“JP said that you like vanilla lattes. I went to the Starbucks at the corner and grabbed you one when I got more coffee for the reporters.” He didn’t look at me again.
I stepped closer to him so that our arms nudged together, my throat feeling a little tight. Finally I leaned down enough to murmur, “You’re already scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. You’ve got what you want. You’re kissing ass pretty hard.”
He huffed a sigh so large it moved his shoulders. “Maybe I was just being nice. Iamcapable.” He said that like maybeIwasn’t, and that had me standing straighter and rolling my shoulders.
For a second I conjured up the fantasy of him, Jaxson Bell, this man who apparently brings me coffee apropos of nothing, with a sweet, swollen baby bump.Fuck.Okay, maybe I should remind myself too that tomorrow afternoon was already scheduled.
I hummed and sipped my coffee while we all watched Ross weave his magic over the crowd. When everything was said and done, and the reporters had headed for whatever warm ratholes they settled into when they weren’t making my life hell, we had to clean up about half the pamphlets Jean-Paul and Bell had handed out from the cold stone steps, so that the campaign didn’t get accused of littering. But the fact that more than a hundred pieces of paper promoting Ross had made it out of here in the clutches of people who would happily disseminate information was almost miraculous. Together Bell and I dumped the last of the garbage in a trash can near the front door of the courthouse. He looked good, like I’d never fucked him messy earlier. All in all, I was impressed with Jaxson Bell.
“I’ll give you a ride home,” I said when his eye caught mine. “It’s late to be on the bus. Especially in your condition.” I couldn’t help poking at this anomaly a little more, just to see where he would break. Would he stumble through some apology about a made-up emergency in the morning that would “unfortunately” keep us apart?
He flushed and glanced around, opened his mouth, closed it, and finally chuckled. “I’ll be fine, Daddy,” he whispered, and my gut jerked. “I don’t mind. How did you know I would ride the bus…?”
“I assumed.”
He flushed and stomped down the steps and then off along the street toward the bus stop at the end of the block. Frowning, I thought about letting him go, but I fucking hated the thought of him out here alone in the dark, so I walked steadily after him until I caught up and easily kept pace beside him.
“Why… wait. Why are you upset?”
“You assumed I can’t afford a car.” He gave me a side-eyed glare.
“You can’t.”
He slouched and walked faster. I didn’t like the way this was going.
“Let Daddy take you home.” I snagged his wrist and dragged him to a halt. He sucked in a deep breath and glanced around before he glared up through his dark eyelashes at me. My throat tightened, and for a second my tongue felt heavy in my mouth. “That’s what you wanted out of this, right? Me to take care of you? So what does it matter?”
He sucked in a breath and then let out a weak chuckle. “Yeah, okay. Take me home.”
Ross was long gone by the time we made our way back to the courthouse steps, and Jean-Paul was climbing into an Uber ahead of us with a little wave. Mark sat in the front seat, talking the ear off the driver.
“We parked at city hall. Care to share?” he called to Bell, and my heart leaped, but Bell only shook his head.
“I’m good.”
With that, our job for the night was done and we were alone. I was horribly aware of how long it had been since I was truly by myself with a man I’d fucked and wasn’t just expecting to walk out the door five seconds later. I would have tospend timewith him. Hell, I’d evenmade this happen.
Bell sent me a cute little half smile, and I ducked my head and shoved my hands into my coat pockets. The Audi was parked down the street instead of in the nearby garage, so I unlocked it while we were still approaching. I walked so fast that he puffed air a little keeping up, but I didn’t stop until I was in the driver’s seat.
When he got in the car, I didn’t wait for him to buckle up, simply sped toward his apartment the second the door latched shut. I opened my mouth a few times to say… something, but didn’t. When I stole a glance at him at a stoplight, he seemed to be suffering from the same issue I was. He sent a skittish glance at me. Not long later, I brought my car to a screeching stop in front of his building.
“Thanks for answering the call of duty,” I said, feeling lame that I couldn’t do any better than that.
“Yeah.” He puffed out his cheeks and nodded as he stared out the windshield instead of at me. He sat. I didn’t ask him to go. Our gazes clashed again, and I was surprised at the nervous sizzle that zipped through my gut. Was that… anticipation? I was so shocked at the real excitement I hadn’t felt in a long while, that I sat there staring at him too long. Bell’s face fell.
He shoved open his door and slammed it behind him without a word. I didn’t roll my window down to call after him. I was disappointed as I watched his nice ass bounce out of sight. Confused, but twice as exhilarated for tomorrow as I had been when I left earlier, I glanced in my mirror and then punched the gas, squealing tires out onto the street with a grin.
5
Jax
Slurrrrrppppp.
I cringed and glared at Elsie. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Hmm?” She grinned at me, her light eyebrows rising toward her hairline. She knew exactly what she was doing, and she also knew how much I hated the sounds she made when she gulped her can of Coke.
“Stop drinking like that,” I grumbled, falling back into my hard reclaimed-wood chair at Greener Day, an all-organic café near city hall. It was lunchtime, which meant I’d met her again, like usual, although sometimes I wondered why I bothered. She was crasser than ninety percent of the people I’d met, and she wasn’t an ounce bit sorry about it. Maybe that’s why I also loved her. We both came from the same side of town and worked hard to get where we were now.
