Sway (Landry Family #1) (44 page)

“Hey, now!” Alison shoves at Huxley. “Be nice to your mother.”

Hux doesn’t glance her way, just watches me, his little eyes filled with anticipation.

“I’m going to have to move to Atlanta in a couple of months,” I tell him, watching a wave of worry storm through his irises. “I have a lot of work to do there.”

He looks at the ceiling, then the wall, then out the window. Anywhere but at me.

“I can’t be in Atlanta if you guys are here,” I whisper.

His head jerks towards me, a smile tickling the corner of his lips.

“I’ll worry about you both, and I won’t get anything done. It’ll be hard for me to see you guys, and then she’ll stop singing while she cooks, and then everything will go down the drain.”

“So,” he starts, his voice shaky, “what are we going to do? If you leave, she’ll cry, and I’ve already told you I can’t deal with that. Plus, you promised you wouldn’t make her cry.”

I know Alison is staring at me. I can feel her gaze heavy on my features, but I keep mine fixed on her son.

“I did promise you that. That’s why I propose you both come to Atlanta with me.”

“Really?”

Nodding, I reach across him and take Alison’s extended hand. She squeezes it and holds on for dear life.

“Really, Hux. It would mean a new school for you, new friends. You’d be away from your grandparents a lot of the time and I know that would be tough for you. If you go with me, that would mean we would live together. Our lives would change. Do you understand all that?”

He doesn’t look away this time. He doesn’t smile either. He just searches my face for a lot longer than I expect.

My heart starts thumping because I thought I had this in the bag. I was sure I did. But the look on his face, the blank canvas, makes me think I overestimated myself.

“Barrett?” he asks finally.

“Yeah?”

“Are you going to marry my mom?”

I force a swallow and look at Alison. She wipes a tear at the corner of her eye and opens her mouth to speak, but nothing comes out.

My heart swells. The peace and love in this room is such a different feeling than I’ve ever felt, even with my own family. This gorgeous woman and her son support me and love me, even when I mess up and even when I might not deserve it.

I’ll do anything in my power to ensure they’re mine forever.

“Would that be okay with you, Hux?” I ask. “If I married your mom one day?”

“I’d really like that.” His words are heavy, pressed around a lump in his throat. “I think that would be really great, actually.”

Alison squeezes my hand and brings it to her mouth, planting a soft kiss against my knuckles.

“I’ll have to talk to her about that and hope she agrees,” I wink, “but if I have your blessing, that’s a step in the right direction.”

He leans over and wraps his arms around my neck, knocking the wind right out of me. Before I can respond, he leans away.

“I’m going to go find Lincoln. He has this app on his phone,” he says happily, bouncing off the bed and scurrying toward the door, “that—”

“Stay off of Lincoln’s phone!” Alison and I both shout in unison as Hux slams the door behind him.

Laughing, I pull Alison close to me again. “I’m not responsible for whatever he learns or sees from my brother.”

“Lord, help us,” she giggles. Tilting her head and looking at me, she smiles. “Did you mean what you said to Hux?”

“I meant every last word of it.”

A sparkle glimmers in her eyes. “Really?”

“Speak as you find. Remember?” I grin. “As far as I’m concerned, we are together for the long haul. However you want to make that permanent is fine with me, as long as it is.”

“It is,” she whispers.

“Roll over here and show me you mean it.”

She starts to straddle me, the heat of her pussy hot against my cock, when Huxley’s voice shouts from the hallway.

“Maybe we should lock the door first.”

The End

Swing, Lincoln Landry's story, coming Winter 2016!

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FIRST AND FOREMOST, I WOULD
like to thank the Creator for all the blessings in my life. As a human, I’m always quick to ‘ask for help’; I think it’s also important to remember to say ‘thank you’ too.

As always, my family is the most supportive and encouraging bunch of people on the planet. Mr. Locke, the A-Team, my mother and in-laws: I love you all.

Jen, Susan, Michele, and Joy read this no fewer than a million times. Thank you is utterly insufficient. Ashley, Robin, and MaryLee also gave incredible feedback and attention to this story. Carleen and Kiki came in at the last minute and gave this story their valuable time. You are all so appreciated!

Mandi kept me going through this process. I’ll be your faith, you be mine. It’s how we roll, right, Pres?

Alison, I value your friendship more than you’ll ever know. I love you.

I’m not sure I would’ve pulled this one off without the love and support from SL Scott. I love you and your phone calls and ab-mergencies.

My team, once again, rocked this project. Huge hugs to Kari with Kari March Designs, Christine with Perfectly Publishable, and Lisa C. with Adept Edits for lending your expertise to this project. Thank you to Kylie at Give Me Books for helping me get this out there, Jen at Kinky Girls Book Obsessions for everything you do, and Jillian with Jilly’s Polished Proofs for making this sparkly. Hugs to Lisa W. for taking time away from everything you have going on, including your business A Bookish Life on Etsy, to make my frantic self teasers. I love you all.

Sending kisses, too, to Stephanie Gibson for being awesome, Candy Collins (Manning) for updating the Locke Library, and Jade Hyland (I didn’t kill anyone!) for helping with All Locked Up. You guys rock!

My days are made better by knowing the following women: Angie McKeon, Jen Lynn, Dawn Costiera, Randa Lynn, Staci Hart, Kennedy Ryan, Gail McHugh, Gretchen de la O, Lili Valente, Serena McDonald, Lexy Storries, Kaitie Reister, and Kara Hildebrand. Thank you for being light in my life.

My Facebook group, Books by Adriana Locke, and Goodreads group, All Locked Up, are my escape. The readers in those groups give me so much love and energy that it would be impossible to do this without them! Thank you all for giving me so much energy and encouragement. (And if you’re reading this and aren’t in there—join us!)

My Instagram Girls keep my days full of smiles (and hotness!). There are so many of you now that I would worry I was leaving someone out. Thank you all for your posts and edits—you are the most talented group of women anywhere!

Blogging can be a tedious, thankless job. I want to extend a huge dose of gratitude for the blogs that have jumped on board and supported this release. You make this possible and I’m forever grateful.

And you—yes YOU! Thank you for choosing to pick up Sway. I know you have a million choices and I’m honored you chose my story. I hope you enjoyed it.

xo

Addy

USA Today Bestselling author Adriana Locke lives and breathes books. After years of slightly obsessive relationships with the flawed bad boys created by other authors, Adriana has created her own.

She resides in the Midwest with her husband, sons, two dogs, two cats, and a bird. She spends a large amount of time playing with her kids, drinking coffee, and cooking. You can find her outside if the weather's nice and there's always a piece of candy in her pocket.

Besides cinnamon gummy bears, boxing, and random quotes, her next favorite thing is chatting with readers. She’d love to hear from you!

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Continue on for an excerpt from
Wherever It Leads
, also by Adriana Locke.

Wherever It Leads

Fenton

"Tell him I got his message yesterday and I don't need him to blow me. But thank him for the offer."

Grabbing the nearest shopping cart and sliding it in front of me, I toggle the phone against my shoulder. It nearly slides off my rigid muscles, a mix of workout fatigue and work stress setting up shop across my back.

Duke sighs through the phone, not even pretending to hide his frustration. "Fenton, that's not true," he says, exasperation thick in his voice. "He didn't ask to blow you."

"Obviously it's not fucking true. I just want to hear him have to deny it."

"You know what? Just forget I called. I'll come up with a response myself."

"That's probably the best idea you've had yet."

Duke sighs again, louder this time. I'm sure I've been an asshole to deal with since I hired him, but I gave him plenty of warning what he was getting into. This entire situation, the one he was hired to deal with, has been a complete clusterfuck from the start. There's nothing more vexing than being able to fix a problem and having your hands tied behind your back while being needled that the problem exists. I know it exists. I'm keenly aware and no one wants it fixed more than me.

"I'll just tell them the status hasn't changed."

"I could've taken care of this," I bite out.

"I know. I know."

"And they wouldn't let me."

"I. Know."

"I know
you
know. Try to impart some of that knowledge to
them
. I'm playing by their rules right now, but I’m starting to lose patience with their—”

"Fenton, you have to play by their rules. Otherwise—"

"I'm heading into the store," I interrupt. "The service is going to get shitty."

"Talk soon," Duke says, ready to end the conversation anyway, and the line clicks off. I shove my phone into the pocket of my black athletic pants. My jaw pulses, the buzz from this morning's workout now vanished.

Ignoring the eyes of an uptight man perusing the apples, I skirt my cart left to avoid interaction. I have no idea why I chose today of all days to do my own grocery shopping. I could’ve waited three damn days until my housekeeper gets back from vacation.

Steering clear of the apples and the negative energy rolling off the shopper, I head towards the bananas. I need to find the optimism I had five minutes ago before Duke called from the office and ruined my Saturday morning.

The bananas are organic and perfectly ripe, so I pluck a bunch off the podium. I start to push away, but the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. A ruffle of unease scatters through my subconscious. I pause mid-step and glance around the store. People mill about, minding their own business, nothing out of the ordinary. I start to push away again when I spy the offender. A black piece of plastic peeks out from behind a bundle of bananas, the overhead light ricocheting off it and catching my eye.