Better than Sexy (The Sexy 3)

Reaching out, his mother put her hand over his. “Landon, you think this girl is that special?”

He closed his eyes and pictured Vivi’s beautiful face, freckled nose, and wide, hot-chocolate-colored eyes. The hauntingly beautiful sound of her voice. What she’d given him back in life. More than that, he thought about her big heart and the fact that she was trying to do right by his parents in staying away. “Yeah, I do.”

With a growl, his father started to walk out.

“Samuel, stop.” Carrie’s order echoed in the room.

Pausing, he looked back at his wife.

“We have one son left,” Carrie said, meeting Landon’s gaze. “And his heart is obviously invested in this woman. I’m not saying I’m happy about the situation, but I’m not going to make him choose.”

Landon shot a grateful look at his mom. His strong mother, who always held his family together through the most awful of crises.

“I need time to digest this,” Samuel muttered.

“I understand.” Landon expected his father to storm from the room, but taking him by surprise, Samuel pulled Landon into a fatherly hug.

“You aren’t making it easy, son.” Samuel slapped him on the back.

“I know, Dad. Believe me, I know.” But with everything in him, he believed Vivi was worth it.

Chapter Eight

Vivi loved the stage. She loved singing to an audience and the live feedback she received when she performed. It didn’t matter if she closed her eyes or looked out over the people clapping and singing along, the music floated through her, the words coming out with power and feeling.

As the weeks at Club TEN29 passed, more and more paparazzi and reporters began following her when she left the club, snapping pictures of her wherever she went. Her Instagram followers soared, and Owen urged her to be more open about herself online.

Life was changing at a crazy fast pace.

When she was younger, her mother took her to festivals and she used YouTube to perform for people online, slowly growing an audience. At sixteen, she would find bars willing to let her sing, but she wasn’t lucky enough to be discovered then. Her mom needed to work, and though she’d wanted to audition for the singing competition television shows, she’d had no one to take her. By age eighteen, she’d decided to work at coffee shops during the day and perform at night where she could, just enjoying having music in her life. And then her viral moment of fame happened. The nights at Club TEN29 were like a dream, and she didn’t take any one of them for granted.

Two weeks had passed since Landon banged on her door looking for her, and he hadn’t returned since. The nights she played at the club, he sat at the bar or walked the floor, always watching her, his eyes devouring every inch of her body, but he kept a physical distance that had become painful. And though she was the one who’d insisted they didn’t belong together, this separation wasn’t working for her. Not if she had to see him all weekend and long for him during the week.

So she came to a decision. For the duration of the summer, she wanted to be with him. She needed his hands on her bare skin and his lips hard on hers. She wanted time to talk to him, to curl up in his arms, and to take advantage of the very limited time they had left. But it was her turn to convince him that she’d changed her mind.

After her last performance of the weekend, she headed upstairs, showered, and cleaned up before sliding into a club-appropriate short dress and high heels and taking the elevator back downstairs with every intention of seducing her man.

* * *

Every night Vivi took the stage, her performance was more stellar than the evening before. Landon watched Owen eyeing his prize possession, as he no doubt viewed her, and taking meetings while she sang. Axel Matsen, the douchebag, had become a weekly fixture at the club, no doubt reminding Owen he was in the bidding for whatever choice he brought to Vivi for her future when her time at Club TEN29 came to an end.

And because his parents were still reluctant to embrace his decision, at least his father was, Landon stayed away. Although he was an adult and capable of making his own decisions for his life, this situation was delicate and needed to be handled with care. Losing a child wasn’t the same as parents who just disapproved of his choices, and he was trying to be respectful of that. Hell, nobody missed his twin on a soul-deep level more than Landon. Levi had been and still was a part of him.

However, he’d made his decision and time was running out. Tomorrow he would be letting his parents know he loved them, he respected them, but he was going after the woman he cared about because there was every chance he only had precious summer weeks left to be with her.