“Of course not.”

“Come on, you just about pissed yourself while you were panicking about where the other bedrooms were.”

“That’s because I’m not accustomed to sleeping with strange men.”

“I think it’s more about the fact that you were afraid you couldn’t control yourself around me.”

“Excuse me?”

Barrett licked his lips. “I’ve never met a woman who was able to resist me.”

Oh, God. Spare me from King Narcissist. “Wow. I think you just reached a new level of disgusting with that somewhat rape-y statement.”

With a roll of his eyes, Barrett replied, “Rest assured, sweetheart, if we did end up in the same bed, you would be the first woman I didn’t try to seduce.”

Mary Anne appeared behind me. “I see you’re making yourself at home, Barrett,” she said, amusement vibrating in her voice.

He grinned. “I figured if I was going to be stuck here for the next forty-eight hours, I should make sure it met my needs.”

“I assume you find it satisfactory?”

“Meh, I suppose it’ll have to do,” he teasingly replied as he climbed off the bed.

“I’m sure you’ll manage.” Mary Anne then turned to me. “Senator Callahan just informed me that there’s a car waiting downstairs to take you to your apartment to pack the things you’ll need for the next two to three weeks. I would advise you to pack only the necessities. You’ll be living in close quarters on the bus, and most of the hotels we stay at on the road are nothing like this.”

Telling a female to pack only the essentials is a contradiction in terms. Everything seemed essential. I was destined to fail at this task.

Flipping through her leather-bound planner, Mary Anne asked, “You don’t have any pets to worry about, do you?”

“No,” I replied sadly. I’d lost my Goldendoodle, Kennedy, in the breakup with Walt.

Since he’d been Walt’s dog before I’d come along, it had only made sense that he kept him, but it particularly hurt because Kennedy was much closer to me. Funny that I missed Kennedy more than I did Walt. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that dogs were loyal and always happy to see you.

Mary Anne bobbed her head. “Good. You were going to need to find a place to keep them if you had.”

Once again, the severity of the commitment I’d just made hit me. I wasn’t used to an entirely vagabond lifestyle. Even when my parents were involved in missionary work, it was always during the summers and school holidays. We always had a home base somewhere in the States, depending on where my dad’s church was.

I turned to Barrett. “I guess I better go get my things.”

He flashed me a shit-eating grin. “Take your time. Don’t feel like you need to rush back.”

I bit my tongue to keep from saying I didn’t need his encouragement. I was certainly in no hurry to get back to him and our imprisonment. Instead, I gave him a sickeningly sweet smile. “I’ll take as long as I want, dear.” I patted his cheek—hard. “Don’t feel like you need to give me your permission.”

“All right, snookums.”

We stood there in a silent faceoff for a few moments before I finally blew him a kiss. Barrett slowly shook his head at me as if I was some mutant life form standing in front of him.

“Shall we go, Miss Monroe?” Mary Anne prompted.

I snapped my gaze from Barrett’s to hers. “Yes, of course,” I replied.

Without another word to Barrett, I followed Mary Anne to the door. Once we were alone in the hallway, she grinned at me. “I see Barrett’s met his match in you.”

“We’re either going to be a tremendous help to the campaign or we’ll end up killing each other,” I replied as we stepped onto the elevator.

“Or you might just grow to like each other.”

As the elevator doors closed, my reply came with a very unladylike snort. “Don’t count on it.”

BARRETT

A few minutes after Addison left with Mary Anne, there was a knock at the door. When I peeked through the hole, a bewildered-looking Ty stared back at me. I unlocked the door and threw it open. “Dude, you disappoint me. No champagne to celebrate my prenuptial bliss?” I teased as I waved him inside my room.

“You’re really engaged?” he questioned in a strangled voice.

“I think you mean fake engaged.”

Ty gave a frustrated grunt. “Whatever. Answer the question.”

“Yes.”

“Jesus,” he muttered as he dragged his hand through his hair. “I don’t know what’s harder to believe: that this is what your dad suggested, or that you actually said yes.”

“It’s not like I had much choice.”

“Did he play hardball with you over your job or your inheritance?”

“Yeah, but turns out he was only bluffing.”

“Then why did you say yes?”

“He put it to me this way: if he lost the nomination or the presidency, would I be able to live with myself if I hadn’t done everything I could to help him to win?”

Ty winced. “Emotional blackmail is the worst.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Okay, so you’re engaged.” Ty shook his head slowly back and forth. “Damn, I never thought I’d say those two words together.”

“I never thought I’d hear it either.”