Eternally Yours - Brenda Jackson [15]
He gave her a lopsided grin. “No, I didn’t forget. I just didn’t think you meant you would also sleep through lunch.”
“Lunch! What time is it?”
“Around one-thirty.”
“One-thirty! I didn’t mean to sleep so late,” she said, pulling herself up in a sitting position. She forced her gaze from his lips, full and inviting. Somehow they had never intrigued her before as they were doing now.
“You must have really been tired.”
“Yes, I was.” She didn’t bother to add that she had lain awake most of the night thinking about him. She suddenly felt uncomfortable at his closeness, and a confusing rush of desire whirled inside her. He was dressed in a blue pullover shirt and a pair of white shorts. The masculine fragrance of his cologne was beginning to dull her senses.
She suddenly realized while she had been staring at him, he’d been doing likewise with her. “I need to get dressed.”
“Don’t let me stop you. Just pretend that I’m not here.”
“Fat chance, Clayton Madaris!”
Clayton laughed throatily, and a disarmingly generous smile extended to his eyes. “I was afraid you’d say that.”
Syneda watched him stretch his body before standing. “Okay, Miss Walters, I’ll leave you to dress in peace. But if you’re not ready to go in twenty minutes, I’m coming back for you.”
Syneda watched as he left the room, closing the door behind him. She tried going back into her mind, into central control, to reset her emotions. She was not ready for the thoughts and feelings she’d begun having around Clayton.
“Senator, I’m glad you’re back, sir. How was your trip?”
“The trip was nice, Braxter. It’s always good to get away and spend some time with an old friend.” Senator Nedwyn Lansing studied the young man in front of him. As a senator’s top aide, Braxter Montgomery at the age of thirty was the best there was. A graduate of Georgetown University, he had begun working for him over six years ago, serving him through almost two full terms. During that time he had gotten to know Braxter as well as the other members of his immediate staff. They were people he could depend on. But only a few he felt he could trust completely. Braxter was one of them.
“Is something bothering you, Braxter?”
“There’s nothing bothering me, sir. But there is something I’m concerned about.”
“You worry too much.”
“I’m supposed to. That’s part of my job.”
The senator nodded. “All right. Let’s sit and talk.”
The two men took seats that were facing each other. “Okay, let’s have it, Braxter. What’s so concerning that you’ve missed lunch?”
Braxter eyed the forty-nine-year-old, light-complexioned black man with hazel eyes sitting across from him. He was a man he highly respected. Most people did. Where most senators did good things for their image, Senator Lansing did good things for the people he represented. He was often referred to by the media as the “people’s servant.” His life was an open book.
It was a known fact he’d been a sharecropper’s son from a small town in Texas not far from the border. His mother had died when he was five. With hard work and dedication, he had completed high school and because of his academic achievements, he had obtained a four-year scholarship to attend the University of Texas in Houston.
It was also well-known that he had never been married, although he’d been steadily dating a law professor at Howard University for the past couple of years. The only thing that had always puzzled Braxter was the senator’s annual trip to Texas this time every year; the one he had just returned from. It was a trip he never talked about, other than to say he had gone to visit a friend.
“What I’m concerned about, sir, is your blockage of the Harris Bill.”
Senator Lansing raised a brow. “What about it? That bill needed to be blocked. I flatly refuse to support any legislation that proposes cuts in education.”
“Yes, Senator, and I agree with you. But blocking that bill won’t be a popular move on your part. Especially with certain people.”
The senator nodded, knowing