President's Girlfriend 07 - What He Did for Love (9 page)

“I’ll be in the car,” he said and began walking away toward the vice presidential motorcade.

Dutch didn’t respond.  He just held LaLa.  He held her as long as she needed him to hold her.  And when they stopped embracing, and she was looking down, he placed her chin in his hand and held her head up.  When he saw the tears, his heart broke for her.

“Don’t beat yourself up, Loretta.  You hear me?”

But she shook her head.  He was asking the impossible.  “How could I have done that to him?  How could I have cheated on my husband at all, but also with a man he knew and worked around?  What was I thinking, Dutch?  What was I thinking?”

Dutch pulled her in his arms again.  He rubbed her hair and held her tightly.  He loved LaLa.  In some ways he loved her just as intensely as he loved his son and his estranged daughter.  He stopped embracing her and looked at her again. 

“I wish you would have fallen in love with a wonderful man with no past indiscretions and with a blandness to him that bespoke steadiness.  But you didn’t, dear heart.  You fell in love with Crader.” 

Dutch and LaLa both smiled at that.  LaLa began wiping her tears away.

“The only thing I can promise you about Crader,” Dutch continued, “is that you’ll never be bored.”  Then Dutch looked concerned.  “And you will always have nights like this.”

LaLa looked at him.  There was no man alive she respected more.  And she nodded her understanding.

“I’d better go,” she said.  “Tell Gina I’ll call her.”

And Dutch watched as a wonderful lady made her way to a man who was certain to bring her more drama and pain.  And, to Dutch, it was all such a shame.

But he didn’t wallow in his feelings.  He made his way back to the main house and entered in through the patio door.  Gina and Christian were seated on the sofa, with Christian nursing an icepack on the side of his face, and Lenora was seated in the chair Dutch had vacated.  Christian and Lenora moved to stand when he entered the room, but Dutch motioned them back down.

“Where’s LaLa?” Gina asked him.

“They’re heading back to DC,” he said as he approached the threesome.  “She’ll call you later.” 

He stood in front of Christian and turned his face to the side.  Christian removed the icepack so that he could have a look.

It was a pretty nasty bruise.  “You’ll live,” he said to the young man.

Christian smiled.  “I didn’t see it coming, sir. Or I would have---”

“I know, I know,” Dutch said, smiling at Lenora as he sat down beside Gina.   “You would have knocked him to the other side of the earth if you saw it coming.”

“I don’t know about that,” Christian said with a laugh, “but I would have been able to defend myself.”

Dutch took Gina’s hand and clasped it with his.  Lenora noticed the move and crossed her legs.

Gina looked at Dutch.  “La okay?” she asked him.

Dutch hesitated.  “No,” he said.

“I don’t know what got into him, sir,” Christian said.  “I never expected the Vice President of all people to come at me like that.”

“You didn’t expect it?” Lenora found herself asking.  Gina, Christian, and Dutch looked at her.  “I’m sorry to intrude like this,” she said, “but is that what you just said?”

“Yes,” Christian said.  She’d already been introduced to him as the CFO of the president’s company, so he knew he had to show her respect.  But that didn’t mean he liked her intrusion.  “That’s what I said,” he said.  “I didn’t expect him to behave like that.”

“Where have you been living?  In a convent?”

Gina gave Lenora one of her best
check this chick out
looks.

“I mean really,” Lenora continued.  “You just admitted that you slept with his wife and you’re surprised by his reaction?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Christian started.

But Gina interrupted him.  “You don’t have to explain yourself to her, Chris,” she admonished.

“I know, but . . . She doesn’t understand.”

“What’s there to understand?” Lenora asked.  “You slept with the man’s wife.  You admitted it.  What’s there to understand?”

“Yes, I slept with her,” Christian admitted.  “And I was wrong for doing that.  I plan to apologize to the vice president---”

“Apologize?” Lenora said with a laugh, glancing at Dutch. “Are you kidding me?  You expect an apology to do it?  Especially when you don’t understand why he’s even angry?”

“Now just a minute,” Gina started.

“I know it’s none of my business---”

“That’s right,” Gina made clear.  “It’s none of your business.”

“Gina,” Dutch warned his wife, squeezing her hand tighter.

“But,” Lenora said as she was now invested in making herself equally clear, “I think Christian here is being a little naïve if he thinks the vice president has no reason to complain.”

Gina frowned.  “He never said that!”

“He said it by implication,” Lenora said, refusing to back down.  “He made it seem as if the vice president was totally irrational for kicking his ass, excuse my French.  But that was clearly the implication of his statement.”

Gina had had enough.  “What the hell you’ve got to do with it?” she asked her.  “We don’t even know you.  You just show up at my house---”

“On Dutch’s invitation, that’s right.”

“And proceed to give advice no-one asked for nor was seeking,” Gina said, incredulity in her voice.  “Who do you think you are?”

“I’m somebody who has an opinion and I will express my opinion.”

“To hell with your opinion,” Gina said testily and Dutch looked at her.

“That’s quite enough,” he said.

“No, now, Dutch, you check her out.  Who is she to judge Christian?  I’d bet if her skeletons were on display in this living room right now she wouldn’t be so quick to render all of these opinions then.”

“Speak for yourself,” Lenora said and in so saying she had crossed the line, in Gina’s view.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gina asked her.  “Are you trying to imply something about my past?”

“Are you trying to imply something about mine?” Lenora responded.

“You know what,” Gina said, snatching her hand from Dutch and rising to her feet.  Lenora rose too.  “You can get your opinionated butt out of my house, that’s what you can do!”

Dutch stood up.  “Okay, both of you knock it off!”

“Tell it to your wife,” Lenora suggested.

“You don’t tell me who to tell anything to,” Dutch fired back.  “And especially where it concerns my wife.”

Lenora didn’t expect his heat to be directed at her.  This surprised her. 

Christian saw her surprise.  He saw where she wasn’t so surefooted anymore.  Why these good looking women thought they could so easily pit the president against the First Lady, and have the president side with them, was a mystery to him.  But they constantly tried it.  All around the White House he used to see it time and time again.  As if they couldn’t understand why the president would ever want Gina over them.  Christian saw it attempted more times than he’d ever admit.

“I’d better go,” Lenora finally said, gathering up her purse.

“I’ll see you out,” Dutch responded, heading for the door. 

Lenora cut a look at Gina, as if to see if she was gloating because she’d won, but Gina wasn’t that kind of woman.  This wasn’t any game to her.  She felt as if Lenora was out of line and she called her on it.  And she still felt that way.

Dutch helped Lenora into her coat in the foyer and then opened the door for her.  They walked out onto the porch and down the steps.  Lenora could see a visible presence of Secret Service agents as soon as the president stepped outside.

“Should I head back to Boston tonight?” she asked him as they made their way to the bottom of the stairs.  Their friendship had started off in the exact right direction earlier today, and she was pleased and hopeful.  But now this.

“Go back home,” Dutch said.  “And take care of yourself.”

“And you take care, too, Dutch.  I mean it.”  Dutch could tell that she did.

The limo drove up and he opened the door for her.  “I’ll call you,” he said, and she got into the limousine, feeling as if she’d just blown it somehow, and looked straight ahead as the driver drove her away.

Inside the house, Gina and Christian were still smarting over her remarks.  Especially Christian, who was already feeling guilty enough.

“I know what I did was wrong, and I know Crader should hate me for what I did.  I couldn’t go to him and apologize because LaLa hadn’t told him that it was me.  But that woman made it seem as if I didn’t realize what I’d done.”

“I know,” Gina said, rubbing Christian’s arm.  “She was out of line.”

“Who is she, anyway?  I mean, I know she works for the president at his company, but who is she to feel like she could be so . . . familiar?”

Gina knew what Christian was asking. It was a question she’d been asking herself ever since she first laid eyes on her tonight: had she and Dutch slept together before?  Was that why she felt she could get all into their business and expect no blowback from Dutch?

“She’s the chief financial officer at Harber Industries,” was all Gina was willing to say about it.

And then she heard the front door open and then slam, and she braced herself.

“Gina!” she heard Dutch roar.

Christian jumped at the sound of his roar, but Gina rolled her eyes.  She knew he wasn’t going to be pleased.  “Yes?” she yelled back.

“Get your ass up here now!”

She looked and saw that he was heading up the side stairs.  Her heart began to pound as she stood up.  Christian stood up too.

Only he stood up concerned about the First Lady’s safety.  “Should I go up with you?” he asked her.

“Of course not,” Gina said with a smile.  “You’re staying in one of the guest houses, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You go there for now. I’ll call you later.”

“He’s very angry.”

“I know.  But it’ll be okay.”

“You sure?”

Gina smiled.  Christian was really very sweet.  Which was more than she could say at this moment for that joker upstairs.   “Yes,” she said.  “I’m sure.”

And she watched Christian leave.  Then she made her way slowly but deliberately up the stairs.  After checking on Little Walt to ensure he was still asleep, she made her way down and around the long corridor that led to their lone bedroom. 

CHAPTER SEVEN

Dutch was angrily taking off his tie when she entered the room and closed the door.

“She was out of line, Dutch,” she quickly said in defense of her behavior.

“She was a guest in our home,” Dutch responded as he began removing his wallet and keys and placing them on the night stand.  “A guest that I invited.”  Then he looked at Gina.  “And I don’t expect my guests to be treated that way.”

“Treated what way?  All I did was---”

“Kick her out of this house, that’s all you did.  Well she did a lot for us, Gina.  She’s the one I trusted to make sure Harber Industries remained profitable while we were in DC, and she did a damn good job of it.  For us.  She’s a person I can depend on, Gina.  She’s always been that way.  And instead of you realizing that she can be your ally, too, you immediately turn her into your enemy.”

“She was the one disrespecting me.  I didn’t start that shit.  She started it!”

“And you finished it by kicking her out of your home.  Is that how adults behave nowadays?  Is that the new way to show respect?  Between you and Crader I sometimes wonder why I even bother!”

Gina didn’t like the sting of that.  “I didn’t hit the woman,” she said.  “But I did speak up.”

“But she was a guest in our home, Gina!  Don’t you understand that?” 

“Yes, she was our guest,” Gina pointed out.  “But did that give her the right to inject herself in a conversation that had nothing to do with her?”

“Yes, dammit!” Dutch bellowed.  “Yes, it did!  That’s what guests do.  They talk.  They inject themselves into conversations!”

“But she didn’t know what she was talking about!  She was sitting up there hurting Christian’s feelings for no other reason than to hurt somebody.  What did you expect me to do?”

It was the same question Crader had asked of LaLa.  What did she expect him to do?  And just seeing Gina standing there, looking flustered over some guest that he had invited, caused that strong feeling of love to wash over him.  It was a feeling that only exerted itself whenever Gina was in his presence.  And it was strong enough to force him to calm down.  He was the luckiest man alive to have this woman right here, and he wasn’t about to let Lenora or anybody else allow him to forget that.

He exhaled as if it was a sign of surrender, and began removing his suit coat and unbuttoning his dress shirt.  “Come here,” he said as he tossed his coat onto the chair.

Gina knew that look now in his eyes, which meant she knew what he wanted to do to her.  And just the thought of him putting it on her again caused her vagina to quiver.  But she remained cautious.  Because her anxiety was still there.  Because she still had her own questions about him and Lenora. 

By the time she arrived at his side, his shirt was open, revealing flat, ribbed abs, and he pulled her into his arms. 

“You can be a handful, you know that?” he said to her.

She smiled.  “And you can’t?”

He kissed her on the lips.  “Not the same,” he said as he began kissing the side of her face, and her ear. 

“But it is the same.”

“She was our guest,” he said, as he continued to kiss her with soft, but sensual kisses.  “And because she was our guest,” he continued, “you will apologize to her.”

Gina was feeling his passion.  “Apologize?” she said, her mind only now half-focusing on what they were discussing.

“You will apologize,” he said.

“I will?”

“You will.”

“But why?”

“Because she was our guest,” he said, and his passion was becoming too great. 

He lifted her blouse off, tossing it into the chair, and began removing her bra.

Gina felt the passion, too, but she had to make herself clear.  “I can understand if she knew LaLa or Crader or even Chris,” she said, lifting her chin as he kissed her under her chin.  “But she didn’t know any of them.”