For the Love of Gina: The President's Girlfriend (6 page)

“I
have to be certain that whatever it was that caused you to hate my wife so
bitterly, is no longer a part of who you are.”

“It’s
not a part of who I am!”

“Perhaps
that’s true,” Dutch said.
 
“But until I’m
satisfied, I’m not going to take the risk.”

Jade
stared at her father.
 
“You think I’ll
harm them.
 
Don’t you?”

“Jade,”
Dutch started saying.

“Don’t
you?” Jade asked again, cutting him off.

“You
didn’t warn her,” Dutch said.

“Oh,
not again, Dutch!” Sam blared.
 

“You
said she deserved what happened to her,” Dutch continued, staring at his
daughter.
 
“You said you hated her to her
face.
 
I know you’ve improved.
 
I’m certain you have.
 
But that doctor didn’t convince me that
you’re completely there yet.
 
And I have
to be convinced that you’re completely there.
 
After what my wife has been through, I can’t settle for anything less.”

“But
why all of a sudden, Dutch?
 
Dr. Golan
gave her an excellent report.”

“Too
excellent,” Dutch admitted.
 
“His lack of
objectivity disturbs me.
 
He was speaking
as if he was Jade’s fan, not her doctor.
 
That disturbs me mightily.
 
And if
my instincts are telling me no, to wait, then that’s exactly what I’m going to
do.”

Jade
looked at her father with tears in her eyes.
 
Then she ran out of the room.

Sam
was about to run after her.
 
She knew
Jade still had issues.
 
But Dutch had
gone too far.
 
She turned back toward him
before she left.
 
“It’s not fair, Dutch,”
she said.
 
“Jade is your daughter.
 
She deserves better than this.”
 
Then Sam took off after her daughter.

Dutch
understood completely how Sam felt.
 
He
understood completely how disappointed and angry Jade had to feel.
 
But ever since he first laid eyes on Jade
today, something was telling him not to do it.
 
He didn’t listen the last time, when everything within him was telling
him to not let Gina go to that house that day, and Gina nearly died.
 
He didn’t care if everybody was angry and if
everybody was disappointed.
 
He was
listening this time.

Jade
was crying hysterically by the time Sam was allowed in her room.
 
Sam closed the door, hurried to her
daughter’s bedside, and slung her over so that they were face to face.

“What
do you think you’re doing?” she asked her daughter.

“He
wants me to die in here,” Jade said, her eyes filled with tears.
 
“He’ll never allow me to get out of
here.
 
I’ll die here!”

“And
what is crying going to do about it?” Sam wanted to know.
 

Jade
shook her head, as more tears poured.
 
“He doesn’t love me.
 
Daddy
doesn’t care anything about me!”

“And
what is crying going to do about it, Jade?”

“I
don’t care!” Jade screamed and Sam slapped her violently across the face.
 

“Ever
since you were a small child, what did I tell you crying was good for?”

Jade
stared at her mother, a woman she used to fear above any other human
being.
 
“Nothing but tears,” she said.

“And
who, did I tell you ever since you were little, cared about your tears?”

Jade
continued to stare at her mother.
 
“Nobody.”

“Your
father doesn’t care.
 
We saw that today.”

“He
can make those courts keep me here forever, Mommy.
 
He has the power to make them keep me here to
protect Gina from me.
 
He thinks I’m
going to harm her.”

“That’s
exactly what he thinks.
 
You don’t
matter, and neither do I.
 
It’s about
time we both face that hard, cold fact.
 
Gina is the only entity that matters to Dutch Harber.
 
You and I?
 
Non-factors.”

“But
it’s not right!” Jade blared.
 
“And it’ll
never be right while. . .”

“While
what baby?” Sam asked her daughter, although she already knew what she meant.

“Things
will never change while Gina is still around.”

Sam
nodded.
 
“That’s absolutely right.
 
So my question to you is are you going to lay
down here and cry tears nobody gives a damn about, or get your ass up and do
something about it?”

Jade
looked at her mother.
 
“But do what?” she
wanted to know.

Sam
didn’t immediately respond.
 
She just sat
there.
 
Somebody had been talking to her
for months on end, ever since Dutch forced Jade into this crazy house, trying
to convince her that there was such a thing as retribution.
 
Trying to convince her just what Jade had
said: that Dutch didn’t commit Jade out of any concern for her.
 
His true intention was to keep Jade locked up
forever, locked safely away from his family and his life, for the love of
Gina.
 

“Don’t
worry baby,” she said to her daughter.
 
“You keep fucking your doctor, and keep getting those good reports.
 
I’ll handle the rest.”

Jade
looked at her mother.
 
She was on team
Dutch for such a long time.
 
She had even
gotten on team Gina after Gina’s problems with Marcus Rance.
 
Now she was seeing both of those assholes for
the selfish haters they really were.
 
And
Jade liked the change in her mother.
 
She
even smiled.
 
“It’s about time,” she
said.

CHAPTER FIVE

It
was movie night in the Harber household as Dutch, with his legs crossed and his
body slouched, sat hugged-up on the sofa with Gina, while Little Walt and Nanny
sat on beanbags on the floor.
 
They were
all watching
Shrek
on DVD, and both
parents couldn’t help but smile as Little Walt couldn’t stop laughing at Eddie
Murphy’s version of Donkey.
 
Even Nanny,
who was usually very serious, was laughing too.

But
Gina knew it hadn’t gone well in California.
 
He had phoned her from the plane, but he gave her no details.
 
Just that Jade wasn’t going to spend her
furlough with them after all.
 
She could
tell by the tone of his voice the he didn’t want to discuss it further, at
least not right then, and she respected that.
 
And discussed other matters, instead.

Dutch
had only been in town an hour before it was time for them to watch movies with
the baby, and she didn’t exactly have time to bring it up then.
 
But now was different.
 
He was home, Little Walt was glued to the
movie screen and therefore no longer in need of their undivided attention, so
she turned her attention to Dutch.

“What
happened with Jade?” she asked him.

Dutch
pulled her closer.
 
“I changed my mind,”
he said.

Gina
studied him.
 
“Why?”

“I’m
entitled.”

“You’re
entitled.
 
But why?”

Dutch
exhaled.
 
“It started when she first
hugged me.”

“Jade?”

“Yes.
 
At first it felt wonderful to have my
daughter in my arms again, the way it used to be whenever I would visit her
there.
 
Everything was fine.
 
But then, when we stopped embracing, she
kissed me.”

Gina
hesitated.
 
“On the lips?”

“Yes.
 
Which was fine.
 
But it didn’t feel fine.
 
It felt like old Jade. Like that same
obsessiveness.
 
It felt as if she was
feeling freer now that she was about to see civilization again, and she was
coming into herself again.
 
Her same old
self.”

“She
exposed herself,” Gina said bluntly.

“That’s
exactly how it felt, yes.”
 
Dutch loved
that he could speak so plainly to Gina, and she always understood.
 
“It felt like . . . It felt as if she hadn’t
changed at all.”

“But
what about all of those wonderful reports that psychiatrist was giving her?”

“That
was the other problem.”

“Her
psychiatrist?”

“Dr.
Reyza Golan, yes.
 
I asked to meet with
him, the way I usually do when I go see Jade.”

“But
this time was different?”

“Not
any different than my recent visits, no, I realized that.
 
But because his report was so glowing, and I
was already unsettled, I suddenly realized that his latest reports had been so
different than his earlier reports.”

Gina
didn’t get it.
 
“You lost me there,
Dutch.”

“When
I first put Jade in Hammersmith, Dr. Golan would give me weekly reports, and
all of his reports were very balanced and objective.
 
She was in bad shape.
 
And she wasn’t getting any better.
 
Or, if they did see progress, it was marginal
at best.
 
Until maybe three-four weeks
ago.
 
That’s when his reports started
changing.”

“They
became more positive?”

“Positive
isn’t the word.
 
They became more like hero-worship
reports than objective pronouncements.
 
It was as if something clicked within that doctor and he suddenly
concluded that she was completely cured.
 
Or something else was at work there.”

“You
mean he and Jade were in league to pull the wool over your eyes or something?”

“Something
like that, yes.
 
Dr. Forbes doesn’t seem
to think so. He has complete confidence in the man.
 
But that was the perception Golan was giving
me.
 
I felt as if something had changed,
all right, but the change wasn’t in Jade.
 
The change was in the doctor.”

Gina
could see the concern in Dutch’s eyes as he spoke.
 
It was as if he knew it was true, and he
hated that it was true.

“He
spoke of her today,” he continued, “the way a man would speak of someone he
either loved, or feared.”

“Feared?
 
But why would he fear Jade?
 
Or even love her?
 
Because she’s your daughter?”

“No.
 
His background was thoroughly checked when
Luther Forbes announced that he would lead her therapy team.
 
He comes from the wealthiest of families.
 
Old blue bloods.
 
A former president isn’t going to impress him
to the point that he feared for his job or anything like that.
 
It was just a feeling that came over me as I
listened to him speak of Jade.
 
It wasn’t
the true Jade he was describing, but a concocted Jade.
 
And I was angry with myself for missing it
when he first started that dog and pony show.”

Gina
leaned closer against him.
 
“Don’t you
dare blame yourself for any of it.
 
You
were so hopeful for her recovery, of course you would have missed it.
 
You were getting nothing but lukewarm to
negative reports about her progress.
 
Then suddenly good news.
 
Good
reports.
 
You were pleased.”

Dutch
shook his head.
 
“But I should have been
more careful, Gina.
 
That morning you
went to Jade’s house in DC, the morning Marcus Rance harmed you, something was
bothering me.
 
It was gnawing at me.
 
But I dismissed those feelings as
overprotectiveness and didn’t stop you from going.
 
You nearly died,” he said this and squeezed
her.
 
He looked deep into her beautiful
brown eyes.
 
“I can’t take that chance
again.”

Gina
placed her hand on the side of his face.
 
“And I thank you for that,” she said. “I know Jade’s pissed, and I’m
sorry about that.
 
But on behalf of
myself and our son, I thank you, babe.
 
I
was terrified about that woman coming here.”

Dutch
frowned.
 
“Terrified?”

“Yes!”

“But
why didn’t you tell me that?”

“Because
I know you so very much want to establish a relationship with Jade again.
 
A good, sound relationship.
 
I couldn’t stand in the way of that.”

“But
what about Walt?
 
If you were afraid, you
should have taken steps to protect him, Gina.”

“Who
do you think you’re talking to, Dutch?
 
Of course I took steps to protect my baby!
 
It was already arranged.
 
When you came back from California with her,
Walt was going to already be in DC with LaLa and Crader.”

Dutch
smiled.
 
“Are you serious?”

“It
was all arranged.
 
If you would not have
called me from your plane when you were getting ready to return to Jersey and
told me she wasn’t coming with you, our son would have already been gone.
 
It’s one thing to have Jade try her shit on
me.
 
I can fight back.
 
Walt can’t.
 
I wasn’t taking any chances either.”

Dutch
stared at his wife.
 
Love was not strong
enough a word to describe how he felt about her.
  
He placed his hand on the side of her face,
too, and kissed her.
 

Their
kiss was long and loving, and was only interrupted by Little Walt hitting Gina
on her thigh.

“Mommy,
come on!” he said.
 
“Stop kissing Daddy
and come on!”

His
parents stopped kissing.
 
Gina looked at
him.
 
“Come on where?”

“Let
me ride you like Donkey rides the Dragon.”

Gina
frowned.
 
“What?”

“Come
on,” Walt said and pulled Gina away from Dutch by the catch of her hand.

Gina
looked back at Dutch with a smile, and followed her child to the floor.
 
Walt then got on Gina’s back and tried to
ride her.
 
She laughed and went along
with the ride.

Dutch
watched mother and son with joy in his heart.
 
The way Walt was giggling as he rode on her back.
 
The way Gina was laughing and wiggling her
ass as she rode her son.
 
The way. . .

Dutch’s
eyes kept roaming back to Gina’s wiggling ass.
 
How firm it was.
 
How tight.
 
He knew what was between those firm, tight
cheeks and how he hadn’t done her that way in a long time.
 
He wanted to fill her up.
 
The more he watched her, the more urgently
his need became.

And
by the time she had stopped riding Walt, and Walt was back into watching the
movie, he was completely aroused.
 
By the
time she got off of the floor and returned by his side, his erection was so
hard it was becoming painful.
 
Gina saw
that he had tented, and immediately felt heat between her legs.

“Mommy,”
Walt was saying, “she stayed the way she was.
 
She didn’t turn into a beautiful princess.
 
She stayed the way she was.”

Dutch
and Gina exchanged a knowing look, and Dutch got up and headed upstairs.
 
Gina looked back at their son.

“What’s
that, sweetheart?” she asked him.

“She
was supposed to turn pretty.
 
But she
didn’t.”

Gina
looked at the movie screen.
 
“So what
does that tell you?” she asked her son.

“She
wanted to be happy.”

Gina
smiled.
 
“That’s right, son.
 
Beauty is fine, but happiness is better.”

Then
Gina looked at the Nanny.
 
“I’ll be back
shortly,” she said.

“Yes,
ma’am,” Nanny replied with that look that made Gina certain the woman knew
exactly why she suddenly had to follow her husband upstairs.
 
But how could it be helped?
 
The woman lived with them.
 
She knew they weren’t in some kind of
platonic relationship.
 
Gina therefore
didn’t give that woman’s look a second thought as she made her way to the
stairs, and gladly headed up.

Dutch
was just stepping out of his pants and briefs by the time Gina made it into
their bedroom.
 
She locked the door and
then leaned against it, looking at his magnificent physique.
 
His penis, sticking straight out and stiff as
steel, was what caught her attention most, and then she looked into his
gorgeous face.

“You
wanted me?” she asked with a smile.

Dutch
laughed.
 
“Bring your ass over here,” he
said playfully.

“But
what if I have a headache, Dutch.”

“It’s
not your head I’m after.
 
Come here.”

Gina
laughed and walked up to him.
 
He began
removing her blouse and bra as if he was a pro from way back.

“I
think Nanny knows exactly what we’re up to,” she said.

“Good,”
said Dutch as he undressed her.
 
“Then she’ll
know to keep her ass downstairs and our inquisitive son downstairs with
her.”
 

Dutch
began sucking Gina’s juicy breasts as soon as he removed her blouse and
bra.
 
She stepped out of her shoes as he
continued to suck her.
 
He began removing
her pants and panties as he licked and sucked.
 
She was always amazed at how quickly he could get her naked.
 
Then they stood there, together, and began
kissing.

They
kissed long and lovingly.
 
When they
stopped kissing, Dutch pulled K-Y out of the nightstand drawer and began to
salve her.
 
Then they started kissing
again until Dutch moved down and began sucking her breasts again.