Page 150 of State of Affairs (First Family 1)

“I’m insanely hot for you.” He somehow managed to lift her onto his lap and into his arms in one very smooth move. “Hi,” he said, smiling down at her.

“What’ve I told you about handling me like I’m a side of beef?”

He kissed her forehead, nose and lips. “Can’t remember.”

She placed her hand on his face to encourage him to keep up the kissing. “Funny, I can’t either.” Even though she had threads to pull and more to do than she could get done in a year, she gave herself ten more minutes to be held and kissed by him. “I gotta go.”

“I know.” He made no move to release her. “Thanks for doing this, for putting up with it all, for bending over backward to make it work even when you’re freaking out all over the place, for not leaving me. All of it.”

Sam pulled back so she could see his face. “Leave you? Where in the hell would I go when the only thing I want is to be with you?”

“Even here?” he asked, his gaze taking in the room.

“Anywhere. If you’re there, I’m good.”

“That’s all it takes?”

“That’s all it takes, and you know it. Don’t add to your stress by worrying about me freaking out all over the place or leaving you. I’m handling it, and I’m not going anywhere. The kids are handling it. It’s going to be great. I keep thinking about the awesome house parties we can have with everyone we love sleeping over, watching movies, bowling, swimming. And we haven’t even talked about Camp David yet.”

“That does sound fun.”

“Right? We’ll make it fun. We’ll bring back the glamour, the entertainment, the celebrities and the music.”

“That sounds perfect, babe.”

“If we have to be here, we may as well enjoy the hell out of it, right?”

“I guess so. You know that all I need to be happy is for you to be happy.”

“I’m good. Much better after this meeting and knowing there’s not going to be pushback about my job. And I’m fully aware that I have you to thank for making sure Ambrose knew that trying to talk me out of keeping the job was a nonstarter.”

“We did have a preliminary conversation ahead of the meeting.”

“I had a feeling.” She kissed him again, making it a good one to hold them over until later. “You’re the best, and I love you. If you want to talk sexy, seeing you in this room as the leader of the free world…” She fanned her face. “That is hot as fuck.”

“If you say so.”

“I say so, and we’ll discuss this further later. Right now, I need to get back to work.”

Nick got up to walk her to the door. “What Ambrose said about threats you can’t see… Keep that in mind, okay? There’re so many ways they can come for you, babe. It’s the stuff of nightmares.”

She rested her hand on his chest, feeling the rapid beat of his heart under her palm. “Don’t do that. Don’t go to worst-case. I was fine as second lady, and I’ll be fine as first lady. I promise.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.”

“Please do.”

He kissed her one more time before he let her go.

As she walked toward the reception area, a strikingly beautiful dark-haired woman wearing a red power suit and matching three-inch heels came in from the hallway. Sam took one look at her and hated her for no good reason. Her reaction was immediate and visceral.

“Oh, Sam,” Nick said. “This is Gretchen Henderson. Gretchen, my wife, Sam.”

She wanted to ask Nick who this woman was and why she was here, but she held her barbed tongue and shook the woman’s hand.

“Such a pleasure to meet you,” Gretchen said. “I’m a huge admirer.”

“Thank you,” Sam said. To Nick, she added, “I’ll see you later.”