Cheating Time (42 page)

"Have you eaten?" Barone asked.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that I
hadn't.

"No, sir, I've not eaten all day. I've been
so busy that I totally forgot."

Barone pulled me tighter and, with a voice
meant to be obeyed, said, "I'll not have you starving yourself
while you take care of patients or do research. Your mother has put
everyone else before her health for years. It hasn't gotten her
anywhere. If I have to surround you with people who will monitor
you closer, I will. If Jayden's not doing that, I'll find something
else for him to do."

Holy hell! I can't be
separated from Jayden ever again.

"It's not Jayden's fault, sir. I promise. It
was mine. He tried to make me eat. Actually, that was just one of
the many disagreements he and I got into today. I wasn't hungry
until now. My appetite is taking its time returning, just like my
strength," I shared, mentally noting I couldn't be completely
honest with him about anything.

"It's just a good thing I had the mutant
from the kitchen set up nice meal in my tent for the two of us,"
Barone hummed, pulling me closer within his personal space than I
was comfortable being.

I wanted to tell him the mutant had a name,
but I didn't want to bring any sort of attention to Rorie. Good or
bad. The longer he considered her a nonfactor, the better off she'd
be.

I knew the second we made it to Barone's
tent. It was the biggest one at the camp, was surrounded by guards,
and glowed there was so much light illuminating it.

The Surrogate guard at the tent's flap held
it open for the two of us and right before he let it drop closed,
Barone turned to the guard and said, "I don't want to be disturbed
by anyone. Do you understand me?"

His tone was harsh, and the Surrogate,
avoiding all eye contact with me, bowed his head and said,
"Certainly, sir. Your privacy will be my primary duty."

By the time Barone turned back toward me,
there wasn't the first trace of the harshness he'd just leveled on
the Surrogate. He was all hands and smiles. I wanted no part of
either of them.

He took my hand and led me over to the table
that reminded me so much of the meal I'd had in Thorne's tent that
I knew even without Barone mentioning it that Rorie had set it
up.

Ever the gentleman, Barone pulled my chair
out for me before lifting the stainless dome covering the meal
Rorie had so carefully created.

The instant the sight before me and the
aroma registered, my stomach convulsed with hunger. In fact, if I
hadn't been so hungry, I wasn't sure I'd be able to eat. Rorie had
gone out of her way to artfully arrange the food on the plates in
such a way that eating it seemed wrong.

Both Barone and I had a salad plate that
included three miniature toothpick kabobs standing tall and proud
that was made of the bottom of a cherry tomato, a small mozzarella
ball, topped off with the top of the cherry tomato and a leaf of
basil. All of the kabobs had been drizzled with an olive oil
dressing.

On each dinner plate, there were two
almond-crusted lamb chops with the bones crossed and connected by
rosemary sprigs. In the center of the chops sat a perfect potato
soufflé topped with a dollop of sour cream, finely chopped chives,
and sprinkles of bacon. For the vegetable, Rorie had grilled
asparagus, sautéed them in a creamy butter sauce, and tied them
together with red, green, and yellow sweet pepper ribbons.

The finishing touch for the meal was the
bowl made of chocolate and filled with chocolate mousse and
garnished with thick chocolate shavings straws, mandarin orange
sections, and candied mint leaves.

Holy hell! Rorie should be
working in the presidential house and serving royalty.

There was no doubt in my mind that if she
could concoct a meal like this out in such a remote area of woods,
she could create award-winning meals in kitchens where anything and
everything was at her disposal.

"Oh my gosh, President Barone! I can't
believe this gourmet meal is one anyone could create out here in
the wilderness," I said, voicing some of my words aloud.

Rorie had worked hard and she deserved every
bit of her due.

"I've asked you before to call me John. I
understand why you don't do that when others are around, but when
it is just the two of us, I expect our relationship to be a lot
less formal, Carlie," Barone said.

Once again, he was setting boundaries for
me.

Take care of yourself, or
I'll assign people to you who will. Call me John, or I'll spank
you.

I acquiesced and tested out his name. "John,
forgive me. It's just that I've been raised to respect you… your
position. Calling you by your first name will never feel natural to
me. You're a man bigger than an ordinary name."

Barone considered what I'd said to be the
ultimate compliment, though I couldn't imagine what it would be
like to be a person who was only known for their position and not
who they were inside. It seemed like a lonely existence to me.

"That's better. I love hearing you call me
by my name. So few people do it," he admitted, mirroring what I'd
just been thinking. "Coming from you… it… it does things to me. It
makes me want you in ways I shouldn't. At least, in ways I
shouldn't until we've gotten to know each other better… until we've
let the world embrace the fact that their president has fallen
hook, line, and sinker for someone who is less than half his
age."

With his admission, Barone reached over and
grabbed my hand, squeezing it as if that act alone explained his
inappropriate feelings for me and how deeply they seemed to go.

I cleared my throat. "John, I have feelings
for Thorne, and last I was told, he and I were supposed to marry
and have our one allotted child together."

Barone watched me carefully. "I'm the
president, Carlie. No one gets what I want. I've been prepping you
for greatness since before you were born. In the seventeen years
since then, I've watched you grow into one of the most beautiful
women to ever exist. I'll allow you to share your scientific
research with Dr. Angleton, but you'll never share your bed with
him. You'll only ever know one man in the biblical sense and that
will be me."

My face flushed as my tearing eyes darted to
my lap where my napkin now sat.

Attempting to lighten the mood, Barone shook
my hand and changed his tone. "I didn't mean for this meal to get
so deep so fast. You have an entire year before our first
philanthropic activities together will be made public. From there,
we'll be seen together so much and so often that no one will
question our engagement when you turn nineteen and our marriage
when you turn twenty."

Barone spoke about my future like a man
who'd planned it out for years.

Suddenly, I was no longer hungry. The
rebellious teenager in me wanted to tell Barone that I'd rather die
than live a life planned out by someone else, live a life where I
wasn't allowed to choose between Jayden and Thorne. They were both
great men.

I might have known Jayden most of my life,
but a new Jayden had joined me a few days ago, and I'd been
enjoying getting to know the person he'd become. He'd been kinder,
gentler, and more loving toward me. When we kissed…
holy hell
… when we kissed, I wanted him unlike
anyone has ever wanted anyone. I was sure. He still had secrets
that had to be shared so I could make an educated decision about
him, but I trusted him enough to know he would eventually do just
that.

As for Thorne, I'd not met him before a few
days ago, but in that short time, I was able to see he was a man
with morals and ethics comparable to my own, interests similar to
mine. The way he loved Rorie enough to give his life for hers
reminded me of how much I loved my own family.

Barone intertwined his fingers with mine.
"I've said something to upset you."

I shrugged. "I-it's just that it seems to me
that all of my choices have been made for me."

Barone consoled me. "I have luxuries you
don't. For example, I know there are few people more compatible
than you and I, and I've had years to plan our future. You've only
had months, and I was too aggressive when we talked the first
time.

"I should have moved slower. I learned a lot
from that mistake. I've spent months beating myself up for making
you uncomfortable. If I hadn't been so anxious, I'd have stuck to
my plan and spent time with you. Eventually, you'll see what I've
always known to be true. You and I are the perfect union in every
way. I offer to you any lab you want to work in, any research you
want to do, and any project you want to work on."

"You… you did scare me. I have to admit
that. I'm still scared," I confessed.

"I know. I'm intense, and I'm trying not to
be that person with you. The fact is I'm never going to be able to
go back to the person I was twenty-five years ago. I'll never again
be rebellious against the government. That's who I was as a
teenager. That rebellion made me the man I am today and gave me the
wherewithal to become president.

"I wish I could say I'll never again be
angst-ridden, but every time I'm near you, I turn back into that
person. I worry about everything I say and do when it comes to you.
I get so nervous I feel like I'm a teenage boy again. You've been
around me enough to know I've had a few women who escorted me to
events, but none that have been anything more to me. I know this
sounds like a lie coming from a man my age, but I've been saving
myself for you ever since the day I saw our genetic compatibility
scores."

"How long ago was that?" I asked, deciding I
needed to know exactly how long he'd been plotting and planning my
life.

Having the good sense to be embarrassed,
Barone shrugged. "Seventeen years and five months."

I had no idea what to do with the
information Barone had given me. There was no doubt in my mind that
at least some of it was true, including his nervousness about my
reaction to him. Unbelievable as it seemed to me, the president of
our nation was almost as tormented as Jayden when it came to
sharing his feelings with me.

I nodded. There really wasn't anything I
could add to the information I'd been given, but one question did
bubble to the surface of my mind.

"Have you ever talked to either of my
parents about your plans for me?"

Barone shook his head. "No. I was sure Sam
would have killed me on the spot and prevented me from ever seeing
you again. He wouldn't have seen the bigger picture. I didn't have
your longevity results until a few months ago, but when I finally
got them, I found out the union of our genes will result in the
closest thing to immortality that has ever existed. From our union,
people will be born healthier, be productive members of our society
for more years, and live to be older than anyone ever thought
possible. That is what we can do together. You and me."

Barone was used to dealing with my mother
and her ambition, her unbridled desire to do things that had never
been done before. He, however, wasn't accustomed to dealing with
me. Having my name tied to a discovery like
longevity
or
immortality
wasn't exciting at all for me.

Barone was intuitive if he was nothing
else.

"Don't forget the offer I've just made you
will give you the power to take all of our nation's scientific
resources and pour them into finding a cure for lymphoma. It was
recently brought to my attention that Tawney has been cursed with
the same disease that took her grandmother and her aunt… that she
doesn't have much time left. Imagine what you and I could do
together if I declared lymphoma a national emergency that will
require around-the-clock research by anyone qualified… if all
research funds were directed to finding a cure."

Now he's got my
attention.

"She doesn't have long enough for us to find
a cure no matter what kind of demands are put on our scientists," I
informed him.

He nodded his head. "You're right, but I
have a team of researchers who've been successful at halting the
hands of time. Basically, they can put a person's body in a state
of inertia, one that prevents the progression of disease. She would
basically be comatose. We could put Tawney in a state of inertia
until we've found the cure. After we have the cure, we could leave
her comatose until we made sure the cure worked."

"Why would we have to leave her comatose
while she's going through the treatment?" I asked, deciding there
was something significant behind that fact, something he didn't
really want to share with me.

Barone took a long, deep breath. "Carlie, if
we bring her back before she's cured… she'll die instantly. When we
reverse the inertia, the cells speed up and age, die, and mutate as
if they'd never been in the state of inertia. If the person would
be dead when it's reversed, he or she will instantly die. If the
disease would have progressed, it will be at whatever stage it
would have been if the person had never been put in a state of
inertia."

"Has this worked on anyone else?"

Giving me hope, Barone nodded. "It's worked
on treatable illnesses that have inadvertently progressed. For
example, we had a priest who'd attempted to help a group of
Outcasts. He got tuberculosis from them and was afraid to tell
anyone… afraid we'd find the boys and kill them for their treason.
He nearly died.

"We put him in a state of inertia, treated
him aggressively, and when we reversed the inertia, he was weak
from the muscle atrophy but cured of the disease. Since that time,
he's worked with physical therapists and is up and around. Claims
he's never felt stronger.

"I'm offering this technology to you… to
Tawney. Without me, you're never going to get it. It's a gift I
will only offer if you agree to be my wife. If you do that, you can
consider everything at my disposal to be at yours," Barone
explained, spreading his arms wide and signifying the fact that
everything in sight would be mine if I agreed.