“I’m not afraid of him, Lara.” Scotts response came as soon as she had cut off her own words. His arm unwrapped from around her shoulder and his hand moved down her shoulders, then her back. It was meant as a soothing touch, one he performed without thought or hesitation with all of her worry coming out. Well, maybe not all, as Lara always seemed to have exquisite control of her emotions. Why would he be afraid of a senator from Oregon? Scott was a man that had family that fought for the cause back in Ireland, for generations. He couldn’t imagine that was a connection her ex husband knew of, especially even she didn’t but even if Scott wasn’t capable of protecting himself there were plenty of people in dangerous positions that would come around if anything happened to the pub owner. It was never something he relied on, however it was something that made him smile in the face of a prominent and supposedly powerful threat. “Your ex is welcome to come handle our situation man to man anytime he wants. I’m pretty sure he knows where the pub is.” His thick shoulders shrugged and his fingers curled into the fabric of her dress at the small of her back, pulling Lara tighter to his side as another concern of hers somewhat came out and was cut off once again. “Since when were you afraid to say what you wanted to say?” Scott’s lips moved to the shell of her ear. “That’s not all I want.” It was easier to lay in the dark, barely able to see the shadows of each other with the little bit of moon that shone through into his room, and talk. There was a lot of baggage that Scott would never open up about, things he kept buried in his chest but if she asked he would give her an answer. The answer came that he was looking for, her agreement and her want to come home with him despite all the reservations he saw flagging in her eyes and through her body language. “I don’t care what people say or think, they’re only going to be saying what bad taste you have…” He smirked and wrapped his arm back around her shoulder to lead her to his SUV and take her to his place where his son was sleeping.
Her hand held in his own as Scott led her to the front door of his home, he pulled Lara up tight behind him as the key turned in the look and subsequently let them in and past the threshold. He’d never had her in his living space before, never under the same roof as his son, and something swirled within him at breaking a rule he had of bringing women around. Scott didn’t want a revolving door of lovers or one night stands, he especially didn’t want his son to see any attempts he made in separating himself from a loneliness that settled in his chest. It would be confusing, and everything was uncertain when it came to what would happen next with Lara — yet, here they were. He paid off his usual sitter and saw her out to her car safely before coming back inside and dropping his hand down her arm, gently taking the woman by the wrist beginning to lead her toward the kitchen but not set in stone on the path. “You can take off your heels, you know?” His hand shifted to move under hers, palm to palm, lacing his fingers with hers. “Do you want a drink?” Scott kept his voice quiet, not wanting to waking his sleeping four year old. “I think I’d much rather just get you out of that dress first.” He winked but he wasn’t exactly meaning sex, as they had said they would talk and dig a little deeper. Seeing her wrapped up in the fabric the way she was, he simply couldn’t imagine that she was comfortable. At least not completely. “I think you were wearing something this expensive looking that night we first met, you remember?” Walking backwards slowly, a smirk toying on his lips as he led the way to his bedroom. It was dawning on him how little he did this, actually had a woman in his home. He’d had two serious relationships his entire lifetime, Eden and Tamsin, and each of them fled from him for one reason or another. Something he took on as his fault, he was a complicated man and one that was very difficult to get close to. Scott pulled Lara inside his master bedroom and locked the door behind, just a safety precaution in case Danny tried to run-in. His arms wrapped around the elegant brunette and searched for a zipper, something, anything, to start getting her out of the dress she had on. “You know this high fashion isn’t my thing. Better give me a tip or however expensive this is might get ruined.”
Throughout the drive to their destination, Lara couldn’t shake off his words that were echoing through her head - “I’m not afraid of him, Lara.” To consider him foolish or crazily brave were some thoughts, but what did she actually know about Scott? Two or three mere facts - Irish, came from Boston, pub owner, had a son whose mother is Eden, and the one she knew in her own experience, he was excellent in bed. That was nothing, no? Very close to it. And there was another thing that got her tonight - how silent she was, how unable to find the words or scared she was to get them out as if she would destroy everything around her. Because in a way, after her divorce, Lara Burton became damaged goods. Closing herself up in the work, trying to find more and more excuses to never be in Portland, to always run away from the memories of her prior life, she had became merely a shadow of her former self. The beautiful, eloquent, charming, graceful, and more than anything else, a powerful woman Lara was known as.. seemed to be resting somewhere deep down, falling further and further until it would be impossible for her to breathe. “Your pub is not the place he’ll come, but the one he’ll start with. You don’t know him, Scott. He thinks you’re the main reason everything fell apart and,” the brunette chuckled as she turned her eyes up to the man who was sitting on the driver seat, “that is so far away from the truth. He had lost me months, years prior to that, but he doesn’t care. And if he becomes the president, which he very likely will, then he will be the most powerful man on the planet.” Another trait of Robert’s was patience - he could wait as long as he needed, attack his opponents when they had almost forgotten about him, ruin them at their most vulnerable moments. “I know that you can take care of yourself, but you have others to think of - you have to think of your son,” taking her eyes off from him, she focused on the road instead. Those weren’t the streets that were leading back to her home, but what she was guessing, his. “That’s not all I want,” she silently repeated words of his she didn’t trust to, but should she? Taking her back to his home, the one he was sharing with his son, it was a bit of surprise. She didn’t want to meet his boy, not like that, not now. In Lara’s opinion, kids craved stability, people who’d be a constant in their lives, the one they would always have by their side, and since she wanted to protect his child the most, meeting him would be the start of an end.
Offering a small smile to the babysitter Scott was paying off, Lara curiously eyed his home. It was evident that a child was living there, but it was exactly that what was giving it that warm, homey vibe that her own house lacked. It looked more like a museum than a home, no one ever running through it, no kids whose laugh would fill the enormous rooms.. it was gorgeous, but cold. Perhaps like the owner herself. “Oh, heels, sure,” Lara stepped out of her Prada stilettos, which she didn’t mind, almost forgetting she even had them, but she could wake up his son. “Yeah, a whiskey but later,” a soft smile followed as she looked at the height difference between the two of them - she was so petite next to him, it almost made her laugh, but that was what always made her laugh, just as it also made her feel safe. “Well, well, Callahan, you do know what you want, don’t you, and how to get it?” Feeling as if she was slowly coming back to herself, to them, as they were falling into those all too known flirting games of theirs, Lara felt as if she was about to start breathing again. “Of course I remember, I was wearing that white YSL dress I got in Paris last fall, and considering how your pub looks, it was impossible for you to not notice me.” For a woman of such a beauty, the one that would often brought her to the covers of various magazines, naming her the most beautiful first lady America would ever have, putting her on the lists of the most beautiful people alive, Lara was often quite blind to it. Of course she was aware of the way she looked, but she wasn’t using it to her advantage as women less beautiful than her often were. “Scott,” Lara softly hissed upon feeling his arms pulling her back to him, but it was home. Being back in his arms was nothing but home. “Callahan, please,” lightly shaking her head, the brunette turned around and faced the pub owner, as a daring smirk was gracing her features. A swift move or two, and Lara’s dress was falling down over her breasts to her hips. “See, Callahan, you need to have the body to pull off this dress.” Or to actually get into it, considering it was zipless, without any buttons, and it would turn into a nightmare if a woman would put on even a little bit of weight. But the vintage Alaïa dress was made for a woman like Lara, and in just a couple of seconds, letting the dress slowly fall down from her body, Lara stepped out of it, staying only in her black La Perla corset and a pair of matching thongs. “Now I dare you to just talk to me.” That smirk of hers still dancing across her lips, the woman turned it into a grin before she started laughing, trying to stay as much as silent as possible. In that very moment she knew that she missed him much more than she was ready to admit to both of them.
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