Her heart was already racing. It hadn’t been long since they had been together at Brady’s lake house, but already she couldn’t get enough of him. Every time she was with him it was a new unbelievable experience. Every time was better than the last. Every time reminded her that it was worth it to be with him. In the end, he was what made her happy.

Brady moved her hips so that she was hovering over him and she leaned forward so her hands rested on his shoulders. She wanted to grab on to his hair and use it for leverage, but thought that might be a dead giveaway when they left.

Her head tilted back when she felt him enter her. A moan got caught in her throat as he pushed her body the rest of the way onto his dick. “Oh, God,” she murmured.

His thumb trailed along her bottom lip and her tongue flicked out and licked it. Fire lit up his eyes. He shifted his pelvis up and she groaned again. His hand covered her mouth. “Not a word, baby.”

And he then proceeded to make that practically impossible. He gripped her hips in his hands and started moving her up and down on him. The quick, rough rhythm he started coupled with the uncertainty of how long they had before someone came looking for them pushed her to the edge. She bit down on her lip hard to keep back the moans and screams that she wanted to let loose. As Brady hit the right spot over and over again, she couldn’t hold back anymore, and so she covered her mouth with his.

Their lips moved in time. It was a frenzy of heated bodies and scorching kisses and passion that nothing else rivaled. Liz felt her climax hit and she gasped against his lips as she throbbed with pleasure. Brady finished after her and they sat there for a minute, reveling in their stolen moment.

And then they heard the knock at the door.

Liz scrambled backward off of him and lunged for her underwear. Brady stood casually, adjusted himself, and righted his suit. He didn’t look like anything had happened at all, aside from the lazy smile that crossed his face. As she rushed to put her underwear back on, Brady snatched them out of her hand and stuffed them into his pocket.

“What are you doing?” she hissed.

“Go without them.”

“Brady,” she groaned.

“I want to be onstage imagining you ready and waiting for me again.”

“You’re going to get yourself all turned on while onstage,” she pointed out, snaking her hand down his arm and trying to get to his pocket.

He yanked her close again. “It’s worth it.”

She stared up at him intently. Blue meeting brown with an unparalleled intensity. “You’re worth this,” she whispered.

Worth coming out about their relationship. Worth dealing with the reporters. Worth giving up her privacy. He was worth everything. A soft smile crossed his lips as he seemed to understand what exactly she was saying, and then he dropped a sensual kiss on her lips.

A promise. He’d make sure she was right.

“Brady!” they heard Heather call from the other side of the wall.

He smirked at Liz before unlocking and opening the door. “Heather, we were just coming to see you,” he said casually.

“Brady,” she groaned, shaking her head. She assessed him top to bottom. “You can’t do this already. You’re going to drive me bat-shit crazy.”

“This is different than normal?” he joked.

Her voice lowered and she glared at both of them. “I don’t even want to know what was going on in here. I can only imagine. Can’t you at least wait until we get back . . . or something?”

“Don’t know what you mean, Heather,” Brady said, crossing his arms. “Don’t I have a speech to give?” He grabbed Liz’s hand and started walking out of the back room.

Heather dropped in easily at his side and started going over the speech as if nothing had happened. Liz suspected that meant they would be getting shit later for going off like that. Checking out her cell phone, she realized they had been cutting it close. She dropped her phone back into her purse, and her eyes darted around the room for a bathroom.

But Heather grabbed Liz’s attention again. “Please stand right here and do not move again.”

“I’m not a child, Heather,” Liz snapped.

“Then perhaps you should take this more seriously,” she snapped right back. “You’re a liability, and sneaking off and doing . . . whatever you were doing is not helping anything.”

“Heather,” Brady said, his voice dangerously low.

Heather straightened considerably and seemed to realize that Brady was right there. Oh, this was going to be fun.

“Just getting everything in order,” she said coolly. Yeah, Heather was not happy. She was probably worried that her perfect candidate was now involved in a scandal with a college political reporter who had written negative articles about him. Not to mention that she and Brady had been caught and their names smeared across the front headline of newspapers all weekend.

Heather’s job was partly damage control. And Liz was the damage. Liz understood why Heather would act like this, but it didn’t mean she had to stand for it. Heather took one last look at Liz before walking over to Elliott.

“She’s such a bitch,” Liz grumbled.

“She means well, but yeah . . . it’s kind of her job,” Brady said. “She just has to get used to us being together. I think she thinks this is a ploy.”

“If she thinks that, then others will too.”

“I intend to quell those responses before they get off the ground. You’re here to stay.”

His voice was so commanding that Liz had no room to doubt him. He didn’t have to keep her around. After she had left him at his primary victory to ensure that he won the election, she had spent the next year with Hayden. She had never gotten over Brady, and their time apart had been sprinkled with sexually charged meetings and soul-crushing departures. The fact that they were here at all was a testament to their dedication to each other.

A minute later, Heather walked primly out onstage. She was tall, blond, and beautiful, with self-assurance that skyrocketed when she was onstage. Liz remembered being jealous of her trim figure. Not that Liz was big, but she was a bit more athletically built, with a large chest.

“Thank you so much for attending this last-minute press conference,” Heather trilled. “I’m Heather Ferrington, Representative Maxwell’s press secretary. No questions will follow the Congressman’s announcement.”