American Scandal (Their First Lady Book 1)

by Lucia Black

  Slowly, Cal moved forward. Without even thinking about it, I moved to the edge of the seat to meet him.

  He took his palm and cupped the back of my neck to pull my face to meet his. He crushed me in a kiss. He was controlled in his motions, seemingly moving his tongue and lips in a rhythm, but it was dizzyingly good. When he was sure I wasn’t going to pull away, Cal moved his hands and brought them both down to my breasts.

  With the cut of the dress, I wasn’t able to wear a bra, so Cal had no issues finding my nipples. In a matter of seconds, he had them hard in his expert fingers, all while never breaking the kiss.

  “Take your panties off,” he said against my mouth.

  “Now?” I said in surprise, leaning back.

  If he hadn’t already had me wet, the idea of what he wanted to do did. I shimmied my dress up to my hips and pulled my panties down, licking my lips with anticipation for what was about to come.

  My panties were a sexy cream lace, and when I handed them to Cal he smiled before tucking them into an inner pocket of his jacket.

  After a long, lustful moment where Cal did nothing but look at me, he said, “Pull your dress back down.”

  My heart sunk, my loins burned, and I wanted him to fuck me in that limo. “What?”

  Cal leaned forward to kiss the shell of my ear and help me pull the dress down. “I know you’re wet. I know you want me to fuck you, and god knows I want to, but we’re almost there, and the first time I’m in you, I’m going to take my time and do things the way I want. Until then, I’m going to enjoy thinking of you spending the night talking to these rich bastards and not wearing anything under your dress.”

  We came to a stop outside a crowded downtown high-rise. My head spun; it was hard to think of anything but my sexual needs. I was about to tell Cal it was fine, just give me a minute and I’d take care of myself in the limo, but I was out of time. He winked at me and we both put on our smiling faces as the driver opened the door and camera flashes started immediately.

  Cal held my hand and led me inside the swanky hotel. Everything was different about this fundraiser. For starters, Cal and I were walking into it as an already established couple, and unfinished sexual business aside, I wasn’t dreading the evening—with the exception of one person I had been desperately trying to keep my mind away from. Second, everything about this fundraiser was ostentatious. Cal had attracted the attention of the most elite men and women while campaigning, and they all came out to see him. The party reflected that.

  The well-dressed and diverse crowd erupted into applause as we entered through the double doors, held open by white-gloved staff. Cameras flashed, loud whistles and hoots sounded from all around, and I’d never felt more like a celebrity in my life.

  The setup in the ballroom reminded me more of a wedding than a political event with its white tablecloths and tall floral arrangements.

  Cal shook several hands and kissed many cheeks as we made our way across the floor, but he never let go of my hand. He worked that room in a way I’d never seen done before. He quietly commanded everyone’s attention, and they were eager to give it. And that attention wasn’t from just anybody off the street. It was from all the most important people in the city, possibly the state, maybe even the country—and Cal had the confidence to work them all.

  “That is Thomas Gardner,” Cal whispered in my ear as we approached an older man wearing a thick pinky ring and shiny blue shoes with his tuxedo. “He’s one of the richest men in the world, and he does a great deal of business with your father and the foundation. He’ll want to meet you.”

  I nodded and tried to think of something profound yet charming to say.

  “Tom,” Cal said shaking his hand. He only let go of me to clap Thomas on the back.

  “Cal, you old bastard. Because of you and your lofty goals, I had to get out of bed, put on a tux, and pay five-figures to buy a table at this shitty hotel. And who is this?” Thomas took my hand and brought it to his thin lips, and despite the fact he’d asked a question, he kept talking. “My, my, you are lovely. If I wasn’t here with my current wife, I’d get a room and take you upstairs right this second.”

  Current wife? I wanted to laugh. Thomas was clearly a man who didn’t give a fuck, and I guessed money made that entirely possible. Besides the gaudy accessories, he was handsome enough, his graying hair slightly long and slicked back.

  “This”—Cal said, removing Thomas’ hand from mine—“is my girlfriend, Tessa Moretti.” The position in his voice was impossible to miss.

  Recognition colored Thomas’ face. “Ahh, Miss Moretti. Please accept my apologies. It’s very nice to meet you. Bruno is a bastard, but he has a rose of a daughter.”

  I didn’t know how to respond, but I didn’t think it mattered. “Bastard is an odd term of endearment,” I mused.

  “Oh, sweetheart, you have no idea how odd I am.”

  The woman I assumed to be his current wife approached then. I was expecting young, dumb, blond, and stacked. She was none of those things. It appeared Thomas was a man full of surprises. His wife had short black hair and skin as pale as Casper’s. Her dress was a two-piece and tight enough to show her trim figure, and her breasts were small. She had a stunning beauty to her. Maybe it was how confident she appeared.

  “This is the wife,” Thomas said. “She’s new, but probably only has a couple of months left in her. Cal, you can shake her hand.”

  Cal paused, taken aback by the situation, and I could tell he was biting back a laugh. He introduced himself and offered his hand.

  “Tabitha.” She smiled like her husband didn’t just speak of their doomed marriage and refer to her as an object.

  Cal was polite enough to ask her some questions about herself and Tabitha was interesting enough to keep the conversation going. We’d just gotten on the subject of where she went to school when I caught a glimpse of Preston.

  I steeled my spine. This was what I hadn’t been looking forward to. I missed talking to him. I had wanted to say so much to him after he left that morning, but none of it made sense anymore. I was so confused. Lusting over our night together and not wanting to put a name to what I felt for him beyond that—and there was something undoubtedly there. And now I felt comfortable with Cal, and a great deal of lust had entered our relationship.

  He looked amazing. The way his tuxedo hugged his body did things to me that weren’t safe. It suddenly reminded me that I wasn’t wearing panties and I shifted slightly. We locked eyes and I stopped breathing, but I felt my heart sink into my stomach when his face didn’t react to mine at all. It was as if he were looking past me.

  “There’s the man of the hour,” Cal said as his best friend approached. They shook hands and Cal clapped him on the arm.

  “Nice to see everyone again,” he said in a warm greeting, nodding to all of us, shaking the Gardners’ hands.

  “You remember Tessa,” Cal said.

  “Yes, I do.” He gave me a fake smile that was somehow worse than no smile at all. He reached forward, clasping my hand in a loose shake before he let go. “You look like you’re here to break hearts tonight, Miss Moretti,” Preston said quietly.

  I said nothing and gave him a tight-lipped smile. I deserved a jab. I’d done something unforgivably shitty. But he was only getting one. I knew I hurt him. But I was hurting too.

  “Let’s hope not,” Cal said with a laugh. He looked around, changing the subject. “The turnout is better than expected. I’m happy to see so many here.” He noticed the way Mr. Gardner was ogling me, and he snaked his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him in an unmistakably possessive way.

  “Agreed,” Preston said. “It’s supposed to be a good night.” He kept flicking his gaze on Cal’s hand grasping my hip. He was angry—that was obvious—but there was a sadness in his eyes I couldn’t take. A sadness I caused.

  “I need you to make sure you spend a lot of time talking to the press. You’ve been under the radar, and I want people to get to know
you,” Cal said to Preston.

  “I have been talking to the press. I’ve held symposiums and Q and A sessions at university campuses, and I’ve been touring plants. The press covers it. I just haven’t been all over the gossip pages like some people.”

  I glanced between them. Cal’s jaw tightened as he glared at Preston, but Preston didn’t cower.

  “I’m doing what needs to be done. Can I say the same about my VP?” Cal wasn’t angry. His voice was calm and commanding.

  “Yeah, I’ll do what needs to be done.”

  “I don’t know what’s gotten into you tonight,” Cal said through a smile as he leaned into his friend, looking like he was having a friendly conversation, “but you need to cut the shit and focus.”

  “I’m focused on the White House, not something else,” Preston shot back while gesturing to me and Cal.

  I cleared my throat and both men looked at me almost like they forgot I was standing there. “I need to use the powder room.”

  “Of course,” Cal said. He squeezed my hand before I left, and it just made me feel like I’d taken another jab at Preston.

  I couldn’t say I knew Cal and Preston well before all this started, but I knew they both considered the other their best friend. For years. And then I came along and fucked it all up. Did Cal even know why Preston was acting that way? Did he notice the tension, or did I only see it because I knew the truth?

  I opted out of using the crowded restrooms right off the ballroom and moved further into the hotel, past the lobby, and down a hall that smelled so strongly of chlorine, the pool had to have been nearby.

  The restroom was empty and quiet with plenty of open space to change for the pool. It was the perfect place to contemplate my life choices. The three of us were going to work closely together for at least the next four years, and I couldn’t take being around the two of them for four minutes. I leaned over the sink, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath to keep myself from hyperventilating.

  The slight squeak of the door swinging open alerted me to someone coming in. I straightened and cursed whoever it was for ruining my one moment of peace. But then the sound of the lock clicking into place cut through the silence.

  I turned around, my heart pounding even though I wasn’t sure what was about to happen, and Preston was standing there.

  Chapter 20

  “What the hell are you doing?” I said in shock.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, obviously reading the panic on my face. “I just . . . I needed to talk to you.”

  “I’ve been wanting to talk to you. I picked up the phone a hundred times, I swear I did . . .” I fidgeted with my hands. Being near him brought back all those feelings I was fighting against in the first place. I thought for sure by now I would know what to say to him.

  “I probably wouldn’t have answered. I told myself I was done with you—that we had to be—but here I am, locking us in a bathroom together.”

  A nervous laugh escaped my lips, followed by an awkward silence where we did nothing but stand there and not look at each other. “I’m so sorry,” I finally said.

  Preston took a step closer and then another. “I’m having a hard time with this. I know we were only together the one night, but it’s more than that. It’s that and every night that led up to it. I don’t like seeing you with him.”

  “This whole thing . . . it’s not what you think. I mean, it sort of is, but there’s more to it. It’s just . . . it’s not what it seems.”

  “Tell me what it is, then.” He kept his voice low even though there was no reason to. There was an intimacy to his voice that made me want to cry. I could hear the hurt.

  “I can’t, but please trust me, I didn’t do this to hurt you. If that’s what you think, please don’t.”

  “I’m thinking the two of you are together, and I can’t see it as anything else. But I’m also thinking you feel something for me. I’m thinking I like who I am when I am with you. I feel like me instead of what everyone else needs me to be.”

  He was so close. All I would’ve had to do was extend my arm the slightest and I could’ve been touching him.

  “Preston,” I sighed his name. “I . . .”

  He closed the gap between us, bringing his hands up to my hips and resting them there with a feather-light touch. I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t let him see my eyes, because if I did, he’d see the truth. I wanted him.

  “Tessa,” he whispered. When I still didn’t look up, he cupped my chin in his hand and ran his thumb across my jaw. My breathing deepened.

  He kissed me, slow at first. I kissed him back, exploring his mouth with my tongue. It was wrong, I knew that, but it felt so damn right and I couldn’t stop. I fisted his coat in my hands and sucked on his bottom lip. Preston moaned and pushed my back until we were up against a wall.

  I pulled Preston as tightly against me as possible, but it wasn’t enough. He pulled my dress up until it was bunched around my waist and I could wrap my legs around him.

  Preston wasted no time. He reached down between my legs and then stopped.

  “No panties again?” He kissed down my neck as he palmed my sex. “You took them off for me, didn’t you? You knew I’d be here . . . what color were they?”

  Ignoring everything else he said, I answered, “Cream.”

  He undid his pants with nimble fingers while I held myself in place with my thighs and my arms around his neck. There was a palpable urgency between us. We couldn’t wait to be with each other, and the time spent apart was too much. Preston thrust into me and I was more than ready to accept the intrusion.

  “Fuck, you’re wet.”

  I moaned his name and I caught a glimpse of us in the expansive bathroom mirror as he practically fucked me into the wall. It felt so good having him fill me, but watching it made it feel even better. He pumped in and out of me at a frantic pace and the firm cheeks of his ass clenched each time he did. Seeing him in me from that angle was enough to send me over the edge.

  I dug my nails into his back and moved in time with him to meet his hips thrust for thrust. “Oh, god,” I bit out, finding my release. My inner walls clenched and spasmed around his length as I bucked against him. Preston stilled against me, finding his own release, exhaling deeply into my neck.

  I could hardly breathe. I could hardly think straight. He gently let me down from the wall and I slumped against him on weak legs.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  I shook my head against his chest. “Yes . . . no . . .” I sighed. “What have we done?”

  I returned to the ballroom first. Preston and I decided we couldn’t return at the same time and that I would leave first. I’d missed some of the mingling and found Cal sitting down to the salad course of dinner.

  “Hey.” He stood when he saw me and pulled out my chair. “Is everything okay?”

  Our tablemates were doing a good show of acting like they weren’t paying attention, but it was obvious they were.

  “Oh, yes. I got a call from my grandmother on the way to the bathroom and . . .well, you know how it is. I couldn’t get her off the phone.”

  “Old broads,” Thomas added, not only openly listening to our conversation, but adding to it. “That’s why I marry young.”

  I wanted to point out that no one his age would probably marry him even with all his money, but instead, I ignored him.

  Preston claimed the open seat on the other side of me with a fresh drink in his hand.

  “Well, I found the girl I want to take home tonight.” He took a swig of his amber-colored drink and looked me right in the eyes. I nearly choked.

  “Good,” Cal said under his breath.

  I couldn’t keep this up forever, or maybe even for another hour. I can’t believe I lost all my focus in a matter of minutes. All I had to do was be alone in his presence and that’s what happened.

  A stout man in a fancy gray tuxedo hurriedly approached the table.

  “Winston.” Cal shook h
is hand while I wondered how he kept everyone’s names straight. “It’s good to see you.”

  “Likewise,” Winston said, surprised. He clearly didn’t expect Cal to remember him. “As you might recall, I’m the head of the Homeless No More Foundation and I was really impressed with your insights on the unemployment issues facing today’s economy. Is there a way I could get in contact with you about possibly coming to speak to my organization?”

  Cal’s eyes lit up. This was exactly the kind of thing this night was for. He was gaining support and making a difference.

  “Yes. I’ll let my assistant know you’ll be calling and to set it up as soon as there is an opening in my schedule.” He opened his tuxedo jacket and pulled out a business card, but from my angle all I could see was a swatch of cream lace.

  Panic clawed at my throat and I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I glanced at Preston and his gaze was trained on nothing else but my panties in Cal’s jacket pocket. The understanding was clear in Preston’s tight-jawed expression.

  He wouldn’t look at me. I opened my mouth to speak, but realized there was nothing I could say in front of everyone else.

  “Please, excuse me.” Preston pushed back from his seat with so much force the whole table shook, ice cubes clanked against glasses, and the centerpiece swayed.

  Without even thinking about it, I got up and left the table too. I didn’t know what I’d say, or how I’d explain, but I needed to talk to him.

  Cal caught up to me in just a few feet.

  “What’s wrong? Why’d you run off like that?”

  “I was—” I couldn’t think of a lie. I didn’t even want to. “I was going to see if Preston was okay. He left so quickly I thought I would check on him.”

  Cal grabbed my hand and started leading me back to the table. “He probably just saw the girl he wanted to take home. Or girls. You never really know with Preston.”

  Chapter 21

  I watched from the crowd as Cal gave a rousing speech. The audience was so responsive to him it was almost as if each individual person felt he was speaking directly to them. He knew how to charm them and take control.