Conscience (The Bellator Saga Book 2) (21 page)

Jack had exchanged words with a man at a campaign rally whom he overheard making a less than appropriate remark to Caroline after footage of the elevator incident leaked, and it hadn’t ended well. She noticed recently that there were a few more aides hanging around them as they worked campaign crowds, probably to keep him in check. It didn’t seem to be affecting his appeal to the electorate; to the contrary, they seemed to embrace his new identity as the doting husband shielding his wife from harm. Caroline thought it was funny since he knew damn well she could hold her own with anyone. But it was still comforting.

“Want to grab something to eat before I head to Philadelphia?” she asked.

Kathleen raised her eyebrows. “Got a campaign stop you didn’t tell me about?”

As if Caroline didn’t know better. “It is my understanding that Candidate McIntyre has cleared his calendar for me this evening. And I really need a damn swim. I have some anger to burn off.”

“You’re gonna have some calories to burn off, too,” Kathleen said. “Let’s go to that Mexican place I like.”

She smiled and put her arm around Kathleen. “Sure.”

*              *              *              *              *

Caroline tossed her purse on the table and grabbed a small vase from the cabinet under the sink. Jack had indeed sent her roses. She filled the vase with water and arranged the flowers in it, then put it in the center of the kitchen island. It brightened the room up a bit. In hindsight, she would have preferred a box of gourmet chocolate, but she wasn’t about to complain. He must have moved lightning fast to get the florist to deliver them to her office so quickly after the hearing. She wasn’t about to take him or his many romantic overtures for granted. The campaign was wearing on him and it was starting to show. She was glad to have him to herself for the night. He needed a break.

Caroline removed her makeup and slipped into her swimsuit. Jack would be home soon but she had time to do a few laps in the pool. She and Katie had devoured three baskets of chips and two giant chicken flauta plates before sharing some fried ice cream, and she knew she had to work some of that off. She grabbed a towel and her other swim gear and headed down to the pool in the basement.

An extravagance, really. The backyard pool was plenty. Jack never really explained why he wanted a full size pool inside the house but it was a very nice perk of coming back to a place that Caroline still struggled to appreciate. She slid into the heated water, pulling on her swim cap and goggles. The exercise relaxed her and she swam about fifteen laps before stopping to take a break. She had just pulled off her goggles and swim cap and placed them by the side of the pool when she heard footsteps coming down the hall.

“Hi, baby,” Jack said, crouching down on the tile.

“Careful,” she said. “I may have splashed a little. Wouldn’t want to ruin those shiny shoes.”

He reflexively looked down at his dress shoes. Still perfectly polished, as always. “They’re fine.” He smiled at her. “You beat me home.”

“Of course I did. You were tooling around with some pollsters, weren’t you?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “I was bored out of my mind but my aides kept me up to date as to what you were doing with your morning.”

“Thank you for the flowers.”

“I was told that you might have deserved more than that, but I didn’t have time to stop at a jewelry store.”

That had to be a joke. His staffers were only interested in their relationship if it had an impact on Jack’s poll numbers. A meticulously monotonous bunch, as Caroline liked to say. But they knew how to run a campaign, despite their colorless personalities.

“Just doing my job,” she said.

He straightened up a little. “Not hardly. That was above and beyond.”

“I called him out on his bullshit. Nothing else. Nothing more than what I’ve always done.”

“You found another gear today, baby. It was magnificent to behold.”

Caroline smiled shyly at him. “Now you’re going to make me blush.”

“We both know it doesn’t take much.” Jack crouched down again to caress her cheek. “I know you did that for me. I appreciate your loyalty.”

“Eternally devoted, I am,” she said. “To the country, of course.”

He laughed again, a rich, booming sound that echoed over the tile. She hadn’t heard him laugh like that lately. It made her happy.

“And to you too,” she added, just to reassure him. Sometimes he needed reassurance more than she did.

“I know,” he said quietly, then smiled again. “I think my favorite part was when you told Murdock, ‘Perhaps the gentleman from Pennsylvania has forgotten that this is a congressional hearing not a political ad, and he is therefore obligated not to mislead the other committee members.’”

“Is that a direct quote?”

“I watched it several times to make sure I got it right. I also enjoyed the phrase ‘duty of candor’ and that little jab at his ethics. You exposed him as the unprepared, corrupt jackass he is.” Jack knelt down to kiss her. “You’re incredible, sweetheart.”

“You’re going to ruin your suit, darling. The tile’s all wet.”

He kept kissing her. “Ask me if I fucking care.”

A few more kisses like that and she’d forget about clothes entirely. “How are you doing?” she whispered, when they finally broke free.

He resumed his crouching position. The chlorinated water had soaked through his pants. “It’ll get better, sweetheart. I promise.”

Caroline sighed. A nice, neat sidestep. “I didn’t ask about myself, Jack. I asked about you.”

“What affects me affects you, and vice versa.”

She glared at him. He knew how much it bothered her when he avoided questions. He was a much better politician than he gave himself credit for.

“It’s been a rough few weeks,” he finally said. “It’ll get better. And you really were phenomenal today. Even Greg was impressed.”

Wasn’t that a compliment of the highest measure. Maybe Greg would give her a nice certificate to commemorate the occasion. With a gold star and everything. “Not sure that’s what the Twittersphere thought,” she grumbled, massaging the top of her head. “I’m a DINO now, in case you wanted to know. That, or a giant bitch, or the greatest politician in the history of the world.”

“Is it an even three way split?”

“I don’t know. Ask Katie.”

Jack smiled. “I’m going to go with the greatest politician angle. But even if you’re a DINO, you’re my DINO. And those nerd glasses you were wearing made you look incredibly adorable.”

She couldn’t wait for the day when his perfect vision deteriorated and he had to get bifocals. She would never, ever let him hear the end of it. “They aren’t nerd glasses,” she said. “They’re totally stylish.”

“Couldn’t get your contacts in today?”

Caroline usually tried to avoid wearing her glasses when the cameras were on, but she’d had to do a ton of reading both before and during the hearing. They made her feel much more intellectual, and a little more threatening. Kathleen often told her that Caroline’s glasses were an indication that she meant business.

“No.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “Thanks for noticing.”

Jack grinned at her again. “That condescending look you gave Murdock while you slipped them down your nose was incredibly sexy.”

“Now you’re lying through your teeth.”

“Not in the slightest. Glad to see the sexy librarian make a reappearance. I’ve missed her.”

“If my glasses slid down my nose, it was unintentional.”

He leaned down to kiss her again. “You might have to work it into your routine. I kept waiting for the porn music to start.”

“That’s a surefire way to improve C-SPAN’s ratings.”

“I’d actually prefer if the sexy librarian only makes time for me, not the men on Homeland Security.”

A hint of jealousy or maybe even fear clouded his words. He didn’t like when other people ogled her. It didn’t happen often since he was the main aesthetic draw out of the two of them. Caroline gave him a wry smile. “You’d better win, buddy. My political career is toast. And I don’t have a future as an eyewear model, either.”

Jack’s grin faded to a look of concern. “I really want you to stay away from Murdock. Even when we’re at debates or other events where both candidates are in the room.”

“I have a job to do. I can’t do that.”

“I don’t trust him.”

“I know you don’t. I don’t trust him either. But he’s harmless. Really, he is.”

His eyes darkened. “Any harmless gnat can turn into a monster when granted access to power he doesn’t need or deserve.”

“And you’re going to make sure he doesn’t gain any more than he already has.” Caroline pressed her fingers to his lips. “Don’t worry about it, Monty. Murdock is all hat, no cattle. Bluster without the backup. I’ve got it all under control.”

Jack kissed her fingers and pushed her hand away. “I know you do, accomplished woman that you are. But I can’t help but worry about you.”

Worrying about her was in his nature, and he did it too damn much. “I know. And I appreciate it. But I had my big girl pants on today and I’ll continue to hitch them up every time I have a conflict. All right?”

“I have no worries about your ability to polish the floor with him, rhetorically speaking. I just wish you weren’t put in that position on a regular basis.”

“It’s not that bad. And it won’t be that much longer. A few more months, if that.”

“I still don’t like it. He’s a fucking prick.”

“Please say that during one of your debates. Please.”

“I’ll try to work it in somehow.”

He was still upset and she tried to make her voice as soothing as possible. “You’re going to win, Jack. We won’t have to deal with him ever again.”

He stood up and crossed his arms. “Are you wearing your contacts now?”

What an odd change of conversational course. “Nope,” Caroline said. “Can’t really see a damn thing save for the line at the bottom of the pool telling me where to go.”

“For all you know, I could be naked.”

Oh. Maybe the change of course wasn’t all that odd, after all. “I can see enough to know that you’re wearing a gray suit and red tie. It’s just blurry. And I can see your face pretty well.”

Jack knelt down to kiss her again, and did it for long enough that she strongly considered yanking on his tie and pulling him into the water with her. Which may have happened before.

“Don’t even think about it,” he murmured against her lips.

Caroline pulled away from him and sighed dramatically. “Honestly, you drag a fully clothed man into a pool with you once and he never lets you forget it.”

“You wrecked a five thousand dollar suit.”

“Your five thousand dollar suits are a dime a dozen.”

“That sounds a lot like math. I thought lawyers didn’t do math.”

She laughed. “I do. Only when necessary, though.”

He crouched down to kiss her again. “This suit is probably destroyed anyway but I have no desire to be a sopping wet mess, if you catch my drift.”

She made a pouty face. “You’re no fun.”

Instead of laughing at her expression as he usually did, Jack gave her an intense look. “You know, this pool is awfully deserted. Might not be the safest place for a vulnerable woman to be alone. Any perverted old man is liable to come in here and have his way with you.”

Caroline tipped her head back into the water and smoothed her hair out. He wanted to play. She could play. They hadn’t seen each other in several days. Nothing like getting back on the horse. “I should be so lucky.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

“Of course.”

“Be careful what you wish for.”

“I’ll take my chances,” she said, lazily gliding back into the water. She floated toward the middle of the pool, enjoying the silence, grinning when she heard a small splash. It only took a moment before the water churned and Jack’s arm was around her waist. She lifted herself up and he pulled her toward him.

“Well, well,” he said. “Look what we have here.”

“May I help you?”

“Just here to swim some laps.”

Caroline felt him press against her hip. “In the nude?”

“Does that bother you?”

“Most people wear a suit to swim.”

“Not me. And I lied. I’m not here to swim.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “Why are you here?”

“For you,” Jack said quietly. “I’ve been watching you.”

“You have?”

He ran his thumb along her jawline. “A woman like you really shouldn’t be left unattended. You’ve been in this pool all alone for hours.”

“It hasn’t been that long.”

“It seems that long.”

Jack gave a very convincing performance. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think a stalker had just waltzed into the pool. Caroline tried to keep her voice from shaking. “How did you get in here?”

He smiled, enjoying the game. “I sneaked in through the back. You have lovely form.”

“I – what are you going to do to me?”