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“No, they’re all good things,” Jamie reassured her. “At least, I think they’re all good things. I just need a scheduled time and place to discuss them with you.”
Freddie Barratt ground to a halt and faced him, placing a cold hand on either side of his face. “You would tell me if there was anything I needed to be concerned about, wouldn’t you?”
Jamie nodded. He knew her mind was flooded with all the worst thoughts—if he was still having nightmares, if he was coping outside of the hospital and without medication, if Pierce had affected him more than Jamie had let on.
“You don’t need to worry about anything,” he replied with a smile. “It’s just future stuff.”
“Oh, future stuff!”
“I know,” he said, linking his mother’s arm back through his as they kept walking. “I’m turning into this serious grownup these days!”
“Not too serious, I hope?”
“You know me,” he murmured. “I never could take life too seriously…”
* * * *
Jamie looked incredibly gorgeous in that suit. Chris watched him from the outskirts of the room and was once again struck by his beauty. Not just his physical beauty, of course, but the way his eyes lit up when he saw a friend that he’d not been around for a while, or when a couple of his old unit turned up. He hugged everybody, not just a small, half-assed affair, but proper bone-crushing hugs with his arms wrapped fully around them. He looked genuinely amazed and delighted by everyone who showed up, and best of all, he didn’t make out with anybody.
This was also the first time Chris had ever seen the president look so casual and relaxed, standing to the side and chatting with Aunt Helen whilst keeping an eye on Jamie. She seemed nice, when she wasn’t being the world’s most powerful woman.
Natalie had ordered in lunch from a nearby deli earlier that day and, to his complete surprise, Chris had been invited to sit with them while they ate. He remembered what Natalie had said earlier that morning about her practically being one of the family these days. Nat had just slid into a chair at the table and helped herself to potato salad and ham without even blinking, PDA in one hand and fork in the other.
Jamie had smiled at him as the president had politely questioned him about growing up in Brooklyn and his time in the army and how he was finding the Secret Service. It was all very amiable, and for a few minutes, Chris forgot that this wasn’t just a regular family lunch with his new boyfriend’s mother.
It was evident that Jamie was his mother’s world. Chris couldn’t imagine the torment that the woman must have gone through when her son had been kidnapped by the Taliban, what an impossible decision it had to have been to leave him at their mercy for the sake of the rest of the world. Chris didn’t know if he would have had the strength to wait three months for military intelligence to find out where he was being held, then send in an elite rescue squad. Chris probably would have tried storming the place single-handedly to get Jamie back.
Now, champagne was flowing freely, and Chris could only catch the odd glimpse of Jamie amidst the throng of people. He was laughing, listening to jokes and stories, and possibly drinking the champagne slightly too fast. Chris couldn’t focus on anything else but Jamie’s face until Natalie appeared at his side.
“Something is not quite right here,” she murmured.
“What do you mean?” Chris replied with a frown.
“This party is too sedate.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
Natalie scowled. “It’s not normal,” she said before stalking off.
Chris shrugged and shook his head. Natalie had said that it wasn’t a Barratt party unless it turned into a riotous orgy, and it didn’t look like it was going to head that way at all. He turned to face the room again and his stomach immediately turned to butterflies as his eyes met Jamie’s. His breath caught in his throat and a grin spread over his face and Jamie smiled at him, then gave a small incline of his head before turning. Chris strode through the crowd to follow him, catching up as Jamie meandered through the people and out of the private function room, into the quiet corridor. His hand stretched back, fingers lightly brushing against Chris’s for just a second as he headed for one of the bathrooms. Chris felt like a jolt of electricity had just shot through him and he looked about, making sure the corridor was empty before following Jamie inside, closing the door and locking it.
The lighting in the private bathroom was soft and apricot-tinted, everything inside maple and cream and dark plum from the carpet to the sink to the plush armchair in the corner. Only expensive club bathrooms were like this—perfectly private and decked out like a tiny hotel suite.
Jamie was standing in the middle of the sumptuous purple carpet, hands in his pockets and giving Chris that smile that he loved so much slightly blurred with alcohol consumption.
“Hi,” Jamie murmured.
“Hi,” Chris replied.
And then he was across the room, just a few steps, sweeping Jamie up in his arms and kissing him like they hadn’t seen each other for a year. Jamie made the sweetest noise against his mouth, hands trying desperately to find a place on Chris’s body to rest that wasn’t in his hair. They finally found their way to the lapels of Chris’s jacket, gently smoothing them between his thumb and forefinger as he kissed Chris back deeply, his tongue pressing against Chris’s.
Eventually, Jamie groaned and pulled away. “God, I’ve been wanting to do that all day.”
Chris smiled and rubbed Jamie’s upper arms. “Yeah, me too.”
“This is definitely harder than I thought it was going to be.”
“Well, we’ve almost made it through the first day,” Chris murmured. His lips were still tingling from Jamie’s kiss. “Only, what? Forty-eight more hours to go?”
