For the Love of Gina: The President's Girlfriend by Mallory Monroe Page B

“What it is, Cray?” Dutch asked him.   “Loretta’s fantastic, but she’s not enough for you?”
    “Of
course she’s enough!   I told you I wasn’t
serious.”
    “Is
she enough for you, Crader?” Dutch asked again.
    Crader
paused, and then he shook his head.   “No,” he admitted.   “No one woman
is or ever can be.”
    Dutch
exhaled, opened his suit coat, and placed his hands on his hips.   “Does she know?” he asked his longtime
friend.
    “Does
she know what?   That I’m an asshole for
feeling this way?”
    “That
she’s not good enough for you?   That the
man she loves and married is saying that she’s not enough for him?”
    “What
do you want me to say?   I love my wife.”
    “Bullshit!”
    “It’s
not bullshit!   I love her!   I love her more than I love any human being
on the face of this earth, and that’s the truth!   But I have to have more.   I can’t help it, Dutch.   I need more!”
    Dutch
couldn’t believe it.   “So what’s the
problem?   She doesn’t satisfy you in bed,
is that what you’re telling me?”
    “That’s
not it at all! That’s why this is so fucked up.   She’s great in bed.   Before you
guys came, she gave me some and it was. . . it was magnificent,” Crader said
honestly.   “It was perfect.”
    “Then
what the hell is your problem?”
    “There’s
no danger.   There’s no . . . I like the
danger of it, Dutch.   I like.   . . Hell, I don’t know, Dutch.   You remember how we used to have those threesomes?   How dangerous and awesome that felt?”
    “Why
do you keep bringing that up as if that’s something to be proud of?   We were sex starved United States Senators
back then who had to have it all the time.   That wasn’t a good thing.   It was
wrong, Crader.   It was immoral.   It wasn’t the way to go.”
    Crader
exhaled.   “I didn’t say it was.   But I need what I need.”
    What
an infuriating man, Dutch thought.   He
thought he was bad, but Crader took the prize.   Talk about complicated.   Complicated wasn’t the word to describe this man!   “Have you told Loretta about this need of
yours?” he asked   him.
    “No.   How can I tell her a thing like that?”
    “But
you’ve been faithful to her?”
    “Yes.   And I will be.   She’s my wife, and I can’t lose her.”
    “Then
you’d better start behaving like it, Cray.   You hear me?   You’d better decide
if variety means more to you than having Loretta.   Because she won’t settle for less.   I won’t let her.”
    Crader
stared at Dutch.   He always acted as if
he was LaLa’s protector.   “You’re always
so pure, aren’t you, Dutch?” he asked him.
    “Hurt
Loretta,” Dutch said, “and you’ll see just how pure I am.”   Dutch stared at Crader longer, and then he
walked away, unable to stand the sight of his closest friend.
    Crader
just stood there.   And then he couldn’t
stand the sight of himself either.   He
wasn’t going to lose LaLa, he was certain of that.   But how to keep from losing her was going to
be the trick.

 
    That
next afternoon, while LaLa and Crader were playing tennis, and while Walt and Nikki
played Hide-and-Go-Seek, Dutch and Gina took his private plane to Boston, and
then a helicopter ride to the Nantucket estate of Dutch’s childhood.   The helicopter landed on the backside of the
estate and as soon as it did, Gina was surprised.   Dutch had told her she wouldn’t be able to
guess where he was taking her, and he was right.   She looked at him.
    “Come
on,” he said as he helped her off of the helipad and walked her toward the back
entrance.   When they arrived under the
colonnade, Gina smiled.   “Okay now, what
is this about?” she asked him.
    “It’s
about us,” Dutch said.   “It’s ours.”
    “Ours?   But what about Nathan Riles?   You left this estate to him.”
    “While
he lived, it was his.   But as you know he
passed away a few weeks back.   Which
means it