Loving the Candidate (Capitol Affairs #2) (8 page)

“You’d better call Alex. I have never heard him so upset. He called you at least a hundred times. Not only is he angry with you, he was terrified something bad happened. This was so irresponsible of you, two days before his keynote speech. He is on his way back. You are showing the world the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, Prudence. Let’s hope he can stop this before it goes any further.”

Inferring I had behaved like my mother was a hurtful comment. I tried so hard not to be like her and yet, Beulah was right, that’s exactly who I had acted like. How was I going to explain this? I stayed in the bathroom while Veena brought me clothes.

“What the fuck, Prude? You have gotten yourself in a world of shit. Beulah is a terror. I’m starting to wonder if Mark can fix this. I tried calling Thomas, but he didn’t answer,” she whispered.

“Alex is going to leave me after this, I’m sure, Veena. I ruined his career, his speech, and our marriage all in one night.” I cried and dry-heaved. Veena pulled my hair back and put it in a ponytail. I dressed, brushed my teeth and waited for the nightmare to get worse. A car pulled into the driveway.

“You need to settle down. You’re panicking too much. I don’t like it when you get like this,” she said.

There was no way to settle down, not when yet another car pulled into the driveway.

Chapter 7

The door slammed shut, and I heard screaming downstairs. It was mostly from Veena, who ran downstairs to defend my actions. She was my spokesperson, my go-between, my voice, and my warrior. When we were kids in the trailer park, other kids would pick on me. She would stand up to the biggest bully for me without backing down. Nobody messed with me when Veena was around.

Outside, Thomas had gotten out of the second car that pulled in. Alex screamed at him, and Thomas looked down at the ground. My poor Thomas, he was taking the blame, and being humiliated for what had supposed to be our fun night out. I watched as he shook his head and continued to stare at the ground as Alex yelled and pointed his finger at him. Alex walked to the front door with Thomas following.

The door slammed, and Alex’s voice sent a wave of heat rushing through my body.

“I want everyone to get the hell out of here. I’ll handle this. All of you go get breakfast or something. I know you mean well and love us, but Prudence and I will take care of this.

My backup piled into Beulah’s big SUV. Mouths moved, fingers pointed, and Veena looked up, blew me a kiss and gave me the thumbs up. I stared, waiting for the bedroom door to be busted off its hinges. I felt like the little girl in the trailer park when Mort came storming into my room. I prepared myself for the cussing and screaming.

To my surprise, no door was busted from its hinges; there was no screaming or swearing. The door opened, and Beckett walked in panting. I had my back to the door, still looking out the window, terrified to turn around. He had to be disappointed in me. I had to speak first.

“Alex, I don’t know what to say.” I turned. He looked exhausted and disheveled in his old worn-out jeans, leather coat, and a baseball hat; it broke my heart.

“What were you thinking last night?” he asked calmly.

“I wasn’t thinking. I wanted to go out and have fun. I wanted to be Prudence Romaine for a night, instead of Senator Conrad’s wife. I wanted to be twenty-six and not middle-aged. I wanted to forget about my family and Beulah. It’s not an excuse. All I can say is, I’m sorry, Alex. I understand if you can’t get past this.”

He didn’t say anything. He stood there with his hands in his pockets. I looked away again.

“You had to figure someone would recognize you. Come on, you’ve been all over the news with this Stella story. I don’t understand, but then again, I do. You’re young and need to let loose. You need to act your age and go out and have fun. I’m too serious and too focused on my life, my speech, and the campaign.”

I knew he would say something about the age difference.

“Prudence?” he asked in a whisper.

I turned to face him. The man I had loved since I was sixteen was about to tell me to pack up and move back into my condo. It wasn’t going to work out, I was too immature. He was too set on becoming, and I was not first lady material.

“I’m so pissed at you.”

I shook my head. He moved closer to where I stood by the window. He looked like he wanted to touch me.

“On top of that, you scared the shit out of me. I called you so many times and you didn’t answer. I didn’t know you were going out with Thomas. Mark, Ashe and the guys are trying to fix this. We caught it fast enough; it can still be removed and stopped. They’re working their geek magic to get this off the Internet. There’s a video of you somewhere on someone’s phone and I can’t do anything about that. All I can do is hope the guys can get rid of it every time it gets posted. This is going to cost me big time.

“I haven’t been around a lot lately. Lord knows, I’ve ignored you way too much. I’m sorry for that, but come on, Prudence. This isn’t the way to get my attention.”

I spun around when he said that, and my sadness turned into anger.

“I didn’t do this to get your attention, Alex. I’m not an immature, white trash, slut, looking for the nearest TMZ camera. I wanted to go out and forget. I wanted to go out and act young. I wanted not to think.”

“Well, you certainly weren’t thinking. By the time I take the stage tomorrow, this will be gone. After the Stella episode, this was the last thing I needed to deal with. The press is looking for anything to hurt my credibility, Prudence.”

He was right.

“Let’s put this behind us and move on. There’s no use talking about it. Are you hungry?” he asked.

“No, I’m not hungry. I feel like complete crap.” He came to me and took me in his arms. I practically collapsed against him. I nestled my head into his neck. I was so pissed at myself. He held me tight, my head to his chest.

“It’s going to be okay. I didn’t hire Mark and the others because they were idiots. They can fix it, and no one will remember. This happens a lot, Prudence. Just because we work for the government doesn’t mean we, or our families, are perfect. I’ve heard of worse, seen worse, and it’s all been okay. It’s just bad timing.”

I looked into his eyes. They were so tired and dark.

“If I didn’t love you more than anything, I probably would have lost my shit with you,”

I nodded.

“Oh, Prudence. What am I going to do with you? I can’t help but love you more and more, no matter what you do. Promise me, when I call next time, you answer me. I was so afraid something had happened to you.” He let me go, and I moved away from him.

“If you were smart, you would run and not look back before I hurt your chances of becoming president. I lost it, Alex. I’m human. Jesus Christ, everything we do is judged, studied, and brought into the open. I can’t take it. Sometimes I want to say fuck it and disappear .”

“I told you being the wife of a politician wouldn’t be easy. You knew that going into this. We’ve talked about this so many times. It’s going to get worse. We can’t do this again. There cannot be a next time.”

“There won’t be a next time. If you want to leave me, I understand. The age difference is becoming a problem. I’m so sorry. I didn’t do it to hurt you. If you need to get rid of me so it looks better for you, I understand.”

He reached for me and brought me close to him.

“Shush. I’m not getting rid of you. What the hell, Prudence? Get rid of you, over this? I wouldn’t get rid of you because of this, or anything. This little escapade of yours isn’t going to stop my love for you. Actually, I may be looked at as the hotter senator with the young hot wife. They’ll all be jealous of me.” He smiled as I buried my head into his neck.

“In public you have to behave. For me you don’t. For me you need to always be the wild, bad girl I saw on the video, dancing like a hot stripper,” he continued.

I wasn’t in the mood to laugh. I was too upset with myself and I wanted it to go away. I pushed away from him to look at his face.

“Are you leaving?” I asked, as he ran his hands through his hair.

His phone rang in his pocket and he answered it.

“Are you sure? Okay. Yeah. Thanks. Tell Riggs I owe him big time. That’s not funny, Mark. I’m not in the mood for jokes. Kiss it.”

He put his phone in his pocket and grabbed my hands. “Well, they managed to get it off the Internet. We lucked out. Nothing leaked to the news. There are two copies out there. One that asshole took of you, and one I have.”

“What if he puts it out?” I asked.

“He won’t. I promise.”

“Why do you want a copy, Alex?”

He smiled, looking at me.

“It’s hot. I had them take out Thomas and leave you dancing. It’s for me when you’re not around. Which, after this, is not happening too often.” He winked.

“I’m sorry, Alex. I can’t stand it when I make you unhappy.”

He grabbed me and kissed me, long and hard. He reached down inside the sweat pants I wore and touched me.

“Still wet for me?”

“Yes, wet for you, Alex.”

“You’d better be. Let’s go make you something to eat.”

“Eat?”

“What did you think? We were going to go at it, hot and heavy?”

“Sex before food, remember,” I sniffed.

“Later. I’m still pissed, and your crew is coming back.”

I looked at him, crushed.

“Stop it, Prudence. I won’t make it until lunch. Leave the outfit lying there on the floor. I want you in it again before the night is over.”

Chapter 8

I could not be happier about where we lived and the careers we had chosen. I was a top prosecuting attorney in one of the biggest, most well-known, law firms in D.C. My husband, the Senator of Virginia, was being groomed for the Democratic ticket for the next presidential election. The nightmare I’d almost caused him had been taken care of in a matter of hours. The team of men Alex had put together to help him get to the White House spent the entire day cleaning up my mess. A mess that threatened to hurt the man I loved and adored. The man I had between my quivering thighs, baring his soul to me, was on his way to the Democratic Convention to give his keynote speech.

The past year had been filled with tireless preparation. The time had come, and the hard work had paid off. I was the luckiest girl in Washington, and possibly the world.

I took all night showing him how lucky I was, and we got about two hours of sleep. I was exhausted, but ecstatic, and fulfilled. I had to do that stripper dance at least twice, wearing that crazy outfit I’d worn to the bar, before Alex completely forgave me. However, there was something going on with him I couldn’t put my finger on it. He craved me, and he told me so every chance. He should have been a lot angrier with me, but he wasn’t. I had my suspicions, but with his speech looming and my little escapade, I let it go. I didn’t want to get him upset in any way that might wreck what he had been working so hard for. Alex would come around, he always did.

We made it to Atlanta in time for him to take the stage that night. It was exciting to be at my first convention. The energy and craziness was unimaginable. They treated Alex like royalty. In our room, Thomas and I attempted to make me resemble what we thought a future president’s wife should look like. After the small problem of the video, dressing conservatively was my one option. I had never put much thought into what I wore until I became the wife of a senator.

“Shit, honey, you’re hot. You are Jackie Kennedy meets Bridget Bardot,” Thomas said while smoothing my chignon and handing me an understated, yet eye-catching necklace.

“Is that good? I mean, do I want the Bridget Bardot part? It’s not too much?” I stood in front of the mirror, turning and checking out every inch of myself.

Unsatisfied with the result of my hair spraying technique, he doused me with an obscene amount of spray.

“Thomas, watch the face. I’ve applied my eyeliner.” I squinted to keep the spray out.

“Honey, this isn’t going to hold throughout the night. You know how fine your hair is. You are perfect. You and Alex have that look that says, ‘we are all business during the day and we are so hot, we fuck like rabbits at night.’ I love it. Your breasts are amazing in that dress, by the way. Not too much, but enough to make the men go nuts. Alex is going to lose his load when he sees you.”

“I can’t look like someone that rolled out of a trailer, like I’m his young, stupid wife. That’s what they’re looking for. I did enough damage the other night.”

“Give yourself more credit, Prude. You’re smart, beautiful and soon to be the first lady. What happened is over with. It was a mistake. Everyone makes them. Let’s not bring it up. I thought Alex was going to kick my ass yesterday.”

“How pissed was he, Thomas? No more gay bars.” I said, as I applied my signature red lipstick.

“No more for you is right. I’m even afraid to go myself. I don’t need this harassment and stress. I can see why he’s a good senator, Prude. He scared the shit out of me. I’m surprised he didn’t forbid me from ever seeing you again. I would have died. I can’t wait to be in the White House picking out your outfit for the inauguration. Honey, this is so exciting.” He hugged me from behind and kissed me on the cheek while we both looked in the mirror. He was as handsome as ever, if not better looking. Muscular, blue-eyed and blond, he had aged well and kept himself in tiptop shape. Thomas was a man who never looked anything but completely put-together every day.

“I love you.” I said as I snuggled into his hard muscles and enjoyed the feel of his expensive Marc Jacobs suit.

“Don’t get any ideas, honey. You had them the other night with me on the dance floor shaking your hoo-ha at me.” He laughed.

“You look good, but you’re still an ass, Thomas,” I said.

“But you love me and I love you, honey.”

The bellboy knocked at the door.

“Let’s go. Thomas, are you ready? You don’t have much time.” I flipped off the television.

“Yes, mommy.” He looked in the mirror, and I nervously grabbed my handbag before taking one last glance at myself. Thomas sensed my panic.