The Power and the Glory Read online

  Once the polls closed on Election Day, Aspyn would no longer be a member of his staff or an employee of his family. There would be no moral, ethical or political reason not to take her away for a while.

  But what about all those other reasons …

  “Just ask Sarah for ideas of good places to go this time of year.”

  Lauren nodded and thankfully didn’t mention the topic of Aspyn again. But it didn’t stop him from thinking about it. He honestly had no idea what Aspyn would say to such an idea, and had no idea how to broach the subject.

  So when Aspyn provided him an opening that evening, he had to take it. She’d gone to the kitchen for a drink and came dashing back into the bedroom, shedding his shirt and practically diving under the duvet.

  “Brrr. I hate the first few days that it turns off cold. I know it’s not that cold, but coming right out of summer, I feel like I’m suddenly living in Alaska.” She snuggled up next to him and stuck cold toes under his calf to warm them. “I’ll be more accepting by February, but right now, I just want to be warm. Like on-a-beach-in-Hawaii-in-the-sun warm.”

  “I was having similar tropical thoughts today. Not because of the cold, but wanting to get away for a while after the election.”

  “You should. You’ve been going almost nonstop. You deserve some R and R.” She tucked the duvet around her shoulders. “A few days of sand, sea and sun are exactly what you need.”

  “So you want to go?”

  Aspyn froze, then her eyebrows pulled together and she slowly turned to face him. She looked shocked, but he couldn’t tell if it was good shock or horrified shock. “The two of us? Like a vacation?”

  “Well, yes. Exactly like a vacation.” When Aspyn didn’t say anything, an unfamiliar feeling crept over him. He vaguely identified it as disappointment. Until now, he hadn’t realized how much the idea had grown on him.

  Belatedly he realized that she had grown on him as well, and the disappointment had a one-two punch.

  “Are you sure about that, Brady?”

  “We’re talking a couple of weeks, not a permanent move. And if I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t have brought it up.”

  Aspyn’s face lit up. “Then, yes, I’d love to go with you.”

  “Where do you want to go? Hawaii? Belize? The Maldives?”

  “Sure.” She crawled on top of him, fitting herself against his body as it stirred to life. “I assume it will be somewhat secluded? Where bathing suits can be optional?”

  “I do like my privacy.” He let his hands roam over her back and cupped them around the soft flesh of her butt.

  “Wow, I’m feeling warmer already,” she said and sat up, letting the duvet slide off her shoulders and puddle on his legs.

  He let his hands trace over her waist and ribs, and ran his fingers over the curve of her breasts. Aspyn’s eyes closed as he teased her nipples to hard points, and her breath grew shallow. “You look hot.”

  She grinned and rocked her pelvis gently against his. He flipped her to her back and pinned her to the mattress with a kiss.

  “I should warn you, I’m thinking ten miles from anywhere.” He slid down her body, letting his tongue trace a line from her neck to her navel. Aspyn lifted her hips when he moved to her inner thigh, her hands already kneading the sheets in anticipation. “So we’ll have to come up with ways to entertain each other.”

  The heat and movement of Brady’s tongue was a magical thing, and Aspyn bit back a shout at the first slow, torturous lick. Her hands fisted and her back arched as Brady’s determined and unhurried pace carried her to the brink and held her there until she screamed and couldn’t control the tremors racking her body. Just when Aspyn thought she couldn’t take another second, Brady slipped a finger inside her and pushed her over the edge.

  She was still gathering the frayed shreds of her sanity as Brady knelt between her thighs and drove home. The rising force of another orgasm, so quickly on the heels of the first, had her gasping and seeing starbursts. And as she reached the summit again, she never wanted it to end. But it wasn’t until she was nearly asleep in Brady’s arms that she realized she never wanted any of it to end.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ASPYN had no idea where the Maldives were, but she wanted to go. While she knew Brady was a man of action, she hadn’t realized that the vacation of last night’s invitation was already in the works. Brady had left her on the couch with a cup of coffee and his laptop while he went to shower, telling her to look at the information his travel agent sent over and pick where she wanted to go.

  Five seconds after she clicked through on the first link, her decision was made. It looked like paradise, a real heaven on earth, and from the website, the resort was determined to preserve their beautiful scenery with environmentally friendly policies to minimize their impact. Luxurious and responsible. She loved this place already.

  As she sipped her coffee, she wondered if Brady had told his travel agent to check into the eco-policies of possible destinations or if that was just a coincidence. If it had been intentional, that would mean Brady had planned to ask her to come with him before last night. And if that wasn’t enough to put a happy, fuzzy feeling in her chest, the knowledge that Brady understood her enough to know that would be important to her really made the happy-fuzzies fill her.

  Though she was sold, she figured she should at least look at some of the other options in case that wasn’t Brady’s first choice and they needed to compromise. In the next room, the hum of Brady’s electric razor fell quiet and the rush of water replaced it. She had the urge to go join him in the shower, but she controlled it. She closed the email about the Maldives and scrolled down to the next one from his travel agent. That subject line was “Kauai, Hawaii.”

  Choices, choices.

  Before she could open it, though, she noticed her name in the return address field three emails below that. That would be her last report, one she was quite proud of in that she’d managed to actually organize all the comments in such a way as to get some actual statistical data from it. She wished she’d paid a bit more attention in college when they’d covered data compilation and analysis, because she’d sweated blood getting that together. She’d wanted to talk to Brady about the trends she’d discovered and get his input on what that might mean, but she kept getting distracted.

  Laughing to herself, she shifted in her seat as she thought about how good Brady was at distracting her from pretty much everything that wasn’t him.

  Then she noticed it was still marked as “unread.” Strange. She’d sent that days ago; he’d had plenty of time to read it. And not only was it unread, but it hadn’t been forwarded yet to the senator’s aide. Even if Brady had been too busy to read it, surely he would have sent it on anyway. Her reports were supposed to go in twice a week, and if he hadn’t sent it yet, the report was late.

  She didn’t want anyone in the senator’s office to think she was slacking off. Her personal life was eating up more of her time these days, but she was still on top of what she was doing. When or if people found out she and Brady had extracurricular activities going on, she didn’t want them to be able to say she’d let that affect her work ethic.

  Her idea to send it directly to the senator’s office instead of via Brady had been shot down, but if Brady had forgotten, she would still be the one blamed and looking bad in the end. It was just one of the many things she’d learned recently about politics: who was at fault was less important than who could be blamed, and blame was doled out liberally when things went wrong. And the most blame always landed at the bottom of the flow chart.

  Once he got out of the shower, she’d tell him and get him to forward it today with an explanation. Senator Marshall’s aides wouldn’t get it until Monday morning, but at least it would be in.

  She could strangle Brady for this. Peeved, but not truly angry, she closed out the email client with the intention of checking her own email quickly. But once she closed that window, a folder on Brady’s desktop caught her e
ye.

  Breedlove, M.A.

  Confused, Aspyn looked at the names of the other folders on the laptop. None of the other staffers had a whole file on Brady’s computer. That bad feeling she hadn’t felt in a while crept back up her spine. Something wasn’t right.

  She dithered. Opening the file would be snooping, and she had no right to read anything on Brady’s computer. It would be wrong to do so. An invasion of his privacy. A breech in protocol.

  But the folder did have her name on it, so didn’t she have the right to look at something that was obviously about her? It wasn’t like she could learn something confidential about herself. Even the most confidential files should be open to the persons concerned. Wasn’t that a law or something?

  She’d never snooped. Not once in her life. The curiosity was killing her, but something told her she didn’t want to know. Maybe she was overreacting; there was no telling what was in there. It could be strictly personal in nature.

  But what kind of personal files about her would Brady make? Why would he keep them on a computer that technically belonged to the campaign? And why would it be labeled like that instead of simply as “Aspyn”?

  Curiosity won out. She listened carefully to make sure the water was still running, then clicked on the icon.

  Okay, there were all of her written reports. Brady must be keeping copies on his hard drive. That made sense. What didn’t make sense were all the other documents labeled with her name and various dates.

  The first file was her background check. The idea still irked her, but she understood better now why Brady checked people out before letting them into the circle. The Marshalls were too prominent, too rich and too connected to trust blindly. Damn, it was thorough. Things she’d almost forgotten—like that incident at the demonstration in West Virginia where they were protesting mining methods—were described in detail. And a look at the date in the header showed the information had been pulled together with astounding speed. Brady had access to her life story just days after she hit the news.

  Oddly, the background check had been done through his family’s business, not the campaign or the senator’s office, and that seemed off.

  As did the information in the next document, which outlined how she’d be paid out of noncampaign funds because she wasn’t a campaign employee.

  With alarm bells clanging in her ears, she started snooping without any remorse or hesitation at all. That bad feeling she’d been ignoring had been trying to tell her something, and as she opened document after document inside her little folder, it became clear exactly what it had been trying to say.

  She was an idiot. A fool.

  And Brady Marshall was a lying snake.

  As Brady got out of the shower, he could hear Aspyn in the bedroom moving around. “That didn’t take long,” he called as he dried off. “Did you come to a decision?”

  “You’re damn right I did.” She punctuated the statement with a door slamming shut.

  He wrapped a towel around his waist and entered the bedroom. Aspyn was dressed—albeit rather haphazardly as her shirt was buttoned wrong—and was loading the few personal items she’d started keeping here into her overnight bag. She pushed past him into the bathroom and grabbed her toiletries.

  He blocked her exit, wanting to know what was going on. “We can’t actually leave until after the election,” he teased. “Don’t you think it’s a bit early to be packing?”

  “I’m sure you’ll have a fantastic time. Now,” she said through gritted teeth, “get out of my way.”

  He’d never seen Aspyn this angry about anything. Color flagged her cheeks and unshed tears glistened in her eyes. She could get peevish about things, but right now he was lucky looks couldn’t kill. “What did I miss?” he said to her back as she ducked around him.

  “You didn’t miss anything. You’re right on the ball as always. I’m the one who’s getting caught up. And now that I understand what’s really going on …” She stopped and took a deep breath, but her jaw and shoulders stayed tense. “I’m going home.”

  Responding in kind wouldn’t help the situation any. He tried to keep his voice light. “That much I picked up on. Can I ask why?”

  “And again with the patronizing.” She shoved her arms through a cardigan and pulled it tight over her chest. “I really thought it was just an annoying habit of yours, but now I see it’s genuine.” Aspyn grabbed her bag and stomped out.

  He quickly pulled on a pair of jeans and grabbed a shirt before following her. “At least tell me what happened in the last twenty minutes that’s got you so mad.”

  Aspyn faced him, arms crossed and eyebrows raised to her hairline. “So that you can reduce the negative impact and channel the sentiment into a controlled, positive message?”

  Where had he heard that before? He glanced at the couch and saw his laptop. Oh, sh—

  “I see we’re on the same page now. Good. We can quit pretending that what comes out of your mouth is anything other than a big, fat—”

  “Aspyn, calm down.”

  Her eyes grew wide. “You think that’s possible? You lied, Brady. To me, to the press … hell, to everyone outside your little political spin machine. I knew there was something fishy going on, but I let you convince me that you and your father and his staff actually gave a damn about anything other than getting reelected and keeping that Senate seat in the family.”

  Brady straightened his shoulders. That was a cheap shot. “We do.”

  “Only about the detrimental impact on the campaign if word gets out that you don’t. You don’t care what I or anyone else thinks is important. You played me and the people you claim to represent. You let us think you really wanted to listen, but I might as well be shouting into a hole in the ground.” She shook her head, her disappointment and frustration clearly on display. “I was nothing but a shiny object to catch everyone’s attention and deflect anything real.”

  He chose his words carefully. “You’re partly right. I won’t lie to you about that.”

  “What a refreshing change.”

  He ignored the sarcasm. “Our immediate priority was to quell the uprising, and, if possible, channel that into something good for our image. That’s smart politics, and you were the key to that. There’s a lot that went on behind the scenes that you didn’t see, but we have to keep the bigger picture in mind when we—”

  “Oh, screw your ‘big picture.’ I’m so tired of hearing about it. ‘Big picture’ is nothing more than a nice way to say that the ends justify the means. They don’t. It’s immoral and it’s wrong to lie and use people.”

  “No one’s used you, Aspyn.” He stepped toward her, but she backed away. He tried to appeal to her rationality. “I told you to temper your expectations, that nothing you were doing would have immediate impact. I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings, but you were hired to do a job and that job was made clear to you, to the press and the people. Anything you inferred beyond that isn’t my fault.”

  “What a convenient and nice salve for your conscience.” She shot him a look that clearly said he wasn’t going to like what came next. “So where exactly did sleeping with me come into this? Was that part of the plan from the beginning? Or did you just decide later it would be a good way to distract me and cause me to focus on you instead of this so-called job?”

  “That’s not—”

  “You know what, Brady?” She reached under the coffee table for her shoes and rammed her feet inside. “The sad thing is that I almost respect how you handled ‘Aspyn, The Campaign Headache.’ That’s how much being involved with politics, even for a short time, has twisted my thinking. I actually understand being used in that way and that makes me disgusted with myself. What I can’t get over is that you could lie to me and still have sex with me. And even worse, lie to me about what that sex meant. That’s even more disgusting, and I can’t find any reason to respect it.”

  She fished her keys out of her bag and removed the clip holding his door keys from the r
ing. She tossed it on the table, the clatter overly loud in the heavy silence. Hauling her bag over her shoulder, she grabbed her coat and turned to face him. “You’ll find my letter of resignation on your hard drive, filed in the appropriate folder.”

  She headed for the door, head held high and shoulders stiff. He trailed behind. “Wait. You get to throw all that out there, but I don’t get the chance to respond?”

  “Mmm-hmm. There’s really nothing left to say.”

  “I disagree.” He grabbed her arm.

  She twisted free and glared at him. “Tough.”

  He prayed for patience. “Aspyn, can you wait just one second and let me—”

  “No.” She didn’t break stride or pause as she wrenched the door open. “You are the last person on earth I want to listen to.”

  Her words still hung in the air as the door closed behind her with a bang. Brady felt drained and off balance, like he’d just ridden out a hurricane and didn’t know where to start with the recovery efforts.

  He should be angry Aspyn had nosed through his computer files without permission, but in her shoes, he probably would have done the same thing. He was the one who gave her use of his laptop to begin with, so he couldn’t complain too much she’d found something she wasn’t meant to see.

  Aspyn had the right facts, but her interpretation was wrong. Mostly. Well, partly.

  In reality, Aspyn’s true purpose for being at HQ had quit being important to him a while ago. Eventually he’d have thought to explain the realities of the situation to her, but he’d moved past that before “eventually” ever arrived.

  And now she felt betrayed. By him. Old anger at his father stirred in his belly. Once again, his father’s sins were lumped on him to pay for. He deserved a little condemnation for participation in this debacle, but the fault came from the top.

  What really sucked was Aspyn’s jump from professional to personal and the sordid way she tied them together. No wonder she claimed disgust. When viewed through that lens, it was tawdry and disgusting. But he’d never connected the two spheres as she had.