Page 147 of State of Affairs (First Family 1)

She scowled at him. “You think you’re so smooth.”

“How’s that?” he asked, laughing as he towed her along with him to sit on one of the two sofas.

“You think if you wow me with the most romantic words ever that I’ll just turn to putty in your hands and let you surround me with an armada of Secret Service.”

“First of all, an armada is a fleet of warships—”

Her elbow connected with his ribs, which led to a swift exhale of breath and another laugh from him.

“You know what I mean.”

“Second of all, the idea of you being putty in anyone’s hands is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I’m putty in your hands, and you know it. So don’t take advantage of that in this meeting. You hear me?”

“I hear you. Third of all, I love you, and I appreciate you interrupting your day and your cold case to come in for this stupid-ass, most-important meeting ever.”

“Whatever.” She crossed her arms and gave him her best mulish look, even though she was nowhere near as mulish as she’d been a few minutes ago. His superpower was dealing with her, and he was very, very good at it.

“Want to make out until the others get here?”

“How much time do we have?”

He checked the watch that had been her father’s. “Twelve minutes.”

“There’s a lot we can get done in twelve minutes.”

“Hold that thought until after the meeting and kiss me.”

Since Sam couldn’t think of anything she liked to do more than kiss him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and went for it. They were still kissing like teenagers five minutes later when something dropping on the floor outside the door had them pulling apart like they’d just been caught by their parents.

Nick glanced in the direction of the noise at one of the doors that led outside. “If I’m in the Oval, there’s a Marine positioned at that door. That’s how you can tell I’m here.”

Sam tipped her neck to give him access. “That’s good info to have.”

“You can come here anytime you want. I don’t care what’s going on, you’re always welcome here.” As he cupped her breast through her sweater and ran his thumb over her nipple, he said, “I’m going to love working from home.”

Sam laughed and turned her head to kiss him again, noting that his cheeks were flushed with color, the way they got when he was aroused. “We’d better quit this now, or everyone will know we’ve been fooling around in here.”

“I don’t care if they know.”

Sam pulled back, but not because she wanted to. “Time out. For now. To be continued.”

He groaned and sat back against the sofa.

“It’s your own fault for scheduling stupid-ass meetings.”

“My entire life is stupid-ass meetings these days. But I guess that’s what I signed on for.”

“I couldn’t do it. I’d go insane being stuck in meetings all day.”

“Well, they do have a purpose.”

“Still.” She glanced down at his lap. “You might want to do something about… that… before you get caught with a boner in the Oval Office.”

Blowing out a deep breath, he got up and went into an adjoining room. “Come check this out.”

“Is that code for ‘come finish me off’?”

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