Tall, Dark_.Westmoreland! - Brenda Jackson [26]
She breathed in a deep breath before moving away from the door. She glanced around. The room was apparently a little game room. It had a love seat, a card table, a refrigerator and a television.
“This is where my cousins and brothers get together to play cards on occasion,” said Reggie, breaking into her thoughts. “They used to rotate at each other’s homes, but after they married and started having kids, they couldn’t express themselves like they wanted whenever they were losing. So we decided to find someplace to go where we could be as loud and as colorful as we wanted to be.”
She nodded and remembered how things were when her brothers used to have their friends over for poker. Some of their choice words would burn her ears. She then crossed the room to sit on the love seat.
He remained standing and was staring at her, making her feel uncomfortable. She cleared her throat. “You wanted to meet with me,” she said, reminding him of why they were there.
He smiled. “Yes, and do you know why?”
“Yes,” she said, holding his gaze. “It wouldn’t take much to figure out that now that you know my father is one of the men you’ll be running against in a few months, you want to establish an understanding between us. You want us to pretend that Saturday night never happened and that we’ve never met.”
He continued to stare at her intently. “Is that what you think?”
She blinked. “Yes, of course. Under these circumstances, there’s no way we can be seen together or even let anyone in on the fact that we know each other.”
“I don’t see why not. I’m running against your father, not you, so it shouldn’t matter,” he said.
Olivia felt her heart pounding hard in her chest. “But it does matter. Orin Jeffries is my father, and he and his campaign staff consider you the enemy,” she said truthfully, although she hadn’t meant to do so.
Reggie shook his head. “It’s unfortunate they feel that way. I’m not his enemy. I’m his opponent in a Senate race. It’s nothing personal, and I was hoping no one would make it such.”
Olivia didn’t know what to say. She knew Senator Reed, who seemed to be calling the shots as to how her father ran his campaign, could be ruthless at times. She had overheard the whispered conversations that took place at her table during lunch. She knew that the man had no intentions of letting this be a clean campaign, and that bothered her because it was so unlike her father to get involved in something so manipulative and underhanded.
“I’m sorry, but it will be personal. I don’t agree, but politics is politics,” she heard herself saying, knowing it wasn’t an acceptable excuse. “If I became involved with you in any way, it would be equal to treason in my father’s eyes. Things are too complicated.”
“Only if we let them be. I still say us meeting and going out on occasion don’t involve your father, just me and you.”
She shook her head as she stood. It was time to go. She really should not have come. “I need to go.”
“But you just got here,” he said softly in that sexy voice that did things to her nervous system.
“I know, but coming here was a mistake,” she said.
“Then why did you?” he asked softly.
She met his gaze and knew she would tell him the truth. “I felt that I should. Saturday night was a first of its kind for me. I’ve never left a party with someone I truly didn’t know, and I’ve never had a one-night stand. But I did with you because I felt the chemistry. One of the reasons I came today was that I needed to see if the chemistry between us was real or a figment of my imagination.”
“And what’s your verdict?” he asked, holding her gaze.
She didn’t hesitate in responding. “It’s real.”
“Does that frighten you?”
“It does not so much frighten me as confuse me. Like I said, I’ve never responded to a man this way before.”
“And what was the other reason you came tonight?