Now she was awake, lying in bed and feeling tired even though she just woke up. Little Walt was in Florida, with LaLa and Nikki, and she missed him terribly. But she was also glad for the break.
She thought about DeAndre. He was such a handsome young man. She even saw a little bit of her father in his strong jawline. A little bit of herself even. And the idea that she didn’t get to know him, and that he had to die so horribly and in such distress, distressed her. It distressed her mightily. But Brandy’s assertion that Dutch was ashamed of him and didn’t tell Gina about him for political reasons was nonsense to Gina. She knew Dutch. Regardless of what Brandy or anybody else said about it, she knew he believed at the time he was looking out for her.
She turned onto her back and started thinking about Dutch. The love of her life. And despite their issues, he was still and would always be the love of her life. He was a good man who still felt it was his honor to take care of her. She understood that. But loving a take-charge man like him, who more often than not made decisions for both of them without consulting her, came with a price. In DeAndre’s case, a very high price. And she felt it was only right, for his sake as well as hers, to take this time in her life to make sure she could live happily on those terms.
She looked at the clock on the nightstand. It was almost eight. Early for her, given when she normally got up, but she got up anyway. And went to brush her teeth and run her bath.
Dutch walked out of the guesthouse half an hour later and headed across the sidewalk to his waiting SUV. Addison had the backdoor of the vehicle opened and ready, with the morning smoke pouring out of the exhaust pipe as it waited to drive away, and Dutch was about to jump in and leave. But as he thought about Gina and wondered if she was up and okay, he decided he’d better check. He therefore handed his briefcase to the agent and made the trek across the estate to the main house. He used his keycard to enter through the backdoor, disarming their silent alarm with his card as he did, and made his way upstairs.
Halfway up, however, he heard a loud crash sound. As soon as he did, he ran.
“Gina!” he yelled as he hurried down the corridor and into the master bedroom. His heart was thumping.
“Gina!” He looked at the bed and saw that it was empty.
Then he looked toward the en-suite. “Gina!” he yelled again, as he hurried in that direction.
“I’m okay,” Gina was saying by the time he entered the master bathroom and saw her, in the tub, flat on her backside. She was attempting to stand up and get out.
“What happened?” Dutch asked with a frown of concern as he hurried to her.
“I slipped,” replied Gina, upset with her own clumsiness.
Dutch grabbed her under her arms and under her knees and lifted her easily out of the tub. Although Gina normally would have insisted that she was okay and didn’t need all of this attention, she didn’t insist any such thing this morning. Because she knew she wasn’t okay and she did need attention. Her brother was dead, her marriage was on the rocks, and she needed all of the attention she could get.
She buried her face in Dutch’s chest as he carried her to the bed. Dutch had grabbed a towel from the rack as he left the bathroom, and when he laid her, facing up, on the bed, and saw the anguish on her face, he began to dry her off himself. He thought he was doing her a favor this weekend by giving her some space. Now he wasn’t so sure.
She closed her eyes and placed her forearms over her forehead as Dutch slowly dried her naked body. At first she felt nothing. Just her body being dried. Then suddenly he stopped, right after he dried her breasts and her stomach, and she opened her eyes. He was standing there, the towel still in his hands, staring down at her. And that look on his face was unshakable determination.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him.
Dutch shook his head. “We can’t do this anymore, Gina. I can’t do this anymore. My wife was in pain this weekend, undeniable pain, and I couldn’t comfort her? You needed your space. I understand that. You felt you needed to bear that burden, that awful burden, alone. I understand that too.”
But, to Gina, his eyes didn’t show understanding. They showed hurt.
“I know what I did was terrible,” he said to her. “I know I should have told you about your brother. I should have. But I didn’t. And I am so sorry that I didn’t. I make no excuses for that. What Brandy Clarke said to me at that funeral, she had every right to say it. I deserved it. You know I did.”
Dutch had to fight back tears as his soft eyes turned hard. “I can’t undo what I did. I can’t go back and change any of it. I thought I was right at the time. I didn’t care about what other people wanted and needed. I had to look out for you. I thought I was doing the right thing. But I wasn’t, Gina. I should have told you and gave you the respect to decide for yourself. You’re not my child, you’re my wife, and I should have treated you that way.” The tears came. He couldn’t fight them any longer. “I was so afraid of somebody else hurting you the way Marcus hurt you that I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t bear you going through any more pain. So I did what I did.”
Again he had to settle back down. He felt as if he was being held underwater, and he couldn’t break free. But he knew he had to keep swimming, keep praying that he would see surface soon. “Hold it against me for the rest of my life if you have to,” he went on. “Despise me for what I did to you every time you think about your brother. But I am telling you right here and right now that this trial separation is over. Either we’re going to be together completely, or not at all. I will never again walk into my own home and see where my wife had fallen in the tub, and I a part of me have to hesitate and wonder if I’m allowed to touch her.”
Dutch frowned and shook his head. “No, Gina,” he said. “That can’t be.” He looked at her. “That can’t be.”
Gina was staring at him too. And her heart was mixed with so many emotions that she knew she couldn’t respond emotionally. “You were looking out for me,” she suddenly said.
Dutch looked at her closer. Did she mean it?
“Brandy was wrong,” Gina continued. “You weren’t trying to hurt anybody. You were trying to protect me. When I got up this morning and went into the bathroom, I remembered the last time we were happy and how you woke me up that morning and carried me into the bathroom. I remembered how concerned you are for my wellbeing every single day. How you phone me. How you’re always asking if I’m okay and what can you do to make it better for me. And as I stood in that tub, I kept wondering what was wrong, not with you, but with me! You’re out of your damn mind, I said to myself.”
Dutch managed to smile and wipe away his tears, even though his heart was begging to hear more. To hear those words from her he needed to hear.
“Here I was,” Gina continued, “with this wonderful, great, gorgeous man by my side. A man who made it his business to look out for me. To make me the center of his universe. And when he did what he did, when he looked out for me and decided that I’d had enough heartache from one half-brother thank-you very much, I get angry with him. I leave him. I treat him as if I hadn’t given him permission to be the boss; to be exactly the man I wanted him to be all those years we’ve been together.”
Gina’s face turned even more serious, and Dutch realized that her tears were gone. This was past feeling now. She looked at him. “You run this,” she said to him. “You’re the head of this family, Dutch. You run this. And if I’m going to be with you I have to understand that. Most of the time, almost all of the time, you’ll make the right decision for our family. Sometimes, like with DeAndre, you won’t. But that’s the price I’ll have to pay to be with a man like you.”
Dutch stared at her. “But do you want to be with a man like me, Gina?” he asked her.
Gina stared back at him. “Let’s put it this way,” she said with a smile. “Only a fool wouldn’t want to be with a man like you. And I’m nobody’s fool.”
Dutch smiled grandly for the first time in a long time, and
then he moved on top of her, wrapped her into his arms, and gave her the kind of kiss he’d wanted to give to her ever since they parted. He gave her a big, fat, sloppy kiss.
“I love you so much,” he said when they finally stopped kissing.
“I love you too,” she replied.
Then they stared into each other’s eyes. A long, painful stare.
“I promise you, Gina,” Dutch said, then he stopped. Then he tried again. “I promise that I’ll let you know, the next time, if anything,” he started to say. But Gina placed her finger on his lip and stopped him herself. And then she shook her head.
“No, Dutch. Don’t promise me anything. You continue to make decisions for this family based on what you believe is best. I can’t allow you to second guess your decisions or feel you have to consult me when you believe you’re protecting me. All I want you to do is to protect me and your son. And yes, your daughter too. Protect us. Look out for us. And I’ll look out for you. That’s the only kind of man I know you are. That’s the only kind of man I want you to be. The day you take off those pants and hand them to me, is the day I kick your ass to the curb. Understand?”
Dutch laughed. Gina touched those lines of age on his strong, sincere, handsome face. He wasn’t a young man anymore, she thought. He couldn’t take much more of this separation drama.
“I understand,” he said, and then he leaned down and kissed her passionately again. Until she sneezed.
“Oh, honey,” he said, forgetting that she was still wet. He then got off of her, and began drying her again.
“You kept me warm, don’t worry,” she said with a smile as he began drying her as if his life depended on it.
But he slowed when he dried between her legs. And after he finished drying her off completely, he hesitated. Then he sat the towel aside, knelt down between those legs, opened them, and stared at her womanhood as if he was seeing it for the first time.
His heart began to hammer as he slowly moved closer and began to lick her there. And that first lick, that he started from the bottom and moved up and up and up, caused him to tremble. Gina, too, felt the tremor. She let out a sensual sigh, and leaned her head back.
It had been so long since Dutch smelled her wonderful scent and touched her there, that now his tongue felt on fire as he licked her. And he kept licking her and kissing her until he had opened her folds so wide that he was eating her. His tongue was slicing deep inside of her and she was moving her slender brown body with every touch of that tongue of his. It had been a long time for Gina, too, now it felt exhilarating.
Then he stood up and slung off his suit coat, tossing it aside. Slung off his shirt and t-shirt, tossing them aside. Stepped out of his shoes and unbuckled and unzipped his pants. When he slid down his briefs and his pants, and stepped out of those too, Gina took a wonderfully hard look at her man. And she loved what she saw. Tall, tanned, the ridges of his stomach, the softness of his hair, his gorgeous green eyes, his thick, muscular chest and arms and thighs. And that member between his legs, standing at attention, stiff and ready.
But Dutch was a lover first. He wasn’t about to fuck her without loving her. And he loved all over her body that morning.
He went back down, between her legs, licking her and sucking her and slicing inside of her. Then he moved up, to her breasts. And for an even longer time, he made love to her breasts. Gina loved when Dutch did her there. She was one of those women who had just as much sensations when Dutch fondled her breasts, as when he fondled her pussy. And he kissed and licked and sucked her there. And squeezed her. He kept squeezing her breasts so hard that Gina lifted her legs and felt as if she was going to cum by the sensations of his fondling alone.
But she didn’t cum. Dutch wouldn’t let her cum yet. He moved up again, this time to her neck, and then to her mouth. And he kissed her so hard that she felt her body sink into the mattress, allowing him to press her further and further down. She wrapped her arms around his big body in case his weight pushed her through that mattress, as he ravaged her mouth with his lips and tongue. They kissed as if kissing was a newly discovered term of art.
And then it was time. They both knew they couldn’t hold out any longer. And Dutch lifted her by the catch of her ass cheeks, and opened her legs wider. She lifted them until they were wrapped around his back, and then he guided his stiff penis slowly but surely inside of her.
Gina’s eyes immediately turned lust-filled when she felt him enter her. It felt like a foreign object at first, because it felt even bigger and harder than she remembered it feeling. But when he began to stroke her folds, and work his way through her tight passage in that masterful way of his, where he was jutting against her walls with precision, she remembered him. And she held onto him as he slowly fucked her and turned every inch of her vagina into one complete g-spot. Because every spot he touched turned sensitive. Every time his big head slid against the side of her vaginal walls, she nearly came. That was Dutch, the masterful lover, doing what he knew how to do better than any man alive. And Gina held on, as he rocked her body out.
He laid down on top of her, kissing her breasts and her mouth, fucking her. They were home alone, and able to make any sound they wanted, and they made it. From the creaking of the bed, to the bouncing of their bodies, they had no regard for just how much noise they were really making. They made it. They fucked loud and long.
Dutch even moved onto his back, moving Gina’s body on top of him, and held her tightly as he fucked her hard even harder. And even in the changed position, it was still feeling great to Gina. She held onto him even tighter also as his thrusts became thrashings and her breasts swung wildly with every push, every pound, every time he pumped her.
Then he slowed his rhythm again, and moved her body back on the bottom and his on top. He knew they were both near climax. He knew that final push-in, his deepest yet, was going to take them over. But he continued to fuck her steadily, delaying that coming sensation. Which only made it feel more sensational when it did come.
And it came. Dutch pushed in deep, so deep that Gina screamed in a spasm reaction as she throbbed and pulsated and tightened around his rod. Dutch watched her in the height of her orgasm, and loved that he was fucking her the way she loved to be loved. Until just seeing her reaction, and feeling her pussy constrict around his penis, was too much. He broke down too. He came. His release poured into her so violently that he had to place his hands on either side of her, nearly popping veins in his arms and neck, just to keep himself from falling like a sack of lead on top of her.
He maintained, loving the woman he loved, until he was all poured out.
When he finally lost all strength in his body, he moved off of her and laid on his sweat-filled back. And they both, side by side, tried to regulate their breathing. But even with his strength completely gone, Dutch still managed to reach out and pull her into his arms. He wanted her to know that they were a couple again. No more separation. No more she on one side, and he on the other.
He felt so strongly about their union, in fact, that he lifted her further until he had her on top of him. Gina smiled, she couldn’t believe he still had that much strength.
And he smiled too, looking into her gorgeous face. “No more separations,” he said, rubbing her bare ass. “Have I made myself clear?”
Had he, Gina thought. “Crystal clear,” she said.
Dutch squeezed her ass until it hurt her, and then he spanked it, and then he rubbed it. “You’re mine, Gina. And I’m yours. One hundred percent. And don’t you ever forget that.”
Gina’s look turned serious. “I won’t, Dutch,” she said. “I won’t.”
They kissed, understanding just how close they came to losing their wonderful connection and collapsing their special bond. Their union.
They could have stayed in bed all day. And they did. Dutch phoned Harber Industries, and then he phoned BBR. Then they slept the sleep of the truly happy.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The van drove in fits
and starts as it chugged along the beaten path to an old shack near the back of the woods.
“Is this it?” Jade asked from the back of the van as she and her mother looked at their drab surroundings. After a ride on a luxurious private plane, this van ride and now this house kind of made Jade wonder if this man her mother had so much confidence in was really as big-time as he purported to be.
But he had to be big, she thought, as they got out of the van and made their way to the front porch. Who else would own or have access to a private plane? Who else would have a man waiting for them in this van, to shield them? Who else would concoct a plan like this? But by the time they walked into the small house, Jade’s doubts returned. The house looked even worse on the inside. What kind of ghetto shit was this, she wondered.
A older stout white man with a full head of snowy white hair was sitting at a small table in the middle of the room. He had a large, hard-side suitcase sitting upright on the floor beside him. Sam smiled when she saw him.
“Come on in,” he said.
He seemed all about business to Jade, as she and her mother sat at the table with him. The house reeked of sweat and cigarettes. The driver of the van stood guard by the door.
“Perhaps an introduction is in order,” the man said.
Jade didn’t really care about who he was. Her main concern was about how was this perfect plan her mother kept hinting about was actually going to work.
“Jade,” Sam said, introducing him anyway, “I want you to meet Max Brennan. Your father’s former chief of staff.”
Jade was stunned. This was Max Brennan??? She knew that name. She once knew it well. But he looked nothing like the pictures of the man she had seen.
“Yes,” Sam said, as if she could read her daughter’s mind, “he’s that Max Brennan.”
“But he’s hardly recognizable.”
Max smiled. So did Sam. “Right,” she said. “That’s the beauty of it. You and I, after all is said and done, will be the same way too.”
For the Love of Gina: The President's Girlfriend Page 16
