Chapter 11-2
1118 Words
Alice stood frozen by his abrupt and apparently furious departure. Had he been upset that she’d dressed nicely when he said casual? She fought against tears when Emily hissed in her ear.
“If he’s what you want, go! Move, damn it!”
Alice was out of the room and down the hall before she had time to chicken out.
Alice caught up with Daniel at the far end of the Central Hall where he’d come to a stop against a grand piano. He clutched the edge of the case like a man drowning.
“Do you play?” she did her best to ask, to make it light and funny, but she couldn’t be sure that the words actually escaped past the tension that throttled her throat.
He nodded. Didn’t speak. Didn’t turn. Just a nod.
Alice couldn’t do it. Whatever momentum had carried her this far was gone. She felt drained. Once again she’d proven her mother’s words right, no one would ever want her. No one ever had, except for maybe a quick tumble and an equally quick goodbye. She was always too smart or not pretty enough or who the hell knew. By twenty-seven you think she’d be smart enough to know that men like the White House Chief of Staff would never want her to be anything other than meek and mild. A neatly classifiable object.
Well, she was better than that. She hadn’t spoken to her mother for the last five years the woman had been alive for a reason. Self-preservation. Well, that too was a hard won lesson. Her best option was to go. Now.
Her eyes hot and stinging, she turned to leave. Maybe she could find that Secret Service agent who’d brought her and go home. Or maybe not. The building was as hard to get out of as it was to get into.
“Wait.” His voice, barely a whisper, drifted down the hall.
“Why?” She stood with her back to him, no more than a half dozen steps between them.
“Please?”
So she stood. Stood and started counting to thirty. At thirty, to hell with what he wanted, she would leave anyway.
At twenty-two, she felt a fingertip brush ever so slightly across the bare shoulder. Rather than a shiver, a ring of warmth radiated from that brief contact.
Paralyzed, she couldn’t turn to face him.
Another brush of fingers and he caught some of her tears where they’d run unnoticed down her cheek.
“This is going to sound wrong.”
“It’s got to be better than silence.”
She could half see him nod in her peripheral vision, but she refused to turn. The silence was killing her.
“I don’t want it to be about the physical.”
“It?” she asked. “You’re so good with words, use them now when it matters.”
Again the peripheral nod.
Alice’s eyes focused down the hall. A pair of Secret Service agents stood outside the room where she could hear the others talking. Twenty paces away, they were clearly trying to not pay attention to the drama unfolding over by the piano.
“Will you sit, please?”
At her nod, he led her a little farther down the hall from the agents to a pair of armchairs placed close in friendly companionship. A small metallic tree dangling with dozens of tiny ball ornaments graced the small table.
She sat carefully, remembering she was wearing a gown and not corduroy slacks. Alice inspected her own hands. Could just see Daniel’s where they were folded together. There was a similarity that she could now identify, why his hands had looked particularly nice to her. They both had pianist’s muscles, a strength that came from the constant practice.
Again that crazy-making silence.
“You were going to define the ‘it’ you were talking about.”
“Right.” He took a deep breath and puffed it back out. “Right.”
She considered pointing out that he was repeating himself rather than making any headway, but she was afraid that would just earn her another “right” and she’d probably scream if he did that.
“I have all of these stupid ideas.”
“What kind of ideas? And don’t say stupid ones. I’ve heard that bit already.”
“Right—”
“Or ‘Right.’ I’ve had enough of that word too.”
Daniel reached out and took her hands. Somehow that forced her to look up into his brilliant blue eyes.
“You, in that dress, are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Thing?” she managed to give her brain a moment to shift gears, but it wasn’t enough. She knew she could pass for cute, but “most beautiful?” Not likely.
“Yes. Yes, for crying out loud! ‘Most beautiful woman,’ while nonetheless true, is far too small a category.”
“Oh.” Her voice was small, even she could barely hear it.
“I always believed that attraction should be built on a mutual respect, two minds that find similar interests. On the rare occasions when I have dated—”
“How rare?” The question popped out of the cataloging side of her mind.
“Rare enough. On those occasions, I’ve always grown to know the woman well before I, before we, before…” He huffed out a breath in exasperation, glanced over toward the two agents down the hall and then lowered his voice and leaned a little closer until she could truly see the amazing purity of blue in his eyes, no hints of brown at all.
“I’m so sorry I kissed you.”
“Why? Why are you sorry, Daniel?” She’d liked it so much.
“Because it was inappropriate. I did it just because I wanted you so much I couldn’t stop myself. It’s a lousy excuse and it won’t happen again, but I have no better—”
She leaned the last few inches and stopped his words with her lips. She ran her fingers up into the soft blond hair and dug them in so that he couldn’t pull back without taking her with him.
Daniel held off for the longest moment, then groaned and leaned in. His hands slipped along her cheeks and gentle thumbs rubbed along her ears. He kissed her so long and deep that she practically felt ravaged. She’d had s*x that was less meaningful. Actually, Alice would wager that she’d never had s*x that was anywhere near as meaningful as this kiss.
When at last he released her lips, he didn’t move away, but remained forehead-to-forehead, nose tip-to-nose tip.
“If you say you’re sorry, I’m going to smack you.”
“Then,” his whisper matched hers, “I won’t. I’ve dreamed of nothing else but kissing you again since when I kissed you goodnight the first time. And maybe before that.”
“Well, if you behave, maybe I’ll let you kiss me goodnight tonight, too.” If her heart could stand it.
He rose from the chair and helped her to her feet, which was good because her knees were distinctly watery and the mid-height heels were proving more precarious than planned. She and Daniel headed back to join the others, the pair of agents studiously inspecting the wall across the hall from the doorway they guarded. It was only as they reentered the room that she realized that Daniel had not released her hand from when he’d helped her to her feet.
Just the moment before anyone noticed their return, she leaned close and whispered quietly in Daniel’s ear.
“I’ve been thinking about a lot more than just kissing you.”
- Writer
