by Jayne Blue
“It might be someone important, baby,” I protested. “Or maybe it’s the manager here to apologize for not giving you the room you thought you should get.”
This got Seth’s attention and another growl. “You’re probably right. Wait here and I’ll get rid of them.” He peeled himself off me and I caught my breath. Despite his directive, I followed right behind him as he made his way to the door. Another pounding knock shattered the peace of the mountain view just as Seth reached out to open it.
He swung it open and my heart dropped to my feet. Leaning with one hand against the door jamb and his other in the pocket of his tailored dress pants was Jack. He raised a seductive brow when my eyes met his.
“Nice room,” Jack said with a smirk, peering around Seth’s shoulder, waiting to be invited in. I widened my eyes at him and gestured with my hand across my neck. I just got him off his room-envy rage. Now here was Jack undoing it and poking at Seth, just like any older brother, step or not. He shot me a wink so quick I don’t think Seth saw it then dodged around him and walked in.
He took my hands in his and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Touching him made my heart race, no matter how chaste we both tried to be.
“I didn’t know you’d be here this week,” I said, mustering a sing-song tone. “That’s wonderful. Seth, don’t you think that’s wonderful? At least I’ll know one other person.”
“That depends,” Seth said, shutting the door a little harder than necessary. “You here to gloat, Jack, or are you here to actually help me?”
“Don’t you have a campaign manager by now for that?” Jack said, crossing the room to stand in front of the window and admire the glorious view.
“I’m still working on that,” Seth said. “That’s part of what this week is about. And now that you’re here, can I pick your brain about some of that?”
Jack shrugged. “I’m not a politician, Seth. I’m a money guy. Hire somebody with a winning track record and then listen to them.”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m an idiot,” Seth said.
“That’s your biggest problem right there,” Jack said. The more agitated Seth got, the calmer Jack seemed to get which only made it worse. “You think you know everything and don’t take constructive advice. You keep that up and it’s gonna be a mercifully quick campaign. You wanted to pick my brain, consider it picked.”
He turned from the window to face Seth. Seth’s face had a purple hue I recognized as barely contained rage.
“Be a good host and make me a martini, would you?” Jack said, then he turned me and crooked his arm. “Care to give me the ten-cent tour?” He didn’t wait for Seth to give his blessing but walked with me into the master suite.
“Do you have to rile him up?” I whispered through my fake smile as soon as we were more or less out of Seth’s earshot.
“He’s a child, Tora,” Jack said. “It doesn’t take much. And you know and I know I just told him the truth.”
“Right,” I said. “Then you leave and he sulks and pouts and I’m stuck dealing with him.”
A shadow darkened Jack’s face as he opened the sliding door and stepped out on our balcony. I followed him and closed the door behind us. Seth hadn’t come out to join us so I hoped he was busy making that drink. It really was a magnificent view. The base of the mountains were lush and green and clean air filled my lungs.
“Now you’re sulking,” I said as I came to stand at his side.
Jack turned, looking over my shoulder toward the room. Satisfied that we weren’t being watched just at the moment, he put his hands on my upper arms and pulled me a few inches closer.
It wasn’t fair. Being this close to Jack without being able to act on it was a new kind of torture. I saw the same emotion cross his face and his grip on my arms grew stronger – not rough, but enough to transmit his own frustration.
“Why did you come here?” I said. “You’re making this more complicated for me than it needs to be.”
“I’m worried about you,” he said. “I already told you why.” He kept looking over my head for Seth.
“You don’t have to be,” I answered. “I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it since I was ten years old.”
“You don’t know these people like I do.” Jack spoke through gritted teeth. He squeezed me harder and then let go. “Seth’s a small fish in a very big pond. He doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. If he came here to threaten George Pagano into helping him with this election, it could be dangerous. I don’t want you getting too close to that.”
His expression changed when he saw mine. His eyes widened, then narrowed to slits. “And that’s exactly what you’re banking on, isn’t it? Jesus Christ, Tora, I wasn’t kidding about who this guy is.”
“And I wasn’t kidding about who I am,” I said. “I’m not stupid, Jack. I don’t plan on confronting the guy myself.”
“Fine,” he said. “But I still plan on keeping my eyes on you. Like I told you before, you’re not alone in this anymore. I don’t know how ... but I plan on finding a way to help you.”
I wanted to kiss him and smack him all at the same time. Hot tears stung my eyes and Jack’s face changed again. I sensed he probably wanted to kiss and smack me too. “It’s just harder when I’m around you,” I finally said. “Being close to you complicates things.”
His shoulders fell and he looked at me with an emotion I couldn’t place. Or maybe I could but I wouldn’t let myself give a name to it. “I’m sorry and I’m not sorry for that, Tora,” he whispered as the sliding door opened behind me. I jumped, brushed my fingers under my eyes and put my smile back in place before turning to face my husband.
Chapter Six
Jack
I made a mistake. A big one. Plus, I was a big fat liar. I told Tora I came here to look out for her, to help her. Okay, that was partly true. But the crux of it was I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It had been over two weeks since I’d been alone with her and I wasn’t sure I could stand another day of it. Every minute she wasn’t with me, she was with Seth. It drove me mad.
Of course, I saw what he was, or what he was becoming. He wasn’t a fall-down drunk yet, but he was headed that way. Plus, twice now I’d seen him pop pills. Once at his own wedding reception and just a little while ago in their room. Tora hadn’t seen but before we stepped out on her balcony, he turned away from me and I saw him take pills out of his pocket when he thought she wasn’t looking. It meant half the time or more, he probably couldn’t perform. But if even sometimes he did ... if even once ... I wanted to curl my hands around his skinny neck and squeeze.
So coming here was a mistake. Distance would have been the smart play, just like Reed advised. But here I was, in maybe the most public place either of us could be, and I sat at a table in the grand dining room of The Maples watching as Tora made her entrance on Seth’s arm.
She was stunning as she always was. She wore a clinging white halter dress with her hair swept up in a bun. I wanted to touch her. Feel the smooth curve of her ass as I pressed her against me and threaded my fingers through her hair to loosen it and send it down in waves across my arm.
How the hell was I going to make it through a whole week without someone seeing the lust that had to be written all over my face? I looked around the room as they made their way to a table. At least a half a dozen other men were giving her the exact same look. My gaze clouded with red murder.
Yeah. A big mistake.
Her moves were flawless. She gazed up at Seth as he talked to a former Speaker of the House. He told some joke and she laughed, covering her mouth with a delicate hand then letting it fall gently along Seth’s arm. To anyone else she looked besotted with him. But I alone knew when she wore her mask. She drew a circle of men around them as Seth talked. They all wanted to get close to her. Take her hand. Kiss her cheek. She played her part so well, drawing the attention back to Seth if only for a moment. They would remember him because of her. Sure, Seth was still an idiot, but maybe he was a
different kind of idiot than I thought. In this habitat, any fool could see what an asset she was to him.
“That’s a hell of a girl he’s got there.”
I startled at the voice next to me. It was Senator Ed Jeffries, the man whose seat Seth was trying to fill in the Governor’s special election. Jeffries was well past retirement age at eighty-two, but I knew him to still have a razor-sharp intellect and would personally be sorry to see him go, regardless of who replaced him.
I nodded and reached for my wine. It was no good trying to act casual about it. He’d caught me staring so I might as well just own it. “She seems to be,” I answered.
“His mother hated her, I hear,” Jeffries said and I had to smile. It appears I wasn’t the only liar tonight.
“Oh, you hear, huh? She probably flat out told you,” I said. I knew the idea to have Seth go for Jeffries’s seat came from Miranda. She would have discussed it with him in great detail. Miranda Manning was a cold, calculating bitch. She wouldn’t have left any of this to chance.
Jeffries laughed. “More or less, yes. Let’s just say she was a protective Mother Lioness.”
I raised a brow. “She was that.” I gestured to the vacant seat beside me and Jeffries plopped down into it.
“You think he’s electable?” Jeffries asked and I knew we’d moved away from chit chat. I’d been coming to these things at the Legacy Foundation for a long time and we’d had more than a few serious conversations about the direction of the party. I knew he valued my opinion and I didn’t take the question lightly.
“He might be,” I said and it was honest. Electability and ability to do the job are two very different things. I decided to tell Jeffries exactly what I’d told Seth just a few hours earlier. “If he can learn to listen to smart people who want to help him.”
Jeffries nodded. “You know we have a lot of concerns about that. Everyone knows what kind of person his mother was, but Seth is untested. I wouldn’t mind seeing him try for a state office first.”
I nodded.
“It’s a shame what happened to Miranda though,” Jeffries said. “There are a lot of people here who respected the hell out of her. A lot of other people who think her talents were being wasted on the bench. But even in death, her coattails might just be long enough.”
I nodded again.
“So what happened there?” Jeffries turned to me and I couldn’t hide the puzzlement on my face.
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” he said. “I thought that woman would live forever. She ran six miles a day and was built like a brick shit house. If she can drop dead like that what hope is there for the rest of us? Was it her heart?”
I shrugged. “It came as a pretty big shock to me too. I don’t really know what the cause was. I haven’t talked much to Seth about that aspect of it. She just went to sleep and didn’t wake up. The timing of it sucked, but I gotta say I hope that’s how I go out one day too.”
Jeffries chuckled. “Not me. I’ve got a slightly different fantasy about what I wanna be doing when I draw my last breath.” He wagged his bushy white eyebrows at me then his gaze went back out to the middle of the room where Tora still stood with her back to me. She was leaning toward Seth’s ear as he introduced her to yet another old white guy she was supposed to remember as important.
My heart froze in my chest as I saw who it was. George Pagano stood in front of her with a wide grin on his beefy face. He drew her into an embrace and I watched as his sausage-shaped fingers trailed down the middle of her back and lingered just above her ass.
“Lecherous fuck.” Jeffries gave voice to the thought in my head. “You know he travels with about three different whores and yet look at him out there pawing that girl.”
I set my glass down gently on the table, afraid I’d crush the stem between my fingers. “It looks like she can maybe handle herself,” I said, more to convince myself than Jeffries. Tora had just stepped backwards and out of Pagano’s reach. I was desperate to see her face. Was she okay? I knew she’d met Pagano once before but not since she found out about his role in her father’s case.
“Maybe so,” Jeffries agreed. “Still, I’d put a thought into your brother’s ear to keep a close eye on her this week. That girl is fresh meat around here and the last thing he can afford is any kind of scandal involving his new bride. Miranda’s opinion of her carries more weight than you think. There’s plenty of people around here that think she’s an easy mark.”
I resisted the urge to correct him on the nature of my relationship with Seth. But his warning about Tora peaked my interest more. “In what way?” I asked, trying to make my voice as casual as I could.
“Well, Miranda was convinced she was just a gold digger. And that’s a polite description for the words she used. I’d say just watching her for the last ten minutes, that girl’s done some sorely needed rehabilitation of that image ... but she needs to stay close to her husband this week. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
My blood ran cold. Did Jeffries suspect something about Tora and me? He stared through me with his keen, blue eyes and I kept my face even. He was testing my reaction and I’d be damned if I would give him anything.
“I’ll make sure to pass that message along to Seth,” I said.
Jeffries patted me on the shoulder as he rose to leave. “Good man, Jack. You’re a good man. Like you said, it’s time for your brother to start listening to smart people. I trust you know what to tell him.”
I nodded and Jeffries kept looking at me with that knowing stare. I could try and rationalize it, but Ed Jeffries didn’t have a coy bone in his body. He’d been watching me long enough before he decided to sit down at my table. Maybe he didn’t know that we’d acted on it, but he had my feelings about Tora figured out. Hopefully, no one else did.
Pagano was gone now and any immediate danger from him had passed for the moment. So, the best way to protect Tora was to get the hell out of here before anyone else saw me looking at her like I wanted to hike up that designer dress and bend her over something.
Chapter Seven
Tora
Maybe if I hadn’t had so much practice hiding my feelings I would have reacted differently. Or reacted at all. But when George Pagano slid his arm around my waist and pulled me close to him, I gave him a thousand-watt smile and let him kiss me. His wet lips left a slick trail across my cheek that felt like poison as the cool air hit it. I resisted the urge to wipe it away.
“I’m so sorry you weren’t able to join us for the wedding,” I said, laying a hand on his lapel and beaming up at his round face. He was sixty, fifty pounds overweight and in my four-inch heels, he was only about an inch taller than me. He was bald on top with thinning silver hair at his temples. He had a round face with full lips lined with deep lines and deep set eyes that seemed black as coal.
“I just regret not getting to see what a beautiful bride I’m sure you made,” he said, sliding his beefy hand down my bare back and letting it rest just above my ass. In fact, he stretched his pinky down and pressed in just at the slope and tapped me there. It could be nothing, maybe just a twitch, but something flashed in Pagano’s beady eyes that told me it wasn’t. His breath was hot against my face and I turned out of his arms and gathered Seth’s hand in mine.
Seth regarded Pagano and I wished he were better at masking his emotions like I was. He narrowed his gaze at Pagano and didn’t extend his hand to shake.
“Well, we’re all here now,” I said, patting Seth on the sleeve. “Plenty of time to catch up. Can you join us for dinner? Do we have assigned seating?”
“It’s buffet style tonight,” George said, matching Seth’s stare. “I’m afraid my dance card’s full for the evening but why don’t we make a reservation in the Boar’s Head Lounge for tomorrow night?”
“Perfect,” I clapped my hands together, hoping I wasn’t overdoing it. “Will Mrs. Pagano be able to join us?”
George threw his head back and laughed. “She wouldn’t b
e caught dead at one of these things. She’s in the Hamptons, spending my money. It’ll just be a threesome.”
“Seth,” I turned to him. “Why don’t we see if Jack would like to join us tomorrow night too? Then I won’t feel like a third wheel.” I don’t know why the hell I said it. But the tension between Pagano and Seth had the hairs standing up on the back of my neck. Besides, he’d been right about one thing. He knew these people better than I did. There might be some inside baseball or some clue I might miss during dinner. A second set of ears wouldn’t hurt.
“Jackie Jr.’s here?” Pagano said, looking around. “Can’t wait to see who he brought with him this time.”
“What do you mean?” I said. “I think he’s here alone.”
This caused a knowing look to pass between Seth and Pagano. “Oh, darling, I assure you, your brother-in-law is very rarely alone at these things. Now if you’ll excuse me.” He patted Seth on the back.
“Six o’clock?” I flashed a smile. “For dinner tomorrow, I mean. Shall I take care of making reservations?”
Pagano winked at me. “Six is perfect. No need for reservations. I have my own table. And I wouldn’t pass up a chance to enjoy your company for anything, Mrs. Manning.”
Then he turned on his heel and disappeared into the crowd. I’d broken into a cold sweat both at the shock of being so close to him and the sneering exchange he’d shared with Seth about Jack. It was stupid, really. I didn’t have a claim on him, I knew that. For God’s sake, I was married as far as the rest of the world know. But what did I really know about Jack? He very likely might have brought a date with him this week. Most everyone around here did. There was an undercurrent as well. Seth was one of the few Legacy members who brought his actual wife, if you could call me that.
“Let’s go find a table,” Seth said pulling me out of my head for a merciful moment. He took my hand and pulled me along a little rougher than necessary.
“Dinner with Pagano tomorrow is a good thing, right?” I asked. “You can clear the air.”