The Candidate's Wife (3 page)

Julia frowned, confused. "But where will you find --"

She broke off. Her eyes widened as Phil's words sunk in. Their meaning hit her like a bolt of
lightning
from a clear blue sky. Her heart thudded against her ribs, and the roar of blood in her ears threatened to deafen her. "Oh, no," she said. "Oh, no. You're not serious, are you?"

She twisted around in her chair, her mouth slightly ajar with shock and horror, to catch Adam's stormy, rebellious expression and the glint of resignation in his eyes. He nodded. A muscle twitched again in one of his hard, angular, perfectly tanned cheeks. When he spoke, his words dripped with irony.

"Will you marry me, Julia?"

An hour later, alone with Adam, Julia understood why the senator's friends -- and his enemies -- claimed he could sell ice to polar bears. He was smooth as silk and incredibly persuasive, with an answer for everything. Julia soon found herself running out of new objections, so she repeated the old ones.

"It won't work," she said, for the third time, as she folded her arms over her chest. "Everyone will know we've just met."

Adam gave her the slightly condescending smile that made her feel like a 6-year-old. "You won't have to lie, Julia. We'll say we're keeping the details of our courtship private. Phil will get someone to spread a rumor that we've been seeing each other secretly for months. He could even invent a romantic setting for the proposal." Adam glanced around at the office. "Something more appealing than this, I hope. Wine, roses, candlelight. . . ." As he trailed off, his voice grew softer, more seductive. Despite her better judgment, a tendril of distinctly sexual heat uncurled in Julia's abdomen.

Adam pressed his advantage. "Think about it. We'll make a great team. There's plenty in this deal for you, too." He gave Julia a slow, sexy grin that made her pulse race. For the first time, she noticed the deep dimple in his right cheek, something she'd only seen in the photos. "If I win, you'll have more access to the governor than anybody in the world. You'll get the best political job in the state -- maybe, one day, in the nation."

Julia shook her head and forced herself to think clearly. There were at least a thousand things wrong with Adam's proposition. She wasn't sure why she was even willing to consider it, especially since she had long ago decided she would never marry again. "What if someone finds out that we've made a -- a marriage of convenience?" she challenged him. Even as she said it, Julia blushed. The phrase sounded so nineteenth century. "If the media found out, it would sink the campaign." This possibility was actually the least of her problems with the idea, but she wasn't sure how to voice her other objections. The effect that a sham marriage would have on her son headed her concerns.

"No one will find out. Unless, of course, you tell them." Adam stood and peeled off his jacket, draped it casually over the back of his chair, and rolled up the sleeves of his crisp white shirt. Thick, pale hair covered his sinewy forearms. "If you agree to this, Julia, you can't let anyone in on our secret, not even your family and friends. It stays between the two of us. And Phil, of course. " His eyes narrowed and grew suddenly cool and calculating. His glacial gaze seemed to pierce her very soul. She felt as though he were taking her measure, deciding whether to trust her or not.

"I wouldn't tell anyone," she murmured.

He nodded, apparently satisfied. "Any other issues?"

Julia hesitated. She glanced at Adam again, and this time she was the one making a judgment. Adam's hard expression spoke of a man who would do anything to win this election. Years of hero worship had just come face to face with reality, and Julia couldn't help feeling somewhat disillusioned. Adam struck her as an attractive and charming man, but she also sensed a rigidity in him -- as well as a powerful, heedless drive -- that didn't jibe with the image she'd built up in her mind. She should have expected it in someone who'd risen so far so fast, yet she had hoped to find a man with more idealism and less ruthless ambition.

She frowned and rubbed the back of her neck, which ached with tension and fatigue. Her mind hosted a jumble of thoughts and emotions, a swirling mass of feelings she needed to sort out. She blurted the first words that came into her head. "What if you meet someone else you want to marry?"

Adam's jaw tensed. "It's never happened. It seems unlikely that it ever will." He paused, and he seemed to measure Julia with insolent, calculating eyes. "What about you? Are you involved with someone?"

Julia simply shook her head. After Frank's desertion, she'd decided she would never subject herself to that kind of pain again. She'd barely even dated during the past ten years. In that respect, an arrangement with Adam did seem to have its advantages, but her mind still recoiled from the notion. "Doesn't the institution of marriage mean something to you? To enter into it so coldly, without love -- it doesn't seem right --"

Adam cut her off an impatient gesture. "Look, my parents were supposedly in love when they got married, for all the good it did them. Within a couple of years they couldn't stand the sight of each other. My father lived here in the city and went through more mistresses than I can count on my fingers. My mother buried herself on the ranch, where she devoted herself to her Thoroughbreds and pretended everything was all right." He twisted his mouth into a grimace. "We can hardly do worse, can we?"

"I suppose that's true." Confusion clouded Julia's mind. She shook her head as if the movement could clear out the cobwebs. Adam made it all sound so logical. If his reasoning had flaws, she couldn't find them.

"What about your son's father, Julia? I'll bet you loved him when you first married him. And then things changed, didn't they?"

Julia nodded reluctantly as the question hit home. Her throat constricted as bitter memories flooded back. Adam watched her with quiet sympathy, but Julia also detected a hint of triumph in his expression. "So?" he said. "Will you do it?"

"I -- I don't know. I just don't know. I need time to think."

"Julia, Julia. . . ." Adam reached across his desk and gently took her hand in both of his. His touch ignited a flame of desire deep within her. His eyes met hers with an intensity that made her feel like the only person in the world. He had gold eyelashes, too, she thought dizzily. Dark gold. Tarnished gold.

"We don't have much time left," Adam said softly. "It's now or never."

He paused, his hands still wrapped around hers. Julia couldn't bring herself to pull away. His thumbs massaged her palms in a seemingly unconscious rhythm that sent purely physical pleasure skittering through her body. His eyes locked onto hers. "If you won't do it for me, or for yourself, think of your son. He'll have every advantage you can imagine. Best of all, he'll have his mother again, full time. Can you tell me you don't want that?"

Adam's promise hit its target with explosive force. Her separation from Danny was one of the most difficult things Julia had ever endured. After her nightly phone call to her son, she usually needed to blow her nose and wipe the tears from her cheeks. At odd moments in the office, she found herself worrying about whether he had forgotten his coat again or failed another spelling test or fallen off his mountain bike on the way down the hill on the way home from school. What would she do for the chance to watch her son grow up and while she pursued her career at the same time? Would she marry a virtual stranger?

Apparently sensing victory, Adam shot her a winning smile. He squeezed her fingers, his palms warm against her skin. "Hell, sweetheart, I don't like this any more than you do. It's just that I'm in a tight corner here. So how's this for a deal? Stick with me for one month, until after the election. Play the blushing bride in public. Once November 4th rolls around, we'll have a little talk and decide how to handle the relationship. When I'm governor, we can always decide to live separate lives. I'll set you up with your own apartment, if you like. Of course, we'll have to be discreet about it, but there'll be no reason we have to spend time together, except when the press is around."

Julia found herself drawn in by Adam's pleading gaze. He had the most extraordinary eyes. As she stared at him, she realized that they had undergone a sea change, transformed from a flinty golden brown to a clear, guileless greenish gold. "Please, Julia," he said, his voice low, husky, intimate. "I need you. You're the only one who can help me."

Reason told her that Adam's plea could hardly be genuine. Adam was an accomplished politician, and obviously a consummate actor. He knew exactly what arguments to use, which buttons to push. Still, he stirred something deep inside her. His words touched some fierce, primal urge, and she felt helpless to deny him. She sat speechless as Adam gave her the sexy grin that made her senses spin.

"Come on, sweetheart," he said, his smoky voice tinged with laughter. "The tabloids claim I'm the state's most eligible bachelor. If that's true, you shouldn't make me beg for your hand in marriage. You ought to leap at the chance." He chuckled and brought his face closer to hers. "So, Julia," he said, his warm breath like a caress on her cheek, "what'll it be?"

Julia realized she'd been holding her breath. She could smell the musk of Adam's aftershave, something expensive and tantalizing, mixed with Adam's own thrillingly masculine scent. Trapped by the brilliance of his gaze, she could think of only one answer. A rush of fear and exhilaration mingled in her veins. It was a crazy thing to do, impulsive and utterly unlike her, but she suddenly didn't care.

"Yes," she whispered. "Yes," she repeated, more firmly. "I'll marry you, Adam. I will."

"Honey, I don't understand," Julia's mother said, for the third time. "This is all just so very sudden."

Julia sighed. She'd spent the last hour on the phone, trying to explain about the wedding without breaking her promise to Adam. "Mom, I know it's confusing," she said. "I'm confused, too." In Adam's office, alone with the charismatic senator, the marriage had made a sort of sense. Now, though, it suddenly seemed absurd. "I wish I could tell you more but I can't. Please believe that I'm doing what I think is best for everyone."

"All right, dear." Maureen Moore hesitated. "You do want me and the boys at your wedding, don't you?"

"Of course I do." It wouldn't be easy to play the blushing bride in front of her mother and brothers, but she could hardly exclude them. Besides, Adam would want them there for the sake of appearances. "Adam and I will come down to Cypress Point on Saturday, the day before the wedding, to say hello and pick up Danny. Could you pack up some of his things?"

"Of course. Oh, Julia. . . . I only wish your father were here to share this news."

Tears clogged Julia's throat. Since her father's fatal stroke a year and a half ago, she had missed him terribly. "I know, Mom," she said.

As she continued to speak to her mother, Julia forced back more tears. She was suddenly so homesick she could barely breathe. The house would probably smell like her mother's Irish-style soup, a creamy blend of leeks, celery, and savory chicken. Her mouth watered at the memory. Her own shabby studio reeked of the frozen burrito she'd microwaved for dinner, and it felt sadly empty -- empty without the sound of her son's laughter, the blare of the TV, and the plaintive meow of the Moore family cat.

Finally, her mother sighed and said, "Well, I'd better let you get to bed, honey. Take care of yourself, now, and call me if you want to talk."

"I will," Julia promised. "Is Danny still up? I'd like to say goodnight."

Fifteen minutes later, after she hung up the phone, Julia lay back on her sagging futon and let out another deep, unhappy sigh. Events were moving faster than she'd bargained for.

In five short days, she was supposed to marry a man she barely knew.

Earlier that night, after she had agreed to the marriage, she'd spent more than an hour with Phil and Adam, working out the fine details. After the wedding, they had agreed, Julia and Danny would move into Adam's luxurious downtown apartment. That fact worried Julia most of all. She couldn't imagine actually living with Adam, though of course he would provide her and her son with their own rooms. Sharing a bed was not in any way part of the deal - Adam had made that perfectly clear, to Julia's relief.

She certainly wouldn't mind leaving her cramped studio, the best she could afford while still contributing to Danny's expenses and her father's final medical bills, not to mention paying off her staggeringly large student loans.

But she wasn't marrying Adam for his money. She had agreed to his outrageous plan because -- because -- well, why had she agreed? Adam was charming, articulate, and dynamic. She admired his principles and his political accomplishments. "You idiot," Julia scolded herself. In the silent room, her voice echoed off the peeling pink walls. "Those are good reasons to vote for the guy, not marry him."

Julia pulled her comforter up around her ears and buried her face in her pillow. In her heart, she knew the truth. Somehow, as she had watched Adam's career from afar, she'd developed a schoolgirl crush. That ridiculous crush, combined with Adam's flattery and his plea for help, had prompted her to impulsively accept his offer. Now she wished she hadn't, but the damage was done. Adam had already set the gears in motion. Julia couldn't change her mind, not without damaging the campaign and breaking her word.