I heard her say the words but it took me a second too long to realize she had turned and went straight for my bedroom.
“Oh, um Anna…it’s a mess in there,” I said as I tried to stop her.
I came around the corner from the kitchen to my bedroom door and looked anxiously throughout the room as I watched Anna and Todd go to the balcony. There was no way Matthew could fit under the bed, so I looked in the bathroom to see if he was there. Finally I saw that my closet was slightly opened and figured he must have hid in there.
Silently I laughed to myself at the thought of the Illinois State Senator hiding in my tiny closet. It made me extremely happy though and I probably kept Anna and Todd in my room longer than I should have; purely because I enjoyed the idea of him in my closet.
“You should look off to the left, you can see the White House on a clear night,” I said as I walked over and shut my closet all the way.
After about ten minutes of talking on the balcony we returned to the dining room and ate dinner. I shut the bedroom door on our way out to allow Matthew the ability to relax a little while he was stuck in there. I assumed he was going to be pretty damn angry with me when I finally let Anna and Todd leave.
Our dinner lasted well into the evening and by the time I said good-bye to Anna and Todd I was sure that Matthew was going to be livid with me. I gingerly opened my bedroom door and expected to find him lying on my bed or relaxed in the new side chair I had in the corner. But Matthew was nowhere to be found.
“Matthew,” I said as I looked around. “Where are you?”
“The closet door doesn’t open from the inside,” I heard Matthew say firmly.
“Oh, my God,” I said as the laughter started uncontrolled. “You’ve been in the closet all night?” I said as I opened the door.
But my laughter didn’t calm when I opened the closet door, because what I found was Matthew standing totally naked inside my tiny four foot wide closet that was stuffed with clothes.
I doubled over with laughter. The kind of laughter that you know is wrong, but you just can’t stop. The kind of laughter that had tears flowing so hard down my face I had to wipe them from my eyes.
“I’m so going to get you for this,” Matthew said with a smile on his face as he slowly started to walk toward me.
I ran from the bedroom into the living room and positioned myself behind a chair as I waited for him to come after me. I still couldn’t stop laughing at the idea of him standing naked in my closet for the last two hours. It almost made up for him being a jerk earlier in the day.
“Oh, I’m sorry for laughing. But you looked so adorable standing naked in my closet,” I said through continued laughter.
Matthew walked straight toward me and picked me up over his shoulder with such precision that I continued to laugh.
“Why were you naked?” I said through my laughter.
“I wanted to surprise you after you turned them away. I had just taken my clothes off in the bathroom when I heard your friend say they wanted to look on the balcony. Luckily I ducked into the closet when I did because they came into your room just as I shut the door.”
“Oh… my…God… I can’t stop laughing,” I said through my tears as Matthew dropped me onto the bed.
“I’ll make you stop laughing.”
I watched him suspiciously as he reached for my legs and pulled me down the bed toward him. He made quick work of getting my pants off and then pulled my shirt up over my head and wrapped it around my wrists.
He held my wrists above me as he moved his fingers up and down my body. His eyes devoured me as it looked like he was trying to decide just what he wanted to do with me. But he was right, I had stopped laughing.
To my utter surprise, Matthew leaned down and kissed me so gently and sweetly that I got caught off guard. The kiss reminded me so much of when I had first met him in Chicago. He was gentle and kind; but most of all he was genuinely there with me in the moment.
Our lips passionately kissed in a love embrace that made me want Matthew more than I could have imagined only a few hours before. He pulled back and looked at me with the intent of loving me that night. Not fucking me, but actually making love; I was drawn in with all I had.
As angry as I had been at Matthew, it was because of his distance that I pulled back. It was because I felt jaded by his need to have me help him with his strategic plan. I had been angry because I knew he had once thought of me as a love interest and not an employee and I desperately wanted that feeling back.
His body perched on top of mine was molded perfectly with my curves. As he moved inside of me I moved my body with his in the utmost of perfection. Our thrusts were slow, deliberate and sensual. Instead of purely being about our bodies, there was an emotion between us that I had never felt with Matthew before.
I really didn’t know what had changed for him or why; but I liked the Matthew that I had in bed with me at that moment. That Matthew was the one I wanted to keep around and the one I would do anything for. With the White House event coming up the next day, I felt so much better with the idea of helping him with his plans.
***
I was actually really excited to get ready for the White House dinner. My dress was fantastic and I felt like things between Matthew and I were really great as well. His sweet and gentle manner had pulled me back on and I wanted to have a great night with him at the White House event.
“I’ll be done in just a second,” I hollered out to Matthew who had arrived early to pick me up after running home to his house to get his things.
“You do know that it’s the Presidential Dinner, we sort of need to show up on time,” Matthew said from my living room couch.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” I said as I came out of my bedroom and gathered my coat and purse. “Alright, let’s go.”
Matthew stood up and literally had his jaw wide open. He looked at me up and down and then did it again. He all of a sudden didn’t seem like he was in that much of a hurry to leave.
“Do the twirl thing,” he said as he motioned in a circle.
“I thought you were in a hurry?”
“Oh, I’ve got time to see the twirl.”
I obliged him and slowly twirled around in a circle so he could see my entire dress. It was fun to see the lust in his eyes for me, but I did really want to impress the other people at the party with my style. I wanted the women to be interested in talking to me. I wanted to feel like I belonged.
“It isn’t too revealing?” I asked.
“No, it’s perfect. The men will want to fuck you and the women will want to be you.”
My face blushed at his words as Matthew grabbed my coated and helped me into it. His hands stopped and gently touched the nap of my neck, lingering there for a few seconds before he pulled away.
“Are we ready?”
“Yep, let’s do this,” I said as we made our way to the waiting limo.
I really had not spent very much time in limousines or at fancy parties in my lifetime. I couldn’t help but be extremely excited at the opportunity to go to the White House and mingle with so many important people.
The front entry to the White House was riddled with secret service, security and police officers. There were several check points we needed to get past just to get into the front gates. Then once inside the first tent we were searched, walked through a metal detector and finally fingerprinted. We waited for about ten minutes while everything was verified and then we were allowed into the main building.
Never in my life had I heard about the high level of security that was involved in getting into the White House. It made me even more excited when we finally made it inside.
The ballroom was beautifully appointed and everyone was dressed to impress. I felt like I fit in with the crowd and I felt like a true adult as we walked into the main room.
“Senator Masson is over there,” I whispered to Matthew as we entered the large ballroom.
“I see Senator Edwards, too
. Let’s avoid Masson and start on the other side of the room.”
“Sounds good. Are we teaming up or going solo?”
“I think you should handle the men and I’ll handle the women; let’s go solo. Actually, maybe we should work together,” Matthew said as he appeared to be thinking and rethinking what his plan was.
“Let’s start out solo and we can combine efforts on any of the tough cases, how does that sound?”
Matthew hesitated as one of the President’s secretaries made her way over toward us. I froze as I watched her walk toward us, but Matthew seemed perfectly calm.
“Yes, that’s good,” he said quickly before she got too close.
“Senator Storm, the President would like to talk with you and a few others in the conference room over there.”
Matthew looked in the direction that the woman pointed and took a moment to assess who else had been invited to come over and talk with the President. He smiled back at me and pointed me on my way to the other side of the room.
“Alright, I’ll be right there,” Matthew said as he looked at me.
He looked like there was something he wanted to talk to me about but he didn’t get the chance before the woman grabbed his arm and practically pulled him off to the room where everyone was meeting.
So there I was, at the White House and I didn’t know a single person. I did the only thing I could think of to do, I found some alcohol. I downed one drink quickly and then grabbed a second drink. There was no way I was going to make it through the night without some liquid courage.
As I downed my vodka sour, I looked around the room to see who I recognized as Senators so I could start talking to people. I didn’t quite know how I would convince people to put Senator Masson into the Speaker of the House position; but I hoped I could figure that out on the fly during conversations.
The first Senator that I made my way over to looked almost as young as me. I couldn’t remember his name but was pretty sure he was from one of the Midwestern states. I thought he might have been from Iowa or Kansas, but I just couldn’t remember.
“Hey, this is a pretty sweet party,” I said awkwardly as I stood next to him.
“Yes, it’s my first time here. Pretty amazing to be here. I’m Seth by the way.”
“Hi, I’m Michaela. I work with Senator Storm.”
I looked down at his hand to check out if he had a ring or not. It was a natural reaction for me as a woman to see where he was coming from in the relationship department. Although, I had learned recently that being married didn’t seem to matter at all to some men.
Seth didn’t have a ring on and he seemed pretty young to be a Senator, but he wasn’t spilling the beans if he was. His smile and friendly demeanor with me made me think he had to be from the Midwest; but even after I said I worked with Senator Storm he refused to say where he worked.
“It’s nice to meet you Michaela.”
We stood in silence as we watched all the people interacting with each other. It looked like one big fancy business meeting. Everyone shook hands and then appeared to become extremely serious almost instantly.
“It would be great if people could actually relax around here. Everyone always looks like they have a stick up their ass,” Seth said as we both looked at the crowd.
I couldn’t help but laugh. He was absolutely right on. No one in Washington seemed to want to just hang out, unless they were interns or assistants. Once they made it up the later a little then suddenly every party turned into another business opportunity. It was sad that everyone seemed to lose their ability to have fun in Washington.
“You’re right on. I’d love to see one of the Senators just forget about the politics for the night and get on that empty dance floor and cut the rug a little,” I laughed.
Seth grabbed my drink and placed it on the table behind us and then put his hand out like he was inviting me to come dance with him. I raised my eyebrow in suspicion at first and then grabbed his hand and followed him over to the band.
He whispered something in the band leaders’ ear and then pulled me out to the dance floor. My dress wasn’t really the dancing type but I held onto it as the song “We Will Rock You” started to play.
It wasn’t really the type of song you danced with a partner to, but we stood next to each other and bounced up and down with the music. I looked around at others watching us and new we would need to get some more people to join us if we didn’t want to look ridiculous; so I grabbed Senators Lynn and McGuire from Idaho and Montana. The two women were near us and seemed to enjoy the music so I pulled them onto the floor into our dancing world.
The two female Senators dragged their husbands with them and soon we had quiet the little dance off going on. Seth went and grabbed a couple from the other side of the dance floor and by the time the chorus hit we had people streaming onto the dance floor to join us.
I wasn’t really sure what the White House Dinner was suppose to be for, but there had been a feeling of celebration going on from the moment we got into the main building. As Seth and I danced I smiled and thought about what life might be like if I wasn’t attached to Matthew in my life in Washington. For a brief moment I was a young twenty something partying at the White House.
“Well you sure know how to get the party started,” I heard Matthew say as he came up behind me.
His hand wrapped around my waist and I saw the look in Seth’s eyes as he looked at me and him; he knew I was more than Matthew’s assistant. The look in his eye was clear that he did not approve.
I don’t know why it bothered me so much to see how he looked at me. But it made me sick to my stomach when I saw his look of disgust.
Seth shook his head at me and then turned to dance with some of the other people on the dance floor. I swung around to face Matthew and was pleasantly surprised to see my normally flat and unemotional boss; jumping up and down to the music like the rest of us. It was delightful to see.
Over the past twenty-four hours I had seen a total 180 degree turn in Matthew’s behavior. I wasn’t exactly sure why, but I didn’t want to question it too much either. I really liked the new Matthew and wanted him to stay around forever.
As the song finished, Matthew and I went back to work socializing with everyone. The party had loosened up quite a bit and it was much easier to talk to people than I thought it was going to be.
I spent a bulk of the evening talking with the younger Senators and finally found out Seth was actually Senator Roberts from Iowa. It seemed to fit him; he did look like a down home Midwest guy. I wondered if Kim had ever had a go at the young Senator she worked with. I had to wonder if she had slept with him or not. It was something I put on my list to ask her.
“Yes, I think Senator Masson is going to make a great Speaker of the House, don’t you?” I would throw in during conversations.
Initially they seemed surprised by the news, but no one in Washington ever wanted to admit they didn’t know what was going on. No one ever wanted to be the person left out of the secrets.
“Oh, yes. He will be great. It’s a big move for him. I can’t wait to see how he does,” one Senator responded.
The answers were always similar and by the end of the evening I felt like almost everyone in the room wanted Senator Masson to become house speaker. But there was still one person I needed to talk to. I caught Seth’s attention and waved him over to talk with me. He seemed very disinterested and couldn’t even make eye contact with me at first.
“Did I do something to piss you off?” I said light heartedly.
“None of my business Michaela, but a guy like Storm isn’t someone a girl like you should be messing around with.”
The tone in his voice implied Matthew was dangerous or something, not just that he was going to break my heart. I felt defensive of Matthew and couldn’t figure out why Seth hated him so much. But I was very interested in hearing more about what Seth thought was so dangerous to me.
“What do you mean?”
“Cut the shit, I can tell you’re fucking the guy. But even after that last girl ended up murdered you’re willing to put yourself in that position. What? For political gain? You didn’t strike me as the kind of girl who would risk her life for a spot on the political ladder.”
“What do you mean murdered?” I said with a blank stare.
“He had a cute young intern working with him last year. Everyone knew he was fucking her, and then suddenly she ended up murdered. The police cleared him, but I saw the two of them arguing one night. I saw the look in his eyes. He’s not someone to mess around with.”
The words came out of Seth’s mouth and I couldn’t believe them. He couldn’t be talking about Matthew Storm. Even the grumpy yelling man I knew from the office didn’t seem like the type that could murder someone. It just didn’t fit.
“Well if the police say he didn’t do it; then he didn’t do it,” I said firmly.
“Michaela, I’m telling you…that man is dangerous,” Seth looked up and saw that Matthew was headed toward us. “You get away from him or you are likely to be next.”
I turned away and toward Matthew as he walked up with a bright smile on his face. The information Seth had just given me was hot on my mind and I just couldn’t believe it. Matthew Storm could certainly be a giant asshole, but he wasn’t a murderer. There was just no way that he would go that far to get rid of someone.
“Are you ready to get out of here? I don’t want to overstay our welcome,” Matthew said as he snuck a kiss to my cheek.
“Yeah, your place or mine,” I smiled.
Seth couldn’t have had it right about Matthew, I would get to the bottom of things; but for the time being I wasn’t about to turn away from the sweetness that Matthew offered me. His new outlook on life was exactly what I wanted.
“Yours of course, it’s closest,” Matthew said with a mischievous smile.
On the drive back to my apartment I wanted to ask Matthew about the woman who had died, but I didn’t know how to bring it up. Certainly I couldn’t accuse him of murdering a woman that wasn’t cool at all. But I wanted to know how he would react if I brought the subject up.
Billionaire Romance Box Set: The Storm Romance Series Part 1-10: An Alpha Billionaire Romance Page 18
