Solace (Devastation Trilogy Book 2)

by Lesli Richardson

  He scowls. “You think Case manipulated us into this?”

  Absolutely, I do, but I’m not going to admit that. “I think she facilitated. But I love her. And I love you. And I’m sick of trying to figure out the angles. Does it really matter why we’re in this thing if it’s what we both want? Let’s do this. All of it. We kick ass for the election, we kick ass for the next four years, and then…”

  “US Senate?” he asks.

  “If you want to. We come before that, though. And that might mean we don’t get you elected to the Senate, if we can’t overcome prejudice.”

  It takes me another twenty minutes of trying to coax him out of bed to realize he enjoys this game way too much. He likes playing sleepy octopus with me.

  He likes holding on to me.

  I freeze as the thought hits me, that he doesn’t want to let me go.

  “What’s wrong?” he asks.

  I sigh. “Too much to list. But not anything you did.” I lean over and kiss him. “Come on, Sir. We need to get you out of here.”

  But we’re also both starving. I scramble us some eggs—because George would probably accidentally give us food poisoning or something if he tried to cook—and then I drive us back to the office.

  In my car. Because it’s still raining, and I really don’t want to drive Casey’s car in the rain. I prefer my SUV and it’s all-wheel drive. My plan is once George is on his way home, then I’ll drive Casey back to my apartment so she can get her car. And we’ll be able to talk.

  Hopefully.

  The only problem with that plan is that while we do manage to get inside the building with minimal issues, with George telling the confused EPU officer on duty not to worry why no one saw him leave, much less why he didn’t have a security detail with him, Casey isn’t there.

  I try calling her work cell, then her personal cell, but she doesn’t answer either.

  I send her a text on Signal, but it doesn’t show she’s read the message.

  Meaning she’s turned off her personal cell, and I’m not about to have a couple’s meltdown on her work cell.

  Public records, yo.

  Before I leave, George leans in for one more kiss from me. “Come home with me. Please?”

  “Let me try to fix this with her first, Sir.”

  He nods. “Okay. She really was worried about you, though. She asked me if I knew why you’d left early, if you’d cleared it with me or not. Then she tried calling your work cell. After she tried texting your personal phone, she stopped by your place and saw you weren’t there, but your car and wallet and stuff were.”

  “Yeah, because I went running.”

  “She didn’t know that. She overreacted, yes. She knows that now. Give her brownie points for caring though, huh?”

  One more kiss, then I leave the office and head home—again.

  When I get there, Casey’s car isn’t there.

  “Oh, you gotta be shitting me.” I call her work cell from my work cell and wait for voice mail to pick up.

  I keep my tone neutral. “Ms. Blaine, this is Declan Howard. I know it’s late, but I need a quick follow-up discussion with you about this afternoon’s meeting, please? I would appreciate a call tonight as soon as you receive this message.” I brain-fart, wanting to add something to that. I gentle my voice. “I really did appreciate the water. Thank you for that. Please, call me.”

  With a sigh, I duck my head against the rain as I run inside. I’m not going to embarrass myself and drive over to her house tonight just to find she’s locked me out of the gate codes or something.

  I could go to George’s, but without having this resolved between me and Casey, I’m afraid there’s going to be emotional spillover we can’t afford.

  I call George’s personal cell via the Signal app.

  “That was fast,” he says.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You didn’t talk to her?”

  “No. Her car was gone when I got home.”

  “Funny. I just came downstairs with the detail and I’m looking right at it as we speak.”

  “Sonofabitch. I’m on my way back. Keep her there.” I hang up and turn around, practically hit the front door running, back out into the rain to my car.

  I get it. She’s got issues, too, but we’re trying to run a fucking state here.

  When I return to our office suite, George is there.

  “I thought you were leaving, Sir?”

  He sits back in his chair, an evil smile on his face. “I was, but I need to hear how this plays out.”

  “Not with me bent over her desk this time.”

  He fakes a pout. “Aww. Sad panda.”

  I roll my eyes and turn, stalking down the hall to her office.

  Door’s locked.

  It wasn’t a few minutes ago when I was up there with George, and it’d been standing wide open.

  So, I knock. “It’s me, Casey. Open up.”

  Nothing.

  I knock a little louder. “I can do this all night.”

  No response.

  George appears at the end of the corridor. “She playing hard to get?”

  “Playing hard-headed, is more like it, Sir.”

  “You know she can hear you, right?” George asks.

  I direct my comment to the door and raise my voice. “That was kind of the point.”

  He walks down to her door and I step out of the way.

  He knocks. “Casey, please unlock this door, or I’ll take a selfie of me blowing Declan with my work phone, and post it to my official Instagram ac—”

  The door flies open, her eyes wide. “You wouldn’t fucking dare!”

  “Try me,” he says in a threatening tone that, frankly, hardens my cock.

  Dammit.

  Apparently, I’m a well-conditioned pet.

  Then he motions for me to head inside and pulls the door shut behind me. “I’ll be waiting in my office,” he calls through it. “I expect some sort of resolution before we all leave here tonight. So please get to it. I’m really fucking exhausted and would like to go home.”

  She stands there with her arms crossed over her chest and her focus on her feet.

  I take a deep breath. “Where do you want to start?”

  She shrugs.

  I decide to be the bigger man. I walk over, arms open, waiting.

  She’s got to meet me at least halfway.

  After a moment, she lets out a sigh and hugs me. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I really was worried about you. You never ignore my texts. You never have before. I…panicked.”

  “I needed to blow off some steam.”

  We stand there for several minutes. “I’m sorry I set you up with George the way I did,” she whispers. “I violated your consent. You have every right to be angry with me over that.”

  I kiss her forehead. “I’m not…angry. I do love him. Please tell me you love me, though.”

  “I do love you.” She looks me in the eyes. “I’m in love with you. I’ve never lied to you about that.”

  “Then why haven’t you spent any time with me lately? I miss you.”

  “Because he needs you.” I’m not used to this soft, pained tone from her.

  “Yeah, well, I need you, too,” I tell her. “Why can’t the three of us do this together?”

  “I don’t know how to make that work.”

  “We make it work, that’s how. We just do it.”

  “Do you want me to stop the—”

  I cup her face in my hands and kiss her to silence her. This time, I back her toward her desk, still kissing her, and sit her on it. “Please shut up and stop braining for a little while,” I say.

  Lifting the bottom of her blouse, I expose her bra and free her breasts from it, licking and sucking and nibbling on her nipples, back and forth.

  When she plunges her fingers into my hair and holds on tight, then I know I have her.

  I lay her back on the desk and work on her slacks, pulling them and her panties down
so I can slide two fingers between her legs.

  “Yes, I still want Ma’am and Sir, but tonight I just want Declan and Casey.”

  She nods, relief finally easing some of the deep furrows in her forehead. It doesn’t take me long to have her squirming on my hand. I plunge my fingers deep inside her and swallow her moans with another kiss.

  Like I said, we’re always good in bed. That’s never been an issue for us.

  At all.

  Doesn’t take me long before I’ve got her pants and panties in a puddle on the floor, her legs wrapped around me, and my cock buried inside her.

  “I need to know you want me for me,” I whisper against her lips. “I want to know you weren’t simply using me.”

  “I’ve always loved you. I’ve never lied to you about that. I’ve always wanted you. I wasn’t using you on purpose with him. I just…” Tears roll down her cheeks. “I couldn’t let him die. I didn’t know what else to do.” Her voice is a tearful whisper. “I promised her that night when I identified her in that morgue that I’d take care of him and find a way to keep him going. She loved him, and he took good care of my girl all those years. I couldn’t let him die. You saw how he was. He was going to kill himself, one way or another. Either deliberately, or by refusing to live.”

  I take my time fucking her, holding on to her and kissing her as I do, knowing now she’s as broken as me and George, in her own ways.

  Maybe three broken people can find a way to make something better together.

  I’m patient and I have a lot of experience coaxing what I want out of her body. When she finally comes all over my cock I can let go, her mouth covering mine and muffling my groan as I spill into her and fall still.

  I stand there not moving, holding her, breathing the scent of us in. “Please let me spend the night with you, Case.”

  Her fingers twine in my hair, playing with it. “I think George needs you more. He hasn’t been sleeping.”

  I kiss her again and risk letting what she calls Alpha Declan come out and take charge. “I’ll spend the night with you tonight.”

  She deserves all due credit for trying to pull the mask into place. “Kinda pushy boy tonight, huh?” she snarks.

  “Casey,” I say. “Ask me to spend the night with you.”

  She draws in a ragged breath. When she next speaks, she sounds on the verge of tears again. “Please spend the night with me, Dec.”

  I kiss her. “I would love to spend the night with you, Ma’am.”

  We untangle and I tuck myself in and fasten my slacks. Then I go unlock the door and call down the hall for George.

  He appears a moment later, hands in his pockets. “Are we back to whatever passes for normal?”

  “Yeah,” I say. “I’m going to spend the night at Ma’am’s tonight.”

  I watch his eyes as I tell him. He’s good…but not good enough to hide it from me. I see the dark flicker. I don’t know if he’s jealous, or just wishes it was all three of us.

  He nods. “I’m glad you two worked it out.”

  I walk over to him and kiss him. “I’ll spend tomorrow night and Sunday with you, Sir.”

  Casey laughs. “What crazy-assed lawyer worked out this custody arrangement, anyway, George? We should sue them for malpractice.”

  I laugh, but George doesn’t. Instead, he stares at her and I realize the darkness in his eyes isn’t so much jealousy as it is desire.

  “Doesn’t have to be like this,” he quietly says. “I have a king-sized bed. Room enough for three every damn night, Case.”

  She freezes where she’d been straightening her clothes. “I…” She sadly sighs, turning. “I can’t yet. Not taking it off the table. But I’m…not there yet.”

  “For the record,” I say, “I’d be a very happy boy if we can reach that point.”

  George pulls me in for a final hug and kiss. “Walk me downstairs?” he asks.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  I turn to Casey, who’s finally decent again. “I’ll see you at your house shortly, Ma’am.”

  She nods but won’t look at me.

  I know I have some massive repairs to do there with her. I honestly didn’t think anything could shake her confidence, but George is right. What I said to her today hurt her, and no, it wasn’t fair to her. I lashed out instead of sitting her down to talk, and that’s on me. I have to learn how to be Declan and not default to boy with her and with George. It’s too comforting, too…easy to hand over the reins to them and abdicate personal responsibility outside of the office.

  But this is the ugly side of that—letting little things fester until I explode.

  I can’t let that happen again.

  I give her one more kiss. “Drive careful, Ma’am.”

  She nods. “You, too.”

  “Love you, Ma’am.”

  Finally, the hint of a smile. “Love you, too, boy.”

  George sends the detail downstairs ahead of us, so we have the elevator to ourselves. “Are you guys okay?” he asks me.

  “We will be. I’m sorry I won’t be there for you tonight.”

  He shrugs. “I needed that nap.” He smiles. “Don’t expect too much from me tomorrow afternoon. I’ll probably just want to cuddle and watch TV and nap.”

  I kiss him. “I’ll be there waiting for you when you return home.”

  He sighs, and this smile looks real. “That’ll be the thought that gets me through tomorrow morning.”

  After I put George in the SUV, I wait until the detail has left the parking garage to go to my Jag and head home.

  Again.

  It’s still misting, but the worst of the rain has let up. I grab what I’ll need for the weekend, including a suit to wear Monday morning, and I head for Casey’s.

  I still manage to beat her there by ten minutes.

  When she walks into the kitchen from the garage, she finds me waiting in her kitchen, naked except for my leather collar and cuffs, kneeling with my head on the floor.

  She sits down in front of me, pulls me into her arms, and holds me. “I’m really sorry about today,” she says. “I’m sorry I didn’t reply to your morning text, I’m sorry I haven’t spent more time with you, and I’m sorry I sicced a trooper on you.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t speak up and tell you how I’m feeling. I’m sorry I blew up.”

  She stares into my eyes for a long moment. “Did I really make you feel…”

  I pull her into my arms. “I get…frustrated. Emotionally. Logical Declan knows we have to stick to our plan. Lonely Declan wants all three of us dogpiled in bed every night. You know most of my demons.” I opt to leave her an opening. “Any chance of you opening up to me about your demons?”

  “Not tonight. Let’s go take a shower and cuddle.”

  “That sounds great.”

  She smiles. “I won’t even make you get up and make my coffee for me in the morning. You can sleep late.”

  I laugh. “Even better, Ma’am.”

  She falls asleep curled in my arms and I wish I had a magic wand to heal both of them. Absolutely, I’d be happy sandwiched between the two of them every night.

  It’s just a matter of overcoming a lot of fear all the way around.

  And slaying Casey’s demons, if she’d just give me the glimmer of a target to aim for so I can start the process.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Now — July

  Four weeks until the primary.

  We survive that speedbump. Casey comes over to George’s Sunday afternoon and we all talk. We don’t get into Casey’s demons, because she’s not ready to go there yet. But after our talk, the three of us play together, George taking the lead in tying me up and spanking me while Casey rides my face and my cock before she holds me while George fucks me.

  It feels like a solid truce, a bridge, a solid path in the right direction.

  Finally.

  The filing deadline passes without a GOP challenger entering the race, meaning our target is to tout what George
has done and who he is more than tilting at any Democratic candidate when we don’t even know who the front-runner will be.

  Hell, the Dems don’t seem to know, either. They spend so much time trying to tear each other down instead of taking shots at George that I’m already formulating our main strategy once the primary is over. Including I’ve already highlighted sound bites from their attack ads against each other for our own PR team to use once we have to start airing negative ads closer to the general election.

  My strategy is to hold back on the negatives as long as possible to avoid voter burn-out, but once we go dark, we’re going to go for the jugular and leave them reeling and playing catch-up and trying to defend themselves.

  George still has the bounce and voter sympathy and excellent poll numbers working for him.

  Our travel schedule picks up, and many weekends find me traveling with him and only getting an evening or two here or there with Casey. Three times, we’ve gotten her to come spend the night at George’s on a weeknight after he and I play. The best of both worlds, I get time with her and George gets to sleep.

  My hope is that once we’re past this crazy election season maybe we can try do to that more so we’re all getting what we need. She tossed me and George head-first into the deep end of the pool. Maybe if we ease her into the kiddie pool we can get her to come around faster.

  As we slide into July with our personal secret remaining intact, we’re all working our asses off, between running the state and running George’s campaign.

  Sir and I get to sleep in late this Saturday morning. We had an event last night in Gatlinburg and spent the night in a hotel here. We’re supposed to fly from Gatlinburg to Memphis after lunch, attend an event there tonight, sleep over, attend another event in Memphis Sunday morning, at one of the large churches there, and then fly back to Nashville tomorrow afternoon.

  Casey built the late morning into the schedule for us today because it’s been a hell of a week for both of us, and she knew in advance it would be.

  God, I love that woman.

  This actually works out even better, because it’s been raining off and on most of the week from a tropical system that made it this far inland and stalled, a rain bomb that is now being held in place by two frontal systems.