In Bed With the Opposition (14 page)

Grace was thinking about how Jackson wouldn’t even
have
her career if it weren’t for out-of-touch geezers like Kip Halloway, but held her tongue. Then the cameras panned in on Ethan, who was totally in his element.

“Senator Halloway is of an age when he says things to get attention,” he said with a disarming shake of his head, as if he were talking about a doddering old uncle. “This is a distraction from real issues. For example, did you know Maryland is so unprepared that a flu pandemic could incapacitate the whole state?”

Damn
. Grace was now experiencing firsthand how Ethan could stick the knife in with a smile on his face. He seemed pitch-perfect, implying that her boss was a petty old fool while still getting in his own talking points. Ethan’s easy masculinity made him seem in charge, without being domineering.

It was as impressive to watch as it was infuriating, and by the time the program was over, Grace was awed by his skill. She planned to get the video and study it. But what if his television magic was something she just couldn’t copy?

“You did fine, Grace,” Ethan said, as if reading her mind. “And you’re brave as hell. Taking over your first campaign from somebody else is always rough. Taking over a campaign in the middle takes raw nerve.”

Hope fluttered in her breast. Could he be trying to say that he understood why she took the job? That maybe he’d forgiven her, too? “I just didn’t want to make a fool of myself.”

“You didn’t. With a little more practice, you’ll be a pro.”

Grace bit her lower lip, flushing. “And you could have your own political show.”

“I’ve had offers. The rush of nailing somebody on camera is a serious high, but the last thing I want to be is one of those bobblehead pundits who never actually talk to real voters.”

She turned in her chair and her knees brushed his. They both froze and she heard herself swallow. “Ethan? I hope you know…I wish the election was already over.”

He gave a rueful shake of his head. “Unfortunately, we’ve still got a long way to go.”

Then he stood up and walked away.

Right
. She was a fool for thinking he’d be available when this was over. PolitiGal was probably waiting for him in a bar somewhere even now. Grace needed to get out of here before she cried. She fumbled for her purse, ready to flee the studio when Jackson’s spokeswoman stopped her.

“We’d like to start debate talks.”

“Isn’t it a little early?” Grace asked. As the incumbent, her boss had nothing to gain by agreeing to debates.

“Can’t hurt to talk, can it?” the woman asked, giving Grace the name of a hotel bar in town. “It can be informal. Let’s meet for drinks tonight.”

Grace knew that meeting at any bar would be a madhouse on St. Patrick’s Day and she couldn’t imagine that they’d even be able to hear each other without shouting. This invitation was also technically a violation of
Rule #65
against barhopping after work, but Grace really needed a drink.

…

In the hotel bar, Grace threaded her way through the crowd, then took a seat and ordered a pint. She was halfway to drunk when she saw the Jackson staffers. They hadn’t seen her yet, so she decided to finish her beer. That’s when her phone vibrated with a text message.

Don’t sit down with them. -EC

How did Ethan know she was here? And wasn’t it a little late to back out of negotiations now? Nancy Jackson’s staffers were just across the pub.

Why not? -GS

Go to the bathroom. I’ll explain. -EC

Grace knew she should ignore the text message, but her curiosity (and maybe the green beer) made the mystery irresistible. Was he actually here? Grace wove her way toward the bathrooms, where she found Ethan leaning against the wall in a shiny green top hat that matched the mug of beer in his hand.

“What are you doing here?” Grace asked, secretly hoping he was following her.

“Someone in the Jackson campaign leaked that they invited you.” He leaned forward, his green eyes twinkling like a leprechaun’s. “God, you smell great, Grace. I’ve been thinking about it since the studio today. You smell like some kind of meadow flower. New perfume?”

His proximity made Grace hold her breath. What the hell had she been thinking, putting him on hold, like he was some kind of inconvenient appointment? He was
all that
and then some. And at this moment, she
hated
herself for having stalled their relationship for even a minute.

“Body butter, actually.” Grace made a personal note to bathe in it from now on.

“Aren’t you going to ask me why you shouldn’t sit down with Jackson staffers about the debate?”

Right
. Work. She had to think of work. “Sure.”

“If they really wanted to negotiate a debate, they’d have met you somewhere private to hammer out details.”

Ethan had a point. With the patrons singing in good cheer and beer glasses clanking together, she could hardly hear herself think. “So why invite me here?”

He was
too
close to her. The buttons of his shirt snagged on her sweater but she dared not reach down to fix it. “Grace, they invited you here so they could say they met with you to arrange a debate but you refused, or dragged your feet. Which is what you’ll do since it doesn’t benefit you to make things easy on them. But if you’re seen publicly negotiating with them, you can’t deny that talks have started.”

Her eyes widened. This was so cloak-and-dagger! “So you’re here to save me from a blunder?”

Ethan grinned, lifting his mug of beer. “Actually, I showed up so that our campaign wouldn’t be excluded from debate negotiations, but once I saw you sitting there I started drinking, and now there’s no accounting for my behavior.”

Grace found herself grinning, in spite of herself. “Should we really be drinking on the job?”

“No. So let’s go off duty together.”

If only they could. If only they could run off and leave the campaign behind. Maybe Molly was right. Maybe they should just meet secretly until after the election and nobody would be the wiser. “The problem is, we agreed—”

“I didn’t agree,” Ethan put his face close to hers.

“You did,” Grace said, remembering their breakup. “You agreed to keep things strictly professional.”

That familiar storm erupted behind his eyes. “Could be that’s what I’m doing. After all, it’s not in my interests to let you talk to the Jackson people. Maybe this is a strategic distraction…”

He was joking, but there was still an edge in his voice that reminded her who he was. Ethan was a fierce competitor. Even when they played virtual boxing. “So, this is all about winning?”

“Everything is always about winning to me.”

He put a hand in her hair and tilted her face toward him. The sparkle in his emerald eyes was infectious; St. Patrick’s Day really did suit him perfectly. Being around him was like being swept up into an atmosphere of drunken revelry. It really made her very uncomfortable; if only it wasn’t so much fun!

“So, Ethan, have you ever seduced a woman to win an election before?”

He grinned and his voice lowered an octave. “Do you
want
me to seduce you, Grace?”

Maybe it was the Irish fiddling and the shamrocks. Maybe it was that she’d lost her wits. Maybe it was that she’d gone far too long without the man’s hands on her. Whatever the reason, she told the truth before she could stop herself. “Yes, I think I do.”

Chapter Fourteen

Saying something like that to Ethan Castle was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. In an instant, Ethan leaned forward and closed his mouth over hers, taking possession of her. It was an electric jolt. She always reacted this way to him. When he wanted something, she always wanted to give it to him, and when he was so bold about it, something inside her felt as if he ought to be rewarded. Before she knew it, she was wrapping her arms around his neck. She could feel his whole body against her. This was dangerous, very dangerous!

At the bar, patrons sang “Whiskey, You’re the Devil.” For Grace, Ethan was the devil and boy did she want to sin. Just not
right here
. Even though they were in shadow, she mustered up enough sense to whisper, “Ethan, there are a million people around.”

“Then we’ll sneak in the back way and get a hotel room upstairs. But if you don’t go with me right now, I swear I’m going to just push you into the bathroom…”

His voice told her that he wasn’t at all joking.

They kissed in the elevator. Then in the hallway on the way to the hotel room. He half-carried her the last few steps, struggling with his key. Then he shoved the door open and locked it behind them in one smooth motion.

His breath was hot on her neck, and she found her own hands unfastening his belt and tugging at his zipper. She needed him so badly that her moans sounded halfway like sobs.

With one hand, he hiked her skirt up over her hips, and her thighs trembled. Had the bed been even a few steps farther away, they wouldn’t have made it. As it was, they crashed down on the mattress together, their clothes tangled around them. Grace closed her eyes as Ethan’s fingers worked up under her skirt and pulled the high-cut band of her bikini briefs down.

“Seriously, Grace? Four-leaf clover panties?”

She laughed helplessly. “It’s a holiday!”

“Well, you
are
about to get
lucky
.”

With that, he simply tugged her panties off and pushed her thighs apart. The move was so aggressive, the excitement so palpable, that she forgot all sense of modesty. Her body screamed out for exactly this.
Abandon
. They’d waited for so long she didn’t think she could wait a moment more. Besides, she desperately wanted to do this before she came to her senses.

There wasn’t time to fully undress; the zipper of Ethan’s pants was grinding into the tender flesh of her inner thigh, but it didn’t matter. She just needed him inside her. “Please, hurry,” she said as he threw his jacket on the floor and fumbled with a condom.

His breathing deepened as he positioned himself, then he pushed into her, meeting no resistance whatsoever.
Oh
, the way he filled her. It was so satisfying she had to bite lightly on his neck to keep from screaming.

Their rhythm was fast and frenzied as their bodies strained together.

He was as good as she remembered. Better, even. His hard muscled arms covered hers and held them down while she panted in a staccato burst. It felt so good, so intense, she squeezed her eyes shut, struggling to keep her body from falling off that precipice. It was all happening too fast.

“Don’t,” he murmured, as he stroked into her again and again. “Don’t hold back. I want to hear you come.”

His words launched her like a rocket, and she cried out in orgasm, sinking her teeth harder just above the starched collar of his shirt. Not far behind her, his breath exploded from his lungs when he finished. They lay like that for a moment, tangled together and breathing hard.

The weight and warmth of him felt good. They both gasped into the silence. She laughed. Then he laughed. Then they both laughed. It was the kind of laughter that spoke of both happiness and wonder.

“Was that as good as I thought it was?” Ethan asked.

Grace sat up. “Oh, God, yes.”

He caught her by the hem of her rumpled sweater. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Your jacket’s on the floor. It’s going to wrinkle.”

“For pity’s sake, leave it!” Then he unbuttoned his shirt and threw that on the floor, too. She actually gaped at the span of his bared shoulders. He’d always been well built, but since law school he’d filled out in a big way. His chest was lean, strong, and covered in rough dark hair that begged to be touched. He disposed of the used sheath, then settled back on top of her.

His neck,
oh
, she’d left a red mark where she’d bitten him in her excitement and now she wanted to put her mouth on it again. Then there was his cock. Thick, male, and starting to rouse itself. “I’m not done with you, Grace.”

Pressing against her, he angled in such a way that she could feel the wet tip of his stiffening erection and it robbed her of coherent thought. “Again?”

“Definitely again,” he told her with a low sound in his throat, something wild and a little bit dangerous.

“Already? You—you, um, you’re, you are…”

“About to rock your world?” he asked, one brow arched.

Grace sputtered. “You could at least be a little more modest.”

“No,” he replied, grinning. “I really don’t think I can be.”

The second time, they weren’t so hurried. Once he had her naked, he kissed her in all the expected places, and some of the unexpected ones too, like the crook of her elbow and the palm of her hand. Ethan played her like a musician, strumming his fingers between her legs, fine-tuning his motions against every roll of her hip. He kissed her nipples, then sucked them hard into his mouth until both of her breasts were heavy with the ache of arousal.

Then his lips were on her neck, her breasts, her stomach, and her hips, lingering with tantalizing promise. As he teased her body with his tongue, the Irish tunes from downstairs vibrated the floor beneath them while Grace made her own song of gasps and sighs.

Emboldened, she ran her fingers through the curls on his chest, loving the rough masculine texture of him. It made her heart thump, and she startled herself with the brazen way she let her hand skim over the flat-etched lines of his stomach and even lower than that.

“Wicked temptress,” he groaned as she stroked his cock.

The feel of him, hot and hard in her hand, made her
feel
like a wicked temptress. It also made her feel so powerful and alluring that when he rolled onto his back, carrying her with him, she eagerly took him deep inside her.

Riding him left her completely exposed—breasts, belly, hips, legs, and ass. But there was something heady about using her hips to set the pace, undulating until he was so excited that he seemed just a little bit at
her
mercy for a change.

He stroked her breasts, teasing her nipples, pulling them taut. But the moment their eyes met, she realized it was a kind of worship. He
loved
her body, she realized, and it made her feel beautiful…truly beautiful…maybe for the first time in her life.

He slipped his thumb into her mouth, and she sucked on it, her teeth teasing the pad. He grinned at her wanton reaction and there was a glint of challenge there, as if goading her to use his body for her pleasure. It was a challenge she accepted, too, because she felt like she was on fire. The heat of her arousal blazed between her legs, licking up her belly until it scorched her hard nipples. Her orgasm sparked and exploded. And when she came, she cried out his name more than once.

He stayed with her, letting her slide her sweat-slick body up and down his until she was ready to collapse. Then, and only then, did he give himself over to his own pleasure.

After, they lay together under the covers. His dark hair was in short, sweat-dampened curls and stubble shadowed his jaw; she liked the scratch of it against her cheek. She’d known that sex with him would be fun and exciting—what she hadn’t known was that lying in his arms afterward would make her so…
happy
.

Ethan was a big guy. Weighty. Solid. Like a rock she could cling to in a storm. Her fingers twined with his, hers golden, his pale. The sight of it moved her. She could imagine holding his hand, just like this, forever. Unfortunately, that illusion shattered the moment she remembered how they ended up here together.

Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God.

She’d let him seduce her in a bar where Jackson’s people might have seen them together. No. It was worse than that. She hadn’t
let
him seduce her. She’d practically
begged
him to! Let it not be said that he didn’t know how to make a girl’s wish come true, but now she was going to have to figure out a way to sneak out of this hotel without being caught doing the walk of shame. “Um, Ethan?”

“Mmph,” he said into her hair.

“Nobody can find out about this.”

“I don’t kiss and tell,” he murmured sleepily in her ear.

“We need to keep it professional,” she insisted.

“Kinky,” he said, nipping at her shoulder.

The fact that her body reawakened under such little provocation did nothing to ease her worries. “I mean we can’t do this again. This has to be the last time.”

Against her skin, she felt his lips twitch in a smile. Then he slid his hand very provocatively down her body and she groaned. She could resist him, she told herself. She could do it. She was the girl with superhuman self-discipline…but when he tugged her tight against his hard masculine body, she knew she was fighting a losing battle. Her mind knew better, but her body squirmed in anticipation. “Again?”

“Uh-huh,” he said, sucking her earlobe between his teeth.

Grace shivered, a rush of goose bumps on her arms. “Okay…but
this
is the last time.”

…

It wasn’t the last time.

Two weeks later on April Fool’s Day, Ethan opened the door to his luxury suite at the hotel and found her standing there in a trench coat and red peep-toe stilettos that defied the pull of gravity. It wasn’t the stilettos but the come-hither look in her eye that woke him right up. “Is this a prank, Grace? You know it’s one in the morning, right?”

“You used to be a night owl,” she said, with a hopeful little smile.

He looked her up and down, swallowing hard at the sexual tug between them. “It’s not raining…” His gaze fell to her red painted lips, then lower to the curves that had always driven him crazy. “Are you naked under that coat?”

“Nearly,” she said, peeling back the bottom edge of her coat, to flash him one leg, hugged by the lace band of her thigh-high stockings. The sight of sexy lingerie made him instantly hard.

“If you don’t let me in,” she said, “I’m going to lose my nerve…”

For a second, he felt like a kid at a candy shop, almost giddy to unwrap her. Then, mastering the steady throb of arousal in his groin, he leaned in close. “I can’t let you in unless we get something straight.” Ethan held onto the doorknob, hovering over her. “You need to know that if I let you in, I’m going to screw your brains out all night long. You’re not leaving until the sun’s up and you’re too sore to walk straight.”

Her eyes widened as if no one had ever talked to her that way. Lust and embarrassment warred in her expression and he worried that he’d overplayed it. But all at once, her gaze melted like hot molten chocolate. “Got it.”

He stood aside and she swept past him, sashaying those hips of hers in a way that made his heart hammer in his chest. Once inside, she stood in the middle of the room and started to undo her coat. Like a little vixen, she teased him with every button until the last one.

That’s when he noticed a tremor in her hand. She was nervous. This had been a big risk for her, he knew. And now she was looking at him like a kid in school who wanted to earn a big gold star. He wanted to give her that, and then some.

He grinned.

She opened her coat.

And it almost gave him a heart attack.

Damn
. In nothing but thigh-high stockings, a pair of black lace panties, and a matching bra, her body was a curvaceous playground of possibility. He wanted to oil her up and slip and slide down all those heart-stopping arches and bends.

He didn’t realize how long he’d been staring until her dark elfish brows pulled together in worry. “I couldn’t think of what kind of underwear went with April Fool’s Day.”

He laughed. “Get over here.”

Two seconds later, she was in his arms and the trench coat was down around her ankles. He kissed her hard, smearing her lipstick, forcing her to whimper.
Oh
, he liked that. She’d been brave and sexy and he planned to reward her for it, if only he could keep control of himself, and that wasn’t going to be easy if he let her touch him.

His pants did next to nothing to dull the sensation of her fingertips over his swollen cock. Then she unzipped him and palmed his throbbing erection in her bare hand. His mouth went dry. Another moment and he would embarrass himself. He had to distract her.

One glance at the piano and he finally thought of a use for the damned thing. Hoisting Grace in his arms, he laid her down on it. She tried to sit up, but he forced her to sprawl over the shiny black top, caressing her breasts with one hand while hitching her thigh up over his shoulder with the other.

“Oh God,” she whispered when he lowered his head between her thighs.

It was the wet spot in the crotch of her panties that nearly made him lose his mind. Tangible proof of how turned on she was and just how much she wanted him. He closed his mouth over the fabric, sucking her sex through the cloth, knowing that the extra friction would make her crazy.

“Ethan!” she cried out, then tangled her fingers in his hair.

He liked the way she tasted. He liked the smooth, downy skin of her thighs against the rough stubble of his cheek. Liked even more the way her mound quivered against his mouth when he yanked her panties down and begin licking her in earnest. He wanted to make her come hard and fast because once he was inside her, he wasn’t sure he could think about anyone else’s pleasure but his own. He used his tongue to torture her until she was nearly struggling to get away, her damp skin sliding on the piano top. But then he found just the right spot and her thighs clamped around his ears.