At the Pleasure of the President (The Perfect Gentlemen 5)

“Of course I want you, but we have so many things to think about beyond how good this feels.”

“Yes, we do. But the decision might have been made for us. I haven’t used a condom.”

At least she could alleviate that worry. “I’m on birth control.”

His expression turned dark, and he thrust inside her to the hilt again, as though he couldn’t control his hips…or didn’t want to. “Then we have nothing to worry about.”

He seemed almost disappointed. She wasn’t going there with him. She skimmed her palms up the sides of his muscle-laden torso, reveling in the way he rippled, in his very vitality. “We have to worry about gossip.”

He seemed to find that concern incredibly boring, since he devoted all his attention to nibbling her neck. “That’s your job, but I have no intention of making some kind of statement. I also don’t have any intention of sleeping alone anymore. Let them talk. I don’t care. I want you. I’m going to have you.”

He picked up the pace, getting serious now. He wasn’t letting her go? He wasn’t giving her up?

To the greedy part of her, that sounded like heaven.

It was a mistake, and she knew it. How—and why—had he gone from shoving her away at every turn to insisting she stay this close? But when he kissed her again, her thoughts all dissipated. Zack wanted her. Zack needed her.

She wasn’t about to walk away from him now. He’d let her into his inner circle and she intended to stay there, by his side.

She held on to him and vowed they would find a way through this mess, maybe even find that future they’d promised themselves before tragedy and politics had intruded. Maybe they could live happily ever after.

* * * *

Zack strode through to the kitchen as evening approached. During the afternoon, everyone gathered at Camp David for the weekend congregated to discuss the shitty situation they were in. As the dinner hour drew closer, they’d all agreed that pizza sounded great. Well, everyone except Freddy, who claimed the food or the delivery—or both—could be too easily compromised. As an alternative, he’d offered them all the jerky and some trail mix he’d made. Mad had sent the paranoid bastard a subtle shake of his head to let Freddy know that wasn’t going to fly.

And all Zack had been able to think about this afternoon was Elizabeth—how gorgeous she looked with her hair spread across his sheets, her blue eyes hot with need as he worked her body from head to toe.

Fuck, he was getting another erection, while she was off in Lara’s cabin, probably sipping responsibly sourced wine or something. Was she talking about him? Everyone must know things had changed between him and Elizabeth. Sure, he’d been perfectly serious while discussing the conspiracy this afternoon, including the potential danger and fallout, but when they broke to get ready for dinner, he’d kissed her long and lingeringly without a second thought.

It was his right to kiss his woman. The other men did. Roman didn’t pretend Gus wasn’t his. Gabe didn’t politely keep his hands off Everly. Lara had spent most of the discussion sitting in Connor’s lap. Dax and Holland kept disappearing, and everyone knew what they were doing.

Still, she’d looked flustered as she’d followed Lara out. Afterward, Roman had tried to corner him, but Gus somehow sensed Zack hadn’t wanted to talk and distracted her fiancé.

Zack sighed. He was going to have to explain and soon.

He made his way into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water before he returned the VP’s phone calls. Despite being in over his head with the Russians and having the most stressful job in the world, he felt good. Relaxed. Almost invincible. Apparently enormous amounts of righteously dirty sex could do that for a man.

He grinned. He’d spent his whole life being circumspect. Unlike the rest of the Perfect Gentlemen, Zack had been thoughtful about dating. He’d had a few girlfriends, but they’d always been the kind his father approved of—ones who wouldn’t distract him too much. If his father was in his right mind now, he would hate Elizabeth. She distracted him all the time.

Starting any sort of relationship with her was probably a mistake. After all, he still didn’t know what, if any, role she played in this whole Russian mess. But Elizabeth was his mistake to make. Right now, he wasn’t regretting her in the least.

He’d almost made it to the kitchen when he noticed a lone figure sitting outside. Mad lingered alone, a glass in his hand. It looked like he’d gotten into the Scotch early.

Things obviously weren’t going for Mad the way he’d imagined or hoped. He hadn’t spent the entire night and much of the morning in bed with his woman. In fact, Sara had barely looked Mad’s way the whole time the group had been gathered this afternoon.

The damn VP could wait. Instead, Zack pushed out onto the elegantly appointed patio. “You want some company?”

Mad glanced up, and Zack saw shadows in his eyes. “If you’re looking for the others, Connor is hiding out in Gabe’s cabin while the women are in his. I could go hang out in my room if you need me to.”

“I wasn’t trying to run you off, though Roman will likely have a fit if he sees us out here in the open.”

“We’re well-hidden by the patio overhang and all the trees. I doubt an assassin can spot you, no matter how epic his scope. And Thomas won’t let word of my ‘resurrection’ get out. Besides, it’s not as if rumors about that haven’t been flying for months.” Mad gave him a humorless smile. “Rising from the dead will do nothing but enhance my reputation, anyway. Maddox Crawford, the man, the myth, the legend. Maybe when all this is behind us I’ll do a road tour.”

That was Mad. He covered up his pain with booze and sarcasm. “I take it Sara isn’t happy.”

“Sara doesn’t want anything to do with me, and how can I blame her? She’s figured out I’m a bad bet. Took her longer than most.” Mad had obviously gone into posturing mode.

Zack barely managed not to roll his eyes, but he understood. As a kid, Mad’s parents had only ever paid him any attention when he’d acted out. The bad-boy attitude had always been Mad’s fallback position, his safe place. After all, if he never let on that anyone hurt him, how could they possibly know he cared?

“I think you’re giving up pretty fast. Either you don’t really love her or you’re not as determined as I thought.”

Mad’s eyes narrowed. “I had a plan, Zack. A good one. She wasn’t supposed to know about any of this until we were past it and I could come completely out of the shadows. I wanted her to know that I fixed this, made the world safer for her and the baby. But you brought her here. Right now, I have nothing to offer her except excuses she doesn’t want to hear.”

“I couldn’t exactly leave her out there alone.” Zack had known what he was doing when he’d ordered the Secret Service to bring all the women to Camp David. “You think you’re the only one Sara can be used against? Gabe loves his sister. If they want leverage, she’s a good weapon to use against any one of us. She can’t be alone anymore.”

“She was never alone,” Mad said with a frown. “You think I didn’t have someone watching over her? I hired a firm to keep an eye on her, through Freddy, of course. I never left her unprotected.”

“Well, if you’d rather have your long-distance bodyguard protect her, then have at it.”

“It’s too late for that now. She knows everything. That makes it far too unsafe.”

“Agreed.” He could also think of other ways to handle Sara, ways that might give Mad more time with her. After all, being thrown together had worked for them once before. Sure, Sara had once held Mad off, when they were young. After they’d both grown up, working together had broken down Sara’s reticence and bonded the pair. “Or we could find another situation.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been thinking about what to do with you.”

Mad waved off the worry. “It’s fine. I don’t know what I was thinking, coming here. I could have called, but…I guess I chose to be dramatic and it bit me in the ass. I’ll leave wit

h Freddy in the morning. He’s got some friends who can take us. Maybe you could loan us a car. I’m really sick of hiking.”

Though he was still pissed at Mad, it was a low-level anger that would likely burn off far quicker than the anxiety he would feel knowing Mad was out in the world and unprotected. Zack refused to make the mistake of shoving away someone else he cared about. After all, it hadn’t worked with Liz. “Or I can put you up. Being the president isn’t without its perks, and one of them is an underground bunker where I can stash a couple hundred of my closest friends if need be. Of course, it’s all pretty secret. Sara doesn’t know how many rooms there are. I think I might only be able to loan you one. Trying times and all.”