Surrendering To Him

by Hope Jones

It was time.

  I wanted to let go.

  I wanted to be the woman who dated Hux.

  I wanted to be the woman to finally let her pain go.

  Let go.

  It sounded foreign, but I so wanted to let go of my pain and loss.

  Just be... with Huxley Carson at my side.

  What a freakin’ dream.

  That dream was so close I could almost taste it, and I wasn’t about to let some little ole cartel ruin it.

  Huxley growled, bent, and kissed me before ordering, “Coffee.”

  “So bossy,” I muttered but kissed him back and left his office to brew a pot.

  Not because he told me to.

  I was doing it because I wanted coffee.

  That was what I was telling myself anyway.

  _______________

  Hector was supposed to arrive at Hux’s office in twenty minutes.

  I wasn’t nervous to meet the person responsible for turning my life upside-down. I was nervous because of what Hux might do to him.

  After stepping off the elevator, I marveled at all Hux’s guys standing behind the reception desk, their faces a stoic mask, arms crossed against their chests. They looked about as happy as Hux was when I convinced him taking this meeting would be best.

  “Jeez, guys, don’t look so happy to see me,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood. No one laughed or even smiled. Oh well. If they wanted to be and look angry, so be it.

  Hector wouldn’t try to shoot up Hux’s offices. Hector may be an idiot, but he wasn’t suicidal.

  Huxley squeezed his hand around mine and tugged me behind him as he made his way to his office. The guys didn’t move a muscle, not even to turn and watch us leave. We passed the reception desk that oddly didn’t have a receptionist, rounded the corner on the right, and went straight into Hux’s office.

  His office at work looked similar to the one at home only there was no window. His desk was to the left of the room and there was a leather couch across from it. There was a bookshelf opposite the office door, and it was packed with books. Huxley didn’t strike me as the type to read, so I wondered what the books were.

  He gave me one last tug and my butt planted on his huge black leather couch.

  “Do not antagonize Hector,” Hux finally said after striding to his desk and planting his ass on the corner of it with his arms crossed.

  He was testy this afternoon.

  “Why would I antagonize him? Do I look stupid?”

  “Phoebe, you have a way of egging people on, even if you don’t mean to.”

  “What? No, I don’t! I’m very calm and level-headed.”

  Hux scrubbed his hands down his face and let out a frustrated sigh.

  “Phoebe,” he warned, getting testier by the minute, if his growl was anything to go by.

  “When was the last time you got laid?” I asked randomly.

  He squinted his eyes, in anger I supposed. “What?” he rumbled, dangerously close to losing it.

  “It’s a serious question. When was the last time you got laid?”

  “Woman,” he said angrily, his hands going to his hips.

  “It’s just—” I inhaled sharply, hoping not to piss him off further, but I might as well risk it. “—you seem very aggravated, and if it’s been awhile since you’ve been laid, maybe that’s why.” I gave him a sheepish smile and tucked my hands into my lap.

  His face gave nothing away, and after ten seconds of being under his scrutiny, I started wringing my hands together.

  “Fuck it,” he said roughly and strode to me.

  He grabbed my face and slammed his mouth down on mine. The shock of his actions made me gasp, giving him access to slip his tongue in my mouth. Moaning, I leaned farther into the kiss, waiting for more. Hux slid his hand into my hair and gripped tight, yanking my head back. His mouth broke from mine and nipped and kissed at the tender flesh beneath my ear.

  “Hux,” I breathed out.

  “Can’t wait to hear you all breathy like that below me.”

  I moaned. If I was nervous about having sex with Hux before, I sure as fuck wasn’t anymore. If the promise of his kiss was any indication, he was going to be shit-hot in bed. I wanted this meeting settled, so he and I could go back to his place and finish what we tried starting multiple times.

  “Are you busy after the meeting?” I asked, not as breathily, but still sounding like I had ran a marathon.

  “No,” he grunted into my neck.

  “Mmm,” I hummed.

  Yes, today was going to end on a really good note.

  My head was snapped back again, and I came face-to-face with Hux’s still turned on but serious eyes.

  “Don’t antagonize him,” he told me with a pointed look, clenching his fist that had my hair in it, his grip tightening enough to make my scalp tingle.

  I held my hands up placatingly. “Okay, okay. I get it.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me but let my hair go, gave me a kiss on the forehead, and walked back to the desk.

  The door opened but not before I could stop from asking my next question. “Wait, did you just use your sexual powers to get what you wanted?”

  Roman, who had just entered the room, sputtered, trying to cover it with a cough.

  Hux had a smirk he was trying and failing to hide.

  “Sexual powers?” Roman questioned, raising a perfect—seriously, how did guys have perfectly sculped features, but women had to go through the pain of waxing—eyebrow and looking at me for answers.

  I shrugged. “I call it the Hux Fog. Anytime his mouth is on me, doesn’t matter where, I go into a fog. I don’t seem to care about whatever I was arguing before. Apparently, it’s a useful tactic, since he keeps doing it.” I finished by glaring at Hux, but he wasn’t glaring at me.

  His face was dark.

  Clouded with lust.

  A lot of it.

  Although he was sitting on the corner edge of his desk, I could still see the normal mossy green color of his eyes turn to a really dark shade of green. If he didn’t have anything else going for him, the way his eyes changed based on lust would do it for me.

  Roman cleared his throat, breaking Hux and me out of our sexual stare-down. I had completely forgotten Roman was in the room. My eyes flew to him, and I gave him a sheepish smile as heat traveled from my neck to my cheeks. I guessed Hux’s lips didn’t have to be on me to send me into a fog after all.

  “Everything ready?” Hux asked Roman, seemingly unaffected.

  I would never know how he did that. He went from staring at me like I was a meal, to business-like in two-point-five seconds.

  I wasn’t sure if that was an indication that he was really good at tucking his emotions away or if he wasn’t that affected by me.

  “Yup,” Roman said. “Cameras are on. He’ll be escorted into the building by Stone. He’s allowed one person in the office. Everyone else will be in the control room, ready if something happens.”

  Hux nodded but didn’t say a word. To the outside world, he looked completely calm and collected, but I could tell he was wound up. His arms were crossed against his chest, and the muscles in his shoulders bunched together with stress. The lines around his mouth were pulled tight. He was calm, but it was a lethal type of calm. He was ready for a fight, if it came to it.

  Lifting myself up from the couch, I moved to him and leaned into his side. He didn’t exactly relax, but he wasn’t as tense as before. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me in tighter.

  “You’re safe,” he murmured in my hair at the top of my head.

  “I’m not worried about me,” I told him.

  He pulled back, lifted my face to his, and looked confused.

  “Hector may be okay with going to war with you, but he isn’t a total idiot. He isn’t gonna walk into your building with your guys, guns blazing, and think he can make it out of here alive. I’m more worried about what you’re gonna do to him,” I clarified, giving him a smile that wasn’t genuine
.

  “Not stupid either, babe. I won’t do anything to jeopardize your safety.”

  I laid my head against his shoulder and gave his waist a squeeze.

  “Showtime,” Roman said, looking at his phone.

  It felt like an hour passed while Hector and his goons exited the parking garage, entering the elevator and then the lobby.

  Roman opened the door to Hux’s office and stood guard just outside. His entire demeanor changed. The first time I met him, he was easygoing and lighthearted. He looked downright scary now. His face was set in granite and his arms were crossed and feet planted wide. He was ready for any fight that came his way.

  While studying Roman, I noticed something about him and something clicked in my head. Oh my God, Huxley was going to flip his shit. Oh shit... should I even tell him?

  “My, what a lovely place this is,” a man said in a thick accent from the lobby.

  My body stiffened in preparation for the devil to walk through the door. Hector rounded the corner and smiled brightly, looking back and forth between Hux and me. I noticed his smile first. He had a really nice smile.

  Considering the nature of his crimes, I expected Hector to look like he lived out of a fleabag motel with terrible hygiene. He had straight white teeth and strangely looked happy to see me. He looked even happier to see Hux’s arm wrapped around my shoulders. His brown hair was clipped close to his head, neatly styled with not a hair out of place. If he didn’t peddle flesh and drugs and wasn’t making my life a living hell, I may have found him attractive.

  His eyes held the truth of him though.

  They were black.

  Soulless.

  “Well, aren’t you even more gorgeous in person,” Hector said to me, opening his arms as if he were expecting me to hug him like a long-lost uncle.

  I gave him a tight smile but made no move to give him the hug he was stupidly expecting.

  His smile never dropped from his face, but he dropped his arms and looked at Hux with a bit of respect in his eyes. “Huxley. How are you?” Hector asked like they were old buddies who hadn’t seen each other in a while.

  “Hector, sit,” Hux said, his jaw clenched tightly, ignoring the pleasantries and motioning toward the couch my butt had just vacated.

  Hector nodded and sat as if he didn’t have a care in the world and wasn’t in the enemy’s den. “I see you’ve taken this one off the market,” he said to Hux, while nodding in my direction.

  “We aren’t here to discuss my personal relationships, Hector,” Hux replied tersely.

  “Normally, I’d agree, but your personal relationships don’t generally cost me lots of money,” Hector fired back, his face tightening, and any bit of handsomeness I thought I saw earlier fled the building faster than I could blink.

  “You came into her town, started causing trouble, and you expect her not to report on it? It’s her job,” Hux told him in an incredulous tone. His body was strung so tight I knew it was taking all his strength not to attack Hector.

  “Very well, but if I let every reporter I come in contact with scare me off, I wouldn’t be in the position I am now,” he responded with an eyebrow raise and a tic in his cheek.

  “A position of war with me? My reach goes farther than what you see here, and you know it. You know the friends I have. You think she’s costing you money and causing trouble? I could make that even more money and even more trouble for you,” Hux told him sharply, taking a menacing step forward, but I held tight to his forearm.

  The veins in Hector’s forehead looked as if they were going to burst. He turned to me, quickly masking any sign of anger or frustration. “Which is why I came to you with a proposition,” he said, cocking a dark eyebrow.

  “I’m all ears,” I said.

  “I will leave you be, so long as you leave me be,” he offered, giving me a smile that elicited the bad kind of goose bumps all the way down my spine.

  “So you’ll take the hit off me if I leave you and your drug operation alone?” Hell no. Hell to the no. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that,” I denied his ludicrous offer, feeling brave for standing up to this poor excuse of a human. I wasn’t trying to antagonize him, but he needed to know I wasn’t a pushover.

  Hux’s eyes flew to mine, but I ignored him and focused on the piece of crap in front of me.

  “Excuse me?” Hector scoffed.

  “You heard me. I’m not going to do that.” I shrugged. What kind of person would I be if I let him continue to move into my town to sell drugs and traffic women? I’d be like him, and I liked to think I was nothing like a piece of shit.

  “And why not, dear? It’s a good deal. I go about my business, and you’re still breathing to go about yours.” Hector was turning on his oily charm, giving me what he probably thought was a sincere smile as he stood, taking a step forward with his hands up in a placating gesture.

  “No. Deal. I’m not going to sit back quietly while you run your drugs and traffic women, when I could do something about it. Clearly, we”—I pointed to Hux and myself—“have you in a position where your hands are tied. So how about I make you a proposition?”

  “And what’s that?” he asked, tilting his head and smirking.

  I may have been a reporter, but I damn sure knew how to negotiate, because there were times when I had to pay my sources. You had to find the upper hand and use it against them.

  Which I had done with Hector just now.

  “I want you out of East Haven. I want Sheriff Douche not to be Sheriff anymore, and I don’t want to see you back here or peddling anything in this town again. I’ll agree not to do an article on you, if you leave town and not look backward.”

  “And why, pray tell, would I do that?”

  “Because if you stay in East Haven and continue your operation, I’ll make damn sure you’re sitting in a federal prison for a number of charges, attempted murder being among them.”

  “You have no proof of anything.”

  I didn’t, but I could damn sure get it. I opened my mouth to tell him so, but Hux beat me to the punch.

  “We have proof that a known associate of yours shot up her house. I have it on video, and I got his prints off one of the bullets,” Hux said, leaning back into his desk and crossing his ankles. His face was a mask of cool indifference, completely changed from his anger a few moments ago.

  “I see,” Hector replied thoughtfully, his hands steepled under his chin.

  “It seems we’re at an impasse,” I told Hector, hoping my face didn’t give away the happiness I felt backing him in a corner.

  When Hector turned his angry eyes on me, Hux pulled me protectively behind him, but I was still able to see the exchange between the two of them. He watched Hux’s move and seemed to back down subtly, his shoulders slumping ever so slightly as he took a miniscule step backwards.

  “If you even so much as look in her direction that way again, you’ll be walking out of here blind. Retaliation is off the table. My men have been given instructions should anything happen to me or Phoebe. Don’t think about killing them too, because someone outside of here has been given the same directions. If I were you, I wouldn’t try any shit,” Hux seethed, the first bit of emotion coming out since Hector drove into the parking garage.

  Hector scowled. He wasn’t walking out of this with anything he wanted. I doubted Hux was going to give him a lot of time to stay in East Haven and stew on how this meeting went.

  “It appears I have no other option but to move my business dealings elsewhere,” Hector mumbled more to himself than Hux or me.

  I didn’t care what reason he gave himself for leaving East Haven. I didn’t care what he had to convince himself happened. If Hux and his men’s lives weren’t in danger, I wasn’t in danger, Kian could step up and right the wrongs done in this town, and no drugs were being pumped through East Haven, then I would be happy. Everything could go back to normal before Hux threw me over his shoulder in the sheriff’s office.

  Hector made a movem
ent I could see out of the corner of my eye, disrupting my thoughts, and my gaze snapped to him immediately, scared of him trying to pull a stupid stunt. He looked around thoughtfully before his eyes returned to Hux briefly and then landed on me.

  “It was lovely to meet you, Phoebe. I do apologize for all the trouble I have caused you. I hope we meet again,” he said, holding out his arms as if expecting a hug. He was turned down exactly like when he first walked in here, and Hux protectively curled me around him and gave him a warning glare.

  Hector lingered a few seconds longer then clapped his hands together sharply, causing me to jump a mile in the air. “Very well.” Then he walked out of Hux’s office and hopefully out of my life.

  I didn’t breathe my sigh of relief until the elevator doors closed and Hector was on his way down.

  Finally relaxing my body and melting into Hux’s side, I told him, “That was fun.”

  Hux wrapped his arm tighter around my shoulders, pulling me as close as humanly possible. He shook his head and guided me out of his office.

  _______________

  We were back home.

  Hux’s home.

  I had to go to my house in an hour to meet the agent that my insurance company was sending out to inspect the damage. Thankfully, drive-bys were covered in my insurance policy.

  Hux was currently lounging on his couch with me tucked into him.

  He was searching for a therapist.

  For me.

  I had agreed to see a therapist, but I thought Hux would let me wait until the dust settled with the cartel situation.

  No such luck.

  “Babe, you need to read the reviews and pick one.”

  “Hux. As I’ve already told you a million times, I’m not sure it’s the best idea to just pick one willy-nilly. I’d like to do my research,” I replied, craning my neck to look up at him.

  He was close to laughing.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “Willy-nilly?” he countered.

  “Hux, look around. We’re in the south, honey. Words like willy-nilly are used in these parts.” I smirked back, laying the accent on heavy. I had my southern twang for so long that I didn’t hear it anymore when I spoke. I’d been told before that my accent was heavy, but my response was always, “What accent?”