Page 59 of The Press Secretary's Passion
“So you want to date me?”
“I want to marry you,” he says, making the oxygen in my lungs seize up. “But I think that’s going to take some time for you to get used to the idea.”
“I think you might be crazy.”
“I think you might be right,” he admits. “You have to be a little crazy to survive the shit I’ve seen and come out of it on the other side.”
“Okay,” I say, changing the subject. “So you want to date.”
“Yes,” he confirms. “I think we also need to get to the bottom of who is trying to blackmail us into forcing the president’s hand.”
“I agree.”
“I also need to know that you’re safe,” he says. “Then we can just… be.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” he asks, sounding a little unsure, and it makes me feel a little guilty for all the trouble I’ve given him over the last few months. If we had only been honest with each other from the get-go, then everything would be better off, but also maybe a little less interesting.
“Okay,” I say again. “We can’t go back. And there’s no sense worrying over what will come yet, because we don’t know what that will be. So let’s just be okay… together.”
“Okay, baby,” he replies gently, his voice rumbly as he pulls me tighter into him. “Sleep now.”
And I do. I fall into a peaceful sleep knowing everything with Ryan is settled and as it should be. Actually, for the first time in a long time, in spite of the fact that my life is kind of a mess, I feel happy.
• • •
Sometime later, in the early hours of the morning, when the first bits of gray peek through the dark night, he rolls me to my back and makes love to me one last time, sliding our bodies together as if they were made for each other.
He holds my hands in his by either side of my head, and his mouth covers mine as we come together, breathing each other in.
He places a tender kiss to my mouth one last time, and then I lose him from my body as he climbs out of the bed. He pulls the covers tight around me before he gathers up his clothes and pulls them on then slips from the room.
I hear the quiet snick of a door, and I know he’s gone, but this time, I know for sure he will be back.
Everything is going to be okay.
Or so I thought.
“Senior Senator Broken Hearted as Fairchild Spotted with President’s Aide-de-Camp”
Chapter 18
Gone public
One week later
“Are you ready?” Ryan asks me as he parks his SUV in the same lot I parked my car in when I met Gil here for dinner and was waylaid by Jefferson Chancellor and the media.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“You’re lucky you’re so cute or else you’d be a real pain in my ass,” he says, smiling at me.
“Well, excuse me,” I huff.
“It’s all right,” he says before leaning across the center console and placing a kiss on my lips. “Apparently, being a pain in the ass turns me on.”
“You are so not funny,” I droll.
