Page 26 of The Senator's Secret
After I said I would grab my stuff and be ready to go, Jake called his driver to let them know we were ready to be picked up out front. He had met me in the entryway and held up my coat for me to slide my arms in. It was a sweet gesture, polite even, during a morning that was stilted at best.
It felt like there was a tentative truce between us, but after last night, it might have vanished into thin air.
I thought we would have a quiet ride to work in the early morning light. I was so very wrong. To be honest, after last night, there was not much more I could take before I hit my breaking point. The minute Jake opened the front door for me to exit before him, flash bulbs burst before my eyes. I felt stunned and a little scared. Only the day before, there were a few people lingering in front of his house, but today there were hundreds, and they were all shouting my name.
I looked back to Jake for help, but he just stepped up beside me with that politician’s smile painted on his handsome face. Jake tucked my hand in his large one as he led me to the SUV all while wishing many of the photographers a good morning by name.
He was so poised and prepared it was almost as if he knew they would be there. I, obviously, did not. I was sure when I got to my office the internet would be abuzz with one terrible picture of me after another, while Jacob looks perfectly polished, a role I’m most comfortable in. But not today.
He opens the door for me like a true gentleman would for his lady and allows me to slide across the bench seat before he follows me inside. His Secret Service agent closes the door for us after Jake waves to his adoring public one more time. And then his agent climbs in the front seat next to the driver, and we were off.
But as we drive farther and farther away from the house and closer and closer to my place of business, I begin to wonder if I can keep up this charade forever. Jake slips the cloak of supreme politician on so effortlessly. And while I’ve made my career out of helping people out of messes and putting their best foot forward, this doesn’t feel like a situation I can handle. I’m used to cleaning up the press mess from behind the scenes, not front and center.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks from beside me. I turn away from the window to face him. He’s watching me carefully, his face strategically blank.
“I was thinking about what a fucking mess my life has become,” I answer honestly. I feel like there is no room for prevarication between us while we live out this carefully crafted lie.
“Come on now,” he says as the corner of his mouth tips up in the sexiest of smirks. God, I fucking hate him, and still my body warms for him and it’s not even a full smile, just a smirk. “It can’t be all that bad.”
I let out a frustrated sigh. “It’s basically a dumpster fire.”
Jake throws his head back and lets out a real laugh. It rumbles up my spine and warms me from the inside out. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him look this way before. He’s carefree and relaxed, not poised and in control. If I thought he was attractive before, that’s nothing compared to how he looks right now.
“You’re honest, if anything.” His smile is genuine, and he looks at me as if I make his world feel right. But how can that be?
“I feel like with the situation we’re in, there’s no room for evasiveness between us,” I repeat to him my earlier thoughts and immediately wish I hadn’t, because the happy smile slides right off his face.
“I suppose you’re right,” he states, and a look I don’t understand flashes across his face.
“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” I murmur. “I’m in a bad mood, and that wasn’t fair.”
“I’m fine,” Jake assures on a smile, but this time it doesn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Jake—” I start, but I’m interrupted.
“We’re almost to Ms. Sanders’s office,” the driver announces.
“Perfect timing,” Jake says as he looks away from me and to the Tag Heuer watch on his wrist. I let out a soft sigh. What was I even going to say to him anyway?“I’m sorry I accidentally hurt your feelings with the truth after you all but fucked me six ways from Sunday on the kitchen counter and then abandoned me without a backward glance”? Probably not.
The SUV pulls up to the curb in front of the building that houses my office. The agent opens his door and steps down from the truck before opening my door for me.
“Thank you,” I tell him as I take his hand and step down before he shuts the door behind me.
I begin to walk up the steps of the building before I realize Jake is just a step behind me. I don’t even know how he got to me so quickly. He’s like a big cat, prowling around without making a single noise.
“What are you doing?” I ask him.
“I’m walking my girlfriend to work.”
“But you already gave me a lift here,” I reply for lack of anything else. His walking me to my door is both romantic and terrifying. I need to separate what is and isn’t real, and his being the perfect boyfriend is not helping me remember he is anything but.
“And I’ll see you to your door,” he says gently but with a firmness packed behind his words. He’s not going to budge here.
“It’s really unnecessary.”
“It is,” Jake says, his voice low in a way that says there would be no arguing with him about it.
“Oh all right.” I sound like a petulant child, and there’s really no helping it. It’s exactly how I feel. I’d like to say I’m able to rise up from anything, but I would clearly be mistaken.