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CHAPTER 24
“Are you sure aboutthis?” Madeline asked nervously from the passenger seat as I pulled my car into the parking lot of my campaign office. She was dressed in a professional looking skirt and white blouse. She was also wearing a pair of damn stockings that had been driving me nuts ever since she had gotten in the car earlier.
“Yeah, I am. I want to keep you close, and it just so happens that I need someone new to dress me.” Mortie had fired Mina when we were in Los Angeles. She had started to become possessive over me, which culminated in her screaming at a poor intern who was correcting the makeup that she’d done. It had looked strange on camera and the intern was only trying to help, but Mina had yelled at the poor girl until she ran from the room crying. Mortie had, as he put it, ‘nipped that shit in the bud.’ The timing had worked out perfectly to have Madeline step into the role. I was not-so-secretly pleased about it. I would get to see Madeline everyday now, and Rio had made me promise to bring her into the shop before we left so that he could also see her. Rio was incredibly jealous, but he’d softened a bit this morning when we got there early enough to eat breakfast with him before we got on the road.
Getting out of the car, I hurried around to her door and opened it for her, holding my hand out for her to take. Instead, she handed me my briefcase and got out of the car on her own.
Seeing my frown she just grinned up at me. “No hand-holding at the office, sorry boss.” She teased and led the way towards the door.
“I’m not the boss,technicallyMortie is the boss.” I said, arguing my case as we passed by curious campaign volunteers.
“Uh-uh.” Madeline replied firmly as we made it into the back where Mortie was already waiting for us. The older man took one look at Madeline and turned on the charm that only a man over sixty-five could muster.
“Is this gorgeous creature the Madeline I’ve been hearing so much about? Darling, you are far too good for this idiot, please marry me and we can run away together.” Mortie brought one of Madeline’s hands to his lips, and I gritted my teeth as she giggled at the old alpha’s overtures.
“Mortie, can you not flirt with my girlfriend? She’s very taken.” I grumbled, extracting Madeline’s hand from Mortie’s, glaring at the older man. “What’s on the schedule for today.” I asked, more to distract the old man from my beautiful girlfriend than anything.
Mortie briefly pouted before snagging his planner off of his desk and beginning to rattle off my schedule. “We’ve got two on-screen interviews. Also, Ivan Bennington has finally agreed to do a sit down face-to-face with you on USNN...but only if we do it today.”
I ground my teeth with frustration. I had been trying to have some kind of one-on-one debate with Ivan Bennington, who had been running his mouth about my incapability to lead because I was young. It had only gotten worse after I gave the interview stating that I believed that the academy system needs to be abolished and replaced with an omega center system instead. He had been appearing on any news station that he could and saying that I was a crazy, idealistic politician who was going to ruin California with my policies, but he had also consistently dodged my requests for a one-on-one on air. Which told me that he was afraid.
“Well, I guess I’ll need to get prepared then. Mortie, can you get Madeline acquainted with everything while I get myself together?”
I pressed a feather light kiss to her cheek, my brain already full of how I was going to show the world thatIwas the better candidate to pick come June. Not Ivan Bennington.
“Let me just straightenyour tie.” Madeline said as she put her makeup brush down on the table. She had been doing one last touch up on my face before we went live for my one-on-one with Ivan Bennington. Charlie Coolidge, one of USNN’s most popular hosts, was sitting at the head of our table and Bennington sat across from me. Both were also getting similar treatments from assistants.
Madeline’s fingers fiddled with my tie, making sure that it was straight, and I thanked her with a smile, wishing that I could slide my fingers along her soft jaw and press a kiss to her plump lips. But she had been very firm about keeping boundaries, and I would do anything to make her happy.
“You’re new,” Bennington’s voice came from behind Madeline. “What's your name Sugar?”
Irritation flashed in Madeline’s eyes, but she put a professional smile on her face and turned to face my opponent. Ivan Bennington was twenty years older than I was, and had started to bald. He had been working in the California state legislature for almost thirty years, and had run for governor seven times, and had failed every time. This election would probably be his last shot at the Governor’s seat, which meant that he was going to come at me guns blazing.
“Madeline, sir.” She replied with a dead-eyed smile before turning to fiddle with my tie some more, her fingers raising goosebumps on my skin as she fussed over me.
“Man, Carter. You sure do hire the prettiest employees. Sweetheart, you are a sight for sore eyes. ” Bennington obviously wasn’t going to catch the hint that we didn’t want to talk to him. Irritation filled my gut, and it must have flashed across my face because Madeline leaned in close like she was checking my makeup. “Calm down, he’s just egging you on.” She whispered close to my ear as her sugared-cherry scent wrapped around me.
“I can’t help it,” I whispered back. I hated anyone being treated like they were a piece of meat, especially when that person was my girlfriend. “How do you do it? How do you keep a smile on your face despite the fact that someone is making you angry?” I had watched Madeline smile in some of the roughest situations imaginable, but my biggest struggle as a politician was my poker face. My angry expressions had been famous on Capitol Hill, and many of my colleagues had joked that I wore my emotions on my sleeve.
Madeline patted at my skin with a makeup sponge. “Imagine that you are an actor in a movie and your director has told you to smile no matter what or else you won’t get paid for the day,” she whispered, her brown eyes sparkling as she finished my makeup off.
“Also, try to take things in seven-minute increments. You can handle anything for seven minutes.”
“Two minutes until showtime!” A producer called from somewhere in the set and Madeline brushed some powder off of my shoulder.
“One last thing,” Madeline said as she collected her supplies. “For a person who doesn’t like you, and who is going to come at you with a lot of aggression like Bennington will? The worst thing you can do to them is to smile. Smile like nothing that they say will phase you—and that will do more for you than any smart response or verbal takedown ever will.”
A devilish grin briefly filled Madeline’s face before it melted back into her professional facade. I wanted nothing more than to grab her face and bring her in for a kiss, people be damned, but the producer called sixty seconds to showtime. The kiss would have to wait until later.
“Go get em’ tiger.” She said before hurrying off into the darkness behind the bright studio lights.
The main producer called for all quiet on the set, and I turned to face Bennington. He looked smug and I wanted nothing more than to wipe that arrogant expression from his face.You can do anything for seven minutes, I mentally reminded myself as I plastered a smile on my face, squared my shoulders, and faced Ivan Bennington head on.
“We’re going live in three...two...one....”
It was showtime.
