Dev laughed softly. "Sounds just like something Lauren would say." She shook her head. "No wonder they get along so well."
Frank scratched his neatly trimmed, white beard. "Could be. I have noticed a few subtle similarities." He winked at his daughter. "Lucky you. But, to answer your question, we caught a tail wind and arrived early. I personally think it was divine intervention."
Dev stopped walking. "What?"
"I know that other passengers were praying that the flight would be over soon before your mother talked them to death."
This time the President burst out laughing. She linked hands with her father and looked behind her, surprised not to see Lauren or her mom following. "Should we-"
"Now, Devil, let's not be too hasty. They'll notice we're gone. Eventually." Frank patted the hand he was holding. "Besides, don't forget, I was on that plane myself."
CHAPTER XII
December 2021
Friday, December 3rd
L AUREN DIDN'T EVEN bother to remove her jacket or shoes before she collapsed, face down, across her bed. Gremlin and Princess both hopped up on the bed and were studiously licking her ears when she heard the knock on the door.
"Enter at your own risk," she called across the room before dropping her face back onto the soft mattress.
Dev stepped inside, took one look at her lover, and an indulgent grin immediately broke out across her face. "Poor baby," she offered with sincere sympathy, crossing over to Lauren and kneeling near her head.
Princess had already jumped down and scurried under the bed, where she became uncharacteristically brave and growled at the President.
Dev just snorted.
Gremlin, on the other hand, was bolder. He remained standing on the bed, backed up a step and planted his butt directly on Lauren's head, where he could guard his mistress and take a stand against the President sitting down.
Lauren was too tired to care, but she managed to raise her head just a hair to nip the tail that was tickling her nose.
Gremlin gave a surprised yelp, then resettled himself, baring tiny, spiky teeth.
Dev wondered when the portly beast had learned to narrow his eyes at her.
He barked.
Dev barked back, and Grem scampered off Lauren's head, falling onto the bed with a high-pitched yelp before jumping down to the carpet to join his mate. Dev rolled her eyes when his growls grew fiercer once he was safely under the bed where she couldn't reach him. "Chicken," she taunted.
Turning her attention back to Lauren, the President gently stroked long fingers through blonde strands of hair, trying to coax their owner into looking up, and doing her best not to think about how Gremlin's butt had just been there. "Sweetheart?"
"What?" came the muffled reply.
"How was your day?"
Lauren rolled over with a groan, throwing her arms out to her sides. Her voice was a pitiful whine. "It was awful. Just awful."
"Uh huh." Dev stood up and walked around the bed. Reaching over, she pulled the smaller woman upright. Lauren slumped forward like a rag doll while Dev removed her blazer and then blouse, leaving her clad in a crimson-colored, silk bra.
A tiny grin danced across Lauren's face as she fell back onto the comforter and sighed. She loved every second of the attention Dev was lavishing on her, and Lauren happily abandoned herself to it.
"So tell me about it then," Dev encouraged. She gently removed one of Lauren's earrings, then the other, rubbing her earlobe with her thumb before setting both earrings on the beside table.
"Hmm?" the writer groaned, feeling her shoes being slipped off and the room's cool air tickling her toes as strong fingers began an attentive massage. She instantly forgot Dev's question and closed her eyes in pleasure. "Oh, God, that's good."
Dev smirked. "Your day? Tell me about your day."
"Oh, right." Lauren let out a satisfied grunt at Dev's ministrations. "Well, I knew it was going to be one of those days when my alarm didn't go off this morning. I need a new one. And not one of those obnoxious talking ones. I hate those."
"So that's why you were AWOL from our workout this morning." Dev settled down on the floor and continued to rub slender, achy feet. She glanced down to see two black doggie noses, one tiny and delicate, the other large, flat, and covered in drool, poking out from under the comforter. They snarled, and Dev snarled back. She watched smugly as the noses promptly disappeared.
Lauren was going to scold Devlyn for teasing the dogs, but the thought was swept from her mind when Dev flexed Lauren's toes, stretching them one at a time. "Sweet Jesus, that feels good."
Devlyn waited a moment for Lauren to go on. When she didn't, Dev prompted, "Lauren?"
"Yeah?" the blissful woman replied dreamily.
Dev stifled a laugh. "You were going to tell me about your day."
Lauren flexed her toes in Dev's very attentive hands before continuing. "I was?" She lifted her head a little and forced her eyes open to be greeted by a sharply raised eyebrow. Her head dropped back to the mattress. "Oh, right. Yes, that's why I missed our workout. Then I put my thumb through two perfectly good pairs of hose while I was hurrying to get dressed."
"Gotta hate it when that happens."
"Uh huh. So, I made a mad dash to my appointments this morning. And I got a flat tire in Georgetown. Lucky for me, my first appointment was for breakfast with Beth. But she forgave me for being forty-five minutes late and called Triple A."
"Why didn't you just call them on your cell phone?"
"Because I dropped it on the sidewalk and watched it shatter into about a million pieces." Disbelieving but playful blue eyes pinned her. "Okay, it was only three pieces," the writer conceded with a sigh. "But it was still broken!"
Twin dark eyebrows rose. "Go on, sweetheart."
Lauren sighed and removed one foot from Dev's hands, only to replace it with the other. "After breakfast, where they got my order wrong, but I was running too late to send it back, I finally arrived at General Brendwell's office with two minutes to spare. Then that son of a bitch kept me waiting for nearly a hour longer than I had expected he would."
"How long did you expect he would?"
"Half hour."
"The bastard."
"Exactly. Then he had the nerve to get mad when I cut his interview short in an effort to keep my schedule intact. You know, he is a total prick."
"I agree. But he's also very highly respected and has a brilliant military mind." Dev smiled when Lauren groaned with delight as she pushed her thumbs up the center of her foot from heel to toes.
"After that, I locked my keys in my car and forgot the override code. Just a little harder. Ahh... right there. That required another call to Triple A. After that, I got trapped on Dupont Circle." Lauren raised her head briefly, narrowing her eyes at Dev. "Surely you can do something about that."
Dev shot Lauren a regretful look. "Sorry. I'm not on the street zoning and planning commission, but I'll send a memo."
Her head dropped back down to the bed. "You do that."
Dev stood up, hearing Lauren's mewing protests that her massage was over. She reached back down and unzipped Lauren's skirt. "Lift."
The writer lifted her hips as her skirt and hose were pulled off in one deft motion. A single eye popped open, watching as Dev moved across the room to her dresser and opened her second drawer.
"Aha!" Dev swung around and pointed an accusing finger at Lauren. "I wondered where this set of sweats went."
"Oh, right," Lauren snorted softly. "Like you'd even notice if a pair went missing. You have a hundred sets of sweats."
Dev began rummaging through the drawer. "And my socks, too! You little thief." She laughed. "Can't you just steal the towels like everyone else?"
The President returned to the bed and knelt down long enough to put the socks on Lauren's feet. She realized she'd forgotten to get something out of Lauren's dresser and ran her fingers around Lauren's hip and gave her bottom a pinch. "Commando?"
"Ugh, no p
anties?" She shrugged weakly. "Sure. You only live once."
"That's my girl." Dev worked the sweatpants up her legs.
"Devlyn, darlin', I don't mean to criticize. But you're doing this all wrong."
"No criticism there."
"Aren't you suppose to be un dressing me?"
"Later."
Lauren wanted to protest, but it really didn't matter how Dev touched her. Just as long as she did. Besides, later was good too. "Okay."
"Lift."
Lauren lifted her hips once again and felt the sweatpants pulled all the way up, warming her legs. Then a hand circled her wrist and pulled her upright.
"Bra on or off?"
A blonde brow lifted faintly. "You need to ask?"
Dev chuckled and lovingly removed the undergarment.
Lauren groaned softly. "Later?"
"Absolutely. Later." Dev tossed the bra on the pile with the rest of Lauren's rumpled clothing. Lauren helped Dev put on her sweatshirt by lifting her arms. Dev couldn't resist allowing her hands to drift under Lauren's sweatshirt and move across warm skin.
Lauren sucked in a surprised breath when Dev used her knuckles to graze the silky skin on the underside of firm breasts. Before the blonde could utter a word, Dev's thumbs ran lightly across her nipples, causing them to instantly go painfully erect.
"Devlyn," Lauren warned in a low growl, "be nice."
Blue eyes went round and innocent. "That was nice. Mean would have been if I'd lifted your shirt..." Which she did. "And lowered my mouth..."
"Stop!" Lauren pulled back and shook her index finger in front of Dev's face. "You got me dressed again for a reason. So unless ‘later' has arrived, don't start something we can't finish." She pulled down her shirt. "What's the plan?"
Dev frowned, but quickly got over the fact that Lauren's shirt was now back in place. "You, me, the kids, Jr. Monopoly in the living room? Emma baked cookies and made cocoa."
"Wonderful." Lauren sighed contentedly, feeling much better than she had moments ago. She leaned in and gave the tall woman a heartfelt kiss that she just barely resisted the urge to deepen. "So how was your day?" She wiped a tiny lipstick smudge from the corner of Devlyn's mouth.
Dev shrugged. Standing, she tugged Lauren to her feet and wrapped her arm around her lover's trim waist as they began a slow walk towards the door. "Flew to New York this morning to give a speech in front of the United Nations."
"Show off."
Saturday, December 18th
Dev's gaze flicked down to her meeting agenda, which was resting next to her notepad, then to the clock on the wall. She covertly rolled her eyes at the young man at the end of the table, who had just initiated what had to be the fortieth holographic visual aid explaining crop destruction.
She knew she should be paying attention to what he was saying, but she couldn't help it. Dev had already decided she was going to back the request for aid to the farmers, whose infant, winter wheat crops had fallen victim to this year's unusually early and harsh blizzards. To Dev, this young man was ‘preaching to the choir', as her dad would say. She didn't need to be convinced.
Besides, it was Saturday, she had a hot date, and he had already talked a lot longer than expected. Her thoughts had begun to wander to Lauren's newest Adrienne Nash novel. Though her pseudonym would appear as co-author, she was leaving the actual writing to Lauren and confining her contribution to plot and character development ideas. What she couldn't understand was why Lauren had decided to bring in a beefy character named Dirk. And, worse yet, why Dirk had to have the hots for Adrienne!
Dev scowled and put a line through the circle that contained Dirk's name on the agenda. "Better be a damned redshirt, meant to bite the dust before he gets anywhere near Adrienne!" she mumbled, glancing up sheepishly when she realized she'd said that aloud.
"Madam President?" The Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, the toothy young man making the presentation, looked at her with round eyes, terrified that she might actually have a question.
Dev gave him a regretful smile and a little wave. "I'm sorry. I wandered there for a second. Please, go on."
He nodded, and gave the voice command for the hologram to project a new picture. This one was of two stalks of wheat. One was clearly damaged, while the other was not.
Dev glanced at the other faces in the room, and, after confirming the Secretary of Agriculture was still awake, let her eyes travel back to her notepad. You're gonna screw up the perfectly good subtext, Lauren. God, it will be just as horrific as it had been on ‘Xena'. It had been twenty years since that show ended, and she was still pissed off that the writers were forever inserting the boyfriend of the week. Xena and Gabrielle loved each other. End of story.
Her attention wandered to the pages they had worked on the night before. Dev had not been happy with the way Lauren had ended that chapter. She drew a picture of ‘Dirk', complete with noose around his neck, on her notepad. "I'll kill the rat bastard!" she growled, and every pair of eyes turned in her direction.
The Deputy Secretary's eyes bulged, and he gulped audibly.
"Okay, ladies and gentleman." David reached over and patted Dev's arm, smoothly taking charge of the meeting. "I think we're all set. The President has another meeting she's late for, so..."
The Secretary of Agriculture was the first on his feet, looking as relieved as Dev felt. He wasn't sure why the President was about to commit homicide, but he most certainly didn't want to be the target. And while his Deputy Secretary did have a propensity to drone on and on, he was fond of the young man and didn't want to lose him either. "Thank you for your time, Madam President. Can we count on the support of the White House?"
David nudged Dev, who looked up from her drawing, which now included something that looked like a gun to Dirk's head. "Absolutely!" she said, even as she slammed closed her notebook and rose to her feet. "You'll have everything you need from my office first thing Monday morning. Isn't that right, David?"
"Yes, Madam President." He stood and buttoned his jacket. "I can finish up here, ma'am, if you'd like to get to that next meeting." He motioned her to the door.
"Right. Thank you, David. I'll see you Monday."
Dev did her absolute best to hold back her laughter until she was well within the residence. She ended up in front of Lauren's door, and used her forehead to gently knock against it. When the door opened, she smiled at her lover who was holding her glasses in one hand and her camera in the other. "We need to talk about Dirk."
"Dirk?" Lauren was truly confused. "From my books?"
"Oh, yeah. Because of Dirk, the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture now thinks I want him dead."
* * *
Lauren lay on her belly on her bed. Scattered around her were dozens of papers, outlines, reference books, and even a few world maps. Her chin was propped up by one hand, and she was turned around so that her head was at the foot of the bed. The writer had a pen between her teeth, which she pulled out occasionally so she could scratch some notes on one of the several tablets of paper.
She had scrubbed her face, and brushed her teeth for bed, and she was supremely comfortable in a threadbare, University of Tennessee T-shirt and a pair of thin, dark gray sweatpants that were so worn, if you held them to the light you could see through the knees.
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