Fixer: A Bad Boy Romance (13 page)

All he had to do was wait for the right opportunity to present itself, and make sure to take it. No hesitation. When that opportunity arrived, he'd strike like a cobra. It would likely be the end of the relationship between them, but he could surely survive that small loss. He'd sleep with the senator a few more times, get tired of her, and move on, just like he'd always done in the past.

But for now, he only needed to watch, and wait, and keep his eyes open. He'd continue to go along with this truce, play the straight man. He'd keep on sleeping with Alicia, let her convince herself that she was seeing his true personality. She'd believe that, given how he supported her, he truly believed in her side, at least for the next two weeks.

Besides, Tanner added, smiling a little to himself in the darkness. Two weeks of sex with a powerful U.S. Senator, one who was definitely the most attractive woman in Congress? Who would turn down that opportunity? Hell, Freddie would probably burst a blood vessel when Tanner told him about this new development.

Yes, he had things under control. All he had to do was, in the back of his mind, keep his true intentions clear. He could have his fun, enjoy himself - and then, when the time came, he'd do the right thing.

He'd do his job.

With that, Tanner finally drifted away, borne into blackness on the wings of sleep.

Chapter Fourteen

*

Over the next few days, Tanner found himself grappling with a surprising emotion, one that, for a while, he couldn't even find the right words to describe.

"Love," Freddie said, almost a week later, as they sipped at beers in the Capitol Lounge together. "Is that why it's been so hard for me to get ahold of you? You don't return my calls, man."

"I don't return most calls, even those from people much higher than you on the food chain," Tanner replied automatically, and then shook his head. "No, it's not love. I don't fall in love."

"Uh huh." Tanner saw Freddie roll his eyes, not even trying to hide the expression. "Come on, man, you can't stop thinking about her, you need her even after already getting her in bed, the sex is amazing, she's like no other woman that you've ever known - sounds a lot like love to me."

Tanner sighed, shook his head and took another gulp of beer. It didn't hold a candle to the complexity of a great scotch or bourbon, but he wanted to not get too out of control tonight. "Anyway, I've been working like a dog on this latest project, so I'm sorry that I haven't gotten to call you back."

"Apology accepted," Freddie said. "And what is this new project, anyway? You've been pretty hush-hush with the details so far."

"Secrecy here, okay? No telling anyone." Tanner had trusted his friend with the details of some of his assignments before, but he turned to Freddie, narrowing his eyes to underscore the importance of this instruction.

Freddie held up one hand, extending two fingers in a vague approximation of the scout's sign. "Promise. Lips are sealed."

Tanner knew that Freddie meant his words. "Okay. The politician that I'm working with is the new freshman Senator, Alicia Stone. She's planning on bringing this big education bill to the floor, and she's doing her damndest to drill up support for it and ensure that it will pass." He paused for a moment to take a sip of his beer. "And I need to kill it."

After a second of letting this sink in, he saw his buddy's eyes widen. "Wait a minute," Freddie sputtered. "You're lying to this woman and pretending to help her with her bill, while secretly scheming to kill it. And meanwhile, at the same time, you're sleeping with her, and really falling for her!? Are you crazy?"

"I'm not falling for her," Tanner corrected, but Freddie was too far past this point to be stopped.

"Holy shit, man. That's beyond the pale. That's totally insane. You're falling for the girl that you're going to betray - and she's a damn Senator!" Freddie gaped at Tanner, his eyes wide as his mouth hung open. "How the hell do you get into crazy situations like this?"

"I'm not falling-" Tanner decided to not even bother finishing that sentence; it didn't seem to be sinking into Freddie's head, anyway. Instead, he just moved forward. "You're not giving me much in the way of advice."

"Advice?" Freddie choked out, nearly coughing up half his beer. "I mean, this is so outside of my realm of experience, it's not even funny! This is like hopping into a time machine, going back a thousand years, and asking a tribesman how to install the latest version of Windows on your laptop! This is like going to a hermit living at the north pole and asking them for the best way to grill up a jaguar steak! This is like, like, like hitting on the wife of the President himself!"

"Actually, I met her one time, and she cast a pretty randy eye on me," Tanner volunteered, making Freddie collapse into a fit of uncontrollable coughing.

"Anyway," he gasped out, when he finally cleared his throat. "What have the two of you been doing together?"

"During the day, or in the evenings?"

Tanner watched as Freddie hesitated, not sure whether he wanted to hear about the high-level work in the Capitol, or if he wanted to indulge his vicarious side by hearing about Tanner's nighttime exploits. "Start with the days," he said finally.

Before answering, Tanner downed the last of his beer, setting it down on the bartop with a clink. The bartender, a dark-haired Asian with a gravity-defying set of tits, sashayed over with a smile to bring Tanner a refill, but he scarcely even noticed. He didn't even spare a glance for the woman! Inside his head, a little part of him wondered if he had something seriously wrong. Maybe he'd developed a brain tumor, altering his behavior...

"Let's see," he began. "With a big bill like this, asking for potentially billions of dollars to be diverted, you can't just toss it out during a session. This needs multiple sponsors, and ideally, you want to know that you've secured enough agreements from other senators to guarantee the bill's passage, before it ever reaches the floor of the Senate. Even better is to have a good margin of error; there's always the chance that a couple of your supporters will end up flip-flopping and voting against it, for a variety of reasons."

"Sometimes, it's because you get to them," Freddie filled in, and Tanner nodded.

"Yes. Sometimes. But in any case, we've been dashing around from office to office, trying to drum up support for the bill. On one hand, it's education, and it's very tough to find someone who will publicly state that they'll vote against funding more American education. This bill could reduce student debts and simultaneously make our young adults more competitive with those from other countries; that's a powerful lure."

"So why would anyone vote against it?"

"Oh, there's a million reasons. Fiscal responsibility, concern about budgets, how the money will be spent, and of course there's the constant fight over pork barrel spending." Tanner saw Freddie's brow furrow, and explained. "Every senator wants to add his own little project to the bill, something for his home state, his constituents. That's usually extra, outside the scope of the bill - it's pork, alongside the meat of the bill itself. But each thing that's added further inflates the bill's total cost, and no one wants to see that another senator is getting a pork project while they aren't getting one for their own home state. It's a constant battle, trying to appease everyone without compromising too far."

"Ah, got it. And that's how bills end up costing five times as much as they were supposed to, originally, right?" Freddie asked.

"That's right," Tanner nodded. "And trying to balance everything, predict how ninety-nine other people are going to end up voting, is exhausting. So we're spending most of our days working on that. We've got this huge board with a list of all the senators in each camp - for, against, and on the fence - and we're constantly scrawling new information on the board or dragging individuals from one camp to another."

"Okay," Freddie said after digesting this for a minute. "So what about outside of work?"

Tanner sighed. He couldn't help it; Alicia really did have a hold on his brain! "It's driving me crazy! This damn woman is like a drug, Freddie! I keep on seeing her every night; when I try to take a night off, it just feels empty, somehow! We've gone out to movies, visited restaurants - but all we really want to do is get back to her place, or sometimes mine, and rip off each other's clothes and go crazy!"

Taking a deep breath, he reached up and ran a hand through his hair. "I always tell myself that I'll resist, that I've got control over myself. And then all I have to do is catch a glimpse of her, have her crook her finger and beckon me, and I go running over like a damn dog!"

Freddie made a noncommittal sound in his throat, but Tanner just kept on plunging forward. "And what's worst of all is that I used to be totally fine on my own, doing something like hitting a bar or club, or hanging out with you and grabbing a drink. But even now, I keep on thinking about her, wondering what she's doing! I want to text her, even right now!"

He turned to Freddie, his eyes wide. He needed advice, help. At the beginning of the week, Tanner had been certain that he could stay on top of his feelings.

Now, he wasn't so sure.

Freddie just looked steadily back at him. "You know, I'm not sure that I see the problem here," he commented.

"You don't see the problem?" Tanner repeated in shock. "Freddie, this woman is turning my entire damn life upside down! My whole career is built on not being tied to anyone, being able to do whatever's necessary! And now I can't even focus, because I keep on thinking about how much I want to tear her clothes off and take her against the nearest solid surface!"

"Maybe it's time for a new career. You've been working as a fixer for a while now, haven't you?"

Tanner sighed in exasperation. This talk with Freddie definitely wasn't turning out like he'd hoped. "Yes, but I've built it into my career. This isn't just some job where I can drop it and step right into another field. I've made a name for myself, and I've got all my connections, all my history - if I walk away, that's all worthless!"

"So." Freddie downed the last of his own beer, looked around for the bartender. Somehow, he doubted that he'd get the same level of service as Tanner received. That was alright, however; he had Cristina's phone number burning a hole in his cell phone. After their first date last week, he'd seen her again, had quite a nice time with her. After she moved past her initial shyness, she proved quite witty, delightful for conversations as well as a lovely handful in bed.

"So what?"

"So it looks like you're currently torn between job and romance," he pointed out. "You can't have both. Time to make a choice."

"Well, it's an easy choice, isn't it?" Tanner answered. He lapsed off into silence as Freddie waited.

"And the easy choice is..."

"Career, obviously." Tanner snorted, as if this answer ought to have been obvious. Freddie clearly didn't understand the importance, the value, of his job. No one else could do what he did.

"Right. Of course." Freddie shrugged. "So you've made the choice. What's the problem with it?"

"No problem," Tanner said. "No problem at all."

And that should be the end of it, he thought to himself. He valued his career far more than whatever he could call the strange and unclear situation between himself and Senator Alicia Stone. Sure, he had some sort of strange attraction to her for now, but it would surely fade after time. He'd get past her. And his career would continue; he'd maintain his support as the top fixer for the RNC.

He just had to keep on telling himself that he didn't need Alicia. He was fully happy before she entered his life. He'd be happy without her, after she was gone.

But then again, he didn't need to worry about that for now. He could relax, enjoy his time with Alicia. Freddie did have a point - he'd always have his career, even after this thing with the woman, whatever it was, ran its course.

But he could take in the moment, have a good time with Alicia.

Maybe he did need to rethink his pickup game, start looking for more of a relationship, even after this ended, he considered to himself. Not with Alicia, of course. Not with a Democrat, a politician, someone who saw through all his illusions. Someone in the Republican background noise, not in the spotlight, someone more suitable for him.

But that could come later.

For now, he could enjoy Alicia. Especially her body, that way her ass curved when she reclined on her bed or the couch and read through a bill or white paper, those sardonic, taunting looks she sent his way to tell that she saw right through his bullshit, but wanted him anyway, the little moan that always escaped her lips when he ran his fingers over her, teasing her with what he would do, but only when she begged him for it...

Yes, Tanner told himself. Things were good now. No need to worry about rushing too quickly to what the future would change.

Of course, as he left the Capitol Lounge that evening to grab a ride back to his penthouse apartment, he didn't know that a crossroads lurked in his future. The bill's vote was another week away, and there was still a decision to be made:

Betray Alicia, or betray the Republicans, the side he'd worked to support all his life.