Page 44 of Senator

“If you say so,” he grumbled, and hugged me one last time.

I kissed his cheek then moved to Tara. “I’m not sure when I’ll see you again.”

A slight gleam touched her eyes. “I believe it will be sooner rather than later.” She leaned in and then whispered, “Expect a certain someone to name her pet project tomorrow.”

I had completely forgotten the first lady was due to announce her support for the No Bride Initiative. What I hadn’t expected was for the declaration to come so quickly. But now that I thought about it, it made sense. Tara was part of the campaign challenging the president. This was the best opportunity for Mrs. Edgar to strike.

I nodded and moved toward the exit.

Chapter Thirteen

“Where should I set him, Senator?”one of my security team, Luke, asked me an hour later.

I gestured to the couch in the living room. “Lay Kevin there. Thank you.”

The drive back home had been dismal at best. Watching a man who rarely, if ever, drank more than two glasses of anything get wasted because of another person made my heart ache. For years, I’d known about Kevin’s lover, even if I hadn’t known his identity. They’d met in college but kept their relationship quiet because of their conservative and affluent families.

Now that I knew it was Chris, all the secrecy made sense. No one would ever have suspected two of the most desirable men in the Republican Party were a couple, especially since both of them were in very public relationships with women.

I wondered if Kathy knew the truth. No, that wasn’t possible. She was one of those people so naive and kind that you wanted to keep anything that would upset her hidden. Plus, the way she’d showed off her ring made me think she believed her marriage to Chris would be real.

Poor Kathy. I hated to think of the devastation she would feel when she learned the truth.

God, this whole situation was a fucked-up mess.

Poor Kevin. Politics, religion, and family had forced him to live a lie. I guessed it was the reason we were perfect for each other.

If only I could take the heartache away from him. Would I feel this way the day I learned that Veer was getting married?

More than likely, yes. If the thought of it shredded something inside me, then the actual event would probably cause me to have the same reaction Kevin had, or worse.

I walked over to Kevin and brushed his hair.

“Is there anything else we can do for you?” Luke asked.

“No. I appreciate your help.”

Luke nodded and left me with Kevin.

I sat down, kicking off my shoes. “Kev.” I touched his cheek and then felt his forehead. “You need to wake up.”

There was no response. He was out cold. I reached over for a blanket in a basket next to the sofa and tucked it around Kevin. The weather was still chilly in DC, and I wanted him to be warm.

I waited a few minutes, watching him, and then decided I had to get out of my ball gown. But first I’d better make sure everything was ready in case Kevin woke. After setting a trash can within easy reach for Kevin, I made my way down to the kitchen. A shadow was outside my back door, making me jump for a second before I realized it was another team of security. They took their job seriously and would never let anything leak about tonight. Hell, they’d kept a tight lid on my relationship with Veer, and we’d spent most of our days naked whenever he came to visit.

I made a pot of coffee and then poured two mugs. Walking over to the back door, I opened it and handed the cups to the guards. They both smiled and then went back to watching the perimeter.

I wondered what it would be like to live a life where privacy wasn’t a luxury. Even when Samina and I were at Stanford, we had a personal detail. After all, I was the daughter of a United States senator, and Sam was the daughter of a technology billionaire.

I’d always wondered why our security detail hadn’t ratted us out when we got into our antics. Even the one time when I’d had Devin and Ashur come from Texas and Louisiana to help us because we decided it would be fun to challenge a group of much older law students to a drinking challenge, which then ended up causing a bar brawl, the guards hadn’t said a word to anyone. They’d just made sure we were protected and helped us escape the chaos we’d started. Too bad someone had taken a picture of us, and we’d gotten caught. But thankfully, Ashur with his tech knowledge—i.e. hacking skills—had been able to wipe any trace of the incident from the record.

It wasn’t one of my better ideas, but what could anyone expect? Sam and I had started law school at eighteen and had never experienced true college life.

Picking up a few water bottles and some pain meds, I returned to the living room to check on Kevin. He was still sleeping and hadn’t moved a muscle. I set the water and the medicine on the side table and turned off the light before heading upstairs to my bedroom.

As I climbed to the first landing, something glinted in a decorative red glass bowl sitting on an inset shelf. It was Veer’s favorite pair of Deakin & Francis cufflinks in a skull-and-crossbones design. I used to get so annoyed when he’d wear them. I’d tell him it wasn’t appropriate attire for the governor of Texas, but he couldn’t care less and would make sure to don them on every formal occasion to annoy me. After a while, his rebel edge became one of his more endearing characteristics. It was his way of saying nothing could tame him.

I picked up the heavy silver and gold pieces, and a wave of sadness engulfed me. I remembered how rushed we were to get out of our clothes that last night we’d spent together in this house. We hadn’t seen each other for weeks, and the desperate need that seemed to pulse between us had been at an all-time high. We’d never made it up the stairs. Instead, I’d pushed him to the floor of the curved landing and rode him to a mind-blowing climax.

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