“Relationship?” I laughed, standing to my feet. “There is no relationship between Xari and me. We’re friends.”
Friends felt clunky and wrong when it came to describing me and Xari. We were friends but we were much more.
“Friends. O…kay,” Navy said with a frown. I didn’t give her a chance to say anything else. I waited for Xari to stand by the door then I opened it for her, pressing my hand to the small of her back. My thumb rubbed the bare skin at the base of her spine while we walked and she made sure to press herself against my side.
I tried not to seek her out while I mingled with people. I tried not to notice the way her laugh left pops of color in the air. I tried not to let the way her lips moved when she spoke draw my attention away from conversations I was in the middle of.
The pull she had on me didn’t stop at the front door of my house. It leaked out into the gray world and colored it with neon and pastels. Xari was a breath of fresh air and everyone in the room noticed.
The event was being held in the center’s gym and the more people poured in, the more Xari stood out. She was bright and airy floating from person to person, making them smile then making them laugh with her unpredictable mouth.
Everyone seemed to see the same passion and beauty that I did. It was like we were all caught in the grip of a star. And if nothing else, Xari Lucas knew how to shine.
…
SEVENTEEN
Governor Shaw’s mansion was right on the lake. The sounds of insects and croaking frogs brought a charming atmosphere with it when we arrived. Xari drew in a deep lung-expanding breath and tipped her head toward the sky. The setting sun glowed on her sandy skin making her look like pure gold.
“You look beautiful,” I leaned down and whispered in her ear as Apollo moved by us and to the front door.
“Thank you.” She gave my hand a quick squeeze then walked ahead.
We were shown to the formal sitting room where my party seemed to be the only ones there. Maybe everyone else was late. Made sense since the governor was king of showing up late. I wouldn’t be shocked if everyone from the charity event went to grab something quick to eat before we sat down to dinner so they wouldn’t look like they were being too greedy.
“Wow, we’re the first ones,” Navy said, having a seat on the couch. Apollo stood guard at the entrance of the room and Xari was right at my side.
“Apollo, you can take a break. You don’t have to be on guard right now.”
“No thank you, Senator Freeman.”
“Seriously, Apollo. We’re at the governor’s house. He has his own security. Come hang out with us. Navy looks lonely,” Xari said. Her voice was a tempting song that made Apollo glance at the empty space beside Navy.
“I’m fine, Xari. You’re so embarrassing,” Navy huffed.
“How? You and Apollo like each other. I don’t understand why neither one of you has made a move yet.” Xari fixed her hands to her slender hips then waited for an explanation from her sister.
“This is so unprofessional,” Navy muttered, tucking an errant lock of hair behind her ear. She was like her little sister when she got flustered. The tops of her golden cheeks turned pink.
Watching their sibling dynamic was interesting, to say the least. Navy was a typical older sister, being astute and mature while Xari was the problem child.
My flame.
“Senator Freeman, would you like a glass of whiskey?” A soft voice came from behind me. I spun around to see a woman holding a tray with a bottle of Jameson whiskey on it and four glasses. No artisanal ice but it was fine. The Jameson alone had me hooked.
“Sure, thank you.” I nodded with a polite smile.
“I’ll take one too,” Xari said. I shot her a look that she challenged with a narrow-eyed stare. She plucked a glass from the tray and curled her fingers around it while never breaking eye contact with me.
I took a long drink from my glass, then put it down on a nearby table. After Xari knocked back her first gulp, I gripped her bicep. “We need to talk now.”
“What did I do?” She squeaked as I hauled her out of the room.
“You’re not even twenty-one,” I growled under my breath once we were in the hallway.
“So? We’re at a house party, Senator Freeman. Calm the fuck down.”
“At the governor’s house, Xari.”
“I’m sure that motherfucker has coke and pills in some of these rooms.” She craned her neck, looking at the rooms off the hall. I followed behind her when she dipped into a room not meant for visitors.
The darkness swallowed her as she walked inside but I still saw the sway of those damn hips and that perfect ass. I’d probably follow Xari to the ends of the earth as long as she walked in front of me.
Bonita, Bonita, Bonita…
The shadowy blackness of the room and the whiskey flowing through me pushed me closer to Xari, reaching out to grab her hips with my fingertips. A silky laugh slipped from her lips as we both fell into the blackness of the room.
We stumbled into a corner and I dropped my head, finding her soft lips in the dark. She tugged on my tie, drawing me in even closer because she couldn’t get enough of me. We were on the same page when it came to the addiction holding us hostage.
“Not here in the governor’s mansion, Evander,” she giggled when my lips, tongue, and teeth found her neck. I’d been dying to sink my teeth into her neck. To mark her.
“Any time, any place…I don’t care who’s around,” I sang a line from Janet Jackson’s wildly famous song Any Time, Any Place. I knew Xari’s eyes lit up because I could feel her smile. My deep voice buzzed against her skin.
“I can feel your hand, moving up my thighs,” She sang back as I inched her dress up. She had a soft voice that could have easily paved her way as a singer. What couldn’t Xari do? “Skirt around my waist…” Her voice trembled as I turned her around so that her ass was against me. “Wall against my face.”
“Now I’m going to sing that song every time I fuck you,” I whispered as I pulled her wet panties to the side.
“It’s a nice song to get dick to. I’m not mad,” she grinned over her shoulder as I freed my cock and let it slap against her warm ass.
“It is. Now keep your sexy mouth shut while I give you what you want.”
“You know me so well, Evander.” She moaned right before I pushed inside her waiting, hot pussy. My eyes fell shut as I thrust in and out. I drank in Xari’s quiet panting noises and dug deeper knowing it would make her moan louder.
“Fuck,” I hissed in her ear. “Your pussy is so goddamn good.”
“It’s yours,” she said without a fight.
“Listen to my good girl. That’s right, baby. Give me this pussy.” I dug my fingertips into her hips not caring how hard they sank in. I needed to pound her until no more words came from her mouth. Only noises.
“Evander,” she whined pushing her ass back and meeting my strokes. In the distance, I heard other guests arriving but I couldn’t make myself care enough to stop. Nothing else mattered but me and Xari in that moment. She burned everything else away. “I’m going to come all over your big dick,” she whispered.
“I can feel it. So fucking tight and wet.” I grabbed her neck and squeezed until her breathing changed to gasps.
“Oh, oh fuck!” She squeaked quietly. I choked her harder and her orgasm turned into a long, high-pitched noise. I clamped my big hand over her mouth and drove harder and deeper until I felt her slick warm pussy juices dripping down my shaft. She trembled in my arms and around my cock. I pulled out of her cunt and she knew the drill. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her lips around my dick sucking and slurping until my toes balled against the bottoms of my wingtips. I knew it would crease the leather but fuck it.
Xari sucked dick like a porn star.
Hot ropes of cum shot out of me and straight down her throat while she flexed her muscles around my girth. I squeezed my eyes shut and fireworks exploded on the backs of my eyel
ids.
“Fuuuuck,” I groaned emptying into her.
“Mmm. So good.” Xari stood up with a devilish grin and licked her lips.
“Come here, trouble.” I grabbed her and we fell into a slow kiss that made my heart knock.
“Can’t we hideout in here and do more of that? I needed that. I needed you.” She said quietly, sliding her hand up and down my chest.
“Me?” I chuckled, rubbing her shoulders.
“I like spending time with you,” she shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant.
“I like spending time with you too, bad ass.” I gripped said ass and she laughed against my chest. “Play me some Janet on the harp when we get home?” I asked.
“Of course. I want to know what the deal is with you and your father though,” she said, poking her finger into my muscle.
“Deal.” I grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it.
…
EIGHTEEN
A giggle spilled over my lips as Evander and I stumbled into the house.
Drunk. Happy. Horny.
We wouldn’t get a chance to fuck again though because Apollo and Navy were accompanying us inside for dessert and wine.
In the kitchen, I pulled out two bottles. One red and one white.
“I already know what you want,” I said to Evander. I couldn’t help the way I looked at him. He was so damn fine. Every time I saw him, my body went haywire shooting off sparks and charging the air around us. It felt like magic. I kept waiting for the sensation to die down but it only burned brighter.
It felt like our melodies were intertwined. We started forming a song that was stuck in my head on a loop.
“You know exactly what I want,” Evander whispered against the shell of my ear. His warm whiskey-scented breath made my throat nearly close up.
How was it that with every touch, I wanted to shed my clothes? With every word, I wanted him to speak forever. With every laugh, I wanted to tell him all the jokes I knew just to hear that deep, smooth sound over and over.
“And you know I want to give it to you.” I poured a glass of Jameson and turned around to face him.
“Later,” he said patting my ass.
You’re just fucking him, Xari.
I had to remind myself of that multiple times when I was around him otherwise, we would start to feel real. We’d start to feel solid and I didn’t want to fool myself. Evander was supposed to be something fun to do while I waited for my dream job to open up. Once I got a seat as a principal harpist, I’d be on my way. My work at the Freeman’s house would be over.
A thick knot sank deep in my belly at the thought of leaving Frankie and Evander. They felt like family.
“White for me please,” Navy sighed, sitting at the island.
“Red,” Apollo said, sitting beside her. My gaze bounced between them and I couldn’t help smiling. They were so damn cute with their boring asses.
Well, maybe they weren’t boring. Maybe they just needed the right person to bring the wild side out of them. Hell, look at Evander. I thought he was the biggest stick in the mud until he showed me what he was hiding behind that buttoned-up personality and the title of senator.
I handed Apollo and Navy their glasses then poured myself a glass of Jameson with one of Evander’s fancy artisanal cubes of ice. “You like that expensive ass ice too?” It was more words than I’d ever heard Apollo speak at once. I was caught off guard a little.
I blinked a few times then nodded.
“I do. I have a flair for the finer things,” I told him, lifting the glass of whiskey to my lips.
“Spoiled is more like it,” Navy countered after her first taste of wine.
“Spoiled is exactly it,” Evander chuckled, hooking his arm around my waist.
“I’m fine as long as I get exactly what I want when I want it,” I said with a casual shrug.
“Lies.” The deep full-bodied laugh rumbling in Evander’s chest made me throb. I placed my hand over his heart to capture some of the vibrations. I wanted them to absorb into my blood.
I wanted to absorb every part of him.
“Whatever, Evander. You know nothing.” I wiped a drop of whiskey from his bottom lip with my thumb then licked it away.
“It seems like he knows quite a bit,” Navy pointed out. I didn’t realize until that moment how entangled Evander and I had become. His arm around my waist, my hand on his chest, wiping and then licking the fucking whiskey from his bottom lip…
“You see what I’m seeing, right?” Apollo quizzed, looking at Navy.
“There’s nothing to see,” Evander’s arm dropped from my waist and I missed it. I kept my mouth shut because if Evander and I weren’t in a relationship, there was no need to let anyone in on what was happening between us.
I knew my sister wasn’t stupid. She knew I was fucking my boss but I refused to admit it. Apollo knew too. Evander followed suit and doubled down on the just-friends lie we were floating. Nobody needed to know if it wasn’t serious.
Then why did I have the nagging feeling to lay claim to him and tell both Apollo and Navy that he belonged to me? The possessive swell came out of nowhere. It hovered over me the entire time Evander and I hung out with Navy and Apollo.
Whenever I got the chance to slide my fingers along the back of his hand, I took it. When he spoke to me, I leaned in to grasp his words. I even rested my head on his shoulder for a brief moment when the Jameson hit too hard.
By the end of the night, I was ready to practically shove my sister out the front door and climb Evander like a tree. A tree I could fuck.
“I’m cutting you off,” Evander said once we were alone.
“Cutting me off from what exactly?” I snapped. I prayed he didn’t say he was putting me on dick punishment because I couldn’t handle that shit. I would protest.
“Whiskey. You’re drunk as fuck.”
“I am not,” I pouted, poking my lips out.
Okay…maybe I was.
“Xari, you don’t think I know you by now?” He shot me a look that made my panties melt down my legs.
“You only know what I let you know,” I said, swaying to the side. I was definitely drunk and at the cut-off point.
“I know you’re a brat.” He moved my glass out of reach and set it in the sink.
“So you can drink all you want to cover up the fact that you regret not following your heart but I have to stop because I’m a little tipsy.”
Fuck. I didn’t mean to say that out loud. I pursed my lips together and blew out a puff of air through my nose.
“Wow, so you get drunk and the truth comes out, huh?” He shook his head then walked over to me. I smelled his heat. His cologne. His whiskey-and-regret laced words. “Let’s go, trouble.” He scooped me into his strong arms like I weighed nothing then carried me upstairs while I slurred out protests and whined.
“You promised me dick and I promised you I’d play Janet Jackson on Sunshine.”
“Yeah, I know. You’re not doing anything right now though. We’re going to lay here and I’m going to hold you until you fall asleep.” He laid me in his plush bed. My eyes found the ceiling and I stared at it, hoping the room would stop spinning while Evander gingerly undressed me.
“You might have been right about me being drunk,” I told him, stretching a finger into the air.
“Yeah, I know I was right.”
“You’re so fucking arrogant, Freeman.”
“I’m confident,” he countered, a smile hanging on his words. His smile made me smile. It was contagious. “You have the prettiest smile, Xari…” His big warm hand reached up and caressed my dimples.
“So do you. You’re just really fucking hot, Evander. Like, how are you a senator? How?” I lifted my head an inch and noticed I was only in my bra and panties. Damn, he moved fast.
“By force. Not by choice,” he sighed before pulling his shirt from his pants and unbuttoning it. I watched even in my drunken haze and admired the construction of his body.
<
br /> Warm bronze abs laid out brick by brick. Perfect pecs and mahogany brown nipples. The artwork mapped out on his skin made him look like he belonged in a museum. My gaze fell to the sinewy slashes at his hips. Veins stretched beneath his skin dancing along that damn V-cut leading to a dark crop of hair. He kept himself neat and I appreciated it more than I knew I would.
The room shifted and spun again, obstructing my view. I wanted to at least glance at his dick even if it was soft. But my eyes forced themselves shut to stop the spinning.
“You’re giving me D’Angelo How Does It Feel vibes right now,” I told him. His hearty laugh made me smile.
“Because I’m half-naked?”
“Kind of,” I shrugged, trying to open my eyes to see if I could steal a look at his cock. “Mainly because I can’t see the money shot and it’s pissing me off. Which, by the way, was an iconic marketing move for D’Angelo because I know every woman watching that video was salivating.” I remembered my first time watching the How Does It Feel video. I wanted the camera to slip just a few more inches.
“You weren’t even alive when that video came out,” Evander pointed out.
“Your point?” I rolled over and groaned at the way my head swam.
“Here,” he walked over and pulled something warm and soft over my head. It smelled like him. Like his detergent and his energy. I cracked open an eye and glanced down at the red t-shirt he dressed me in. It was his. I clutched the fabric in my fist and smiled before my head hit the pillow.
“I like wearing your shirts,” I told him. He slid in bed behind me and pulled my body against his.
“Why?” He brushed an escaped chunk of curls back and kissed my shoulder. My stomach fluttered.
“Because I like feeling close to you. I don’t usually feel close to anyone but I feel close to you.”
“I feel close to you too, Xari.” He left more kisses on my exposed shoulder that turned me to jelly.
Whiskey and Regret Page 23
