite him, with the lake behind her, the sun hot on her already heated skin. Her muscles were so twitchy she wouldn’t be at all surprised to find she was visibly vibrating with tension.
    Xander looked up and studied her for a moment, sketch pad on his knee, his bright eyes searching her face.
    She wound her fingers together and placed them carefully on her lap, looking away over his shoulder in an attempt to distract herself from the discomfort of being studied so thoroughly by a man who made her insides jump and writhe as if they were filled with snakes.
    ‘Relax, Jess. Anyone would think I was about to torture you.’
    ‘I have no idea why you’d want to draw me ,’ she said, attempting to relax her shoulders into some sort of normal posture.
    Xander laughed. ‘You’re much more attractive than you think you are, you know.’
    She shot him a puzzled scowl. ‘How the hell do you know how attractive—or not—I think I am?’
    He didn’t seem at all fazed by her snippy tone. ‘I can see it in your body language. You don’t believe in yourself.’ He leant in closer. ‘You know, you shouldn’t worry so much about what everyone else thinks; just believe in how amazing you are.’
    ‘That would be a lot easier if I was amazing.’ She flipped him a