Always with You (WIth You Trilogy)

by Sable, R. J.

  “I love you,” I mumbled sleepily into his dampened chest. “So very much.”

  “I love you too, Jamie,” he breathed, kissing the top of my head. “Thank you.”

  “Thank you,” I smiled back, delighted that he’d let me take care of him. “I didn’t expect you to let me get away with it as long as you did,” I teased.

  “It almost killed me,” he chuckled. “There will be consequences.”

  “I can’t wait,” I laughed happily as I snuggled further into his neck.

  Chapter 27

  Tuesday, 8th October 2013

  Rude banging awakened us from a warm and peaceful slumber. I groaned and rolled over whilst disentangling myself from Jason. The alarm clock showed that it was just after seven.

  “I’m coming in!” Xander declared, abandoning his banging on the door and strolling into the room without apology.

  Instantly aware that I was naked, I screeched and pulled the cover up over both of us, planting myself behind Jason’s mass.

  “Xander,” Jason growled. “You can’t just barge in.” His smooth voice had that rough edge of ‘I just woke up’ which made his growl just that bit sexier.

  “I announced myself,” Xander shrugged, clearly not the least bit perturbed that he’d just violated our privacy.

  I glared at him which, as usual, didn’t faze him in the slightest. I had to admit though, this wasn’t usual Xander behaviour. He normally made sure to keep out of our way once we were safely ensconced in a bedroom. I figured there must have been a reason that he had burst in here like that.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked cautiously, my stomach clenching in horrible anticipation.

  “Nothing’s wrong,” he shook his head. “Your brother just called.”

  “Which one?”

  “Does it matter?” He frowned.

  I shook my head. I guess it didn’t really matter. I assumed I was about to be told to do something or bossed around in someway. It wouldn’t matter which one of them the order came from, I’d be expected to follow it regardless.

  Xander nodded, apparently satisfied with my answer. “We need to go.”

  “What?” Jason looked up at him, swinging his legs off the bed and taking great care to ensure I was covered. “Go where?”

  “Go,” Xander nodded curtly. “Ten minutes.” In his usual silent, brooding fashion, he disappeared through the door.

  Jason let out a sigh and rolled back onto the bed, scooping me up into his arms and nuzzling into my neck. “So, I’m thinking we stay here for ten minutes, then take a long, slow, very hot shower,” he grinned.

  “Hot shower?” I repeated, grinning up at him.

  “Very hot,” he nodded.

  “Are you using your admittedly hard to resist sexiness to distract me from the fact that you want to keep Xander waiting?” I smiled broadly, it was hard not to when his hair was all messed up and sexy from just waking up.

  “It’s working, isn’t it?” He smirked knowingly.

  It was working, but he didn’t need to know that. “We’ll have to save that for later, I don’t want to piss him off.” I tried to placate him with a kiss which promised more to come.

  “Jamie,” Jason groaned, drawing out my name. “He can’t just barge in here and expect us to follow orders. You may have noticed I’m not very good at following orders.”

  “Ah, well, you’re in luck,” I teased. “I’m very good at it, I’ll teach you.” I winked at him before grabbing his t-shirt from the back of the chair and pulling it over my head so I could grab a quick shower. One that would never live up to expectations now that Jason had planted the hot shower idea in my mind.

  “Seventeen minutes,” Xander grunted once the two of us emerged into the lounge.

  “Your watch works then?” Jason quipped back with a cheeky grin before I had chance to apologise for taking too long.

  Xander raised his eyebrow and went back to his jet-black coffee. I gave Jason a fake glare for being mean to Xander but forgave him once he kissed me.

  “You need to pack some clothes,” Xander interrupted us.

  “Why?” I frowned.

  “Might be gone overnight,” he answered nonchalantly.

  “Overnight?” I repeated. He was giving me literally ten minutes of warning.

  Xander shot me a very familiar look. It was almost identical to Ian’s “stop asking questions, Jelly” face. I figured it must have been part of the compulsory military training.

  “What about uni?” I pouted, refusing to let his stern expression intimidate me. It was good practice for my brothers.

  “It’s reading week,” he shrugged.

  “Exactly!” I snapped exasperatedly. “I’m meant to use this week to catch up on reading.”

  “Books are portable,” Xander shrugged. “Get ready.”

  “But-” I started to protest.

  “It’s okay, baby,” Jason wrapped his hands around me from behind. “We both know you haven’t got anything to catch up on.”

  That was hardly the point. Xander didn’t know that. I humphed childishly and went to grab some clothes to take with me. Lucky for him, Jason and I both kept clothes at each other’s houses.

  “Where are we going?” I asked Xander sulkily as we made our way out the flat.

  “Manchester.”

  “Why?”

  He gave me his stern expression again and I stiffened my shoulders and glared back which only caused him to smirk slightly.

  “Your brother told me to bring you there,” he answered after a while. “Get in the car.”

  I turned my head to look at the Audi Q8 with tinted windows in front of us.

  “Nice,” Jason grinned. “This yours?”

  “Had someone from the office bring it up,” he nodded, his eyes smiling and hinting at the existence of a normal guy behind his constantly stern expressions.

  I shook my head as Jason and Xander discussed the car’s specs in manly grunts. The journey was only an hour long and Jason managed to keep up the car talk the whole way there. He singlehandedly elicited more speech from Xander than I’d gotten since we met.

  Xander expertly navigated around the city centre and pulled the car into an underground car park beneath a nondescript office building. The doors opened automatically as we drove into the well-lit, subterraneous cavern. It was filled with shiny, clean, mid-range vehicles, each as well maintained and uninteresting as the next. Xander’s car almost stood out because it was just that bit more expensive.

  “Where are we?” I asked as I climbed out of the car.

  “Anyone ever told you that you’re extremely nosy?” Xander retorted, completely ignoring my question.

  “My brothers may have mentioned it,” I grumbled. “Are they here too?” I added, looking around the parking lot as he led us towards a silver door on the opposite wall.

  Xander did his usual scanning routine, casually checking each corner, nook, and cranny. He didn’t answer and I figured I’d reached my question tolerance for the day. At least one of them must have been here. Why else would he bring me here?

  We walked up what must have been six flights of stairs. They were the sort of stairs that hinted at the presence of a lift; unused and undecorated because they were simply functional. With each set we ascended, I grew more and more curious as to where we were. From the outside, the building looked like it could have contained offices; there certainly weren’t any curtains or potted plants to imply somebody lived here. There were no business signs though, nothing to hint at its function.

  “Hurry up,” Xander frowned at me, turning his head back to look at me a few steps below.

  We’d climbed six floors. Six. The guy worked out a lot, bully for him. I wasn’t exactly winded but I wasn’t going to sprint up the stairs either.

  “Yes, sir,” I answered with no small amount of sarcasm. I noticed Jason’s eyebrow quirk upwards in amusement and surprise.

  “You know how sexy you are when you get all snarky?” He whisp
ered in my ear and I smiled as Xander came to a stop outside another metal door. This one had a keypad.

  Xander punched a ridiculously long code into the pad and the door swung open whilst I flashed Jason a cheeky smile.

  I don’t know what I was expecting to find behind the door but the sight that met my eyes wasn’t it. It was just too… normal. There were rows of low cubicles in front of us, filled with bog standard, white shirt clad office workers. They were all working with stacks of paper or talking on their headsets in low voices. It was so mundane, I was almost a little disappointed. It struck me as an odd place for Xander to bring me and I couldn’t figure out what the point of this excursion was.

  There was one thing about the scene that was completely abnormal though; as Xander lead us round the side of the room, I noticed that not one person looked up at us. Nobody even blinked in our direction. There wasn’t even a subtle glance. I found it hard to believe that an office like this was used to seeing casually dressed people traipsing into their working environment but clearly they were.

  Xander opened a door on the far side and silently motioned us through. The white space of what appeared to be a conference room was so painfully plain that it was almost dazzling.

  “Alright, Jellybean,” the deep drawl of Craig met me from the opposite end of the room.

  “Craig,” I grinned, glad to see a familiar face in the otherwise sterile environment. I bounded round the large mahogany table to give him a hug in greeting.

  Jason bumped fists with Craig whilst his eyes looked at the space around us, clearly as mystified as I was as to what we were doing here.

  “Where are we? What are we doing here? Are the others here too?” I blurted my questions in rapid fire in the hope that I would finally get some answers.

  Craig laughed at my verbal diarrhoea and sat down on one of the simple office chairs next to the over-buffed table. “Not a clue to the first two. Karl called me at three this morning and told me to get my arse here. I came as soon as my shift finished,” he stifled a yawn and I smiled in sympathy. “The others are here, except for Matt, he couldn’t just take off from work.”

  I nodded my understanding, glancing back at the door and wondering where they were.

  “The twins found a vending machine and Karl went with them to make sure they didn’t cause trouble, I suspect.”

  I grinned to myself because I remembered Danny getting his hand stuck in a vending machine at the pool when I was five. His crisps had gotten caught and he’d tried everything to get them out.

  “Jake’s train arrived a while ago, he should be here soon,” Craig continued.

  “I’ll go let him in,” Xander nodded. “Stay here,” he added, giving me his usual stony faced glare of authority.

  “You look like shit,” Jason grinned at Craig once the door shut behind Xander.

  “Don’t sugar coat it, Reed,” Craig laughed, rubbing his hand over his face.

  “You do look a bit tired,” I frowned in sympathy, positioning myself behind him so I could rub his shoulders.

  “Working nights at the minute,” he shrugged, relaxing his shoulders so that I could massage them.

  “Jelly’s here!” Danny beamed, bursting into the room with his arms full of chocolate bars and crisps.

  “Hi, Jelly,” Rick grinned, following Danny’s lead and dumping his stash into the middle of the table.

  I considered myself honoured that they’d relinquished their food in order to ‘jelly sandwich’ me.

  “Where’s Xander?” Karl grunted once he’d given me a hug.

  “Fetching Jake,” Craig yawned, trying to grab a cereal bar from the pile on the table but failing because Rick knocked his arm away.

  I grinned mischievously and grabbed a similar bar away from the stash, making my way towards Craig to hand it over. He looked exhausted, he obviously needed the energy.

  “What do you think you’re doing, Jelly?” Rick scowled, his eyes on the bar in my hand.

  “Feeding Craig,” I replied with a hint of sarcasm. It was obvious what I was doing.

  “Those are ours, Jelly,” he growled in warning.

  “There’s like twenty bars there. Craig looks exhausted, can’t you share for once?” I snapped in irritation. I felt, rather than saw, Jason move to my side in response to Rick’s hostility. I could see Rick trying to decide what to do. The twins really weren’t good at sharing.

  “Here,” I smiled at Craig, handing him the bar.

  “Cheers,” he smiled awkwardly, eyes flicking between me and the twins, ready to go on the defensive.

  Rick sighed and flopped back into the chair, hoarding the rest of the goodies between his arms.

  “I wondered how long it would take,” Karl said bitterly, glowering in my direction.

  “What?” I frowned defensively, sitting in the chair next to Craig with Jason on my other side.

  “For you to start abusing the special treatment,” he shook his head with a grimace.

  I scowled at him. I wasn’t taking advantage. Okay, I was a bit, but it was for the right reasons. I wasn’t going out and getting drunk or wearing outrageous clothes. All I’d done was make sure Craig got something to eat. I was prepared to explain this to him but Jason got there first.

  “You’re not seriously gonna have a go at her for giving food to Craig?” Jason laughed, squeezing his arm around my shoulder as a sign of support.

  Karl looked back and forth between the three of us and shook his head. “No,” he sighed. “Just, don’t take advantage, Jelly.” His voice was gruff but he smirked when he looked over at the twins who were obviously sulking. “Gimme a Twix.”

  The twins looked even more miserable as they begrudgingly handed over more of their hoard before rapidly digging into the rest of it before any of us could take any more.

  I couldn’t help but laugh at them. They really took food seriously. Their mouths were still full when Xander escorted Jake into the room. I grinned and waited my turn to hug him. He looked happier than I’d seem him recently and I hoped he was feeling a bit better than he was when I’d visited Newcastle.

  “Jake,” Craig tilted his head to beckon Jake closer. He handed an envelope over and I watched Jake’s brow crinkle in concentration as he opened it.

  “Passenger?” Jakes eyes lit up, holding up the two concert tickets from the envelope.

  Craig nodded. “He’s coming to Newcastle. I met his manager and he hooked me up.”

  “That’s fucking awesome, Craig!” Jake’s grin broadened and he slapped Craig on the back in appreciation.

  Craig just shrugged it off awkwardly. I thought it was an incredibly sweet gesture to make considering how upset Jake had been about Craig nagging him about his diabetes.

  “How did you meet his manager?” Jake asked excitedly.

  Craig looked uncomfortable at the question. “At a fight,” he mumbled.

  “Cool!” Jake grinned boyishly. “He a fan?”

  He shrugged again and I heard Karl scoff, probably about to make some derogatory comment at Craig’s expense.

  “So, now that you’re all here, is somebody going to tell us why?” I intervened before they could initiate the hostilities. I aimed my question at Karl because I figured if anybody knew something, it’d be him.

  His scowl turned into a grin as he motioned for us all to sit down. He turned to face Xander and grinned over at him. Xander wore his usual smirk as he strode to my brother’s side.

  “As you all know,” Karl started, his eyes travelling over all of us. “Things have been a little tense the past few months.” His eyes met mine and I knew he understood that it had been more trying for me than the others. “I know it’s caused problems for all of us but I think we can all agree it was worth it.”

  There were murmurs of agreement and I felt myself blush and try to hide my smile at the knowledge that my brothers really would do anything for me. In times past, that had meant being overly controlling but in this instance it meant giving up social
media and being particularly guarded with people. I appreciated it.

  “But things should settle down now.”

  “How come?” Jake asked but nobody got a chance to answer because the door swung open and all eyes moved in that direction.

  The large frame of Ian filled the door. Aside from looking a little tired, he was his normal, happy self. Being closest to the door I squealed and launched myself at him in a way that could be described as anything but graceful.

  “Ian!” I squeaked as I squeezed him as tight as I could. “You’re home!”

  “Hi, Jellybean,” he returned my hug with an equal amount of pressure until I was forced to release him so that I could take a deep breath.

  “You’re home safe,” I repeated, going in for another hug.

  “Was there ever any doubt?” He chuckled, flashing me his cocky smile.

  I just beamed back because I was so overwhelmed to see him. My brothers were more demure in their greetings but it was obvious they were all overjoyed. When they were done with their one-armed man hugs and grunted greetings, we sat back around the table, all of us focussed on Ian.

  “So…” He grinned. “Jason’s still here?” He turned his focus on Jason, whose hand was firmly planted on my knee as he sat beside me.

  “I’m not going anywhere, mate,” Jason grinned, squeezing my knee and leaning over to kiss my cheek to prove a point.

  Ian just shook his head with a wry smile. “Alright.”

  How times have changed. I didn’t even see a single grimace from my brothers at Jason’s affection. Don’t get me wrong, none of them looked over the moon but, at the very least, they were used to it.

  There was a knock at the door and one of the office people came in with a trolley filled with biscuits, coffee, and tea. Wherever we were, the people here obviously knew Ian. Or at the very least, they were familiar with his addictions.

  When the door closed behind her, Xander locked it and returned to his seat. We all watched as Ian deliberated over the biscuits with immense concentration. We knew the first one he picked would become his obsession for the next month or so. He settled on a Hobnob and I smiled because I remembered that it was Dad’s favourite.