13. Wesley
CHAPTER 13
WESLEY
I t was the night of the charity ball, and it would be the first time Wesley and Lauren had seen her mother since they started dating a couple weeks ago. Wesley was beyond nervous for the event. For some reason, he couldn’t play the night out in his mind without it ending in disaster. He adjusted his suit coat in the mirrored walls of the elevator on his way to pick Lauren up for the evening. Tonight, he wore his uniform suit rather than the one Lauren had chosen for him to wear to events in which they were meant to be a couple.
Not wanting the entire evening to be about hiding their relationship, Wesley he had planned a date for just before the ball. That way they could get all their public displays of affection out of their systems before they had to face Lauren’s mother. He’d chosen an out-of-the-way sushi restaurant, knowing Lauren would enjoy watching him try it for the first time. They’d already debated its merits when Lauren told him it was her favorite food. She’d been shocked when she found out he’d never tried it. So, she’d basically handed him the best idea for a date ever.
When he knocked on her door, she answered right away, which was unusual. Typically, she’d be scrambling around, looking for her shoes or taming her unruly hair. But the way she answered the door, he imagined she’d been ready for hours and was just sitting and waiting.
Her gown was gorgeous. He almost worried about taking her out for dinner in it because it looked like it was worth a fortune. Lacy patterns of sequins accentuated her curves perfectly. Sheer ruffles drew attention to her neckline and wrists. The whole thing was in shades of green, so she truly looked like a pixie, grown to size and in the flesh. Her short hair curled up at the ends, giving her a wild, adventurous look.
Seeing her now, he could hardly believe she was his.
“Are you ready to go?” he asked.
“More than ready,” she said. “I can’t wait to get out of this place.” She joined him in the hall and locked her front door. “So, where are you taking me this afternoon? You never told me.”
“That’s because it’s a surprise.”
In the elevator, Wesley put his arm around her and pulled her into him. The fact that he could just do that without resisting the urge had been something he was still getting used to. It still astonished him. To him, she felt like a walking dream come true.
He drove her to the restaurant, successfully resisting the urge to spoil the surprise the whole way there, especially every time she guessed it wrong. As soon as Lauren saw where they were going, she squealed and bounced in her seat. “Really?” She turned to him as he unbuckled his seatbelt.
“You can order me whatever you want me to try, and I promise to eat it.”
“Oooh, anything?” The mischievous glint in her eye made him second-guess his own plan. “Is there anything you’re allergic to?”
He shook his head. “Not that I know of.” Another way in which she was being unexpectedly thoughtful. It never ceased to impress him how often she thought of him without making it a whole thing.
Lauren ordered Wesley a number of new things to try. He found the sushi itself to be surprisingly pleasant. The rice was sweeter than normal, and the fish was tender and good. She only made him try the wasabi once because he was not a fan of it in the end. It was fine in the sushi, but on its own, it made his eyes water, which amused Lauren to no end. Right after tasting it, he slid over to her and kissed her, hoping the flavor transferred. “Now we’re even.”
“Shows what you know.” She said, laughing. “I love wasabi. It’s got the perfect amount of kick.” She kicked him lightly under the table, and he squeezed her thigh before moving back over to his place.
They had so much fun over dinner that the time flew by. Before they were ready to leave, an alarm on Wesley’s phone went off. It meant they had to leave soon or they’d be late for the charity ball. And at the charity ball, they would have to go back to being a princess and her bodyguard. Wesley hated it. He wanted to walk with his arm around her waist, lean over and kiss her when she impressed him, which was way too often for any kind of subtlety.
This time, Lauren let him pay the tab, and he was glad. Usually, she insisted, but he told her he wanted to treat her. He’d been working extra hours and had a little extra cash, which was partly because of Lauren, so he may as well spend it on her. That was the excuse he gave her anyway. Really, he just wanted to give her some kind of gift. It was an instinct, and he was so happy he’d been able to show her a good time before they wound up at her mother’s event. He wished he could have shown her a good time in a number of other ways, but he told himself he could wait until after the ball to help her test how well her dress held together during more… athletic activities.
She teased him in the car on the way to the ball, running her hand up and down his thigh every time they came to a stoplight. She was laughing and happy. He’d never seen her this happy on the way to one of her mother’s events, and he was proud at the thought that the reason she was smiling was probably him. He really had given her the perfect date.
She was still loosened up from the afternoon’s bottle of sake, and she was relaxed and smiling as they made their way inside. As soon as they entered the space, Lauren pressed a hand to his upper arm, and they parted ways. Wesley stayed close but several steps behind her as he mingled with her mother’s people. Now that he knew who she really was, her act was even more apparent. She buried herself and became someone completely different. Her mask was so lifelike, though, that everyone around her just accepted it as the real her.
For Wesley, seeing her hide herself this way was depressing. He wished he could take a stand, talk to her mother and fix everything for her. But he knew better. So he just did his job, keeping to the borders of the party, keeping his eyes on Lauren at all times. That part wasn’t difficult; she looked gorgeous tonight, and he didn’t want to look at anything else, despite how fancy and beautiful their surroundings were.
After a while, Lauren found him and brought him some hors d'oeuvres.
“I don’t think I should be eating,” he said.
She dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “Don’t be silly. No one cares.” He took a bite, and she handed him her glass of wine.
“I know for a fact I shouldn’t be drinking,” he said.
“You’re just holding my glass for me, obviously.” She grinned up at him. “But, you know, if you wanted to protect me from having too much of it, you could finish it yourself. That’s your job, right? Protecting me?”
He laughed under his breath. “Not from yourself. And not from your wine.”
“Boooo!” She pointed to the glass. “I wanted to share.”
He handed her wine back to her, making sure to stroke her hand with his thumb as he did. Then he leaned in close and whispered into her ear. “Later, princess. You can share everything with me later.”
Her cheeks turned pink and she bit her lower lip. “Okay, then. I’ll take you up on that.”
“Let it be your happy thought for the rest of the night,” he said.
She left him again and went back to socializing with the right people. Wesley wished he could have been right at her side, supporting her. He had a new understanding of what she went through every time she attended one of these events, and he wanted to make it softer for her, to cushion her from the stress of it. He wished it even more when he saw her disappear into a back room with her mother.
There was no chance this was a good development. Wesley wove through the crowd to get to the door she’d gone through. Rather than enter, he waited outside, but he couldn’t help overhearing the argument that ensued.
The first words he heard came from Anne. “Yes, I already knew. Did you think I was blind? You’re so obvious, Lauren. You always have been.”
Then Lauren spoke back. “You’d think that would be a good thing. Why can’t you just be happy for me, Mom? I can’t do anything right with you, can I? First, you’re upset that I’m not fine with the security you assigned to me. Then you’re upset that I’m too fine with him.”
“ Too fine .” Her mother scoffed. “You’re sleeping with him. All that will do is distract him from his job. I can’t have your security detail being compromised like that. This is serious, Lauren.”
“He cares more about me now than he ever did before. Isn’t that a good thing? Won’t that just motivate him to protect me more?”
“That’s not how these things work. Emotional involvement is to be avoided at all costs.”
Lauren’s voice got louder. “Sounds familiar,” she snapped. “No emotional involvement, not even from you. You’ll never care about anything in my life unless it affects you and your stupid political career.” Before Wesley was quite ready for it, Lauren had stormed out of the room. He followed right behind her as she made a beeline for the exit.
Once they were outside, Wesley corralled her toward the back of the courtyard, where they could talk in private. He let her have a moment to cool off before he asked her, “What was that all about?”
She folded her arms and leaned back against a stone wall. “Nothing. Just my mom being my mom. You don’t need to worry about it.”
“It didn’t sound like something I don’t need to worry about.”
She fired a nasty look at him. “You were listening?”
“You were yelling. It was hard not to hear you.” He couldn’t believe he’d heard what he thought he’d heard. He had to make sure. “Did you tell her about us?” Lauren’s expression was all the answer he needed, and Wesley’s heart broke a little. How could this night have gone so wrong so quickly? He felt so betrayed. “I thought we had a pact.”
She glanced up at him, a touch of shame showing in her expression. “What are you talking about?”
“We weren’t going to mess with each other’s professional lives. We were going to keep your mother out of it.”
“She’s not involved,” Lauren protested. “She’s not going to change anything, and I didn’t break our deal. She noticed we were behaving differently. She had guessed it already.”
“But you didn’t have to confirm it!” Wesley narrowed his eyes at her, and she crossed her arms, closing herself off from him immediately.
“You think I should have denied it?”
“No.” He bowed his head, unable to look her in the eye anymore. “But you could have talked to me about it first.”
Though he wasn’t looking at her, her tone of voice told him how upset she was that he was questioning her choices. “She sprang it on me,” she said. “I didn’t have time to be like, ‘Hang on, Mom, I have to ask Wesley whether or not I have permission to acknowledge our relationship.’ How do you think that would have gone over with her, huh? I had to improvise in the moment, and I decided not to lie to her outright. Don’t you think it should be my choice whether or not I lie to my own mom?”
She had a point, but Wesley was a wounded animal. It was his greatest weakness of character, according to his own observations. Once wounded, he always seemed to lash out quickly. And while he was doing his best to rein in his instincts at this point, he wasn’t just angry. He was also scared. How did Lauren not realize how much power her mother had over him? If Anne Bartlett was unhappy with Wesley’s performance, she would get him fired without a second thought. He was kicking himself for even getting into a situation like this. He should have known better.
“I guess it’s over, then,” he said, leaning against the stone wall beside Lauren. “She’s going to make sure of it.”
“She wouldn’t do that,” Lauren said. Wesley glanced up to see the doubt in her face. She didn’t really believe what she was saying, even if she had before. She fidgeted with her purse strap while she reconsidered her conclusion. Then she straightened her back and repeated, “No, she wouldn’t do that.”
Wesley shook his head. “Tell yourself that all you want. It doesn’t make it true.” He was feeling hopeless, and it hurt that Lauren couldn’t see what was so very obvious to him. No matter how she talked about her mother, she couldn’t seem to learn that the woman would do whatever it took to make things go the way she wanted them to go. Anne Bartlett would never back down if she had the power to bend things to her will. It was typical of her type — politicians, executives, and the like. Wesley had experienced enough of them in his life that he no longer doubted what principles they’d be willing to sacrifice, as long as they thought the outcome would work in their favor. “I just…” He slouched and bowed his head. “I thought you were smarter than that.”
Lauren tensed. His words had stung her just like he knew they would. It was the only way he could think to throw cold water on her face, to wake her up from this dream world she seemed to be living in. She valued her wits, and he knew that questioning them would not go over well. But that didn’t make it hurt any less when she cursed at him under her breath and finally walked away. “Take me home, please,” she said. “I’m done.”