Fixer: A Bad Boy Romance

by Samantha Westlake

  Freddie took another pull of his beer as he tried to think of how to respond. He had much less experience with women than Tanner, and he considered the irony of the situation; normally, he would be the one feeling hopeless and asking for advice from Tanner, instead of the other way around.

  "Maybe you just need to get out there and distract yourself," he suggested. "It sounds like this Alicia woman has gotten into your head; if you went out and found a different girl to distract yourself, maybe you won't be as bothered by her?"

  He wasn't sure if this was actually good advice, but it at least made Tanner sit up. "Actually, that's not bad," the other man replied. "Show myself that I've still got it, that it's Alicia, not me, that's off. Yeah, I can do that!" The bartender came by, pointing at Tanner's glass and raising his eyebrows, and Tanner gave him an enthusiastic nod. "Yes, another!"

  Fresh scotch in hand, Tanner spun around on his seat, out to face the crowd. The Capitol Lounge was rapidly filling up with staffers and other young denizens of DC as they came out to whet their whistles and forget about the stress of the day. Tanner ran his eyes over the crowd, surveying the young women like a hungry predator searching for his prey.

  "Those two are cute," Freddie volunteered, pointing out two young women who'd just sauntered in, looking around for an open spot. The taller girl was a wispy blonde, while the shorter was a stacked redhead.

  "Perfect," Tanner said, perhaps a little too forcefully. He stood up, looking over at the women. "Hey, need a spot?" he called out loudly.

  Freddie winced, but the girls smiled after getting a single look at Tanner's strong, powerful features. They made their way across the crowded bar, over to Tanner and Freddie.

  "Hello there!" Tanner greeted the two girls. "I'm Keegan, and this is my buddy Freddie. Care for a drink?"

  "Sure!" the redhead exclaimed, the blonde echoing this sentiment with a nod. "Are you two guys in politics?"

  The outright, upfront question seemed to throw Tanner for a moment, so Freddie cleared his throat and spoke up. "Actually, Tanner - sorry, Keegan - is working for Senator Stone," he filled in. "And I'm in IT for some of the Congressional buildings. How about you two?"

  The blonde hesitantly volunteered that she worked at a nearby coffee shop, while the redhead dove into a story about how she helped work in an office for a congressman, but she didn't want to "name-drop" and reveal her employer. Freddie did his best to nod along, but his occasional glances over at Tanner revealed that his buddy still looked distracted, barely paying attention.

  Still, they supplied the girls with a few drinks, and soon the blonde was leaning up against Freddie. With a rush of adrenaline, he slipped his arm around her waist, and was intensely gratified to feel her slide in comfortably against his crotch. "Hi," she murmured down to him, looking over her shoulder and back at him; she stood a good three or four inches taller than him, but he wasn't put off in the slightest.

  "Hi, yourself," he murmured back, trying to not psych himself out over what might come next. He could manage this, he prayed; he wouldn't screw it up, as was sadly his par for the course. "Having a good time?"

  "I am - but your friend looks a little flustered," she commented back after a minute, flicking her eyes over towards Tanner.

  Sure enough, Tanner appeared to have once again tuned out of the conversation. Freddie reached over and poked him. "Hey!" he hissed. "Focus, man!"

  With a little shake, Tanner snapped back to the present. Fortunately, the redhead was still halfway through a convoluted story about a very complex coffee run, and hadn't noticed his momentary lapse. "So can you believe that they didn't even have the syrup?" she finished, looking up at Tanner expectantly.

  He obediently laughed on the right cue, and Freddie felt a little surge of hope. "So, shall we maybe head out, find someplace a little quieter?" he suggested, nervous energy rushing through him. This was it! Make or break moment!

  The blonde turned and looked down at him, and for a timeless second, Freddie held his breath. He quickly repeated her name - Cristina, Cristina, Cristina - inside his head to make sure that he didn't forget, didn't call her by the wrong name.

  "Yeah," she finally said, a soft little smile spreading across her fine features. "I'd like that."

  Tanner didn't say anything, but he followed along as Freddie, Cristina, and the redhead - whose name Freddie hadn't managed to catch - left the bar. By the time they reached outside, Cristina was hanging off of Freddie in a wonderfully soft manner, and he couldn't think of anything but wanting to get her back to his apartment, as soon as possible, before this miraculous streak of good luck took a turn for the worse.

  "I think our paths might part ways here," he said loudly to Tanner, trying to keep the man from losing focus yet again. "You going to be okay?"

  "What? Yeah, yeah, I've got this." Tanner blinked, and then looked down at the redhead, who had practically wrapped herself around him. Her low-cut top and massive tits seemed to finally catch his eye, and he smiled. "Hi there, sexy."

  "Hi yourself, you big man," the redhead fired back. "How about you take me back to your place, let me see if I can shimmy up you like a tree?"

  Freddie nearly choked, quickly covering up the gasp with a bout of coughing. "No, no, I'm fine," he reassured Cristina. How the hell did Tanner find these girls, ones willing to be so open with their sexual desire for him?

  With a few taps of his smartphone, Freddie summoned a nearby Uber. "After you," he said to Cristina, still scarcely able to believe his luck as the willowy blonde climbed into the car ahead of him. He couldn't help checking out her ass, marveling that this woman was considering his out-of-shape, slightly chubby body to be a catch, even while standing next to Tanner in a very unflattering comparison.

  Before climbing into the car after Cristina, however, Freddie held back for a second longer, giving Tanner a light punch in the shoulder. "Distraction, remember?" he repeated to his best friend.

  Tanner nodded, his eyes still lingering on the stacked, short girl clinging to him like he was a life raft. "Right. Distraction." Freddie wished that Tanner sounded a bit more confident, but in the end, what else could he do?

  Leaving Tanner and the redhead behind, Freddie climbed into the back of the Uber along with Cristina, leaning forward to confirm his address with the driver. He glanced back one more time at Tanner as the car pulled away, but then Cristina wrapped her arms around him and drew his lips to her own, and he forgot about anything beyond the confines of the vehicle.

  The next few hours passed in a blissful haze for Freddie. His apartment wasn't anything special - especially not compared to the massive luxury apartment that Tanner owned - but it was still big enough to make Cristina's eyes gleam, and inspire another round of kissing. He showed her the bedroom, and she peeled off her clothes and gently, almost shyly led him over to the horizontal surface. His movements in bed with her were cautious, almost shy at first, but her kisses and moans buoyed his confidence, and both of them wore huge smiles when, panting, they both finally dropped back to land on top of the tangled sheets.

  "Wow," Cristina murmured, pressing herself up against Freddie's warm, soft body. He slid his hand over her torso, curling it possessively around her pert little ass, and she wormed in a bit closer to him.

  Only then, their exertions finished, did he hear a faint buzzing sound. "What's that?" he asked, sitting up.

  Cristina sighed. "My phone," she replied in her soft, breezy voice. "Vicki keeps on texting me. I've been ignoring her, hoping that she'd take the hint, but she doesn't seem to get it."

  Vicki. That must have been the redhead's name. "What's she texting about?" Freddie asked, his heart sinking. If the girl's fingers were moving on her phone, that meant that she wasn't being distracted by Tanner's body and attentions.

  "I'm not sure. Let me check." Cristina wiggled off of the bed, and Freddie was momentarily struck dumb as he watched her long body undulate. He could watch that sort of motion forever.

  A moment later, Cris
tina flopped back down beside him in bed, holding her phone. "I guess your friend was a bit of an ass," she said, scrolling through the missed messages. There were a lot of them, Freddie noted gloomily. "He kept on tuning out, and she eventually noticed. She asked him what was wrong, and he called her by some other woman's name!"

  "Let me guess," Freddie said, pressing his palm up against his forehead. "He called her Alicia."

  Cristina sat up a little more. "Yeah, how did you know? Oh my god, is he dating someone?"

  "No, no, nothing like that!" Freddie corrected quickly. He sighed. "But that's his boss at work, and he's been really over-taxed lately. Tell your friend I'm sorry, okay?"

  Cristina texted the apology to Vicki, but then sank back against Freddie. "Told her. And now, I'm turning my phone off for the rest of the night." She smiled up at Freddie. "You'll just have to keep me entertained instead."

  "I can handle that," Freddie answered, his heart leaping as thoughts of Tanner fled his mind. Tanner might be having issues, but with a sudden surge of selfishness, Freddie decided that his best friend would just have to fend for himself.

  Chapter Nine

  *

  Okay, Tanner decided with a growl of irritation as he dabbed at the little nick in his face, lowering his razor and setting it down on the side of his bathroom sink. He really needed to do something to change his situation.

  After that girl from the bar last night (what was her name... Nicki?) went storming off, yelling about how he wasn't paying attention to her, Tanner decided to instead focus all his attention on the remaining liquid in a vodka bottle sitting in his freezer. Mixed with a splash of vermouth, it wasn't awful, especially after he forced down the first glass and made himself a second one.

  Now, however, he had a splitting headache to add to his other problems. And none of this was helping him move any closer to his real goal - killing that damn education bill.

  Tanner looked up at his face in the mirror, picking up his razor once again to finish shaving the other half of his chin. He looked drawn and somewhat haggard in the mirror, he thought to himself. Previously, he'd been full of confidence - but in a matter of days, Alicia Stone managed to take that away from him.

  He needed to take it back from her.

  Maybe it was time for him to act more like his true self, to drop the persona that he'd put on to try and land this job in Alicia's office. After all, she'd seen right through his persona. No reason to keep it going.

  Carefully, buoyed by this idea, Tanner finished shaving. He rubbed one hand along his smooth cheek, nodding. Not bad. He then headed for his closet, where, instead of putting on the baggy, cheaper, coffee-stained suit, he grabbed one of his favorites. The Armani cut and custom tailoring had set him back a pretty penny, but he loved the fit, how it sat on his body as if custom molded to him - which, in a way, it was.

  Even putting on the expensive suit gave Tanner a boost of confidence. He added a faint little hint of cologne, a perfectly tied knot in the red silk tie at his throat, and pulled on his jacket. There. Already, he felt better. He paused in the kitchen just long enough to make himself a single cup of coffee, downed it, and headed out.

  As soon as he walked into Senator Stone's office, Tanner felt more eyes land on him. Sure, he'd been spending most of his days there over the last week, but he'd been ill-dressed, nondescript, just another one of the little pawns who ran around like chickens with their heads cut off as they tried to carry out whatever inane command Alicia, or that idiot Duecent, had given out. Tanner had looked like them, another little servant to bend his knee and scurry.

  Now, however, he carried the aura of power, of control. Tanner held his head high, let a little smirk play about his lips, as he crossed the open area of desks and proceeded straight into Alicia's office.

  As usual, the woman already sat behind her desk, reading over some bill or report. A tiny little part of Tanner did have to admire her dedication, the hours she put in on the job. Most senators, even in their freshman year, quickly learned that they'd never be able to stay on top of the mountain of paperwork that came along with their seat, and soon abandoned the reading to other flunkies while they snuck in a quick nine on a nearby golf course, usually joined by a few enterprising lobbyists and the girl that drove the beer cart.

  Alicia, however, didn't appear ready to take that easy way out of her job. She looked up at him as he entered, her face betraying no indication that she noticed the change in his wardrobe, his attitude.

  "Ah, Mr. Tanner, good morning," she greeted him evenly.

  "Please, just call me Tanner," he replied. "No need for formality, Senator Stone." He drew out her name a little, and was pleased to see the ghost of a smile dart very briefly about her lips before being squashed and put away.

  "Very well, Tanner," she said after a second, nodding to the chair in front of her desk. "We've got a busy day, as usual."

  Tanner dropped into the indicated chair, leaning back to affect an attitude of relaxation. He picked up the folder that Alicia passed across to him and leafed briefly through it. Notes on other senators - their recent voting records, stated positions, which lobbyists and companies had contributed recently to their campaigns. Basic stuff, the kind of thing that he already had memorized in his head.

  Alicia turned back to her own papers, but glanced up after a minute or two of silence. "You're not reading, Tanner."

  Tanner shrugged. "No need. Look, I know all of this stuff, and I also know that poring over it isn't going to get us anywhere. Come on, I've seen your speeches as you ran for election - you know that just reciting dry facts isn't enough to win the support we need. You need energy, drive - and that doesn't come from memorizing which company helped to fund Senator Carp's last reelection."

  Across the desk from him, Alicia raised one eyebrow. "And let me guess. You're suggesting that perhaps we go out for a round of golf, maybe head to a strip club where I can have a one on one talk with my constituents?"

  He'd noticed her wry sense of humor before in the occasional little remark, but this was the first time she'd directed a joke at Tanner, and he laughed out loud before he could catch himself. "Don't forget to throw in the meal with a few lobbyists, where you kindly allow them to pay for the massive porterhouse steak you order," he added, and felt a little tingle of warmth as he saw Alicia's smile grow a bit wider.

  "Of course, how could I forget?" She held a hand against her chest, briefly looking down. "Forgive me, Tanner, I'm still new to this."

  "No need to feel too guilty," Tanner fired back, watching as Alicia stood up and stepped around her desk, over to sink down into the chair next to him.

  "But I do feel guilty," she insisted, batting long eyelashes at him. She really did have nice eyes, he couldn't help noticing. "I'm just a bumpkin from the sticks, somehow elected to this position where I'm totally in over my head, and I need a wise, experienced, strong man to lean on, someone who can guide me, show me the ropes..."

  It took Tanner a second to realize that Alicia was leaning forward, once again daring him to betray himself by flicking his eyes to her cleavage, those big blue-green eyes threatening to drown him. She was pulling the fake seduction card again - but this time, he recognized it, was ready for it.

  "I can be that man for you, big and strong," he murmured back to her. This time, he left no illusion about the long, considering look that he aimed down her shirt, examining her chest before rising back up to her face. Really, not an unpleasant sight in the slightest, he thought to himself, nearly distracting himself from his own words. "But I'll need something in response from you. Your integrity, your self-respect - and probably that hot body of yours, too."

  His smile grew as Alicia's eyes widened in surprise. "Excuse me?" she started, a flush of heat entering her cheeks.

  Tanner kept leaning forward and holding her heated gaze for another second longer. "Come on, what do you say? You and me, right here on your desk, in full view of your office? That should teach them the reward for hard wor
k. I probably won't put in my top effort, but I'm sure you won't notice, given how you're starved for sex."

  He somehow kept his face straight for another second as her eyes grew even wider, her mouth slipping in slack-jawed speechlessness - and then sat back, grinning widely, feeling a bit like a schoolboy who'd just managed to sneak his first kiss. "Hey, you want to tease me, you best be prepared to get it thrown back at you."

  The look of surprise on her face, her mouth dropping wide open, gratified him more than he'd anticipated.

  Still, Alicia quickly pulled herself back under control. "You know, Tanner, talking to me like that is definitely enough to get you fired," she pointed out, rising to her feet. "And if I fire you, well, I just might be asked to explain to my colleagues exactly what I disliked about you, why I had to let you go." She shrugged. "You know how gossip spreads in a town like this one."

  "But you can't fire me," Tanner countered, also standing up. Alicia was tall, he noted, but he still had almost two inches on her. He used that extra height to his advantage, looking down at her as he took a step forward.

  "And why not?" She didn't back away, even as he loomed over her.

  "Because you need me, just as much as I need to preserve my own reputation." Tanner didn't know if this was the truth, but it was the only conclusion he'd reached this morning that made sense, and it felt right to his gut intuition. "You're new here, out of your depth. Despite your attitude, this aura of competence that you project, you know that you need my help if you want this bill to have any shot in Hell of passing. If you fire me, you'll be dooming yourself."

  He'd drawn closer to Alicia as he spoke, and now stood less than a foot from her. He could practically feel the heat of her body, could look down into her face and see those big, green-blue eyes moving back and forth across his own features as she tried to determine whether he was bluffing. He kept his own face clear, not giving out any hints. He'd played this game before. He knew how to hold a poker face.