Loving the Senator (Capitol Affairs #1) (12 page)

“I don’t think I will give you this until you agree to move in with me. How’s that sound?” He teased me and rubbed himself against me, making me very uncomfortable.

“Okay, I can hold off,” I said, playing his game. I let him feel the warmth and velvet softness of my skin, and I started touching my nipples. I could not take the torture anymore as I touched myself, hoping it would get him fired up.

Immediately, my nipples hardened under my own touch. Using both hands, I circled them with the tips of my fingers. Alex lay between my legs and watched.

“Does that feel good?” he asked. It did and knowing he was watching me do it, made me even hotter. All I could hear was the clock over his bed ticking, and my moaning.

“Mmm it does, Alex. It is making me throb.”

“Do you like touching yourself?” he asked, with a gasp in his throat.

“I do. If you won’t touch me, I am going to have to do it. I will just pretend these are your hands all over me. It feels so good, Alex.”

He became harder as he watched. I licked my finger and reached down to touch my clit. The thrill of his attention had lured me closer to coming. Touching myself the same way he did, I began to move my hips around. It was incredibly sexy, and I felt my body respond like it did when Alex touched me.

The feel of his body was heavy on top of me, his scent, and his beautiful face tore into my senses.

“I’m so close, baby.”

I did this in private with a vibrator, but I had never let anyone watch me. With Alex, anything sexual seemed comfortable. I had worked myself up into a climatic frenzy as I let it take over my body. Our little game made me more desperate for release.

As soon as I moaned again, he got up out of bed and said, “Come on, we gotta go. I’m going to be late.”

“My God, Alex. That is just mean,” I yelled.

“You’re just going to have to wait. We don’t have time,” he winked.

“I’m going to remember this later tonight when you’re all hot and bothered wondering if I’m wearing your favorite thong, or no thong at all.” I got out of bed, walked up to him, ran my hand across his hard cock, and walked to the shower.

“We’ll pick up this roommate conversation later this evening. I need you to see things my way and I know just how to do it.”

“You think, Mr. Conrad,” I yelled from inside the bathroom.
 

Chapter Eleven

A few months into our newfound love, I was at his house taking an early morning shower. I had not agreed to move in with him, but I kept a stash of things there when I did spend the night, which recently, was becoming every night. Running late again from lack of sleep, I was cussing in the shower trying to hurry. I was playfully blaming Alex for my current state of trying to get to work on time. We could not keep our hands off each other all night, and I was sleep deprived. I had to be in court with Victoria and it terrified me to be late.

Alex came in, “Baby. Your grandmother is on the phone. She needs to talk to you.”

I peeked my head out of the shower with the shampoo dripping on my face and steam billowing out behind me.

“You answered my cell phone this early in the morning? She’s going to know what we are up to,” I whispered, a little upset about it. I didn’t want Beulah to get ideas about me that weren’t upstanding, or to think I was acting in any way inappropriate. Though, since I’d been with Alex, that’s all I’d been doing.

“Come on, Prudence; you are an adult last time I checked.” He raised and lowered his eyebrows at me and smiled.

“Did you tell her I am taking a shower? Can I call her back?” I asked, with my eyes closed to keep the soap from burning them.

“I told her that, but she says she can’t wait. Here take the towel,” he said, laying a puffy, white towel over the shower door.

“Good God. I hope it’s important.”

“She sounds upset,” he whispered again.

Alex stepped out; I rinsed off quickly and wrapped my wet body in a towel. I walked into his room, he handed me the phone and spanked my ass with a wink.

“Hey, Grandma, it’s me.”

“Sweetheart, are you sitting down, or is Alex with you nearby?” she asked, and then I began to get concerned.

“Yes, Alex is here with me. What is it? You are scaring me.” I looked over at Alex.

“I received a call today from Ohio. It wasn’t your mother; it was someone from a hospital. I don’t know how to tell you this, honey.” Her voice told me she had been crying.

“I will be okay. Just tell me. Its Deidre, isn’t it?” I asked.

Alex looked over and sat on the bed next to me, putting his hand on my leg.

It had been nine years since I had seen or spoken to my mom. Numerous attempts to get in touch with her went ignored. The last I heard anything about her was from my best friend, Veena, and that was when I first moved in with Beulah. She told me my mom’s boyfriend was in jail for murder, and the police were at my mom’s trailer questioning her. After that, I tried dozens of times to talk to her through letters and heard nothing back.

There was no way to call her because she had no phone. I could write to her. Since I had been with Beulah, I sent her at least fifty letters to our trailer. Every time I mailed one, I thought that would be the one to make her write back. Now, I was waiting for the news I knew was inevitable.

“It seems she is very sick, honey. I guess she has only days to live.” With that, the crying started again. My face flushed, and my childhood flashed before me in an instant. Stunned at the reality of what was happening, I swallowed and tried to speak.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked, trying to be strong for my grandmother.

“Well, the nurse told me it’s AIDS. Now, I don’t want you to freak out, but it gets worse. She was also in prison. I guess she was part of the murder Mort committed. She admitted she stabbed this man with this character, Mort. It is a sad situation. I have a flight for us this morning, and we should get in Ohio by noon. I know I didn’t ask you to come, but we both need to be there. Our plane leaves at eleven this morning. The sooner we get there, the better, honey.”

I just sat in awe at what I heard. My worst fear had happened. I knew from the last time seeing my mom, she didn’t look well. She was so skinny and gray, and must have been sick then. I had to see her. No matter what she had done, or what happened between us, she was still my mother, and she was dying.

“Okay. I will be ready. I will have Alex take me to the airport. Do you need a ride?” I asked in a whisper, trying to keep it together.

“No, Toby is bringing me,” she said.

“I have to call work and tell them something. I don’t want to tell them she has AIDS, but I will let them know it’s an emergency. Are you okay, Grandma?”

She had not seen my mom in twenty-some years. Not since she snuck out of her house and ran away with a couple of guys she met at a party. My mom wanted nothing to do with Beulah or my grandfather. She lived in a van, traveling all over the United States and taking drugs. She never knew my grandfather died until two years after, when she called asking for money. The day she found out he was dead; my mom laughed, and got wasted screaming what a horrible father he was till she passed out.

“I will be fine, honey. You don’t worry about me. I want you to take care of yourself. We will face this together like we have everything else,” she said. I could tell she was trying not to sound to upset as she spoke to me.

We hung up, and I knew I had to get myself together and move fast to get to the airport in two hours.

“Oh Prudence, I am so sorry you have to go through this. Let me come with you?” he said. I could not let him be in the middle of this. It had publicized he was dating an attorney, and there had been pictures of me in the paper. No one had released my name yet. I didn’t want my past dug up right now, and have it hurt his career.

“No, I will be okay. This is something I need to do alone. Our past would come out, and I don’t want it to hurt you right now,” I said. I buried my face into his neck, breathing in his cologne. I didn’t know how long I would be gone away from him, and I wanted to remember his comforting scent.

“Let me call Victoria and explain. We don’t have to tell her why, we’ll just say she is sick right now,” he said, holding my hands and kissing my forehead.

“Yes, please. Will you call Thomas for me as well? He will be worried, and I don’t feel like talking right now. I have to get to the airport soon. Do you think you can take me?”

He nodded.

“Tell Beulah, next time you have to fly somewhere; I have access to a private jet, and would prefer you us that instead. I feel better if you let Colt, my pilot fly you. He has been my pilot for years,” he said.

My head lay in his lap, the tears dripped down my cheeks and onto his thigh. We sat for a few seconds in silence.

“I understand, baby. Of course you have to go. I would like to be with you, Prudence,” he said, stroking my hair.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea right now. I don’t want you associated with this,” I said, as I pulled him down for a kiss.

“I could fly out this weekend.”

“No, Alex. I would feel better if you stayed here. Trust me on this one. If I need you, I will call.”

He looked wounded. “Okay, but I will be right here waiting for you to come back to me.”

He called his office and told Susan he would be in later, and then I heard him call Victoria as I packed and dressed. She was more concerned about me than the case, and told Alex that I could take as much time as I needed.

We were both quiet on the way to the airport. I held his hand the entire way wanting to touch him and to hold on to him before I left.

When we pulled into the airport parking lot, he looked at me and said, “If you need me for anything, I will be right there. Remember that. Don’t go through this alone. You are more important than anything.”

“I know, Alex. I have to be strong and do this, and put the past behind me. She is dying, and I need to make peace with her. I can do it.”

“I know you can, baby. Remember, I told you how strong you are. I saw it when you were just sixteen, and now you are a grown woman and even stronger. Call me as soon as you land. I need to hear your voice and know you are okay. I will be able to tell if you aren’t,” he said. We kissed goodbye, neither of us wanting to part.

Chapter Twelve

We knew that Deidre was at a charity hospital in Cleveland. Beulah rented a car, and we reserved a hotel that was near the hospital.

I didn’t know what to expect when I walked through the door of the hospital. This had to be dreadful. I felt the starting of a panic attack take over, and I had to remember my calming techniques from therapy. Breathe.

I wanted to run instead of face what was ahead of me. Beulah could tell this, and she grabbed my hand as she led me to the elevator.

“Are you okay still?” she asked.

“I am,” I lied. I was glad my grandmother was with me, but I would have loved to have had Alex there as well. It was for the best that he not be involved in this.

The elevator stopped at the seventh floor, and there were biohazard signs placed on the walls, and in front of the rooms. It was a quiet place, with the beeping of the monitors and the gentle roar of the oxygen machines. The nurses’ station was in a circular island in the middle of the floor. Nurses were busy on computers or with patients. Beulah and I walked up to the desk.

“May I help you?” the nurse asked, not looking up from her computer screen.

“Yes, we are here for, Deidre Romaine. I am her mother, Beulah, and her daughter, Prudence,” said my grandmother.

The nurse was extremely thin, with blonde spiked hair, and a purple scrub set. She looked up at us and her face told me what I was about to walk into, was not good.

“One moment. I think her doctor is here.”

The nurse left and went to speak to a woman in white coat, writing on a chart.

“She will be right with you. I think it’s best for you to speak to her doctor before you go in,” said the nurse, with a concerned smile.

“That’s fine,” said Beulah.

Walking over to us was a small, Asian woman with a tired, serious look on her face. She was plain, with no makeup, and her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. She was wearing a white coat and loafers that looked as worn out as she did.

“Hello, I am Doctor Thomas. You are Deidre Romaine’s mother and her daughter?” she asked.

She reached out to shake both of our hands.

“Hello, Doctor Thomas. I am Beulah, and this is her daughter, Prudence. We just got in from Virginia. Deidre’s nurse called me yesterday. I had no idea Deidre was even sick, let alone near death. I have not spoken to my daughter in over twenty years.”

“Yes, the prison brought Deidre in. I have been treating her since she found out five years ago that she was HIV positive.”

I looked at Beulah as she closed her eyes while the doctor spoke. This was the first time she came face to face with the fact that my mother was so ill.

“Deidre refused to stop taking drugs, and refused to take any of the therapies I tried to keep her on. She felt that she could just ignore it, and it would go away. Last week, the prison brought her in because she was coughing with a fever, and unresponsive. She has critical pneumonia. She also has cirrhosis of the liver, and tremendous lung damage due to smoking. I’m afraid, in her weakened state, she doesn’t have much time. She’s being kept comfortable right now, and comes in and out of consciousness. Her appearance is going to be a shock to you if you have not seen her in so long. You need to be prepared for how she looks. Do you have any questions for me?”

“Yes, is there anything you can do besides keep her comfortable? Is there any hope that, provided the best medication and the best treatment, she could come out of this pneumonia?”

“I am afraid, not at this point,” said Doctor Thomas.

“I understand. How did you find me?”

“The prison had your number. She discovered she had the disease through a blood test when she got to prison. She never spoke about a family. I am sorry we had to meet under these circumstances,” the doctor continued.