Senator Scandal: A Political Romance Read online

  “So are mine,” I admit. “But I think—”

  “What?”

  “I think I could make it through a shower before I take you to bed.”

  “Mmm,” she says, tilting her face up for a kiss. “I love the sound of that.”

  Chapter 25

  Marci

  I squeeze my thighs together under my skirt, under the surface of my desk, and force myself to concentrate.

  It’s not easy.

  Friday at the Hart Building, and the Senator has back-to-back meetings all day, which means there’s a constant hustle and bustle of people coming through the waiting area and back out again. I always need to be ready for them when they leave, when they arrive, and at the same time, I’m working on planning for Monday, figuring out if there are any meetings that need to take place over the weekend.

  There is one, it looks like, with Senator Delmont from Georgia. I bite my lip and write down a lunch meeting for Saturday in pencil. I’ll double-check it with the schedule on the computer, and then with the Senator, after he gets back from the committee meeting he’s in now.

  I know he’s not really keeping tabs on my work performance. I know that his warning was just set-up for the punishment I received last night, and oh, God, was it ever good. Still, I want to keep doing an excellent job. I need to. Nobody can ever find out that the Senator and I are—

  I shiver at the memory. We’re doing things I never would have dreamed of doing with anyone else. Dirty things. Filthy things. Things that weren’t even on my radar until last night. But now that they are, I can’t get them out of my mind. I swivel toward the computer, clicking through the calendar saved there. The Senator doesn’t love weekend meetings, but this is the best time to have it, if he and Senator Delmont are going to hash out anything before the vote on Monday morning. As long as he doesn’t have any plans he can’t get out of, it should be fine.

  “Did you work late last night?”

  Kathy’s voice splits through my thoughts, making me jump about a mile in the air. She’s grinning down at me, a stack of papers in her hand. I put one of my palms to my chest. “God, Kathy, you just about gave me a heart attack.”

  She laughs, the sound falling lightly on the carpet. “Don’t concentrate so hard, Marci! Is the Senator’s schedule extra busy this week?”

  I shrug a little, giving her a patient smile. “Just getting everything lined up for next week.”

  “So you didn’t work late last night?”

  I don’t know what the hell she’s asking, but I can’t quell the spike of irritation that drives through my chest. I screw up my face like I’m trying to remember what happened yesterday, even though the image of my breasts pressing against the Senator’s desk, my hips bucking back and forth, begging for more of his touch, are as vivid as a movie projected onto the wall right next to my head. “What counts as late?” I laugh a little bit, trying to lighten my own mood. “The days here just run into each other sometimes, don’t they?”

  Kathy leans forward, her eyes glittering, and something cold settles in the pit of my stomach. “Like, around nine. You didn’t have anything going on then?”

  I shake my head, eyes wide, while my heart leaps into my throat. She must have seen me. She must have somehow been lurking around when I got to the Senator’s place last night. I checked. I checked before I got out of the car to make sure that nobody was hovering on the sidewalk, that the photographer was nowhere to be seen. The block had been empty. So how—

  “You weren’t working with the Senator at nine last night? Maybe at his place?”

  I look at her like she’s speaking a foreign language, then try to deflect her with another laugh. “Are you with the CIA or something? Why the third degree, Kath?”

  She narrows her eyes at me. I know she’s a gossip. It’s hard not to be, in a city like this, in a job like this, where the days are long and the pressure is high. Kathy doesn’t even get to look at the Senator all that often, which I consider to be one of the best perks. Her lips press together, and it hits me—Kathy is a gossip because she’s hoping to use it to her own advantage one day.

  What more could she want out of this than to take my job? Then she could be the one sitting at this desk every day. I bet she has some kind of plan to spin this so that it’s all my fault, so that the Senator is blameless, and then she’d get to be the hero.

  And in this moment, I can’t be sure what he would do.

  He loves his position in the Senate, but he’s promised me that nothing will happen. But when it comes down to it, what if his political career is the one thing he’s not willing to give up?

  My throat goes tight.

  “There’s a little Chinese place I like to go to at least once a week, maybe twice.” She says it like she’s admitting a secret, then sighs. “I wish I could go there right now.” She shrugs one of her shoulders. “I guess last time I was there, I saw someone…” Kathy considers me one more time, then seems to make up her mind. “You know what? Forget I said anything.” She puts the papers on the desk in front of me. “Don’t worry your pretty little head.”

  Her tone is way past ominous now, but I try to play it off like I don’t have the slightest inkling about anything she’s mentioning. “Okay, Kathy.” I pick up the papers, leaf through them, and she takes that as a sign that it’s time to go. When she’s almost at the door, I play my last card. “Hey, Kath, we were supposed to do lunch. Are you free next Wednesday?”

  She turns back, that killer grin on her face. “I should be…but we’ll see.”

  I get her meaning, though again I play the innocent. She’ll still be here. But will I?

  Chapter 26

  Senator Sterling

  Marci seems anxious to get out of the office, and when she heads home at six, I consider stopping her to ask what’s wrong.

  But I don’t.

  If there’s something on her mind, she’ll tell me. I think we’re at that point now, where she’ll feel free to tell me anything. After what happened last night…

  Maybe she just needs a little time to herself, to process things, to gather herself. We can’t always stand in a whirlwind like this, and she’s always at work early, always staying late with me, so she has even less time than I do.

  “Goodnight, Senator Sterling,” she calls from the outer office, not coming to the doorway. “Are you sure that lunch meeting tomorrow is all right?”

  “It’s no problem, Marci,” I call back to her, then pretend to be absorbed in the paperwork in front of me in case she pokes her head in. I want her to feel free to leave.

  I want her to come look at me with those big green eyes. I want her to bend over the desk and spread her legs and let me have my way with her. I want her to moan and squirm and come. Half of me wants to call her in here, shut the door behind us, and take away her tension by doing all of those things, but I have to be responsible.

  “Okay,” she says, and there’s a rustle of fabric that I know is her coat sliding on over her shoulders. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

  Then she’s gone, closing the outer door behind her.

  The knock on my door just after eight-thirty is an urgent one. I’m not expecting anyone—my phone hasn’t buzzed once, and I’ve been in the gym for an hour. “Be right there,” I call. There’s no time to change out of the shorts and the technical tank top I’m wearing. I’m only glad I paused to check to see if there were any texts from Marci before I headed to the shower.

  I don’t recognize her when I open the door—not at first. She’s wearing a navy blue hooded sweatshirt and jeans, the hood pulled up tight over her head, and over top she has on a winter coat I’ve never seen before. Her face is white, and when I register that it’s the same Marci who left my office in one of the outfits I had sent for her yesterday, my heart pounds.

  “She knows.” She spits out the words, but the meaning is incomprehensible, and a shiver runs through her entire body.

  “What?” I shake my head. “Come in. Come in
, Kitten. We can talk inside.”

  The words don’t soothe her in the least, but she steps inside the apartment and waits in silence while I close the door and lock it, twisting the deadbolt extra hard for her benefit. Then I turn back to her.

  Her lips are pressed into a thin line, and she crosses her arms over her chest.

  I hold out my hands. “Let me take your coat.”

  She shrugs it off and holds it out to me, then says it again. “She knows.” There’s a little quiver in her voice now, and it shatters my heart into a thousand pieces.

  “Come here.” I hold out my hand to her, and she puts her delicate hand in mine and lets me lead her to the sofa. “Are you cold? Do you want something to drink?”

  She opens her mouth like she’s about to say no, she doesn’t, but then she nods. “Okay. Just—sit here and relax. Whatever this is, it’s going to be okay.”

  I hustle into the kitchen and get two mugs out of the cupboard, dumping in some hot chocolate mix I keep above the fridge, heating water in an electric kettle. It takes all of two minutes before I’m pouring it over the mix, the scent of chocolate floating into the air.

  Back on the sofa, Marci sits with her shoulders hunched, like she’s expecting a blow at any time. She perks up—just barely—when I hand her the mug.

  “Swiss Miss?” She tries for a smile, but it doesn’t convince me.

  “You got it.” I settle on the cushions next to her, but she doesn’t look at me. “What’s this about, Kitten?”

  Marci drags her eyes from her lap, blows on the steaming cup of hot chocolate, and takes a tentative sip. Only when she’s swallowed does she speak again. “Kathy knows about us.”

  “Kathy—the staffer, Kathy, with the red hair?”

  Marci nods, frowning. “She saw me here last night. I guess—I guess she likes the Chinese place across the street from here. I never noticed it until she said something about it to me at work today. I never even thought to look…”

  I reach out and lift Marci’s chin. “She’s gone. Consider her gone.”

  “No,” she says quickly. “You can’t do that. That—that would be a scandal, and she could probably sue you for—for wrongful termination, and—” Marci shakes her head. “I don’t want that. I don’t—I don’t like that she knows, but you can’t do that.”

  My heart rockets against my rib cage, but I keep my face smooth, composed. “What else would you have me do, Marci?”

  She puts her cup carefully on the coffee table. “I don’t know.” When her eyes meet mine again, they’re blazing…but not with fear. “You always do this to me.”

  I grin at her. I can’t help myself. I’m bathed in a cold fear, the icy sense that this woman, Kathy, will be our downfall and I can’t stop it, but looking at Marci right now…”Do what to you?”

  “I came to talk to you about a big problem. A huge problem,” she says, then licks her lips, the pink tip of her tongue peeking between her teeth. “But being this close to you…” Her breasts rise and fall under the sweatshirt. “I just want to…”

  She doesn’t get another word out before I have her in my arms, my mouth on hers, devouring her, and we’re both lost, Kathy forgotten.

  Chapter 27

  Marci

  I want to believe the Senator when he whispers in my ear, at several points during the night, that all of this is going to be fine. That I don’t need to worry, not at all. That he won’t fire Kathy. That there’s another way out of this, that all I need to do is sleep, prepare for the next day. I want to believe him so badly.

  But I can’t.

  When the morning dawns, my stomach is knotted up so tightly that it’s making my head swim. The Senator’s palm on my forehead, smoothing down my hair, is the only motion I can tolerate.

  “I don’t—I don’t feel very well,” I manage to croak, taking in a big breath of his scent, fresh from the shower, the manly body wash wafting off of him.

  “I can see that.” The deep rumble of his voice is the only thing that helps me relax, and I close my eyes against the lamplight. It’s not even bright out yet. DC in winter is a cold hellscape, and my soul shudders at the thought of climbing out from beneath the covers and forcing myself into heels and a skirt suit. I feel a strange vertigo, even though I’m not the kind of person who normally gets this way, at the thought that I might have to see Kathy today. “Don’t worry,” he says, after a delicious moment stroking my hair. “Just go back to sleep. I’ll have someone cover your desk at the office.”

  I frown, my heart sinking, but I can’t bring myself to open my eyes again. “I’m sorry, Senator.” My voice sounds small and pathetic, and I hate it.

  “There’s nothing to be sorry for, Kitten. Just rest. I’ll be back this afternoon.”

  When I wake up again, the apartment is silent—a pure kind of silence that wraps me up and cradles me. My own apartment is never this quiet. There are always traffic noises filtering through the walls, doors opening and closing.

  Not so in the Senator’s place.

  I stretch out in his bed, turning over once, then twice, relishing the softness of the sheets, the heavy weight of the blanket. My stomach feels steadier. Last night’s interrupted sleep must have taken a toll. I check the clock on the bedside table—it’s almost eleven.

  I pad into the bathroom and turn on the shower, adjusting the dial until the water is almost too hot, just how I like it. My heart leaps in my chest when I spy a bottle of my shampoo brand perched on the ledge, next to a brand new container of body wash with a light scent that I love immediately. There’s even a disposable razor next to the bottles. The Senator has thought of everything.

  I take my time soaping myself up and letting the water carry the suds down the drain, then shave meticulously, the water drumming on my back. It’s hard not to picture the Senator in here with me, and my pussy goes slick underneath the cascade of water.

  When I’m done shaving, I put the razor back in its place and bite my lip. I could wait for him to get home, but the thought of him has unlocked so many other thoughts that I just…can’t.

  I spread my legs apart under the hot stream and brace myself against the shower wall with one hand, slipping my fingers down to my clit and rubbing in the small circles that are guaranteed to get me off. My mind settles on how it felt to bend over his desk and spread myself open for him. I’ve never felt so dirty. I’ve never felt so vulnerable. I can’t wait to feel that way again. I can’t wait to feel his thickness pressing inside of me, so close to the intrusion of the butt plug. Oh, what do I have to do to get punished again? I moan out loud, thinking of it.

  “You’re very naughty, Kitten.”

  The Senator’s voice makes me gasp in shock. I didn’t hear the bathroom door opening, or the shower door, but there he stands, naked, his cut abs glistening in the steam, his cock fully erect and swinging in front of him. I cover my mouth with my hands, frozen in place.

  “Hands back on the shower wall, Kitten.”

  I turn around, my pussy pulsing with electric desire between my legs, and like he feels it, too, the Senator’s fingers are there, stroking my folds, and I spread for him.

  But he doesn’t linger. Instead, he wraps one hand around my waist, fingers searching out my clit, and slips the other hand down the cleft of my ass cheeks until he reaches my hole.

  My body explodes in a soft frenzy, my hips moving forward—more on my clit, please—and backward while he gently increases the pressure on my other hole, working his way in.

  “Relax, Kitten,” he says into my ear, and I feel myself opening for him.

  When one finger is inside, he draws it out and replaces it with two, my muscles stretching, stretching to accommodate.

  “Oh, it’s so—”

  “Too much?” I can feel the ring of muscle giving way, making room, and my legs tremble.

  “No, Senator,” I whisper as his fingertips circle my clit again.

  “Good. Because there’s more on the way.”

 
The fingers are gone, and for an instant I’m empty, but then something huge presses against that opening and I gasp. He rubs my clit faster.

  “Press back against me,” he commands, and though my stomach turns over, nerves rearing up, I obey him.

  Slowly, slowly, my hole opens for him, taking in the massive head of his cock. It feels so big that I’m almost short of breath, but his next words send heat rushing down my back, between my legs.

  “Good girl,” he says as he works his way forward, another inch going in, my hole somehow accommodating his massive size. “All of you belongs to me.”

  Now it truly does. I’m all his.

  Chapter 28

  Senator Sterling

  Marci’s slick body, glistening with the water from the shower, is the most gorgeous sight I’ve ever seen, and the little moans she makes as I gently work the length of me into her asshole are music to my ears. I can feel her muscles relaxing, then tightening as she adjusts to my girth. She’s going to milk me dry before long.

  It only takes a few minutes for her to open completely, and I’m buried in her ass, balls deep.

  “How does it feel?” I say the words directly into her ear, her flushed face etching into my memory, her eyes closed, trusting me so completely, burning into my mind.

  “You’re—” she gasps, and her muscles ripple in response. I’m still working her clit, bringing her closer and closer to the edge. “You’re massive.”

  “But not too much for you, Kitten. It’s like you were made for me.”

  “I was made for you,” she whispers, and I do two things at once—I draw my cock out, just a little, and increase my attentions on her clit. She rocks back and forth, into my hand, onto my cock, and as the water cascades down over us, I get bolder and bolder until I’m fucking her asshole.