He groans into the phone. “You’re just being stupid now.”
I laugh, feeling like a weight is off my shoulders. “No, maybe I’m just being honest.”
“If that’s the case, maybe you shouldn’t be in politics to start with.”
“Maybe not. But I am and I can’t back out now.”
“You also can’t risk losing her either, Barrett. I’ve never seen you happier than you have been lately. You’re so normal when you’re with her, almost like one of the guys I play ball with.”
“Gee, thanks.”
He laughs. “I’m serious. You’re usually a stick in the mud, off burying your cock in some chick or huddled in a corner with Graham. You’re actually kind of fun now.”
Taking a swig of my drink, I feel it burn as it goes down. “I don’t feel very fun right now.”
“You’re at the plate with a full count. You have to step to the plate ready to swing, Barrett.”
“Baseball analogies? Really?”
“Listen to me. Be ready to swing. Don’t let the third strike pass the plate. Because when that happens, you go to the dugout. Alone. And that’s a cold and lonely place.”
Barrett
MY TIE IS OFF CENTER. I face the mirror and see the green and white striped fabric twisted like a twelve-year-old put it on.
It makes wonder if Huxley knows how to tie a tie. An image pops in my mind of us standing in front of a mirror and me showing him how to do it. I can’t help but grin at the idea and the realization that the concept makes me happy.
Heaving a breath, I force myself to concentrate on getting myself presentable for another day at the office. It’s early, a little past six, and I haven’t slept. I’d hoped the bourbon would assist in that effort, but it didn’t.
My phone was in my hand as much as it wasn’t all night. I wanted to call her, to plead my case, to tell her how I’d do anything to fix the pain she felt yesterday. Then I got pissed off that this happened, from my staff, no less, and the fury coursed through me until I was exhausted.
Even though it killed me, I didn’t call her. She said she needed space and I need to give her that. It’s not something I’ve ever done before, played by a woman’s rules.
I grab my briefcase off my desk and see a text from Troy that he’s outside waiting on me. Before I get through the doorway, my phone rings in my hand. When I see it’s her, I drop my briefcase to the floor.
“Hey,” I say, my heart thumping in my chest.
“Hey,” she whispers. Her voice is heavy, sleepy like mine, and I wonder if she’s slept at all.
“How are you?”
“Okay.”
I wait for her to talk, to navigate this conversation because I don’t want to steer it the wrong way from the get-go. The silence kills me and I want to ramble a million different things, go into a word vomit, a speech of epic proportions on how I just want to fix this fuck-up. But I hold myself back. For the first time, maybe in my entire life, I keep quiet.
“I hope I’m not calling you too early,” she says finally. The roughness in her voice is a clear sign that she’s been crying, and that’s like a punch to the gut.
“I haven’t been to sleep yet,” I admit.
“Me either.”
“So I guess I could’ve called you at two a.m. when my finger was hovering over the call button?”
Her giggle through the phone is mixed with a sigh and it makes me smile and frown at the same time.
“I hate this,” I say, wishing I could reach out and hold her.
“Me too.”
The line goes quiet. Her breathing gets heavy and I know she’s trying to decide how to approach whatever is on her mind.
“I took Hux for ice cream last night. I looked over my shoulder the entire time, Barrett.”
“Did anything happen?” I ask, holding my breath.
“No, it didn’t. We were fine.”
“It will be fine,” I assure her. “I won’t let it be anything but fine.”
“This could end so badly for me and Hux.”
“But it could be amazing too. If you would just trust me and just—”
“You’re right.”
A lump appears in my throat and I have to squeeze the words out around it. “I am? I mean, I know I am. But you think so?”
“When you left last night and things were so . . . broken, something felt broken inside of me. I feel like all the colors of the rainbow are there when we’re together. Does that make sense?”
“Absolutely.”
“When I agreed to get involved with you, I did it knowing all the ways it could go wrong. I did it knowing you’d never intentionally hurt me, and at the end of the day, that’s what Hayden did. He hurt me on purpose. He didn’t give a single fuck about how his actions were going to affect me.”
“I would never do—”
“Barrett,” she interrupts. “Let me finish.”
“Sorry.”
She laughs. “I know you’d never do that. And I know there are things you aren’t going to be able to control. But if I want to be with you, I have to realize that and not hold it against you.”
“Damn it, Ali—”
“Ali?” she giggles. “You’ve never called me that before.”
“If Linc is calling you Ali, so am I.”
She laughs full-on now and it’s music to my ears.
“So does this mean you forgive me?” I ask, hopeful.
“It means I don’t have anything to forgive you for. Do I like what happened? No. But as long as I know what’s real between us, I can’t care what everyone else thinks. I can’t let my fear hold me back. My insecurities are my problems to work through, not yours.”
“I’ll be right by your side holding your hand,” I promise.
She doesn’t respond, but she doesn’t have to.
“Hey,” I say, picking up my briefcase and heading to the car. “Does Hux know how to tie a tie?”
“No. What a weird question. Why are you asking?”
I laugh, shutting the door behind me and jogging toward the Rover. “No reason. Can I see you tonight?”
“You better.”
Alison
I pull my raggedy red robe around me and tie it snugly. It’s my favorite, and most beat-up, piece of clothing but I needed it last night when I felt like my life might be breaking apart. Now, after talking to Barrett a little while ago, my heart feels like it’s been glued back together, my hopes and dreams still intact. I’m not even sure what those dreams consist of, exactly, besides having Barrett in our lives.
I sing a little ditty from when I was a child softly until Huxley’s eyes flutter open. He stretches and yawns, his sweet, sleepy smell making me smile harder.
He follows me to the kitchen where I have a plate of sausage links and a scrambled egg waiting on him.
“Wow, what happened to cereal?” he asks.
“What? You’d rather have a box of marshmallows?”
“No,” he yawns, sitting down to dig in. “It’s just . . . weird. You aren’t a morning person, you know.”
“I know, buddy.” I hum a little tune and put the skillet in the sink when the doorbell rings. I look up at Hux who’s looking at me. “I’ll be right back. Grandma must’ve gotten her days mixed up.”
Hux stuffs an entire sausage link in his mouth as a reply.
I pad down the hallway and pull the door open. When I see Barrett on the other side, my hand flies to my mouth.
He looks divine in his crisp grey suit and tie. His watch sparkles in the early morning sunlight, but it’s outshone by his beautiful eyes which are looking at me.
The lips I love to kiss, love to hear form words in my ear, are pressed together in an undeniable smirk. He watches me for a minute before reaching for me and I fall into his arms.
Holding me with one hand, he steps inside and closes the door quietly behind him.
“I missed you,” he whispers in my ear.
“What are you doing here?”
I can’t keep the amazement out of my voice, even though I don’t want to give him the wrong impression. Seeing him first thing, before the world has a chance to ruin our day, makes me happier than I could ever tell him.
“I needed to see you.”
“Don’t you have a million things to do?” I try to say as he kisses my lips, little taps in quick succession. I giggle as the last peck sinks deeper into my lips and I find my hands wrapping around his neck and pulling him into me.
“Mom, are you okay?” Hux shouts from the kitchen.
I pull back and laugh, resting my head on Barrett’s chest. “Yeah, I’m good. I’ll be right there.”
Barrett nuzzles me against him, brushing my hair back with one of his large hands. “God, I needed this.”
“You have no idea how much I needed it too.”
“You look adorable in this robe,” he grins.
I glance down at my clothing and grimace. “I can’t believe I’m letting you see me in this!”
“Stop,” he winks. “I want this.”
“My holey robe?”
“Yes. And your morning rush with Huxley and your out-of-bed hair. I want it all, baby.”
Grinning wildly, I start to comment without swooning, but I hear the sound of Hux’s feet coming down the hallway. I feel Barrett tense, a nervous energy passing between us.
Turning to see Huxley coming towards us, I smile. “Hey, buddy. Barrett came to say good morning.”
“Hey,” my son says, giving Barrett a little wave.
“How are you?” Barrett asks him.
“Good. I was just, um, checking on my mom.”
Barrett’s face breaks into a smile as he steps towards Hux and stretches his hand. “You’re a good man, Hux.”
Hux beams, obviously liking being treated like a man, and shakes Barrett’s hand. “Want some breakfast? Mom actually made food today.”
“Did she?” He leans close to Hux and whispers, but loud enough for me to hear. “Did she sing while she made it?”
It’s some kind of joke between them, I can tell, but I have no idea what it means. I raise my brows and they both laugh.
“I was asleep. But she doesn’t make food in the morning, so I’m guessing yes.”
“That’s a good thing.” Turning to me, Barrett’s face sobers a bit. “I hate to run, but I have a meeting in about twenty minutes. Troy’s going to have to drive like a bat out of hell to get me there the way it is.”
“Go,” I insist, shooing him towards the door. “But thank you for coming by today.”
He watches me, wanting to kiss me but not sure if he should do it in front of Huxley. “Thank you for letting me.”
“You can come here anytime,” Huxley says. “But I’m going to go back in the kitchen now in case you’re going to kiss her because I don’t want to see that.”
We laugh as he salutes Barrett and zooms back to the kitchen and out of sight.
“I like him,” Barrett says, pulling me into him. He kisses me sweetly again, making me melt under his touch. “I still get to see you tonight right?”
“I was counting on it.”
I kiss him one last time before he walks out the door.
My spirits soar and I walk to the kitchen like I’m walking on air. Huxley is putting his empty plate in the sink. He scratches his head, his morning hair wild. “He makes you happy, huh?”
“He does. But only if you like him.”
He looks at me in a way that reminds me of Hayden. It’s a careful look, calculating, and at another time in my life, my heart would have tugged in my chest. I would’ve thought back to a life we could’ve had and to all the things that went wrong. But today, I don’t go there. I’m too worried about the life that we can have and all the things that just might go right if we’re lucky.
“I like him,” Hux announces simply.
Laughing, I amble towards my son and pull him into a hug. “I love you, Hux.”
“I love you, Mom.”
Barrett
"DO ONE MORE," ACHILLES, MY trainer, demands, watching me like a hawk. I pay him a lot of money to put me through my paces, and he does, many times after hours in his gym. "Three, two, give it hell, Landry, one. Relax."
I blow out a breath and drop the dumbbell to the ground. Achilles watches in his camouflage pants and white tank top, his arms folded over his large chest. "You have a little steam behind you tonight, Landry."
"Pent up aggression," I say, wiping my face with a towel. "Better to leave it here than on a member of the media. Fuckers trailed me all afternoon. Hobbs has them all convinced I'm a gangster or something and it's nearly impossible to actually work."
"So, you aren't a gangster?" Achilles teases.
I glare and he snickers at my reaction. His Mohawk wobbles. "I kid, I kid. I actually had someone call me a few days ago and asked if I had any dirt on you."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah, man. I set that bitch straight though. Told him he could go fuck himself."
"Did you say it like that?" I grin.
"Just like that."
“You wanna know how frustrated I am?” I ask, wiping my face with a towel. “I’m starting to think Lincoln makes sense.”
“That’s crazy talk,” he laughs.
“Right?”
“You know what I always say,” Achilles says, stuffing his hands in his pockets, “trust those that have proven their loyalty. Linc might be full of shit half the time, but he has your back. That’s why I trust Robin. My wife is the only person in the world I trust explicitly. She’s proven it.”
He leans against the wall and tries hard not to smirk.
“What?” I ask.
“I see you’re on your way to settling down now too. Have to say, I’m shocked.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t know about settling down for sure.”
His chest shakes with his laugh. “You released a statement. I’ve known you for twenty years, Landry. You’ve never entertained doing something like that before.”
“That fucking statement wasn’t what it should’ve been,” I grumble, feeling the anger work its way to the surface. “Nolan fucked me over on that. Alison was pissed as hell and I couldn’t blame her. Do you even realize how bad it looked coming out with the other article like that? Fuck.”
Achilles picks up a dumbbell and presses it overhead. “I wondered when I saw it, to be honest. Did you work it out with your girl?”
“Yeah,” I grin. “I’m meeting her after I leave here. I have this big thing set up at the house with candles and a bubble bath. I just want to . . .” I look at him and he’s wearing a teasing smile. “I sound like a pussy, don’t I?”
He sets the weight down and laughs. “No, man. You sound like a guy that is getting his priorities together. Making your girl feel special should be the first thing you do in your day. I mean, if you lose her, what do you have left?”
He gets it.
I try to wrap my head around that when movement catches our attention outside the glass. Troy is coming towards the door. He pulls it open and steps to the side.
My face breaks into a wide, yet confused, smile.
Alison walks around him, her step stuttering as her eyes meet mine. Her cheeks blush to the color of her pink dress, a short little number that I want off of her body as quickly as possible. I drag my gaze down her round breasts, over the sinful curve of her hips, and down those legs I want wrapped around me so badly my cock is rock solid.
I need her. I need some kind of physical confirmation that we’re okay. Call me stupid or call me a pussy but I need it like the air I breathe.
Glancing at Troy, he shrugs. “She called and asked if I knew where you were. I figured you wouldn’t mind if I grabbed her for you,” he says.
Achilles smacks his lips beside me. “Well, I’m guessing you don’t need me anymore,” he chuckles. “You remember the security code, right?”
I nod but don’t look at him. I can’t look anywhere but at her.
&
nbsp; Before I know it, it's just the two of us. She's standing in front of me. It's everything I've wanted since I saw her this morning. I feel like a kid on his birthday, when the box that you know holds the one gift you've been begging for is suddenly placed on your lap.
"Hey," she says, her voice timid. I have no idea why the hell she's nervous. All I know is that my heart is racing like a man on crack and my fingers itch like a junkie looking for his next fix.
I have to touch her. I have to taste her.
I stalk towards her, watching her anticipate my arrival. Her eyes widen as I draw near, the peacock necklace moving in between the large breasts that I want my mouth on.
In a couple of long strides, I'm in front of her, our bodies nearly touching. She tips her head to look up at me and begins to speak, but I capture the words with my mouth. She gasps, melting into me with no hesitation. Our tongues lace together, her sweet perfume wrapping around me. My arms are tightly wound around her, pulling her into me like I can't get enough.
Because I can't.
She's all that exists in the world right now and I want to be so far into her, lose myself so deeply into her, that it takes an act of God to separate us.
My hands find the curves of her ass and I cup them, squeezing, appreciative of her continued pantiless style. She moans, my palms dragging roughly across her skin to her hips. My fingers dip into the curve of her body, her own finding the small of my back, her nails digging into me. Her fingertips trace a line across my lower back, leaving a rush of sparking skin beneath.
This woman is going to kill me.
“You don’t mind I showed up here, do you?” she breathes.
I lean back and look into her eyes. “I couldn’t be more happy that you did.”
“Hux left and I just needed to see you. I needed this peace I feel when I’m with you.”
My lips find hers and press against them tenderly. “I needed it too.”
“You know what else I need?” she asks.
“Whatever you need, I’ll deliver.”
“I need you inside me, Barrett.”
That’s all it takes for her to go from sweetheart to siren.
Pulling her hands from around me, I nearly drag her across the room.
"Barrett!" she laughs, having trouble keeping up in her heels.
Sway (Landry Family #1) Page 20