I rolled my eyes. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I work for Mr. Elwood now, as his campaign manager, which makes me his glorified personal assistant. He asked for an address to a nice restaurant I’d suggested and I gave it to him. He’ll be eating well tonight.”
Verywell. If I had it my way, Elwood would be eating my ass.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I want to go home.” I flashed a smile at Kalinski and stalked my way out of city hall and toward the nearest bus stop on the corner. While New Gothenburg wasn’t as busy or big as New York City, the downtown was always jammed during the weekday with cars using expensive parking, making it easier and cheaper for me to take the bus to my apartment on the outskirts. I was damned lucky to have found a paid internship, but I still had to cut into my savings to get through, so that didn’t give me much choice in terms of where to live, which made me wonder if I’d get a wage increase with the new job. Elwood was money-smart, though, so I could only guess I’d have to work for any perks I wanted.
The bus home was full of familiar faces, and six stops later I was stepping off and walking down a few streets until I got to my apartment building. I nodded at my neighbor Pete, who held the door for me.
“Busy day at work, Jax?” Pete grinned and watched my face a little too intently.
I stopped beside him and nodded in appreciation at his polite gesture. “Always.”
He stepped closer, and his smile grew until the dimples in his cheeks appeared. As he brushed a hand through his hair, I didn’t miss the way his gaze traveled down my body like it did every time I stopped to talk to him. “Looks like it. You know, I still have that bottle of wine if you ever want to relax one night. Maybe even tonight?”
I patted him on the shoulder. He made nice attempts, and if I ever slept with anyone just for fun, I’d have taken him up on it, but having sex with Pete didn’t give me any advantages. “Maybe another time. Have a good walk, Pete.”
I headed inside the narrow hallway that led past our mailboxes and straight to an even narrower set of mahogany wooden stairs. Wall lights lit up the small, dark space, and I followed them up to the second floor where my apartment was on the right. Unlocking the door, I walked in and dropped my messenger bag near the coatrack that stood next to the entrance. My jacket went next, and I hung it on one of the hooks before I stared around at the small area I called my home. I could hazard a guess what Elwood would think about the living space, but hehadsaid he was coming here. It wasn’t my choice, and I wasn’t going to be embarrassed by where I lived. I’d worked hard to get to this point, just like I’d work harder to get higher.
I didn’t bother cooking anything because I doubted Elwood was dropping by for dinner. A man like him wanted only one thing, the very same something I offered to him in return for an advanced position.
What I did do was shower and wash the day’s sweat off. By the time I got out and had a towel wrapped around my waist, the doorbell rang, and I smiled. There was no use getting into clothes if they were only going to be taken off again. Walking down the short hallway and into my open-plan living/kitchen/dining, I threw the door wide and put my hand on my hip, smirking.
“Mr. Elwood. Welcome.”
Elwood hadn’t changed out of his work clothes, still wearing that expensive suit that fitted his body in all the right ways, but he smelled fresh, like maybe he’d taken a shower too. I’d previously seen him heading into the gym that was one of the perks at city hall, so it wasn’t hard to assume he’d gotten redressed there after exercising.
Elwood’s brows rose and his gaze roamed my bare chest as he hummed thoughtfully, before he stopped to stare longer at my hips, those same body parts I’d hated growing up. I’d always been teased for being different from the other boys, even if I’d argued that my wider waist gave me advantages playing sports. They really didn’t. Elwood seemed to like them, though, because it felt like he was eating me up.
“Are you going to invite me in, Mr. Bell?” It wasn’t a question, more like a demand, so it wasn’t surprising when he didn’t wait for an answer, and instead chose to push himself past me and into the compact living room. He stared around the apartment while I closed the door and turned to look at him. “Small but clean. Something I’d expect you to live in.”
“What does that mean?” I narrowed my eyes on him and crossed my arms.
He glanced at me, mouth curled to the side. There was something sexy about his confidence, and it made my skin feel too hot for my body. I resisted the urge to reach up and fan my face. He didn’t need his ego stroked; it looked like it was big enough already.
“I mean that until this afternoon, you were an intern. Never be embarrassed by what you begin with. The hardest workers start with nothing and work their way up. A man should be measured by what he came from and where he ends.”
“If you ask a lot of people in politics, they’d tell you he’s measured by how much money he or his family has.” The bitterness in my voice came out unexpectedly, and I glared at the spot on the wall above his head.
“That’s not politics, that’s life.” Elwood walked toward me casually, his hands in the pockets of his pants, that trench coat still hanging off his shoulders. I felt underdressed in the towel wrapped around my waist, but I expected he’d be a lot less dressed sooner rather than later. Elwood didn’t look like the kind of person who wanted to talk. “And our fight makes us better men.”
I snorted. I’d heard that more than once and didn’t care much for it.
“Now, before we start this… arrangement, you know my conditions. I will also be calling you Bell while we’re participating in these activities. As I said before, you can call me Daddy, but the moment we’re back in the real world, I’m Mr. Elwood again. Am I clear?”
I nodded. “Yes, Daddy.”
Hearing me call him that made the irises of his eyes darken, or at least I imagined they did, and he licked his bottom lip. I felt his stare on my skin, sizing me up, and I shivered under the intensity. He wanted me, there was no doubting it. I’d been with lots of different men, but none like him. He was devouring me with merely a look.
“Come here,” he ordered, reaching up to slip off his coat and throwing it over the back of my black two-seater couch. His suit jacket went next, and by the time I walked over to him, he was left in his tie and shirt. I swallowed the excitement that lodged itself in my throat and exhaled slowly, trying to steady myself.
When I got in his personal space, he curled an arm around my waist and heaved me closer until our chests touched. The material of his shirt rubbed against my skin and the friction felt nice. My face grew hot with need. His hand slid lower until he squeezed my asscheek through the towel.
“I like it when you call me that,” he whispered, smirking.
My cock was already half hard, attempting to push a tent into the cotton of the towel, but I was pressed against his thigh and my erection had nowhere to go. There wasn’t any doubt he could feel me hardening.
He traced the curve of my jaw and then leaned in to steal a rough kiss that had me pushing myself up on my toes. I didn’t think I could even call what we did a kiss because it felt rougher than that, and he was fucking me with his tongue like he was imagining it was his cock in my ass.
I groaned into his mouth and wrapped my arms around his neck, using the leverage to rub myself against him, but it finished too quickly and he stepped away from me, pulling at his tie. I watched him through heavy-lidded eyes as he loosened the blue-striped material and tugged it from his neck, throwing it in the same direction as his jackets.
