“What do jeans have to do with anything?”
She shook her head. “You have your work, but you don’t have a life. You don’t have fun. Boredom is your new obstacle. That’s why you’re here. Why you volunteered to live dangerously when they first approached you. That,” she choked out a laugh, feeling tears well up again. “That’s why I’m here.”
Pretending to pretend.
Stephen stared at her in silent reflection, his blue eyes so beautiful she wanted to cry. She started to lower her head but he stopped her, cupping her cheek. “You’re here because I…” He shook his head. “Because I need you.”
Then he kissed her. Soft as butterfly wings. Carefully, as if she would break. Tasha knew there were fresh tears on her cheeks, but she could blame them on sub drop. Stephen would never know the difference.
He pulled back, looking at her as if she were a math problem he couldn’t solve. “I’m sorry I was rude to your friend. I’ll apologize when we go back down.”
“Thank you. I think you’d like Ken. He’s incredibly accomplished and very easygoing.”
“Have you slept with him?” He closed his eyes and took a breath. “Jesus, forget I asked. It’s none of my business.”
“No it’s not.” She bit her lip. “But just this once, I’ll put you out of your misery. Ken and I have played together because he’s a rope genius and he wanted my help with choreography for a sensuality in movement demo…” She noticed Stephen’s pained look and smiled. “He’s gay, Stephen. He’s gay and he’s very particular about his type. Height is a big deal for him, don’t ask me why. Even if I had the right equipment, I wouldn’t rate his attention because I’m too short.”
Stephen’s beaming smile made Tasha laugh.
“You’re acting like a child who doesn’t want to share his toys, you know that right?” she teased.
His smile dimmed. “I don’t. I don’t want to share you, Natasha. I don’t want to share this with anyone.”
“I know.” She snuggled back into his embrace, skimming her hand over the mountain of bubbles that covered them. “And as long as we’re here, Senator, I’m all yours. Burke’s wife can find someone else to make out with. Satisfied?”
“For now.” It didn’t sound like it, but she didn’t push. “We should get dressed and go back downstairs soon. They’re keeping dinner for us.”
Tasha moaned. “You expect me to get dressed and walk after that? I’m not nineteen anymore, you know. My body can only take so much.”
Stephen snorted in disbelief. “You’re right, you should stay up here and rest, old woman. When you come down don’t forget to put your teeth back in or we’ll have to put your dinner in the blender.”
She whacked him harmlessly on the chest. “Look, Senator Washboard, I’m only going to take so much sass before I lose my sense of humor.”
He reached under the water and tickled her. “You look, Spanky—if we don’t get out of this water soon, we’ll have failed our mission and I’ll have a lot more free time to punish you creatively, because I’ll be unemployed. Probably from some falsified scandal.”
“Okay.” She laughed, splashing as she sought to avoid his fingers. “Okay. Because you used one of my preapproved nicknames, I’ll concede your point. We’ve got work to do. And you have an apology to make.”
He helped her out of the tub and dried her off, and Tasha—feeling weak as a kitten—didn’t do anything to stop his ministrations. “I have an idea for tomorrow,” she told him. “Something that could move things in the right direction. Help frame our narrative.”
Stephen’s lips quirked. “What’s our narrative?”
“That you can’t resist me, but you can’t risk your peers and constituents finding out about me because I’m inappropriate. That I resent it and doubt your affections and behave like a brat in order to provoke you.”
Which, unfortunately, wasn’t as much of a stretch as it should have been.
“I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“I doubt it. But I’ve been too easy today. He’s going to need to see some tension between us so he thinks he has something to work with. So he can help you get what you want.”
“What would this involve?”
Tasha smiled. “Ken Tanaka and some rope.”
Chapter Nine
The next day, Tasha took the stairs at a leisurely pace, lost in thought. Last night had been interesting. She’d recognized a few more of her friends, managed to sit Ken and Stephen down together for a civilized conversation, and talked to Wendi a little more about the potential Tuscany trip that she knew would never happen.
But she could never get comfortable. Never relax. Every time she turned around, Phil Burke was watching her. Not the way she was used to men looking at her. He was studying her as if she were a lab experiment. She knew he was on his own mission this weekend, looking for something he could use to turn Senator Finn into his plaything. Still, it was unsettling.