Since the call had come early even by East coast time, Drae had left a text message on Alex’s office computer explaining what was up and leaving him all the details of the assignment. He’d decided to drive himself to the airport, he could leave his car for Ben to pick up later, and booked a last minute seat on an eastbound plane.
Maybe a few weeks in New York City would bring a measure of perspective back into his life. Hiding away in his woodshop hadn’t helped. Nor had trying to work things out with the feisty female at the heart of the matter. With his life turned upside down and nearly everything he’d ever felt about himself and his place in the universe turned on its head, he didn’t know what else to do.
By the time Tori stumbled into Alex’s workspace, after a restless night that left her feeling fuzzy headed from lack of sleep, she still hadn’t decided what she was going to do. She’d made a mess of things, having quite stupidly fallen in love with a man who made a career out of never getting involved with the women he slept with. The signs had been there all along. Even when they were verbally sparring with one another, she’d been gradually warming to him, conceited arrogance and all. She’d briefly considered running home to Mommy but dashed that idea because there was no way she’d give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d rattled her cage that thoroughly. No, she was going to stay put for now.
After checking the calendar fifty times she noted that she’d be getting her period soon. She wasn’t ignoring the fact that their unprotected lovemaking had happened during the one time in her cycle that could really mess with her in a big way. Instead, she simply refused to consider that one foolish moment could have such a potentially life-changing effect on her life. Not even she could be that unlucky. Right?
Letting herself into the heavily air-conditioned tech cave, Tori shivered when the chilly atmosphere cut right through the light shirt she’d worn. After Draegyn’s hissy fit over her wardrobe, she’d vowed never to hide behind that particular masquerade again. She hadn’t actually fooled anybody after all. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out after the tabloid hell she’d been through that schlepping about like the nerd she professed to be was nothing more than a self-defense mechanism while she dug her way out of the mud she’d been dragged through.
Today, she’d opted for a figure hugging, v-neck tunic with a belt slung low on her hips over a pair of black leggings that fit easily inside her favorite boots. Her outfit was simple yet decidedly feminine. In some ways, what she chose to wear this morning was a subtle fuck off directed at Draegyn. The cold temperature, a necessity with so much technical gear running, was a bit much so grabbing a baggy sweater off the hook in her cubicle she wrapped herself in its warmth and went to find her boss.
Alex looked up from the phone call he was on when she entered the room and waved a polite hello in her direction. She heard him rattling off numbers to whoever was on the other end and deciding she didn’t need to get involved in whatever he was doing, grabbed a mug of coffee from the brewer and headed back to her area. It wasn’t until lunchtime when she and Alex actually had a conversation that went beyond a couple of quick questions.
Hey,” she called out to him. “I’m going to run out to the kitchen and grab something to eat. You interested?”
“Nah. But thanks for asking, Tori. I’m about finished for now. Was thinking about heading off to the workout room. Too much time perched on that damn stool and every muscle in my body feels like it’s locked.”
“Sounds good, Alex but you really should eat something too. We’ve been working for hours, and you haven’t even stopped for a drink.”
“Okay, Mom!” he chuckled.
Tori whipped off the sweater she’d donned for warmth and tossed it on a chair, earning a wolf whistle from her boss. “Nice boots, lady,” he teased. “No wonder Drae got his shorts in a twist. Shame on you Tori for hiding behind those God-awful clothes you’ve been sporting.”
At the mention of Draegyn’s name, Tori felt a heavy weight thud in her stomach. Out of sheer reflex she snarled at Alex letting him know in precise terms what his friend could do with his opinion.
“I don’t give a good goddamn what that man thinks.” With specific hand motions, she used sign language short hand to let him know how she really felt.
“Whoa. What’s that mean?” Alex’s expression swung between ‘yikes’ and ‘uh oh’ as he waited for her reply.
“I basically said that he could eat shit and die.”
“Oh my. That bad, huh? What’s he done now?”
“Nothing. Nothing, really,” she murmured, feeling guilty for reacting like a bitch. “I shouldn’t have said anything. Let it go, Alex.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so. Look Tori, maybe it’s none of my business but you should know that Drae told me a little of what’s going on.”
“What?” she screeched. Her head felt like it was going to explode.
“Calm down,” he pleaded, moving quickly to her side and drawing her with him to sit on a wide bench nearby.
“I can’t believe this!” she cried. “What did he tell you Alex? Oh my God, I’m going to kill that man and his big mouth.”
“Well, judging by your reaction I think you know exactly what he told me.”
Tori dropped her head into her hands and groaned. “This can’t be happening,” she cried. “We agreed not to tell anyone.”
Jumping to her feet she clenched her hands into angry fists and started for the door. “Goddammit. He lied to me. That’s it,” she growled. “I’m going to rip his face off for this!”
“Uh, Tori. Better hang on there. He’s not here at the moment. Left early this morning.”
She stumbled over her own feet and barely got it together before falling flat on her ass. Feeling the dark scowl that ended up on her face start deep in the pit of her stomach, she turned in slow motion. “Where is he?”
Checking his watch, Alex frowned. The tension in the air was so thick you could scoop it up. He seemed to weigh his response for a brief moment. “He’ll be landing in New York City in the next hour.” Lifting a shoulder in a half shrug he added, “I figured he would have told you.”
Tori was flabbergasted. Why, the dog turned tail and ran, she thought as anger that he lied and confusion over his having left so abruptly threw her emotions into disarray.
“I thought you two were together last night.” At her look of pure shock he quickly added, “C’mon. Nothing happens around here without my knowing.” Pointing to the screens flickering with surveillance views depicting every angle of the main compound, Alex motioned impatiently. “Don’t sweat the details, Tori. I simply happened to glance at the monitor at the exact moment that you headed off down the lane. What happened after that is between you and Drae.”
Tori hoped a sinkhole would open up under her at that moment so the embarrassment she felt would go unnoticed. Vivid snapshots lit up her mind with a tableau of images from what happened on Draegyn’s patio. This whole thing was getting worse by the moment.
“I’m not sure that together quite describes last night. Yes, we had a conversation,” God, she prayed the rush of color into her cheeks didn’t give too much away. “But it uh,” she tensed. “Well, it didn’t exactly clear the air.”
Alex watched her with an expression that suggested he was more than capable of filling in the blanks. It was worse than the withering frown her mother used on her as a child when she’d behaved badly. Crooking his finger, he patted the empty space next to him and waited for her to sit back down.
Sit wasn’t quite what she did. Instead, she flung herself like a ragdoll onto the bench as every muscle in her body turned to jelly. Throwing her head back she made a sound somewhere between an angry growl and a defeated whimper.
Alex let her have a moment then silently reached for her hands, forcing her to turn teary eyes his way. “I’m sorry, boss,” she murmured. The urge to run, just like she had before when her world crumbled, made its way into her mind. “Maybe it would be best for everyone…y
ou, the agency, even Draegyn, if I just left. This is his home,” Tori whined as the reality of his having left to get away from her settled into the pit of her stomach.
Alex let her hands go, patting them solemnly where they lay limp in her lap. Putting his arm around her shoulders, he drew her against his hulking body like a parent consoling a crying child. “No rash decisions, Tori. I grant you that Drae’s actions seem a bit off.” He paused and gave her shoulder a little squeeze. “But maybe there’s something you should know about the St. John family. He’ll probably freak out on me for telling you this, but I think it may help you understand him.”
“I don’t know, Alex. Maybe me understanding what motivates him is just useless information. Especially if he hasn’t shared it with me himself. That’s not, well - that’s not the type of relationship we have. Talking isn’t exactly our strong suit.”
“Perhaps you’re right, I don’t know. That’s for both of you to decide but you should know that his parents fucked him up pretty good, a long time ago. Haven’t you ever wondered why he went into the military? Trust fund kids like the St. John’s lived a life most people can only imagine. Spending a decade slogging through dead bodies, sucking in misery through the air we breathed, was hardly what anyone expected of him. If you think about it, the life he chose tells you more about who he is than the life he was born to.” Tori fell silent, considering Alex’s words. She had wondered but in truth, she was so fixated on his conceited arrogance that there wasn’t much oxygen left after that.
“Don’t put much stock in whatever turns up on Google. Most of what’s written about him is salacious gossip.” She snorted in derision remembering the endless pictures and tabloid hits depicting him as a conceited man-whore. “I know what you’re thinking, believe me. But consider this – in all the years I’ve known Drae, he’s never thought twice about any of the women he’s gotten involved with. This is the first time I’ve seen him at loose ends. Only you two know what’s really going on but he hasn’t been behaving like himself for awhile now and I can’t help but think it’s because of you.”
“He lied to me, Alex. He swore no one would know.” She sat up and shook her head. “I don’t know what he told you but it’s so much worse than you could imagine. I’m not sure knowing that he came from a dysfunctional family makes much difference in the long run. Really. Despite everything else, I assumed he could be trusted.”
Alex nodded fractionally and asked, “Tori, if your mother were here, would you tell her that you and Drae had gotten married?”
“Yes, of course.”
“The Justice Brothers, we’re more than family to each other. We share a bond that goes deeper than blood. Drae didn’t lie to you, Tori. Not really. His confiding in me is no different that you reaching out to your mom.” Tori stood up and walked away from the sofa, organizing this new information in her mind. “He didn’t run,” he insisted until she glared over her shoulder at him in disbelief. “Okay, maybe that was part of it, but his leaving really was because of business.”
She’d had enough. Her head was pounding, the black sludge disguised as coffee she’d drank earlier was burning a hole in her stomach and her whole body felt hollow and empty. There was nothing she could do about Draegyn and their situation while he was in New York and she was in Arizona. What she needed right now was something…but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what that was. “I’m going to grab a sandwich before my stomach eats itself.”
Alex’s face tightened at her obvious pivot away from the subject at hand. “It was business, Tori.” He insisted a second time. “Don’t do anything rash, okay?” She nodded but didn’t meet his eyes. Don’t do anything rash? You mean like forgetting about little things like birth control? Anything that came after that was hardly going to seem rash.
Damn him. Jetting off to the East coast, especially after what happened the night before felt like Draegyn getting the last word. Allowing him to dominate her in the bedroom wasn’t the same as letting him always have control, although he certainly hadn’t been the one calling all the shots last night.
Murmuring a lackluster, “Understood,” Tori hurried away from the tech cave without looking back. She heard Alex sigh as he watched her escape but didn’t slow her roll at all. He admitted knowing they were married and probably figured out that they’d gotten naked and sweaty more than a few times but he didn’t, couldn’t, know how complicated it all really was. What a friggin’ mess, she thought for the thousandth time as she headed for the kitchen and an opportunity to be alone with her thoughts.
The pounding beat of music that was so loud it made thinking impossible, thrummed in the air as flashing lights illuminated the dance floor of the club where Drae had gone to lose himself in yet another bottle of whiskey. Somehow, the crush of bodies bouncing and gyrating along with the mind-melting music seemed more conducive to his mood than something sedate, less manic.
The moment his work assignment had ended, this had been how he spent his time. While he’d been managing the security for a high-profile foreign dignitary, Drae had punished his body with daily workouts at a gym he found on Tenth Street that specialized in the mixed martial arts he excelled at. Kicking ass and occasionally getting pounded in return kept him focused on the important work he’d been hired to perform.
Unfortunately, the moment the assignment wound up and he was free to return home, his thoughts about what awaited him in Arizona unraveled his carefully composed façade of cool, control. The solution? Whiskey and women. Always worked in the past, only this time around just the whiskey made a difference. While every female with a pulse that came anywhere near him tried to entice him with promises of a different kind of pounding, Drae hadn’t been able to muster enough interest to follow through. Not even the potential of some hot, naked, balls to the wall sex got a rise out of him. Literally.
Tossing back the last of the drink he’d been nursing where he sat hunched over at the end of a bar littered with fake-tittied women and the men trying to pick them up, he motioned to the bartender for a refill and tried to reign in his wandering thoughts. Fuck it if the alcohol wasn’t doing its intended job. He was headed for a royal hangover but didn’t care. Not even that could keep his mind free of memories that were wrecking his sanity. Memories of Victoria, verbally sparring with him in that feisty way she had, made him want to tame a little bit of her fire. Memories of sinking into her body, again and again, chasing an orgasm that threatened to blow his world apart. And then of course, the movie playing on a constant loop in his brain of his surprise wife on her knees, sucking him off with untutored skill that had turned him on so much, he’d lost his fucking sense and exploded in her mouth.
Feeling like shit, he knew that refusing to ask about her during the couple of phone calls he’d had with Alex had been petty and childish, but that was exactly what he’d done. He heard the censure in his friend’s voice and ignored it because, well – he didn’t know why. Maybe if Alex had indicated she wanted to talk to him, he would have backed down. But no such message was revealed and he’d simply doubled-down on the miserable attitude he was wallowing in.
Damn women, he groused silently, slugging back yet another mouthful of amber liquid. Oh wait, amend that, he thought grimly. Damn woman, was more like it. Just the one. Just Victoria and her mesmerizing eyes and those sinfully decadent lips.
“Oh, well look who we have here,” a familiar voice trilled close enough for him to hear. “If it isn’t the golden cock himself!”
Drae looked up and blinked a couple of times until the blurry face in front of him came into view. Ah fuck. Jessamyn. And judging by the expression on her face, she was all too happy to have stumbled upon him in his half-inebriated state.
“Drinking alone, darling?” she purred. “That’s not like you Drae.” He didn’t invite her to sit down but that was just what she did with as much flourish as possible, whipping off her wrap and facing him so her crossed legs touched his. True to form he watched her push the skirt up eno
ugh that he got a good look at her long legs and bare thighs.
“Jess. Long time.” She smirked at his slurred response, eyes sparkling in a way that made him uneasy. The last thing he needed right now was an old lover coming upon him while he wasn’t exactly at his best. “What brings you here?” he asked. The way she laughed at his question suggested the words hadn’t been quite so clear or concise as his imagination thought.
It all pretty much went downhill from there. Before he knew what happened, they were ensconced in a private booth with the remnants of several rounds of drinks littering the table while she clung to him like a damn rash. Maybe it was because he was drunk or maybe because he’d never really looked all that closely at her when she’d been performing in his bed, but Drae found himself studying her through whiskey-fueled eyes and didn’t care much for what he saw.
She was an actress after all, a high profile paparazzi target, out for a night on the town and completely dressed for the part. The long, flowing blond locks that her fans adored were actually a mass of hair extensions and careful styling that were a definite no-no in the touch department. The bright violet eyes watching his every move were as fake as her hair, made possible by colored lenses. In fact, there wasn’t much about her that wasn’t plastic, manufactured, sculpted or tweaked from her Botox injected lips – that frankly, gave him the creeps – to her massive boobs that were smooshed into too-tight lingerie making them overflow the cups of her bra in a very deliberate way.
What the fuck had he been doing with her in the first place? Oh yeah. He’d been screwing her every chance he got until she’d started making those tedious relationship noises. Had she been any good in bed? Strangely, his dick didn’t seem to care at the moment. Everything about her was rendering his sex limp as an overcooked noodle.
“Why don’t we check out of this place, baby, and go someplace more private?” she cooed. Drae wasn’t sure what turned his stomach more. The blatant invitation or the way her hand traced the inside of his thigh. He choked back a laugh when the crazy bitch palmed his sex because he knew damn well her assault on his trousers was coming up empty-handed. No amount of alcohol or attempts on her part to get him hard was going to change the fact that he’d rather throw up on her right now than stick his tongue down her throat.
Fixing Justice Page 25