Cocky Senator's Daughter: Hannah Cocker (Cocker Brothers of Atlanta Book 8)

by Faleena Hopkins

  Justin

  A month and a half after I almost asked Jaimie to invite me up to her room during that crazy storm, I’m enjoying a drink with two of my four cousins who live here in Savannah — Jordan and Jocelyn. I hardly get to see them now that we’re all grown up and have busy lives, and I’m thoroughly enjoying their company.

  We’re sitting on the bar patio of The Bohemian Hotel where I’m staying. An unexpectedly warm breeze wraps around us as we talk and we’ve all expressed gratitude for the weather’s change of heart. In Georgia you just never know how it’s going to be. Add the river lapping away to our right, and it could have been very cold indeed.

  Dressed in a navy blue dress and looking beautiful, my only female cousin asks me, “How are you feeling now that you’ve been on the campaign trail for so long?”

  “I should be tired. The short spurts of time spent home between speeches have been filled with long hours at the office and little sleep. I still feel energized though. I guess the old saying is true: when you do what you love, you never have to work a day in your life.”

  “You ready for tomorrow?” Jocelyn asks, leaning forward.

  Jordan’s smirk contorts into a sneer, “He’s had enough reporters hounding him without you treating him like a subject and not our cousin.”

  She smacks her brother’s shoulder. “Leave me alone, jerk. It’s what I do for a living! You think I can just turn it off when I have as interesting a subject as Justin’s inevitable rise to The White House sitting right in front of me?”

  On a chuckle, I assure her, “I will never run for President.”

  “No?” she asks, pretty brown eyebrows raised. She is exactly what you’d imagine when thinking of a T.V. host at your local news channel, though her specialty is entertainment.

  Aunt Anna is my mother’s sister and all four of my cousins have inherited the brown hair and warm brown eyes of that bloodline.

  Only our youngest brothers, Jake and Jeremy, inherited it in our family. Jaxson’s sandy-brown hair and dark green eyes are inarguably a blend of Mom and Dad. Only Jett and us twins have just his blonde coloring – no sign of Mom.

  “I’d rather just work for Georgia.”

  With a knowing smirk, Jocelyn offers, “You might find that people will want you higher up as time goes on.”

  Jordan asks with complete seriousness, “Higher as in stoned?”

  Jocelyn cuts an incredulous look to him. “No! Justin doesn’t smoke pot! That’s not what I meant.”

  “Joss, you’re so easy to fuck with.”

  She stares at him, realizing he’s just being a brother. “When are you going to grow up?”

  “Never,” he smiles, white teeth blazing. Raking his fingers through thick, wavy dark hair he says, “I strongly advise against it. Justin, you can put that in your speech. I won’t demand credit.”

  “Who says I don’t get high?”

  They both go blank. “Do you?”

  “No,” I smirk.

  “God, when can we order? This is stupid.” Jocelyn waves a girl to us. “We need to order please! What do you jerks feel like drinking tonight?”

  I lean back in my chair. “Why don’t you just tell us what we’re drinking?”

  She doesn’t miss a beat. “Okay.” Turning to the sweet-looking waitress, she announces, “We’ll have three Chopin vodka martinis, very dirty and very chilled. We want them shaken until the vodka crystalizes on top of the glass. I’ll return it if I don’t see crystals. Got it?”

  “Uh huh,” the girl nods.

  “And tell them not to add the olive juice afterward. I want it shaken with the vodka from the start.” The girl nods again. Jocelyn waves her off, “Great. Now go,” and turns to us without awareness that she’s kind of a bitch. It always makes me laugh.

  I can still picture her when we were kids. “You’re the pirate, Justin. And you’re going to run to the fountain where I’ll be hiding the treasure with Jake. Then Jason – you’re going to be a whale who jumps out of the ocean and saves us just in time. Got it?”

  Jordan’s eyes lock onto someone behind me who, from the look on his face, is a woman he finds very attractive. “Uh…wow. Guys, I might have to say goodbye sooner than I thought.”

  Jocelyn sees what he’s looking at and hits him again. “You just got here. This isn’t about you. It’s about Justin and his accomplishment.”

  “I’ll be there when he gives his speech tomorrow.” Glancing to me, Jordan bucks his chin. “Hey, you won’t fault me if I get a little distracted, will ya? Take a look at her! I think you’ll give me a pass this time.”

  “Jordan you have my full permission to tap whatever ass you find worthy,” I smirk, turning in my chair to see who’s got him hot. My amused gaze locks with Jaimie Rothdale’s smoky-eyes.

  I almost crack the arm of my chair I squeeze it so hard.

  She stiffens with the same question I’m asking myself, in her eyes: Are you staying in this hotel? After a crackling beat, her eyelashes flutter away from me. She turns and gracefully slides onto a seat at the bar, in a dress meant for cocktails. As in cock and tail.

  My jaw won’t stop twitching as my teeth grind together. Growling like some kind of animal I turn around in my chair.

  Jordan smirks, “Friend of yours?”

  “She’s the Senator’s daughter.”

  What the fuck is she wearing that for?

  Is she trying to get laid?

  Jordan glances over to Jaimie and says, “You’re shitting me. Well, I can’t exactly nail the daughter of your competition.” He relaxes into his chair. “Unless you want me to gather Intel for you.”

  “Yeah, you do that.”

  Jocelyn’s brown eyes are still narrowed on Jaimie. “If anyone should get Intel, Justin, it’s you. She’s gorgeous.”

  I’m sneering as I chuckle. “She is that. And smart. And funny. And in my way. But why don’t you give it a try? You’re into women, aren’t you?”

  Rolling her eyes Jocelyn sighs, “I wish. It would make my life so much easier.”

  My head is somewhere else as I stare at the river. “I don’t think being gay is easy. Even in this day and age they’re too often treated like—”

  “—I was kidding!”

  Jordan laughs, “Look at you! I thought you were a Republican.”

  Coming back to the present moment, I correct him. “I’m a Liberal Republican, part of the new world where I want to defend our country and help the people in it.”

  The cocktail waitress suspends our conversation by arriving with carefully balanced martinis on a small tray. Pointing behind his sister’s back as she eyes the girl, Jordan mouths to me, Watch this.

  Standing up and towering over her, Jocelyn checks out the tray. She cocks an eyebrow with appreciation. “They’re crystallized! And you didn’t spill a drop. Well done.”

  It’s like the girl has received an award. “Thank you!” Beaming she hands my female cousin the first of three dirty martinis.

  I’m sitting here pretending Ms. Rothdale isn’t behind me, available for any man to hit on. With how stunning she looks tonight there’s already some fuckhead breathing on her. I know it. It’s driving me out of my fucking mind.

  We receive ours next, slowly and one at a time.

  I want her to hurry the fuck up.

  Can I turn around without looking obvious? Or like I care? Because I don’t.

  After the girl walks away and Jocelyn has taken her seat, Jordan asks, “Why didn’t you just take them off the tray for her, too, while you were up there, Joss?”

  She takes this very seriously, so she can’t see he’s kidding. As if she were a professor of physics she explains, “Because when you’re balancing a tray, you have to be the one to shift the balance of it. If I picked one glass up, she would have spilled the other two. To Justin rising to Senate and representing our beautiful Georgia!”

  Jordan lifts his glass as if to say, do you see what I have to deal with? “To Justin becoming a senato
r,” he smirks.

  We all bring our glasses together and because I’m a dick, I hit mine a little harder than I need to, spilling into their glasses and some onto the table below our hands. Jocelyn jumps in her chair and spills some of hers, too. Jordan cracks up. She isn’t amused.

  “Fuck you both. Why wasn’t I given a sister?”

  Jordan’s eyes light up. “Uh oh, lookie what we have here. Someone’s not going to her room alone tonight.”

  Ice pours down my spine as my imagination kicks into high gear. I whip around in my chair and glare at Jaimie’s new friend, a strong-jawed man who isn’t hurting for cash. Some people you can just tell are rich as fuck. He’s leaning in way too close, and she’s acting demure. Yeah, right. Like she’s shy.

  Fuck. This. Shit.

  Setting down my martini I stand up. “Excuse me.”

  Jaimie

  “Are you staying here in the hotel,” the drunken man to my right continues, despite the fact that I’ve ignored all of his questions. He is disgusting and his breath stinks.

  In the mirror behind the liquor bottles I see Justin storming toward me with violence in his eyes.

  What is he doing?!!

  Is he going to yell at me for being here?

  I have a right to have a drink just like anyone else.

  I straighten up and steel my eyes, holding his glare.

  “Because if you’re not staying here tonight, you could be,” the drunk guy drones on, his manner lascivious. “I’m in room 207 and the elevator is right over there.”

  “That’s great,” Justin announces. “Now my wife and I know where to charge our drinks.”

  Utterly confused as to how Justin suddenly appeared next to us, the guy’s beady eyes blink a few times before he grunts, “Who the fuck are you? She’s not married. No wedding ring. Now why don’t you go back to the magazine you jumped off of and leave me to it.”

  “To it?” Justin smirks. “And what is it you think you’re accomplishing here?”

  “I’m going to get in this bitch’s pants.”

  My eyes go wide in shock. Justin’s arm chambers before his fist explodes into this guy’s face, sending him flying to the floor, out cold.

  And oh look, we have an audience now.

  Justin stretches his knuckles as he calls over to the bartender. “Call security. He’s had too much.”

  The bartender nods, which blows my mind.

  Justin produces a couple twenties, throws them on the bar and takes my elbow, guiding me away. He picks up my purse and slips it into my hand, lacing his fingers with mine in a possessive manner.

  I am too stunned to speak much less argue.

  As we walk out, my dazed eyes glide over to the good-looking couple Justin was sitting with on the patio. I jealously thought he was with the pretty brunette, but I guess he wasn’t. She and the handsome man who might be her brother, they look so much alike, are both smiling at me like they know a secret.

  Many people are out tonight with the weather this beautiful, the moon a sliver in a star-filled sky. Couples and groups pass us as we walk along the river but none are paying attention to the fact that my heart is beating way too fast for my liking.

  I lamely whisper, “I thought you were going to yell at me.”

  His jaw clenches as he stares ahead.

  “Why aren’t you talking? Is it because of that guy?”

  “Why were you talking with a scuzbag like him?” he snaps, cutting a side-look at me.

  “I wasn’t! He was doing all the talking. I was ignoring him but he wouldn’t go away.”

  Justin stops abruptly, takes me in his arms, and crushes me in an angry and desperate kiss. A dam of need releases within me. Months of watching him, standing beside him backstage and not able to talk, touch, or even acknowledge him. God it’s been hell.

  “Justin,” I breathe against his panting lips as he searches my eyes.

  “Fuck,” he mutters, tearing away from me and walking off. I remain glued to this spot, mortified he’s just left me here after a kiss like that, but too proud to follow. He turns and sees he’s alone, rushes back, and grabs my hand. “Come on.”

  “Okay,” I whisper, not sure where he’s taking me. His grip on my fingers is so tight.

  “You ever handle a campaign before?”

  “I’m an event planner. That was my job in Boston, so I’m merely organizing the events.”

  “I know. I researched you.”

  “You did?”

  He ignores the question and snarls, “You’ve shown up at every single one I’ve scheduled, except for one. He was there, but you weren’t. Where were you?”

  He noticed I wasn’t there. I hoped he would.

  “I wasn’t feeling well.”

  Seeming to accept this as possible, he attacks me again. “How is it possible you’ve known exactly where I would be each and every time?”

  Defensively I mutter, “It’s not hard to use Google. Every city has a website with their events posted. You’re just mad you didn’t think of it first.”

  His fingers lace with mine, which makes no sense to me at all!

  Staring ahead, he demands, “You really believe your father is the right man for this job?”

  “He’s held the position quite well for thirty years.”

  “He can’t see what the people of today need!”

  “My father has the experience you don’t have!”

  Justin stops walking and whips around to kiss me again. I gasp into his lips and lace my fingers into his soft, thick hair. Our tongues touch and fire shoots into my blood.

  Oh God, I love how it feels when Justin groans into my lips like this. He couldn’t hold me any tighter if he tried.

  Panting for self-control he propels himself away from me. “Fuck,” he mutters, in a personal war. Locking eyes with me he says, “Your father is too set in his ways, his position, and his wealth.”

  My eyes go wide with shock. “Oh, please, as if the Cocker family has ever known poverty.”

  He shouts, “You don’t know me – or my family – at all!”

  People are staring at us now.

  Struggling for composure, I smile at the onlookers, take Justin’s arm and guide him away. He takes a deep breath. The people around us go back to what they were doing and when we are further along the path, I whisper to him, “You forget I went to the same school as you. The same privileged school in Buckhead of all places! For only one year, yes, but it was enough to show me you, and your brothers, have never lacked for anything.”

  Through gritted teeth Justin sneers, “You’re so pompous. You think you’re better than me, Jaimie? Have you struggled? Your father a Senator for three years shy of your whole life, has that been hard for you to find a roof over your head? Food to eat? Dignity to throw away because you’re starving?” Off my silence his smirk is mean. “That’s what I thought.”

  “My mother and I weren’t wealthy. I’ve worked hard to get where I am and I’ve fought for it. You don’t become a success on luck. My father is a good man.”

  “His time in Washington is over.”

  “Fuck you, Justin.”

  With a deep frown he lunges for me and presses his lips to mine, holding the back of my head while I slip my arms around his neck. He groans into my gasps as I give him access to my tongue and press my body into his.

  “No,” I moan.

  He searches me. “Does that no mean yes?”

  Panting I nod and whisper, “God help me, I shouldn’t do this, but yes. It means yes. I need you.”

  Jaimie

  He rolls my hair around his fist and bends my head back to kiss me so hard I nearly buckle. God he’s so good at kissing, molding my mouth in slow ways that sends shivers into every part of me. Suddenly I’m released as his eyes are locked ahead of us. Is he searching for a place to…?

  “Not out here,” I whisper. “There are too many people!”

  “Shhhhhh.”

  Oh my God. He can’t be serious.r />
  We’re not going to find a place in public to fuck, with a plethora of tourists who could potentially be witnesses. It’s ludicrous. But the idea has me hot. I’m humming with desire for Justin to be inside me again. Every damn day I saw him speaking at a podium I wasn’t able to sleep that night without pleasuring myself and wishing I didn’t want him so badly, often crying myself to sleep.

  It was embarrassing. I never even told Kate.

  But still.

  Public sex is illegal.

  And hot.

  Soooooo hot.

  As he tucks me into a staircase, gripping my thighs through my dress, I hoarsely whisper, “You’re running for Senate. What if someone sees? Someone could photograph us with their goddamn cellphones!”

  Another protest is muted by his tongue. It teases mine, sending an ache into my hungry flesh as his fingers dig into my thighs. One of his hands travels lower and starts to pull up my dress, dipping under and draping the excess fabric over his wrist. I almost cross my legs to stop him, but can’t force myself to do anything but open my legs ever so slightly so he can touch my pussy.

  “Look who’s soaked her panties right through.”

  Our eyes lock. “I love it when you say things like that. But Justin, it’s way too public right here!”

  Glancing around, he jogs his chin. “Up the stairs. Go!”

  Whipping around I run up with him casually strolling behind me. I glance back to find him looking around with an expression that says, nothing to see here, people. Move along, in case anyone is paying attention.

  The second floor is dark, its offices only inhabited in daytime.

  It’s perfect. And terrifying. And I need it.

  Justin backs me into a shadowy nook, chewing his way up my neck as his hands slip under my dress. “Oh my God, we’re doing this,” I breathe, high from happiness.

  His fingers slip under my lacy panties as he vibrates my earlobe with his tongue. “You’re fucking hot, Lady Jameson.”

  Stifling a chuckle, I remind him, “I thought that was your cousin’s name.”