The Rebel King (All the King's Men Duet #2) - Kennedy Ryan Page 0,89
to go to Alabama. There’s an election down there that’s heating up and they needed some help.”
“So I’m stuck dealing with you, huh?” I shake my head and sigh heavily. “If I must.”
She walks farther in the room and sits on the edge of my desk. I want to snatch her onto my lap, but I refrain. We’ve said we’ll try to be good, so I’ll let her take the lead. She pulls a small notepad from her back pocket.
“Oh, is this the famous notebook? The one where you write down all the things I got wrong and tell me how to do better next time?”
She glances up with a crooked grin. “Yes.”
“Well, go on.”
“You ignored the teleprompter.”
“Uh, yeah, because it had that speech on it, and I decided not to use that speech, so . . . no need for the teleprompter.”
“Right. You went completely off-script.”
“I felt I knew what was right for me in that moment. You don’t tell a guy whose instincts have saved him all his life to turn off his instincts.”
“Yeah, well, I’d appreciate it if we could at least discuss these instincts of yours before you give in to them in front of millions of people.”
“Not too much to ask.”
“You started with Owen when we said we wouldn’t.”
“I had to.” I run a hand over the tight muscles in the back of my neck. “He’s the whole reason I’m even giving this a shot. I had to acknowledge him right up front. What else you got?”
She stands and walks around the desk and leans down until our faces line up. “I’m very, very proud of you,” she whispers, closing the space between our mouths and kissing me. She tastes as pure as she did the first time I kissed her on a dark night on a cobblestone street. I stand and kiss her back with all the hope and love she inspires in me.
I glance over her shoulder at my open office door, finding the hall empty. I cup her ass and press my erection into her.
“So, is it a Tuesday?” I ask.
She laughs and drops her head to my shoulder. “No, Doc. Tuesdays will have to be very rare and special occasions for a long time.”
41
Lennix
“We need to get some town halls scheduled,” Kimba says, glaring at her laptop. “Damn spinning wheel. You’d think Steve Jobs could have figured this out before he passed away, rest in power.”
“He revolutionized the personal computer and changed nearly every aspect of your life with a cell phone,” Maxim says dryly. “Maybe you cut him some slack.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re a Jobs zealot,” Glenn groans.
“Zealot? Nooooo,” Maxim denies with a shake of his head. “Should he have a state named after him? Most likely, yeah.”
The rest of the senior staff gathered around Maxim’s campaign office in New York laughs. Setting up our headquarters here was a power move. Yes, CadeCo’s headquarters are here. It’s the coolest city in the country, at least by perception, and the center of music, theater, and the arts, but it’s also easy to get coverage here. To go viral here, and it’s within relatively easy striking distance of swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and New Hampshire. It also doesn’t hurt that Maxim owns an apartment building in SoHo, which is where most of us live while we’re in town.
“Hey, speaking of scheduling town halls,” Glenn says, “didn’t Lacy Reardon used to work with you guys? She developed this SkedAdv app, and it’s a scheduler’s dream.”
Kimba and I exchange a quick “lawd have mercy” look at the mention of Lacy, the girl we had to dismiss after her affair with Susan Bowden was discovered.
By Susan’s wife.
Situations like that make me even more determined to keep my relationship with Maxim under wraps for a while. Though there’s no infidelity or misconduct, sex and politics have a torrid past. Anytime they rub up against each other, the public perceives it as scandal. And scandal destroys campaigns.
“Yeah, Lacy worked with us,” Kimba replies. “On Susan Bowden’s campaign for a while, but she ended up leaving. She’s incredibly talented. I heard she recently signed on with one of the Democrats.”
“Dentley’s campaign, right?” I ask, keeping my tone casual. “Governor from New Jersey.”
“Yeah, we did a project together a few months ago,” Glenn says. “Maybe we could persuade her to come work for Maxim instead.”
“I think we’re set,” I say. “But you’re right. She’s amazing. Now, back to these town halls.”