DC Affairs (8 page)

“Should we…tell Kylie or Peter what we saw tonight?” I wondered out loud.

Russell shook his head. “Listen, it’s none of our business. I mean, say it’s the worst-case scenario. That is, Elaine and Liz are lovers meeting covertly. How does that help the campaign right now? Before you do anything that directly impacts the campaign, you have to ask yourself
how
it’s going to affect the campaign. Seriously, we’re all working so hard now and the closer we get to the actual election and decisions are made, we will be working our ass off.”

“I know that.” My fingers played with the hem of my dress. “I don’t know, Russell…I know we’re working so hard and I’m not trying to give us any additional work but do you think we should keep this to ourselves? What if it backfires?”

“Well if it does, at least we won’t have anything to do with the political fallout. Seriously, Sigourney, do you want to have anything to do with starting a
rumor
? You’ll look vicious and petty. We don’t
know
what they were talking about and because of that major issue, we don’t want to cause trouble for anyone.”

I chuckled. “Excuse me if I thought politics was about playing dirty.”

“It is but that doesn’t mean we have to contribute to it. Peter hates melodrama and I’m with him when it comes to a decision like this. It makes you look weak and vindictive. Is that the image you want to convey? Let’s take the high road and decide it doesn’t matter why they met for dinner. We didn’t see it and we won’t say a damn word about it to anyone. It will be…our first secret.”

“Why do you make secrets and lack of melodrama sound so damn sexy?”

“Believe me, honey, it’s harder than it seems.”

Russell managed to drive to me to my condo fairly quickly. I grabbed my clutch before I turned toward him.

“Do you want to come inside for a moment?”

He smiled and nodded his head. “Sure. If your roommate is up then maybe I will meet her.”

“I don’t think you will but I’m hoping you want to see me again outside of work and I would be more comfortable with discussing it here than at the campaign office.”

“That works for me. I was going to follow you up to your condo anyway. I can’t just leave without making sure you get home safely. To me, that means inside your actual home.”

We both stepped out of his truck and he quickly met me on my side, slid one of his arms around my waist and accompanied me inside. The building was always fairly quiet and although Andrea and I lived on a pretty high floor, we rode the elevator without one other person disturbing our comfortable silence.

As soon as the bell dinged and we walked to my condo, I opened the front door and stepped in, Russell not far behind me. I stopped just inside the doorway and he closed the door behind us.

“What’s the matter?” he whispered in my ear.

I grinned like a Cheshire cat though I knew he couldn’t see my face. “You have no idea how much I want you to kiss me. I’m afraid if you do that, we might go too far and won’t be able to stop.” I turned around to face him. “My biggest fear is you think I’m some sort of slut or floozy when I’m neither.”

“I would never think that about you.” Russell’s hands gripped my cheeks, his pinkie fingers teasing my jawline. “I don’t date sluts and believe me, I would have known about your reputation before I got settled into the office once again. You’re incredibly bright and I’m going to have so much fun getting to know you better.”

“Even though we’re sure to fight like cats and dogs? I’m not a very easy-going person and I can be a major bitch. Do you think you’ll still find getting to know me…exciting?”

He leaned closer to me, his breath warm and enticing against my cheek. “I guess we’ll have to find out. No one’s perfect, Sigourney. I know I’m not. I can be a misogynist prick sometimes but when all is said and done, I want to know you better. Not because I deserve you but because everyone has a right to happiness and I think being with me is a much better alternative than counting down the days, waiting for Peter.”

Ah, the real issue and the elephant in the room. I wish I could block my attraction for the Governor and pretend like it’d never existed. That was the real reason why I was so eager to spill our little secret about tonight. I wanted Peter to know his wife had been out to dinner with Elaine. I knew there was no way she would have told him, not if she didn’t want him to run for President in the first place.

Russell’s lips brushed against my own and I responded by stepping closer to him, invading his personal space as his hands continued to massage my face. There was something so highly erotic about it, my lips pressed harder against his and we began to explore one another.

My arms wrapped around his neck, as we took soft, small nibbles from each other. Our lips knew what to do and when his mouth opened and his tongue slid into my mouth, I accepted it with renewed ardent passion. It’d been so long since I’d been kissed and I wanted to memorize his lips in a way my mind could record this moment. It would be on an endless loop of replay until the next time we were this intimate again.

His body, firm against mine, felt solid and I surrendered to the swirling of tongues, the sheer willingness for us to express our passion. The lack of words and the way our skin felt against one another in the heat of the moment.

My mind cleared of my attraction for another man, the possibility of acting on it and I zoned into this brief period with Russell. It was a wonderful feeling to have him so near and yet know instinctively, I wouldn’t give him the ultimate pleasure just yet. It wasn’t in me to ever experience a one-night stand.

Russell pulled away, his brilliant aquamarine eyes full of lust and his lips, slightly parted. We stared at one another intensely before he kissed my forehead and held his lips there a beat too long.

“You’re much too precious for me to give into base pleasures the first day we know one another. Have a good night and I’ll see you again soon.”

I smiled at him. “How soon is soon? Andrea has plans for Independence Day. I suppose I can go home but I don’t want to. I spend Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family. The Fourth of July should belong to me, to do as I see fit…don’t you agree?”

“Absolutely.” The grin on his face seemed to grow the longer I stared at him. “I would love to spend the holiday with you. Give me a few days and I’ll find a way to make it special.”

“That sounds like a plan.”

Russell allowed his arms to drop to his side as he backed away from me at a snail’s pace. “It is. Can I call you this weekend just to say ‘Hello?’”

I nodded. “You better or I will never forgive you.”

“Neither of us want that,” he replied while looking at me intensely. “Okay, I better call it a night. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on Monday.”

Now it was my time to back away, making the distance between us greater. “Have a good night.”

“It’s already been much better than I could have ever expected. Thank you, Sigourney, and good night.”

“You’re welcome, Russell. Nighty night.”

He finally turned away and walked out of the front door, closing it behind himself.

I sighed and walked to the door, locking it before I leaned against it, my forehead hitting the cold wood.

What had I just started and would I be able to finish it? That was the question for tonight indeed.

Chapter Eight

Peter

A
lthough Peter was supposed to accompany his wife back to Annapolis the following Monday, he made a convenient excuse to stay in Washington for the day.

His jealousy towards the newly formed relationship between Sigourney and Russell had grown to epic proportions. It didn’t make any logical sense but feelings were often irrational and illogical.

He should have been happy the young woman had found someone but instead, he felt spiteful and jealous she hadn’t decided to embark on anything with him. Her attraction towards him was palpable. It lived and breathed through her like a life force of its own yet she pretended to ignore it. Now on the receiving end of being the one with feelings wildly out of control, he hated himself for allowing anything to grow between the two of them. He couldn’t be done with this and neither could she when they’d barely started on a journey together. Times like this, life didn’t seem fair or just at all.

Peter sat through a campaign meeting, quietly sulking as Kylie ran through polls, focusing on the number of undecided voters, the potential voters that could’ve been brought over to the Coburn camp and other information he usually found insightful. Today, it was just a pain in the ass.

“I’m sure all of this rhetoric of yours has a point,” he finally said after Kylie glanced in his direction like an excitable puppy wanting attention from a wayward master.

“Peter,” Kylie began as if she were talking to a small child, “is something
wrong
?”

“Not at all. All I want to know is if it is possible to beat Elaine in the Democrat primary? All this other crap is best saved for the campaign aides. They’re the ones who have to get out the vote since we know how lazy the majority of Dems are. There’s a reason why Republicans always win the key races that count. Dems become complacent and don’t vote unless it’s a Presidential election and even then, they can’t always be counted upon.”

“Wow,” Sigourney spoke up before she turned toward him. “Tell me you just didn’t make a statement like that about your base.”

“I did,” Peter said without thought or compunction. “If you don’t like it then please, tell me how you really feel.”

“I don’t know, do you want to hear it? I’m not your base—in fact, I’m a registered Independent who could go either way.”

Peter’s steel-gray eyes coldly looked her up and down. “Then why are you working for a Democrat candidate’s campaign?”

Sigourney’s clear hazel-green eyes glared into his. “Isn’t it obvious? There haven’t been many good Republican candidates lately who weren’t obsessed with taking away women’s rights, minority rights, gay rights or anyone else for the matter who isn’t a straight white male. If they agreed to get out of America’s bedrooms, examination rooms and moral grandstanding then maybe I
would
vote for them. They are the party of low taxes after all, but lately have been too focused on cutting out deregulation and passing laws about issues that shouldn’t concern them.”

“Ah, finally some debate. If you’re such an expert, Ms. Stewart, what do you suggest?”

Sigourney glanced at Kylie who merely nodded for her to continue. “I wouldn’t focus on stealing voters from Elaine. They’ll come on board regardless if you’re able to take some of the votes away from the
other
party. Think of it this way: if you manage to convince some of those Republicans and Independents you’re a better candidate than anyone on the Republican side then the rest of the Democrat party will fall in line, including the essential backing by the current President for you to replace her.”

“And how, pray tell, do I do that? I’m a white male. Elaine has two major power plays going for her: one, she is a woman and two, she is a former two-term President’s wife. If you think you can figure out how I beat that then you tell me.”

“Elaine is also a baby boomer—that is a negative, not a plus,” Russell spoke up as he stole a glance at Sigourney before he faced the Governor. “You don’t think Generation X would like to see one of their own in the White House? That is a huge problem with Washington now. There are too many people from the old Guard still running the place. If we managed to elect younger senators and congress people, perhaps we would actually get something done for a change.”

Peter looked from Sigourney to Russell and back again.

The dynamic duo.

They were perfect for bouncing campaign ideas off one another and despite his distaste they were dating, he couldn’t stop himself. The campaign was more important than his feelings. He would have to pair them together. Between them, these two could give him a real shot at becoming President of the United States.

“It’s settled. Russell, Sigourney, I want you two to work together. I am making you both co-campaign manager aides to Kylie. I want you two to work together on slogans, reading the graphs and coming up with ideas on how I can gather some of the voters from the other side. I want you two to come up with ads that specifically target both Gen X and the iPod Generation, both, which are bigger together than the baby-boomers. I want you two to report directly to Kylie and myself only. Is that all right?”

Sigourney’s eyes blazed with a mixture of excitement and disbelief. “Are you serious?”

“As a heart attack.” Peter stood, signaling the end of the meeting. “Return to your desks and begin to brainstorm while I have a quick chat with Kylie before I leave.”

Both members of his team left and he didn’t bother to look at either one of them and focused his attention on Kylie.

She stood and refilled her coffee cup. “Whoa, I wasn’t expecting that from you. Can I take it this is the end of your fascination with the campaign aide?”