“And what are they going to do to me, Gina? Kick me out of office? Not vote for me in the next election?”
Gina laughed. He leaned down and kissed her on the lips. “See me before you leave,” he said, and then headed out of the bathroom.
Gina continued to smile, and then she stood up and began running her own bath water.
Lenora Perry paced back and forth in the beautifully-appointed library. From John Steinbeck to Richard Wright, from Hemingway to Toni Morrison, the great American novelists were on full display. But not one book in that vast space of books commanded Lee’s attention. All she could think about was seeing Dutch again. All she could think about was touching Dutch again. All she could think about was how she was going to keep her feelings under wraps when he walked through that door.
It had been six years since they stood in the same room together. Dutch had just won the presidency. He was still, back then, the most eligible bachelor in the world. A week after his victory he showed up in the parking garage of her apartment building in Boston.
She remembered being late for a meeting that morning and was balancing her briefcase with her cup of Espresso. As she approached her BMW, she remembered Max Brennan coming out of the shadows of the parking garage. Her heart began to pound as soon as she saw him. Because she knew if Max was coming to see her, that meant he was coming with a word from Dutch. She had no clue that Dutch would be there, too.
She, like the rest of the world, was glued to her television set on election night as she watched her friend, and former lover, beat back his Republican challenger and, with the stroke of a final cast vote, went from Senator Dutch Harber to President-Elect Harber well before midnight. Her husband had suggested she call and congratulate him, but she couldn’t do it. Her husband didn’t know it, but her feelings for Dutch went too deep.
“Hello, Max,” she said as she approached her car and, by default, approached him.
“Good morning. Don’t you look attractive this bright and wonderful morning.”
“What do you want?” she asked. Lenora was a beautiful black woman who knew now to keep it professional. Especially when she was dealing with a yes-man like Max.
Max smiled. The one thing Max loved about Lee, although he hated most everything else, was her ability to cut through the garbage.
“He’s here to see you,” Max said.
Lenora was about to open her car door, but stopped in her tracks. She looked at Max. “He’s here?”
“I knew that would get your attention.”
“Where?” She began looking around.
“Follow me,” Max said and led her to an SUV with darkened windows. A young man, undoubtedly a secret service agent, stepped out and opened the door. She stepped in and was stunned to see that it was true: Dutch Harber, the just-elected president, was sitting in her building’s parking garage. She sat beside him.
“Dutch,” she said with a grand smile and a voice that sounded unnerving. “Congratulations!”
“Thank-you. How’s Arthur?”
“He’s good. And he’s pleased. He voted for you.”
“Good man,” Dutch said with a grin. Lenora could tell Dutch and Max both were over-the-moon with joy. They didn’t think they stood a chance, now Dutch was president.
“I always knew you made the right decision when you left me and married Arthur,” Dutch said.
Lenora looked at that handsome man she knew was special even before the voters confirmed her suspicions. He spoke as if leaving him was as easy as walking away. But it wasn’t. It was an agonizing decision for her. She, in fact, would have stayed with him, but he wasn’t about to commit to her and she wasn’t about to waste her time waiting for something that wasn’t ever going to come. Arthur Perry was a sweet, kind, wonderful man. But he wasn’t Dutch and she wasn’t going to play the game and pretend that he was.
“I know you can’t roam as freely as you roamed in the past,” she said, “but in a parking garage? Really, Dutch? This smacks too much of Deep Throat, don’t you think? Surely an office would have been sufficient.”
Dutch smiled. “Yes, an office would have been fine. If I wanted to announce this decision. But I don’t. It’ll be a quiet decision while the world is focused on my transition activities and inauguration, and you will quietly assume your duties in the backdrop of all of that activity.”
Lenora was intrigued. “And what duties will I be assuming?” Did he want her in his cabinet?
“As you well know,” Dutch said, “my financial holdings will be placed in a blind trust once I’m sworn into office.”
“I assumed that would be the case, yes.”
“So I’ll be blunt. I need somebody I can trust at Harber Industries during that time, Lee.”
Lenora continued to look at him. “Go on.”
“I trust you, Lee. I need you.”
And just like that, she went from president and CEO of a small but growing cosmetics company, to the Chief Financial Officer at world-renowned Harber Industries. That was six years ago. Dutch was a man of integrity so he refused to have backdoor channels with her or any of his senior management staff to find out what was really going on with his company. He kept it, as was required, in the blind. But now that his presidency was ending, he had his people phone her and schedule a meeting.
Dutch opened the library’s door just as she turned to the sound. Her long, black hair slung behind her as she turned. Her tall, plump, full-figured body competed against the beautiful backdrop of all of his favorite books, and won the competition.
“Lee,” he said with a great smile and moved swiftly toward her. “How was your flight?”
“It was fine,” she said as she met him halfway and their hands clasped. She had flown in from Boston where Harber Industries was based.
“It’s so good to see you again,” Dutch said, a feeling of great warmth showering over him.
“Good seeing you, too, Dutch. Or should I say Mr. President?”
“You’d better not,” Dutch said as he pulled her to him and kissed her on her luscious lips. He counted her a dear friend, a woman he loved and trusted. He pulled her into his arms.
When he kissed her, Lenora felt that quiver on her lips she hadn’t felt in years. And when she felt his big arms around her waist, pulling her closer, she, almost by reflex, closed her eyes. His size, his smell, his sensual masculinity caught her, just like that, in his web.
“It’s so good to see you again,” she said as soon as he stopped embracing her.
“What has it been?” Dutch asked. “Six years?”
“It has.”
“Gracious, it seemed like yesterday. Come, sit down.”
He motioned for her to take a seat in one of the wing back chairs in the middle of the room. After she sat, he unbuttoned his suit coat and followed suit.
“You look marvelous, Lee,” he said to her.
“I feel good. I could lose about twenty pounds, but I feel good.”
Dutch looked down, at her oversized breasts. At her big hips and big ass. At her flat stomach. “All in the right spots, my dear,” he said with a smile. “If you ask me.”
Lenora smiled, too. “Thank-you, Dutch, you’ve always been kind, but I’m not asking you. I need to do this for me. And I need to lose twenty pounds to get back to a more comfortable weight.” Then she added to soften what she knew could sometimes be her hard edge. “A twenty pound loss won’t make me skinny, trust me.”
Dutch nodded. “Point taken,” he said.
“So,” Lee said, clasping her hands onto her lap, “are you or are you not?”
Dutch knew immediately what she meant, and laughed. “I am, but only just. I’m waiting for the Speaker of the House to return from his fact-finding mission in Australia. Unfortunately the weather there won’t cooperate, so, yes, technically I am still in charge of the government for another day or so until the Speaker returns. Although the Vice President is handling the day to day.”
“I was like, ‘what are they talking about? H
e resigned, didn’t he? I saw it on television with my own two eyes.’ And that’s when I found out that we actually do follow the constitution in this country.”
Dutch laughed again. “Go figure,” he said jokingly, causing her to laugh, too.
When the laughter died and the rawness of their togetherness, and what it used to mean to both of them and still meant to Lee, reasserted itself. And they both couldn’t forget.
“What about you, Lee?” he asked her, his face now displaying that legendary seriousness he was known for. “How has life been treating you?”
Lenora had to think about that. “Well,” she said, “I stay busy and don’t concern myself with any treatment one way or the other. So I guess I could say it’s treating me the way I want to be treated.”
Typical Lee Perry response, Dutch thought. Never too high, never too low. Steady. That was Lee. Steady as she goes.
“I heard about Arthur,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“Thank-you. And it was very kind of you to phone me at the time. I know you would have preferred no contact at all with your management team, so I truly appreciated it.”
“He’s been gone, what, a year now?”
“Just about, yes.”
“He died so young.”
“And of a heart attack of all things,” she said. “A heart attack for a man with such a big, caring heart. But maybe he cared too much, and stretched himself too thin. I used to tell him.” Memories of her beloved husband flashed through her head. Memories that still caused her great pain.
“Anyway,” she said, attempting to smile it off. “I left you and married Arthur so I wouldn’t be alone. And I end up alone anyway.”
Dutch’s heart dropped. He reached out his hand to her, holding it. “Don’t say that,” he said. “You aren’t alone.”
“No husband, no children, I’m alone, Dutch. And it’s okay. I can handle it.”
“I’m still your friend, Lee,” Dutch said heartfelt. “And as long as I’m around you won’t be alone.”
She looked at him. She looked her dark eyes deep into his gorgeous green ones. She felt the rub of his thumb over her knuckles. “What are you going to do, Dutch Harber? Come to me at midnight and hold me when that loneliness becomes too much, and I cry out in pain?”
Dutch continued to rub the back of her hand, and to hold that hand, but his eyes told a truer story to Lenora. Dutch was good for a good time, but when the veil of all of that happy talk was lifted, he was not the one to depend on. He was not her man. She removed her hand from his grasp.
“Come to dinner tonight,” he said.
Lenora looked at him. She was so accustomed to men hitting on her that she found herself unsure what he meant. “Dinner?” she asked him.
“Yes. A few friends are coming over. I want you to meet my wife.”
Bam, there it was! He wanted her to meet his wife. “Sure,” she said cheerfully, although she didn’t feel cheerful at all. This man wasn’t thinking about her in any way but a business way. So she decided to get down to business, which was what she did well.
“I have the figures you requested,” she said as she reached into her briefcase and searched for the correct paperwork.
Dutch looked down at her long legs and voluptuous body, and at her hair that dropped along her back in layered curls. She wasn’t young anymore, she was a woman in her forties, but she was still fierce. She was still the woman he trusted enough to be his Chief Financial Officer while he was unable to keep an eye on his own business. No other former lover would have even been considered. But Lee left him and married a good man who could give her what she wanted. She always had great judgment, he thought. She always had his complete respect.
“Let’s see what you have,” he said, as he accepted the report from her and got down to business.
Lee watched him as he read over the balance sheets. Dutch Harber always held this mythical image in her mind. He was always the man, in her dreams, who would rescue her. He always was the man who would show up in that midnight hour just when she needed him most. And she wondered why. Why, of all the men she’d had before, was he the one that stayed on her mind? Even while she was married to Arthur, and even as she loved Arthur with every fiber of her being, Dutch still held that special place.
When he asked her to join his company and keep an eye on the CEO, Arthur was all for it. He knew her history with Dutch, but he was still all for it because of the prestige of the appointment alone. It would be the biggest achievement of her business career. CFO of Harber Industries. How could a girl turn that post down?
But for Lee, it was more wrenching than that. How could a married woman, who was still in love with her former lover, accept such a post? But since he wouldn’t be a part of the company during her tenure and she would have no real contact with him, and since Arthur was correct about the career boast it would bring, she went along with it.
But now, today, as she sat in his library and watched him scan balance sheets, she regretted that move.
She regretted it relentlessly.
CHAPTER FOUR
Jade laughed heartily at a joke Christian thought didn’t warrant such an outburst, but he was pleased to see that she wasn’t as morbid and depressed as she had been in the past. He had come to a small condo on New York’s Upper East side, a condo where Jade and her mother, Samantha Redding, were holed up. Who owned the condo, or why they were even there, was a mystery to Christian and something, quite frankly, he really didn’t care to know. He had simply taken the drive from DC as a favor to Sam. And now all three of them were seated in the small living room.
But Christian knew he had to be careful. He still was waiting for his divorce from Jade to be finalized and he didn’t want to do anything to set off his young, impulsive, soon-to-be-ex-wife.
And he was curious as hell why Sam would have summoned him.
“But seriously,” Sam said when her daughter’s laughter had died down. “We’re moving right along and the progress has been great.”
“That’s good to hear,” Christian said, although he still didn’t see where that concerned him. He still had feelings for the interracially beautiful Jade, but he could barely stand the sight of her right now.
But then Sam, an attractive black woman in her own right, got to the point of the visit. “And Dutch,” she said, “needs to know that.”
Christian was confused. “The president needs to know what?”
“He needs to know that his daughter is doing so much better. I mean, look at her, Chris. She’s nothing like she was when Marcus did those awful things to her and Gina. She’s recovered from all of that.”
“Yes, I have,” Jade said. “I understand that Uncle Marcus was just using me for his own twisted purposes. I know it was all a scheme and I never meant anything to him.”
“Okay,” Christian said. “But I still don’t see what any of your revelations have to do with me.”
“Daddy won’t take my calls,” Jade said in that whiny voice of hers Christian now hated. “It’s as if he’s disowned me, and I don’t understand why.”
“I’m not certain because the president doesn’t confide in me like that. But maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with the fact that you saw Gina enter that booby-trapped home and didn’t warn her. You just stood there.”
“That’s a lie!” Jade proclaimed, but her mother gave her a harsh look that caused her to ramp down her emotion. “What I mean is,” she said, “I was too stunned. I didn’t just stand there. Gina was mistaken when she told Daddy that.”
“Well, your Daddy has chosen to believe the First Lady over you. And if I know that couple, he always will. He doesn’t believe that the First Lady would ever lie to him, and I agree with him.”
“I can’t help what you agree with, Chris, but I know what I did. And why are you still calling her the First Lady? She’s no longer the First Lady!”
“Yes, she is,” Sam pointed out to her daughter. “Until Dutch submits his resignation t
o Speaker Camp, he’s still president and Gina is still First Lady.”
But all of that was beside the point to Sam. They needed Christian right now if Jade ever were going to reconcile with Dutch. They needed him desperately.
“But that’s just a silly old technicality,” Jade said dismissively. “Once Birdie Camp returns to the States and meet with Daddy, that’ll be the end of Gina’s reign.”
“That’s right,” Sam said.
“But, again,” Christian said, “I don’t understand what it is you want from me.”
Jade looked at her mother. Sam looked at Christian. “We need you to set up a meeting,” she said.
But Christian was already shaking his head. “That’s not gonna happen, Sam, you know that.”
“He loves you like a son,” Sam said. “He considers you his oldest son, I heard him tell people that. He’ll do anything for you, Christian, I know he will. Dutch is like that with the people he loves.” And that, Sam thought inwardly, was why they needed back in. For her daughter’s sake, they needed to be back on Dutch’s good side. The writing was already on the wall. Jade was not going to make it without Dutch’s love.
But Christian remained unconvinced. “You know how I feel about you, Sam, and I still care about what happens to Jade, I’ll admit that. But the president is a very stubborn man and I don’t care how much he loves me, I don’t have the kind of influence it takes to change his mind. The only person I’ve ever known to change his mind is Gina.”
“Then ask Gina to talk to him,” Sam said. “If you can’t talk to Dutch, ask Gina to talk to him. Not even she would want him to be without his daughter’s love.”
Christian didn’t know if he liked the way Sam had phrased that, but he understood her motive. She was looking out for her daughter’s future. She felt a need to do everything she could to reunite her former lover with the daughter they had together.
And that was the only reason why Christian nodded his head. For the sake of peace. “Okay,” he agreed. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Jade and Sam both smiled greatly.
“But I just want to make one thing perfectly clear,” Christian added. “I’m helping you, Jade, because I love your father and I don’t want him to one day regret not having an opportunity to reconcile with you. But don’t think for a moment that your reconciliation is going to change our divorce proceedings. It won’t. I still want my divorce from you.”
DUTCH AND GINA: WHAT HE DID FOR LOVE Page 4
