Wright Together, page 13
“Oh yeah? I haven’t gotten a single kiss all night.”
I drew her closer against my body. My hand slipped to her lower back, pushing our hips together. She made a noise of pleasure. My head dipped down to her shoulder, where I pressed a faint kiss into the bare skin. She shivered at the touch, and I worked upward, kissing a soft trail up to just behind her earlobe.
“Like that?” I breathed.
“Not…not exactly what I had in mind,” she said, her words slurred with desire.
My mind flared with all the possibilities for tonight. Taking her back in the limo, driving her to my place, spending all night in my house, having sex on every available surface. I wanted that so fucking bad.
But then another thought crossed my mind. We were in Wright Construction. My office was only two floors below us. My office with my enormous new desk and floor-to-ceiling windows. The desk I’d dreamed of fucking her on since the moment I’d gotten the upgrade.
“I have an idea.”
She pulled back to meet my gaze. “Why do I hear mischief in your voice?”
I grinned. “You wanted me to have some fun, right?”
“We’ve been having a lot of fun.”
“Ready for some more?”
I could see she was before she nodded. I tucked her hand into the crook of my arm and then escorted her off of the dance floor. I left our friends to their good time and was out of the hall and halfway to the elevator when I saw a face that I hadn’t expected. All the excitement from a moment ago fled my body.
“Colton, what are you doing here?”
He was with three older boys. One surreptitiously hid a bottle of tequila, which I would bet money they hadn’t paid for. I didn’t recognize the other boys. Only that they were all on the verge of wasted.
Colton enough so that he laughed when he saw me. “Boss man!”
There should have been fear there. Instead, it was only idiocy. Fuck.
Eve squeezed my arm and did a perimeter sweep. As if she knew before I had to say it that no one else could see this.
“Are you supposed to be here tonight?” I reached for his sleeve.
Colton brushed me off, gesturing to his friend. “Monk thought it’d be fun to come see my dad’s big party.”
Monk was the one with the tequila. The ringleader then. I didn’t know how Colton didn’t see that he was bad news. He was dressed nice in khakis and a polo with boat shoes, but Colton had more sense than to be fooled by private school flunkies. Where was all of his New York City smarts?
“Hey, man,” Monk said, offering his hand.
I just glared at him.
Monk slowly lowered his hand. “Lame party anyway. Come on, Colt. Let’s get out of here.”
Colton shrugged. “Whatever.”
My hand came down hard on Colton’s shoulder. That wasn’t happening. “Who drove?”
Colton pointed at another kid. “Chet has his license.”
Chet was a tall, scrawny kid who looked high as fuck. He had a joint tucked behind his ear. The third guy was smiling like an idiot, as if he found all of this to be a huge joke.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Colton tried to free himself from my grip with no luck. “We’re just having a good time.”
“You’re smarter than this.”
He seethed at those words. “I don’t need your help.”
“Colton Wright!” A voice cracked across the divide.
Colton and I winced at the same time. We both recognized Jensen’s voice from a mile off. The other guys should have known what was coming, too. They all should have gotten out of there while they could. This wasn’t going to be pleasant. I’d done what I could to try to save Colton, but there wasn’t going to be any saving once his dad took one look at him.
“Dad,” Colton said, finally jerking out of my grip.
“What are you doing?” he asked, striding toward us with all the power of a man who always got his way.
He was dressed like the mayoral candidate in a black suit and tie. None of the familiar good ole boy who wore jeans and drove a pickup truck tonight. Colton wasn’t just getting the enmity of his dad; he was getting it from the man who would own the city.
“Just heading out,” Colton said.
“Out. You are supposed to be at home.”
He shrugged. “I was bored.”
“Bored,” Jensen said softly, dangerously. His eyes flicked from his son to the three losers he was standing with. He took in the scene in an instant.
Eve put her hand on mine, as if to say we should leave. Jensen should handle this. But, fuck, I felt sorry for the kid.
“I can take him home,” I offered.
Jensen turned back to me, as if processing that I was there. “That won’t be necessary.”
“Sir, I think—”
“I said, that won’t be necessary,” he all but snarled.
He was barely clinging on to control. My presence was only making it worse because, now, I was a witness.
I glanced back at Colton, but he wouldn’t even meet my gaze.
“Just go,” he ground out.
It felt wrong. I should say more. Colton Wright was fifteen and drunk and making every wrong decision. He deserved whatever was coming to him. He’d deserved being sent to Lubbock as punishment for getting arrested. And yet I felt for the kid. Growing up with no rules, with a father so far away, I could empathize.
Jensen’s dad had died when he was in college. He’d had to come home and help raise his younger siblings, take over the company. He might have gone through it, but I was sure he was judging his own son on a different scale.
Jensen pushed open a door and pointed at it. “The four of you, inside.”
“We were just…” Monk pointed back to the elevators.
“Now!”
All four boys snapped to attention like they were in the military and grumbled as they strode into the open conference room. The door swung behind them, and Jensen sighed heavily. The frustration vanished, and in its place was a concerned father who had no idea what to do with his little troublemaker.
He held his hand out to me. “Thank you. For looking after him.”
“Of course.”
He smiled at Eve and offered her his hand as well. She shook without a word. “Glad you two were here.”
Then, he nodded at us and wrenched the door back open. We watched his back disappear.
I’d done my best. I couldn’t save a lost cause. Colton would have to learn this lesson the hard way.
“Come on,” I said, reaching for her hand.
But she was still frozen, staring at the closed door. Her eyes were distant. Somewhere very, very far off. Like I’d have to cross a desert to reach her in that moment.
“Eve?”
She blinked and came back to herself. “Sorry.”
“You okay?”
“I’m glad he has you to look out for him.”
I scoffed. “Little good it’s doing.”
“More good than you know.”
“Doesn’t feel like that.” I ran a hand down my face. “He deserves better. I know his parents care about him and they’re doing the best they can. But he needs…a friend. I don’t think any of the shits he knew in New York fit that bill. And those idiots he’s with certainly don’t.”
“I get it.” Her gaze slid up to me, and there was that haunted look again. The one she’d worn before collapsing into my arms last week. “My dad…well, he didn’t really want us.”
“Us?”
She swallowed. “Me and my sister, Bailey.”
I masked my surprise that she was opening up to me. I wanted this. I wanted to know everything about her. I wanted to know what her tears had been about, and how to make them stop.
“I didn’t know you had a sister.”
“Yeah,” she whispered. Then, she laughed softly. “I don’t know when I got like this. Everyone in my life used to know about her. We were inseparable.”
“Is she back in Midland?”
“Yeah. She lives with our dad. She’s about to start her senior year in high school.” Her eyes were empty at the words.
“Why didn’t you live with your mom?”
She sighed. “Mom left when we were little. Bailey was only three. I haven’t seen her since then. No card or email or anything.”
My jaw clenched. “What a coward.”
“Yeah. My dad mostly dumped us on his mom. Gram did most of the raising.” She shrugged, as if she wasn’t relaying a tragedy. “But Gram died last year.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah,” she said, hollow inside and out. “And now, it’s just Dad.”
“Your sister is with him?”
“Yes. Last year was hard for her. Between Gram and then living with Dad.” She wrapped her arms around her center. “I see so much of Colton in her. The anger. The pain. The recklessness. Dad makes it all worse. And I can’t move to Midland to be with her. Dad won’t let her move here to live with me. There’s so little that I can do.”
Her eyes finally met mine. Unshed tears gathered in her dark lashes. My heart felt near to bursting. This miraculous woman, who never seemed to let anything bother her. The girl that I’d seen dance in the rain after a soccer game. The one who had wrapped a fist around my heart and held it hostage. She was full of all this pain and longing for a life that she was never afforded. One that she wanted for her sister, as if Bailey were her own.
If I’d thought I was falling for her before, this tipped me completely over the edge.
I gathered her into my arms. Her narrow shoulders were heavy with the weight of problems she never let anyone else see. I wanted to be the one she could rely on rather than one adding more stress. She’d come apart in my arms the other day, and she was finally showing more vulnerability. I wanted to be there to help put her back together.
“I’m glad you told me.”
She sniffled. “I feel ridiculous. I hate crying. Seeing Colton shouldn’t have triggered this so bad.”
“You’re not ridiculous.” I pulled back and rubbed a thumb under her eye, careful not to smudge her makeup. “And you’re beautiful when you cry.”
She laughed hoarsely. “That’s a new one. I don’t think any guy has ever seen me cry.”
“I’m glad you feel comfortable enough to do it in front of me.”
“Twice.” She shook her head. “I’m losing my touch.”
I pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “Nah, you just can’t resist me.”
“Oh, is that so? You make a lot of girls cry?”
“Well, when you put it that way.”
She chuckled. “Thank you. You know, for being there for me the other day and for this.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I want to be there for you.”
“Yeah, but we were going to have fun, and now, I’m crying.”
I kissed her hand as we slowly headed back toward the party. “There’ll be time for that later.”
“I’m going to take you up on that.”
“You’d better,” I said, squeezing her ass just before we got back inside.
Maybe I hadn’t gotten to live out my desk fantasy, but I’d gotten something better. As much as I loved our sex life, I wanted to know every single thing about her. Now more than ever, I wanted to be a part of her life. Because with one tear-streaked look, she had claimed me completely.
19
Whitton
“Colton, get in here,” I called from my desk on Monday morning.
He toed the door open and shuffled across the floor as if he were walking to his death sentence. “What?”
Oh, poor surly teenager.
“Where’s my coffee?”
“Probably still in the pot.”
My eyes caught his. Defiance was in his irises.
My assistant had messaged me privately to say that Colton was in a “mood” today. I knew exactly why he was acting like this. Consequences to his actions from this weekend. But it wasn’t fair to take it out on my assistant or me because he’d fucked up.
“Do you think this is going to make anything better?”
He shrugged and slumped into the chair in front of my desk. “I don’t know.”
“What happened after I left?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and stared out the windows. “Got yelled at. Then, Dad drove me and my friends home and spoke to everyone’s parents.”
Yeah, that sounded right. “How’d that go over?”
“Everyone’s grounded.”
“You were all drunk and going to drive. I don’t know what you expected.”
“Dad told me if I fucked up again, then I wasn’t going back home.”
I winced. Ah, there it was.
So, if he got in trouble again, then he wasn’t going to get to return to the city. I hadn’t known the details of the arrangement he had with Jensen. I’d assumed that he was in Lubbock for good after getting arrested. But if he was only here for the summer, the threat of not going back to New York at all would explain how pissed off he was.
“Have you considered not fucking up again?”
Colton rolled his eyes at me. “What else is there to do in this town?”
“The soccer league is starting back up.”
Colton’s head popped up. “The Tacos? The team your girl is on?”
“The one.”
“Dad wouldn’t let me go,” he grumbled. “He doesn’t trust me to be unsupervised.”
“What if you were playing?”
He eyed me like I’d grown a second head. “That’s for adults.” He said the word like a slur.
“It’d be fine. You’d play a few games until you go back to the city. No one will care. We’re Wrights, remember?” I told him. “We run this town.”
Colton straightened. As if he’d probably heard it before, but not in the context that I’d given him. Honestly, it was a realization that I was still reckoning with.
“I’ll even ask your dad,” I offered.
I didn’t know why I was helping the him so much, but I couldn’t leave him like this. One mistake could cascade into a row of dominoes that he might never come back from. Sure, most fifteen-year-olds were moody, hormonal monsters, but I liked this one. So…
“You’d do that?”
“If you get me my coffee, then yes.”
Colton laughed as he came to his feet. Some of the morose behavior falling off his shoulders. “Deal, boss.”
I watched him head out of my office with his chip back on his shoulder. Little shit. My coffee had better be hot because I was about to go to bat with Jensen Wright for him.
Eve blinked at me from the passenger seat of my Lexus on the way to the game later that week. “You did what?”
“I got Colton on The Tacos.”
“But…what? How?”
I cleared my throat. “A good deal of cajoling.”
“Explain.”
“Well, I called his dad.”
“You called Jensen.”
“Sure did,” I said with a grimace. “It was super fun. In the end, he agreed to let him play. He and Emery are coming to the game tonight, too.”
“But is he even any good?” Eve asked with a hint of desperation.
I laughed when I realized that was what she was really worried about. “I have no idea.”
“Well, he’d better be. Isaac is going to kill us if we bring on a fifteen-year-old kid and he sucks. Maybe we can bench him.”
“Eve.”
“I mean, he can’t be worse than Nora. Love her to death, but ball-handling skills aren’t her strong suit.”
I snorted.
“Don’t make that sexual.”
“Oh no, never,” I said with a smirk. “Maybe later, we can practice your ball-handling skills.”
“Shut up,” she said with a laugh, smacking my chest.
“It’s going to be fine. He went to a private school in New York. The only thing I’ve heard him talk about other than drinking and girls is soccer. I’d guess he doesn’t completely suck.”
“He’d better not. Or you’re in for it, Whitton Wright.”
“I accept that.”
“Wait, you did run this by Isaac, right? I am not going to be the one to tell him…”
“I spoke to Isaac.”
Isaac had put the team together and was the unofficial manager. He was married to Piper’s sister and had played soccer in college. The Tacos team was his baby.
“Phew,” she said, breathing out heavily. “Good.”
I parked my Lexus in the parking lot for the outdoor fields. Already, a dozen teams were out on the pitch, getting ready for the start of the season.
I stopped Eve before she could get out. “And another thing. I heard from Jordan today that he wants us to head back to Midland next weekend. You free?”
She grinned devilishly. “Two rooms or one?”
“One.”
“Good answer.”
She leaned forward and captured my lips for a brief kiss before getting out and grabbing her soccer bag. I joined her on the walk to the open field. Our friends were already in attendance, warming up or chatting. I shook hands with Hollin and West, fielded good-natured ribbing from Isaac, and accepted Julian’s rundown of the season even though I still wasn’t a huge soccer guy. Blaire grabbed Eve as soon as she saw her, and they disappeared onto the field to run drills. Nora kissed West and then joined them in their warm-up.
But no Colton.
I checked my phone to see if I had some shit text from him, but there was nothing. Had Jensen changed his mind? He’d been adamant about Colton not joining the team when I first suggested it. Something about rewarding back behavior. But I’d insisted it’d be good for Colton to direct his feelings of resentment into physical activity. It was like getting the wiggles out of toddlers. Necessary and effective.
Then, I saw Jensen’s truck pull into a spot at the front. Colton hopped out first with Jensen and Emery coming behind him. They must have left the kids at home with a sitter to be here for him. That was the right call.
“You made it,” I said, holding my hand out to Colton.
“Yeah, boss,” he said, slapping my hand instead of shaking. “Can’t believe I’m here.”
