Off the Record (Record #1)(38)

“Indeed, I did.”

“Now you’re coming to me saying you want to see me again, but you made no effort before this point,” Liz said. “Why did you even kiss me yesterday? Your actions seem rather mixed.”

“Because I wanted to kiss you, like I want to kiss you right now,” he told her.

Liz blushed. He had said that he wanted her multiple times, and yet he had left her dangling for someone else to scoop up for two weeks, letting her think it was a one-night stand.

“For someone who claims to know what they want, you don’t act like it.” She could see him tensing.

“Do you want the truth?” he asked, his tone flat.

“No, lie to me,” she said, with an eye roll.

His eyes narrowed, and she could see she was pushing too hard. “The truth is, I had to test you.”

“Test me?” she nearly squeaked out.

“I didn’t know for certain if you were sure about this,” he answered her.

“How thoughtful of you to inform me,” she said dryly. She was uncertain how the conversation had even gotten here. Brady Maxwell, a State Senator, was testing her to see whether she was sure about the two of them. How did this make any sense?

“People, women in particular, get close to a politician for a reason,” he stated bluntly. “I wanted to know whether you were that kind of woman.”

“And you decided I wasn’t?”

“With the fervor you kissed me back yesterday…no one could fake that.”

She hadn’t faked it, but she wasn’t so sure about his reasoning. “That’s it? A kiss?”

“You might have cleared the background check as well, but that’s neither here nor there.”

Oh, of course. A background check. “Seriously?”

“I had to be sure,” he told her flatly.

“Totally normal.” She wanted that to irritate her, but she found that it didn’t as much as she thought it would. If he was serious enough to look into her background, then he must really want to see her again.

“So, what do you think?” he asked finally.

“Well,” she said uncertainly, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t want to see me?” He apparently seemed amused at the thought. He knew she wanted to see him.

“I do,” she corrected. She couldn’t lie about that. “But I don’t know why you had to bring me here at seven o’clock in the morning to tell me that. Why didn’t you just come to my place yesterday?”

“Because I can’t see you when you want to see me,” Brady told her, pushing his diner coffee away and meeting her eyes.

Hers were already narrowed. “But you can see me when you want to?”

“Yes.” He didn’t even try to hide behind his charming words.

“Why? I don’t get it.”

“I want to see you, but in the position I’m…we’re in, it’s not possible,” he told her.

“What, because you’re running for office?” She knew she sounded incredulous, but it made sense. He wouldn’t want to risk anything…especially not on a woman, no matter his big talk.

“And you’re a reporter…a college reporter,” he reminded her.

“And I wrote that article,” she said, filling in the blanks.

“You did,” Brady confirmed. “While I don’t mind you pointing out my faults, the campaign and my opponents will see it as me giving up the nomination.”

“Why are you here then?” she asked, her anger mounting once more.

“Because I still want you. Weeks later, I still want you. And you want me too.”

Liz’s stomach dropped and all the anger she had been holding dissipated. He wanted her. She knew he did, but hearing it like that was intoxicating. She didn’t want to give him up. She was having a f**king hard time even concentrating on anything else. After he had left, it felt as if she had a hole in her chest. She didn’t know if it was the sex, because that had been fantastic, or if it was just Brady. As much as she wanted it to be the second, that idea scared the shit out of her.

“So, you want me, but you can’t see me?”

“I can’t see you on your terms,” he corrected.

“What does that even mean?” Liz asked, raising her voice. She immediately quieted down and looked around the restaurant. No one had even glanced at them. That was lucky.

“Look, I want us to continue what we’re doing, but in private. I don’t want to jeopardize my career…or your career,” he added quickly.

Liz breathed in and out deeply, realizing finally what he was saying. “You want a f**k buddy,” she stated as bluntly as possible. If he was going to be all out in the open, she wanted plain words. She wanted to know what he was offering…what kind of deal she was willing to take.

He sighed as if she was misinterpreting, but she was sure she wasn’t. He wanted to sleep with her, no strings attached, while he was on the campaign and too busy for anything else. She had heard of these kinds of situations before. She never knew how they happened…how they got started—apparently at seven o’clock in the morning at a dingy diner in downtown Chapel Hill over coffee.

“That’s not what I had in mind,” he said.