Page 53 of Not the Plan

“Maybe it’s time for something new to happen.” He glanced at her. “I liked last night.”

“I loved it.”

“I’d like to do it again. But we can’t, can we?” he asked.

“Leader Etcheverri’s chief of staff and Senator Brown’s legislative director?” She glanced at him. “What would people think?”

“That Brown’s director is one lucky SOB.” He appreciated her shy smile in response.

“Or,” she began, that smile wiped away, “that Etcheverri’s aide isn’t all that clever and has to use sex to advance her boss’s goals. Maybe she’s been doing this all along. That’s how she’s gotten to where she is, using her attributes to get men to give her what she wants.”

“Do you really believe people think that?”My boss does, but that’s about his ego, not about you.

“No one’s said anything to my face. But there will always besomeone ready to believe that about any woman. At this point though, I have enough credibility that any gossip that might start wouldn’t get much traction.”

“So, it’s not them you’re worried about. It’s me,” he said.

She opened her mouth to answer and then closed it.

Too direct…talking about this stuff is hard. What are we both comfortable with?

“You remember before, in our first meeting, we talked about how we both got into politics to help people, to find ways to make things better.”

“Yeah,” she said.

“Well, I kind of see it like solving a puzzle. And I’ve loved solving puzzles since I was a kid. I love what I do now because I have to make a way for a situation to fit within the complex framework of existing laws or precedent. The bills I like working on most are the ones where we carve out something new. Those are the most challenging, and the ones I find most rewarding.”

She kept her focus on the road but nodded.

“Sometimes, the most interesting puzzles aren’t about legislation. Finding a way to make a complicated situation work.” His gaze went back out the window. “Those are the puzzles that can have very enticing rewards, I think.” He took a breath. “Is…this, whatever it may be…really more difficult than the things we have to figure out every day at work?”

Silence reigned for a few moments. He softened his voice when he broke it.

“You have a small birthmark on your neck, a little below and behind your left earlobe.”

Her breath hitched.

“You made this sound last night, when I let my lips brush across it…” He needed to pause. The memory had him too excited. He adjusted his pants and reminded himself to refill the windshield wiper fluid, check the oil level, mundane thoughts to get that excitement to die down. “It was the slightest, softest little gasp.”

She shivered.

“I am very interested in hearing that sound again—in being responsible for you making it.”

She was quiet at first, but he caught her smile.

“The hollow of your throat,” she said. “Usually you’re all buttoned up, collared shirt and tie. But last night, I got to see the skin there, got close enough to…I wish I’d kissed you…tasted you there.”

Glancing down, he was glad she was focused on the road and missed the full blush that warmed his cheeks. Laila had never made him too shy to look at her, but Isadora kept provoking that response. “Sounds like we both have challenges we’d like to address,” he said.

“Yeah.” She sighed, shooting him a look that was sweet but made him readjust his pants again. She bit her lip as she refocused on the road.

“Now you’re just tempting me,” he said, tapping the bridge of his glasses back into place.

“What?”

“That lip-biting move. You’re playing dirty; that could get you in trouble.”

She giggled. “Oh really? That’s Karim’s little button?”

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