Scandalous: The Senator's Secret Bride by Imani King Page A

since my bid went in, and I knew it. I should have told Kelly, I should have told you. I’m the sorry one.” I looked down at the floor. There were dust bunnies under his desk, and it occurred to me that the place should probably be cleaned after so many people had been in and out.  

    “What do we do?”  

    “Kelly says we need to be married.” He leaned back in his chair, and I felt his cool eyes watching me. “She says that it will look better if we have that to fall back on, if anything should come out to the press.”

    “It’s extreme. And I don’t see how it protects us…” Except for the pregnancy, the one thing that makes the wedding seem like a viable option. Tell him. Tell him. I looked up at him. “Janice wants me to quit and join her campaign. In exchange, she’ll leave you alone.”

    “She’s against everything you stand for. If I know you at all. And maybe I don’t.”

    “I don’t care about me,” I said. “I’ll work for her if I have to. I think you deserve to win, and I’ll do what’s right for the campaign.”

    “I care about you.” His words were quick and crisp, his eyes honest.  

    “Do you? I guessed we skipped that part. The getting to know each other bit.” My hand went to my stomach, resting for a moment.  

    “You know me as well as anyone, right now. You know my politics and my ideals. You know what I’m going after.”  

    “Do I? I didn’t know about your marriage.” I crossed my arms. “And I still don’t know exactly what you’re after, even if I do think you’re the best person for the job.”  

    “Then why don’t you care about what happens to you? You should care about your career. Your life. Your ideals.”

    “I’m not the man in charge. Just the woman behind the scenes.” I shifted uncomfortably as he watched me. Those dark blue eyes piercing through to my core, sending heat through me even as I fought to control it.  

    “That’s not the confident girl I met in the bar.”

    “That girl was a lie, John.” He sighed again and sat back in his chair.  

    “I wasn’t lying when I told you that you’re beautiful. The sexiest woman I’ve ever met, here or anywhere.”

    “John—”

    “We could make it work,” he said.

    “What? A marriage? You’ve got to be kidding me. Kelly’s high if she thinks this is going to fool the media. Or if she thinks it can be kept secret. Or whatever she’s thinking—I have no clue.” She’s thinking about the pregnancy , I thought. She knows that will come out if the marriage does. She knows that a marriage is the only way John could ever write off the scandal.          

    “Well, not a marriage.”

    “That’s what we’re faced with, you realize. A marriage based on nothing, on keeping whatever we were a secret.”  

    “It’s not an ideal solution, no.” He knitted his fingers together and leaned back in his chair, nearly tipping over.  

    “And I still don’t understand why you neglected to tell us about Janice. That would have saved us from all this trouble.”

    “Would it? You wouldn’t have come to see me a second time?” I looked at the floor again. For that, I didn’t have an answer. He sighed, pausing again for so long that I thought he might not speak.  

    “We were foolish, and young enough to think that we could work together. It was clear from the beginning that it wouldn’t, but we held on. I wanted kids, even then at twenty-two. Came from a big family, wanted loads of them running around. When Janice got pregnant, she was tortured about it. Seems like it was something we should have discussed—I never assumed she wouldn’t want a child. But she kept it, of course. She always did the right thing, back then. We were five months in when she lost him—a little boy, they told us at the hospital. Our world came crashing down around us.”

    “I’m sorry.” The words came out in a whisper.

    “It’s ancient history. Everything with Janice is ancient