Free Phenomenal X by Michelle A. Valentine Page A

Okay, if you say so.” The doubt in her voice is clear. “I’ve never known you to have a girl as a friend , Xavier Cold.”
    He shrugs as he cuts into his eggs. “What can I say? Beautiful here, is different.”
    Nettie smiles at me and winks. “Different is good, honey.”
    She doesn’t give me a chance to reply, or ask what she meant by that exactly, before she walks away and tends to the other people in the restaurant.

 
     
     
     

    Xavier clears his plate and orders seconds before I even make it through a quarter of my food. When I give him a quizzical expression, he simply shrugs and informs me that muscle burns a lot of energy and constantly needs to be refueled.
    I take a sip of my water as I eye his broad shoulders and wonder how much time he spends perfecting his body. “So is that all you do?”
    He leans back and stretches his arm along the back of the booth, making himself comfortable. “Eat?”
    “That, and work out? Do you ever have time for much else?”
    He shakes his head. “Typically, no, but right now I’m on vacation.”
    I twist my lips. “You vacation in Detroit? Shouldn’t a vacation be somewhere tropical or something?”
    He lifts an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with Detroit? I was born and raised here.”
    I quickly try to backpedal, not meaning to offend him. “Nothing. I like it here so far.”
    A smile pulls across his plump lips. “I’d like to think that’s your way of saying you like me, considering you just got here today.”
    I fight back a smile. He’s right. Xavier has made the first day of my new life more exciting and invigorating than any other day I can remember. “I do like you.”
    He leans into me, licking his lips. “Still not enough to change your ‘friends only’ rule though, right?”
    “Right,” I quickly agree. “But it is nice to have someone to talk to.”
    He nods. “I know exactly what you mean.”
    Xavier’s next round of food comes to the table, and Nettie smiles at me. “So, Miss Anna, are you a wrestling fan?”
    I shake my head. “No, not really.”
    “You’ve never seen my boy here perform? He’s really somethin’.” She pats his shoulder.
    “To be honest, Nettie, I didn’t even know who he was until my cousin told me today. Then she pulled videos and photos up of him on the internet.”
    Xavier chuckles, drawing my attention to him. “You really had no clue who I was, did you?”
    I shrug. “Hate to disappoint you, but not everyone’s a wrestling fan.”
    “Maybe you’d like it if you gave it a chance.” Xavier glances up at Nettie after checking his watch. “ Tension will be on in a few minutes. Let’s turn it on and make my girl a fan.”
    “You got it, sugar.” Nettie makes her way over to the counter and grabs the remote for the television hanging on the wall, changing it to a different channel.
    After the commercial break, a hard rock intro blares through the speakers as the words Tuesday Tension flash across the screen, followed by clips of wrestlers beating the crap out of each other. When Xavier’s face appears in the montage, I’m mesmerized by the cocky grin on his face before he tackles another man down onto the blue mat, using enough force to make me flinch at the thought of physical pain.
    “That was one of my favorite matches.”
    Xavier’s words draw my attention back to him.
    “Do you ever get hurt?” I quiz, wondering how someone can subject their body to so much and be able to walk away without a scratch.
    The corner of his mouth lifts up into the same cocky grin I saw moments before on the screen. “You worried about me?”
    “More like curious…and worried too, I guess,” I admit. “I don’t like to see people in physical pain.”
    He shrugs. “I can’t say that I’ve never been hurt, but I’m damn good at my job—as are most of the guys on the show. We wouldn’t be there if we didn’t know what we’re doing. The goal is to never really hurt one another, but to put on a good show.