Scandalous-nook (20 page)

“Of course you don’t.” He shook his head, reaching the last button and slipping off
his shirt along with his suit jacket. “Because I didn’t tell you.”

“You know?”

“Do you want a written confession?”

She crossed her arms, stepping back until she scraped her heel on the corner of a
cardboard box. “Ow! Damn it, Stephen, are you actually trying to say
you
posted that?”

“I had help.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Why would you do something like this?”

“I spent the first month after you disappeared from Burke’s house feeling sorry for
myself and learning to loathe hangovers. If I ever take a drink again, remind me to
tell you about being found under my desk by one of my volunteers. She’s never going
to forget it, or get that stain out of her Finn Fighter shirt.”

Oh dear.

His smile at her expression was self-effacing. “Then these last few weeks, I’ve been
surrounded by federal agents who are physically incapable of cracking a smile. Those
people make me look impulsive and sloppy.”

“Were they there because of—”

“But more interestingly,” he interrupted her again, making her frown. “Do you know
how Brady and his new pal Ken Tanaka have spent the last two months?”

She shook her head. “No idea. I’d guess it wasn’t teaching you about letting people
finish their sentences.”

“They pooled their not inconsiderable talents and set about resolving the problem.
The FBI spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on manpower and resources to go after
Burke, and those two did it with a computer and some shady contacts I’ll never ask
them about in half the time. Of course, the feds will take credit, since Tanaka was
on their payroll. But I understand my cousin’s connections provided some vital intel.
I owe him another apology.”

She frowned. “I don’t understand.”

He sighed and used his toes to push off his shoes, stepping out of them and closer
to her. “They did this. Made it possible. They dismantled Burke and took away everything
he had on me in the process. Tanaka turned off the surveillance equipment at the party—”

“I know.”

“What you
didn’t
know was that later that evening, he placed a device of his own design into Burke’s
office. Realizing it was the only place the man didn’t have wired, he rightly concluded
he would feel free to say something incriminating.” He paused, studying her. “Which
he did with you the next day.”

Ken had bugged the office? That meant the FBI had heard everything. “Why did it take
so long to arrest him?”

His expression said he understood what she’d been through. They’d both been suffering.
“They needed more. So Tanaka and Brady made sure they got it, while at the same time
finding and destroying all copies of the pictures taken in my home, getting Seamus
a lawyer and locating Mira…and making sure Trick didn’t inform me of Jen’s pending
arrest.”

“What?!”

He grimaced. “I wasn’t thrilled with that either, but I can’t say I’m unhappy Jen
is heading back to college.” She glared and he held up his hands. “You told me I needed
to let her make her own mistakes. They didn’t make her hit that woman, Natasha. That
was her choice.”

Brady and Ken had done this? Everything? “And what about the blog?”

Stephen was staring at her legs, his hands on his belt buckle. Tasha’s body started
to warm.

“Ken and Brady filled me in a few weeks ago.” His voice lowered dangerously. “As soon
as you let Jeremy know you were planning to move.”

She bit her lip. “It seemed like the right thing to do.”

“After I got over my shock, I wanted to help. Tanaka put the blog together and routed
it through so many IP addresses that no one will ever be able to trace it back to
him. I chose the pictures from the surveillance footage he’d confiscated.”

Ken hadn’t even hinted that he knew. “Why?”

“So you couldn’t use it as a reason to run.” He’d moved so close she could reach out
and touch him. “You’ve been using my reputation, my decision to pursue public office,
as an excuse to keep me at arm’s length. That ship has now sailed. You walked away…”
His voice broke. “I heard everything, Natasha. What you said. How you stood up for
me. I know you walked away to stop those pictures from being used against me. But
now those pictures no longer exist.”

He reached out and took her hand, caressing her wrist with his thumb. “If you leave
me now, Natasha Rivera, I’ll know it’s because you genuinely don’t want to be with
me. That you don’t love me the way I love you.”

A sob escaped her throat and she covered her mouth. “You never said it before.”

“That I love you? That even when I believed stolen moments were all you’d give me
for the rest of my life, I still knew I would take them rather than lose you completely?
You never gave me the chance.”

Stephen pulled her close and kissed her. The moment his lips touched hers she was
lost. She jumped into his arms, not doubting for a moment that he’d catch her as she
wrapped her legs around his waist.

He groaned, his mouth fierce, his tongue tangling with hers in a way that had her
hips rocking against him. It had been so long.

Two months.

Too long.

Tasha was dimly aware of him moving as she sucked his lower lip into her mouth and
nibbled it the way she knew he liked. Then he turned his head and let go of her with
one hand to slide the window up.

“The answer is yes,” he yelled to the reporters stilling milling about on the grass.
“I’m definitely off the market.”

He slammed the window shut again as questions and shouts rang out, then laughed when
she buried her face in his neck. “What? Don’t you want Senator Lark’s daughter to
know I’m no longer available?”

Yes, of course—she wanted everyone to know. She looked up to tell him as much, but
his mischievous expression was the only warning she got before she was tossed onto
her bed.

“You left me.”

He was smiling, but his words still resonated with pain.

She bit her lip. “I’m sorry.”

“Words aren’t going to do it, Natasha. I need you naked and kneeling and ready for
your punishment.”

Tasha didn’t even have to think. “Yes, sir.”

His blue eyes darkened with desire. “Now.”

She tore off her t-shirt and rolled onto her back to shimmy out of her shorts and
underwear. Stephen watched her with hungry eyes until she was kneeling on the bed,
head down and hands on her thighs.

“I’ll never get used to how sexy you are. Never get tired of this. Not in a week.
Not when we’re eighty and waiting for our grandchildren to leave so I can tear your
clothes off.”

A fine tremor ran through her at his words. “Never is a long time, Stephen.”

He sat down beside her and she realized he’d taken off his pants. She licked her lips.
She’d missed him so much.

“Lie across my lap, Natasha. Bottom up.”

Her eyes widened, but she did as he asked. He groaned, skimming his hands over her
ass cheeks, squeezing and caressing each one in turn. “Two months. That’s how long
your tortured me this time. Two months when I couldn’t touch you whenever I wanted.
Take you whenever I wanted. Spank you.”

His hand came down with a loud crack and she cried out. “Yes, sir!”

He spanked her other cheek. Then again. He started a rhythm that made her squirm against
him, heating her skin until it was blazing to the touch.

“This is mine, Natasha. Tell me.”

“Yours.”

“Spread your legs.”

When she did, Stephen gave her soaking sex the same treatment, and both of them moaned
each time his hand connected with a wet
smack
. “This is mine too. You gave it to me.”

“Yes, sir,” she cried, so close to coming she was ready to beg for more.

Stephen stopped abruptly and moved her until her back and stinging ass were pressed
against the bed and he was position between her thighs. He thrust inside her, baring
his teeth while she gasped at the tight fit.

“Yes,” he growled.

He lifted one hand to place it over her heart. “What about this?” he asked, rocking
deeper. “Is this mine, Natasha?”

“Yes, sir,” she whispered, breathless. Her heart was his too. It had always been his.

He closed his eyes for a moment, reacting to her words, and when he opened them again,
they shone with an emotion she couldn’t deny. “Tell me.”

“I love you, Stephen.”

“You never said it.”

“I didn’t want to go first.”

He took her hands and held them over her head with one fist, closing his other hand
over her throat in sensual warning. “Do you want to come?”

“Please.”

“Then say yes to my next question.”

Something in his tone made her still. She studied his face. “What question?”

“Marry me.”

“That isn’t a question.” She tightened her legs around him, holding on while the world
spun again and her heart tried to race its way out of her chest.

“Say yes.” His hips pumped against her once. Twice. Then he paused again. “Marry me,
Natasha Kathleen Rivera.”

“We can’t just…it’s too fast, Stephen.”

“It’s been a lifetime. I can’t spend another day away from you. I don’t want to wait
another year to touch you, to talk to you. Marry me and let me love you for the rest
of our lives.”

She gasped when he rolled his hips, pressing his erection against that spot that drove
her wild. “I don’t like your house.”

“We’ll move.”

She moaned. “I don’t want to be the first lady.”

His chuckle was thick with lust. “I’ll add ‘never run for higher office’ to my vows.
This is where I want to be and I want you with me. Marry me.”

She struggled against his grip. “What about children?”

“I’m for them. As many as you want. Marry me.”

“Stephen, I’m serious.”

His expression was determined. Wicked. “So am I. If you don’t say yes, I’m tying you
to this bed and taking you until you’re pregnant and forced to marry me so your child
can have a father.”

Too late.
She smiled, desire and love bringing tears to her eyes. “Will you spank me whenever
I’m bad?”

“And when you’re good.”

“Ask me again.”

“Marry me.”

“Yes, sir.”

Please.

Hours later she woke with a start, realizing she was alone in bed. “Stephen?”

“I’m here.” He was standing in the kitchen, eating a raspberry tart. He was also still
naked. “There is nothing in your refrigerator but baked goods.”

She noticed how dark it was in the apartment and gasped. “Is Brady still outside?”

Stephen swore and peered out the window, one hand between his legs. “I completely
forgot. Yep. He’s still down there. He’s playing cards with two reporters. Oh.”

“What?”

“Tanaka just showed up. He brought chairs and beer and... We should get dressed.”

She pulled the sheet up higher. “Why? What’s wrong now?”

Stephen smiled at her and her heart responded. “Nothing’s wrong, angel. Not today.
If I’m not mistaken, your friend has brought us dinner from Ruby’s. There seems to
be no end to his talents.”

“I really love him right now,” she sighed. Stephen narrowed his eyes and she laughed.
“Not as much as my senator, of course. Besides, I think he has a crush on your cousin.”

Stephen laughed, looking for his pants. “I think you’re right. Maybe telling them
about our wedding will give them ideas. If not them, hopefully it’ll light a fire
under Owen. Mom has been throwing hints so hard he and Jeremy should have concussions
by now.”

Wedding. She was actually getting married. Maybe she would send an invitation to her
father. She didn’t expect him to respond, but at least he’d know. She’d like to think
that even if he couldn’t walk her down the aisle, it would make him happy that she
was marrying a good Irish boy from a wonderful family. The best family who would make
sure her child was raised in love.

She needed to tell Stephen about the baby. But for now? This was just about them.
Stephen loved her for exactly who she was. He didn’t ask her to change to suit his
career or be less of who she was. He just wanted her. He’d asked her to marry him
before he thought he had to. He’d followed his heart and it had brought him straight
to her door. Knowing that took away all of her fears and doubts.

Some people would say it was too soon to get married. When they found out about the
baby, they would nod and say, “Oh, that explains it.”

But they’d be wrong on both counts.

Stephen was right, this had been a long time coming, and now that everything she’d
never allowed herself to dream about was at her fingertips? She planned to grab it
and never let go.

“Hurry up, Spanky. Ruby’s awaits.”

She laughed, jumping out of bed and running to her closet as he chased her.

“Chocolate princess,” she parried, grabbing the first pair of clean shorts she could
find.

“Brat,” Stephen sighed, pulling her into his arms. “Beautiful, irresistible brat.”

“You love it.”

“I love you. Now kiss me before I lose you to Ruby’s irresistible secret recipe.”

She kissed him, trying to show him without words how she felt. How much. How completely
happy he made her. She smiled when he lifted his head. “Stephen?”

“Yes?”

“I love you. More than Ruby’s three-cheese lasagna.”

He sent her a heated look. “Are you telling me you want to skip dinner and stay in
bed?”

She kissed him one more time and then slipped out of his arms with a joy-filled laugh.
“I’m in love, honey. I’m not crazy.”

I truly hope you enjoyed this book. If so, please leave a review and tell your friends.
Word of mouth and online reviews are immensely helpful to authors and greatly appreciated.

To keep up with all the latest news about my books, release info, exclusive excerpts
and more, check out my website
RGAlexander.com
. Stop by my group blog,
Smutketeers.com
to enter the frequent
contests
and
free book giveaways
each month.