“I have to take a rain check. I don’t have any time right now, and I’d like to be able to really get to know her.” Julian checked his watch. “I’m due to meet with Hanigan,” he said, referring to the White House chief of staff. “I just wanted to pop in and say congratulations.” He extended his hand to Nick. “I’m so very, very proud, and John would be, too. He always said you were the brains behind the entire operation.”

“Thank you,” Nick said softly. “That means so much coming from you.”

“Make us proud.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Chapter 3

Nick spent the next half hour working the room, visiting with Judson Knott and Richard Manning, the chair and vice chair of the Virginia Democratic Committee, as well as Virginia Governor Mike Zorn and his wife, Judy. While Nick made polite small talk and sipped a glass of wine someone had pressed into his hand, he scanned the room in search of Sam.

“Would you all excuse me?” Nick asked the others. As he made his escape, he realized he didn’t see Sam’s family either. After circling the big room, he finally ducked into John’s office. Of course, it was his office now, but Nick would probably always think of it as John’s. He found Sam staring out the window at the Washington Monument off in the distance.

“Hey, babe,” he said, closing the door. “I was looking for you.”

She turned to him with a small smile. “Here I am.”

“Everything all right?”

“Uh-huh. You?”

“Yep. Did your dad leave?”

She nodded. “They all said to tell you congratulations and they’ll see you later at the party. Celia wanted my dad to rest up before tonight.”

“What’re you thinking about?” he asked, as he massaged her shoulders.

She turned to him. “Just about everything that happened to put you in this office.”

“We need to put that behind us,” Nick said. Touching his lips to hers, he was startled by the charge of desire even though he knew he should be used to it by now. He wondered if it would always be like that between them and suspected it would. Their connection had spanned six years and survived her manipulative ex-husband Peter’s efforts to keep them apart. “Everything’s new today. It’s a new beginning for both of us.” His hands shifted from her waist up to cup her face as she ran her tongue over his bottom lip. He gasped. “I wish we could fly away right now, today, to somewhere tropical, where I could do nothing but make love to you for a whole week.”

“You’d get tired of me before the week was up.”

“No,” he whispered, sliding one hand down her back to align her with his erection. “Never.”

“Doesn’t Congress take a recess around Easter?”

“Yes,” he said, nibbling her earlobe.