Kiss the Girl (37 page)

“Sloan Leighton,” the Senator said, pushing open her office door.  “This is unexpected.”  She closed the door behind her with
a
soft click. 

“I lied quite outrageously to your office boy,” Sloan said, putting on her most charming smile. 
She was amused to find her palms a little damp.

“I gathered.”  The Senator folded her arms an
d leaned a sharp hip against the polished
Victorian desk.  “Why?”

“I wanted to chat with you,” she said.  “Girl to girl.”

A single
blonde
brow arched, and it was the only movement the woman made.  “Oh?”

“About our children.”  Sloan tried out a
maternal mien
.  “They seem rather...taken with each other.” 

The Senator waited
silently for her to continue
, her face a study in barely masked
skepticism
.  Sloan shrugged, but a flame of
temper licked up inside her
.  Who was this woman to judge her? 
Were they really so different?  They’d both
used
t
he
i
r
God
-given gifts to
force
a
reluctant world
to cough up their due
. 
The Senator had gotten to use her brains, good for her.  Sloan’
s gifts had been decidedly more earthy
and she wouldn’t apologize for using what she had.
 

“
You can rest easy
, Madame Senator.  I
’m not out to seduce your son.  I do have standards.  Low and twisted, yes, but standards nonetheless. 
Maybe you don’t approve of me, but
I’ve only ever done what
--
or who
--
was necessary.”

“I’m biting my tongue, Ms. Leighton,” the Senator said.  “I’ve been following your career for years, and you’ve done quite a number of interesting things.  And people.  I’
m desperately curious about a few
of them.  But you’re not here to dish with me.  Not about our children, and much to my regret, not a
bout that delicious Italian prince
you spurned.  I know a woman on a mission when I see one.  What do you want?”

A reluctant smile tugged at the corners of Sloan’s mouth.  “I don’t like you,
”
she said.  “You’re clever and hard and you see too much.”

“
I’m also on a schedule
.
”  The Senator glanced at her watch.  “Could you possibly get to the point?”

Sloan’s smile died.  “
I want Nixie to be happy,” she said. 

“I like Nixie very much,” the Senator said.  “
But her happiness isn’t under my control.  Or yours.”

“I know.”  Sloan spread her hands.  “But her unhappiness has been very much under my control, and
that’s something I want to change
.
”

“And you think I can help you?”

“Well, yes.
 
You see, w
e’re at what you might call a
crossroads at Leighton-Brace Charitable Giving.  There’s an important opportunity for Nixie in the Middle East right now, but she’s digging in here in DC.  Because of your son.
”

“Ah.”
 

“She and our advisor are at each other’s throats over it, and for once in my life, I want to do the right thing,” Sloan said.  “If your son is as serious about Nixie as she seems about him, I’ll call off the dogs.  But if he’s toying with her, if
she passes
up the opportunity of a lifetime because
he thinks he’s lucked into the golden goose, well... I’d find that unacceptable.”

“You’re the only one allowed to hurt your daughter, is that it?”

“
If you like.” 
A small dart of pain landed somewhere in the vicinity of Sloan’s heart, but she
lifted a languid shoulder.  “Let’s just say that if Erik’s intentions are less than honorable,
I’ll
find myself compelled
to drive a wedge between them.”  She smiled, finally on familiar ground.  “And please remember how low and
twisted my standards are.  I’ll do
whatever it takes
to protect my child.”

The Senator gazed impass
ively at her
.  “
Are you threatening me?
”

Sloan gave a delicate chuckle. 
“
Threatening you!  The very idea.”  She
slipped her purse over her shoulder and stood.  “I was
just
hoping to
keep this low profile
, that’s all
. 
Things always get
so...messy
when the press is involved
, and this being an election year, well, I’d hoped
to avoid bloodshed.” 
She
paused.  “Figuratively speaking, of course.  But a mother must do what a mother must do.”

“
Or who she must do?
”  The Senator
threw Sloan’s words back at her with the calm assurance of the seasoned debater she was
.
 

“
Now that’s up to you, isn’t it?”  Sloan smiled.  “
It was lovely meeting you. 
Good luck
with the election
.”  She
walked toward the door, deliberately putting a lot of slink into her hips.  She turned, one hand on the knob.  “You
are
running again, aren’t you?”

The Senator gazed at her shrewdly, and Sloan held her breath. 
Come on
, she thought. 
Give me something.  Please
God
, give me something
.  She didn’t think she could bear
to follow through on the threat she’d just made
.
  Not again.
 

“If this ends up in the papers, I’ll know where to rain down the fury,” the Senator said
finally
.

“Understood.”  Sloan took her hand off the knob.

“Erik called me
last
Friday
.  He wanted his grandmother’s ring.  Her wedding ring.”

“Ah.”  Sloan was shocked to feel an exquisite bittersweet joy rise up in her chest.  Her baby.  Her and Archer’s baby, taking that foolish, ill-fated leap into something as ridiculous and fundamentally flawed as marriage.  She blinked against a shaming flood of tears.  “So he’s serious about her.”

“Looks that way.”

“We’ll have to learn to get along, then, won’t we?”

“I wouldn’t mind hearing about that Italian prince.”

“He was just a duke.  And something of a disappointment.”

“Ah.”

Sloan opened the door and slipped out.

Twenty minutes and one astonishing cab ride later
--
Sloan hadn’t experienced that kind of out-of-body terror since the last time she’d driven in Cairo
--
she stepped into
the
Presidential Suite at the Four Seasons. 
Karl lay on the couch,
his stocking
feet
propped
on the arm, his fingers laced together over his bald scalp while a laptop hummed happily on his stomach.  He looked up from the screen when she opened the door.

“H
ey, Sloan.  H
ow did it go?”

“Depends.”  She stepped out of her shoes and let her arches weep with
relief
as she padded into the kitchenette.  She retrieved a cold bottle of water from the fridge
--God
, she loved America
--
before wandering into the sitting area and lowering herself
into
the square arm chair facing the couch. 

“Depends on what?” Karl’s eyes were already back on his computer screen. 

“On your point of view, I guess.”  S
loan folded her arms and
propped her breasts on
them, waiting for his full attention
.
  To his credit, when he finally set
aside the computer and looked at her
, he didn’t so muc
h as glance at the cleavage straining against her shirt.  She smiled. 
Karl’s interest
in her body
was purely professional
. 
She performed for him this way
just to stay in practice
.

“
Screw my point of view, Sloan.  Is this doctor going to be a problem or not?”

“He wants to marry her.”

“
What?
”  Karl sat up so fast he nearly bobbled the laptop.

“He’s asked his mother for the heirloom ring and everything.”

“Oh my
God
.”  Karl scrubbed big hands over his face.  “This is a nightmare.”

“It can be
.”  It had been
nearly
twenty years since Archer had died, and
grief still
hijack
ed
her
with vicious regularity.
  But Sloan didn’t fool herself.  Karl wasn’t thinking of Nixie’s heart.  He was thinking of
Bumani
.
 
“What are we going to do
?
”
 

Karl’s gaze
dropped speculatively to her cleavage.  “
Do you think you could attract the good doctor’s attention?”

Sloan had excised her conscience years ago, so she was surprised to feel it twitch in protest at that. 
But she forced her mouth to curve into the most knowing of smiles. 

“Nixie had to slap him to his senses the first time we met, and I wasn’t even trying.” 
Very hard
. 
“Of course
I can get his attention.  Do you think I should?”

Karl frowned and rubbed thoughtfully at his beard.  “I don’t know.  It’s probably too soon to go that route again.  If we have to fly
solo on
Bumani
, we might want to
rehabilitate your
public image a little.”