Bedmates

by Nichole Chase

  “I’m fine, Maddie.” He turned to look at me and his skin was a little too pale, his eyes a little too dark. “I’m sorry if I scared you.”

  “I thought I hurt you.” My voice trembled a little and I realized that I had been scared. By the sudden change when I was at my most vulnerable.

  “No, Maddie, you didn’t hurt me.” He took a deep breath and shoved his fingers through his hair. “C’mon. Let’s get some food.”

  I wrapped the sheet tighter around me. I should get up, but I didn’t have any clothes to put on. Mine were still downstairs and I couldn’t bring myself to follow him naked. Swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, I tried to keep the blanket covering all my bits and pieces.

  My feet twisted in the silken material and I started to go down when strong hands caught me.

  “Maddie.” Jake said my name softly, almost like a prayer. He tucked me against his chest and pressed his lips to my hair. “I’m sorry. It doesn’t happen often. Sometimes . . . sometimes it’s hard to remember where I am.”

  “I’m worried about you, Jake.” I closed my eyes because they felt unusually wet. Puz leaned against our legs and I wondered who he was trying to comfort.

  “That’s the last thing I want. I like that you don’t treat me differently, Maddie. Don’t start now, okay?” There was a plea in his voice that couldn’t be mistaken. He needed me to treat him like everything was fine. He needed me to be his normal.

  That was a really big job.

  My heart ached, because I wanted to help Jake, wanted to find a way to make it all better. But that wasn’t what he was asking of me.

  “Please? Just treat me like you always have.” He didn’t pull back to look me in the eye and I knew it was because he didn’t want to see anything bad there.

  “I’ll treat you like I always have, Jake, but only if you promise me that you’ll talk to someone else.” I lifted my head and waited for him to meet my eyes. “Well, as normal as I can considering what we did to your kitchen table.”

  “If you keep doing things like we did on my kitchen counter I’ll talk to anyone you want me to.” His smile was weak, but there.

  “It’s not who I want you to talk to. It needs to be someone you’re okay with talking to. I’m serious, Jake. I’ll keep calling you arrogant and pick on you for having to take your leg off to go through security, but you have to promise me that you will find someone to talk to.”

  He snorted and some of the clouds in his eyes receded. “I don’t have to take my leg off to go through security.”

  “You should! Who knows what you could be hiding?” I pursed my lips. “They used those little wands on me before they let me see my dad at the Pentagon. But you? No, you can just waltz around anywhere. It’s obnoxious.”

  “That’s my girl.” He ran his fingers through my hair but they got tangled.

  “Ow.” I lifted my hand to my head.

  “Maybe we should clean the mashed potatoes out of your hair before we go downstairs.” He leaned down and lifted me in the air before throwing me over his shoulder.

  “Jake!” I reached down and smacked his ass.

  “Oh, yeah.” He chuckled. “You know what I like, baby.”

  I laughed until I snorted which made him laugh in turn.

  “It’s like having a pug for a girlfriend.” He set me down in the bathroom and turned on the water in his shower.

  My heart sped up and I watched him carefully. “A pug?”

  “You know, those little dogs that snort all the time.” He turned toward me and started to unwrap my sheet and snorted like a pig in example. Puz had followed us into the bathroom, his eyes on Jake.

  “Girlfriend?” I licked my lips and tried to not look overly interested.

  His hands stilled and I felt his gaze run over me.

  “Yeah. Girlfriend.” He tipped my chin back so he could look me in the eyes. “You’re a little mean to me, but that’s okay, because you’re fucking awesome in bed.”

  “And don’t forget on tables.”

  “And against walls.” He pulled the sheet away from my chest and looked down at my breasts. He growled in appreciation but let loose the sheet so it could fall back in place. “But that’s not all I like about you.”

  “Hm. We covered beds, tables, and walls. What else could be left?” I raked my fingers over the scruff along his jaw. “My wit is a given.”

  “Are you fishing for compliments, Maddie?” He stroked the column of my neck, his thumb resting against my pulse.

  “I think I was being pretty obvious about it, but yeah, I wouldn’t mind hearing the good parts since we already know how mean I am.” I trailed my fingers over his chest but I was careful to avoid the scars on his side. I didn’t want to trigger another episode by drawing attention to a vivid reminder of his accident.

  “Madeline McGuire, you’re a bright star in a sea of black.” He cupped my chin and looked down at me. “You’re a balm to those that need soothing. You don’t play games or pretend to be anything other than you. It’s refreshing. You make me laugh and have such a carefree spirit it puts everyone at ease. Your taste in movies is questionable, but you never complain if someone else picks what you’re watching. You’re much smarter than you give yourself credit for and have a knack for understanding other people. You give everything in you to the things that matter and to the people you care about.”

  With each sentence I felt my eyebrows rising further and further. That was how Jake saw me? He was suffering from serious delusions.

  “Tangling with me could cause you problems. You’re the Golden Boy, the perfect political son, and I get arrested breaking into buildings.” I shook my head. I wanted nothing more than to explore a real relationship with Jake, but I couldn’t help feeling that I would hold him back.

  “You already know I have problems. I’m not the Golden Boy anymore, Maddie, and honestly, I’m not interested in pretending to be. And from where I’m standing you’re the last person I need to worry about.” He trailed his lips across my jawline.

  “What about your mom?” At our ages it would have been a ridiculous question. But when you consider who our parents were, it was a relevant topic.

  “I’m not her pawn to maneuver around.” His jaw tightened. “She doesn’t get to choose who is important to me.”

  “I don’t want to be a bone of contention between you and your family.” I shook my head.

  “The only person that has an issue is my mother and that has nothing to do with you and everything to do with her campaign.”

  I fought to keep a frown from my face, because I knew that was absolutely not true. Virginia Simmon hated my guts. My breeding wasn’t good enough for her son. My mother hadn’t been from an influential family. My father met her while he was touring hospitals and schools for his Senate reelection. She’d been with my grandmother and he’d fallen in love with how she treated the people around her.

  My stepmother had the pedigree that Virginia thought so important and she doted on my half brother, no matter what he got caught doing. But me? I was always on the wrong side of things.

  “Maddie?” Jake cupped my face and made me look up at him. There was a large stab of uncertainty in his eyes. “We can take things slower.”

  “No.” I shook my head. How long had I wanted to feel the way I did when I was with Jake? Like I was special. “I want to try this—us—out.”

  “Good.” A bright smile bloomed across his face just before his mouth pressed to mine. The eagerness in his touch quickly dissipated any of my doubts. I raised my hands to rest on his broad shoulders and the soft sheet fell to the ground in a whisper. His hands ran down my arms over my hips and down my ass before pulling me closer.

  My breasts pressed against the bare skin of his chest and I fought to not moan. Without hesitation he cupped one of them in his hand, kneading it gently with his fingers and groaned. There was something empowering in the knowledge that I inspired that sort of lust. His impressive erection pressed again
st my stomach through his gym shorts and suddenly I couldn’t think of anything more important than getting my hands on him. Running my fingers down his chest, I traced his hard abs, loving how they tightened under my touch.

  “Off,” I said against his mouth and pushed at his pants.

  “Yes ma’am.” I pulled back so he could do as I asked. “I’m not sure I’ve ever enjoyed being bossed around so much.”

  His eyes twinkled as he reached out for me but I stepped out of his reach.

  “Uh-uh.” I held a finger up and made a circle. “I didn’t get to look at you last night.”

  His eyebrows rose before his mouth pulled to one side in a smug smile. Lifting his hands, he turned slowly in front of me. I let my eyes run over the muscles of his chest, his back, and his perfect ass. I hadn’t seen a lot of male backsides in person, but I was pretty sure that Jake was a prime specimen. Well-defined muscles ran the lengths of his legs. His prosthetic barely registered in my mind. When he made a complete circle I was left staring at an even more impressive erection. When I’d told him he was proportional I hadn’t been lying. Jake was a tall, well-muscled man. And his dick was no different. Long and so thick it made me wonder how he had fit inside me.

  “Do you like what you see? Not exactly what I used to be.” His smile slipped just a little and it wasn’t just his body that made me ache and yearn, it was the way he wore his heart out in the open for me. “No more perfect boy.”

  “Perfect is boring. I like the man you’ve become, so much more than the boy you used to be.” I stepped forward and trailed my fingers down his chest and around to his scars. I traced them with my fingers, ignoring nothing as I examined them. “These are part of you, Jake. That makes them special.”

  The truth was, that I wasn’t sure like was the right word. My heart was precariously close to falling over the edge and I wasn’t sure there was any way to stop it.

  “I don’t deserve you,” he whispered. His eyes darkened and I knew he was thinking about something that had happened.

  “I get to say who deserves me.” There was more force in my words than I had meant to use. To ease the bite in my tone I placed my hand over his heart.

  “You make it hard to argue with you,” he said. Leaning down he kissed me on the head before pulling back to brush at my hair. “Let’s get you cleaned up. Then I’m going to make breakfast.”

  “Maybe we should order breakfast.” I smiled up at him.

  “Such a comedian.” He stepped back and unstrapped his prosthetic before using the support bar to get in the shower. He reached out and pulled me in so the warm water could slide over us both.

  I turned my face up to the water and let it run down my body. When I opened my eyes Jake was watching me with a hungry look.

  “You know, you’re a lot dirtier than I realized. This might take a little while.” Picking up the soap he poured some in his hands and lathered it up. Running his palms over my shoulders and down to my breasts he smiled. “Yep, this could take some time.”

  Backing me up against the wall he chuckled when I hissed at the cold tile. With deft hands he spread the soap over my skin, trailing down my stomach, and then around and up my back.

  I snagged the soap from the rack and worked up my own lather. There were a few things he needed cleaned as well.

  Later that morning we sat on the floor in his living room, eating things that we had cobbled together in his kitchen. I grabbed the butter knife from the jar of peanut butter and slathered some on my toast.

  “You know, this isn’t really that bad.” Jake had sliced some strawberries to go with our toast and one fried egg. “I’m surprised I had this much food.”

  “You need to go to the grocery store.”

  “I eat out a lot.” He shrugged and shoved some of the toast in his mouth.

  I couldn’t keep my eyes from running over his muscled chest. “And you look like that?”

  “I go to the gym a lot,” he explained.

  “Hm.” I don’t think being healthy was his main objective for going to the gym. If I wasn’t far from the mark, I would bet it was because he needed to take his mind off things. “Well, maybe if you eat better, you won’t have to go to the gym so often.”

  “Are you offering to cook for me?” He looked up at me from under his thick eyelashes.

  “Um, no. At least not full time. But maybe the next time we have dinner in, I could try to make something.” I drained the rest of my orange juice.

  “How about tonight?” He brushed the crumbs from his hands before popping a strawberry in his mouth. Puz sniffed around the crumbs looking for something to eat.

  “Can’t.” I frowned. “I have a meeting with Senator Fletcher.”

  Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t very hungry.

  “For your bill?” He rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward. He’d said he didn’t like talking politics so I didn’t elaborate too much.

  “I’m not sure. She called and asked for me to meet with her.” I was seriously hoping that this meant she was interested in sponsoring the bill. At this point I was still just sitting with a notebook of ideas and no real plan of what to do.

  “She knows her stuff and has a lot of influence.” Jake leaned back on his hands, his shoulders dropping back and giving me a great view of his chest.

  “I need someone that knows what to do.” I looked down at my plate and frowned. “I honestly have no idea where to start.”

  “You’re the President’s daughter, of course you know what to do.” Jake popped one of the strawberries in his mouth.

  “That’s just it. I really don’t.” I started to pick at my fingernail. “I’ve avoided everything to do with politics. I had to Google how a bill even works.”

  I’d spent so much time avoiding anything remotely political my entire life and now I was embarrassed by the fact.

  “Maddie, most people would have to Google how a bill works.”

  “Most people aren’t me. I made a dumbass decision and now the only way to make it right has me staring down the rabbit hole. This is how it all starts.”

  “How what starts?” His eyes narrowed.

  “People trying to do something good, make change for the better. Then they start dealing with the devil so that some sort of pretend bill that vaguely resembles the original bill gets passed and nothing actually changes.” I leaned back against the couch and chewed on my thumb. “Then people pat you on the back and smile and pretend that you’ve actually accomplished something except the only thing you’ve done is sold your soul for an act that didn’t actually occur.”

  “A bit melodramatic today, aren’t you?” Jake reached under the coffee table and gave my knee a friendly shake.

  “I’ve seen it happen so many times. Most of these people in D.C. started out with a big dream and lots of hope.” I shook my head. “Look at them now.”

  “You have a big advantage though.” Jake squeezed my knee before letting go. “You know what’s on the other side of that slippery slope.”

  “Exactly. It’s staring me in the face.” I pushed my toast around on my plate. “Anyway, I have to try.”

  “No, you don’t.” He leaned forward and grabbed my hand. “That’s what makes you special, Maddie. When you realized that you had to do more to protect those animals, you didn’t hesitate. You jumped right in.”

  “I’m not feeling so sure right now.”

  “Not MadLibs McGuire.” Jake reached across the table and grabbed my hand. “Maddie, no one is going to get away with any funny business with you at the helm.”

  “I’m not sure.” I took a deep breath. “But you’re right. I decided to jump in so there’s no backing out. Someone has to do something for those animals.”

  “That’s my girl.” His smile was honest and such a contrast to the pain that had haunted his face earlier.

  “I need to get going.” I stood up and picked up my plate. I reached for his but he grabbed my hand.

  “Leave that
.” He tugged me down toward him and snagged my plate from my fingers. He pulled me on to his lap and wrapped an arm around me. “I’ll take care of the mess.”

  “Hm. What are you going to do about the dining table?” I let my head fall back against his chest and listened to the steady thumping of his heart.

  “I’ll get a new one. You can help me pick it out.” He rubbed his cheek against mine. “That’s one of the benefits of having a girlfriend, right?”

  “And what if you don’t like what I pick?”

  “Honestly?” He chuckled and it made my body bounce. “As long as the chairs are big enough to hold me without breaking I don’t care.”

  “It’ll need sturdy legs.” I turned to look at him.

  “Good point.” He moved his mouth close to mine. “Maybe some place mats for cushion.”

  “You should start a list.” I pressed a kiss to his bottom lip.

  Cradling my head in both of his hands he kissed me back. When he finally pulled away it was with a sigh and a look of regret.

  “Go, before you miss your appointment.” He looked at me seriously but made no move.

  “I’d rather take you grocery shopping.” I sighed.

  “Not a chance.” This time he gave me a gentle push and I climbed out of his lap.

  He walked me to the door and we waited while the car got close enough that I could duck into it without having to walk half a block.

  “There’s my ride.” I picked up my purse and stuffed my phone in the back of my jeans.

  “Call me. I want to hear how it goes.” Jake grasped my shoulders.

  “Really?” There was no hiding my surprise.

  “Yeah. This is important to you.” He kissed my temple before pulling back. “And Puz has a definite interest in the outcome.”

  I paused and debated my next words. “You’re going to do what we talked about earlier?”

  I wanted to know that he was really going to find someone to talk to. I needed to know it.

  “Yes, I’ll find someone.” His eyes tightened, but he didn’t freak out and Puz didn’t move a whisker.