“Abbie,” Jonathan said, his tone warning. He’d been so focused on defusing the situation that he hadn’t noticed Abbie had been coiled beside him, ready to strike.
This situation could go from bad to worse in a hurry. Since when had Abbie become a liability rather than an asset?
Abbie glanced over her shoulder at Jonathan, and she must have noticed the seriousness in his eyes because she removed her hand from the reporter’s chest and stepped aside, crossing her arms and looking away.
The reporter moved to the side, but only far enough over to allow Jonathan to open the car door. Abbie circled around to the other side of the car.
“Please call my office in the morning,” Jonathan said. “Perhaps I can make room in my schedule for an interview.”
The reporter didn’t respond and instead looked over at his cameraman to make sure they’d captured the footage. The man behind the camera gave a thumbs-up.
Shit. How long until that footage was all over the media?
Jonathan was so screwed.
“This is Larry Sidkowski for Channel Forty-Six, and you’ve just seen Congressman—”
Jonathan closed his door, not wanting to hear any more. Abbie sat in the passenger seat, fuming. It took all his willpower not to unleash his fury as he pulled out of the parking lot.
“Abbie, what the hell was that?” he asked, his voice tight. He gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles whitened.
“He was harassing you,” she said simply, as if that explained and excused what had happened.
“That doesn’t matter. I’ve had enough bad press this week.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“He threatened you. He grabbed you.”
“I don’t need you to defend me! I was handling the situation.”
“It didn’t look like it. Sometimes words aren’t enough, Jonathan.”
“You aren’t my bodyguard anymore!”
Abbie stiffened and turned her face toward the window.
Goddamnit, he knew she meant well, but sometimes meaning well wasn’t all that was needed. She knew it was not okay to manhandle a reporter, especially while the cameras were rolling. He knew she was unhappy being stuck on desk duty at work, but for God’s sake, she needed to rein it in and get her adrenaline kicks another way.
And not only that, but he didn’t want her fighting his fights. The situation with Hak Tanir was different. He had been out of his league and he knew that. But fielding media requests was his territory. She needed to understand that he could handle it.
Because what the hell? Did she think he couldn’t take on an aggressive reporter?
“That situation didn’t directly involve you,” he said. “You shouldn’t have engaged.”
“He assaulted you! How does that not involve me? Am I just supposed to stand by and watch? If you think for even a moment that I can let someone hurt you then you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”
“Abbie, we’re both stressed, but you’re smarter than that. I know you are.” He paused. “And if you’re going to be with me, maybe one day be a congressman’s wife, you’re going to need to learn to control yourself.”
Abbie’s jaw dropped and she blinked several times. “There were so many things hurtful in that statement, I don’t know where to start.”
Jonathan pulled to a stop at a red light and sighed. Like everything else in his life these days, this conversation was not going well.
The incident with the reporter was only the tip of the iceberg. Last week, they’d been happy and in love. This week, everything was crumbling all around them.
“I want you in my life, Abbie. You haven’t said a word about moving in. Where do you think we’re heading?”
He hadn’t realized how badly he needed to know the answer to that question until he’d asked it. Six months ago, he’d been happy being Capitol Hill’s most beloved bachelor. But now, that wasn’t enough for him. Since Abbie had come into his life, he wanted more. And he needed to know she wanted the same. That maybe one day soon she’d want to wear the ring he carried around in his pocket.
But Abbie stared straight ahead. “I don’t think you want me to answer that question right now. Please just take me home.”
Chapter 17
Abbie paced around her apartment at 2:00 a.m. She couldn’t settle down.
She’d lost control earlier with that reporter. She’d lost control and she hated herself for it. She wasn’t above using force when the situation warranted it, but since when did that become her first response?
And the situation with Jonathan was unnerving her more than she wanted to admit. She loved him. That wasn’t changing anytime soon. So why was she hesitating to move forward?
Because it wasn’t as simple as moving forward with Jonathan. It was a bigger decision than moving in with a regular man. He was a congressman and there were responsibilities that went along with that. Sure, she was already attending functions with him, but moving in together was a much bigger step.
Plus, he’d been throwing out the word wife with more regularity and it was scaring the shit out of her. God, she hadn’t realized what a commitment-phobe she’d turned into, but she was breaking out into hives every time that word came out of his mouth.
Her kind guarded the presidents and congressmen and wives. She wasn’t one of them.
She couldn’t wish that part of him away, though. Jonathan’s commitment to service made him who he was. Take that away, and he wouldn’t be the man she fell in love with.
It was a real pisser.
She knew she wouldn’t solve the issue tonight, so she tried to tuck it away in the back of her mind. She needed to go to bed instead of wearing a hole in the carpet. So she went into her bathroom and squirted some toothpaste on her toothbrush.
God, she’d messed up. But how the hell did those reporters know where they would be? It wasn’t a coincidence. It was strange that they all suddenly came across the hole-in-the-wall restaurant at the same time, especially since Jonathan had managed to keep it a secret for the last decade.
Someone tipped them off.
“Son of a bitch,” Abbie said, her words garbled because the toothbrush was hanging out of her mouth. She quickly spat and rinsed.
It was the hacker. It had to be him. But how?
Earlier that afternoon, Jonathan had called her and asked her to dinner. Had he said the name of the restaurant? She couldn’t remember, but he must have.
That would mean that their phone lines had been tapped. Or at least one of them. It was the only explanation.
Or was it?
Maybe Jonathan listed the name of the restaurant in his online calendar. Could the perp have hacked into that? It was certainly possible.
Abbie wouldn’t know until she asked Sophie to look into it, and that could take a while. Jonathan needed to know now, but she no longer trusted her phone.
She grabbed her keys, left the apartment, and slammed the door behind her. On the drive to Jonathan’s condo, she gripped the steering wheel and clenched her teeth.
She hated this. Relationships complicated everything.
But they also made everything better. The past few months she’d been happier than she’d been in a long time. So what the hell was her problem?
She stood at Jonathan’s front door, key in hand. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, before finally ringing the doorbell.
Jonathan answered the door wearing nothing but his trousers. Bare feet and bare chest. Abbie’s heart did cartwheels and her pulse skyrocketed.
“Why did you ring the doorbell?” He glanced down at the key in her hand. “Did you lose your key?”
He knew she hadn’t. She was holding it in plain sight. It just didn’t feel right waltzing in after the way they’d left things.
Shit, she was so bad at this. “Can I come in?”
He stepped back to allow her to pass, but said nothing.
In his living room, she started to pace all over
again. “I think our phones might be tapped. Or your online calendar might have been hacked into. Did you put the name of the restaurant in there?”
He shook his head.
“It’s got to be him. There’s no reason those reporters would have been there.”
“Last time, there was a mole on my staff,” he reminded her.
She frowned. “Do you suspect someone?” She paused when he didn’t answer right away. “Wait, are you insinuating there’s a mole in the agency?”
“No,” he said, but his tone was hesitant.
“No. Uh-uh. No way, no how.” She crossed her arms and closed her eyes a moment to settle herself.
How dare he? Her fellow agents weren’t dirty. She refused to even consider it.
He sighed. “I don’t think there is, but I didn’t think there was a mole on my staff, either. I’m not suggesting someone at the agency is behind all of this. Just maybe that someone let your dinner plans slip to the wrong person. That’s all.”
She relaxed her posture. Of course. That was a fair explanation. Because the agents were not involved. Abbie would risk her life for any of them, and they’d do the same for her.
But then again, Abbie didn’t know who was involved. She was too close to the investigation to see it objectively. Was she missing something that was right under her nose? Someone working alongside her?
The thought made her heart hurt. It couldn’t be true.
“Perhaps someone in your office let it slip,” she suggested.
“That’s always a possibility, but I’m very cautious with what I say around them. Well, other than Earl.”
Abbie had to smile. Good ole Earl. The man irritated the crap out of her, but he was as steady and dependable as they came.
“Okay,” she said, organizing her thoughts. “We can explore the possibility of someone being careless with our dinner plans, but I’d still like Sophie to take a look at your systems.”
Jonathan hesitated, and she remembered what he’d said before about the conflict of interest.
“Or if not her,” Abbie amended, trying to meet him in the middle, “then someone you can trust.”
“Of course.”
They stared at each other, only a few feet apart, yet feeling a great distance between them. The tiny pebble of uneasiness that had taken root in Abbie’s stomach had snowballed into a boulder.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“There’s nothing to apologize for.”
“There is. I wasn’t thinking earlier. I reacted off of pure adrenaline. I have a hard time thinking clearly when you’re involved.”
“Abbie…” Jonathan threaded his fingers through his hair and sighed. “Being with me isn’t as simple as just being with me, and I get that. I want you in my life, and this is my life. It’s only going to get more complicated, and I need a partner who can handle it. Who wants to handle it.”
Damn, he’d hit the nail right on the head. He knew her. He got it without her having to explain it. And that should count for something.
“I want to be able to handle it,” Abbie said slowly, “but there’s a learning curve. And I can’t change who I am, either. I’ll never be just a society wife.”
For the first time, she considered that to be a disadvantage. She begrudgingly admitted society wives had certain skills she didn’t possess and might not have the aptitude for.
“I don’t want you to be one. I’m not asking you to. That’s not who you are and that’s not what I want. But I need to know this is what you want. That I’m worth it to you. Because you are what I want. You’re a stubborn control freak.” He pulled Abbie to him, wrapping his arms around her and kissing away her sour expression at his less-than-flattering description of her. “But you’re also fiercely protective of the ones you love. And that’s all we need. As long as there’s love, we’ll figure out the rest.”
He kissed her gently, and she concentrated on the feel of his soft lips working on hers. The way he started slowly, running his fingertips over her bare arms so that she shivered. The way his body responded to hers, met hers in all the right places.
She couldn’t think with him touching her.
He led her into the bedroom and in those few seconds, her thoughts returned.
Could she do this? The question was not if she wanted to—she wanted him in her life, but as he said, it wasn’t that simple. Being with him brought responsibilities and expectations. Not knowing if she’d be able to rise to the occasion scared the shit out of her. And one thing she did know was she couldn’t handle failing him, couldn’t handle him realizing he’d made a mistake about her.
“Abbie, I don’t want to pressure you. I’m willing to take whatever you can give me.” His eyes were so tender when they looked at her and she knew his words were true.
I am such a fool.
“I’m in. All in.”
“Are you sure?”
Abbie nodded, not able to speak over the lump in her throat. Jonathan could have simply walked away, been not willing to deal with her baggage. She’d risked this, risked him. And why? Suddenly all of her reasons to hold back didn’t seem important anymore. He was everything to her. She’d do whatever it took to make it work.
She pressed her lips to his, used her tongue to caress his. She didn’t have the words right now, but she could show him.
Her fingers made quick work of his belt and trousers, stripping him down to his boxer briefs.
Instead of quickly stripping her out of her suit, Jonathan continued to take it slow, pulling her skirt zipper down inch by agonizing inch. She didn’t wait for him to get around to her shirt—she undid those buttons herself.
Her skirt slid down her legs and his hand moved her silk panties aside to allow his finger to stroke her folds.
She moaned, digging her fingertips into his shoulders. She slid one hand down his chest and slid it under his briefs. Her hand wrapped around his hard length. His body tensed in response and his fingers momentarily slowed.
She pushed him down onto the bed and pulled his briefs all the way off. Straddling him, she leaned down to press her lips to his neck. Her tongue made a lazy trail down his chest and past his abdomen. She stroked her tongue along his shaft, and he groaned.
“I want to be inside you.”
She lingered a few more seconds, then settled herself over him, dropping down so that he filled her.
He flicked open the clasp on her bra and in a moment, it was gone. He palmed her breasts, stroking her nipples into tight buds as her hips moved to set a rhythm. When she found just the right spot, she bit her lip and gripped his shoulders to steady herself.
His hand moved to her clit and the fire that was building inside her turned to an inferno. She cried out as it exploded.
Without separating their bodies, he reversed their position so that she was on her back. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he pumped into her.
She put her hand on his cheek and looked into his eyes. “I love you.”
Hearing those words, he broke and his body shuddered.
Chapter 18
Sophie handed Abbie her phone. “There’s nothing.”
“Seriously?” Abbie had never been so pissed to hear that her phone hadn’t been tapped. Because if that wasn’t the source of the leak, then what was? “And you’re sure Jonathan’s wasn’t, either?”
Sophie laid the shiny smartphone flat on the desk. “Yup. Also clean.”
Abbie rubbed her temples. She and Jonathan hadn’t been willing to take any chances with their safety and they’d immediately purchased new phones. So discovering that their phones hadn’t actually been tampered with was a slap in the face.
She needed to contact Jonathan and let him know. His phone contained confidential data and he’d be relieved to know it wasn’t compromised.
Abbie had been hoping the phones had been hacked. The fact that they weren’t gave credence to an alternative that was much, much worse.
Had someone at the agency
told a reporter about their dinner plans? The possibility was absurd, yet Abbie found herself trying to recall who might have overheard when she took the call from Jonathan.
The suspicion that had taken root made her stomach hurt. She couldn’t handle it if one of them betrayed her.
It was the hacker. She knew it. And she would not allow that son of a bitch to make her question herself. She was rarely—if ever—wrong.
Could he have tapped the phone and then removed it at some point between yesterday and now? For this man, it seemed anything was possible.
“Find him,” Abbie said. “Find that goddamn hacker.”
“I’ve already done some preliminary searches—”
“Dig deeper,” Abbie said shortly. “This guy is beyond preliminary.”
“You realize you’re asking me to find the proverbial needle in a haystack, right? That’s like one byte of information in over a million terabytes.…” At Abbie’s death glare, Sophie cleared her throat and ducked her face down behind her laptop. “Searching now.”
Abbie nodded in satisfaction as Sophie fell in line. Maybe Abbie could pull off being director after all. Even if she wasn’t out in the field, it was nice to at least be calling the shots.
And she had to face it—with this particular case, there wasn’t much fieldwork involved. They’d have to figure out this guy’s identity and collect enough evidence before she could think about going anywhere near him. And even then, she’d have to find him first.
Maybe Jonathan was right: this guy was a ghost.
Behind her, someone turned the television on and the CNN jingle blared. She ground her teeth. There was no reason for the television to be on in the middle of the workday.
She whirled around, ready to lambaste whoever had turned it on, but her words got stuck in her throat when she saw Jonathan on the screen.
He hadn’t told her about a press conference scheduled for today. Unless it was impromptu? But she didn’t think so. Not judging by the line of advisers behind him and the speech he began to deliver.
Abbie crossed her arms and watched along with the rest of her colleagues.
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