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“By my side, Nik. What the fuck,” he swears, exasperated. The anger is back, and everything in me is like,Get the hell gone.
“Alright, then why is Natalie back?” I take my drink, leaving him in the kitchen. I sit back in the spot I lounged in earlier, rolling the highball glass between my hands. Part of me doesn’t think I have the right to demand answers from him because of my deception. Yet another stronger part of me says I damn well better.
He makes quick work of cleaning the area we made the drinks in, then comes over and sits beside me, the silver gray of his gaze unwavering. “LL brought her back because she is the best fixer in the business. Olivia Pope ain’t got nothing on Natalie Spencer when it comes to cleaning up messes. She may have lost herself for a few days, but she’s back swinging in full force. She even wanted to reach out to you and apologize, though I didn’t feel comfortable with that. As campaign manager, LL made the decision to rehire her. He reminded me that because of our past association and the recent news dropping, though unsubstantiated, it wouldn’t look good to fire her at this time.”
Everything he says makes perfect sense. “I don’t accept her apology, and when the campaign wraps up, I want her gone. You can put in a good word for her in DC, but it ends there.” I take a sip of my drink to punctuate my demand.
He nods immediately. “I already told LL that.”
“Okay, well…” I was expecting to be in for a fight.
“Okay, well what?” He smirks my way.
“Umm…” I say, thinking of something quick to say but remember I promised not to lie to him ever again. I ask instead, “Did you like dinner? I can make you more.”
He looks at me hard, his mouth in a firm line. He takes my glass out of my hands. “Dinner was delicious. Thank you, little wife.” My pussy gets wet when he calls me that. He pushes me back on the sofa, sneaking his long fingers into the waistband of my tights, then pulls them down and off before dropping them to the floor.
“I’d rather eat you,” he whispers, settling between my legs.
My eyes roll back when he proceeds to do so. “Thi,” I moan.
ChapterTwenty-Four
Mathias
“Hola, como estas?”
I listen to my pretty little wife meet our future constituents, totally winning them over. She effortlessly chats and mingles with the crowd of people at the barbecue Mama-Pete, along with Angel’s construction and transportation company and Creative Chaos, put together on my behalf.
I knew Nikki spoke Spanish, but she does so effortlessly, with none of the stiltedness of nonnative speakers. Since I grew up on Shelby Sugar land, it was a must that I learn and become fluent early, not to mention both my parents spoke that along with Portuguese and English in our home. I feel so much pride watching as she engages with people with a genuineness Nat always seemed to lack. People can tell inauthenticity in seconds, so Nat always avoided them when we were a couple.
Today she’s here in her capacity as the assistant campaign manager. The bonds of our friendship unfortunately are broken. Choosing Nik wasn’t hard. She makes my heart beat. The hurt and anger I feel at her deception are still there and may even take counseling for us to get past, but there is one thing I know for sure—I don’t want to go the rest of my life without her in it.
Why haven’t you told her that?asks a sweet melodic voice unlike my own in the depths of my mind. The same one that told me the Sousa Vasconcelos family sapphire belonged to the woman I loved.
Touching Nik lightly on the waist, fulfilling my need to just touch her and keep her close, I still marvel at the success of this event. I can’t believe they pulled it off in the brief time they did, and it couldn’t have come a moment too soon. With such solid backers, I should be doing better than I am. There’s been a dramatic slip in the polls after the revelations of Nikki’s birth certificate and her possible underage relationship with me. Neither of us is naive enough to believe anyone will ever believe we were strictly platonic until we kissed that day in front of my gran’s house.
Together we form a formidable team mostly because nothing about our relationship seems forced. I realized this morning as we got ready to come to this event that I didn’t dread it. I want to see her in her element around people, being her effervescent, joyous self. All those admonishments I was getting when we first embarked on this endeavor were false. She’s not embarrassing me. She doesn’t need more poise or media training. People flock to her just based on who she is.
“Mrs. Shelby, can you show us some of your trapeze tricks?” asks a cheeky little boy.
“Tomas, I can’t right this minute because I’m in a dress, but I promise I will the next time.”
Still, he’s not having it. “You had on a dress that day you rescued the girl on the Ferris wheel.” He adds a little stomp for emphasis.
“That was an emergency, so I had to hurry and get to her quick. She maybe isn’t as brave as you and didn’t know how to sit still for a long time.”
Watching his little chest poke out at her praise, I know she’s won him over to her side of the argument.
After a few more pleasantries, I tell the people, “We’ll be around all day, but let me get my wife a plate of food, folks.”
They part, giving us a much-need moment to ourselves.
Tugging her along beside me, I look down to see those brown-as-molasses doe eyes staring up at me with a little trepidation. I can’t blame her. The last two days since we made love on the living room sofa have been a break from everything but each other. It’s like we are relearning each other again.
We’ve had nearly every meal on our back porch that leads out to land steeped in the history of both our families’ blood. We are their unlikely legacy, as strange as that may be. Nothing about us these past few weeks has been easy, and I’m not sure I want it to be. Because right now I know it was all worth it. I refused to let her go, and she’s agreed to stay. That’s as good a start as any.
Still I hold the words I should be saying to her away. Waiting for…not the right moment even but for another scandal to unfold.
