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I schooled my face into as innocent an expression as I could manage. “Well, it’s recently been brought to my attention that you have a penchant for redheads and were seen entering a hotel last week with one, which is very interesting considering your wife is a blonde.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “Then again, I don’t tend to listen to rumors unless they’re proven.”
His face paled as blood drained from it and beads of sweat began to form on his forehead. So our head of security had been correct. The senator was cheating on his wife.
I went in for the kill. “But I’m sure some of your constituents wouldn’t be as open-minded as me, were they to hear of such things. Given that you have an election coming up, I hate to think of how your campaign would be affected by such rumors.”
The senator looked as though he was going to be sick. “I…I…” He stumbled over his words and his eyes glazed over. “You’re right, of course. It was terribly wrong of me to listen to such malicious gossip. I apologize to you both.”
I inclined my head while Jase continued to glare at the man. I squeezed his hand again.
“I’ll have my office send through a donation to your foundation first thing Monday morning.”
I gave Richardson a bright smile. “We appreciate your generosity, Senator, and wish you the best of luck with your campaign. Please enjoy the rest of the evening.”
I tugged on Jase’s hand and pulled him away into a corner devoid of guests. “Calm down, Jase.”
“Fucking asshole!” His temper rose. “How dare he come to an event we invited him to and spread shit like that.”
“I know, it’s just plain rude. But I dealt with him. He won’t say another word.”
I’d been watching the senator and could see he’d collected his wife from the table where she’d been nursing a glass of champagne. They were leaving, and I was confident he’d keep his opinions to himself from now on. There’s no way he’d risk his upcoming election, and I had no qualms in making sure the media found out about his mistress if he fucked with us again.
Jase took a few deep breaths before he spoke again. “You did good.” His lips brushed my forehead. “Let’s get back to charming our guests.”
The rest of the night passed quickly as we schmoozed the crowd, extracting promises of generous donations. Once everyone had left the ballroom with a goodie bag in hand, we went into the kitchen to personally thank the chefs and waitstaff who had worked with us to make the night magical.
The chef handed me a large brown bag. “Dinner for tomorrow night.”
“Please tell me there’s some truffled mac and cheese in this bag. It was divine.”
Her beaming smile gave me my answer, and I grinned before we thanked them one final time and made our escape. We always acknowledged the people behind the scenes who worked hard to make our events a success, so come Monday morning several large baskets of gourmet foods from around the world would be delivered to the hotel for them.
Stuart was waiting for us outside, and once we were settled in the limousine we sat in comfortable silence as we were driven home. Once we’d changed out of our evening wear, I found Jase slouched on the large sofa in the living room, the television on with sports playing in the background. It was close to one in the morning, but we were both too wired to sleep.
“Drink?”
He glanced up at me. “Yeah.”
I went over to the bar and poured us both a glass of expensive Macallan scotch. We’d earned it tonight.
Jase downed it all in one mouthful. I sat on the sofa next to him and sipped mine. “You’re still pissed at Richardson.”
It wasn’t a question. He nodded. “If we hadn’t had so many witnesses, I’d have decked him.”
“I know.” I kept my tone soothing. “It was a dick move to do, especially tonight. I doubt anyone truly believed him, Jase. Don’t worry about him. He won’t say another word because he doesn’t want his affair becoming public knowledge.”
He looked over at me and grinned. “That was incredibly devious of you.”
“I think you meant to say, very clever of me. Thank you.”
A gruff laugh escaped him. “I pity the fool who ever fucks with you.” He got up and poured himself another drink, then rejoined me. I curled into his side and he placed his arm around me. We channel surfed and settled on some crime show for a while.
When I yawned, Jase switched off the TV. “Time for bed, huh?”
I nodded and let him pull me to my feet. After kissing his cheek goodnight, I wandered into my bedroom, a space I loved. I’d painted the walls a soft cream and decorated with pastel pinks and purples, my two favorite colors.
Changing into a nightgown, I slid into bed and was asleep by the time my head hit the pillow.
