Scandalous: The Senator's Secret Bride (14 page)

“Okay then,” I said, my body growing tight and buzzing with anxiety. The clerk recorder stood.

“Should we stand?” John asked, looking around.
 

“Why not? Everyone, please stand,” said the clerk, a small man in his mid fifties. He didn’t look too amused to be at John’s office on a Saturday morning. “We don’t have an officiant, so I’ll do our basic thing, and you folks can sign the marriage certificate. The judge and I will sign off on it, making it official. And it will be entered at the recorder’s office in Alexandria as soon as Barbara and I leave here.” He gestured to the judge. “Kelly will accompany us. She’ll make sure everything is on the up and up.”

“Miss Mills, if you’ll go stand next to Mr. Reynolds.” I gulped and walked over behind John’s desk, then hit my leg on the sharp wooden corner.
 

“Crap,” I said, massaging my thigh.
 

“You okay?” He leaned in and patted me awkwardly on the arm. I almost jumped at his touch. It seemed like the distant past when I spent the night with him in his hotel room, his body hot against mine.
 

“Fine,” I said. The clerk cleared his throat.
 

“Barbara?” The clerk looked over to the judge, who was actually wearing her leggings.

“Oh yes,” said the judge. “We’ll just get on with it. First, we’re going to have you both verbally agree to the marriage.” I nodded, and John reached over and squeezed my hand.
 

“Do you, John Gregory Reynolds, agree to marry this woman, Sonia Elizabeth Mills?” My mouth fell open, and I quickly closed it, looking over to John.
 

“I do,” he said. The judge looked over to me.
 

“Do you, Sonia Elizabeth Mills, agree to marry this man, John Gregory Reynolds?”

“I do.” John reached over and took my hand in his, gripping it tight. A feeling of warmth, a tiny bit of relief spread through me. I focused my attention on his touch, on the small bit of security he gave me. Kelly looked at me and then to John.

“You all want to exchange rings?” John looked over at me and frowned. I pursed my lips. We hadn’t even thought about rings. My heart thudded hard, my head spinning again. I gripped onto the desk, my eyes locked on the certificate. Were we really doing this? And we didn’t have rings?
 

“No rings, yet.” John held onto my hand and turned to me. “I’m sorry. We can get rings if you want—”

“Hold on a minute—everyone, please.” I started panting hard, my heart pounding like I couldn’t breathe. I closed my eyes and focused on John again. I thought about what he stood for, the core of goodness, his strategic brilliance. This country
needed
him. And he needed
me
too, wanted me safe. “I’m okay. I’m okay. No rings—that’s fine.”
 

“Well, great,” the judge said. “Let’s get y’all to sign this marriage certificate, and we’ll be all wrapped up.” John grabbed a pen from his desk, and the clerk slid the marriage certificate over. John leaned over and signed it, and then handed me the pen. I tapped it in the desk and found the space to sign my name, scribbling in my signature before I lost my nerve. The paper seemed so flimsy, so unofficial, as I handed it back to the clerk.
 

“Miss Hernandez,” said the clerk, “Will you sign as witness?” Kelly nodded and signed the marriage certificate before handing it back to the clerk.
 

“Alright people, once I sign this, it’s all done. Any objections?” He looked between me and John. Both of us stayed silent, and John shook his head. The four of us watched as the clerk recorder signed.
 

“Okay Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds, congratulations,” Barbara said, picking up her bag and taking the paper from the clerk. She slipped it in her briefcase. “Kelly, let’s get this done. My kids are home from boarding school, and I need to get back home right quick.”
 

“Greg,” Kelly said, looking over at the Senator Hopeful, “Get Sonia home. She shouldn’t be walking back and forth to the metro by herself.”

“I can handle it,” I said, still gripping John’s hand. The judge raised an eyebrow at us, glancing back before she walked out. She shrugged and walked down the hall, her sneakers squeaking on the hardwood floor.

We watched as the Kelly left the room, following the clerk and the judge. John held my hand tight, and I squeezed him back. His presence calmed me, centered me.
 

“I’m sorry I’ve been—”

“Out of touch” I turned to look at him. “I was starting to wonder what was going on… if you had decided you hated me or something. Even though I guess you remembered to tell me to take my vitamins.” I cuffed him on the arm. “You make me feel like I’m in high school, lusting over the damn quarterback.”

“I don’t hate you, Sonia. I could never hate you. And I was more of a class president sort of guy, not the quarterback.” I laughed, and he pulled me into his arms and gave me a lingering kiss. The world faded out until all that I could feel was his strength; all that I could taste was his desire. I pulled away.

“You ask me to marry you, and then you’re just gone for days at a time.
 
I just don’t know about any of this.”

“I don’t know either, Sonia. But after the election, I’ll be able to see you. But seeing you always reminds me of that very first night I met you. You were glowing, brilliant. I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. I know this isn’t how things are supposed to go—”

“No, it’s not how things are supposed to go. In a million years, I never would have imagined this for myself. It isn’t what I wanted—pregnancy, getting married in the dark, hoping no one was peeking through the windows. Kelly’s probably on the phone with Janice right now, telling her what we’ve done. And what? We’re going to rely on some flimsy plan to be
married
if the pictures come out?” John smiled, that cockeyed grin he’d worn when I first met him.

“Well, when you put it that way...” I punched him in the arm.
 

“John, seriously. I can’t believe I even agreed to this.” My stomach dropped, the image of that marriage certificate popping into my head. “What happens after all of this?”

“I don’t know.” He sighed and held me close. “We could be something beautiful, Sonia. I know it.”

“Why didn’t you ask me on a date, John? Why wasn’t I the one standing up with you at your speech? Are you ashamed to be with someone so much younger—someone of a different race?”
 

“No. I’d be proud to be with you. You’re gorgeous, far more intelligent than I am. And you’re the best at your job. We just don’t need people prying into our personal lives quite yet. We’ll go public after the election, if we still want that.” He kissed me on the forehead, and I leaned into his shirt, breathing the faint hint of cologne. “Besides, I didn’t think you wanted to be my girlfriend. Not just yet, anyway. We barely talked about it until Monday. You made it clear you wanted the job. ‘No funny business,’ remember?”

“Yes.” I paused. “Maybe I didn’t know what I wanted. But you—aren’t you sorry we ever met?” He brought his hand to my cheek and touched me, brushing his knuckles over my skin. I thought he might kiss me, but instead, he took my arm and brought me in close.
 

“I’m sorry for how everything has shaken out,” he said. “But I’ll never be sorry I met you. Never.”
 

Hand in hand, we walked out to his car, a couple for the time being.
 

John walked me out to his car, his hand on the small of my back. I slipped in beside him, the smooth leather seats of the Jaguar warm from the morning sun.
 

“I love this time of day,” he said.

“Me too. Seems like everything is new and fresh. Like nothing could go wrong.”

“As long as Janice has those photos, anything could go wrong. I almost don’t think Kelly should inform her about the marriage, but she’s confident that it’ll throw Janice for enough of a loop that she won’t release the pictures today.”

“So we’re completely safe?” John looked at me and smiled, reaching out to take my hand. He backed his car out of the narrow driveway, rolling it smoothly onto King street and heading for the highway.
 

“Something like that. Do you need anything to eat? Or I could… stay with you? Today, I mean. I don’t have anything planned, for once. And for the next three weeks, we won’t see much of each other. We won’t even have time to process the marriage. Or the pregnancy.” A chill ran through me at the thought of the life inside of me, the little heartbeat that could ruin us both if Janice found out.
 

“Oh? The marriage and the pregnancy thing. Simple stuff, really.” I shifted in my seat and leaned my head against the window.
 

“Yeah, all that. I haven’t had time to tell you how I feel—”

“I’m sure we’ll figure it out when the time comes.”

“When is that time, Sonia?” His words were piercing, but his tone comforting and soft. “After the election? When the baby comes?”
The baby.
The word sent a shock through me, visceral and biting.
 

“When’s the best time for talking about whether to keep a child?” Iciness crept into my voice, my throat growing raw and tight. “An unexpected child?”

“Unexpected? Yes. Bu it’s not unwanted, not by me. We could make this work. I could do the right thing.” He smiled, one side of his mouth raising slightly higher than the other.

“And just how? Visit us on the weekends? Take me on a date with our infant after you win the election and have a million sets of eyes on you? Have you thought about that? I swear, I have no idea how impulsive people ever get into politics.” He pulled up to the curb in front of my apartment complex, his black Jaguar very out of place in front of the modest apartments and old row houses of Columbia Heights.

“Can I come in?” He looked at me, this blue eyes sparkling.
 

“Yeah, I think I’d like that. As uncertain as we are, it feels good to have you close to me.” I paused. “I just can’t take that anger again. When I told you I might not keep the baby in the hospital, you left, and it made me feel… miserable. I just want everything to be okay, just this once.”

“Everything
is
okay, or it will be. I swear it. And we’ll find a time where we won’t be uncertain. When I saw you this morning, I knew it.” He sighed. “And for the record, I was never angry at you. More like… scared. I still am. I can’t tell you what to do with our… with
the
child. With the pregnancy. With anything. I steered clear of you so that you would have time to think. And now that I have you with me, I can’t imagine spending the day without you, by myself. I’d be thinking of you the whole time.” The world outside of us seemed to still for a moment, and for once, his words made sense. Everything
was
okay for the time being. He’d said the wedding would protect us, so it would. It
would
. And John was here next to me, the top button of his collar undone, his hair a tousled, sexy mess. Liquid heat poured through me, a maddening, awful desire taking me over.

“I didn’t take you for much of a romantic.”

“I am. When I was with you in that hospital, holding your hand… For a moment, it was like I had everything. That’s why I was cold. That’s why there were words left unsaid. And I regret it.”

“Come on in, then. But I worry…”

“I don’t think you have to worry about spending the day together.”

“You don’t think either of us could ruin anything in a day? You might have too much faith in us.”

“I might. But I do have that. When I close my eyes and think about you, everything feels calm for just a moment. Don’t you feel that same way?” I looked at him, those cool blue eyes resting on mine, sparkling with warmth.

“Maybe I do.”

“I’ll take a maybe.” He laughed and put the car into first gear, rolling around to my parking garage.
 

“Staying for the day? Maybe the night?”
 

“I’m going to walk my wife over to her apartment. And then I’m going inside. We’ll take the rest of it from there.” John pulled the car into one of the visitor spaces and turned the key, shutting off the rumbling hum of the Jaguar. He got out and walked to the passenger’s side, opening my door. I sighed and looked up at him.

“Like a date? A sleepover? God, we’re doing everything all backwards.”

“How about we call it a honeymoon?” John took my arm and put his hand in mine, hoisting me up from the low seat of the Jaguar. We walked—hand in hand—back to my apartment.

***

I threw my purse down and sank down onto the sofa. John walked in, clearly at ease. How could he be so
damned
romantic that I nearly melted? I kicked off my shoes and pulled my feet under me. John walked through the tiny studio apartment and grabbed a sparkling water from the fridge.
 

“Immaculate. My mess would drive you insane.” He looked around at the apartment, everything in its place. Just like I’d always liked it.

“You already drive me insane, John. I can list nine things I don’t like about you right this instant. Impulsive, reckless, mercurial… I’ll add messy to the list. You know, these are things we probably should have found out before we got married.” I smiled.

“Mercurial? Whipping out the SAT vocabulary already?”
 

“I suppose.”
 

“I bet I could list
ten
things I do like about you, Sonia. I’ve seen how you work. You’re ambitious, determined, methodical. You’ve kept me going.” John sat next to me on the sofa, taking my hand again and tracing his finger over my palm. A wave of need hit me hard, sparks flying through me as he looked into my eyes.
 

“John, I can’t tell what I want anymore. I
married
you today. But it wasn’t like it was meant to be. Like it should be.”

“I just want to be with you. That’s all I want.” John kissed my lips and brought his hands to my body, holding me by the waist. I shivered at his touch—it seemed so long ago and so far away that we’d agreed to all of this. I wondered if my life would ever be the same again. Gently, he lifted my shirt until it came free of the waistband.