by Melody Anne
All is good. Don’t wait up.
He turned off the sound again and placed his phone in his pocket before he could get a response. It was tucked away just as the senator entered the room, carrying two bottles of wine and four glasses, and sporting a big smile.
“Is someone joining us?” Green asked innocently, already knowing the answer.
“What?”
“There are four glasses. Are you expecting anyone else?”
The senator gave a quick laugh at the obvious lack of Green’s experience in fine wine drinking. “No, these are two different types of wine. We don’t want to mix them when drinking. It changes the flavor profile.”
Green knew the custom and also knew if anyone had drunk an entire bottle of wine themselves their taste buds wouldn’t care if a different type of wine was poured into the same glass. He might be worth millions but his pragmatic ways from growing up poor had never left him.
Senator Miller slid the heavy curtain closed, encasing them, the low murmur of voices all but disappearing. The senator walked over, sat next to him, poured two glasses of wine, then gave a long exhale as she leaned back, kicked off her shoes, ruffled her hair out, and pulled four well-placed clips from hidden parts of her locks. “This is more like it. Let’s truly get the evening started.”
“That sounds great.” Green said with laughter as he loosened his tie and undid the top button of his shirt as well as his cuffs. He mirrored her body position and leaned back against the couch, making himself comfortable.
“That won’t do. Stand up,” ordered the senator as she stood.
Green gave her a quizzical look, not understanding what she wanted, but he stood in front of her, easily feeling the tension in her body. She reached out, finished untying his tie, then threw it on the seat next to them. He raised a brow but didn’t say a word. He liked a confident woman who wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted. She slid off his jacket, threw it onto the same spot, all while looking into his eyes. Green was very aware he could have anything he wanted from her right then and there. She was his in that moment — did he want what she was offering?
“What do you want from me, Anna?” Green whispered, as if he was confused. She obviously was turned on by weak men. It was difficult for him to play that part. The senator playfully bit at the corner of her bottom lip. He wondered how far he would allow this to go. But the senator wasn’t ready to quit playing games. She stepped back from him, sat back down with a sigh, picked up her glass, and took a long draw of bright red wine.
“What I want is to be able to do what I want when I want without thinking of the four hundred things that might, or might not, happen with each choice I make. What I want is to have you strip me down right here and now and ravage my body until I cry out in ecstasy over and over again. I haven’t had a good fuck in almost two years and men who look like you do not come around very often,” she said, taking another large gulp of wine. “But I can’t have sex behind a curtain because of those four hundred things that might, or might not, happen if I let go for even a moment . . . and the dozen people in the other room. My life is public, and I’m never allowed to forget that.”
“So . . .” Green started, exaggerating his look over both shoulders as he stood directly in front of her. “you do, or don’t, want me to ravish you?” Was he going to do just that? He still hadn’t made the decision. He was playing a game with her, and he wasn’t sure who’d be the winner that night.
The senator looked at him with want in her eyes, then looked at the curtain blocking them from the other room, before turning back and locking her eyes on the bulge in the front of his pants that instantly made her eyes catch fire. Holding up one of her hands in a non-verbal command, the senator rose, standing only inches from Green. Then she seemed to make a decision and turned, lifting her hair above her shoulders.
He glanced down at a dainty zipper at the top of her back and decided he could play. He took hold of it and slowly pulled down, exposing her bare back. She had a smooth, flawless olive complexion. He didn’t have to be forced to take a taste as he leaned down and kissed each new inch of skin he revealed. The zipper stopped at the dimple in the small of her back and he dropped to his knees as she shrugged her arms from the dress, allowing it to drop to the ground, showing him a lace thong dividing two amazingly toned cheeks. Green continued his downward motion, his hands now clasping her hips as he nipped at one of her cheeks, causing a feminine cry to rip from her.
With no resistance he turned her so the front of her panties was directly in his face. He looked up and wasn’t shocked to see how perfectly round her breasts were. They locked eyes, both of them smiling as he kneeled in a submissive position in front of her. Oh, how the men would love to have video of this moment. This wasn’t where Green ever resided. But his alter ego might, he assured himself — the man the senator thought he was would certainly kneel.
Without breaking their locked gaze, Green slid his fingers up and took control of her panties, slowly sliding them down her toned legs. He felt a modicum of desire stir inside him but was surprised it wasn’t greater with a naked woman before him.
He pulled her the last few inches closer to him and kissed her toned stomach, her hands circling his head, her fingernails scratching their way from the back of his neck up to his ears, her control nearly gone. He reached up and took hold of her breast, sliding her hardened nipple between his fingers as his palm gently massaged the area.
He kissed her stomach again, his head moving lower, her legs shaking as he held tight to her hips. “Yes, Hendrick, yes,” she said, tangling her fingers in his hair as she began to push him lower, guiding him to where she wanted him to be.
“Senator Miller, are you in here?” a woman’s voice called from the other side of the curtain. The wine bar had a very strict policy that this room wasn’t to be entered if the curtain was closed. That made Hendrick wonder how many times the senator or other patrons had gotten lucky in the cozy, dim space. Would he have if they hadn’t been interrupted? He wasn’t sure.
“Do not come in,” the senator barked, irritation clear in her throat. She stood as if she had all of the time in the world, then leaned against him, not at all embarrassed in her nudity. Her hand slid down his body and squeezed his semi-erect arousal. He gave a moan, knowing it was what she wanted to hear.
“We’ll finish this later. It’ll be your turn to strip next,” she demanded. They hadn’t even kissed, he suddenly realized.
Green hurriedly put his clothes back in order while it seemed the senator was in no hurry to redress. She’d told the person to not come in and she wasn’t worried about them disobeying. She bent over to gather her clothes, the slow, calculated movement allowing him to take one last look at her naked body. She did have an incredible one. Maybe they’d finish later, maybe they wouldn’t.
Once they were both put back together and properly seated on the couch with a glass of wine in hand, the senator called out to the interloper. Green’s driver from earlier opened the curtain, gave zero indication of being aware of what had been transpiring only moments before, and asked to speak to the senator alone for a few moments.
Green nodded and rose. He discretely hit the record button Brackish had installed on his phone, then left it sitting on the table. He wanted to know what was so urgent the driver had to interrupt when Green was sure she’d been told not to. Neither he nor the senator said a word to each other as he left the room.
Chapter Four
Mallory Black waited for Hendrick to walk from the room and be out of earshot before she spoke to the senator. She was used to this — used to the men the senator used like toys. None of them stuck around for long. But none of them had alarmed Mallory like Hendrick did.
She wasn’t sure what in the hell had happened in the SUV when his hand had slipped into hers. The heat that had coursed through her had shocked her to the core. And though the man was acting like a nitwit, she wasn’t buying it. He was much smart
er than he let on. She could read it in his eyes. She didn’t know who he was, and she was more than a bit worried he’d compromise her job — her real job.
“What’s so important that you needed to interrupt my night when I specifically told you I didn’t want to be disturbed?” Senator Miller asked with an air of arrogance that had gotten her far in life in a short amount of time.
“Ma’am, when I came onboard you asked me to highlight any and all landmines you might be stepping on. You told me to get my point across even if you were being stubborn,” Mallory reminded her boss. “I promised to do just that and assured you I’m not easily intimidated. Well, that man you were alone with you is definitely a landmine.”
The senator looked at Mallory with unapologetic eyes as she tried to assess whether she was going to take her warning or not. Mallory had been her right-hand woman for almost three years, and she was doing a fine job. Mallory could tell the senator believed her. Now that the moment had been broken, Senator Miller would be thinking of the four hundred other tasks she needed to finish before the day ended.
“Mallory, I’m running for President of the United States. I’m a forty-five-year-old single woman who knows what I want and how I want it. I also love sex — and lots of it. None of that is a good combination to win what I’m after. It’s a must that I have, at minimum, a partner on my arm as I start going through all of the press traps that will be laid out for me. You know I must always have a propitious mindset. More than that, I need to feel a man touch me, to make love to me. What you interrupted just now was something I’ve needed for the past year as I’ve tried to clean up my image,” the senator said calmly.
Mallory didn’t try to correct the senator, but she knew she’d had at minimum two lovers in that time. Maybe they hadn’t satisfied her. Mallory was pretty sure Hendrick wouldn’t leave a woman wanting for anything when he was done with her.
“I understand, but not this man, there’s something that doesn’t feel right about him,” Mallory said with a chill in her voice.
“Is it because he isn’t quality stock?”
“Sure, that might be a part of it, but he doesn’t carry himself like someone who just came into money. There’s a way that he sits, walks, and acts that doesn’t fit,” Mallory insisted.
“I can tell you something of his that would most definitely fit,” the senator smiled greedily as she brought the wine glass to her lips, taking in the aroma of the drink for a moment while her imagination went back to what could’ve been.
“Seriously, Anna!” Mallory said, rolling her eyes at the never-ending ways her boss shocked her with what came out of her mouth.
For several beats the only sound came from the noise of other patrons, too far away to hear any part of the conversation between the two in the Mariner room.
“Well ladies,” Green said as he stepped inside the suddenly smaller space, a large smile on his lips as he broke the silence that had been hanging in the air. “Is everything good?”
The senator dropped her shoulders in a defeated manner. Mallory nearly sighed with relief as the senator made her decision. She could read it in the woman’s eyes — utter disappointment.
“Hendrick, I apologize, something’s come up and we have to cut the evening short. I’ll have Mallory drive you home and we’ll talk soon.”
The senator stood, walked over, and gave Green a quick hug. He went to give her a kiss on the cheek, but she stepped back before he could. The look of confusion his fake persona gave wasn’t met with a response of any kind, other than the senator stepping back to the couch.
“Let’s go,” Mallory said as she moved between Green and the senator. To the untrained individual it would’ve seemed as if she was turning in a natural way toward the exit, but Green knew it was a well-trained box out move to keep him from having any additional interaction with the senator. This lady was good.
He was impressed.
He was absolutely certain in that moment that Mallory wasn’t who she said she was. But his team was better than anyone she’d been trained with. They’d know all about her soon enough. For someone who’d sparked a brief interest in him earlier, she’d just become his main focus. He wanted to know more. He grabbed his phone without saying another word.
They walked in silence to the SUV parked around the corner from the wine bar, and Green wondered where Smoke was. He didn’t see the man anywhere, but he was well aware his friend and running partner was out there. He wondered what he was thinking about the change in plans. They climbed into the SUV and Hendrick quickly sent the audio to Brackish. He wanted to know what the two women had been talking about while he was out of the room.
The beginning of the ride from the interior of Seattle toward Green’s house started the same way it had earlier that evening. Mallory wanted to drive in utter silence. This time Green had a million questions he wanted to ask her. He waited though. If nothing else Green was a very patient man. There’d been times he’d remained still for countless hours, his eye on the scope of his gun, his breathing steady, and not a sound emanating from him. This drive was nothing.
Green watched Mallory as they drove and concluded she was either former military or she’d lived under a parent who was. He decided to test his hypothesis. He could slip his earpiece in and turn on his mic and include Brackish in this conversation, but he didn’t want to do that quite yet, unsure why.
He looked directly at her to see her reaction. “What branch were you in?” he calmly asked.
Mallory visibly jolted from whatever she’d been thinking about. “What?” she asked.
“What branch were you in?”
She didn’t answer, so he decided to give her a story and see if that opened her up.
“My brother was a Navy officer, and you act just like him,” Green said, making him laugh internally at how opposite that sentence was, as his own brother lived with his dad, both of them drunks who’d never done anything with their lives.
The stoic and hardened features of her face made an instant change.
“I was a Navy officer too,” she said eventually. She finally turned his way the slightest bit and gave him the semblance of a smile. Noticing her actions seemed to have thrown her off kilter, but she recovered quickly, and maybe, just maybe, he’d earned a little respect from her. That was soon to be determined.
“Thank you for your service, Mallory. I respect all who serve our country,” he said, seeing her soften.
She turned to look at him for a moment, a transformation in her energy obvious. He was starting to gain her trust, and he had no doubt he needed that in order to get close to the senator again. He shut down the pang of guilt he felt at the thought of using Mallory to get what he wanted. It was for the mission he assured himself, which could save a lot of lives. He wouldn’t be hurting Mallory by lying to her. She was just a small fish in a very large pond. She was also in the wrong place at the wrong time. He didn’t think she was involved with the senator’s profiteering, but he’d never know if he didn’t look into it. He had a feeling about her.
“Did you go to the military school in Washington D.C. or did you go to college first? My brother went via ROTC and has been in forever,” Green said, knowing that Annapolis, Maryland was the home of the Naval Academy, but it was good to continue to play the part of an uneducated simpleton.
A completely different woman sat before him. She was relaxed, calm, and easy to talk to. She responded to his question and started giving more than he asked for, “Yes, I went to the academy and served seven years after graduation. I met Senator Miller my last year in, and she promised me a job if I ever got out. Obviously, I took her up on the offer almost three years ago.”
A quick calculation led Green to suspect there was a gap between her serving seven years in the military and then the three years she’d been working with the senator. He didn’t want to open up that line of questioning quite yet. Instead, he kept going with the natural flow of the conversation.
“I’m impressed. I wish I would’ve been more focused in my youth. I don’t know if I would’ve been a good officer or not, but it definitely would’ve been good to try,” Green said as if he knew what it was like to not conquer every obstacle ever put in front of him. He was adapting to his inferior role far too easily. He didn’t like that at all. Could a person lose their brain function if they stopped using it? He’d better not find out.
“You’re in a great position now so past choices don’t have to define who you are. It’s good to move forward and know who you are, where you’re going, and what you’re becoming,” Mallory said, truth in her words. She was one of those people who saw the best in everyone. He didn’t want to like this woman, but it was hard not to once she let her guard down.
She was highly educated and an obvious protector, but she wasn’t nearly as adept at leading people down conversational roads as Green was. Without her realizing it, the two of them spoke fairly openly all the way to his house.
As Green exited the vehicle Mallory asked, “Hey, Hendrick, I don’t mean to impose, but do you mind if I use the bathroom?”
“By the way you’ve been drinking water I’m surprised we didn’t stop three times on the way here.” Green laughed while waving her in with a nod of his head.
The problem for Green was that he’d only been in the house for a few minutes before being picked up that night, and he hadn’t used the bathroom yet. He remembered it was on the left side of the hall but couldn’t fully recall if it was the first or second door.
“Please, come in, the bathroom’s down the hall on the left,” he said, better to keep it vague and let her open the wrong door than for him to send her in the wrong one.
While Mallory was in the bathroom Green took a quick inventory of his living arrangements. Chad’s people had done a great job of making it look good. The ambience was of a guy who was transitioning from no money to one who’d just gotten handed a check with a hell of a lot of zeroes in it. The profile Brackish had given him was a rich relative had died, leaving him a ton of money suddenly. He couldn’t be a nobody and have the attention of a senator. It was a good thing Brackish was great at his job. If they knew who he really was, and the amount of money he had, they’d know he’d never be a warehouse employee.