“He’s doing his part in service to his country, Madison,” my mother says with a shake of her head. “I know we’ve been over this. Hunter’s choice was to join the Secret Service after leaving the Marines. And he’ll continue his duties in the Service for appearance’s sake until Alec and I go public, at which point he’ll of course be removed from active duty.”
I’m scowling right at him, and my mother suddenly catches the look and frowns at me. “Do you two know each other?”
“No!”
We both say it at the same time, far too quickly and far too loudly, which only makes the red flush in my cheeks deepen as I cringe into my coat.
He seems to recover immediately though as he clears his throat and smiles charmingly at my mother. “I think maybe Madison and I met at one of the campaign fundraisers, Madame President.”
‘Madame President’; give me a fucking break, I think, rolling my eyes.
“You were in Iraq, dude,” Dexter mumbles from the couch, glancing at his cell phone. “You didn’t have to go to those things.”
“Well,” he shrugs, turning to grin at me. That wicked, wolfish, teasing grin. The eyes that pierce right into me, and that arrogant, cocky stance like he’s not at all bothered by the nuclear meltdown happening in slow motion in this room. “Maybe we’ve bumped into each other somewhere else then.”
Please kill me right now.
My mother turns back to me. “Well, anyways, you know perfectly well why you’re here, Madison. You’re here for damage control.”
“Damage control?”
My mother purses her carefully painted lips, and narrows her perfectly made-up eyes at me — eyes shadowed with a tint that polls the best with her target demographic, I’m sure — as she frowns beneath her perfectly coiffed shoulder-length hair — a style I’m positive is meant to make her appear “just like one of the other moms” with her female voter base.
“Madison, you’re going to have to start acting the part, you know.” She shakes her head. “I can’t have the daughter of the President running around leaving school and airing her gossip out to dry.”
I stare at her. “Mom, I left school because of Harry. Because he hit me.”
Okay, when the daughter of a Presidential front-runner winds up in a law-school medical center with a black eye, a crashed car and alcohol on her breath, tabloids get hungry. The fact that the only reason I’d driven in the condition I had was that my asshole boyfriend had hit me after I’d broken up with him was a bit lost on them.
And of course, the only reason anything got aired out to begin with was because of who my mother was. Any other mom in the world and I’d still be finishing my law degree. Not that my mother could be bothered to take that into account on her iron-march towards the White House.
Her look softens. “Yes, dear, I know. And I’m sorry, you know that.” She stands tall and regal looking behind her desk with the dramatic American flag hanging behind her by the window that overlooks the great lawn. “But we’ve been over this, and we agreed it would be best for you to spend the semester here.”
I know the story. Publicly, I’m taking a semester off to ‘explore the outreach possibilities available to me in Washington D.C. with my mother, the President.’ Checks have been written and handshakes exchanged en masse to ensure that the reality of me being on academic probation for drinking - not to mention my hastily swept away D.U.I. never sees the light of day.
“I’m so glad you’re worried about my well being, mother.”
President Adams rolls her eyes. “Oh, don’t be a drama queen, Madison.”
Dexter snorts from the couch, kicking his feet up on the coffee table, grinning; “Oh man, this is juicy.”
“That is enough, Dexter!” Major Ryan thunders again.
Hunter steps up behind him and flicks his younger brother’s ear, which only has Dexter jumping off the couch to try and punch his older brother back. The room erupts as Major Ryan strides forward to get between Hunter and Dexter, my mother throwing her hands in the air and the two brothers squabbling.
What the fuck is going on here? This is insanity. My mom and Alec aren’t even married yet, and here we all are playing out the part of the everyday, normal, dysfunctional American family. A fucked up first family.
I cringe, feeling my cheeks go red as the reality hits me again. Family; the man from that night is not only here, he’s my new stepbrother. Alec has Dexter hauled back from his brother, a stern finger of warning in his face as he hisses at him to “act like a man.” I look up, and instantly regret it as I lock eyes with Hunter. Hunter who’s smoothing out his black suit as he looks right at me, a grin stretched across his face.
Because this is funny to him. Because our history and its potential to absolutely shatter this office and the country it represents in light of what’s to come is amusing to him.
Why the fuck did I agree to this? I mean, I’m twenty-three years old; I’m an adult. I should have just gone and joined my friends for the trip to Europe or something; something normal law-school drop-outs do. Not dress in Presidential looking dress-skirts and jackets with pearls looking like a Kennedy and smiling on the freezing cold lawn of the damned White House.
I cross my arms over my coat and shake my head at my mother. “I still don’t know why I have to be here.”
“You’re here, young lady, because we need to contain this.”
Ever the politician.
“My upcoming announcement with Alec is going to rock this office enough, Madison. I can’t have you running around out there being in tabloids as my wayward, college-dropout daughter with a drinking problem to boot, too. You’ll stay here, until after the announcement.”
“Wonderful. I’m a prisoner.”
She rolls her eyes. “Don’t be dramatic. I’m keeping you in line and keeping us both out of the papers. You’ll stay here in D.C. at the White House for the semester.”
“Under armed guard I assume?” I say sarcastically. “A whole wing of security following me everywhere I go?”
“Oh, just the one, actually.”
The room goes a little quiet as I jerk my head back to my mother. “What?”
She smiles broadly at me, like she’s about to deliver some good news. “Look, I get it, honey; I really do. You’re twenty-three, you’re an adult, and you don’t want your every move shadowed by a bunch of strange older men in suits, I get it.”
Something inside of me pricks up, like a sort of sixth sense. “Why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’ here somewhere?”
“You’re only getting one agent, actually. One who we know you’ll get along with, one who is up to the task of protecting your well being, and one who-”
“Who?”
My mother flashes a smile at me — that big, warm politician smile that got her elected — before she suddenly turns to Hunter. “Someone close, and someone who can be trusted with family affairs.”
Oh my God.
The suit, the earpiece, the knowing grin, the smug look of amusement; it’s all falling into place.
It’s all falling horribly into place.
“Alec and I feel that Hunter is the perfect man for the job of keeping an eye on you.”
It’s like everything's in slow motion as I whip my head around to look at him; him, the man with the piercing blue eyes, the smug look of arrogance on his face, and those sculpted arms crossed over his chest.
Him, the man who’s now in charge of “keeping an eye on me.”
Him, the man who made my body move and feel like never before. Him, the man out of a dark fantasy, who was supposed to stay there in the shadows of “that one crazy night.”
My protector, and my wicked, dirty little secret.
My stepbrother.
I think I’m going to be sick.
It’s the last thought I have before I shove past him, blow out the door away from my mother yelling at me, and run headlong towards the bathroom.
This is a catastrophe.
A
national catastrophe.
CHAPTER FOUR
“You don’t seem very happy to see me, Madison”
“Fuck!” Madison jumps as she steps out of the hallway bathroom right into me and my questions. She catches her breath and glares at me as she straightens that creamy-colored skirt-suit that her handlers have dressed her up in, like she’s some sort of Senator’s wife. It’s supposed to be formal, and demure, and classy in a restrained, elegant way.
It’s not supposed to be sexy. It’s not supposed to hug the curve of her hips and her perfect ass in a way that makes me want to tear everything off her but the skirt. Those heels are supposed to be restrained and chic; they’re not supposed to make me want to use them as handles as I drive my cock into her.
I shake my head, clearing the suddenly x-rated slew of thoughts from my mind. It seems there’s a lot about this girl that isn’t supposed to be.
She glares at me. “Perceptive, aren’t you?” She says with a scowl. “And don’t call me that.”
“Call you what?”
“Madison. It’s just Maddie.”
I grin broadly. “What, not a fan of the double presidential reference?”
“What do you think?”
“I think it’s pretty funny that we’ve got a new President who names her daughter after two former Presidents, that’s what I think.”
She rolls her eyes. “Fine, you’re right, I’m not very happy to see you.”
I laugh. “That’s a shame, you seemed pretty gaga for me before.”
“Uh, definitely not.”
I smile broadly at her, remembering that flirt, that come-hither look, that teasing line. “Maddie, please.” I drape my arm over her shoulder but she quickly shrugs it off and shoots me a dagger look. “Oh c’mon, I think we made some magic happen, don’t you?”
She’s pursing her lips and shaking her head as she glares at me. “Are you making jokes about this? Is this funny to you?”
“Is it not to you?”
“No!” She hisses loudly, darting her eyes around the empty hallway before whirling back at me. “No, it’s horrible, and a scandal, and-”
“See, I sort of like the sound of that, scandal.” I arch my brows at her. “Kinda hot when you say it out loud, huh?”
Her mouth is open as she looks at me like I’ve got three heads, those pretty, perfect pink lips all pouty and open and aghast looking. “You would.”
“Oh, please, you don’t even know me, princess.”
“Fine with me,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest, sneering at me.
“We could fix that, if you wanted to,” I wink at her, and she blushes bright pink.
“Um, yeah, no thanks.”
“So, explain to me how the first daughter manages to get into a sex club.”
That blush only grows deeper as she quickly drops her eyes from mine and looks at her nails. She turns to glance down the hallway before she shoots me another glare. “Well why were you at a sex club?” She says tightly and quietly, her cheeks flushing just by saying the words.
“Because I like sex, obviously. Clubs I could take or leave.”
Madison wrinkles her brow and makes a face. “Eww?”
I grin at her, loving the way it just gets that red to flush even deeper across her lightly freckled cheeks. I’ve been formally introduced to this girl for all of twelve minutes, and it’s taken about half that time to know that there is something seriously wrong with the narrative of her being in a place like that pretty much ever.
It occurs to me how bizarre of a meeting this is. Beyond the obvious implications of who we are — in the world and to each other — it’s sort of a strange feeling to be introduced to someone after you’ve been inside of them and after you’ve watched them come. The difference between us though is that I think it’s hilarious, and she clearly feels exactly the opposite.
She shakes her head and tries to push past me, but I stop her with a hand on her arm. “You’re dodging the question.”
“What question?”
“That night? You, there?” I shrug. “I’m just curious.”
She purses her lips together. “Well, be curious to yourself,” she hisses, glancing around the hallway again. “And why are you following me?”
“Um, because it’s my job, doll, that’s why. I’m your detail, I thought we’d been over this back there with our parents.”
Her face cringes. “Please never say that again?” She pinches the bridge of her nose with one hand, her arms crossed tight across that cream blazer. “So my detail needs to linger outside bathrooms for me?”
“Gotta make sure you’re okay in there,” I say with a grin. “Never know when you’ll need a fresh roll of TP. And what happens if you sprinkle on the seat or something?”
I flash her another grin and she wrinkles her nose at me again in return. “You’re gross, and I’m sure I’m safe peeing in the most fortified house on the planet.”
“Well, yeah, thanks to guys like me keeping an eye on you.”
“Well stop keeping an eye on me when I’m in the bathroom, okay?”
“What, you worried about me seeing something I’ve already seen?”
Madison’s face goes bright red and she audibly groans and drops her face into her hands.
She tosses her head back, her dark hair framed wild around her shoulders and her chest heaving. Her lip is caught between her teeth, looking something between cute and mind-blowingly sexy that has me growling deeper and gripping her hips even tighter as she rocks them against me. Her eyes squeeze shut and her fingernails drag over my chest as she cries out, her body shuddering above me as I drive up into her again, and again, and-
“Please tell me why you’re here.”
I blink and furrow my brow at her. “You know, for a smart girl, you really don’t pay attention much.”
“Cute. You know what I mean. Why here? Why this job?”
I shrug. “Military family, my dad served, I served.”
Her scowling look softens for a second. “I forgot you’d served.”
“Yep,” I tap my shoulder, where the bullet went clean through. “God and country and all that.”
“Oh.”
I laugh. “What, feeling bad about sassing a vet now?” She rolls her eyes and starts to turn away again, but I pull her back gently by the arm. “Listen, I know you’re pissed about being here.”
“You have no idea.”
“Oh? I don’t?” It’s my turn to frown at her now. The sass is one thing, and the backtalk and the shitty attitude I can take. But the holier than thou ‘woe is me’ bullshit from spoiled little rich girl Madison Adams? Yeah, that I’m going to have a real fucking problem with. Because I’m here to do a job, not babysit a brat like her. And even if that job has a rapidly approaching expiration date, I’m going to damn well do it to the best of my abilities until they make me stop.
“You think I don’t know what it means to not do what you want? You don’t want to be here, and then you have to be. But you see I want to do this job. I want to be here at the White House, but then I won’t be able to.” I arch a brow at her, hardening my look. “Life is unfair, princess; deal with it.”
“Yeah, well I’ll deal with it without perverts like you lingering outside the bathroom listening to me pee, got it?”
My stern look cracks into a grin as she points a finger at me before whirling to stomp away. And I can’t even help it — even if this little brat’s just managed to get under my skin and piss me right off — when my eyes drop to that perfect, sculpted ass encased in that tight little cream skirt. The jacket, the nude heels, the pantyhose, the fucking Kennedy pearls — all that formal shit just somehow gets my cock rock hard in my suit and my brain a million miles from where it should be, which is not thinking about my new stepsister’s ass like I am at this very moment.
“And quit staring at my ass, dick.” She hurls back over her shoulder, before she ducks into one of the side offices and slams the door.
Yeah, this is going to be an interesting job alright.
CHAPTER FIVE
This whole situation is ridiculous.
All of it. As if being the first daughter wasn’t going to change my life enough, I’m walking into it on day one with one of the biggest secrets in the county.
I slept with my new stepbrother. Well, or at least a man who now happens to be my stepbrother. Oh, and who also happens to now be my fucking bodyguard.
Secret: A Military Stepbrother Romance Page 3
