Author: K.A. Linde

“It’s bad timing. That’s all. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Oh, please,” Liz said, shaking her head and starting to walk again. “Its having nothing to do with me is even worse.”

“Hey.” Chris grabbed her arm and forcibly stopped her from walking farther. “I’m telling you as his best friend that he likes you. Remember the other night when we were all together? He’s not like that with some dumb beauty queen. Now let’s get another drink and calm down.”

“Did you know he was bringing someone else?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said with a sigh, “but not until last night.”

“And why wasn’t I informed of this?” Liz asked testily.

“Because he thought you might back out, and he wanted you here.”

“Well, at least he knows me.”

“Come on,” he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “Let’s get a drink.”

Liz sighed and shook her head. “No. I don’t think I can do that. I can’t stand around and watch him with her.” She brushed his hand off of her shoulder and started walking toward the door. She had fallen hard for Brady Maxwell, but he couldn’t parade that woman in front of her. He couldn’t get away with not telling her the truth, not being up front with her, when he demanded it of her.

“Liz…” Chris called, following after her. “Don’t leave.”

“I have to. He doesn’t take this seriously.”

“He’d be stupid not to take you seriously after that last comment.”

Liz shot daggers at him. “Why are you even siding with him?”

“He’s my best friend. Look, just come with me for a minute.” Chris reached out and stopped her. “Don’t leave yet.”

“Chris, come on. I’m just going to go.”

“One minute,” he pleaded.

Liz grumbled expletives softly under her breath before nodding. “Fine. Where are we going?”

“Somewhere quiet,” he said, walking toward the back wall.

“For what?”

“Just act natural.”

Liz shrugged and decided to see where he was taking her. It was better than sticking around the party and watching the stupid beauty-pageant chick follow Brady around like a lapdog.

They walked through a door on the other side of the room, which led them through a service hallway. They turned a corner and Chris jiggled the handle to the first door on the right. It twisted and pushed inward. Liz peered around him and saw that he had opened a door into a family bathroom.

“What the hell is this?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Chris looked up and down the empty hallway. “Just go inside. Brady will meet you in a minute.”

“In a bathroom?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes. Go,” he said, pointing at the door.

Liz looked at him as if he were mentally insane, but walked into the bathroom and shut the door. She felt really ridiculous. She was standing in a bathroom, for Christ’s sake. Who did this? What if Brady left her in there all night? Not that she would stay longer than like fifteen minutes…okay twenty…maybe longer.

She sighed, feeling even more ridiculous. How the hell could Brady bring someone else to this event? Why even invite Liz if he was going to flaunt someone else around in front of her the whole time? After blowing up on her about Justin and not wanting anyone else to get their hands on her, he had the audacity to show up with someone else. As if she wanted anyone to get her hands on him!

Just the thought was getting her even more riled up. And she didn’t want to calm down.

The door handle rattled as someone wrestled with the stuck knob. It popped open a second later and Brady stood silhouetted in the doorway. Alone.

Liz smiled at the sight of him. Then she remembered she was angry and wiped it away. He moved inside quickly, shut and locked the door. He took one look at her before crossing the small space, taking her face in his hands, and kissing the breath right out of her. Her eyes closed for a second as he took what was his. He was the most intoxicating substance on the planet. Their kisses were like fire scorching through a burning building—hot and destructive.

She didn’t want him to stop. She couldn’t possibly want that. She wanted to do this for the rest of eternity. Who cared if he burned a hole right through her heart?

Then she came to her senses, and she pushed him back with every ounce of force. She probably didn’t move him back more than an inch, but the shock of her stopping him made him stumble a few feet backward.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Brady asked.

“Stopping you.”

“What have you been doing since you got here?”

“What have I been doing?” she asked, her eyes going wide.

“Yes. What have you been doing? Flirting with my brother, making a scene when I come to see you—what is wrong with you?” he demanded.

“I’m not sure I can even justify that with an answer!” she said, shaking her head.

“Is this because of Amber? Because if it is, then you need to get your shit together. Did you forget that I’m on the campaign? That I have an election to win?” he asked gruffly.

“How could I possibly forget?” she demanded.

“I don’t know, but you’re fucking acting like you have. I thought you knew what we were doing.” He clenched his hands into fists.

“That’s right. What we were doing,” she said, trying to brush past him to get to the door.

“What the fuck does that mean?” he asked. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into him.

“We aren’t doing what we started out doing anymore. If you want the girl who you met in May, then sorry…she’s long gone,” she told him, staring up into his dark, intense eyes.

“You’re not leaving, Liz,” he told her. She arched an eyebrow, wondering whether he was daring her. “I don’t want that girl. I want you. Do you hear me? I want you.”

Chapter 22

APPEARANCES

Liz felt her anger deflate at his words. She knew it wasn’t enough for them to move forward. It wasn’t enough to change the course of their relationship. But it was something; it was a start.

“I want you too,” she whispered in the silence.

Brady’s lips found hers again, soft and warm. He wasn’t trying to kiss the life out of her; he was just kissing her. The woman he wanted.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, and she tangled her fingers in his hair. Her chest rose and fell in time with his, and she felt all the remaining fire in her body dissolve.

Brady wanted her.

When they broke apart this time, she was wobbly on her feet and had to rest her hand on his chest to hold herself steady.

“Are you all right now?” he asked, tilting her chin up to gaze into her blue eyes.

“Doing better,” she whispered.

“Good. That’s what I wanted to hear.”

“Brady, why did you bring her? Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked softly. She still wasn’t comfortable with the idea, but she wasn’t angry. Not in the same way, at least.

“I had to bring her.”

Liz looked up at him incredulously. “Really?”

“Some things are for appearances. It’s complicated. Heather really insisted on this one. My bachelor appearance only accommodates me so far, but in social situations it doesn’t look good to show up alone. And it’s useful to have someone else there to entertain the people I’m not speaking with directly. As much as I’d prefer to go alone, Amber is the least troublesome of the choices I was given.”

“You didn’t even ask her yourself?” she asked, surprised. How did all of this work?

“No. I’m too busy to date, or at least that’s what I tell my press secretary.”

“Does she want you to date?” Liz asked, concerned.

Brady shook his head solemnly. “She doesn’t want me to date. She wants me to get married.”

Liz let out a peep at that word. Married! He couldn’t get married!

“Don’t worry,” he said, planting a kiss on her lips. “That’s not on my horizon for a long time. She can’t badger me into something that extreme. That’s not like a date at a gala.”

Thank God! Liz thought.

“So…why were you flirting with my brother?” he asked, a storm cloud forming over his features. So that was what he had been holding back when he’d had his campaign face on while talking to Clay.

“I didn’t know he was your brother. Nor did I know I was flirting with him. I was trying to defend you,” she said, pointing her finger into his chest.

“Defend me? Why would you need to?”

Liz bit her lip. Whoops! Maybe she shouldn’t have said that. It was clear that there was something wrong between him and Clay. But she had already put one foot forward; she might as well take the step.

“He was talking about you and the campaign and politics in general. I didn’t know who he was, but they weren’t exactly uplifting words,” she said as tactfully as she could.

“Fucking Clay,” Brady said, shaking his head. “He needs to learn to keep his mouth shut. I promise he was trying to charm you.”

Liz swallowed and didn’t say anything. Charm ran in their family.

“I would stay away from him.”

“I probably won’t see him again anyway, will I?” she asked. “He’s at Yale. He should be going back soon.”

“Not soon enough, unfortunately,” Brady said.

Liz wanted to ask what the problem was between them, but it didn’t really seem like the time. There were other more pressing concerns…like where they were going from here.

“Brady, what are we doing?” she asked, trying to keep from choking out the words. She couldn’t ask too much. She couldn’t push too hard. She couldn’t lose him.

He opened his mouth to say something and was cut off by a sharp rap on the door. Brady hung his head and sighed. “That’s my cue. Can we finish this conversation later?”

“Will I get to see you later?”

Brady smiled that gorgeous smile he seemed to reserve specifically for her and pulled something out of his tux. Liz peered down into his hand and saw a little silver key. She glanced up at him, confused. “What’s this?”

“A key to my house.”

Liz’s throat went dry. A key. To his house.

She had never been to his house. She wasn’t allowed to go there. They had always met somewhere that couldn’t be tracked or traced…somewhere the campaign couldn’t find them.

“What’s that for?” she whispered, not able to tear her eyes away from the key.

“That’s where I was planning to have you stay tonight.”

Liz’s eyes slowly rose to his and her mouth popped open. He bent down and kissed her lightly.

“That is—if you still want to.”

He slid the key into her palm, and she closed her hand over the metal, feeling the light weight in her hand.

“I want to,” she responded.

“I have a driver tonight, and he can take you. I’ll see you tonight, baby.”

He placed one more kiss on her lips and then exited the room. Liz stared down at her hand. She had a key to Brady’s house.

Liz left the bathroom a few minutes later and walked back into the gala ballroom. Her heart beat a soft rhythm in her throat from her time with Brady, and she couldn’t seem to relinquish that feeling. Her emotions were swirling around inside of her like a tempest raging through a storm. She couldn’t believe Brady had given her a key to his place. He was slipping. They were both slipping away from their arrangement. The more he let her in, the more she craved from him. Even though she was still mad about Amber, their conversation had tempered her anger so completely that all she could think about was getting back to Brady’s house as quickly as possible.