Chapter Nineteen
The night before an election rally — Michigan
“Are you sure about this?” I asked Zeke as my shaking hands gripped the steering wheel of the too-big SUV he had me in the driver’s seat of.
I still wasn’t sure just how the heck he’d managed to pull off us sneaking away from the hotel suite on our own or how he’d commandeered one of the official Secret Service SUVs, but here we were and he was teaching me how to drive.
It had only been two weeks since someone had shot a gun at me in the Kennedy garden at the White House. The event itself had been covered up, of course.
According to the news, the party had already been cleaned up by the time the guy had opened fire and I was safely ensconced in my bed, despite earlier news reports stating I had been directly fired at.
Arthur McDaniels called it ‘massaging’ the story to suit the White House’s needs.
Most of the American people knew that the White House grounds had been infiltrated and the assailant had been dealt with. They also knew that the person in question had been wearing an ‘ALPHAS PRIMUS’ bullet proof vest.
Both of those things were workable for McDaniels and the rest of his staff—massageable.
What the American people did not know was that I had, in fact, been shot at and nearly killed.
That was more of a need-to-know according to, well, everyone.
I just wished I was as oblivious as they were about all of this.
But I had made the decision to keep on the campaign trail two weeks ago and I intended to follow through, even if I seemed to be jumping at everything and everyone these days.
I’d never been so afraid of my own shadow before and I hated it.
“I’m sure,” Zeke reassured me, ever the steady presence, as the SUV continued to hum, ready for me to take control and actually drive it.
We’d been sitting here for twenty minutes in this exact position going back and forth in much the same manner since Zeke had brought me to the nearly empty rooftop of the garage that was attached to the hotel we were staying at.
“What if I hit that car?” I asked, gesturing to the little sedan that sat clear across the lot in the corner.
“You won’t,” Zeke answered in the same soothing tone as the last time he’d answered that exact question a few minutes before.
“But what if I do? Isn’t it illegal for me to drive without a permit? Won’t we get sued out of the ass or something?”
I was panicking again and was about two seconds from yanking the door open and bolting when Zeke closed his hand over mine.
“Lennon, look at me,” he said, his fruity champagne scent filling the car and it was like a weighted blanket for my nerves.
I turned to look into his dark eyes and found them to be soft and confident.
“You are going to be fine. We’re just going to drive around the lot a couple of times to get you used to being behind the wheel, that’s it.”
I nodded and swallowed hard. “And how did you get this approved again?”
Zeke grinned and I realized for the first time that the alpha had a pair of dimples winking in the apples of his cheeks, as if the man couldn’t get any cuter. “I thought it would be better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission?”
With a shake of my head, I couldn’t help but return his grin. “Maverick is going to kick your butt later.”
Zeke snorted at that. “If he can pull his head out of his own ass long enough to do it, then I invite him to try.”
I frowned at that.
“Yeah I noticed something weird between you guys. What is going on with you two? What’s up with the Cold War?” I asked, still half-trying to distract him from the inevitable driving lessons and half-curious about the sudden shift in dynamics of my security team.
Ever since the night of the delegate’s dinner, things had changed for the weirder.
Brooks and Dallas were pretty much the same, though Dallas was less prickly than normal as his arm healed from the graze of the bullet he’d taken for me. But Maverick and Zeke, who I was pretty sure were supposed to be best friends, barely even spoke to each other anymore outside of work.
“Nothing, he’s just being his usual self,” Zeke muttered, not meeting my eyes. “Now are you going to put your foot on the gas and drive or what?”
“I was kind of hoping you’d forget,” I said, offering him a sheepish grin.
Zeke said nothing in return, but his look was enough to make me turn to face forward again, chastised and just the tiniest bit turned on.
Though, that wasn’t anything new. I’d long past given up on trying to ignore my attraction to the four alphas protecting me and my mother’s warning them off of me had just made it worse.
The normal rule following Lennon had died somewhere in Missouri after the bus tires had popped and in her place a contrarian had been born.
The moment my mother had told them that they needed to be professional had made me want them even more…
probably yet another thing I needed to unpack in therapy later on.
I’d even started to have dreams about them that would make a stripper blush and that made me wake up feeling unsatisfied and itchy with a pillow between my legs. Never in my life had I had such vivid sex dreams about anyone real and now it was almost a daily occurrence.
Even this morning…
“Lennon,” Zeke warned with a half-growl that snapped me out of it.
“Fine, fine,” I groaned, waving him off as I put my foot on the gas pedal and pressed down…
Much harder than I needed to.
The SUV shot forward and I screamed as I held the wheel straight.
“Brake!” Zeke shouted as we zipped from one end of the parking lot to the other. “Brake, baby, brake!”
My brain, finally computing what he was saying, lifted my foot and slammed on the other pedal making the SUV skid to a hard stop.
We sat in silence for a minute, my heart thudding in my throat as I listened to Zeke let out a wheezing huff.
“I told you I’d be bad at this,” I whined, moving to turn off the car.
Zeke stopped me, his hand over mine. “You aren’t, trust me. My sister ran into a fire hydrant her first time in the car with my dad.”
“I almost just ran us off the top of a parking garage,” I pointed out.
“I would have gotten us out of the car before then,” Zeke said, grinning at me despite still looking a little bit pale. “Mission impossible style.”
As the adrenaline coursing through my veins started to calm down, my brain began to catch up with what he’d been saying as we drove headlong toward the end of the parking lot.
“Did you just call me baby?”
Zeke frowned.
“What?”
“When I was driving and you were telling me to brake, you called me baby,” I pointed out.
The tops of Zeke’s cheeks flushed red as his eyes avoided mine. “No I didn’t.”
“You definitely did.”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about, Lennon.”
I could not believe this alpha was trying to gaslight me right now!
These guys had faced gunfire and who knows what else protecting diplomats abroad and here they were afraid to tell a girl that they liked her and were attracted to her.
And they were attracted to me.
I may have been one of the most sheltered women in America, but even I could tell when a man liked me. I didn’t even need to be an omega to their alpha to tell.
I just needed to turn at the right time in order to catch them checking out my ass and it was obvious.
They were all bad at pretending otherwise, though Maverick had quickly gotten better at it over the past two weeks.
Narrowing my eyes at the alpha next to me, I was done waiting for them to make the first move and I was done being perfect little Lennon. That had gotten me nowhere fast.
Zeke’s earlier words about asking forgiveness rather than permission rang through my head as my gaze drifted from Zeke’s pink cheeks and down to his lips.
So, before I could talk myself out of it, I threw the SUV into park and put both hands on the center console between us, using it to push myself up and over it in order to bring my lips to Zeke’s.
He froze for a moment, probably from shock, and then his hands were on my face, pulling me almost fully into his seat with him, my ass sitting firmly on the center console as we kissed.
Zeke tasted sweet, like the too-fizzy soda pop on a first date to the movies. His fingers curled in my hair which I was glad I left down tonight because the tugging sensation it brought made my toes curl in my tennis shoes as his tongue danced with mine.
The sweetness of the moment was so overwhelming that I couldn’t help but give into the urge to nip on his bottom lip, making the alpha growl underneath me.
Soon, I needed to come up for air or else I was sure I would start stripping off my clothes, location be damned, so I gently placed my palm flat on his chest and pushed him away before sliding back into the driver’s seat again.
Zeke looked at me, some of the nude gloss I’d been wearing smeared on his mouth as his chest rose and fell in harsh ragged gasps. “Did we just kiss?”
I grinned at him, reaching over to wipe away the gloss with my thumb. “I don’t have any clue what you’re talking about, Agent Adams.”
Zeke looked like he wanted to call me crazy for a minute before he realized exactly what I was doing. “Touché, Miss Holloway, touché. Now put the car in drive and let’s see if we can’t go around a couple of times before Maverick realizes we’re gone.”
Feeling more comfortable than I had before, I threw the SUV into drive and slowly began to roll forward.
***
“Thank you so much for having me today, I know my mother appreciates each and every one of you and when she comes out later she will share more of her vision for the next four years!” I told the roaring crowd as I waved from behind the podium.
People were lined up in the outdoor venue as far as the eye could see, and normally, that would make me feel energized, but all it made me feel right now was anxiety.
Never before had I been so cognizant of every person who looked slightly off or any expression of dissatisfaction as I was now and it was wearing on me as I took a step back, smiling so hard that it hurt.