Always (Family Justice Book 1) (33 page)

“Remember last year, Cameron,” she laughed. “Now that was a memorable first Thanksgiving.”

His throaty chuckle wrapped around her senses and squeezed. “I certainly do remember! What man in his right mind would forget finding his woman dressed in a demure apron, black lace panties, thigh-high stockings, heels and absolutely nothing else but a wicked smile.”

“I was dressed to impress,” she giggled. Her other leg was up on the bench now and being thoroughly covered in the fragrant lotion. Rolling her shoulder in a jerky shrug, she teased, “Just figured if the meal sucked, maybe you’d overlook it if I had something else to offer up.”

“God, Ponytail,” Cameron snickered. “You are something and a half, you know that, right?”

Damn. She was trying to be all sexy and vixen-like, take his mind off whatever was grinding on him but was failing miserably. She didn’t want pretend sex. She wanted the real thing.

Slumping forward, she pulled her legs onto the ottoman and sat cross-legged with her elbows resting on her thighs. Looking straight into the phone, she grumbled, “I suck at this.”

“Awww, sweetie. No, you don’t,” Cameron quickly assured her. “It’s just not where you do your best work.”

Feeling like a fool, she readjusted the robe and tightened the belt with a hearty tug—which only earned her a deep rumbling laugh and a groan from her husband.

“Now dammit, see I was enjoying the boob flashing, honey.”

She stuck her tongue out at the camera and laughed. “Come home, Cameron. You’ll be back tomorrow, right?”

“Funny you brought that up because according to Sawyer, as soon as he dumps us off he’s got a priority pickup that has something to do with what you and the ladies are planning for Tori.”

“What?” Lacey barked. “Sawyer has a pickup? Wait! Don’t say another word. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Cameron looked genuinely confused. “I don’t get it. You don’t know? But I thought from what he told me that all you gals were up to no good.”

“Okay,” Lacey whispered as if she was sharing a state secret. “Since the cat’s out of the bag, yes—we’re planning something special for Tori but what you’re referring to, well, that’s something Meghan and I don’t know about. There are some things being kept secret even from us so the element of surprise doesn’t get ruined. So don’t tell me anything else!”

Cameron nodded and grinned. “Well, I’ll be damned. You mean Betty and the ladies actually have you two in the dark? I’m pretty impressed since what I know is a big one. And I do mean b-i-g!”

“Don’t tell me!” she shrieked with laughter. “Trying to keep Tori and her mom in the dark has been a challenge, but we’re managing.”

“Baby, I think you deserve a special reward for being such a great friend. And such a terrific mother. Even though you do suck at sexting.”

“We were not sexting, husband. We were, uh…I don’t know. What do you call it when there’s just FaceTime going on?”

“I believe that may qualify as a sex tape,” he drawled.

Lacey almost fell over laughing. “Oh, my Gawd! A sex tape? And I screwed it up?”

“We’ll have to work on that,” Cameron assured her with a sexy wink.

“Get that tight butt of yours home Mr. Justice. And soon, okay?”

“You bet, darlin’. I’ll call you later—at bedtime, so I can hear your sexy voice before I try to sleep.”

AFTER PASSING OUT FROM A heavy-duty pain pill, Draegyn had slept the afternoon away and awakened feeling marginally better. Cam knew this because Drae hadn’t tried to bite his face off when he’d helped him move off the bed. They’d decided to eat at the steak house in the hotel, a sure sign that things were getting back to normal.

At Cameron’s insistence, they took a taxi after dinner to a nearby Cigar Lounge where they relaxed in leather armchairs by an open fireplace, enjoying expensive Montecristo cigars and cognac. They’d been smack talking the sports teams, but not much more than that when it came to conversation. Cam didn’t have a problem with that. Most times, he didn’t feel like sharing every burp and fart. He should have known Drae wouldn’t stay silent for long.

“She knows. Victoria. Knows something is wrong.”

Shit,
Cam sighed. He knew that keeping Drae from communicating with his wife had been a delaying tactic and nothing else. Eventually, Tori would have to be told what happened. It was not like either of them could hide visible stitches, bruises and in Drae’s case—cracked ribs.

“How do you know that?” he asked. “I mean, how could she know unless you told her.”

Drae took a long pull off his cigar, rotating the end, while wisps of smoke swirled around his head and the glowing outer rim of the stogie cast a shadow on his face. “She knows
because
I haven’t talked to her.”

Yeah, Cam knew that’d end up being the loudest warning bell. That first night was one thing when a quick text was explainable, but there’d been radio silence between them ever since. Tori wasn’t stupid.

“What are you going to tell her? I mean, I assume that you’ll call her tonight and what? Tell her we got our butts kicked in a street fight?”

“She gets the truth with as much or as little detail as she wants. Victoria is my wife. She’s going to be pissed that she was kept in the dark for even five minutes.”

Relaxing into the comfortable leather chair, Cam smirked, took a deep mouthful of the fragrant cognac and fixed his brother with a serious look. “You met your match with that one, bro.”

Drae snorted his agreement. “She may be little but she is one scary monster when she puts her mind to it.”

A moment passed. Then another. Drae twisted the cigar a dozen times, squinting through the smoke.

“Can I ask you a question, Cam?”

Sounded serious. Hm
mmm
. Questions required answers and usually led to more questions. Drae wasn’t usually so pensive. Which was the only reason Cam had to explain why he opened himself up to a chat that was probably going to involve feelings and shit like that.

“Well, you can try, man. Don’t know how good I am with advice these days but give it a shot.”

Drae nodded, but it took another long pause for him to gather his thoughts before he blurted out, “Did you and Lacey have any uh…what I mean to say is—did you guys. Ugh! I hate this,” he muttered.

Well, shit. That was a lot like piecing together a single color jigsaw puzzle. Must be one hell of a difficult subject for the unflappable Draegyn St. John to be mumbling on and fumbling about like a tool.

“Fuck,” Drae muttered. “Restrictions. Did you have any restrictions during Lacey’s pregnancy?”

Even in the muted lighting in the smoke filled lounge, Cameron could clearly make out the slashes of embarrassed color highlighting Drae’s face. Wow. Talk about hilariously funny. The great and powerful pussy magnet was trying to navigate the thorny world of marital intimacy. Priceless.

“Nope,” he shrugged with a wry grin. “Not a one.”

“Oh. Well, maybe that wasn’t the right question. I mean that’s great and all. No restrictions. Um, maybe…I don’t know—did you feel like the uh, intimacy changed any?”

“Please tell me you’re not turned off by her condition.”

“What? Oh, fuck no! I didn’t mean it like that Cam. I love it. All of it. The big belly. The swollen feet. The ridiculous nighttime craving for chocolate ice cream and crushed saltine crackers. Victoria is fucking fantastic. I just mean, the doctor sorta gave me shit about my husbandly expectations, so now I’m like freaked out that she or the kid could get hurt. I don’t know. It’s all so fucked up.”

Cam considered what he’d just learned. Drae was reaching out to him as his brother. This was the good shit, man. Having a family. He almost laughed. Somewhere along the line, he’d moved into first place on the married with children scale. Unfucking-amazing.

“First of all, your doctor is a dick. Ours explained that there is actually a hormone in semen that can help labor get started. If you must know, we made love just a few days before Dylan was born with no problem. And you know that’s way more information than I’m comfortable sharing but if what you’re really asking about is if the intimacy changes after the baby is born, well that’s simple. Yes, yes, and hell yes.”

Before Drae could grimace and maybe read his answer wrong, Cam sat forward in his big chair, rested his forearms on his thighs and motioned for his brother to come in close. For this really personal shit, he wanted to keep it real.

His tone was hushed, direct. “It gets better, man. Like so much better, you’ll be amazed. Can’t tell you how many times we’d huddle in our bed with Dylan lying between us. We wouldn’t talk. Just lie there and watch our son then look in each other’s eyes. Nothing can rival that, man. Not even all the sex in the world. You’ll see.”

“Were you scared shitless at the end of the pregnancy?” Drae mumbled.

“Dead straight I was. Man—you don’t even know. Every crazy thought imaginable went through my head. My background,” he shuddered. “Worried about karma catching up with me or something.”

“You were so calm when Lacey went into labor.”

“Yeah. Had to be. She’s everything. I’d be fucked without her. Only reason I kept my wits was ‘cause she needed me. Otherwise, I might have been curled in a ball over in the corner.”

“Now see,” Drae grumbled. “Right there. That’s why I have to tell Victoria, tonight—what happened. She needs me to be honest with her. It’s her thing and I get it. She gives it all and I can’t offer anything less.”

The mood, already sober and serious shifted. Cam felt it. It actually made him pause and think. The air got thick and heavy. Time seemed to slow to a crawl.

Drae looked at him. They’d been together for so long and in so many different situations that they knew each other better than most. There’d been actual times when both their lives had been in the hands of the other. That was heady shit. The expression on his face gave Cam pause.

“Don’t think I want to do this anymore.”

Cam stared at Drae. All the moment needed to be complete was for Drae to have been holding a microphone that he could have dramatically dropped while making a hand gesture and shouting,
“Boom
.”

“Um, okay.” What was he supposed to say to such a bold statement? “Can you define what
this
is. When you say you don’t want to do
this
anymore, to what are you referring—specifically.”

Drae sat back, winced slightly and ran his hand from side to side across his abdomen. Sighing, he murmured. “I don’t want to get on a plane, fly halfway around the world to play security bad-ass for a bunch of businessmen, celebrities, and politicians. I don’t want to get cold-cocked outside a seedy motel by some dickwad who thinks he’s tough. Don’t want to strap on a gun. Don’t want to sit through a round of hookers and booze with off-duty agents south of the border. Don’t want to give a flying fuck about any of this shit.”

Holy fuckballz. The great and powerful Draegyn St. John was throwing in the towel.

Slumping into the back of the big chair, Cam groused and snorted dramatically. “Oh, that’s just fucking great, St. John! Does that mean we have to find another 007 for the brochures?”

Draegyn looked shocked by Cam’s snarky attempt at humor, then a smile broke out across his face followed by a hearty laugh. “You don’t seem all that surprised,” he said.

“I’m not,” Cam drawled with a firm nod of his head. “Been shuffling back and forth at the same crossroads for months, dude. I think I’ve had enough, too. Getting my ass kicked has only made the ambivalence stronger.”

“Have you talked to Dad about this?”

“Oh, fuck no,” Cam chuckled. “Until I know what it is that I
do
want, I’ve been sitting on sharing what I don’t want. Make sense?”

Drae laughed. “Oh, man. I was so nervous about saying anything! I figured you’d just call me out for being a pussy.”

“Well, if you’re a pussy, so am I. Twin pussies from different mothers,” Cam joked. “This frontline shit has to stop. Got a wife and kid to consider. Lacey’s cool now but eventually she’s gonna snap. Like when she saw the stitches. Thought she was about to blow a gasket.”

“And there it is,” Drae mumbled. “These women have changed all our lives.”

“Thank fucking God,” Cam agreed.

“Don’t laugh, man but all I think about twenty-four seven is being with Victoria. I don’t know what it is. When she’s around, even if we’re bitching at each other…I just feel, happy. Or something.” He shrugged. “It’s hard to explain, y’know?”

Cam grabbed up a cigar, deftly cut the end then set about lighting it—twirling it in his fingers until the entire head glowed red and gold. Blowing a smoke cloud into the air, he tilted his chin up and stared for a moment at the ornate crown molding framing the ceiling.

“I get it. Totally. It’s like, this woman came along and threw everything I thought I knew in a blender and switched it to high. Somehow, after all the pieces calmed down, even though they’ve been blown apart, rearranged, shredded—they all magically slide together with ease. Everything fits. I’ll tell you, Drae. I’m never happier than when Lacey is shaking her head and pretending to be outraged by my language or that moment at the end of the day when it’s just me and her and our eyes meet. Something happens that makes all the other crap fade away.”