“You’re going?” Ashley asked, obviously without meaning to, because she instantly bit her lip.
“I have an election to win, sweetheart,” he smiled gently.
“I- of course you do! I didn’t mean- I only meant- I was just curious as to where you were going,” Ashley muttered and stammered.
“I’m going to speak to some unemployed auto workers in Detroit,” he told her, deciding not to mention that this had been planned for quite a while now, and she had to already be aware that was where he was going.
“Oh yes, of course you are,” Ashley flushed. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me today,” she laughed weakly.
Michael opened his mouth, but then he shut it again, deciding that it would be cruel to fluster Ashley any further. “Well I’ll leave you to carry on your work,” he nodded. “But I’ll call you tonight.”
“You will?” Ashley blurted.
“I will,” he nodded innocently. “Bye, Ash.” He considered, dropping a kiss onto her lips, but decided not to risk it.
“Goodbye, Mr.- Michael,” she smiled. “And good luck in Detroit!”
5
Michael left Detroit much later than he had anticipated. He had scarcely been able to believe the level of suffering that he had encounter among the families he had seen that afternoon. It was truly heartbreaking. He had found himself giving up more of his time than he had scheduled, because at the moment it was the only thing he did had to give to these people. So Michael had spent an extra few hours listening to their problems, and promising to find a way to help them if he was elected as President in November.
It really didn’t matter to Michael that he had been delayed. This was his vocation. He wanted to make a difference at the roots of society, and so he couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt when he did leave and got onto a chartered plane. He wasn’t missing anything that he lamented giving up, just dinner with a few big business delegates. It just meant that the early night he’d promised himself wouldn’t be happening. Surely that was the very least he could do for these people?
Michael stopped the mental guilt game by trying to decide which of his local fast food restaurants he fancied giving his business to when he got home. He was nearing a decision when his cell phone rang.
“Hi Norm, phoning to check up on me are you?”
“I got your message about missing dinner tonight, Michael,” Norm said, not sounding terribly happy. “You want to explain that one to me? It’s important to the campaign to get these men on side!”
“Well, I was talking to a few important people over here in Detroit,” Michael argued mildly. He didn’t want to get into this debate with Norman again. “How are things going where you are anyway?”
“Apart from a few pissed off businessmen? Good, great actually, and the interviews your new girlfriend gave were perfect. They were so good in fact that I could have left Miss Kendall to manage here on her own and gone to Detroit with you and had you back for dinner!”
“So tell me about these interviews,” Michael asked, unwilling to rise to the bait. “What did she say?” What was she wearing? He thought, but kept that question to himself.
“Have you got your laptop on you?”
“Do I go anywhere without it?”
“Well I can email you a couple of film clips then.”
“Okay, sounds good…” Michael talked to Norm for a few more minutes, outlining what needed to be done the next day, before they said goodbye and Michael tried not to too obviously unpack his laptop.
He booted it up, and then went immediately to check his emails. Michael downloaded the files that Norm had just sent him, and tried not to smile when Ashley’s image flickered up on screen.
She looked gorgeous, softer than she had done that morning, but not as obviously sexy as the night before. He listened and watched, and then winced, as the interviewer asked her a question about his “playboy” reputation. Norm was right though; Ashley had everything under control.
“Michael spends so much of his time dedicating his life to the party and working for the country that he just hasn’t had time to build a proper relationship with a woman…” she paused and smiled shyly. “Well until now.”
Michael grinned back at her, and then caught himself doing so and stopped. He wanted to see Ashley. He had said that he would call, but he wasn’t sure what the pretense was supposed to be. He had thought about asking her to dinner, but now dinner wasn’t happening. He still needed to phone though; he had said that he would, and women tended to assume that anything a man said he was going to do he had promised to do. Lord pity the man who failed to understand that fundamental fact!
He could call her later though. Michael was guilty of wanting to have five minutes of peace and quiet. It was so rare that he got any time to himself. He couldn’t imagine how much worse it would be to be the President! That was what he wanted though, and those were the sacrifices he was willing to make. He had already sacrificed two marriages, dozens of friends and his dreams of fatherhood to fuel his ambition. He wasn’t about to lose out now!
To Michael, it seemed as though he had hardly closed his eyes for a second before he was nudged awake and warned that the plane was landing in Chicago. He had arranged for a hire car, not wanting to keep his chauffeur waiting around for hours, although he was a little uncertain of the exact way home. It couldn’t possibly be that difficult though!
Half an hour later, Michael gave thanks for being about to recognize the street that he was driving down. Unfortunately it wasn’t his own road, but at least he knew where he was- one right turn away from Ashley’s house. Michael grinned and flicked on his indicator.
Well why not?
6
Ashley helped herself to another slice of pineapple, mushroom and bacon pizza, took a bit and perused her notes on Michael’s next speech. She was sitting on the floor in the middle of her living room in her pajamas, trying to catch up on the work she had fallen behind with that afternoon when Norm had dragged her out of the office to take part in half a dozen interviews!
Ashley really didn’t know how she was meant to be able to keep on top of her own work at the same time as playing Michael’s girlfriend!
She glanced up with a frown when a car’s headlight shone into the room- that was odd, she usually couldn’t tell if a car was driving by outside. The house was too far back from the road. Curious, Ashley placed her piece of pizza down and padded over to the window. She gasped at what she saw- Michael! Michael was getting out of the car that had just driven up her driveway!
Ashley watched, in something of a daze, as he walked all the way to the front door, and then still jumped when the doorbell rang.
She couldn’t answer the door in her night clothes! She glanced down relieved to discover that, at least, there weren’t any holes in the flannel bottoms as well as with the fact that she had never gotten around to taking her make-up off. The doorbell rang again. Chewing her bottom lip anxiously, Ashley darted out in the hallway to answer it.
Michael rocked back on his heels, and waited for the front door to open, while he wondered if he had done the right thing. He wasn’t typically spontaneous, and he was just starting to think of a number of reasons why turning up on Ashley’s doorstep at this time of the night might not be the best idea he had ever had… but then the door opened, and Michael wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else in the world.
“Michael?”
He didn’t immediately answer. He couldn’t immediately answer. He was too busy drinking in the sight of the vision in front of him. Ashley was wearing a pair of adorably rumpled pajamas, her glasses were off and her hair was piled up on top of her head, just begging to be tugged free of its clips… Michael cleared his throat.
“I told you I’d be in touch,” he smiled.
“You said you’d give me call! I thought you meant on the phone!” Ashley cried, and then her eyes narrowed. “You did mean on the phone.”
Michael shrugged his sho
ulders sheepishly, trying not to pay too much attention to the fact that Ashley didn’t seem to wearing a bra. Of course, once he had noticed that fact it was rather impossible to forget.
“I was driving passed. It seemed silly not to stop and say hello.”
Ashley glanced over his shoulder. “Are you alone?” she asked. Michael nodded. “Well, I suppose you’ll have to come in,” she sighed, but then shot him a cheekily little smile and stepped back to let him pass.
“Where are we?” Michael asked, wandering down the hall, glancing around as he went. “In here?” he asked, ducking in his head into a room on his left. The door was open and the light was on… and the scent of pizza filled the air. Michael’s stomach growled, loudly.
“Hungry?” Ashley giggled. “Confess, you stopped by to see if you could beg a meal didn’t you?” she teased.
Michael looked sheepish. “I came to see you, and find out how your day’s been,” he assured her, but he knew his mouth was practically watering. If he didn’t at least have a morsel to eat he was going to start drooling. “Although, now that you mention it, I haven’t eaten since breakfast,” he confessed, gazing at her pitifully.
“What was breakfast?”
“A cup of coffee,” Michael sighed, laying it on thick.
“Fine!” Ashley laughed. “Help yourself to my supper.” Ashley had hardly finished speaking before Michael picked up a slice of steaming pizza. He wolfed it down in a few bites.
“Thanks,” he murmured. “I really needed that!”
“No problem,” Ashley laughed. “Can I get you a drink?”
No, but I wouldn’t mind dessert, he thought, eyeing Ashley’s figure again. There was something wickedly arousing about seeing her like this and knowing that this was what she would look like when she crawled into bed. What he wouldn’t give to crawl in with her!
“Michael?”
“A glass of water would be great thanks,” he smiled, hoping it might to the trick of cooling down his suddenly over-hot body.
“Are you sure that’s all you want?” Ashley asked. “I can get you something stronger if you’d like?”
“Not unless you’d also like to offer me a bed for the night?” Michael chuckled, letting just a hint of suggestion creep into his voice. Ashley must have heard it, because her cheeks flushed. “I’ll just had a glass of water,” he grinned, saving her. “I have to drive home, and I don’t think it would do the campaign any good if I was pulled over.”
“Okay,” Ashley nodded, looking grateful to be able to disappear- Michael assumed she went into the kitchen.
He stole another piece of pizza while she was gone, and ate it more slowly as he glanced around the room. There were notes and scraps of paper covering the floor. Michael eased off his jacket and picked one up.
“Don’t!” Ashley shrieked, making Michael jump almost a foot into the air. He dropped the paper instantly. It hadn’t occurred to him that they might be important or private, not when they were littered all over the floor like rubbish, but then Ashley had hardly been expecting guests.
“Sorry,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean-”
“Did you move it out of order?” Ashley demanded anxiously.
Michael looked over the sea of papers doubtfully. “There’s an order?” he murmured in disbelief.
“Well, of course there is!” Ashley snapped, trying to find the piece of paper that he had, probably, moved of its allotted spot. She had moved close enough to allow Michael to catch a sniff of her perfume… “It’s your next speech,” she added, smiling shyly.
“Wow,” Michael murmured. He knew she worked hard of course, but this showed real dedication. He liked her for that almost as much as he liked her for letting him into her house went she was only wearing her pajamas. “Do you often bring your work home?”
Ashley shrugged her shoulders, which made her breasts bounce. Michael shifted uncomfortably. “Sometimes. I had to today though. I didn’t get anything done all afternoon,” she frowned.
“Ah, because of the interviews?” Michael murmured, making himself lift his gaze to Ashley’s face.
“Yes, because of the interviews,” she sighed, and then gave up trying to find where the errant page of notes was meant to go and handed Michael his water.
“And how did you find the interviews, and the interviewers?” he asked, taking a sip from the icy glass. “Norm showed me some of what you’d done,” he smiled. “You looked like you handled everything wonderfully.”
“Do you think so?” Ashley beamed, and sat down beside him- Michael felt the whole of his right side prickle from her nearness. “It was a little strange at first. Me being interviewed,” she continued, “but Norman had gone over everything I needed to say so many time before he let me speak to anyone that I would have been embarrassed if I had made a mistake!” she snorted.
“Norm likes to worry about things. I think it gives his life purpose.”
Ashley giggled, and then she slowly seemed to realize just how close they were sitting, and perhaps she was also thinking about how little she was wearing? Michael certainly couldn’t stop thinking about it! He wondered, would there be any excuse for kissing her again?
He could claim he was only practicing, he could pretend that he was sorry if she slapped him away. Ashley didn’t look like she was going to put up very much of a fight though. She was starting to lean towards him, her eyes wide and dark, and her lips slightly parted in a subtle invitation. Michael felt like he was being pulled towards her, as if he was caught in a current that he couldn’t fight. He got close enough to feel the shaking puff of her breath as it crossed her lips- and then his phone rang.
Ashley jumped back as though she had been scalded, and as she couldn’t ignore the loud ringing, Michael didn’t see that there was any point in him doing so. He reached in his pocket and answered brusquely.
“What is it?” he growled.
“Michael?” Norm voice met his ear. “Michael where are you? I’ve been calling your home phone for half an hour!”
“Heaven forbid I should decide to go out. Why don’t you get me tagged Norm? That way you wouldn’t have any problem tracking me when I go missing,” Michael grumbled sarcastically.
“What the hell has got into you?” Norm demanded.
“Nothing,” Michael sighed, although he would like to be able to get inside Ashley…
He knew that a kiss wouldn’t have satisfied his hunger in the slightest. It would just have been the flame that went on to light his fuse. But bedding Ashley was a bad idea for so many reasons- Not least of all because he was supposed to be make believing that they had the perfect relationship, and whenever he started having sex with a woman things always seemed to spiral out of control and almost immediately hit destruction. He wasn’t going to risk his shot at winning this election because she had raised his blood pressure.
“Anyway, what can I do for you, Norm?” Michael sighed, trying to calm his body back down.
“I thought you’d like to know that I’ve rescheduled dinner with the businessmen you stood up tonight.”
“Well, now I know…” Michael grunted, a second away from hanging up.
“I thought it might be a good idea if you brought Miss Kendall along? She could-”
“Yeah, okay, Norm. We’ll talk about it in the morning,” Michael said smoothing and then promptly snapped his phone shut.
Ashley raised an eyebrow at him. “Bad news?”
“Bad timing,” Michael muttered under his breath, too quietly for Ashley to hear. “Well, I guess I should probably go,” he said, standing up, and holding his coat strategically in front of his body.
He waited to see if Ashley would try to stop him. She didn’t. Which annoyed him, even though he had already decided that he couldn’t stay.
“Just so you know, you’re probably going to get a call from Norm in a minute to invite you to deathly dull dinner party. I think he wants you to flirt with some business whose money we need,” he grunted.
Because he became an absolute bear when he was sexually frustrated. Michael forced himself to smile. “I’m so sorry. Would you care to be my date for a deathly dull dinner party?” he teased.
Ashley giggled. “What no flirting instructions from you?”
“Oh, you can flirt,” Michael nodded, following Ashley back towards the front door (fortunately his body had relaxed sufficiently to allow him to manage that at least) “But only with me,” he whispered huskily.
The Perfect Candidate Page 4