Fighting Ever After (Ever After #3) (12 page)

“No. My
silly band has a show.”

“Kyden,” I
could practically see the blood vessel that I was sure was popping out of her
head. “Your father and I need to have a long talk with you about your
priorities. We
can not
continue to support this
behavior. If something doesn’t change,” that something was obviously me, not
them, “you’ll leave us with no choice but to cut you off.”

I laughed,
she was so fucking clueless. “Mom, if you paid attention to anything that had
to do with me, you’d know that I haven’t touched a penny in that account since
I quit Harvard. I’ve been supporting myself for a long time now. You’ll have to
come up with some other way to threaten me. Now, as always, it’s been a
pleasure talking to you Mom, but I have to go.” I didn’t even wait for her
response. I just hung up, feeling marginally better. Anytime I was able to
throw a wrench in my mother’s day, it pleased me. I hoped my day was only going
to get better from here.

It was hard
to read Princess’ face when she opened the door and saw me standing there, but
I couldn’t deny my own rush of excitement. I took her in from her head to her
toes: hair falling out of a messy bun, no make-up on, but what looked like
marker smeared across her nose, a simple white tank top,
ripped
jeans and barefoot. None of it did a thing to touch how beautiful she was.
Those jeans did do amazing things for her ass though, and I appreciated the
view when Chris and I followed her inside.

“You’re
staying here with her?” Bas was no doubt surprised to see me when we walked
into the living room where he was building a giant block tower with Izzy. I
nodded. “You’re not going to the luncheon?” He asked and Jaxyn looked between
the two of us puzzled, probably wondering what the hell someone like me would
be doing at one of those luncheons. She didn’t strike me as someone who
followed politics closely.

“No,” was
all I said. He didn’t need to hear that I’d practically jumped at the chance to
come spend the day with Princess. His trust still wasn’t something I had
entirely.

“Bas, we
better take off or we’ll be late and Mom will have a conniption,” Chris said,
and by that time Izzy had already demolished the tower he’d been building. He
picked himself off the floor, brushing the wrinkles out of his dress clothes
and told the girls to be good before following his brother out of the house.

Izzy was
still playing with the blocks, so I dropped down to the floor next to her,
leaning against the couch. The next thing I knew, she’d smashed the tower she’d
been building and was climbing into my lap. I started restacking the blocks,
only to have Izzy knock them down as fast as I got them built up, but she was
giggling and having fun so I kept it up, until
Jax’s
curiosity got the best of her and she sat down on the couch. “So why did Bas
ask you if you were going to the luncheon? I wouldn’t think that would be your
kind of thing.” I continued stacking while I debated what to tell her. It
wasn’t like I kept it a secret from people, but I wasn’t sure how she would
react, and even though I didn’t understand why, I cared about her opinion. It
wouldn’t be hard for her to find out the truth though, so I decided I might as
well just give it to her.

I turned and
met her inquisitive eyes. “Because it’s a fundraiser for Senator
Kellan’s
campaign and my father is Stefan McCabe.” So she
at least knew enough about politics to recognize the name, because surprise
registered on her face. I’d expected that. I certainly didn’t look or act the
way one might expect the son of a US senator to, but honestly, I didn’t want to
be associated with my parents in any way. I could tell Jax was drawing all
sorts of conclusions though, and I thought she even looked a little
disappointed. I just couldn’t understand why.

“I can see
your brain churning,” I told her. “Don’t make a big deal out of it. Now you
know who my parents are, but it doesn’t change anything.”

I saw doubt
in her eyes before she cast them downward. “Won’t they be upset that you aren’t
there?”

“They
learned a long time ago that they can’t control me. I was only going to hang
out with Sebastian and Chris, but I’d much rather be here. I’ll take a
beautiful girl over stuffy, superficial politicians any day.” I grinned when I
saw her cheeks turn pink and I turned back to lift Izzy up over my head. “And
this is the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met,” I said, looking over my
shoulder at Jaxyn’s reaction. I saw the
cute,
little
embarrassed ‘oh’ face. Of course I was only teasing her. “And you’re not too
bad either.” I winked at her and then turned my attention back to the toddler
squirming in my arms.

“Park park!
We go park now with Ky
Ky
,” she
squealed excitedly and I set her back on my lap.

“Not yet,
sweetie,” Jax told her. “We have to have lunch first and then nap time, but
we’ll go to the park later. I promise.” Then she snatched her right from my hands
and ran toward the kitchen making ridiculous car noises, inciting more giggles
from Izzy as she tried to make her own.
“
Bwoom
bwoom
.”
I stood, chuckling, and followed them
to the kitchen.

“What are we
having?” I walked over to the counter and saw the blue box sitting out.
“Ah, mac and cheese, a classic.”

“Of course,”
Jax smiled, and put water on to boil. I went and sat next to Izzy, and when it
was done, the three of us ate orange, cheesy noodles and bananas dipped in
peanut butter. Such a normal kid meal, and yet, the first time I’d had mac and
cheese was after I moved in with the guys. It wasn’t something that was ever
prepared in my parents’ house.

It was a
little bit of a fight to get Izzy down for a nap after lunch. She just kept
insisting she wanted to go to the park and didn’t need a nap. She was a crabby
toddler, all the more proof that she needed that nap. Jax was getting
frustrated with her, so before it could escalate into a full scale tantrum, I
knelt down in front of her and asked if she wanted me to sing her to sleep.
That seemed to change her mind and she nodded, grabbing my hand in her tiny
fingers and pulling me after her into the tiny play tent full of blankets. It
definitely wasn’t made for anyone over four about four feet, so I couldn’t cram
myself all the way in, and my legs hung out the opening.

 “Auntie
Jaxy come,” Izzy called out.

“I don’t
think I’ll fit
Iz
. It looks a little crowded in
there.”

“Auntie!”
she pleaded and I heard
Jax’s
sigh of resignation. A
second later, her head peeked in and she tried to crawl just inside. I scooted
as close to the edge as I could to make room, and then tugged Princess all the
way in by her arm. She landed in a heap on Izzy’s other side, squishing her
between the two of us, our legs tangled outside the tent.

“Sing me,
sing me
Ky
Ky
,” Izzy
demanded excitedly.

Jax was
eying me warily, probably expecting me to start singing something completely
inappropriate. I wasn’t that much of an ass. Princess had no idea what I had up
my sleeve, but I watched her face when I started singing “A Whole New World.”
The corners of her mouth quirked slightly, and her eyes were full of surprise
that melted into captivation. I sang every word like I meant it, and to an
extent I did want to show Princess a whole new world. I wanted to introduce her
to the world of pleasure I could give her. If she was as innocent as I thought
she was, I would teach her things about her body that would make her feel like
she was flying. She was so beautiful and there was so much passion hiding
behind those eyes, she just needed to be shown how to unleash it, and she
deserved the touch of someone who knew how to do it right.

Izzy was
nestled into the blankets, eyes closed, when I finished the song on a note that
was almost a whisper. The combination of the song and Jaxyn’s soft caressing of
her hair had put her to sleep.

 “So,
you watch a lot of Disney movies, or did you just learn that one so you could
seduce girls?” Jax whispered. I smirked, unashamed, but it was probably safer
not to answer her.
“Thought so.”
She rolled her eyes.

I chuckled
softly, “I will admit, I never thought I’d be using it for this.” Singing
toddlers to sleep wasn’t something I’d ever expected to be doing. I knew I’d
make a terrible father; I had a shit example for one and wouldn’t know the
first thing about not screwing a kid up. Maybe in another life, one where I
wasn’t completely fucked in the head, having a tiny Jaxyn wouldn’t be the worst
thing in the world, but in this one, I had no place even thinking thoughts like
that. I needed to get out of this tight space before I started acting on them.

Getting out
of that tiny ass tent without waking Izzy was a problem though. Somehow in
trying to extricate ourselves, Jaxyn tripped and took us both down. We landed
outside the tent, her body pinning me to the floor. It wasn’t an altogether
unfortunate position to be in – again. There was nothing bad about the way her
little body was pressing into mine. My hands rested on her waist and the strip
of bare skin that was exposed where her shirt had ridden up. She was soft and
warm beneath my touch, and I could feel her hands on my chest and her eyes on
my mouth. She wasn’t making any move to get off of me.

“You have to
stop trying to jump me Princess. You need to at least buy me dinner before I
let you have your way with me.”

Her body
jerked when she realized that once again I’d caught her staring. She muttered
an
embarrassed
apology, and hastily started to push
herself up. I couldn’t have that, so I tightened my grip on her waist and
rolled us so that she was on her back and I was on my side, leaning over her. I
kept her pinned with my arm across her stomach. “Fine, if you insist, I’ll buy
dinner and then have my way with you,” I uttered in a low voice, close to her
ear. She closed her eyes, cutting me off from her thoughts, but I could still
read her emotions in the way her chest quickly
rose
and fell, the way she clenched her hands tightly at her side, and the fact that
she hadn’t shoved me off yet.  When she reopened her eyes, she was more
guarded, but I could tell she was struggling to fight this and that made me
smile, which only added to her irritation and she shoved my hand off of her.

“I don’t
think so,” she ground out.

“Come on,
just give me one night,” I breathed out, reaching to skim my fingers over her
bare stomach, just above the waistband of her jeans. “I would make it so good
for you, I promise.” I would keep that promise too. The things I could do to
her; she had no idea how good I could make her feel. Her body was an instrument
like any other, and I was an expert at making it sing.

She pushed
me away and got to her feet. “I’m not interested,” she hissed angrily, but I
knew she was lying.

“You might
want to tell your body that, because the way it’s responding screams more than
interested, Princess,” I spit out smugly as I pushed myself up off the floor as
well.

“This isn’t
about a physical reaction, you jerk,” she snapped back. “We both know the
effect you have on women, but just because I’m not deaf or blind doesn’t mean
I’m some whore, tripping over myself to be used by you.” Her face was turning a
darker shade of red, but this time I knew it was hurt and anger heating her
skin. I thought it was pretty obvious that she wasn’t a whore, but it was my
fault that she thought I saw her that way. I’d been trying so hard to make her
like all the rest of them, but she wasn’t. She never would be.

“I would
never treat you like a whore, or make you feel used. I know you’re not like the
girls who hang around the bar. You think I have to pursue them and offer to
take them on dates before they spread their legs and let me take ‘
em
six ways from Sunday?” She cringed and I almost
regretted putting it that way, but I wasn’t going to sugar coat anything for
her. “I don’t. It would be a fucking waste of time, not worth the effort.”

I might be
an asshole, a dick, a womanizer. I might use and disrespect women, but the
truth of it is, I don’t use any girl who doesn’t let me, who isn’t using me for
whatever her reasons are. Jax was the only girl who’d ever made me work for it,
which is why she was the only one worth it. I made sure she was looking me in
the eye. “But you,” I stepped forward, and skimmed my finger along her collarbone
from one shoulder to the other. She shivered and her chest heaved with a sigh.
“I would worship your body all night long and make you feel like a goddess.”

Usually when
I’m with a girl, it’s about me getting the release I need. I make sure to take care
of them too, but it’s nothing more than mutual gratification. With Princess, it
would be all about her. I was dying to take care of her for a night, to take
her to the brink of ecstasy over and over before pushing her over. I wanted to
touch and taste every inch of her. I wanted to see the look on her face when I
gave her what her body craved. I wanted to feel her fingers digging into my
flesh as she came. My release would come only after I’d made sure she found
hers multiple times.

I could see
in her eyes that she wanted those same things, but I could also see
disappointment and resolve. She turned away from me and walked out into the
hall between the living room and kitchen. She was going to say no. I knew it,
and it left a sick feeling in my gut. I followed her. I had to change her mind,
convince her that it wouldn’t be dirty and wrong, or cheap.

“That’s just
it,” she said, facing me again, “all it would be is one night. You can dress it
up any way you want, but in the morning it’s still a one night stand.” The
anger had left her voice and she said it matter of factly. “You’re right about
one thing, I’m not like those girls and I’m not ashamed of that. I want more
than one night. I’m not looking for physical gratification that would be
shallow and meaningless. I can’t do anything about the fact that I’m attracted
to you, but it’s not enough
Ky.
I need the hand
holding, just want to hear your voice, missed you all day, flowers for no
reason, ring on the finger kind of everything. And that would include spooning
too.” Those were all the things I despised, so why didn’t they sound so bad
coming from her lips?