Her stomach rumbled. “I am, because I also skipped breakfast.”
“You have to look after yourself, because you need the energy to beat Mr. Moneybags.”
There was another knock on the door, and Gordon walked in. “There’s a message here for you.” She accepted the envelope and Gordon left. She opened it and almost choked on her coffee when she read the note inside. It was Rafael’s retort to her saucy memo earlier.
That’s rich, coming from a woman who must have had trouble walking this morning. But after thinking about last night, my dukes aren’t the only things that are up.
-R
“Are you okay?” Ben asked, passing her a bottle of water. He took the paper from her while she drank. “What is this?” he read. “Who’s R?” She cringed when the realization dawned on him. “Wait! Rafael Martinez? Jessie, what did you do?”
“Dude, I did something really stupid. I don’t even know how it happened.”
He didn’t look up, and she knew he was rereading the note. “Does this something stupid happen to be tall, dark and sexy?”
She didn’t respond, and an annoying smirk crossed his face. He saw right through her. “Jessie! Tell me everything!”
Jessica sighed. “Well, it started Friday night, he showed up at the club in San Francisco, looking for me.”
“How did he know you were there?”
“I have no idea. He wouldn’t tell me.” And she had just realized that he’d never told her how he’d found out. It still didn’t sit right with her, and she couldn’t shake it.
“Okay, go on,” Ben prodded, already riveted.
Jessica told him the whole sordid tale. From Rafael showing up, their conversation in the diner, the kiss, to her showing up at Di Terrestres and the mind-blowing sex they’d had.
When she finished, Ben sat back in his chair, fanning himself. “Oh, my God,” he muttered. “That good, huh?”
Burying her head in her hands, Jessica groaned. “Incredible! It was so stupid. I don’t even know why I did it. It’s like around him, I don’t have any free will. I just turn into a quivering bundle of nerves and hormones.” The words flew from her mouth and she was unable to staunch them. When she quieted, Ben was watching her, his shocked eyes wide.
“Do you like him?” he asked, suspicion tinging his voice.
“No,” she answered quickly.
“No?”
“I don’t know. He’s sexy, and incredible in bed, but he’s still the same arrogant, bullheaded man he was before. And he’s my only opponent in the race. Last night was a one-time deal. Let’s not forget the fact that at any moment he could tell the world I’m a stripper.” Her mind worked overtime to come up with reasons not to like the man. But she no longer worried too much that he would spill her secret. She also had leverage over him. He was part-owner of an erotic club. No matter what he said about her, or how crazy it made her, it didn’t erase that fact.
“You have to debate him tonight,” Ben said, passing the memo back to her. “So, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to beat him.”
CHAPTER NINE
RAFAEL STOOD ACROSS the stage from Jessica. The lights were bright on them, and Jessica had proven herself a worthy opponent. She’d been prepared and ready for him at every turn. He was impressed, and if she hadn’t been his competition, he would have been damn proud of her. The audience had been responsive the entire night. Sometimes they’d been with him, but judging from the reactions in the room throughout, they seemed to side more often with Jessica. The one constant through the entire debate was that behind his podium, his dick was rock hard. Sparring with Jessica, it seemed, turned him on just as much as kissing her did.
“...and sure, Councilman Martinez has a lot of great ideas for ways to stimulate business growth and lower the crime rate, but what’s missing from his platform is an identification of the key causes at the root of the problem—poverty and inequality.” Jessica looked at him. “Councilman, what is your plan for helping the lower-income families in this city?”
Rafael glared at her. And she returned one that almost made him groan. Thank God for the podium in front of him, because even having her angry at him was an immense turn-on. “My plans for investing in business and infrastructure will target those roots, by providing jobs and making sure people find help when they need it. I have many plans for helping the people who need it—”
“You don’t even know who the people are,” she interrupted, almost yelling. “It’s no secret you’re in the top 1 percent in this city. You don’t know what it’s like for the single parents, the unemployed and underemployed.”
“Councillor Morgan, Councillor Martinez,” the moderator interrupted. “We’ll ask you to not address each other directly.”
But Jessica carried on, ignoring him. “I’ve seen the struggle firsthand. I’m on the front lines with community groups. Do you know what it’s like to be a woman, working sixty-hour weeks at three separate jobs, and still just managing to scrape by, to put food on the table for her family, or pay for childcare? Have you taken the time to meet her, because I have. My mother was her. I see her every time I walk into one of our centers or outreach centers. Can I ask if you have any idea how many people are just a medical emergency or a car breakdown away from losing everything?”
Rafael looked down at the audience, saw the angry faces nodding along with Jessica’s impassioned tirade. “You tell him, girl,” he heard a disembodied voice come from the audience, along with several other noises of agreement.
He was losing this. He turned back to face Jessica. The moderator had long since given up on trying to restore order. “I don’t know what it’s like to be that woman. And yes, I have been extremely successful in my business ventures, but my success came about because of hard work. I was nothing before, and I’ve worked for everything I have. Don’t for a second believe that I don’t know struggle. My parents immigrated to America from Mexico when I was a child, looking for a better life. But they worked hard. They achieved their own American dream and they provided a comfortable, but not at all luxurious, life for myself and my sisters. But the one lesson they taught me was that if you work hard, you can achieve anything you want. I work my fingers to the bone every day for myself and my family. And I’m prepared to do the same for the people of this city.” When he finished, there was applause, but one look at Jessica told him that she wasn’t convinced.
“That’s nice,” she started. “And I’m glad that you and your family found a better life in this country. But sometimes it isn’t enough to work hard. Do you believe that woman I mentioned isn’t working hard if she isn’t able to live in some penthouse at the top of an ivory tower? That’s not always enough. Sometimes, everyone needs a hand, and based on your platform, which doesn’t devote itself to the social assistance programs many people rely on, you don’t recognize that.”
And with that the audience exploded in applause. Rafael was thrown. He’d never received anything but praise in the political arena. He’d always used reason, had always been composed and in control, but Jessica, and her passion, had completely bested him.
“You say I don’t know the people of Las Vegas? I’ve spent every day of the past ten years working for them. Where have you been?” he asked her, frustrated, before turning back to the audience. He knew exactly where Jessica had been, taking off her clothes onstage, and he had had to bite his tongue to stop himself from saying as much. “Ms. Morgan has only been a member of the city council for two years. She’s new to politics, she’s untested, there’s a huge difference in being a citizen, a councilwoman, and the mayor, and I don’t think she’s up for the transition. But I am, and I’m here to get the job done.”
“Councilman Martinez says he’s been here for ten years.” She turned to him. “What have you done? In your time here, your efforts, along with your platform, are focused on helping bus
iness owners and bringing in tourism dollars. As mayor, if you put as much time into helping the people as you did generating wealth, Las Vegas would only then be in great hands.”
Rafael’s jaw clenched. Jessica knew too much about him. He regretted letting her get so close the night before. While he knew her secret, she also had knowledge that was dangerous to him. “There’s nothing wrong with being successful,” he told her. His efforts did help people. The Brotherhood’s ventures had created jobs, and new business was good for the local economy. But he faltered in expressing himself because he knew the crowd was already on her side. There was nothing he could do to bring it back around. It was best for him to not lose his cool. He straightened his shoulders and tried to get the debate back on track, looking pointedly at the moderator to lead them forward.
When the debate, the bloodbath, was finally over, Rafael stepped aside so Jessica could leave the stage first, taking a deep breath as she passed, pulling her scent to him. She was wearing her usual perfume, the one he remembered from the night before, and his body clenched in response. He couldn’t remember ever being so prone to sudden erections since he’d left puberty. But Jessica brought it out in him, at extremely inconvenient times.
She didn’t even turn back to look at him as he fell in line behind her. And he continued pace, several steps back, trying not to notice the sway of her hips, and he scowled, angry. Rafael didn’t need a pollster to tell him that he’d lost the debate. That Jessica had bested him. She’d gotten under his skin, made an impassioned plea to the people. But, dammit, as frustrated as he was he wanted her again. Battling with her onstage was the best kind of foreplay, every bit a better aphrodisiac than the finest champagne and oysters. She was fiery, passionate, intelligent, articulate, and he knew that she wanted to be mayor just as much as he did.
Jessica turned the corner and went toward her office. Rafael didn’t look in her direction, nor did he break step as he continued down the hall toward his own office a few doors down.
But he didn’t go in.
Stopping in place, he turned his head, and noticing that he was alone in the hallway, he turned back and knocked twice, hard, on her door.
“Come in,” she called.
When he opened the door and she saw it was him, she frowned. She must have been expecting someone else. “What do you want?”
He closed the door and walked farther into the room. “To congratulate you on winning the debate.”
She busied herself with typing something on her laptop, and he wondered if she was just trying to keep from looking at him. “We don’t know that I’ve won yet.”
“You know, I’m kind of impressed,” he said. “You made me look awful out there. The way you twisted my words, maybe you are cut out for politics, after all.”
“That’s the difference between us,” she told him. “I’m not playing politics here. I legitimately want to help people.”
“And you don’t think that’s what I want?”
“You certainly have the money and resources to. But you guys built a luxury sex club instead of a playground or a clinic.”
He then realized that she had the wrong idea about him. “We donate to charities through our foundation. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean we don’t help. We’re just not into slapping our names on things.”
She said nothing for a moment. But when she spoke again, she looked at him head-on. “But you’re a role model in this city. You should be showing people, especially other affluent businesspeople, how much good they can do in helping the little guy.”
He thought about that. She had a point. Maybe The Brotherhood could talk more publicly about the things they did with their foundation.
After a poignant silence, she looked up at him, and he could tell that she was tired. “What can I do for you, Councilman?” she asked, using his title. “Why are you here?”
She might be tired, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to goad her. “Councilman? That’s awfully formal, isn’t it? Considering I was inside of you last night.”
Even though she tried to hide it, he saw the shiver that rolled through her. “Well, we’re at work now, not at Di Terrestres experiencing the slightest moment of weakness.”
He took a step closer, the memories of the way she tasted taking over. “Well, how do you feel about another moment of weakness?” He took another step closer to her. And he caught the way her breath was shaking in and out of her in hurried little gasps. He knew that it was a stupid move. He knew her secret, but in one move she could also destroy his career, his life and everything he’d worked for. The future mayor of the city couldn’t be affiliated with a club like Di Terrestres, nor the open lifestyle it promoted. But neither could an exotic dancer, and one of them had to win. It was a benefit to them both to keep all their secrets.
He reached out and pulled her up to him. His lips crashed down onto hers. Unlike their first kiss, or any the night before, this time she didn’t stiffen, and her arms encircled his neck and pulled him closer. “Did that fight turn you on as much as it did me?”
“Yeah,” she whispered, before pulling him back to her. Kissing him again.
The kiss was rough, savage, and he wanted more. He pushed her against her desk, and lifted her so that her ass perched on the very edge. He kissed her deeply, but she put her palms on his chest and pushed him away. “Rafael, we can’t. Especially not here.”
“I know,” he whispered against her lips. “It’s another bad idea.”
She nodded, and he could tell she was out of breath. “It wouldn’t be our first.”
“And probably won’t be the last,” he promised, dropping to the floor on his knees, before her parted thighs. He needed to taste her again, he was addicted. He leaned into her, spreading her legs farther, bringing him within a hair’s breadth of her pussy. Only a thin layer of pink satin separated him from it.
He opened his mouth and his lips closed over her mound, tasting her, inhaling her through her panties. He hooked his thumbs underneath the bands of her underwear, and she obliged him by raising her hips so that he could pull them down over her thighs and let them hang over one of her stiletto-clad feet. He grasped her ass, pulled her core to him and snaked his tongue along her seam, not parting her lips.
She gasped at his touch, and he was satisfied, knowing that he would be responsible for her making many more sounds in the near future. He delved deeper, washing his lips and tongue over her, parting her, finding her wet and hot, ready for his attention. He made several passages over her, coming closer and closer to the sensitive nub of her clit without actually touching it. He could tell by the way she writhed under him that he was driving her crazy. Finally, he flattened his tongue over her clit, and she cried out. He kept one hand on her hip, keeping her still, but he used the other hand, inserting two fingers inside of her, as he closed his lips over her clit. This time, her cry was loud.
He grinned against her, and went to work, fucking her with his fingers, taking her slick flesh into his mouth, sucking, licking, tasting her. She was as delicious as she’d been yesterday, and he feasted. He kept going until she fisted her hand in his hair and thrusted her hips against him, sliding herself against his mouth, taking what she wanted, chasing her own orgasm. He held her in place and maintained a steady pace until she shook under his mouth, and she came with a loud cry.
When her movements quieted, he kept his hands on her thighs, keeping them spread, and he stood between them. He knew her wetness covered his mouth and chin, but he moved in for a kiss without wiping it away. Jessica received his kiss without hesitating, and their tongues danced and dueled as he reached into his back pocket for his wallet. He found it and withdrew a condom hurriedly. Then, without pulling his mouth from hers, he unzipped his pants and took himself in hand.
As if they were victims of the best or worst timing, there was a knock on the door. It caught both of their at
tention. Jessica looked panicked. And despite the way his entire body screamed out in protest, he stepped away from her and zipped his pants again as she hopped down from the desk and rounded it.
“Come in,” she called, straightening her clothes, trying her best to look composed.
A man walked in and went right to Jessica. He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her in a hug. “Baby girl, you were amazing!”
Rafael felt a flash of jealousy surge through him. Who was this guy? Why did he have his hands on his Jessica? His? He had no idea where that thought had come from. He cleared his throat, reminding them of his presence.
They both looked over at him. “Oh, Ben, this is Councilman Martinez,” she said, and Rafael could tell that she was putting a boundary between them. “This is Ben.”
“Nice to meet you,” Rafael said, coming around the desk and sticking out his hand. “I was just offering Jessica my congratulations,” he clarified. “For a good debate.”
Ben eyed him, while they still shook hands. “I’m sure you were.”
“Well, I should get out of here,” he said. “I’ve got a late dinner to attend.”
Jessica extended her hand. “Well, thank you for a great debate, Councilman. I can’t wait to do it again.”
* * *
Rafael wished he’d just gone home instead of meeting Alana and the guys. Seated at the best table at Thalia, a restaurant owned by The Brotherhood, his friends gave him worried looks, averting their eyes when he looked back. He was angry, frustrated and horny—each feeling playing for dominance inside him—and he knew he wasn’t very good company. While his friends chatted, he didn’t take part, and instead spent his time in his own head, wondering how Jessica had gotten the better of him, how she’d so fully gotten under his skin.
“So, are we going to discuss your debate or not?” Gabe asked, cutting into his steak, and finally bringing Rafael into the conversation.
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