“Okay, ma’am, how about this wording? Late yesterday afternoon, Kamal Masri, Egypt’s ambassador to the US, spoke to the president on a matter of national security. After hearing what he had to offer, the president determined that it was in the United States’ best interests as well as Mr. Masri’s to provide him with political asylum.”

Jessica shifted in her desk chair, wondering why she’d never ordered a new one. It was made for a man, and big, awkward, and uncomfortable. “So far so good.”

Vanessa continued. “At six forty-five p.m. yesterday, Mr. Masri resigned his post as Egypt’s ambassador, and surrendered his Egyptian passport to US officials in the State Department. His request for political asylum has been granted temporarily and will be processed through all the official channels. As that goes forward, he will remain in the US with a green card, hoping to acquire citizenship in the very near future.”

“Good. That’s all fine.”

“And what is our stance when they ask about the information he provided?” The press secretary asked.

“That it’s part of an ongoing classified investigation, and we will provide more information when it’s appropriate to do so,” Jessica responded.

“The press is never going to tolerate that, ma’am.”

Jessica looked at her press secretary and grimaced. He was right, she knew it, but to provide any more information would only muddy the waters when they still hadn’t pinned down who specifically ordered and carried out the assassination attempt.

She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck, which was aching and stiff. “I know, but that really is all we can give them at this point.”

“What do we say about the accord? It was a huge part of your final legacy.”

“Yes, it was, but we cannot go forward until this mess with Egypt is sorted, so simply tell them that we will be giving information about that in the very near future as well. Vanessa, do we have the teleconference with the Egyptian prime minister set yet?”

“Yes, ma’am, it’s at eleven p.m., which is five a.m. his time.”

The press secretary leaned forward, elbows on his knees where he sat on the sofa a few feet from Jessica’s desk. “This is a very risky proposition, Madam President. The prime minister and President Abbas are in the same party. By all reports, they’ve worked together very well the last couple of years. If the prime minister doesn’t side with you on this, then you’ve lost any chance of gaining the parliament’s support. You could end up with Egypt as a true enemy if not an official one.”

“Yes, and if he does side with us and asks the parliament to impeach Abbas, we might end up with Egypt destabilized. They’ve only just recovered from the issues they had in 2011 and 2012. The stability is tenuous there.”

The press secretary nodded. “Yes, you’re right. There really isn’t anything easy or good about any of this, is there?”

“When it looks like a foreign leader has been involved with an assassination attempt on the president of the United States?” Vanessa scoffed. “Yeah, not much good is going to come out of that.”

* * *

Two hours later, Jessica entered the living room of the residence and welcomed Marjorie and John senior.

“Thank you for coming,” she said as she hugged each of them. “I’m glad you could make it on such short notice.”

“Well, when your president requests your help, you answer the call,” John said, holding Jessica’s hand in both of his. “Now, sit down, and tell us what this is all about.”

Jessica joined them on the sofa and sighed. She hated doing this. She knew it was going to come as a great shock, and that they would most likely be very unhappy, but it had to be done. There was no way she could keep this from them when it threatened to break out in the press at any moment.

“I am holding a press conference this afternoon, and I wanted to tell you about it beforehand.”

John senior grunted his approval, while Marjorie waited, smile firmly in place.

“I am going to tell you classified information, because I know that no matter what you may think of it, you respect this office too much to violate my trust.”

Marjorie sucked in a breath. “Why of course, dear. We would never betray you or the national security.”

Jessica patted her mother-in-law’s hand. “I know, I just have to give the disclaimers.” She took a deep breath and pushed on. “Yesterday, the ambassador from Egypt came to me and gave me information that relates to the shooting here at the White House.” She went on to tell them about President Abbas’s apparent involvement with the Bratva and his opposition to the accord.

“So, Masri gave up his country to do the right thing?” John senior asked, his brow furrowed in concentration.

“Yes, he did.”

“I’d like to shake the man’s hand,” the elder statesman said gruffly. “I feel for him. A country is a terrible thing to lose.”

“That’s kind of you, and I hope that you’ll have a chance to meet Kamal in the next day or two. But before you do, there’s something else I need to tell you.” Her heart pounded as she cleared her throat and gathered up the courage to come clean for the first time with anyone but Fiona.

“Kamal is a good man, and I think he would have done this no matter what, but I’m not sure he would have done it so soon. I imagine he would have tried to find other options before giving up his entire country and career.”

Marjorie pursed her lips in sympathy with the former ambassador.

“But he did this willingly and gave up everything he did not only because it was the right thing, but also because he and I are…personally involved.”

“You’ve been working on the accord together. That tends to form bonds between colleagues,” John senior said almost dismissively. But Marjorie sat, eyes wide, lips trembling.

“That’s not what she means, John,” she said softly.

“What?”

“Senator, Kamal and I are involved romantically.”

The air in the room grew heavy, and the antique clock on the mantel was the only sound for seconds that seemed to drag on into hours, everyone and everything frozen in a moment of shock.

“But what about John?” Marjorie asked, her voice shaking much as her hands were now.

Jessica breathed quietly, and her eyes burned. “Marjorie, I can’t remember what his voice sounded like,” she began before pinning her mother-in-law with her gaze, heart. “I have to look at a photo to conjure up his image. Sometimes I go days at a time without thinking of what he would do or say or want.” She paused. “I loved your son.” Her voice was full of grit now, and she pushed past that thing that had lingered between them for so long, it was like a curtain that kept them blinded to the reality of his loss, the truth of his absence. “I loved him with all my heart, but he is gone. And I am alive. And I’ve been alone for a very long time.” Her voice faded, and she swallowed the lump that rose in her throat.

“Goddammit,” John senior said, his head hanging between his big shoulders as his elbows rested on his knees.

Marjorie stood, tears rolling quietly from her eyes now. “Please excuse me,” she choked out before walking quickly from the room.

Jessica sat very still, looking at her hands in her lap as she fought the tears that burned behind her eyes and nose until she thought they might eat their way through her bones and skin.

“When he was a little boy,” John senior said roughly, “John found an abandoned kitten under a bush. He brought it to me and asked if he could keep it. I said yes, and we took it to the vet, got it shots, fed it until it was healthy and happy. He loved that cat, and it followed him everywhere, slept on his bed at night, waited for him all day while he was at school. More like a dog, really, than a cat. I think it knew he’d saved its life.”

He cleared his throat, obviously overcome with emotion for a moment.

“By the time John went to college, the cat was old. We kept it, of course, and it would spend most of its days in John’s bedroom. Neither one of us were really cat people, but we had the housekeeper feed it and change its litter box, and we left it alone. We kept it because it was John’s, and he loved it and it loved him. It died toward the end of his freshman year. Just went to sleep on his bed one night and didn’t wake up. Cleaning lady found it. It hadn’t been sick, and I always thought it died of a broken heart, it just missed him so damn much.”

The tears finally broke through and rolled down Jessica’s cheeks as she gazed at the face that her husband’s would have looked so much like had he lived.

“You’re that cat, Jess. And we’ve left you alone in his bedroom all these years when maybe we should have helped you find a new home. Please believe me that neither of us wanted you to die of a broken heart.”

He squeezed her hand once, then stood. “I’ll talk to Marjorie. She’ll be okay. And I’d like to meet him. The ambassador.”

And that was when Jessica knew everything would be fine, because John senior only called people by their titles when he wanted to know them, and he would call them by their titles long after those titles were no longer valid.

“I could invite him to dinner tomorrow night. Would that be too soon? Do you need more time?”

“We’ve had six years, Madam President. If that’s not long enough, nothing will be.” Then he ambled out of the room, leaving Jessica to take the breath that she hadn’t been able to in over half a decade.

* * *

Kamal was thirty-four years old and he was sleeping with the fucking president of the United States, yet, here he was acting like a teenage boy about to meet his girlfriend’s parents. And the worst part was they weren’t even her actual parents.

What they were made the whole thing, in some ways, even worse. They were the people who’d thought she’d be the mother of their grandchildren. And when they looked at him with Jessica this evening at the White House dinner table, what they’d see was a man other than their son. A man who was alive while their son was not. Yes, this was worse than meeting your teenage girlfriend’s parents.

He tugged at his tie one more time as the car pulled up to the back staff parking for the White House.

“You sure you don’t want me to come in with you, Mr. Masri?” Tariq asked. Just as Kamal had guessed, Tariq and the two other security staff he’d asked had elected to come with him when he walked out of the embassy after tendering his resignation to President Abbas and parliament via email. The deputy ambassador had stared at him wide-eyed when he’d handed over his security badge and clearance passwords, and told the man to make himself at home in the ambassador’s office.

The press conference Jessica had held made a splash, but a bombing in Vienna had taken the attention away from the story, and he hoped that the press would not be digging into things more anytime soon. The longer he and Jessica could keep their relationship a secret, the better it was for her presidency.

In the meantime, he’d spent most of the last twenty-four hours fielding phone calls from Teague, Jeff, and the other Powerplay members, as well as the press, a few expat Egyptians, and one major publishing house that sensed there was a story to be told and wanted to profit from it. He’d ignored everyone but his friends, and they, of course, knew only part of the story. Jeff was true to his word and hadn’t let anyone else know what was happening between Kamal and Jessica.

But the one phone call he hadn’t received was from his father. And he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He shouldn’t have expected one. He’d given his father the kiss-off, and now the elder Masri was probably fearful that he’d be swept into any investigations that resulted from information Kamal provided.

Peter met him at the side door to the White House and walked him inside. “It’s nice to see you,sir,” he said, uncharacteristically warm.

“It’s nice to be here,” he replied, wondering what had prompted the change in Peter’s demeanor.

As they walked up the stairs, the mystery was solved. “It was very courageous,” Peter said. “What you gave up for the president. America thanks you.”

Kamal swallowed, not sure how to respond to the unjustified praise. After all, he’d not given up the information until he was forced to. He felt anything but heroic. And he’d sold out his own country in the process, not particularly admirable.

“Thank you. I want the president to be safe.”

“She’s a special person,” Peter said.

They’d reached the top of the stairs, and Peter stopped on the large landing, turning to face Kamal before they entered the residence.

“I served her and Senator Hampton when he was alive. They were a very happy couple, everything people saw in the press about them was true.”

Kamal fought the urge to tell the guy to fuck off. The last thing he wanted to hear about right now was how perfect the love between John and Jessica Hampton had been. He didn’t often feel jealous, the man was dead after all, but moments before facing the Hampton family wasn’t the time for this conversation.

“But,” Peter continued, “you have put a light in her eyes that even the senator didn’t. She was comfortable with him, but she’s alive with you. I hope that you two have a long, happy future ahead of you.”

Kamal blinked at the Secret Service agent, stunned by the realization. “You’re in love with your president, aren’t you?” he asked bluntly.

Peter’s eyes grew wide, then he chuckled. “Uh, no, sir. I’d be more likely to be in love with you than with her, if you understand what I’m saying, and more importantly, I’ve been happily married for the last couple of years. But I have watched her for many years now, and you grow to know someone when your job is to be focused on them so deeply. We’re trained to know what’s normal behavior for our assigned officials so that we can tell if they’ve been poisoned, are having a health issue, or are being controlled in any way by outside interests.”

“Really?” Kamal asked, fascinated.

“Yes, sir. Guarding America’s head of state is a complicated job.”

“Apparently. But I’m very glad that you’re the one doing it,” Kamal said. Then he extended his hand. In all the time they’d spent sneaking in and out of the White House together, he’d never once shaken Peter’s hand, and he realized that it was time he acknowledged that his relationship with Jessica wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for this man.

They shook hands, and then Peter opened the door and admitted Kamal to the residence, just in time to face America’s First Family.

* * *

Jessica watched Kamal carefully. He was reserved but had a smile firmly in place. He’d worn a suit and tie to dinner, and she had the urge to yank the piece of silk off his neck so he could relax a bit. John senior had been gracious, welcoming Kamal to the residence as though it were his own home and Kamal was a visiting dignitary. However, Marjorie had done nothing but talk about John since dinner was served, and Jessica could see Kamal’s patience wearing thin.

“Marjorie,” she interrupted a story about John’s first year in law school, “how are Beth and the kids?” Her sister-in-law, Beth, lived in New York, where Beth’s husband was a Wall Street tycoon and Beth a socialite wife. They had two children whom Jessica served as godmother to.

“Oh, you should see them. They’ve gotten so big. Have they been here since Christmas?”

“No, but I’ve Skyped with them twice. Brett told me that he’d gotten a new spotted frog of some sort, and he had to feed it live crickets.” Jessica gave a not entirely fake shudder, and Kamal grinned at her.

“Do you have children, Mr. Masri?” Marjorie asked. Jessica hoped that maybe she was finally going to include him in the evening.

“No, I’ve never been married,” he answered, his deep voice sending a warm thread through Jessica’s center. “I have several nieces and nephews, though. One of them was my secretary at the embassy, and she’ll be coming to work for me in some other capacity at the end of the month. Unfortunately, I don’t get to see the younger ones as often as Jessica does hers.”

Marjorie set her fork down, dabbing at her lips with her white napkin. “Yes, Jess has been such a wonderful aunt and godmother to the children. After she lost John’s baby, I was so worried that she would be too sad to be around the children, but when they were born, she committed to them one hundred percent, just as she does to everything.”

John senior snapped, “Marjorie!” but it was too late and really only served to make the whole nightmare worse. Jessica felt her throat tighten as she watched Kamal blanch.

Marjorie looked around with feigned innocence as Jessica stared down at her plate, her face heating with humiliation.

She hadn’t told him, of course. They had no idea what a future might look like for them. They barely had any idea of what tomorrow might look like. She didn’t owe him that piece of her past, but she would have given it. In her own time, in her own way. And now it was there, lying in the middle of the dirty dishes, a smudge on her heart and her soul.

But Kamal was a trained diplomat, and he had never failed her before. Now apparently wasn’t going to be the exception.

“Your grandchildren are fortunate to have her for a godmother. It is a very important role in a child’s life. I hope that someday someone might trust me enough to give me the responsibility.”

Jessica looked up at him gratefully, her eyes misting with relief. “They absolutely will,” she said quietly.

“Well,” John senior said. “It’s time for us to get to bed. We’ve had a long day. Jess, please excuse us for not staying for dessert. Will you tell Annie in the kitchen that I will have the leftovers for breakfast if she’ll indulge me? We have a sort of understanding, you know,” he said.

Jessica shook off her embarrassment and smiled at her father-in-law. “Yes, I’ve heard about you buttering up Annie to get sweets.”

“Marjorie, come on, we’re staying in the Roosevelt bedroom this evening, so we have to walk all the way to the other wing. If we don’t get going, it’ll take us all night to get there.”

“What? Why in the world—”

“Now, Marjorie.” John senior used his senator voice, and Marjorie’s eyes got wide.

She stood and nodded at Jessica. “Thank you for dinner, I guess that I’ll see you in the morning.” She marched out the door, tension and anger radiating off her.

“It was a pleasure to meet you,” John senior said to Kamal. “I’m very happy that Jessica has someone like you to stand by her. She deserves only the best.”

Kamal stood and put his hand out to the older man, shaking it firmly. “I agree completely, Senator. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

After John senior left the residence, Jessica sat awkwardly, gazing at Kamal across the table.

“Come here,” he commanded. She’d never felt more like a child in that moment. She wanted to cry, rage, hide, all at once, and she also wanted to kill Marjorie for the betrayal. It was unforgiveable, and so out of character, she’d been completely blindsided.

“Jessica.” Kamal’s voice was soft but brooked no argument. “Come here.”

She rose and walked around the table, where he grabbed her hand and pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her head onto his shoulder.

“Tell me,” he said softly.

“I was pregnant.”

“Yes, I gathered that. When was this?”

“When he died,” she whispered.

Kamal made a sound deep in his chest. “Oh, love,” he breathed out.

“Two weeks after he died, I was taken to the ER with terrible pain. It was ectopic—a tubal pregnancy, and they had to perform emergency surgery.” She swallowed, the memories of what it felt like to wake up after that surgery washing over her in a tidal wave of pain.

“I am truly sorry. My beautiful brave girl.” He kissed her softly on the temple.

“Kamal,” she said, her voice raspy as she raised her head and looked into his eyes. “The pregnancy destroyed my fallopian tube and scarred my uterus. The doctors don’t think I’ll ever be able to get pregnant again.”

He brushed a piece of hair off her face. “And that makes you sad?”

“I guess I should have said something sooner, but we haven’t really had many reasons to talk about the future, and I’m not even sure you’d consider a future like that with me, but I guess now that you know the truth, you could make a better-informed decision, because I’d completely understand—”

“Jessica?” Kamal interrupted her nervous stream of consciousness. He put a hand alongside her jaw and turned her face to his, locking them into each other’s gaze, their lips mere inches apart. “I think the fact that I just abandoned my country, my duty, and my family to protect you shows how very much I do want a future with you.”

She gasped, and tears came to her eyes. “I can’t give you children. You’re young—younger than me, and you should have a family. Before you know it, I’m going to be a forty-year-old woman with a security entourage and meddling family members.” She laughed, and it was bitter. “Unable to do the one thing I dreamed about for years.”

“Why couldn’t we have children?” he asked patiently, continuing to stroke her hair, soothing her roiling emotions.

“Didn’t you hear what I just told you?”

“I heard you say you can’t get pregnant. That’s one of many ways to have children. Is there some reason you can’t adopt or use a surrogate?”

Jessica stared at him, her heart beating faster, and her breath short and tight. “You would do that? Raise a child who might not be yours biologically?”

“Love, the world is full of children who need families. Why would I be opposed to providing one of them with ours?”

“Our family?”

Kamal kissed her on the lips, a blending of encouragement, love, and understanding.

“Yes, it seems we’re building one here, aren’t we?”

She nodded then, overcome with it all.

“And if that family includes children, then I will be very happy. And if it doesn’t, I will still be very happy, because if I have you in my life, it seems I can be happy with anything.”

She leaned in and kissed him, and what was gratitude quickly turned to heat and want, and it wasn’t much later that she lay beneath him naked and hot and aching to feel him inside her.

“Jessica,” he said above her. “Look at me.”

Her eyes opened, and there he was, dark, dangerous, and so beautiful. He made her feel safe, and free all at once. And she was so grateful for him that it made her want to do nothing but stand by his side and hold on to him.

“I love you,” he told her tenderly before kissing her, swirling his tongue into her mouth, giving her a taste of his need and the fire that threatened to singe them both.

“I love you too,” she gasped as he rocked his hips against hers, sliding his cock through her slick center.

He moaned, and she whimpered, pressing her hips into his and arching her back. The enormity of what they were doing washed over her with a force that was staggering. He had given up everything for her, and yet he never backed away, never seemed deterred, was never scared off.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’m so grateful,” she gasped.

He stopped moving, watching her with his dark, glittering eyes. “You are you,” he said simply before he pushed into her, filling her senses, her body, and her world.

* * *

Kamal tried not to come undone as he was sucked into the soft heat of Jessica’s body. Her lavender scent filled the air around him, and her breath washed over his skin as he slowly, deliciously pulled nearly completely out before sliding back in inch by inch.

“You’re trying to kill me,” she gasped.

“No,” he whispered in her ear, “Just trying to make it last.”

“I can’t…”

“You can,” he corrected, moving in and out very slowly again. Torturously slowly, so slowly that he could feel every tiny shudder and quake that her body made as he left it and then reinvaded.

She gave three small cries, then he felt her entire frame stiffen, muscles tightening, back bowing. He pushed all the way in now, and she came, locking down hard, pulsing around his dick until his head was swimming in a fog of lust and sensation. “God, Kamal. Oh God.”

“Shh, I’m right here, I’m right here with you.” His hoarse voice sounded foreign to his own ears. But then he pulled out and plunged in again, once, twice, and groaned his release into the darkened room, flooding her body with his fluids, clutching her in his arms so tight, he was afraid he might break her, feeling his heart tear out of his fucking chest as if someone had ripped it free.

And when the violence of their orgasms had quieted and they lay in each other’s arms, Kamal’s heart still pounded, because he knew that if he ever lost Jessica the way she’d lost John, he wouldn’t survive it. Over the course of a few months, she had become everything to him. Everything that mattered in his heart, in his mind, in his soul, and now in his future as well. Because they had a future. His future was with this woman, and as soon as she was done with her term in office, he was going to ensure that she knew it by putting a ring on her finger and a family in her home.