The Press Secretary's Passion (A Presidential Affair Book 3)

by Jennifer Rebecca

  I kind of want to throw up in my mouth. It’s not that he’s twice my age or my friend’s father-in-law. I could get past all those things if he was a good man, but I get the feeling that he’s not. There’s something about the way he looks at me that just makes me feel dirty. And I don’t like it.

  “Thank you, but I think I’m all right now,” I say quietly and then turn on my toes and head off to find Cara. I know she thinks I’ve been assigned her babysitter for the evening, but in truth, she’s become one of my dear friends, and I need her to deflect the senior senator’s attention. I have a feeling he’s going to be a problem.

  I link her arm through mine once we’re inside the ballroom, and we go off to find our table. Cara, obviously, is marked to sit next to Rick on one side and me on the other. There are several dignitaries and their wives and Captain Black around our table. I switch his place card with one a few seats down so that he’s not sitting right next to me. It was a stupid thing to do, and there is no excuse other than I really need to look after Cara and do my job, and I’m not sure I could do what I need to with him looking down his nose at me all night. I saw the way he looked at me when he thought I was flirting with the president’s father, and it didn’t make me feel good.

  We take our seats, and I do my best to make small talk with everyone. I try to pull Cara into the conversation, but she’s clearly uncomfortable, and I don’t blame her. I can’t imagine what she’s going through. I feel Ryan’s eyes on me through the whole dinner, but I don’t give in to my urge to look at him.

  After dinner, Rick takes Cara to introduce her to some people, and I make my way around the room for a bit. Unfortunately, the senator chooses that time to attack again.

  “Can I buy you a drink?” he asks. His mouth is very close to my ear, his body presses close, and he places his hand at the small of my back just a little too low.

  “I’m good. Thank you though,” I say as politely as I can. While I’m not interested in getting screwed by the president’s father, I still have to be courteous. This is a powerful man with powerful friends in this town. It wouldn’t do me any good to piss him off.

  And wounded male pride can be a real bitch.

  “You know,” he says, and I can feel his breath against my neck, “we would make a smart match.”

  I’m not sure that “smart” has anything to do with it. In fact, I’m not even sure what he’s offering me right now. All I know is there’s no way in hell. I’ll relocate to Texas and teach civics at the high school my friend Angie and her husband work at. There’s a part of me that wants to run far and fast, because this man sets off my internal alarms.

  “That’s quite… flattering,” I murmur for lack of anything more diplomatic. “But I’m not looking for anything right now.”

  He stares at me, and I hold his gaze, and while I do, I get the impression he knows I’m lying and wants me to know that he knows. Weaving a tangled web of romantic partners is not something I should be engaging in when there are much darker games at foot.

  “I won’t wait forever, Julia,” he says to me, his voice low and full of warning, so much so that it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

  “And I wouldn’t expect you to,” I reply with steel infused in my own voice. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

  I step away from him and don’t look back as I wend my way through the crowd. I smile at people as I drift past them, but it does little to slow my racing heart. The senior senator is going to be a problem. I hoped I could evade his advances until he forgot about me, but that will clearly not be possible. Now more than ever, I remember that I made these choices. This is why I vowed to stay single. Men are nothing but trouble.

  I keep moving through the crowd. I need to find someplace quiet to silence my thoughts before I can go back to Cara.

  I step into the hall I know leads to the restrooms and keep moving. There are plenty of nooks and crannies and even a few secret tunnels here where I can find a moment to myself. The music is muted, and I can no longer hear the voices of the evening after I turn a corner.

  “Are you going somewhere?” a deep voice growls in my ear as a strong hand wraps around my upper arm and pulls me through a door.

  I am up to my eyeballs in highhanded men, and I’m beginning to think I’ve had enough.

  “What do you want?” I let out a frustrated sigh. I feel like I’m spinning out of control, and I very much prefer being in the driver seat of my own life.

  “Are you going to fuck him?” Ryan vibrates with his question.

  “I’m not sure how that’s any of your business,” I reply. And as much as the idea bothers me, it’s not Ryan’s place to judge. He forfeited that right when he tossed nasty words at me and fled my house before he even had his pants buttoned up.

  “You know he’s old enough to be your grandfather,” he says as he stares at me, and I force a bored expression across my face.

  “Your concern is touching.” I let my sharp words hang in the air.

  “Does he get to touch you?” he asks as he brushes a lock of my hair behind my ear. “Do you let him suck your tits or eat your pussy? Are you wet for him like you are for me?”

  “I think I hate you,” I whisper.

  “I don’t think I care,” he says, and then his mouth crashes down on mine.

  As much as I said I didn’t want him again after the way he left me before, it was all a lie. I know that now, and so does he, because we can both feel the way my body melts against his, the way my mouth opens under his, and the sound of my soft moan as he licks inside.

  I never stood a chance.

  “That’s what I thought,” his deep voice rumbles in my ear, and then he licks up the side of my neck and trails his lips over my cheek and behind my ear as he bunches my dress up in his hands. I help hold my full skirts as he traces his fingertip over the lace edge of my panties before he pulls them aside.

  My breath sears in my lungs as he swipes a finger over my center. My cheeks burn with embarrassment, because we both know how wet I am for him now, and the smug look Ryan is giving me tells me that he’s going to be unbearable afterward.

  He kisses me again, and it’s hard and hungry, wet and deep. I clutch his shoulders, and I’m unable to do anything more than just hold on.

  But it’s when he pulls back, taking his ruthless mouth away from mine, that my eyes flutter open. His dark eyes watch me intently, and then I gasp as he plunges a finger deep inside me. He watches me as he pumps his hand again and again before he slides his fingers out and swirls his fingertip over my clit, covering me in my wetness.

  I begin to rock my hips against his hand. I can’t help myself.

  I need more.

  Ryan plunges two fingers deep again, pumping them in and out of me in hard and fast strokes. He watches me, his eyes never leaving my face, and my breaths come out in pants as he drives me closer and closer to a precipice I’m unprepared to go over.

  He drops his mouth to mine as he swirls his thumb over my clit, and my mouth drops open, but Ryan doesn’t deepen our connection there. He quietly takes in my breaths and drinks down my whimpers. I hold onto him so tightly that my finger whiten with the pressure as he thrusts his fingers inside me over and over, and then everything stills and I come.

  Ryan covers my mouth with his to stifle the noises I make as he slowly glides his fingers in and out. When I can’t take it anymore, my flesh too sensitive for any more, I grip his forearm in my hand. He kisses my mouth once more then the corner and then places another on my cheek before he slips his fingers free, rights my panties, and pulls my skirt back down to cover me.

  My breath saws in and out of my lungs, and I watch him with rapt attention as he licks his fingers clean. I want him still, even though he’s just seen to me. I want to touch him, to please him, to make him lose control the way he makes me.

  I start to drop to my knees to return the favor, but Ryan catches me under my arms to stop me. Rejection burns through me, and it is not a
nice feeling.

  “No, honey,” he says softly. “This one was just for you.”

  “Okay,” I whisper, even though I don’t feel okay, but at this point I will say anything to get out of this closet, because we’re developing a nasty habit of me giving my body to Captain Black and then him rejecting me shortly after. A habit I desperately need to break. And even as I think that, I know that if he came to me again, I still wouldn’t say no, and I’m not sure what that says about me either.

  “We should get back out there,” he says as he watches me, and I get the distinct impression he sees more than I want him to.

  “Yeah,” I agree. The need to get out of here is growing inside me more and more. Ryan Black is a poison, and I’m afraid the only way to get rid of it is to work him out of my system. “I’ll go first.”

  And then I scoot around him and scurry out the door. I stop at the ladies’ room to make sure I don’t look like I was just finger-fucked in a broom closet, and finally the stars shine on me, because I don’t. And then I decide to go rescue Cara, when really I’m the one who needs the rescue.

  “Mind if I steal your girl for a minute?” I ask Rick. I can see he wants to say no. I lower my voice and whisper for his ears only, even though I know Cara can hear me to, “She’ll be safe. I promise. And Ryan is close.”

  His dark eyes flare, and then he answers, “Sure. Don’t be gone too long.” And then he places a hard but fast kiss to her lips before letting her go and turning away.

  I thread her arm through mine and lead her to a darker corner of the room where people don’t seem to be hanging around, grabbing each of us a glass of champagne from a passing waiter on the way by.

  “How are you holding up?” I ask Cara as I pass her a glass.

  “I think I’m doing all right.”

  “I know you’re nervous, but you’re doing marvelous!”

  She looks scared shitless, and I should have been paying attention to her, but instead I was fucking off in a broom closet with my worst enemy. I’m an awful friend. I’m not going to let her out of my sight for the rest of the night.

  “Really?” she asks incredulously. “Because it feels like I’ve said three words the whole night and only spoke when asked a question.”

  “Yes! That’s exactly what the group wants,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Women aren’t supposed to speak.”

  “Then why are you?” she asks me as she sips her champagne and watches me, not with judgement but interest in what I have to say. She’s so much like Grace—easy to be around and kind—that I forget I haven’t known her all that long.

  “Because it irritates them.”

  “No, you do not.”

  “Oh, I totally do. Everyone knows it too,” I reply as I sip my drink. It’s true; I tired of being seen and not heard a long time ago. It’s been years since I’ve let someone tell me how I should be. I’m good at my job, smart, strong, and successful, and anyone else can fuck off.

  “And they just let you get away with it?” she asks me, sounding shocked but also a little in awe.

  “Mostly,” I answer with a shrug until Ryan catches my eye from across the room, and I feel my face pull into a frown. Ryan looks absolutely frustrated and more than a little murderous. And I don’t fucking care. He is not going to be my problem anymore. If I just stay away from him, he’ll go away, and then I can forget what it’s like to have him master my body and dole out fantastic orgasms. “Well, except for Ryan. He doesn’t seem to approve of me very much.”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispers.

  Don’t be. I’m not.” I shrug again.

  “I like you, Julia Fairchild,” Cara tells me, and I laugh. She’s good people. “I’m keeping you.”

  “Oh good, because I’ve already decided to keep you too.”

  “Fantastic news.” She smiles back before I catch sight of Grace throwing up a smoke signal from across the room.

  “Oh dear, Grace is sending up a Romeo.”

  “She’s sending up a what?” Cara asks.

  “See how she’s sliding the pendant on her necklace back and forth while glancing over here every so often?”

  “Yes, I do,” she answers. “What is she doing? She looks a little ridiculous.”

  “She does, doesn’t she?” I reply with a sigh. “She’s sending up a Romeo. It’s an old sorority secret. When you need an out, you slide your necklace like that, and a sister or two will come rescue you. Simple as that. So you see, it’s our duty to go find out what our dear First Lady needs.”

  “Seeing how she’s very pregnant and dancing a bit, I’m guessing it’s the powder room,” Cara says. I never would have thought about that, but then again, out of all three of us, I’m the only one who’s never been pregnant, and I probably never will.

  “It looks like you would be correct.”

  “We should probably hurry.”

  “Hello!” I say brightly, interrupting whatever the man she was speaking to was saying. “Will you excuse us for a moment? I need to steal the First Lady for some important business.”

  I don’t even give him time to reply. I just smile dazzlingly, loop my arm through Grace’s, and wheel her away with Cara in tow. I smile at everyone, as does Grace, and Cara follows our lead, but I do not slow as I move us through the room.

  We bypass a ladies’ room and travel farther down the hall. Grace’s main agent follows us at a discreet distance. We take a turn down another hallway and find a more private restroom. A quick look shows that it’s empty.

  “Thank God. Jake’s giant baby is Irish folk dancing on my now very teeny tiny bladder. I thought I was going to die,” Grace exclaims as she rushes for a stall.

  “Well, we’re all glad you didn’t.” I laugh.

  Grace comes out of the stall and washes her hands. As she’s reapplying her lipstick, two women walk in the restroom, laughing and clearly enjoying themselves.

  “Did you see the way Jake was looking at you?” one asks the other, and I recognize her. In fact, I’m wondering what the hell they’re doing here. “He clearly can’t wait to get his hands on you, and who could blame him? His wife is the size of a barn.”

  “And I can’t wait for him to get his hands on me,” Ashley Jeffries purrs. God, I cannot stand her. Either of them, really. “He’s so good with his hands.”

  The door swings open, and they see us standing there. I know exactly what they’re up to. We all know exactly what these two monsters are trying for.

  “Oh!” Ashley gasps in mock horror. “You weren’t supposed to hear that.”

  “You don’t say,” Grace drolls.

  “I never wanted you to find out about us this way,” she says, like Jake would actually want anything to do with her. Ashley was in the running for Grace’s position as Jake’s wife, or so she thought before Grace entered the picture. And there is no doubt where anyone is concerned that Jake is faithful to the wife he so openly adores.

  “Sure, sure,” Grace says.

  “It’s just that you know Jake and I have known each other for so long, and our families go way back. One thing just kind of led to another,” she says. “You know how it is.”

  Her ridiculousness hangs in the air between us, and then I swear, I try, but I just can’t help myself. A teeny tiny giggle escapes me. And then another. And another, until I’m bent over laughing so hard I can’t catch my breath and tears are running down my face. Thank God for waterproof mascara!

  “I don’t see what’s so funny,” Ashley snaps.

  “You are,” I say, wiping a tear from my eye. “Like anyone would believe that load of horse shit that just spewed from your mouth. Everyone can see Jake is madly in love with his wife. You’re just mad it’s not you after the military campaign you waged last year for his ring. Right, Cara?”

  “Right,” she backs me up immediately. If there was a test you had to pass to get into the sisterhood, Cara just passed with flying colors when she helped me clearly defend the Team Grace camp. “Jake is full gone f
or Grace. Anyone can see that. The thought of him cheating is laughable at best. Good one.”

  “I wouldn’t be so quick to laugh if I were you,” she says, turning on Cara, and I hold my breath to see what kind of vitriol she’s going to spew and how Cara will react to it. “Amy was talking to Rick earlier, and he was very interested. If you know what I mean.”

  “Oh, I do, and I’m not worried,” she replies coolly, and I’m not gonna lie; she impressed the fuck out of me. I didn’t know anyone else could swing around a pair of lady balls as big as mine. I stand corrected.

  “We should probably get going, ladies,” Grace says to us. “Nice seeing you again, Ashley.”

  “Don’t think you’ll keep him!” she whisper-shouts as we leave. “He will come back to me. He always comes back to me.”

  “Wow,” Cara whispers. “What a bitch.”

  We wind our way back through the crowd, and Jake steals Grace away. Their duty for the evening is done, and he’s obviously read to get Grace home safely. They’re so sweet to watch.

  “Ready to go?” Rick asks as he approaches Cara.

  “I thought you’d never ask.”

  I laugh. Awe, young love. “Be good, kids,” I tell them with a smile before I lean in and kiss Cara on the cheek. And then Rick leads her out with an arm around her.

  I feel a warning tingle go up my spine, and I look back over my shoulder. Ryan is talking to someone from some dignitary’s entourage, but he’s watching me, and the look he’s sending my way promises something ominous. So before he has a chance to do or say anything else that confuses me or makes me want something I shouldn’t, something I know I can’t have, I turn and run.

  “Press Secretary Shakes Things Up at White House”

  Chapter 4

  Hate myself

  “Babe,” the sexiest voice I’ve ever heard says, and I hate that it heats my body up from the inside out, even in my sleep. “We gotta talk.”

  “I don’t wanna,” I mumble, never opening my eyes, and I pull the covers up higher around my ears and let myself drift back to sleep.