“Were you thinking that was Tyson’s leg, then?”
She looks away. “I came here tohelp. I didn’t need this job. I have plenty of others who will hire me in a second.”
“Leave, then.” I shrug and push away the stack of papers.
“Is that really what you want?”
Tyson speaks up. “I think it’s for the best that you go. We’ll pay you the full amount agreed to.”
Vanessa huffs before sliding out of the booth and leaving without another word. As soon as she’s gone, Tyson and I just look at each other for a few seconds.
“I’m taking Saturday and Sunday off,” I say.
He rolls his eyes. “Perfect. We just lost our strategist, the election’s less than a month away, and you’re taking the weekend off.”
“Yep.” I get up and take a bottle of water from the fridge. “Ready to rewrite my speech?”
Tyson’s weary sigh is my only answer.
23
Reagan
As soon asI walk in my front door, it hits me how much I’ve missed home. I breathe in the fresh scent of wood from the recent refinishing of the floors on our main level.
Much as I’d like to curl up on the couch and relax, I need to get ready for Jude’s arrival later. I took an early flight, and he can’t get here until early evening. That gives me a couple hours to get my hair blown out and have all my overgrown areas waxed.
Tonight will be a reminder of what I wish we could have all the time. Part of me wants to talk to Jude about my feelings, but I’m not ready yet. He’s in the thick of campaigning, and I don’t want to upset him. Besides, I’m pretty sure he’ll have other things in mind when he gets here.
Our text fighting won’t lessen his sexual appetite for me. If anything, it’ll heighten his desire to put me in my place the only way he can.
Just the thought makes my knees weaken slightly. None of the men I was with before Jude hold a candle to him in the bedroom. He’s like a drug I can never get enough of.
I manage not only a trip to my salon but also a stop at a lingerie store for a sheer red bra and panties that lace up in back with a ribbon. I smile as I slip on yoga pants with a hole in one knee and an old campaign shirt of mine from when I was a state rep with a stain on front.
I’m going to have some fun with Jude tonight. In more than one way.
“Hey,” he calls out from the front entrance. “You here, babe?”
“Hi, yeah.” I greet him as I jog down the stairs.
I get to the living room, and we just look at each other from about ten feet apart for a few seconds, both of us sizing up whether we’re still mad at each other.
Finally, I see Jude move in my direction, and I move toward him at the same time. We meet, and he wraps me in his arms.
I close my eyes and bury my face in his neck as he holds me. God, I’ve missed him. The faint, sporty scent of his body wash smells as much like home to me as our newly sanded floors.
“Apology accepted,” I murmur.
He grunts in response and pulls back a little, smoothing a few strands of dark hair away from my face before kissing me.
“I missed my gorgeous, stubborn, cantankerous wife,” he says against my lips.
My single note of laughter is amused. “And I missed my sexy, moody, horse’s ass husband.”
“Horse’s ass?” His tone is offended, but his eyes are lit with amusement.
“That’s what I said.”
