by Marie Force
But he could care less about her apartment or her ruthless organizational skills. No, he needed a horizontal surface, and he needed it right now. His gaze landed on the kitchen counter. That would do.
He removed her suit coat and began unfastening the delicate pearl buttons that held her blouse together. Pushing back the two sides, he unveiled a sexy lace something-or-other underneath that made him want to howl from lust. He reached around her and released her skirt, pushing it down over her hips until it pooled around her heels, which he left on.
Harry took a step back to look his fill at creamy flesh encased in lace, garters holding silk stockings and the tiniest scrap of fabric pretending to be panties. She was a freaking goddess, and the best part was she had no idea.
“Harry… What’s wrong?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely nothing. You… You’re so indecently beautiful.”
Her arms folded across her chest. “I am not indecent.”
Leave it to her to focus on that one word. Gently taking hold of her arms, he drew them down to her sides and bent his head to kiss the plump tops of her breasts. “I meant that as the highest of compliments.” He left everything on except the panties, which he removed before backing her up to the kitchen counter.
“Harry…”
“Hmm?” He was very busy kissing her gorgeous neck as he released his belt and the fasteners on his suit pants.
“What’re you doing?”
“This.” They’d had the safe sex talk the last time and had concluded that condoms weren’t needed. He lifted her and brought her down on his hard cock.
She gasped from the impact, the tight fit, the heat they created together. Her fingers gripped his hair and shoulder.
He had an ass cheek in each hand as he lifted her up and down, driving into her hard and fast, needing to slake the insane desire that’d been eating him up for weeks. Depositing her on the countertop, he leaned over her and captured her mouth in a deep, desperate kiss as he reached down to where they were joined to help her along.
She broke the kiss and cried out, her inner muscles clamping down on his cock and finishing him off long before he was ready. That was what she did to him. She made him crazy and hungry and needy for more of her. She was still coming when he kissed her, continuing to stroke into her even after they both had come.
Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her off the counter, kicked off his pants and carried her to the bedroom, where round two happened at a much more leisurely but no less satisfying pace.
Afterward, he held her as his heart rate and breathing slowly returned to normal. “I’m not going to let you run away from me again. This is happening.”
“What is it exactly that’s happening? So far, all it’s been is a couple of drinks and some sex.”
“Don’t you mean amazing, life-changing sex?”
She poked his side and made him laugh. “Answer the question.”
“It’s going to be much more than that. It already is. At least for me. I thought I’d go crazy hoping you would call me.”
“You could’ve called me.”
“Would you have taken a call from me?”
Her silence spoke volumes.
“Will you take my call now?”
After another long silence, she said, “Yes, Harry. I’ll take your call.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
THINGS HAPPEN FAST when you’re the vice president of the United States and request a private meeting with the embattled president and his wife.
Sam hated having to go to the White House with her face looking the way it did, but with Nick under tremendous pressure to testify in the congressional hearings, they had to do it before the president ceded to calls for his resignation.
The meeting took place in the residence, which Sam had not seen before.
Per Nick’s request, it was only the four of them sitting in a parlor with a coffee service and tray of Danish on the table between them.
Sam had worn her sleekest light gray suit, a pink silk blouse and the Louboutins Nick had bought her for Christmas last year as well as the diamond key necklace he’d given her as a wedding gift and her diamond engagement ring that she only wore on special occasions. A private meeting with the president and first lady in the White House residence counted as a special occasion in her world. She had brought clothes to change into before she went to work.
“My goodness!” Gloria Nelson zeroed right in on the massacre on Sam’s face. “What happened?”
Overnight, the bruise had turned an angry purple color and her eye was completely swollen shut. She hoped her one working eye would be enough to gauge whether the Nelsons were telling the truth.
“A scuffle with someone who didn’t think he needed to be arrested,” Sam said, choosing fiction over fact. Her troubles with colleagues had been in the news often enough. She hoped to keep this latest incident under wraps.
“I so admire what you do.” Gloria poured coffee for each of them. She wore a tan suit and looked as if she’d just stepped out of a beauty salon while Sam looked like the Bride of Frankenstein. “Especially with what’s been happening in the city lately. Are you any closer to an arrest in the shootings?”
“We’re closing in,” Sam said, keeping it brief. They weren’t there to talk about the case she needed to get back to.
“Thank you for meeting with us on short notice,” Nick said.
“It was the least we could do under the circumstances,” David Nelson said.
“We want you to know,” Gloria said, her voice quivering with emotion, “how sorry we are for what our son put you through. We’re appalled by the entire thing.”
“If you’ve come to ask me to resign,” the president said, “I’ll do it. I have no desire to put the country through a protracted scandal that’ll probably end badly for me anyway.”
“We haven’t come to ask you to resign,” Nick said. “We’d like to hear directly from you that you knew nothing about what your son was up to.”
“We didn’t,” Nelson said, looking Nick in the eye. “I swear on the lives of our grandchildren. We did not know.”
“Christopher has been a difficult child from the beginning,” Gloria said haltingly. “We have five children, and we love them all, but he didn’t make it easy. He was in and out of trouble, involved with drugs and kicked out of four schools. His brothers and sisters were high achievers, excellent students and athletes, college graduates. He managed to graduate from law school, but just barely, and there were hushed allegations of cheating in school and that he paid someone to take the bar exam for him. We’ve long believed that the so-called think tank he oversees is a front for illegal activity, but we could never prove it. Until he was arrested and we found out what he’d been doing.” A tear rolled down her cheek, and she brushed it away as if it infuriated her. “We’re horrified by what he did. The threats against innocent children, the murder of Sam’s ex-husband, the things he got Nick’s mother to say…”
The president took her hand and sent her a loving look. “We did everything we could to get him the help he needed,” David said. “He’s been to rehab so many times I’ve lost count. He’s gone through at least twenty psychiatrists and been on a variety of medications that either made things worse or turned him into a zombie.” He swallowed hard. “Despite all that, never in a million years did we think he was capable of the things he’s done. If we’d had any idea…” His voice broke.
“We would’ve intervened if we’d known,” Gloria said emphatically.
Sam glanced at Nick and saw that he was visibly moved by the Nelsons’ story.
“I have one question,” Sam said.
“We’ll answer any questions you have,” David said.
“How did you keep his troubles private in the age of the twenty-four-hour news cycle?”
“I was a senator with
a bright political future and four other children to think about. I buried it.”
His blunt words gave Sam new respect. While she didn’t agree with what he’d done, as a parent herself, she understood why. People went to extraordinary lengths to protect their children.
“Do you have other questions?” Nick asked Sam.
She shook her head. “I’ve heard what I need to, and I feel better knowing you both had no knowledge of what your son was doing.” That was the signal she’d worked out with Nick in advance so he’d know she believed them.
“Sam and I are going to issue a statement, letting the public—and the Congress—know that we’ve met with you and we believe you when you say you had no knowledge of your son’s schemes.”
David stared at him, appearing shocked. “Why would you do that?”
“Frankly, because I don’t wish to become president. Not now and not like this. However, there is something I do want.”
“Name it.”
“A seat at your table and a role in your administration beyond boosting your sagging approval ratings.”
Nelson had the good sense to look chagrined by the assertion that he’d sidelined his more popular vice president. “We can make that happen effective immediately.”
“Excellent. We’ll issue a statement today that’ll hopefully put an end to this madness so we can get back to doing the people’s business.”
“I…I don’t know what to say,” Nelson said.
“Say thank-you, dear,” Gloria said.
Nelson stood and offered his hand to Nick. “You have my profound thanks and any role in my administration you wish to take on going forward.”
Nick rose to shake the president’s hand. “I’ll give that some thought and get back to you.”
“I’ll look forward to hearing from you.”
Sam shook their hands, and then preceded Nick to the door. He took her hand and they walked silently through the hallways of the White House, with Brant following close behind them, until they reached Nick’s office. Once inside with the door closed, he turned to her. “I’m glad you believed them, because I did too.”
“Their ordeal didn’t begin with Christopher’s latest crimes,” Sam said. “As a parent, I feel for them.”
“How can a family have four great kids and one bad apple?”
“I don’t know, but hearing what they went through with him makes me thankful for our fantastic kid.”
He put his arms around her and kissed the uninjured side of her face. “Me too. Will you still love me if I’m only going to be the vice president for the time being?”
“I love you more for being only the vice president. Thank God that monkey is off our backs.”
“It’s not yet, but it will be soon, and then the only monkey we’ll have left is the monkey sex.”
Sam laughed, and he kissed her gently, careful not to touch the side of her mouth that hurt.
She wished she had time to burrow into him and breathe in the endlessly appealing scent of home. “I need to get to work.”
They’d already put together the joint statement they would release now that they were confident about the president’s lack of culpability in his son’s crimes. The gist of the statement, which they planned to give to Darren Tabor exclusively, was that the Cappuanos had met with the Nelsons, and the vice president and second lady believe the president and first lady when they say they had nothing to do with their son’s crimes. They hope the president and Congress can get back to the important work on behalf of the American people.
“Let me give you a lift.” He summoned Brant and asked him to prepare to leave to get Sam to work.
“It’d be less complicated if you put me in a cab.”
“Maybe so, but I couldn’t go with you for the ride. This way, I can.”
“I do like the way you think, Mr. Vice President.”
“I like the way you do everything.”
* * *
AVERY SCORED A LUNCHTIME appointment with Rosemary. After Shelby agreed to come with him, he’d wanted to get it done as soon as possible so they could hopefully get back on track. He already felt better after talking to her the night before. At least the problem was out in the open now, rather than festering like a wound that couldn’t be healed no matter how hard he tried.
As he drove them, Shelby texted with her sister, who was staying with Noah while they were gone. It was the first time she’d left the baby, and she’d been a hot mess about it. He hoped that wouldn’t derail the purpose of this outing.
“He’s fine, honey. Your sister is a professional mom.” Nancy had three teenagers. “You called in an expert.”
“I know.”
“Shelby.”
She glanced over at him. “What?”
“Stop texting her. She knows what to do, and she’ll call if she needs you.”
“Let me just send this last one so she knows where the extra bottles are.”
“You left her with a week’s worth of breast milk. She won’t need extra bottles before we get back.”
“Are you making fun of me?” she asked, her tone tinged with amusement.
“Would I do that?”
“Yes, I believe you would.”
“Darlin’, that’d just be mean.”
“Don’t unleash that accent on me. You know what it does to me.”
The tiny taste of normal made him hungry for more. Taking a chance, he reached for her hand, knocking the phone into her purse in the process.
“Smooth.”
“I try.” He held on to her hand until he had to release it to parallel park. “If I get out and come around to get you, will you check your phone while I’m outside?”
“Of course not. Why would I do that?”
Avery laughed. “Why indeed. Wait for me.” He stepped out into thick, swampy heat. People who didn’t believe in climate change needed to spend some time in the District in the summer. It seemed to get hotter every year. Opening the passenger door, he held out a hand for Shelby and helped her out.
She’d worn a cute pink dress with white polka dots and sky-high pink heels and had obviously spent time on her hair and makeup. On the sly, Avery had asked her sister if they had time for lunch after their appointment, and she’d encouraged him to stay out as long as they wanted. He planned to break the lunch news to Shelby after their appointment.
Since they had a minute, he rested his hands on her hips and looked down at her. He’d never thought much of the color pink until she’d come into his life with her obsession for it. Now pink reminded him of her, and he loved it. “In case I forgot to say so earlier, you look gorgeous today.”
“You look gorgeous all the time. It’s really not fair.”
“Shut up,” he said, smiling as he kissed her.
“It’s true. No woman should have to live with a man who looks as good as you do from the minute you wake up.”
Raising a brow, he said, “Are you saying you don’t want to live with me anymore?”
“Not at all. I’m merely pointing out your unfair advantage.”
“If you could see yourself through my eyes, you’d know you have nothing to feel disadvantaged about. In my opinion, you have all the advantages.”
“And that! The accent, the words, the gorgeous golden eyes, the cheekbones…” She sighed dramatically. “Not fair.”
For the first time since he’d ruined everything, he felt hopeful that they might be able to put their relationship back together. Taking her hand, he led her to the door to Rosemary’s office. “This is where I come to have my soul scrubbed in battery acid.”
Shelby laughed at his description of the therapy. “I’m looking forward to meeting this woman you spend so much time with.”
“You’ll like her.”
Rosemary’s door was propped open, so Av
ery knocked. He suspected she’d added this hour to her schedule to accommodate them more quickly, and he appreciated that.
“Come in,” she said cheerfully.
After spending her days listening to other people’s problems, he marveled at her cheerfulness. He’d be ready to murder someone. With his hand on the small of Shelby’s back, Avery ushered her in ahead of him.
“Hi there.” Rosemary extended a hand to Shelby. “You must be Shelby. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Likewise.”
“I’m sure Avery has plenty to say about me,” Rosemary said drolly. “He loves every minute he spends with me.”
The comment made them laugh and eased his tension. “You know it,” he said.
“I’m so glad you could come in,” Rosemary said to Shelby.
He could tell that the therapist’s friendliness had put Shelby at ease.
“Thanks for accommodating us on short notice.”
“No problem at all. I understand you’re madly in love with your little Noah.”
“Oh, he’s just the best. I waited forever to be a mom, and he’s made the wait well worth it.”
“Congratulations. Enjoy every minute. He’ll grow up so fast.”
“That’s what everyone says.”
“Well, we all know why we’re here, and I want to make sure we get the most out of our hour together, so I’ll cut to the chase. Avery has told me about his mistake and the terrible hurt it has caused and the ensuing rift between the two of you.”
“Wow,” Shelby said, glancing at him. “She doesn’t mince words.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
Rosemary smiled. “I want to help. What can I do to help you move past this, Shelby?”
“I… I’ve been trying to put it behind me. Avery… He’s so wonderful with Noah. He loves him so much, which is such a special gift to me—and to Noah. I’d expected to raise him on my own. When Avery came into my life and said he didn’t care how the baby was conceived… He said he’d love him no matter where he came from. That’s when I fell in love with him.”