Chapter 13
736 Words
Chapter 13
“I considered sending an agent to pick you up, but came myself instead.”
Alice always seemed to start conversations without any preamble. Daniel didn’t even have both feet inside her fire-engine red Prius yet. It had flames painted on the front like a 1960s GTO muscle car instead of a mundane hybrid. A cheery little garland of tiny red-and-green lights glowed softly around the rear view mirror.
She headed them back out the White House gates.
Maybe it was his Tennessee background, but conversations had a normal flow, a way they were supposed to work. A greeting, a checking in, those pleasant little inanities that served no purpose he could put his finger on at the moment, but he liked them nonetheless. It wasn’t as if she was in a hurry, she was simply always in forward motion and he always lagged a step behind.
“I did apologize for sending an agent to pick you up.”
“Sent me home with one, too.”
“I…” He had. Hadn’t even thought about it. He was so used to the building, it seemed that he never left it except for meetings up on the Hill.
He’d moved into the White House Residence when Peter Matthews had made him the Chief of Staff. “Every time you leave for your apartment, you’re going to lose another half-hour of sleep between walking to your car, driving, parking.” So, he’d kept the apartment for a while, but finally moved fully into the third floor of the Residence. With Katherine Matthews dead in the helicopter crash, that had left President Matthews living alone in the entire Residence. Daniel had felt sorry for him and did really appreciate the man’s company when they could stop moving long enough to enjoy a gathering like last night.
Daniel had never given a thought to delivering her home himself. In hindsight, it would have been a very dangerous choice, vastly increasing the likelihood of his ending up in her bed. But last night, he’d been too dazed by her goodnight kiss to form any coherent thoughts.
“What did Janet put in the calendar for tonight?”
Apparently his silence had lasted too long. She cleared the gate and turned south.
“I don’t know. I didn’t look.”
“Don’t you get the rules at all, Dr. Darlington? It’s after dark. There are rules to these things.”
“Rules like not pulling over so that I can drag you into the tall grass and neck wildly like two teenagers?”
The car actually wavered on the road and he reached out a steadying hand to the wheel for a moment.
“Well,” she cleared her throat and tried again. “Well, being early December, the tall grass has long since been mown by the Parks Department and died back for the winter. Otherwise that sounds like a great idea.”
Now it was his turn to try and speak. It took him several tries.
“I’m new to Advent calendar rules, but I’m learning. I brought it with me.”
“Well, that’s better. So open it already!” She turned onto the Frederick Douglass bridge and crossed south over the river. Still no word where she was taking him and he wasn’t going to ask.
He pulled the calendar out of his bag that also included a hat and mittens. By the light of the street lights strobing by overhead, he found the “3” ribbon, a small, gift-wrapped present that an owl had dropped in the snow and was in the process of retrieving.
“Black licorice. A Scotty dog.”
“Ooo. They’re the best.”
He plucked it out and another lay behind it. Two Scotty dogs. Had Janet originally given him two? Or had she somehow discerned he had a date and slipped in the second one while the calendar lay on his desk? He’d rather think the former, but suspected the latter.
“Here, there’s two.” He held one out so she could take it with her teeth. She did so, nibbling on the ends of his fingers in the process. He was suddenly glad he wasn’t driving or they’d be weaving all over the road.
He popped in his own and started chewing.
“That’s so good,” she mumbled. “I need to stop and see how you taste.” And she did. Turned into a side road, parked, and leaned over.
He met her halfway. Winter and summer and sweet licorice. Unable to stop himself, he reached for her, and to the limits of the seatbelts, pulled their bodies together, one hand running down over her coat, tracing the many-layered curve of her breast making Alice moan against his teeth.
A sharp knock on the window made him open his eyes. A Marine in full uniform was leaning down to inspect them through the driver’s window. Where had he come from?
- Writer
