“You bother me.”
“I do?”
There were many ways someone could bother another: ‘bother’ as annoy, ‘bother’ as tease, ‘bother’ as couldn’t stand. They’d gone from vulnerability to tacit permission to annoyance in a matter of moments. And yet, instead of the vulnerable he was at the beginning of the conversation, he seemed surprised.
How? What part of his brain would keep him from realizing his mere presence annoyed her? Whether it was a surplus of arrogance or something else she’d managed to miss, she had absolutely no idea.
So she had to make sure he got it. “Yes.”
He stood there, face blank, silent. No sign of anything. No emotion. Nothing.
Now her conflicted emotions went from sympathetic to downright angry, the way they should have as soon as she saw him. Adam was a diplomat now; his emotions were a game, something to manipulate situations to his advantage. He didn’t deserve her sympathy or understanding.
Ass.
Before, six years before, he’d taken her to the New York premiere of Shadow Squad, the huge film that starred his famous cousin. It had been a weekend spent rubbing elbows with Sam Moskowitz, aka Mr. Shadow, and Adam’s cousin and close friend. . A romantic weekend which she’d thought was heralding their future.
On the red carpet, she’d been introduced as Adam’s date. Sam was an up-and-coming actor, and Adam was about to break out as a hockey star. They were cousins on the make…except for the part, when prompted by Sam’s excitement about Adam’s relationship, Adam took the opportunity to tell the world that Tam and he were “just friends.” The clip had gone viral and the Internet regurgitated it every time Sam’s career took another turn. The humiliating moment would never die.
But Tam could tell Adam she never wanted to see him again. End this right here and now.
Why didn’t she?
Her heart wouldn’t let him go, and the sweet wine she’d been drinking made the rest of her agree. Heat blazed inside of her as she stood in front of him, and the familiar scent of his cologne made her high. The Pandora’s box of her emotions had been unlocked and drove a young girl’s hope into her body. She hated it. All of it. But she wanted him.
And she’d have him.
She kissed him. Hard. She crashed through the tension and that mask he wore. His lips slammed against hers, his tongue joining the moment, increasing the heat. He relaxed against her and pulled her close. His hands knew where to touch her, and she couldn’t help but grab his ass.
She tore her lips from his. “Where are you staying?” she whispered.
“What are we doing?”
“One night. You and me.”
He shook his head. “You’ll hate me,” he said. “No.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think I don’t already?”
He shook his head. “This is different, this would be different. Hating me because…you hate me is different from hating me and yourself at the same time.”
“Asshole.”
“You know I’m right.”
Instead of listening to his sanctimonious garbage, she kissed him again, her mouth on his. She couldn’t stop touching him, her hands moving down his back, his body tight, then loose, his ass hard under the silky cotton of his suit pants.
Before she completely lost herself in the feel of him, she let him go. She wanted him to feel the frustration that lanced through her. “Taste me tonight, or taste your regret tomorrow morning.”
Mission accomplished, she headed back towards her barstool, grabbed her coat, waved to Giselle and headed out. Like she’d expected, she was alone, though instead of feeling triumphant, she was tired, frustrated, and not drunk enough to deal with the letdown.
2
Adam Klein was aware that waking up with a hangover on his first official day in Albany wasn’t the best situation. But it also had been a dumb idea to drink unfamiliar beers on an empty stomach. As if alcohol was the only way to purge the taste of Tamara from his mouth; his minty toothpaste sure hadn’t helped the cause.
A glance at the random mirror in the hotel hallway showed he wasn’t that much worse for wear as he headed into the conference room. Relieved, he hoped against hope that his famously observant new boss wouldn’t notice or care about his pre-breakfast appetizer of headache medicine and a large bottle of water.
He pushed the door open.
“The impact of US-produced beers has increased in the last four years,” an unfamiliar voice said. “You should be careful when experimenting with the local product.
Adam drew the back of his hand across his forehead. Deputy Minister Carter Payne was as observant as they said he’d be. “Long day,” he managed, “and the comfort of a new environment.”
Carter laughed. “Welcome to Albany, where comfort’s never close.”
Adam found himself laughing along with his boss…before he spied the familiar logo on the coffee cups just out of his reach: his favorite coffee purveyor and Canada’s as well. He hadn’t seen one in the US since he’d spent time in New York City.
He motioned to the logo. “You present me with this, and you tell me we’re not near comfort?”
His boss sat down across from him, placing a large briefcase atop the table, and shook his head. “It may look the same as what the company produces in Canada, Klein, but it definitely doesn’t taste that way.”
“Better the devil you know,” Adam replied with a laugh as he took his own coffee and doctored it sufficiently before taking a long swallow. “However fake it is, this coffee is better than what I’ve been drinking lately. It’s a gorgeous cubic zirconia.”
“Spoken like a true representative of Canada’s Foreign Office. Excellent. Now this.” Carter motioned to the papers on the conference room table.
Adam reached for the notepad sitting in front of him, the hotel pen unfamiliar in his hand.
“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to convince Enrique Hernandez to sign on to a package of legislation that’s been stuck in the Senate. In exchange, we’ll offer him the opportunity to be involved in a state/provincial legislative council involving New York and Ontario.”
Adam raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t he be involved anyway? I mean he’s the top Democrat in the State Senate.”
“He is. But if he says yes, and if he says it now, he’ll get the chance to set the agenda. But, will New York or Michigan bite first? New York has the Senate and the Assembly. It’s all relative and all necessary. The only difference will be who gets to set the agenda and the tone. Hernandez has an opportunity here, and you need to convince him to take it.”
“Okay.” Adam nodded as his boss opened the briefcase and removed a thick red folder. It was filled to bursting, and heavy, not just from the contents. The expectations that went with it were implied, and understood.
“These are the basics,” Carter continued, indicating the behemoth of a folder. “You also have a meeting with the Senator this afternoon.”
Adam nodded as he accepted the folder and went to work on the knot that kept it closed. “Sure. What time and where?”
Carter looked down at a notepad of his own. “State Street. Legislative Office Building. Also, odds are he’ll have his special assistant for upstate matters sitting in on the meeting.”
There was expectancy in his boss’s eyes. It was clear the man wanted him to ask who the SA was. He didn’t want to, but in the interest of future positive relations, caved. “Who?”
“Tamara Schneider.”
He sighed, leaned back in his chair and took a long swallow of coffee. Tam. She still hated him; the way she’d reacted to seeing him at the bar last night had given him a clear image of that. He’d hate him too after what he’d done. Who would disavow his relationship on national television and then run away to a hockey tournament to make sure it was over?
A coward. That’s who.
“And yes,” Carter continued, “the PM, like most of Canada, and probably most of North America, is well aw
are of why she hates you. PM Lee says, and I quote, ‘Klein, you need to get off your butt and convince her you’re a better person, while you’re convincing her that this legislation will help New York in general.’”
He shook his head and pictured PM Kathy Lee, the whip-smart head of a party that Canada elected in a landslide, telling him to get off his butt. She’d delivered a speech to the group of diplomats who’d gathered in Washington shortly after the election that brought her party to power. It had the perfect mix of serious and funny, and united them all when they desperately needed it. He had no trouble imagining her glee about Adam’s new assignment.
Adam looked back up at his boss, sighed, but nodded. “Okay. What time’s the meeting?”
“Good answer, Klein. I like it.” Carter smiled. “The meeting is at two. Keep in contact, and make sure I have a running list of your expenses.”
Adam made a few more notes and nodded. “Got it. Will do.” Even though he wasn’t sure how he’d manage it, Adam knew he’d get it done—even if it meant he had to work with Tam.
“You’re kidding me!”
Tam was aware that her incredulous tone, and screeched words to her boss in the middle of a staff meeting was a bad, no good, awful idea. But she couldn’t help herself.
Senator Enrique Hernandez was an easy-going guy. His reputation as a hardworking, smart man dedicated to the people had him regularly winning his Westchester County district by a landslide, even winning him the leadership of his party in the Senate.
Now, he sat at the head of the conference room table, in the middle of the staff meeting, his trademark smile adorning his face. “Did I say I was kidding?”
“You didn’t,” Tam admitted. “I was hoping.”
From across the table, Giselle snickered, and Tam knew she was in for it later. She’d barely escaped a reckoning with her friend when she’d arrived at the office that morning. Now, in front of the entire office—the Chief of Staff, Gabe Molloy, Giselle, John Lewis Levine, aka JL, the Senator’s scheduler and receptionist, and the Senator himself—she was faced with the inevitable.
“You want me to sit in on your first meeting after lunch? With the Canadian emissary. With Adam Klein.” Tam tried to keep the desperation out of her voice. She wasn’t sure she succeeded.
The Senator nodded, as if he hadn’t said so about two minutes before. “Yes. I need you in there because I think the Canadians want to push me towards the dairy bill. I also think this is probably the lead in for whatever proposal they’ve been hinting at.”
“Yes,” Molloy added. “Because the noise from the Governor’s office is that they’re going to pre-empt the legislature on the dairy bill.”
Tam sighed. So Adam was in town to meet with her boss. Last night he’d said he hadn’t known why he’d been sent to Albany and he’d seemed pretty shocked when he’d seen her. Which meant his lack of knowledge had been genuine.
That didn’t make the fact she was going to have to actually negotiate with him any easier. Not only negotiate, but she would have to convince him that the legislative plan he represented was a bad idea for New York State as a whole, and for Central and Western NY in particular. That was going to be fun, considering Adam was going to be on his ‘Canadian is best’ high horse. Not to mention how she was going to explain the politics of Upstate New York and how important they would be to a bilateral legislative council.
She knew it would be so typical of an interaction with Adam Klein: he would be convinced he was right and try to ride roughshod over everyone else when they had all the facts.
Oh, and the feelings. After last night’s kiss, she wouldn’t want to leave out the feelings.
“Which is all well and good,” the Senator’s voice brought Tam out of her own head as he took control of the meeting again. “But we need to focus on that bilateral proposal. The words sound fascinating, but I’m going to need you to get a read on how serious the government, and Toronto in particular, is about it.”
Giselle smirked at Tam from the other side of the table, but all Tam could do was nod. “I’ll do that as best as I can.”
“Of course,” the Senator said. “If there’s any reason why you can’t judge him or his information…”
Giselle burst out laughing, so now she was in the hot seat as the Senator turned his attention to her.
“Is there any reason why this is a bad idea?” Senator Hernandez demanded.
But Giselle was the very essence of professional as she replied. “I have reason to believe that if anybody’s going to see the positive…or negative side of this particular individual and this argument, it will definitely be Tamara. She’s definitely the best person for this job.” Tamara wanted to kick her under the table.
Senator Hernandez looked around the table, focusing briefly on JL, Giselle and her. Tam could tell from the look in his eyes that Enrique knew there was something going on that he wasn’t clued into, and wasn’t going to be.
Finally he sighed, tapped a pen on the table. “If it gets to the point where you can’t be objective, Tam, let me know and we’ll figure it out.”
Tam wondered for a moment if she and Adam had already surpassed the point of objectivity. But she was a professional. She would listen to what Adam, the professional diplomat, had to say. And she could trust herself to do just that, especially now that his presence was no longer a surprise.
Sure of herself, sure of her ability to do her job, and oddly enough, sure of Adam, Tam nodded. “I promise.”
There was a moment when Enrique held her gaze, watching to make sure there was something he wasn’t missing. “That’s all I can ask for. Meeting adjourned.”
Tam stood and organized her folder and the rest of her materials, her mind already making a checklist of what she would need for the meeting
“Tam?” Giselle approached.
“What’s up?”
“C’mon. Seriously…” Giselle beckoned and Tam followed Giselle to her tiny office.
Of course, Tam knew exactly what was up; it was obvious.
She could only hope that it wasn’t what usually happened when someone figured out her connection to Adam. That Giselle wouldn’t press play on the video Tam hoped she’d never see again. That Giselle wouldn’t see the expression on her face, and on Adam’s; she wouldn’t see Sam making his statement and the shift it catalyzed in Adam’s expression. Worst of all, Tam hoped with a desperation that she wouldn’t have to sit there, stone faced, as the words that broke her six years before came out of Adam’s mouth.
Yet as she sat there, waiting for the inevitable, Giselle showed no signs of going to any of the sites that played videos, or even accessing a video player on her computer. All Tam saw was the expectant look in the eyes of a friend who hadn’t gotten the information she’d wanted about the night before.
“So. Did he tell you what he was doing here aside from getting you so hot and pissed off that you stalked your ass out of StarBar last night?”
The relief Tam felt at not having to see that video again was so intense that she had to grab the arms of the chair to keep herself from sliding out of it. “No. Also translated as I didn’t know what he was doing here until the Senator told us."
Giselle drummed her fingers on the desk in front of her. “Ok, Amiga. So here’s the thing. I need to know you’ll be ok negotiating with Mr. Klein. I mean who knows what you’ll have to do to make him see reason, or at least enough reason to bring a report back to the Senator.”
Tam sighed .Invoking the endearment that came out of their linguistic exchange was almost as sacred as swearing an oath. “Chaverah, I’ll be fine. I promise. And if not, I’ll tell him to go shove himself out a window. I might even throw him over Niagara Falls.”
Giselle started laughing. “Holy crap. I cannot believe this. I can’t believe you, I can’t believe I have to remind you not to do it during business hours, hmm?”
Do it.
Oh, the multiple meanings for that phrase. Even though Giselle was joking abo
ut murder, Tam was distracted by thoughts of the fevered nights back when things were different between her and Adam Klein. When they lay skin to skin, their scents intertwined…
A blush of another sort seemed to roll up her body. She did NOT want to think of sex with Adam Klein right now. No way, no how. Not when she was on business. And not anywhere near Albany.
3
At two p.m. on the dot, Adam arrived at the Senator’s office. He took a deep breath as he crossed the threshold of the open door.
“Hello,” the gentleman behind the desk said as he stepped into the room. “May I help you?”
Adam bent down and stuck his hand out. “Adam Klein. I’m from the Canadian emissary’s office.”
The gentleman looked at his hand before he looked back up at him. “Oh good, you’re early.”
Adam detected a hint of sarcasm from the receptionist, but checked his watch, and nodded. “Should I leave and come back in five minutes?”
An eyebrow raise. “No. Then you’d be late.”
There was an extended pause, which made Adam think he’d be willing to risk being late, if it meant less stress on the Senator’s staff. “It’s not a problem. I’ll just take a walk around the building and be back in time.”
Finally, just as he’d started to turn towards the door, the gentleman spoke. “No. That won’t be necessary. You can wait in the conference room, just down the hall, second door on the right. The Senator will meet you there.”
Adam nodded, and plastered on a smile. “No problem. Thanks for your time,” he said, and followed the receptionist’s directions. Of course, as he walked into the conference room, Adam couldn’t help but wonder what he was walking into, how a certain person would react.
When he saw the platter on the sideboard, he knew.
The display was artfully organized and…full of bagels. He hated bagels. It was a point of disappointment to his entire family, and one would say, the Ashkenazi community as a whole. Thought his aversion did make his job easier, as he had a legitimate reason to avoid discussions on the superiority of bagels produced in New York versus Montreal.
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