The Perfect Candidate

by Sterling, Stephanie

  “Sure I will,” Michael grinned. “I’ll be fun.”

  13

  It was fun… although Ashley hardly dared admit that to herself, but it was becoming impossible to deny that she was checking her emails with increasing frequency as the days of Michael’s trip went by. She had almost been surprised to see the first email from him sitting in her inbox. Yes, he had said that he would write to her, but somehow she hadn’t really believed him. She found it hard to picture Michael sitting down at a computer tapping away. She always thought that he ought to be doing something more active.

  However, despite this mental picture of him that Ashley had concocted, Michael had proven himself to be a very faithful correspondent. His emails had started off politely and properly enough. He talked about his day, what he had done, what he had achieved, what was scheduled for the next day. He asked her tell her what was happening in her life too… but it didn’t take Michael more than a day or two to wander down different routes entirely!

  Instead of asking her what she was doing, he asked her what she was wearing- followed by a detailed description of what he was he wasn’t wearing.

  Ashley knew that she should delete Michael’s emails, (and she certainly shouldn’t answer them!) not just for her own benefit (and sanity,) but in case anyone ever found them… they would be so dangerous in the wrong hands! She couldn’t bring herself to do it though. She reread them, over and over again, getting herself hot and bothered, yearning for a time when Michael would be able to enact some of the scintillating scenarios that he had created and planted in her mind.

  She dreamed about him every night, and rushed to her computer each morning to see if he had written to her. Today was no different. Ashley told herself that she wasn’t going to go straight to her laptop this morning, but she just couldn’t help herself! Michael was a drug, and she was a willing addict!

  Ashley tried to ignore the way that her heart picked up speed when she sat down in front of the buzzing screen, checked her mail and found an email from Michael waiting for her. She felt like a whole swarm of butterflies were fluttering around inside her stomach when she clicked to open the email and started to read.

  14

  “You saucy little-”

  “Room service!”

  Michael was quick to grab his robe off the bed. He pulled it on over his naked body and snapped shut the screen of his laptop, before calling to the maid that she could enter.

  “Morning, Mr. Reese,” said the cheerful young brunette. She laid out his breakfast and a selection of newspapers on the table, asked if there were anything else he needed, and then went on her way when she was answered with a negative.

  What he needed was Ashley! He glanced at his watch and saw that it was almost time for her appearance on Good Morning America.

  He flicked on the TV.

  Blanking his mind, Michael took a sip of fruit juice and turned his attention to the television, but the box didn’t fully capture his attention until Ashley appeared on screen.

  She was wearing a skirt. She looked perfectly gorgeous. Perhaps too perfect. Was that possible? He wanted to pull the pins from her hair and smudge her make up. He wanted her like she had been in D.C. - a sexual, sensual woman that was utterly at his mercy.

  He had to confess that he wasn’t playing all that much notice to what was being said on the show. Michael let Ashley’s voice wash over him like a soothing melody, until something she squeaked knocked him out of his fantasy.

  “Children?” she asked, looking her interview, and seeming faintly flustered for the first time in the show.

  A hundred miles away from where Michael was, sitting on an uncomfortable couch in the middle of a studio set, Ashley was still reeling from the shock of being asked if she and Mr. Reese were playing on having children any time soon. She struggled to recover, and finally managed to answer with a shaky laugh.

  “He hasn’t even given me a ring yet!”

  However, Ashley’s interviewer was dogged. “But you wouldn’t say no, Miss Kendall?” she pressed.

  “To the ring or the children?” Ashley joked weakly. She was hyper aware that Michael was watching this and hearing every word that she said, but then surely he would appreciate that she didn’t have any control over the questions that she was asked on these shows?

  “To neither I would have imagined!” said her interviewer cheerfully.

  And so Ashley was forced to give the only answer that she could, given the circumstances. She plastered a smile on her face, and reply shyly, “No, I wouldn’t say no.” She was extremely disconcerted when she realized that she might actually be telling the truth!

  The remained of the interview passed by unexceptionally enough. In fact, Ashley hardly remembered it; her mind was still stuck on that question about children and marriage.

  She couldn’t understand why it had thrown her so badly. There shouldn’t be any doubts in her mind when it came to Michael and babies- their relationship was pretend! It was just one of those broody womanly moments, she decided, trying to rationalize the sudden undeniable appeal of a little babe with Michael’s velvet brown eyes and thick glossy hair.

  Ashley’s cell rang, and provided a welcome distraction from her unsettling thoughts, until she saw who it was that was phoning.

  “Hello, Michael?” she said faintly, hating her heart for skipping a beat when his deep, rich voice drifted down the line.

  “Hi beautiful,” he murmured. “I was watching you,” he purred.

  Well, at least he didn’t sound angry… that was good. “Were you?” Ashley bantered back, glancing around at the bustle going on all around her, disappointedly aware that she wasn’t alone. “Where are you?” she asked, having forgot his exact schedule for the day. Those weren’t the kinds of details that Michael liked to keep her up-to-date on.

  “In bed. I wish you were here with me,” he chuckled wickedly, managing to bring a flush to Ashley’s skin. She would have thought that she would be immune to all of this by now!

  “Michael!” she hissed, but he only laughed.

  “We could be working on those babies that you say you wanted,” he continued playfully.

  “Beast!” Ashley cried. “You know I only said that because I had to!” she sniffed, praying he wouldn’t be able to distinguish the lie.

  15

  It happened just a couple of days before Michael was due to head back to Chicago. He was in New York a day later than planned, and he knew that Ashley was also in the city; she had come to give a speech on women’s rights. Michael had originally thought that he was going to miss her (and was annoyed with Norman for making sure their schedules were slightly out of sync) but someone upstairs obviously liked him, and was willing to give him a break, because now he had the perfect opportunity to see her and… recharge his batteries!

  Michael informed his driver that they wouldn’t be going straight to his hotel from the airport. First, he wanted to stop off at the university where Ashley was giving her talk... He sat patiently in the limousine and waited for one of his bodyguards to find Ashley. He had asked the other man to bring her to him once the conference was over.

  He didn’t even have too long to wait! Michael was left linger just long enough to stoke his already overexcited libido before the car door swung open and Ashley’s face appeared.

  “Michael?” she gasped.

  “Come here!” he grinned, patting the seat next to him. He thanked his bodyguard and dismissed him to the following car.

  “You’re- you’re not supposed to be here!” Ashley blurted, staring at him as if she couldn’t quite believe her eyes. “I mean you-”

  “There was a change of plans,” Michael murmured, unwilling to waste another second explaining himself when he finally had her all to himself and within arms reach! “Come here,” he growled, tugging her against his chest.

  Ashley squealed, and then anything that she might have been going to say was squelched under Michael’s demanding lips.

  It fe
lt so impossibly good to be kissing her! Michael had been dreaming about this moment for weeks. Ever since D.C. he had been waiting for his next hit, wanting to discover if Ashley was really was special as he remembered. All the evidence so far seemed to scream yes!

  Their lips seemed to spark against one another as they met, creating a throbbing pulse of sensation that Michael found was impossible to pull away from. He wanted to consume Ashley- to devour her! A kiss was never, ever going to be enough…

  “I want you,” he panted, moving his lips against the sensitive skin of her throat.

  “I want you too,” Ashley puffed, practically melting in Michael’s arms. “But not-”

  “Here!” Michael growled, before she could make her protest.

  The limo was perfect for what Michael had in mind. The windows were tinted and they were sealed away from the driver (who had been paid a little extra to get ‘lost’ on the way to Michael’s hotel). Michael pulled Ashley onto his lap and captured her mouth again, kissing her until they were both breathless and panting.

  “Okay… here,” Ashley whimpered, nodding her head and admitting defeat.

  Michael groaned as she pushed him back in the leather seat and straddled his lap. She was wearing a knee-length skirt that he quickly pushed up around her bottom. He gave a little grunt of displeasure when he saw that she was wearing a little lacy pair of panties today.

  “These have to go, now,” he growled, using both hands to literally rip them off her body.

  Ashley squealed. “They were part of a matching pair!” she cried, but Michael soon had her moaning, as he toyed with her now exposed sex.

  Unsteady, because of the attention she was receiving, but determined nonetheless, Ashley fumbled with the fly of his pants, pausing for a moment to stroke his steely erection through the fabric, before quickly tugging down the zip.

  “I see your underwear won’t be a problem,” she gasped, delighted as his cock spilled out into her waiting hands.

  “Damned nuisance,” he growled, twisting his fingers in Ashley’s hair and dragging her mouth back down to his for another soul-stirring kiss. “But maybe my bad habits will rub off on you?” he murmured thickly.

  “You never know,” Ashley sighed, reaching down between his legs. Michael watched her face as her dainty little fingers tried to encircle his large, aching cock. He couldn’t help but be very smugly pleased when she couldn’t quite manage it. “I’d forgotten how large your are,” she whispered, awed, her voice catching, causing an urgent throb to pulse through Michael’s body.

  “I want to be inside you,” he growled, lacking the patience to deal with any further preliminaries. “Please, Ash,” he groaned. His hands grabbed at her hips and tried to force her to mount him.

  “Wait-!” Ashley gasped, but Michael couldn’t wait, he thrust up and pushed her down, forcing her to impale herself on his hungry sex.

  She gasped, there was a thread of pain in the sound that tore at Michael’s conscience, but he hadn’t even managed to tell her he was sorry before she started to move- and once that happened, Michael was utterly lost.

  He was sure that sex had never felt like this before. The way she fitted around his body was nothing short of heaven. It was a cliché Michael that had snorted at on countless occasions, but he was suddenly learning that, with the right woman, it was true.

  “Ash,” Michael grunted, clutching at her hips, trying to steady her frantic movement. “Slow…” he growled, although he didn’t really mean it.

  “Fuck!” she swore, throwing her head back as she rode him. She hissed the obscenity each time she brought their bodies crashing together.

  “Come on baby!,” Michael rasped, groping at her breasts, and giving up any half-hearted attempt to temper her enthusiasm.

  Ashley didn’t know if that was possible, but she threw everything into trying to give Michael what he wanted- and taking what she needed. She almost couldn’t believe that this was real- that it wasn’t just another delicious fantasy! Nothing could have felt more real that the invasion of Michael’s flesh though. He filled her so completely that she moaned with the pleasure of it.

  Ashley worked their bodies together, moving desperately, frantically, as she felt her release drawing closer.

  “Oh God, Michael!” she sobbed, needing just one extra little push to send her over the edge.

  He must have understood her, because he slipped a hand between their bodies and pinched the sensitive nub of her sex between his thumb and forefinger. Ashley cried out in sudden ecstasy, as her senses finally exploded. At almost exactly the same moment, Michael joined her in release.

  Ashley laid her head against Michael’s shoulder, and curled her arms around his neck; she felt suddenly kittenish and weak. He stroked unsteady fingers through her hair and murmured endearments into her ear.

  “I’ve been needing to do that for so long,” he groaned, wearing the relaxed smile of a sated man.

  Ashley smiled against his chest, and then tilted her head so that she could kiss his throat and the underside of his chin. “Mmm, me too,” she sighed, and then she tried to gently ease herself off his lap, but Michael caught hold of her and held her where she was.

  “I want to keep you with me,” he murmured thickly.

  Until he tired of her… Ashley thought to herself, unsettled by the gloomy realization. He would keep her around just as long as he lusted after, but then…? Then she would be left alone to nurse a broken heart… she already feared that Michael was much more to her than just a job or a way to scratch an itch.

  “You know I can’t stay,” she whispered, pulling away from him again, and this time succeeding. “You know it would damage the campaign.”

  Michael frowned at her. He looked disconcerted by her dismal. “You don’t want to stay with me?” he asked, almost pouting.

  “Michael!” Ashley sighed. “Of course, I-” she tried to explain, but the limo had just rolled to a stop. Ashley gave a little squeal of horror as she looked down at her rumpled clothes. Michael was calmly trying straightening his own appearance as best he could, looking amused at her horror.

  “You can relax,” he promised. “There shouldn’t be anyone here to meet us apart from Norm,” he grinned.

  Oh, how very wrong he was.

  16

  The second that Michael and Ashley stepped out of the car they were caught in an explosion of camera flashes. Ashley couldn’t quite stop herself from pressing against Michael in a desperate bid to hide her flushed and disheveled appearance. Even if she could fool people into thinking that she didn’t look thoroughly shagged there was no way they were going to believe that she hadn’t just been very thoroughly kissed!

  She stared up at Michael desperately, wondering how on earth he was going to fix this mess.

  He reached for her left hand, held onto it tightly, and then turned to the shouting reporters with a dazzling smile.

  “Well, obviously we didn’t know you guys were going to be here to meet us,” he acknowledged with a boyish shrug. There were a few laughs, and several more questions were yelled at him. “We were planning to tell our families the good news first, but seeing as you guys are here now, it will save us the trouble of arranging a press conference in a few days,” Michael continued cryptically.

  Everyone’s attention, including Ashley’s, was riveted on Michael, waiting to here what he was going to say next.

  “Ashley- Miss Kendall and I are-” he paused and shot a heart-stopping smile down at her “-we’re getting married.”

  Ashley’s heart lurched as she heard Michael make the announcement. There were a few cheers, and then cries of, “kiss her then, Michael!” and “show us your ring, Ashley!” filled the air.

  Michael kept a tight hold on Ashley’s hand. He paused for a few, a very few, more photographs, and then he practically dragged Ashley after him into the hotel. His bodyguards kept the reports outside.

  “What the HELL was that about?!”

  Ashley and Michael both
turned to see Norm standing the foyer looking pale and irate. Ashley had never since the campaign manager look so furious before… although, she supposed that he did had a pretty good reason.

  “I think we need to talk. Somewhere private,” Michael murmured, his voice was so cold and silky that Ashley shivered. She could understand what was wrong with Norman, but Michael…? Was he angry with her? She bit her lip anxiously. Surely he couldn’t blame her for what had happened? Not completely. He had been the one to collect her from the university!

  Michael, Norman and Ashley walked through to a private conference room that had been set aside for the use of the campaign members.

  “Well?” Norm demanded. “Would you like to tell me what the hell you’re playing at, Michael?”