17. Anthony

Chapter 17

Anthony

I took a shower first. We didn’t dare shower together or we’d never get out of this room, and we didn’t have much time.

In spite of the ticking clock, though, after I came out of the bathroom and Jesse started to go in to grab a shower of his own, I stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Still nervous?”

“I’ll be nervous until the thing’s over. You know that.” He smiled. “But I’m definitely more relaxed now.”

“Good.” I grinned, then leaned in and kissed him lightly. “Just answer the questions honestly and succinctly. Focus on the issues, just like we’ve discussed. You wiped the floor with the Dems; you can handle Casey.”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“You’ll do fine.” I cupped his face in both hands and kissed him again. The heady scent of sweat and sex teased my nostrils. Damn it, if tonight wasn’t so important, I’d have put him over the side of the bed and started all over again.

When we pulled apart this time, Jesse smirked. “You always give your candidates pep talks when you’re only wearing a towel?”

I glanced down and chuckled. “I don’t make a habit of it, no.” I kissed him once more, then stepped back. “And we’re really short on time now, so we’d better get moving. You grab a shower, and I’m going to go downstairs and see if I need to knock any heads together.”

And get a cigarette. I need a cigarette stat.

While Jesse showered, I dressed and got myself ready. I even made use of the hotel blow-dryer. Vanity wasn’t high on my list of priorities, but even slightly damp hair had the potential to be incriminating.

Once I was put together with absolutely nothing to give away the fact that Jesse and I had just had sex, I headed out of the room. Obsessively worried about covering every possible base and hiding all the evidence, I took the condom with me, wrapped in a tissue, and discreetly discarded it in a trash can by the elevator. No such thing as too many precautions as far as I was concerned.

As the elevator doors closed, separating me from the incriminating evidence and any chance of Jesse stepping out and seeing or hearing me, I shut my eyes and took a few deep breaths. Even a much-needed orgasm and a long-awaited kiss couldn’t unwind the knots in my gut, not when Jesse was about to face Casey like this. He had so much riding on this debate. So much could go wrong. Many voters had made up their minds, but a debate could sway the undecided and the undecided could sway the election.

He can do this. He’s prepared. He’ll nail it .

I took another breath. I didn’t even realize I’d reached for my cigarettes until they were in my hand, and now that they were, I could think of nothing but having a smoke.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one, because a designated area had been roped off for staff members from both sides to smoke out behind the hotel across the street from the debate venue. Security guards stood around the perimeter, and a sparse crowd of both Jesse’s staff and Casey’s loitered with cigarettes and coffee cups.

I pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Time and again I’d tried to persuade myself to quit, but as I drew in a long drag and that drag settled the nerves prickling along the length of my spine, I couldn’t imagine getting through a campaign without my beloved nicotine crutch. Especially this campaign.

“Anthony.” Simone’s voice turned my head. As she approached, her bodyguard towering over her, she added, “Good to see you.”

“Likewise,” I said. “Dean, good to see you too.”

He gave a slight nod and shook my hand.

To Simone, I said, “How have you been?”

“Good, good. How is Jesse?” Her cheeks colored slightly, and she quickly gestured at the building. “I mean, is he nervous?”

“As always.” I turned my head so I wouldn’t blow smoke in her face. “He’ll be all right, though.”

“He always is. How do you think he’ll do?”

I tapped my cigarette, watching a couple of glowing coals swirl down to the pavement. “If anyone can beat Casey, it’s Jesse.”

She cocked her head. “If anyone can, yes, but that doesn’t answer my question about how you think he’ll actually do against Casey.”

“I have complete confidence in him.” I pulled in another lungful of smoke.

She smirked. “So is everyone in politics allergic to giving straight answers?”

I laughed. “No, I just refuse to sound like an optimist.”

“Heaven forbid.” She brushed a few strands of hair off her face, and as I blew out the smoke, I watched her from the corner of my eye. Fuck, Jesse was right: she had lost an alarming amount of weight. The harsh streetlights above us emphasized how much her cheeks had hollowed, turning her trademark high cheekbones into the hallmarks of borderline skeletal thinness. Her hair looked a little thinner, and her shirt couldn’t quite hide the exaggerated protrusion of her collarbones.

Guilt sank its teeth in deeper. She’d given Jesse her blessing to see other people, just as she had his to do the same, but I couldn’t imagine this was easy for her. Putting on the face of a happy wife, knowing he was sleeping with someone else, facing that someone else like there wasn’t a thing wrong with all this .

“How about you?” I asked. “You holding up?”

“What?” She gave a quiet laugh and shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

I raised my eyebrow.

“I’m fine, Anthony.” Simone tried to back up her comment with a smile, and my heart sank a little deeper. She was an Oscar-winning actress but still couldn’t make that smile look real. Her slender eyebrows climbed slowly, her eyes reflecting the unmistakable you’re-onto-me panic, and she shifted her gaze toward her bodyguard. Then, looking at me again, she cleared her throat. “Well. Anyway. I just wanted to see how Jesse is doing.” Before I could reply, she glanced at Dean and gestured toward the building. “Shall we?”

He nodded.

She looked at me and smiled. “I guess we’ll see you after the debate?”

Tapping my cigarette over the pavement, I forced a smile. “Of course.”

With one last fake smile, Simone turned to go. Dean walked just behind her and to her left, and as they stepped through the door, he put his hand on the small of her back.

I paused, cigarette partway to my mouth, and stared at the door as it swung shut. Over and over, I replayed the image in my mind. He was her bodyguard and it wasn’t like he’d grabbed her ass, but I couldn’t decide if that had been a platonic touch, maybe a protective gesture, or something else.

Shaking my head, I looked at the ground and took another drag. Every campaign had its drama, but this was turning into one convoluted circus of affairs, even if Jesse and Simone had each other’s blessings to fuck me or Dean or whoever else was on the roster. It was obviously stressing both of them out. Jesse was a guilty mess, and Simone had to be nearing a breaking point.

For that matter, they were under too much media scrutiny to take chances. They had to be careful.

And I should have been more careful. I shouldn’t have been risking my career or Jesse’s campaign. My hips and lower back shouldn’t have ached from fucking him, and that dull tingle of satisfaction shouldn’t have lingered below my belt. If I had a brain in my goddamned head, I’d wait until this debate was over, then tell Jesse we had to stop this.

Just like I’d quit smoking before Election Day.

I dropped my exhausted cigarette and crushed it on the pavement, the subtle twisting motion igniting a vague twinge in my hip. I debated pulling out one more smoke just for good measure, but as other staffers meandered toward the door, I decided against staying out here longer than I absolutely had to. No sense risking any snafus with security or any other delays on my way back in.

The debate would be starting soon, so I went across the street to the venue and joined Ranya backstage. The room was quiet and mostly deserted, fortunately. I always preferred to watch things like this on the monitors rather than being out in the audience. Better sound, less crowded, fewer cameras that might accidentally point my direction at an inopportune moment.

Such as, say, when the mediator introduced Jesse.

Jesse stepped onto the stage, and the tinny applause almost drowned out my heartbeat as I watched him approach his podium. He was perfectly together, not a crease in his clothes or a hair out of place, but in my mind, he was still disheveled and breathless. Everyone in California saw the professional and confident Democratic candidate, not the man who’d almost cried while he begged for release less than an hour ago. He stood in front of them, ready to give them every reason to let him lead them, and not a soul knew that while they’d parked their cars outside and found their way into this auditorium, Jesse had been on his knees and at my mercy.

Ranya nudged me gently. “Breathe, Hunter.”

I exhaled, and it was only when she gave a soft laugh that I realized she’d probably expected a smart-ass retort. I glanced at her, and she smiled but didn’t say anything, so we both turned our attention back to the screen.

The debate kicked off, and after some back-and-forth between the two candidates, the mediator folded his hands on the podium and turned to Jesse. “ Mr. Cameron, your platform rests heavily on new legislation that would offer more protection and legal recourse for victims of domestic abuse. ”

Jesse nodded once. “ Yes, that’s correct. The safeguards in place right now for abused family members are appalling. ” At the mediator’s request, Jesse outlined in detail his plans to give law enforcement more clout to enforce restraining orders, give victims more safe havens, and give offenders longer sentences. The crowd—even some of Casey’s supporters, judging by the sound—approved.

As the people quieted, the mediator turned toward John. “ Mr. Casey, your take on this? ”

Casey shifted his weight. “ Well, I certainly believe our people should be protected. What good is a government if it allows harm to come to the very people it’s elected to serve? ” Applause rose, as did the corners of his mouth. When the crowd had quieted, he went on. “ And I’m not discounting the need for protection and legal recourse. That said, we can’t ignore the fact that California is facing some of its worst economic, social, and environmental issues in decades. Decades, folks. This state’s problems must be prioritized, and I hasten to add they also need an experienced touch. ” The faintest suggestion of Casey’s trademark sneer worked its way into his expression. “ This isn’t amateur hour. ”

The comment didn’t visibly faze Jesse at all. Controlled as I was, I’d have had to fight the urge to smack the son of a bitch across the face, but Jesse made it look easy to stand there and calmly wait for his turn for a rebuttal.

When that turn came, Jesse rested his hand on the right side of the podium as he so often did, cocking his hips just enough to add a relaxed-but-confident air to his posture. “ I agree with Casey. California’s in worse shape than it’s been in my lifetime. ” Perfectly timed, perfectly calculated pause. “ Which tells me it’s time for some new faces to come in and try to fix that which has been neither prevented nor resolved by the experienced professionals. ”

I grinned as the applause rose. Jesse kept the backhanded comments to a minimum as a rule, but damn if he didn’t know just when and how to deliver them. And if Casey’s scowl was any indication, the barb had found its mark.

The mediator gestured at Casey as the crowd quieted. “ Mr. Casey? ”

Casey cleared his throat. “ Well, I can see Mr. Cameron’s point that those in office now haven’t done a satisfactory job, but if your mechanic screws up your car, you don’t take it to your dry cleaner and hope for better results. ”

“ I don’t know, ” Jesse said with a vaguely smug head tilt and the ghost of a grin. “ Some of the best mechanics I know work out of their own garages in between other day jobs. ”

“ Be that as it may, the state is in shambles, ” Casey said. “ I suggest we focus time and resources on resolving current problems rather than introducing new costly, time-consuming legislation. Let’s fix the brakes before we address the windshield wipers. ”

If I were Casey’s campaign manager, I’d have been ripping out my hair right then. Open mouth, insert foot, idiot. Even if it did give my candidate an edge, the comment still made me cringe.

Jesse’s eyes narrowed as he turned his head toward his opponent, but fortunately when he spoke, he kept his tone level. “ I wouldn’t call domestic violence a defective windshield wiper. While there are certainly problems that must be addressed as soon as possible, and they will be, I can’t imagine looking a battered spouse or a beaten child in the eye and telling them they have to wait for long-overdue safety measures to— ”

Roaring applause drowned him out.

When the crowd quieted once again, Casey said, “ I’m certainly not in favor of keeping abuse victims in dangerous situations. Good heavens, no. But the fact remains, the state government’s plate is extremely full. We need to resolve these pressing issues before we can add any more straws to this camel’s back. ”

“ Then perhaps the state needs to get its priorities straight, ” Jesse shot back. “ Because if we can’t make it a priority to keep the people of California safe in their own homes, then something is very, very wrong in Sacramento. ”

Casey shifted his weight, and I couldn’t help chuckling to myself. Nothing like seeing the new kid on the block get under the experienced professional’s skin. Especially when that new kid on the block was my candidate. And my lover.

The debate went on, with Jesse and Casey sparring over every issue currently facing California. I could see why Casey had so much support in spite of being a corporate bitch and general idiot. The man had charisma. He was charming. Admittedly he was good-looking, but—and I may have been biased—he looked like a shriveled toad compared to his opponent. Still, charisma carried him where shitty policies should have weakened him. An eloquent answer and well-timed smile brought applause even when it had been mere minutes since his last foot-in-mouth moment. Either he really charmed the shit out of people, or the voters had the memory of a goldfish. I liked to give the public a little more credit than that, so I assumed it was that charisma.

Which was exactly why he’d met his match. Jesse had charisma in spades and lacked the used-car-salesman vibe. For all his ivory-tower-and-silver-spoon upbringing, Jesse was firmly grounded and genuinely gave a shit about the people, not just the corporations.

Still, no one was handing Jesse this election. Besides inexperience—something he’d brilliantly turned into a positive point—Jesse had one glaring disadvantage where Casey was concerned. Illegal immigration was a touchy issue, and with employment becoming a luxury for anyone, Californians were anything but keen on throwing down the welcome mat. When it came to this issue, Jesse was at best indecisive, at worst too lax.

Naturally Casey capitalized on that. “ Illegal immigrants can find another way into the United States, because they won’t be crossing in through California. ”

The crowd applauded. A few people whistled, and fists pumped in the air.

Jesse swallowed. So did I. Neither of us expected him to mop the floor with Casey on every issue—truth be told, I’d been just as afraid as Jesse that Casey would somehow best him—but any one weakness could be turned into the biggest issue of the election. Candidates had watched entire campaigns crumble beneath the weight of a badly executed answer or comment.

In the grand scheme of the debate and election, though, Jesse came out looking like the superior candidate. In my eyes, anyway. The public could go either way, especially if the media spun some of the sound bites around to make Casey look good or Jesse look bad. Raw and unedited, Jesse’s performance ran circles around Casey’s. I made a mental note to remind my staff to get an unedited video and transcript of the debate and make sure those went online ASAP.

Afterward, while Jesse shook hands with important and self-important supporters, I exhaled and shook the nervous tension out of my shoulders. I should have known Jesse had this, but debates always made both of us nervous. They were just way too easy to fuck up.

Someone clapped my shoulder, and I damn near jumped out of my skin.

“Hunter, I knew you could do it,” Roger said, oblivious to how much he’d startled me. “The polls are looking good, and I suspect they’ll look even better after this.”

I gave a tight smile. “Well, we’ll see. Just depends on how much creative editing the network does.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “Ever the pessimist, aren’t you?”

“I’d scare people if I suddenly turned optimistic,” I said with a dry laugh.

“You certainly would. ”

And maybe I would have. People didn’t expect such things out of me, after all. But as I looked up at the screen and caught another glimpse of Jesse, I couldn’t pretend I didn’t feel that optimistic tug in my chest.

But I wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with the election.