Suddenly Yours

by Jacob Z. Flores

  “Are you not hearing this?” Cody pointed at the television again.

  Julian didn’t care to listen to whatever vitriol came out of Kelly Madison’s mouth. As an überconservative, she got her jollies by personally attacking every Democrat under the sun. She was vicious and prone to proselytizing instead of reporting the news.

  “Kelly Madison can kiss my ass.” He made a beeline for his clothes.

  “I don’t think Ms. Madison kisses anyone, not even her husband,” Cody said with a smirk. “But you need to—”

  “No. I don’t.” What he needed was to get his clothes on and call Adria.

  Suddenly a wall of terry cloth robe and muscle blocked his path. “We’ve been married only a few hours, and already you’re dismissing me.”

  Would these jokes never end? “Cody—”

  “Well, at least you’re getting my name right now,” he said with his arms crossed over his chest.

  “We’ve got business to attend to. I don’t have time for whatever hate that she-devil is preaching.”

  “Well, you need to make time.” Cody placed his hands on Julian’s shoulders and spun him around to face the television.

  When he saw the scrolling headline and the image of Cody and him on the screen, another wave of nausea buried him beneath its churning waters.

  AFTER the fourth time the story about their hasty marriage cycled through the channel, Cody finally turned the damned television off. If he’d had his way, he would have hit the Power button on the remote thirty minutes ago, but Julian had protested. He had to hear what the news was saying about him, especially after he’d gotten off the phone with his campaign manager, Adriana or something close to that. From where Cody had been sitting, he’d been able to hear her raised voice from across the room.

  It had been difficult to decipher much from the conversation, which had consisted of her yelling on one end and Julian grunting, growling, and cursing on the other.

  From Julian’s defeated posture, the situation had proven to be even direr than he had originally feared.

  Cody couldn’t feel worse about all this if he tried. Even though he wasn’t entirely to blame, he shouldered the majority of the burden. He lived life in the fast lane and always had, but Julian didn’t. Cody had figured that out after only a few minutes of talking to him last night. He should have known better than to pull someone else into the chaos that was the choices he made in life.

  “I’m sorry about all this.” He rose and sat next to Julian on the bed. “I wish I could take it all back for you.”

  Even though the weight of impending failure clearly crashed down upon him, Julian glanced up at him and smiled. That one gesture filled Cody with radiating warmth followed by the stinging burn of regret. “That’s sweet, but the genie’s out of the bottle now.”

  That was for damn sure. Stupid Kelly Madison and her fellow sharks had seen to that. If Cody had still been the angry kid of his youth, he would have flown over to her recording studio and taken out his building rage on everyone there. But Cody had let that person go a long time ago. If he hadn’t, he might not be here today.

  “Besides, it’s not your fault. I’m the one who proposed to you.”

  Cody couldn’t argue with that. Well, he could. In fact, he could toss out another joke about it. That was how he handled life and the crappy situations that always cropped up. But they’d moved way past laughing off this little blunder, especially now the media had sunk their teeth into the story.

  “So what now?”

  In response to Cody’s question, someone pounded on the hotel room door.

  It had to be his friends dropping by to offer their “congratulations.” Before Cody had a chance to move, Julian patted his knee and stood. “It’s for me.”

  When he opened the door, a pint-size tornado in a gray business suit and high heels tore into the room. “Are you fucking kidding me, Julian? You got married.” The woman proceeded to tell Julian how stupid he was for screwing up his reelection like this. Didn’t he know who he was up against on Election Day? How could he have thrown away years of hard work on some two-bit blond himbo?

  Cody flushed. He’d been called many things in his life, but he was not and would never be described as two-bit.

  “Excuse me, but I am not cheap.”

  The Tasmanian she-devil spun around on her two-inch heels that made her stand at five two. She headed straight for him, her hazel eyes glowing with hateful fire. Cody was suddenly very, very afraid. “You!” She stood toe-to-pointy-high-heeled-toe with him, and even though Cody was a foot taller, he’d never felt more miniscule in his life. “What are you after? Who sent you? Was it that bastard Spencer Baldwin?”

  Cody wasn’t up to speed on most elected officials. He didn’t keep up with who was running the show because he believed most politicians were a bunch of crooks just looking out for their own interests. He did know about Spencer Baldwin, though.

  During the course of their evening together, Julian had filled Cody in on his rival. Spencer portrayed himself as a God-fearing man who worked tirelessly to ensure that only the God he followed and the people who believed as he did had a voice. Naturally, that meant he hated gays and liberals.

  Being accused of working for such a douche caused Cody to find the balls she’d managed to cut off with her piercing stare. “I’m not after anything, and no one sent me, especially not Spencer Baldwin.”

  “Why don’t I believe you?” She leveled her gaze as if her eyes were a Colt .45.

  He shrugged. “That’s your damage. Not mine.”

  “Wrong.” She waved one perfectly manicured finger in his face. “Anything that hurts Julian is my damage, and I’ll make damn sure someone pays for this!” Why did he suddenly hear the Days of Our Lives music playing in the background? This woman could definitely out-villain Stefano DiMera.

  Julian suddenly stood next to them. “Adria, calm down.” He grabbed her hands and forced her death stare to him. “This isn’t his fault. I’m the one who proposed to him.”

  Adria’s mouth fell open. She withdrew her hands from Julian’s grasp and took a step back, giving him a once-over. “Who are you and what have you done with Julian Canales?”

  Julian attempted a smile but failed miserably. Instead of lighting up the room as it had the night before, the tentative grin gave off no more light than a flickering candle in a windstorm. “I know. I’ve screwed up. Big-time.”

  “You’ve more than screwed up, Julian. You’ve created a clusterfuck.” She spun around and paced, rubbing her chin and muttering to herself. Cody had been wrong. She wasn’t Stefano at all. She was his psychotic daughter Kristen, hatching a crazy scheme where Cody would likely end up chained in a dungeon somewhere. “If you had called me back or returned any of my hundreds of texts, we could have gotten ahead of this. I could have put you out there, given you some story about how you were coerced into marriage by a blackmailing psycho who was threatening your family’s lives.”

  Yup. She was definitely the spawn of Stefano. “I’m not a psycho.”

  She cast Cody a single glance. “For the amount of money I would have paid you, you would have let me label you a serial killer.”

  Cody usually didn’t get mad. No good ever came from that. But Adria was pushing all the wrong buttons. “You don’t know shit about me.” His voice rumbled in a way he hadn’t heard in a long time, and he didn’t like it. “I’m not for sale.”

  She snorted, but before Adria had a chance to spit fire, Julian stepped forward.

  Just like when Cody first saw Julian in the bar, the move was filled with the confidence of a man used to commanding the attention of those around him. “That’s enough.” He didn’t raise his voice as Cody had done. His sharp tone got the point across. This discussion was over, and Adria understood. She took several deep breaths and calmed down. Cody cast an appreciative glance over at Julian, who had obviously felt the need to come to his rescue. Under normal circumstances, Cody would point out that he could
handle his own battles. He’d done that for most of his life. He’d never needed anyone to stand up for him before, but he couldn’t halt the smile that danced across his lips as his knight in a white towel stepped into the line of fire. It made Cody feel special, and that was a feeling he wasn’t used to.

  After a few moments of silence, Julian turned around to face Cody, blowing all the air from his lungs. “I’m sorry about Adria.”

  “Don’t apologize for me—”

  Julian cut his gaze to her. When she turned around to face the open window, Julian met Cody’s eyes once again. “As I was saying, I apologize for that. Adria is just trying to protect me. That’s her job.”

  Julian was right. Cody had to put on his big-boy undies, if he ever found them, and help find a solution to this debacle. It was what Bo Brady would do. He crossed over to where Adria quietly fumed and stood at her side. “I’m sorry for snapping at you. I know you’re just trying to do your job, and we haven’t exactly made that easy for you right now.”

  She glanced at him and snorted.

  “What can I do to help?”

  She regarded him with a wicked smile and a single arched eyebrow, a standard soap-opera villain expression. Well shit. He was in for it now.

  Chapter Five

  JULIAN couldn’t believe his ears. Adria’s plan was even worse than the blackmailing she mentioned earlier. Who was she? Candice Bergen from Miss Congeniality? “Are you out of your mind?”

  Adria swiveled her gaze to him. “You’re calling my sanity into question? Was I the one who was stupid enough to get married last night on a dare?”

  Not many people got away with calling Julian stupid, much less the other awful things she’d said to him since they first talked. Luckily for Adria, they’d become close friends over the last few years. Sure, she had a personality harsher than a George W. Bush roast, but she never blew smoke up his ass like so many people did after he got elected. She kept their relationship real and never tried to curry favor, but enough was enough. There was no way he was going to subject Cody to Adria’s mad scheme. It wasn’t fair to him. “Your solution is too much. I won’t allow it.”

  “You won’t allow it?” Adria charged toward him like a linebacker, but Julian held his ground like he always did. “And what exactly will you allow? Will you allow Spencer Baldwin to win the election? Will you allow him to rub your face in the pile of crap you made out of your campaign in just one night? Because that’s what’s going to happen if we don’t put an end to this shitstorm right now. My plan is the only option you’ve got.”

  She was wrong. There had to be some other way. If he went through with this, he’d be no better than all the other politicians he’d vowed never to become.

  “I’ll do it.”

  Julian snapped his gaze to Cody. “You’ll what?”

  “I said I’ll do it. If you can’t take a bullet for your husband, then who can you take one for?” His lips parted in a teasing smile, and Julian suddenly wanted to trail his tongue across them. That was the kind of loyalty he’d always imagined his husband would have for him and the kind he would gladly repay.

  “See?” Adria said. She triumphantly sashayed over to Cody and wrapped an arm around his waist as if they were the best of friends. “Even your soon-to-be ex-husband recognizes the merits of my plan.”

  There was no merit to a blatant lie that called for Cody to imply he’d been hired by Julian’s political rival to seduce and trap Julian in a marriage. According to Adria, it was an answer that would turn the scandal back on his opponent, but it would also turn Cody into a target for derision and endless jokes on late-night television. “Cody, you don’t know what you’re agreeing to. Do you realize what the media will do to you?”

  He flashed his trademark half grin, the one he had used on Julian to extend their one drink into a night of reckless abandon. Even without alcohol and in the harsh light of day, it made Julian want to take up another challenge. “Let’s just consider this the final dare of the game we started last night.”

  Julian shook his head. Cody might be fine making decisions without examining the repercussions, but Julian couldn’t let him continue to do that, especially for a plan that went against everything Julian stood for. Maybe it was time they faced the firing squad together. “No. It’s too much. I would never dare such a thing.”

  “Sure you would.” Cody stood in front of him, his big smile beaming down at him. Julian had to fight his desire to press against him and lean his head on Cody’s firm chest. “You dared me to marry you. Why not dare me to do this? It’ll give you the spin you need to save your election and get us both out of this mistake of a marriage.”

  Their marriage had been a mistake. That was what Julian firmly believed when he woke up and found himself in this situation. But now—well, now, when he gazed into the deep pools of blue that regarded him, he caught glimpses of something else, something they had both seen last night, but something Cody had either forgotten or dismissed.

  Somewhere deep within both of them lived the potential they had recognized in the other, the same one that led them down the aisle in the first place.

  Even though every other politician would run with Adria’s plan, Julian wasn’t traveling down that path. There was an alternative.

  Julian rushed over to Adria, who opened her arms to receive the hug she was expecting for her brilliant plan. Her smile quickly changed to a scowl followed by a surprised yelp when Julian instead grabbed her hand and led her to the door. “What the hell are you doing?”

  He opened it and motioned to the hallway. “Kicking you out.”

  If she were any more confused, she’d be trying to make sense of a five-hundred-page document on foreign policy. “What? Why?”

  “Because it’s time for you to go.” He placed his hand on the small of her back and gently ushered her into the hall.

  “But there’s so much to get done.” She rested her hand on the door and prevented Julian from closing it. “We need to work out the details of what Cody is going to say before I call the press conference.”

  “Don’t do anything until you hear from me.” He removed her hand from the door.

  Adria gaped at him, words evidently failing her. That rarely happened. Where was a camera when he needed one?

  “I’ll call you when we’re done.”

  A few seconds after Julian shut the door and locked it, he heard the angry clacking of Adria’s heels as she stomped down the hall.

  “So what should I wear to meet my disparaging public for the first time?” Cody asked once Julian turned around to face him.

  “Nothing.”

  A wicked grin slid across Cody’s lips. “Well, that would up the scandalous factor.”

  Julian groaned. When was he going to learn not to leave an opening like that for Cody? “My God. Is everything a joke to you?”

  “Hey, it’s better than having a stick up my ass like—”

  “Me?”

  Cody paused, scrunching up his lips. “Well, I was gonna say like little Ms. Genghis Khan, your campaign manager, but yeah, you do have a pretty big stick up your ass too.”

  Two could play this game. “Not anymore I don’t, but I did last night. I just don’t recall your stick being that big.”

  If Cody’s mouth gaped any wider, he’d be able to swallow a watermelon whole. “You did not just tell a joke.” He clapped at Julian in obvious appreciation. “That’s your second one this morning. If you don’t slow down, you could hurt yourself. You might also want to consider stretching fir—” He placed his hands on his hips and grumbled. “You just accused me of having a small dick, didn’t you?”

  Julian pushed off the door and grinned. “Took you long enough. You’re a little slow on the uptake this morning.”

  “Well excuse me,” he said with an exaggerated eye roll. “It’s been a difficult morning, what with planning my divorce and my inevitable public humiliation on what should have been my honeymoon.” He rested his hand on his ches
t like a Southern belle suffering from the vapors. How did a man with so much muscle pull off the damsel-in-distress routine? On most men, Julian would find this irritating. Cody made his belly flutter. “It’s been a bit much.”

  “Yeah, we need to talk about that.”

  Cody cradled his groin. “I think Bruce Boner has suffered enough torment for today.”

  “No, not that. I was talking about—wait. Bruce Boner? That’s really what you call it?”

  “Only when he’s sleeping,” he whispered, cradling his junk as if it were the most precious object in the world. “But when he’s awake, he grows four times his size and becomes the Incredible Bulk.”

  That was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard in his life, so why the hell was he laughing? It probably had something to do with the image of Cody’s cock suddenly rampaging through the city looking for ass to smash.

  Cody’s big smile revealed how pleased he was that he could make Julian laugh despite the stressful situation. Julian might not have known Cody for long, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that his preferred coping mechanism was laughter. Julian had always been the opposite. When confronted with a serious problem, he shut down and his temper roared until he exploded. It made him difficult to deal with. He’d heard that all his life from his parents, from Blane, from Adria, and from his staff.

  He’d always told them that was just who he was. If that was true, why was he laughing right now? Why couldn’t he stop staring into the sparkling field of blue in Cody’s eyes? Why did he notice that Cody’s breathing had changed? Instead of the blares of laughter that previously filled the room, his breath hitched and blooms of red spread across his cheeks.

  “I suppose I should find my clothes.” Cody broke their eye contact before falling to his knees and lifting the bedspread that hung off the mattress. The smile that had spread wide across Julian’s face slowly retreated, and when Cody pulled his jeans out from under the bed, it died completely.