Fires of Autumn (9 page)

 Very
quickly, Casey was in a very intimate position up against the man but she
didn’t say a word; she discovered that she liked it very much.  There was
something very magnetic about him and she allowed herself to submit, if even
for just a brief moment. It had been a long time since she danced with someone
handsome and attractive. As The Eagles sang overhead, drifting out into the
night, Colt put his cheek against the top of her head and began to dance, very
slowly and sweetly, with Casey wrapped up in his arms.

Fifty-five
seconds passed in the blink of an eye.  In spite of her initial reservation,
Casey very nearly melted in to the man, closing her eyes and losing track of
time as he held her close and swayed in beat to the music.   It seemed like
they had been dancing just a few seconds when he spoke again.

“Time’s
up,” he said hoarsely. “Are you really going to leave now?”

She
started to laugh.  “I am unless you want to stay down here and dance the rest
of the night,” she pulled back so she could gaze up into his handsome face. “If
you don’t, then I really am going to leave.  Better that than fighting off a
Chinese offensive for the duration of the party.”

Colt
looked down at her, thinking it had been a huge mistake to dance with her. He’d
really only meant it as a joke, or maybe it hadn’t been so much a joke as
something he was just curious to do.  He’d liked the feeling of her in his arms
so much earlier when she was nearly frozen to death that he wanted to feel it
again.  This time was better than the first and he was loath to let her go. 

“One more
minute,” he said, pulling her back against him.

Casey was
grinning as he swallowed her up in his big embrace. “Why?”

“Because
you’re not completely forgiven yet. One more minute should do it.”

She rolled
her eyes, although not completely displeased. “Oh, brother,” she muttered, her
right cheek cuddle up against his chest. “You don’t carry a grudge much, do
you?”

“Depends.”

“I can see
that.”

She
snorted. He chuckled because she was.  All in all, the next minute went more
quickly than the first and when Colt finally released Casey, she nearly
stumbled. She had been very relaxed and content in his embrace.  He grinned at
her as he offered her his elbow once more.

“Come on,”
he said. “If you’re determined to go, let’s get you out of here.”

She took
his elbow.  “So we’re doing the prom escort thing again?”

“Pretty
much.”

She
giggled as she followed him out from underneath the portico and up the steps,
feeling the warm and glow from the rooms into the cold night. They’d taken a
side entrance back into the White House, avoiding the rooms with the cocktail
party, and Colt handed her over to a young, dark-haired agent in the big
hallway that ran the length of the White House. With nothing more than a brief
smile, he went back to his post as Casey followed the young secret service
agent out into the night.

Thoughts
of Colt Sheridan kept popping in to her mind all weekend.

Oh sweet darlin' you get the best of my love….

CHAPTER FOUR

Casey was
in the office bright and early Monday morning.  She arrived at least an hour
before she was scheduled to work, mostly because Russ had a meeting in the city
with a company called GreenTopia, all part of the environmental bill that was
heading for a vote in the next few weeks.  Senator Dane was to be part of the
meeting so Casey wanted to make sure the President was prepared for what would
undoubtedly be discussed.

She had
his black leather folio on her desk, neatly piling papers into it that he could
study on his way over to the meeting.  Ever since she had come in to the
office, she had been making copies and putting things in chronological order
for Russ’s review.  Casey was a master at organization, which over the past six
months as the President’s personal assistant, had served her well. Russ hadn’t
known her to make a bad decision yet. He’d quickly come to trust her.

Dressed in
a grayish-lavender dress with a matching sweater and spiky black pumps, her
luscious hair was pulled back in a stylish ponytail, giving her a very high-end
and sexy look without going overboard.  Unfortunately, she’d been up with Brody
most of the night, as the boy had a stomach bug, and Aunt Riley was taking him
to the doctor that morning to have him checked out. There was lots of concealer
covering up the dark circles beneath the violet eyes and, more than once, she
had to stop herself from yawning.  It was going to be a long day.

She
finished the folio and moved on to the electronic wizardry she would bring with
her as she followed Russ around – three cell phones, two IPads and one laptop
would be part of her arsenal.  As she fussed with one of the IPads, two of
Russ’ aides entered her office to wait for the President. Barbara Biel, a woman
with a deep background in environmental and political science, and Jason
Travis, a young man with connections who had a great political future, made
small talk with Casey as she packed up for the day.  

Her
officemate Chris eventually wandered in to the office and began to set up for
the day, booting up computers and pulling out his Planner.  He would be
accompanying them on the outing as well, as the President’s travel coordinator,
so it was already shaping up to be a well-tended trip.   More people came into
the office area, which was too small to hold them all, as Russ eventually appeared.

Dressed in
a blue suit, he greeted everyone amiably.  Russ was fairly loud spoken, with a
wicked sense of humor when he got going, and the way he greeted people made
each and every one of them feel as if the President was paying special
attention to them. It was a gift he had, one that had helped get him elected,
and by the time he reached Casey’s desk, he smiled warmly at her.

“Well,
General,” he said amiably. “Are we all set for the day?”

Casey
nodded, hand folded casually on her desk top. “All set, sir,” she said. “We’ll
leave here in about an hour and it should take us about twenty minutes to get
to GreenTopia.  I’m bringing the agenda with me so you can study it in the car
on the way over. You have a meeting right now with Barbara and Jason, so I’ll
let you know when it’s time to leave.”

Russ
nodded confidently. “Thank you.” Now that he knew what was going on with his
morning, he waved his aides in. “Let’s go have some coffee and shoot the breeze
for awhile.”

Six aides,
including Jason and Barbara, followed Russ into the oval office, clearing out
Casey’s small office area in a hurry.  Setting aside everything she was to
bring on the busy day ahead, she picked up the remote and turned on her three
plasma screen televisions.  CNN, MSNBC and the local Washington D.C. station
popped up for their morning news run. 

Eyes on
the screen as CNN suddenly began to talk about the President’s new
environmental policy, she rounded the edge of her desk to hear the story a
little better without blasting the sound.  As she perched on the end of her
desk, she happened to glance in the office across from her and saw that
Sheridan was seated behind his desk.

She could
only see part of his left shoulder and arm, but her heart began to pound. She’d
thought about the man all weekend and, truthfully, she was looking forward to
seeing him again today.  It was the first time in her life she had wanted the
weekend to end so she could go back to work.  She wondered if his attitude
towards her would be the same today as it had been on Friday, the
stone-expression secret service agent who seemed to crack a smile only for
her. 

Leaning
sideways, she eventually caught sight of the entire man sitting behind his
desk, working on his computer.  She watched him a moment, leaning off her desk,
thinking that the man was more handsome than she remembered.

“Good
morning,” she called pleasantly.

It took
Colt a moment to look up from his computer.  He wasn’t sure the greeting was
meant for him but when he glanced up and saw Casey leaning sideways off her
desk, smiling at him, he felt like his entire day just got better.  He smiled
in return.

“General
Cleburne,” he replied with a glimmer in his eye. “Good morning to you, ma’am.”

She came
off the desk, the television remote still in her hand. “I didn’t see you come
in.”

Colt
leaned back in his chair, watching her approach and feeling rather giddy at the
sight of her.  He didn’t know if it was possible for the woman to become any
more beautiful over the weekend, but it looked to him like she had. In the
pretty lavender-gray dress and matching sweater that was sexy without being
over the top, she was quite a sight.

“You were
surrounded,” he told her. “I slipped in under the radar.”

She
grinned, nodding in understanding. “I emailed the Secret Service the itinerary
for this month about six weeks ago,” she said. “I’m going to assume they passed
it to you. Have you seen it?”

“Seen it
and mapped it.”

Mapping
was a term used to strategize the President’s movement outside of the Oval
Office.  Casey nodded to his statement.

“Good,”
she replied. “I emailed you the specific itinerary for the meeting early this
morning.  It was just finalized yesterday.”

He nodded.
“I got it,” he said. “Thanks.”

“Any
questions?”

Colt
paused. Christ, that was a loaded question with a myriad of answers.  He gazed
into her lovely face, her sweet jaw-line revealed with her hair pulled loosely
away from her face, and all he could think of was the time he had spent over
the weekend daydreaming about her. 

He worked
a fairly rigorous schedule, shadowing the President whenever the man made a
move outside of the White House, which meant he’d spent the weekend at a
luncheon on Saturday and golf on Sunday.  He’d performed his job flawlessly,
fully in control as the President’s Special Agent in Charge, but the
President’s lovely assistant had repeatedly filled his thoughts.  That dance to
‘The Best of my Love’ had done something to him. An inherently lonely man and
something of an introvert, things as small as that had meaning to him.

“Yes,” he
said after a moment. “I had the general run-down on the function of office
personnel that were close to the President, but tell me how you fit into all of
this other than organizing his life.”

Casey
leaned against the door jamb. “It depends,” she said thoughtfully. “I generally
go everywhere he goes unless it’s a family vacation or something like that. 
The President decides where and when I go, but as his personal assistant, I
pretty much shadow him, like you do.”

Colt
nodded, not at all displeased with the prospect of Casey Cleburne going
everywhere he did.  The new job just got better.

“I see,”
he replied. “We’ve got a trip back to New Mexico next week.”

Casey
nodded. “I know,” she said. “My boys are jealous. They think I’m going to the
Wild West.”

Colt stared
at her, his heart sinking a little. He had no right to feel that way, but he
did.  “I didn’t know you were married.”

She shook
her head. “I’m not,” she said. “But I’ve got an eleven-year -old and an
eight-year-old, both of whom are interested in Wild West history.  New Mexico
sounds exotic to them.”

Colt’s
smile was back as was, he realized, his relief. “Did you tell them it’s no big
deal?”

“They
think I’m lying. They think I’m going to walk the streets of the old West and
call out Black Bart.”

He snorted
but was interrupted from saying anything further when more people entered
Casey’s office. She pushed herself off the doorjamb, turning to a middle-aged
man with carefully combed hair and an expensive overcoat, and extending her
hand.

“Senator
Dane,” Casey said pleasantly. “I hear you’re joining us this morning.”

Scott
smiled at Casey. “Yes, I am,” he shook her soft hand and let it go.  He
couldn’t help himself from gushing a little because she looked so lovely.
“You’re looking well this morning, Miss Cleburne.   Kurt says to tell you
hello.”

Casey
grinned as she headed over to the coffee service that was stationed on the wall
between her desk and Eckart’s.  “He won’t be joining you?” she asked.

Scott
shook his head and began to peel off the heavy wool overcoat. “The kid’s
running a fever of one hundred and two,” he said. “I told him to stay home.  I
don’t want his germs.”

Casey
laughed softly and picked up a white ceramic mug. “Can I get you some coffee?”

Scott
nodded. “Thanks. Black, please.”

Casey poured
a cup and handed to him, smiling graciously when he thanked her.  Then she
stuck her head back into Colt’s office where the man had gone back to work on
his computer.