Fixer: A Bad Boy Romance (23 page)

Scratch that. She wanted to do exactly that. As soon as Tanner answered, she said to herself, she'd jump his bones again.

There was a decent chance that she'd kill the man from pure sexual exhaustion, or at least temporarily cripple his ability to walk for a few days, but it was worth it.

Tanner, meanwhile, tried to assemble his thoughts. She wanted to ask him about politics now? While they both lay naked in her apartment, still gasping as they rode out the aftershocks from their last shared orgasm?

Still, he tried to pull together a coherent answer.

"How did I get the votes?" he repeated the question back. "The same way that I killed the bill a few months ago. Talked to people, presented the bill in the right way to make them agree with it, called in a few favors."

"But if you got all of those people to see it as evil before, how could you get them all to flip and instead see it as good-"

He pulled her in closer, still marveling at how she fit so snugly in his arms, the tingle of her bare skin as it pressed against his own. "It's all about framing," he said. "You should know this, of all people - you're a politician!"

"A very new and inexperienced one, remember."

"Ah, that's true. I can see that I'll have to teach you a few things." He slid his hand down over the curve of her hip, and she needed no instruction to wiggle in closer against him. For a moment, he found himself very distracted from the conversation.

"But in any case," he managed after a second, "a lot of it is just playing up the strengths and talking down the weaknesses. Convince them that the bills are different enough to count, that the first one, although it failed, started the national conversation. Talk about new cost savings, even if they were in the previous bill as well. Point out how their vote on this bill, once it passes - and I promised them that it would pass - would be a great talking point in their reelection campaigns, how it would help them with some of the school and teachers' lobbies."

After a second, Alicia just shook her head. "I think I'm going to need to learn a lot from you," she said, her tone considering.

"So, does that mean that you want to keep me around? This isn't just a one-time thing?" Tanner kept his voice light, but he did wonder whether she'd considered any sort of plan past dragging him back to her apartment and ripping off his clothes.

Admittedly, he hadn't objected to any of that.

From the moment that she cut his monologue short in the Capitol building by kissing him, Alicia refused to let go of him. Even though several reporters spotted her and started shouting questions about how she felt, now that the FOCUS bill had passed, she refused to slow down.

"You really ought to go talk to the press," Tanner protested, as she dragged him out to her car.

"Later," she answered, giving his hand a squeeze.

Tanner opened his mouth to advise her to reconsider, but two things swayed him; first, he wasn't her campaign manager, so he didn't have any real platform to tell her how to act. And secondly, more importantly, he caught a glimpse of her round ass poking through those ridiculous slutty-secretary pencil skirts that she loved to wear, and his dick reached up to pin his tongue down in place. "Don't mess this up for me," it hissed at Tanner's brain, threatening to rip itself off and leave if he didn't keep silent.

Tanner kept silent - up until they were in Alicia's apartment, and she was attempting to climb him like a tree, her arms around him, her lips locked on his.

"Alicia, are you sure-" he began, but she leaned back, raising her eyebrows and frowning at him.

"You really want to talk, instead of having wild, crazy sex with a Senator?" she asked, pushing her chest forward to bump against him and scramble his brains even further.

Tanner's dick repeated its threat, but he still took a deep breath and held it at bay for a second. "Look, Alicia, I really do love you, even though we've been apart. I've been stuck with idiots, and all I could think was how much I screwed up by letting you go-"

She started to reach for his pants, but he had to make it through this. "I know that you probably don't trust me, but I'll do whatever it takes," he insisted, reaching down and catching her hands, pinning them inside his own. "Just tell me what you need-"

"Oh my god, and I thought that you were smart!" Alicia snapped at him.

His eyebrows shot up on his forehead. "Excuse me?"

She took a step back, planting her hands on her hips and jutting out her rack in a way that almost made Tanner go cross-eyed. "I love you too, you big, dumb idiot," she said, following this with a massive eye roll.

"Really? Your body language doesn't quite say it."

Alicia sighed, swept her hair back from her face - and then, right in front of Tanner, started peeling off her clothes, dropping each article delicately into a growing pile on the floor.

"Er, what..." He couldn't even finish the sentence, his eyes locked onto her body. How the hell had he ever let go of this one?

"You've got a choice," Alicia said, already down to just her bra and panties (a matching black lace set, Tanner couldn't stop from observing). "You can either come into my bedroom and let me show you exactly what I mean when I say that I love you and have been going crazy thinking about you, unable to get you out of my head for the last two months..."

"Or?" he managed to get out after her pause.

Alicia turned away, letting him see her fingers as they wandered up her back, found the strap to her bra, and popped it free. "Or you can keep standing out here, which seems like a clear rejection of the fact that I love you like crazy, even though you're a bit of a dense ass at times."

The bra slipped off of her crooked finger as she sauntered away from him, into the bedroom. Tanner's eyes locked onto her ass, barely concealed in those lacy black panties, lazily swinging back and forth.

He immediately made up his mind. He headed forward, chasing after her, unable to keep a wild, stupid smile from blooming on his face.

As soon as he stepped into the bedroom, he found Alicia filling his arms, warm and soft and floral, a sensory overload. She kissed at him, touched him like she couldn't get enough of his body, and helped his suddenly clumsy fingers remove the rest of his clothes.

They didn't even make it to the bed. Tanner dragged her down to the floor and she straddled him, riding him and feeling his hardness take her as she bent forward to kiss him, her breasts hanging and brushing against his muscled chest.

"And that's how much I love you," she whispered to him, after they'd both lost control, exploded, moaned and clutched at each other as they came together.

"That's all?" he cracked.

Her slow, sexy, hungry grin was all it took to encourage him to sweep her up and drop her on top of her bed. He landed astride her a second later, already kissing her first on the lips, and then using his tongue and hands to further explore her body.

Now, lying on the bed in the tangled aftermath of this second round, Tanner shifted, and felt something wobble in the bed beneath them. "We may have broken your bed," he said apologetically to Alicia.

She shrugged, the motion sending a delightful little quiver running down the length of her body. "I can get another one for next time," she replied.

After a second, Tanner propped himself up on one elbow. "And there's going to be a next time?" he asked, aware that he sounded a bit like a broken record. "You want to keep me around?"

Alicia blinked long eyelashes up at him, mesmerizing him with those blue-green eyes. He never wanted to forget this moment, never wanted it to end. "I love you," she said simply, her eyes proclaiming this honest truth. "Somehow, even though you're a total ass, you managed to get my heart. I'm yours."

Tanner bent forward and kissed her, blinking as he felt hot tears welling up in his eyes. "And I love you too, even though you're the most frustrating person I've ever encountered," he whispered back, trying to shake his head so that the tears didn't fall on her face.

They did, however, and mingled with her own. "Now you've got me crying, too, you idiot," she sobbed out, even as her arms clung to him. She pulled him close, holding onto him like a rock in a stormy sea. They both breathed deeply, trying to keep themselves under control.

They failed.

"There's tissues over there," Alicia finally sniffled out, and Tanner reached over to grab the whole box. He watched as she sat up and loudly blew her nose, smiling even as he wiped at his own cheeks.

"Well, I'm not sure that Pribus is going to give me my old job back," he said, trying to keep his fingers from reaching out to cup those incredible breasts that hung from Alicia's chest as she pitched her tissue towards the garbage.

She smiled a moment later, as his fingers curled around and gently squeezed her breasts against her ribcage. "Why's that matter?"

"Without a job, I'm probably going to be spending a lot of time living out of this apartment," he answered. "I sold my old place when I moved down to Florida. I wanted to make a clean break of things."

"Yeah, that worked out well," she snorted. "And I've got a job opportunity for you, anyway."

He leaned in behind her, kissed her neck. "What's that?"

"Well, you're the one who knows all about what I should or shouldn't be doing as an elected politician, right? Even though I hate to admit it, I could use your advice, your guidance on how to get my way with all these stuffy old men in Congress."

"This is true. So what are you suggesting?"

She turned her head so she could gaze back at him as he traced a line of kisses down her shoulder. "I think the position of Chief of Staff for my office is about to open up. What do you say?"

He paused, looking up at her. "You realize that you're suggesting that we be together practically twenty-four seven, don't you? And you're going to have a lot of arguments with me. Even though you'll eventually realize that I was right all along."

"Yeah, right," she sniffed. "But yes, I do realize what I'm asking of you."

For a long minute, Alicia watched as Tanner considered the idea. Even naked in bed with her, the gears in his head were turning, examining the offer from every angle. She loved watching his brain work like this, thinking through every possible scenario, weighing every single option.

"What's the dental plan like?" he finally asked.

Laughing, she spun around, intending to punch him. Instead, however, they ended up tangled together, flopping back down on the tortured bed, limbs intertwined and bodies pressed together.

"Is that a yes?" she asked, inches from his face.

He leaned in and kissed her. "Of course it is. I love you."

"I love you too," she answered, her heart singing, and she leaned in for another kiss, this one longer and deeper.

Afterwards, Tanner fought off the sheet that had somehow knotted itself around his leg, running a finger down his chest and noting the little beads of sweat that came together. "If you want any more sex out of me," he panted out, "I need to get some water into my system before I end up dying of dehydration."

"Ah, such an awful way to go," Alicia responded immediately, her eyes sparkling up at him as he fought his way out of bed. "And so instead, you're just going to leave me here alone? So naked, abandoned in this bed with no one else to help me pass the time..."

Despite all the activity of the last couple of hours, Tanner still felt his loins urge him to jump back into bed, to return for yet another round. With an effort, he pushed away that longing. Soon, he promised himself.

Duty called, first.

"Nope, you're not staying there, either," he told Alicia. "You're getting up, dressed, and then coming out to give a press conference on the success of the FOCUS bill. First task for you, as your new chief of staff, is to make sure to maximize the press attention for this."

He watched as Alicia rolled her eyes at him. The gesture made some other parts of her jiggle most appealingly, and he quickly averted his gaze before she dragged him back into bed yet again.

"Such a taskmaster," she sighed, climbing up. "I can see that we're going to have a lot of friction."

"And we'll find some way to resolve all that tension, I'm sure," Tanner murmured back, and saw Alicia blush before she turned away to get dressed.

And even as he ran through talking points in his head, mentally figuring out how to best prep Alicia for confronting the inevitable shouted questions from reporters, Tanner made sure to watch and enjoy the show as she shimmied back into her clothes.

Chapter Twenty-Six

*

"There's something different about you," Freddie said, frowning as he waggled his finger at Tanner. "I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but I know that something's off. Did you get your hair cut?"

"Try again," Alicia laughed from Tanner's other side before he could respond.

Freddie grinned briefly at her, looking past Tanner as if he wasn't even there, and then returned his attention back to his best friend. "No, I'm going to get this. Did you pick up yet another STD? I'm impressed that you haven't already caught them all."