She sunk down in her chair, flipping through the pages of the document as she finished her wine, and then Antoine’s. It was everything she wanted, everything she’d dreamed about since she’d moved to the District, so why wasn’t she already signing?
Friday
Work had gone by too slowly, and Jamar had been grumpy because he’d had to pick up her slack when she’d called in, but all of Thomas’ teasing text messages had made it better.
He’d spent Thursday checking in on her, making sure she was okay, and then he had started flirting. That night he’d asked about her marks, a teasing comment about if she’d found it difficult to sit, and she’d responded by sending him a picture of the bruises on her ass. The dirty conversation that had followed had left her soaking wet, and convinced her that phone sex was a lost art that Thomas Hathaway could probably bring back with a 1-900-HOT-REPS number on some late night channel.
She’d be his first customer.
As soon as she’d woken up today, it had been more of the same. More teasing, more flirting, more hints of dark promises she wanted him to fulfill. He’d even sent her a selfie of him in some room at the Capitol, full of other representatives, and he had looked completely miserable. It had been accompanied with a simple reminder that during their phone sex she’d agreed to go out with him again. Tonight.
He had promised it would just be dinner, that they wouldn’t be heading back to the club, but now that she was back at home, in front of her desk, Black Light was all she could think about. The job offer was tucked under her mouse pad, and she stared at the screen reading and re-reading what she’d written for the article, because she wasn’t satisfied with it. It was missing something, and she was pretty sure she knew what it was.
More names.
More high-profile attendees.
More politicians, more movers and shakers inside the Beltway. Just more, and there was only one way to get that. Another trip to Black Light – with Thomas.
Growling under her breath she opened her phone and checked the address of the restaurant he had picked this time. It was maybe fifteen to twenty minutes away, so she still had an hour or so to burn before she needed to call a car. Trailing her finger over the track pad, she pulled up the separate document she’d been using for information on Thomas that she wasn’t including in the article.
It had bits and pieces of his life that she’d pulled from the internet, mostly articles about his campaign and election, but she’d barely scratched the surface on his history with Jaxson Davidson. Both of them were the sons of politicians, but Michael Hathaway had spent years of his political life as a representative in Congress, before he’d eventually become a senator. Gregory Davidson, on the other hand, had become a senator earlier in his career. More importantly – Hathaway was a New York Democrat, and Davidson was a Republican from Virginia.
When would they have ever been together outside of Capitol Hill?
Maddie sighed and scrolled back through her documents, her bookmarks of old stories about the two politicians whose sons had taken such different paths, searching for anything that hinted where those paths crossed. Jaxson Davidson, international model, poster problem child, lived a life of excess until he seemed to suddenly settle down with Emma and Chase. In what seemed like the complete opposite path, Thomas had gone to Princeton, received a degree in Political Science, with a minor in History, and then started working with his father on campaigns and around the Hill. Then Jaxson had blown up his father’s career when Senator Davidson had attempted a run at the presidency, while Thomas’ father had left at the end of his last term as a senator on good terms. He had even been quoted saying his son was carrying the torch forward.
The two fathers couldn’t be more different, more diametrically opposed in their beliefs, and the sons seemed to be the same way – except apparently both Thomas and Jaxson enjoyed BDSM.
Tapping her pen on the space bar she ticked her cursor forward across the document as she stared at the useless words. No matter how much she read there were no answers as to how the two met, or why they would be close enough to talk.
Why do you even care, Maddie?
Slamming her laptop closed, she stood up and walked to the clothing rack that served as her closet. Flipping through the dresses she couldn’t let the question go in her head.
Why the fuck did she care? Easy.
She cared because Jaxson knew that she’d tried to get into Black Light using his name – a stupid choice, for sure – but then he’d taken the time to call Thomas and tell him, and knowing he was friends with Thomas made it all more complicated.
Yes, she was leaving Thomas’ name out of the article. She’d been so careful to craft it in such a way that it was clear she had been inside, that she had attended with someone, but there were no hints as to who.
Except… the people who had seen her face would know.
Danny the security guy, Luís in the shop, the friends he had in the club, and ultimately Jaxson fucking Davidson. The man who would end up at the center of the shit storm no matter what. He had taken the brunt of the attention during the drama around his father, while Chase and Emma had been names, pictures in photographs, and this would be the same way. Him at the center of the storm, and everyone else swept along with it.
Including Thomas?
Shoving the clothes away from her she walked back across her studio apartment, which didn’t take nearly enough steps for her to think properly. Every time she passed her desk and saw the job offer, the beautiful heading from The Washington Post, she felt that surge of excitement. Joy, achievement, finally a thing she could bring home to her parents so they could tell everyone back home about how Maddie had achieved her dream. She was a real journalist. They could get a subscription to the paper. They could see her articles. Her mom would probably scrapbook them all, while her dad would start sending her possible leads, delving back into those detective novels he used to love.
It was everything – everything – she had wanted when she’d moved to Washington, D.C.
Her phone lit up when she passed her desk for the twentieth time. It was a text from Thomas, and Maddie felt her heart rate pick up, felt the butterflies that filled the spaces behind her ribs with a fluttering hum. A different kind of excitement, a tingling buzz that brushed her all over before it centered between her thighs. She wanted to pick it up, to read it right away, but that only confirmed what she already knew – Thomas Hathaway was dangerous. Like a drug that she’d had a taste of and now she wanted more. Wanted to know everything he could show her, everything they could do together, and then do it. All of it.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Maddie walked to her fridge and opened the freezer, pouring more than a reasonable amount of vodka into the bottom of what had been her water glass. She started to drink it just as her phone started ringing, and she moved back to the desk. It was him. Of course, it was him. She tilted the alcohol up to finish it before she scooped up her phone and hit the answer button. “Hi!”
“Well, hi to you, Maddie.” Thomas was laughing on the other end of the phone, and she hated how much his voice affected her. There was still that aristocratic edge that had caught her attention the first night in Black Light, only now she could hear the edge in it without effort. The purr that turned her name into something sinful when it left his tongue. “I wanted to give you a heads up so you don’t get surprised, or pay for one, but I’m sending a car to pick you up.”
“Why?” she asked, but her eyes were drifting between the job offer, her rack of dresses for their date, and the bottle of vodka still calling her name on the counter.
“Tonight is about spending time together, and I figured you didn’t want to be late again.” His tone was playful, he was in a good mood, and she was contemplating getting drunk. Not exactly the same page.
“You don’t have to send a car, I can –”
“I know I don’t have to, Maddie, I want to. In fact, I want to do so many things to you. Are you really going to tur
n down the ride?”
“No,” she acquiesced, and bit down on her lip when she found herself smiling as he shocked her once again with his brazen comments. Was he still in his office on Capitol Hill? Saying things like that to her? Could someone hear him? The blush was inescapable as she imagined it.
“Good, I gave Paul your cell number so he could call you when he arrives.” Papers moved on his end of the phone, and then he spoke again, “I have a few more things to take care of, but I’ll be there.”
“On time?” she asked, smiling even wider.
“Oh, Maddie, you are asking for trouble and I’m trying to plan a nice evening.” There was a low, hushed growl to his voice, and it turned all those fluttering feelings into something more devious.
“I thought it was a nice evening the last time I got in trouble.”
Thomas laughed, warm and loud, and it tapered into a groan. “Then I did not do something right. How are you ever going to learn a lesson if you like everything I do?”
“I guess you’ll just have to keep trying.”
“That would make me a very happy man.” His tone was serious for a second, and then it was back to laughter. “Now, go get ready so you don’t make Paul late, he gets very upset.”
“Oh, does he not like the cane?”
More laughter. “He never sits still for it, and he’s not nearly as beautiful as you are wearing my marks. Alright, I really have to go, Maddie, I’ll see you soon.”
“See you soon,” she replied before he hung up, and then she sat down on the edge of her bed. A ridiculous grin plastered across her face, her cheeks aching from smiling so hard, a warm glow filling her up to the point that she wondered why she couldn’t see it on her skin.
Why did he have to be so damn perfect?
Chapter Ten
One Week Later
Sitting in her bra and underwear on the shining, smooth counter in Thomas Hathaway’s breathtaking kitchen, Maddie smiled as he finished chopping up a cantaloupe and walked over to set the too full plate beside her. “That’s too much food.”
“Open up.” He speared a bite of the fruit and held it in front of her sealed lips as he moved in close, nudging her knees wide so he could stand between them. “Madeline O’Neill, are you trying to get spanked again?”
“Is that a sincere offer?” She grinned for a moment, and when he just raised his eyebrows she relented and opened her mouth. The melon was sweet against her tongue, and she bit down with a small moan.
“See? Delicious, and I know you’re hungry.” Thomas leaned forward to brush his lips down her neck, nuzzling into her hair. “You burned a lot of calories last night.”
A blush singed her cheeks remembering the way they had barely made it inside the gorgeous Victorian home that his family owned in Georgetown. After dinner, their sixth date as he had reminded her, they hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other in the car. As soon as the front door closed he’d stripped her and fucked her on the hardwood floor in the entryway, and her knees still ached from when they’d moved to the base of the stairs. His fist in her hair, her arms braced on one of the steps, and she’d come so hard she could have sworn she saw stars. Round two had happened sometime in the night, when she’d woken up and taken him into her mouth, and he’d fucked her throat until he came – and then spanked her for not sleeping. But he had kept them up a while longer giving her orgasm after orgasm with his tongue and fingers until she was begging him to let her go back to sleep. Four dates in the last week, two more trips to Black Light, each day better than the last. Being with Thomas Hathaway was like a dream she never wanted to end, a very sexy, kinky, wonderful dream. She swallowed the next bite of melon he tucked between her lips, and then turned her head. “You have to eat too.”
“Is that a sincere offer?” he repeated her words back to her, smiling as his hand trailed up her inner thigh, his thumb brushing against her clit through her underwear.
“I’d rather have you inside me.” Maddie wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer and he leaned down to kiss her, the food abandoned for a moment as their tongues clashed. He was growing hard against her, the thin fabric of his boxers doing nothing to suppress the friction as they moved together, but then he squeezed her hips and pulled back with a growl.
“We both have to go to work today. I’m not going to be the cause of you missing again.” This time he lifted a bite of egg white omelet. “Eat.”
Grumbling, she let him feed her, because she’d learned how much he liked to, but he finally started to eat as well. Between the two of them the plate was almost empty by the time she shook her head. “I cannot eat anymore, especially if I want to have room for more coffee, which is very important.”
“I know. You get feisty without it.” He placed her coffee cup back in her hands as he went to drop the plate in the sink, along with the pans and utensils from him making them breakfast. Again. The doorbell rang suddenly, making her jump, and he wiped his hands off on a towel. “Be right back!”
“Wait!” Maddie hopped off the counter, panicking. “Why is Paul so early?” She was about to follow him when she heard him open the front door, and she froze mid-step.
Another male voice, and they were talking in hushed tones, but she wasn’t going to peek into the hall just in case he’d opened the door wide to show all of Georgetown his boxer-briefs. She strained to hear what they were saying, but only caught their laughter just before the door shut again. “Maddie, you can come out now.”
He was smiling at her as she stepped into the hallway, the little table in the foyer had a stack of shopping bags on it and she crossed her arms under her breasts. “What’s that?”
“Some clothes for you to wear today, a few outfits to choose from. The rest I’ll keep here just in case.”
“You bought me clothes? Wait, who bought me clothes? And when? It’s barely six in the morning!” She walked towards him, ignoring the bags as her temper flared.
Before she could really start ranting, he squeezed her upper arms and smiled down at her. Gorgeous, even with bed head, his hazel eyes more tawny in the morning and too damn distracting. “My assistant, Alan, has a sister that runs a boutique clothing store in Arlington, where he also lives. After you woke me up so very nicely last night, I realized we’d planned for you to go back home and so you didn’t have anything with you. I sent him a text, with your sizes, and asked him to bring some options by on his way into the office.”
“But –”
“Maddie, you needed clothes for work, and I’m sure Alan is going to overcharge me for the clothes to make up for his sister opening the shop early. So… it helps her out, Alan was more than happy to get to expense his commute into work today, and now we’ve got some options here if it happens again.” Thomas leaned down to be closer to eye-level with her, and she was speechless, unable to find another argument. “I wish you’d just let me take care of you.”
“But you don’t have to do that! You don’t have to spend money on me, or have Paul pick me up, or take me to nice restaurants all the time, I –”
“I know I don’t. That’s the best part. You don’t want or expect any of that stuff, but you make me happy, Maddie, and so I want to do it.” He kissed her softly, one of his hands moving to cradle the back of her head as his other pulled her closer by her waist.
She wanted to tell him that she didn’t deserve any of it, didn’t deserve him, but her lips were busy and before she could think twice about it she had melted against him. Lost in the way his tongue brushed hers, all of her thoughts scattering.
The kiss ended gently, neither of them trying to turn it into something more, and then he looked down at her with a slight tilt to his smile. “When are you going to stop fighting me every time I do something small for you?”
“This isn’t small.”
“It’s a few outfits.”
“I could have just as easily ran home and changed.” She crossed her arms again as he sighed and stepped over to peek in
side one of the bags.
“Then I wouldn’t have had time to make you breakfast, and I like any excuse to watch your mouth.” Thomas glanced over at her, his smile turning wicked. “Because you do such delightful things with it.”
“Flirting with me doesn’t change the fact that you sent your assistant out to buy me clothes at some ungodly hour of the morning.”
He chuckled. “Well, I know how you can make it up to him.”
“How?” she asked as he pulled a beautiful, emerald green sweater out of a bag.
“Let him meet you before he dies of curiosity.” A black, flowy skirt, came out of the same bag and he tossed it over his arm. “How does Monday sound? Lunch?”
“Thomas…” It wasn’t the first time he’d brought up her meeting people he knew. Friends, other politicians, and now Alan – but she couldn’t bring herself to say yes. Even when he’d cancelled on other dinner plans to meet up with her instead that Tuesday.
You make me happy, Maddie. His words echoed in her, and she wished she had said it back instead of focusing on the clothes.
“I’m not pressing you, but just know that you are the one breaking his heart right now, not me.” He winked at her and handed over the clothes, including a package of patterned, black tights, and a hot pink thong. When she raised her eyebrows at him, he grinned. “I’m sure he thinks that’s funny.”
“So, you’re saying neither of you are funny? Was that a prerequisite to work for you?” Maddie couldn’t even stifle her grin as she dodged his attempt to spank her, dashing up the stairs to the first landing. Thomas stood at the bottom, all lean muscular lines, ready to chase her – and her heart sped up as adrenaline and arousal bloomed inside her.
“Madeline O’Neill, I know this house better than you. You are not going to outrun me.” He placed one foot on the bottom step, and she countered by moving onto the next section of stairs.
Black Light: Exposed (Black Light Series Book 2) Page 13