Page 73 of Whiskey and Regret

“I know you do. I need to give it to you.” She reached up and kissed me, tugging on my bottom lip with her teeth and scraping her nails along the back of my neck. Her passion made me want to pin her down and fuck her. “Fuck, Xari. You’re so much trouble.” I gripped her ass in my hand and she giggled, stroking my cock through my pants.

Above our heads, I heard the shuffle of feet. I pulled away from the addictive goddess standing in front of me. Frankie seeing me grab Xari’s ass with a hard dick wasn’t an image or situation I wanted to deal with. So I sat my ass on the couch and put a pillow in my lap.

“Oh, Daddy, did Xari tell you she went viral?” Frankie bounced into the room and sat beside me on the couch because…of course that’s what she’d do when I had a raging hard-on.

“Viral?” I said lifting my brows. “How so?”

“Damon Philips shared her harp video. Damon. Philips.” She made sure to emphasize with her hands and stare directly into my cornea.

“And when were you going to tell me about this, Miss Lucas?” I quizzed, aiming a gaze at her.

“I was going to tell you. Remember I said I needed to talk to you?” She smiled and showed off those damn dimples. My heart stuttered.

“Well, we like to celebrate wins around here. Frankie why don’t you tell Xari what we do when we hit our goals or have something unexpectedly good happen?”

“We pick a movie and go see it at like midnight. Then we go to IHOP. It’s so much fun.”

“I get to pick the movie?” Xari asked, placing a hand on her chest.

“Yup,” Frankie nodded eagerly.

“Think about it and let me know, Xari. My treat.” I tried not to look at her body in those curve-hugging pajamas. It was calling me though. “Frankie, go get your things ready for school in the morning.”

“Can I stay up ‘til twelve? I’m not tired.”

“No. You need to get some rest and so do I.”

“You’re going to stay up all night writing, Dad. I have something I wanna watch on YouTube and…”

“Frankie. It’s time to wind down. You know the routine. This isn’t new. We go through it every night.”

“At Mom’s, I could stay up…” I shut my eyes against her words and blew out a slow breath to compose myself. I didn’t give a fuck what she did at Alexis’s house. She knew that. My house meant my rules. I needed to get my ex-wife on the same parenting page with me so it wouldn’t be an uphill battle dealing with Frankie.

“Hey, come on, Frank. We’ll stuff your emergency kit full of shit.”

“Language, Miss Lucas,” I snapped. I wasn’t even mad at her. I was irritated with Frankie for trying to use her mother’s rules as a reason to negotiate mine.

“Right. Sorry, Senator Freeman,” she huffed before going upstairs. When I heard Frankie’s bedroom door close, a little harder than necessary, I picked up my phone and texted Alexis.

Me: We need to talk about consistent rules between your house and my house. Are you open to having a discussion?

Alexis: No. My rules are my rules. If you wanted consistency, we should have stayed married.

Frustration rippled through my muscles. I picked up my glass and prayed the whiskey relaxed me on the way down.

Me: We have a kid. Marriage isn’t the issue. It’s parenting. I’d like for us to get on the same page with the rules.

Alexis: I said what I said, Van. Go fuck your nanny and stop bothering me.

I tossed the phone down and ran my palms over my face. Alexis had a special talent for getting under my skin. No…it was worse than that. She worked her way under my thoughts. She became my frustrations and pet peeves.

When Xari came back into the den, I had my nose in the laptop and a glass of whiskey in my hand. “Frankie is gonna come apologize so…be nice.”

“I’m always nice,” I grimaced, lowering my brows on my forehead.

“Right. Like how you snapped at me before I went upstairs with Frankie? Or how you brushed me off earlier before you got in the shower. So nice.” She rolled her eyes and I flared my nostrils.

“I apologized.”