by Hope Jones
“I was waiting for you to come down. Not leaving without telling you bye,” he told me, as if my assumption was the stupidest thing.
I may not have known Huxley all that well, but I knew guys like him. They took care of their women. Made sure the sun rose and set with them, fulfilled any and every desire they had. Part of that was making sure to kiss them goodbye in the morning, which set the day up to be a good one. If I were a different person, waking up to Huxley’s face every morning would make every day fucking great.
“Okay, well I’m down here now. Bye,” I hurriedly said, jumping from the barstool and making my way to the laundry that was still on the floor by the foot of the stairs.
My elbow was caught in a firm but gentle grasp that yanked me back to Huxley. He spun me in some magical move and tipped his head down to mine before planting a kiss on my open-in-shock lips. Of course, he took advantage of my open mouth and slid his tongue in slowly, sensually. It felt like the type of kiss we should have taken back to the bedroom, but before he took it to X-rated and before I could fully give in to the kiss, he pulled back.
My dazed eyes opened to find him staring at me intently.
“Won’t let you go back to before, baby,” Hux told me.
“Excuse me?” I asked, clearing the fog from my brain with a small shake.
“Last night. You opened up. Finally let me see some of that scar tissue you’ve been holding onto your entire life. Last night, you started healing. I’m not letting you go back to the ‘before’ Phoebe.”
“I’m not really sure you have a say in what I do. I’ve told you before, Hux; this isn’t happening. I don’t care how many times I have to repeat myself to get it through your thick skull, but we aren’t a thing and never will be.”
“I love a good challenge.” He smirked, dropped a much quicker, PG-rated kiss to my lips, and disappeared.
How does he do that? Just dissipate into thin air? He had to have gone to ninja school.
Shaking ninja school thoughts from my head, I picked the dirty sheets up and took it to the laundry room. When I was finished, I mentally ran through all the things I needed to get done today.
I really needed to make some notes about the questions I wanted to ask when I interviewed Hux and decide how far into his life I wanted to go. Did I want to start with his law enforcement career or go back even further? Did I want to dig into his childhood? The answer to that was a resounding yes, but I felt dirty doing it. I wanted all this information about him, but I didn’t want to have to learn all his dirty secrets without his permission. I also needed to figure out what questions I could ask about the cartel, depending how the situation ended.
Maybe I should ask him to sit down with me.
So, talking to him about our interview was officially added to my to-do list as well. I also needed to run to the store, since all the groceries I got for our dinner were ruined in the car chase. My long list of shit to do exhausted me before I even started on it. Was it too early for a nap?
I blew out a frustrated breath and then got to it.
Seven
You Want Me Here
“Y’ALL WERE NOTHING but trouble back in college,” Carter said to Millie, shaking his head and chuckling.
Carter was Millie’s older brother by four years. He was already out of college and had a good job by the time Millie and I met and became attached at the hip. He was very acquainted with our antics and special brand of trouble.
While Millie and I didn’t go to frat parties or out with other girls very often, we did go to a select few bars that were willing to overlook our fake IDs. Carter was tasked with driving our drunk asses back to the dorm room on more than one occasion. Sometimes, he’d brave the embarrassment and actually go out with us, though it was probably more out of concern than wanting to hang out with his sister and her best friend. He’d had a front row seat to the Millie and Phoebe show for a very long time, laughing with us as we horribly sang karaoke, fighting with us to get off tables as we drunkenly rambled to the other customers.
After I finished the laundry and grocery shopping—without the cartel car chase this time—I called Millie to see what she was doing. I didn’t want to call Huxley and give him any indication I wanted him over here—even though I did, against my better judgment.
Millie had no grand plans for the evening, so I invited her to dinner. Apparently, Carter had no plans either and tagged along with Millie. I didn’t mind at all. Carter was a sweetheart and hot to boot. Millie always hoped Carter and I would fall madly in love, get married, have lots of babies, and then I would be her actual sister.
But I repeatedly expressed I was not interested in Carter that way—and vice versa—and even if I was, she knew I wasn’t settling down with anyone anyway. She gradually came to accept this but still hated that I wouldn’t be her sister-in-law.
The sound of Carter’s bowl rattling in the sink brought my attention back to the room. Millie was hip-bumping Carter away from the sink so she could rinse hers. He moved to the fridge and grabbed three more beers. I was already two beers in, and if I kept it up, I would end up drunk. I had loose lips when I was drunk, so after my third one, I had to cut myself off.
“You sure you want to drink that third one? You’ll have to call an Uber, ‘cause I’m taking your keys,” I pointed out to Carter, hopping off my stool and rounding the island to get to the trashcan.
When my hands were free, he passed the beer to me, sans cap, and shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m cool with an Uber, honey. It gives me a chance to see my favorite sister again,” he said, smiling at me to indicate I was his favorite sister, not Millie.
“Hey!” Millie yelled, punching him in the shoulder while I ducked out of the way, laughing my ass off.
He loved to fuck with her every chance he got.
It was okay, ‘cause Millie got her payback more times than not.
Carter placatingly held his hands up. “I only speak the truth; don’t punish me for it.”
Millie rolled her eyes and came around the island, tugging on my elbow to pull me into the living room.
“Movie time, asshat!” she hollered back into the kitchen at her brother.
“What are we watching tonight?” I asked, plopping down onto my amazingly comfortable, brown, worn leather couch, careful not to slosh my beer.
Movie nights were a favorite with Millie and me. Usually, we did them at my house, because of my huge flat screen and awesome surround sound system. She swore she was going to get a sound system like mine so we could watch movies at her place more often, because she felt her couch was more comfortable. I told her we’d have to agree to disagree on that one, because my couch was the shit.
“An action movie, since Carter is here?” she suggested, pulling my remotes out of the end table.
“Whatever you guys want to watch is fine. I suppose even rom-coms are okay,” Carter called begrudgingly from the kitchen, banging around pots and pans, no doubt cleaning up the mess I made from dinner. Someday, some woman was going to be very lucky to have him for a husband.
“If it’s all right with y’all, I’d prefer a scary movie,” I butted in.
Millie groaned and dramatically threw herself back on the couch. “Seriously, Phoebe? What is your obsession with scary movies?”
“Leave me alone and put on a damn scary movie.” I mock-glared at her. “Throw some popcorn in the microwave, Carter!”
_______________
An hour later, we had long since run out of popcorn and beers. Carter was sitting on the loveseat by himself, and Millie was in the middle of the couch, cuddled so far up my butt that I was sure there would be a permanent Millie impression in my side. She hated scary movies with a passion. In her defense, I had to admit there were a lot of moments that made me jump.
I usually laughed through the majority of scary movies. Horror didn’t faze me anymore. I had watched so many of them they had become comical.
“I hate you,” Millie whisper
ed so as not to disturb Carter, who probably couldn’t have cared less. I was pretty sure he was trying his best not to fall asleep.
“Shut up, you love me and you know it,” I whispered back, chuckling softly.
“Did you hear that?” Millie asked a few minutes later, sitting up and clearly freaking out.
“Clearly, it’s time to turn the movie off. Now you’re hearing shit that isn’t there,” I told her, reaching around her, grabbing the remote, and hitting pause.
“No! Shhh,” she said loudly, waving her hand around to get me to shut up.
Carter and I stilled, listening as closely as we could. Finally, when I was ready to give up and declare Millie too tipsy to do anything but sleep since she was hearing things, there was the sound of a faint jingling.
My heart lodged in my throat and it started to thump faster and faster. My eyes flew to Carter, and he was already moving off the couch and into the kitchen.
I jumped off the couch, not wanting to feel like a sitting duck. Trailing behind him as quietly as possible, I felt Millie behind me, clenching my shirt in her fists. He had pulled a butcher knife out of the knife block and moved to my front door by the time we caught up with him.
His movements were stealthy and lithe. He looked really lethal the way he was holding the knife, waiting behind the front door for whoever was trying to enter my home. His eyes snapped to me and then over my shoulder to Millie huddled against my back. He waved his hand hurriedly in the universal sign for get the fuck away, so she and I did just that. I turned around and moved to the barstool side of my island and crouched down quietly on my knees. I crawled to the end of the island and peeked around the corner just in time to see the door open.
Carter didn’t waste any time and shoved the door closed, hitting whoever was trying to walk in right in the face. I heard a very male, very familiar growl and gasped.
Fuckin’ Huxley.
Jesus, he couldn’t have called to tell me he was coming over?
Also, who invited him?
Carter quickly whipped around to strike him with the knife, but Hux was quick to react and grabbed his wrist, twisted it just slightly, and dislodged the knife from Carter’s hand. Carter wasn’t one to give up and fisted his other hand, rearing back to punch Hux.
“Wait!” I yelled, rushing to the boys.
Huxley’s eyes snapped to me and lost focus, which gave Carter an advantage, and before he could register my urgency, his fist flew forward and caught Hux on the corner of his mouth.
“Carter! Stop!” I yelled again, finally reaching them and pulling him away from Huxley.
“Phoebe, what the fuck?” Carter barked, trying to shove me aside.
“No! Quit!” I shouted, shoving back against his chest, making him take half a baby step backward.
At least he was easier to move, even if just a little bit, than Hux.
“This is Huxley,” I continued, jerking my head in the direction of the man I didn’t want in my life in the way he wanted to be in my life, who was now bleeding for me, or rather because of me.
“Fuck, man, I’m sorry,” Carter said, stepping next to me and giving Hux a once-over.
I finally turned my attention back to my bleeding man.
He’s not yours! my brain screamed.
I really needed him to stop tormenting my fucked-up head and heart.
“Are you okay?” I asked, tilting his head down to look at me and then side-to-side to make sure he wasn’t bleeding anywhere else.
“I’m fine, babe, but I would like to know who he is,” he told me, jerking his chin toward Carter.
“That would be my brother,” Millie said, finally speaking since we heard the jingling at my door.
“Ah, makes sense. I forgot about that,” Hux mumbled to himself, but I was close enough to hear him. I glared and hopefully told him with my eyes to shut up. I’d rather my closest friend and her brother not know he checked into my background and therefore the very few people in my life, including them.
Glancing at Carter and Millie, I was relieved to find they didn’t hear Huxley and were talking amongst themselves.
“Come on,” I said to Hux, fitting my small hand into his large one and dragging him to the bathroom. Surprisingly, he followed without resistance. I got the distinct impression he didn’t let people lead him often. He was the leader.
Letting go of his hand, I grabbed a cloth from the drawer next to me, wet it with warm water, and began cleaning the corner of Hux’s mouth, where blood had started leaking down to his chin. I set the cloth on the counter and went to fill a bag with ice. Instead of handing it to him when I returned, I gently put it up to his face. Because he got punched and almost stabbed for me, I felt like I owed it to him to clean and take care of his wounds.
It was a really stupid idea though, because it put me too close to him, and when I looked up, the way he was gazing at me made my breath catch in my throat. I swore he looked at me like I was his entire world, which made no sense, because he had just truly entered my life a few days ago.
The realization of how much control I was losing in such a short amount of time hit me like a ton of bricks. Somehow, he had wedged himself so deeply into my life that I found myself a little disappointed when the clock went by with another hour and he wasn’t back at my house. And it had only been a couple of days.
I started breathing like I had just run a mile in five minutes, and my skin became tingly and tight. I could feel sweat beading around my forehead, and my vision became hazy. Anxiety hit me like a ton of bricks instead of coming on slowly like it usually did.
“Baby,” Huxley whispered, causing my eyes to fly back to his.
I must have looked absolutely petrified, because his features softened even more, the crinkles in the corner of his eyes disappearing completely. His hand came up slowly, as if he thought I would flinch, and he cupped my cheek with a tenderness that made my heart ache.
If only you were a different woman with a different history.
Tell me about it, I told my brain.
“Won’t hurt you, Bee,” he told me softly, so softly I almost didn’t hear him. He used the nickname again, and I swear to God, it hurt in my soul but was also like balm to the damage that was already there.
“There’s no guarantee of that, Hux. You might not intentionally hurt me, but if I did this, if I let you in, I would fall for you. I would fall so fucking hard it’d be like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. It’d feel amazing at first, I mean fucking great, but I would crash to the ground eventually and it would hurt. I would lose what little bit of myself I have left. I’ve lost enough.”
“I won’t leave you,” he told me like I didn’t just pour my heart out to him.
“That’s the least of all my worries,” I stressed, which was the truth. My worry was him dying. I wasn’t afraid of death by any means. I knew it had to happen eventually and everyone died. But after my mother and grandparents, I couldn’t take any more death. I’d had enough.
“I won’t die either, baby,” he whispered, his thumb moving from my jaw to my cheek then down to my lips. His eyes flickered between my eyes and my lips, and I knew he wanted to kiss me.
And how badly I wanted that kiss.
I felt like my life depended on it.
Fuckity, fuck, fuck.
Throwing caution to the wind, I lifted up on my toes and timidly pressed my mouth against his, my lips speaking the words that I couldn’t say. How badly I wanted him, almost more than anything else I’d ever wanted, but how much I couldn’t allow myself to freefall out of that plane.
His lips moved dangerously across mine, nipping and sucking at my sensitive flesh. He bit down a little rougher than the last time, and I gasped in shock. Huxley swallowed my gasp and thrust his tongue in my mouth, dueling with mine.
My lips were telling one story, but Hux’s… Holy fuck. Hux’s lips were telling a story of his own. He wasn’t going to leave me. He for sure wasn’t going to die, and he’d be dam
ned if anything happened to me.
I took what he was giving me and gave back tenfold. Huxley pushed off the counter, standing at his full height, taking me with him, keeping one fist clenched in the hair at the nape of my neck and his other hand possessively on my jaw. I clenched his T-shirt, and all I wanted to do was rip it over his head and lead him up the stairs to my bedroom.
A throat cleared behind us, leading Hux to slow the kiss until he pulled his lips from mine like it killed him to do so. Timidly peeking over his shoulder, Millie stood outside the bathroom door with a sheepish smile. I could tell she didn’t want to break up our kiss.
Once again, I cursed myself for having a hopeless romantic for a best friend.
It really sucked sometimes.
I loved her regardless though.
“Sorry,” I said, waving between Hux and myself, trying to keep the embarrassment out of my tone.
“That’s fine. I just wanted to let you know Carter and I are out of here.”
“I thought you were staying the night? Carter is more than welcome to as well. I got the pull-out bed ready in my office,” I offered, realizing how much I needed at least one of them here so Huxley wouldn’t try talking to me or bedding me. Hell, he may have even left if one of them stayed the night. He was polite; he knew Millie was worried about me, so maybe he’d give us some girl time.
“No, no! Really, that’s thoughtful, but I’m gonna ride to Carter’s house. We’ll come pick up his car in the morning,” she said quickly. That little hussy knew what she was doing.
The tramp.
“Are you sure?” I tried one last time, having a hard time keeping the pleading out of my tone. Millie would pick up on it though; she had known me long enough. She had to know I wanted her to stay.
“Babe, really, you and Hux look like y’all need to work some things out. I’m gonna grab my bag. The Uber should be here any minute.”
And she was off, her long hair flowing behind her as she went into the living room.
Hux’s eyes moved back to me, and humor caused his eyes to crinkle. My hand moved on its own accord and stroked the laugh lines softly. I wasn’t sure what it was about them that had me entranced, but I loved them.