"I knew it!" Nell cried in triumph. "I knew you couldn't live in the same house as all that prime Grade A man meat and not give in."

Lisa looked around the sports bar they were sitting in and put a finger to Nell's lips. "Shhh. You don't need to announce it to the entire room."

Nell grinned like a maniac. "Face it, the Colonel is hot and you want him."

Lisa shrugged, but couldn't help smiling. "He's pretty hot."

"How hot?" Nell's gaze narrowed.

"So hot."

Both women burst into laughter.

"But seriously, is this in your contract now? Like, sex three times a week or something?"

Lisa shook her head. "Of course not, that would make it prostitution." She thought for a moment. "Which it sort of is."

"If that's prostitution then all marriage is. There's always sex and money involved in a marriage. Yours is no different. You just put an end date on it. That's all."

The end date. Lisa's chest burned a touch at that. It reminded her this wasn't real. As much fun as she was having with Jeff, both in and out of the bedroom, they were only passing the time until he'd done his duty, gotten his promotion, proved he could handle the job. Then all this was over. He wasn't actually interested in her, or in being married. He'd done it to get a promotion and she couldn’t forget it.

"Well, it is different because we're not in love," she said dryly. "That's usually a precursor to the money and the sex."

"Or maybe you're just doing it in reverse?" Nell asked hopefully.

Lisa scoffed. "Please. I don't think Jeff's had any relationship that lasted longer than a deployment ever. He's only with me because he wants a promotion. Don't forget how this all started."

"So you don't think you could fall for him?"

Lisa's brow furrowed. That was the frightening part about it all. She was beginning to realize she could fall for him. But that wasn't in the cards, and she needed to be cautious because of it. They'd only been having sex for a few days, but she'd been very careful to keep it light—and dirty. They were fucking—on the kitchen counter, the shower, the sofa in the TV room—they weren't making love. No beds, no tender moments afterwards.

"Lisa?" Nell asked gently. "Are you already falling for him?"

"No!" Lisa snapped too emphatically. "Of course not. You need to stop romanticizing this. It's sex. And money. And a work promotion. And that's all it'll ever be."

Nell nodded. "Ok, if you say so."

"I do." Lisa raised an eyebrow and gave her friend the same look she gave recalcitrant second graders.

Nell laughed. "Yes, ma'am. No more romanticizing." She paused. "But will you tell me about the sex?"

"It's spectacular," Lisa answered. "Absolutely spectacular."

She only hoped the whole thing wouldn't end in spectacular heartache.

* * *

"So how is married life treating you?" Kamal Masri, the First Gentleman of the United States, teased.

Jeff flipped him the bird, but couldn't help the grin that broke out on his face.

"Gentlemen," said Teague, giving Jeff a hard look. "I think our boy may be holding out on us. That's a pretty big smile for a man who's contractually obligated to give up sex for a year."

All eyes turned to Jeff. Well, shit. That secret hadn't lasted but fifteen minutes when confronted with his best friends.

Jeff sighed. "That would be because we're not sticking to the terms of the contract."

Teague groaned in frustration, Kamal raised an eyebrow, and from across the room Derek could be heard shouting, "Do tell!"

"You didn't. Please tell me you didn't have sex with your new wife," Teague lamented.

"So what if he did?" Kamal responded. "He's married to the woman, she's a babe, as you'd say, and they're adults. I'm not seeing the problem."

"The problem is the contract is now voided. Meaning, this marriage is as real as any other, and she can demand half of everything he has when they get divorced. I worked damn hard on that contract, making sure she didn't get a penny over what was needed to pay off her debts and buy her a house for a price Jeff agreed to. Our man has assets well beyond that. Now he's left them unprotected because he couldn't keep it zipped around his new wife."

Jeff scowled at the Supreme Court Justice, but before he could answer, Derek interceded.

"She seemed like a very nice woman, I really doubt she'll go after his money. It sounds like he's already being very generous, and he approached her for this deal. It's not like she was trolling for a Sugar Daddy."

"I'm a lot more interested in how or why this turn of events came about?" asked Kamal.

"Oh, I can guess pretty well how it came about," muttered Derek, whose own marriage had started as a relationship for public relations purposes only.

Kamal and Teague snickered while Jeff glared at Derek. "How it happened is none of your damn business. But it has." He gave Teague a hard look. "And she's not the type to try to take my money, it’s not even an issue. We simply realized a year was a long time to go without certain benefits a marriage can easily provide."

He shrugged. It was the truth. Part of it anyway. The part he wasn't telling them, of course, was how infatuated he was with her. They'd had sex exactly seven times, and he could describe each event in vivid detail. In fact, the details lived in his imagination to the point he was having trouble concentrating at the office, he'd lost a sparring match to Kamal for the first time ever yesterday, and he'd caught himself humming Christmas carols in the car while he drove.

Marriage was simultaneously the best and worst thing that had ever happened to him.

"Well, I guess you'll all get a chance to see it live and in action at Jeff's first ever Christmas party," Kamal added. "I'm still disappointed I won't be there." Kamal and his wife, the President, weren't often able to attend normal social gatherings as they would draw all of the attention from what the event was intended for. It was Kamal's one frustration with his official position, but something he'd had to accept.

"I'll have another one after Jessica leaves office," Jeff reassured him.

"Look at him," Scott said as he entered the Powerplay condo from the hallway outside where Kamal's Secret Service detail kept watch. "He's become a regular party host. After all these years of living like a hermit."

Jeff flipped Scott the bird like he had the others earlier. The problem with having a group of happily married, successful friends was they didn't have much to worry about in their own lives, so they tended to focus on his. Although, Scott was spectacularly single. Why weren't they interrogating him? The military strategist in him took over.

"How about you?" Jeff asked, rotating toward the younger man.

Scott had been the Chief of Staff to Senator Carries for nearly four years. He was one of politics' rising stars, destined not for political office, but for something like Secretary of State or Chief of Staff in the White House.

"What about me?" Scott said, moving to the bar they kept fully stocked. Each week the men all met to socialize, and strategize how to achieve their goals with regards to power and career advancement. Over the last couple of years, however, Teague, Derek, and Kamal had all settled down not only with wives, but also in positions of enormous power and influence. These days there was a lot more socializing than strategizing.

"Our soldier's trying to change the subject," Kamal said with a raised brow. "But we'll allow it because you haven't said much about how everything's going since the Senator got diagnosed."

Scott's boss and best friend, Hugh Carries, one of the most powerful men in Congress, had been diagnosed with lung cancer ten weeks ago.

Jeff watched his friend, realizing he'd been so preoccupied with his promotion he'd failed to check in. Scott deserved more support than that, and Jeff felt guilty for his selfishness.

Scott cleared his throat. "It's worse than we're letting on to the press," he said, his voice soft. "It's metastasized to his liver."

"Jesus," Derek cursed from his seat on a barstool. He put a hand on Scott's arm. "I'm really sorry."

"You should have told us," Jeff said, his brow furrowed. "What can we do? All hands on deck."

"I thought you were in the Army not the Navy," Teague murmured. Jeff flipped him off. Again. It was one of those days.

"I wish there were something," Scott answered. "The staff are being fantastic, putting in extra hours. I've had to put my deputy in charge of the day-to-day so I can be with Elisa as much as possible while he's going to treatments."

"How's she handling it?" Kamal asked, referring to the Senator's wife.

"She's strong—amazing, really—and she's refusing to give up hope, but I can tell you guys what I can't anyone else." He looked up at every gaze in the room. "I don't think he's going to make it."

"Fuck," Kamal whispered. He shook his head for a moment before standing and crossing the room where he pulled Scott into a quick hug, patting him on the back hard a couple of times. "May I tell the President so she can be prepared?"

Scott nodded as Derek pushed a glass of vodka on the rocks into his hand. He took a long swig, coughing lightly as he brought the glass away from his lips.

"We need to think about who the Governor should appoint, if it's necessary," Derek said.

"What about Scott?" Kamal offered.

"I can't even go there," Scott said sadly.

"Would Elisa be willing?" Teague asked.

Scott's lips twisted into a wry smile. "She doesn't even like him being in the Senate. It's been a big bone of contention between them. She's been pressuring him to take the Governor's seat so they can go home."

"Then it needs to be you," Derek said decisively.

Every set of eyes in the room fell on him. Derek was the political consultant who had helped half the candidates in the country win their offices. These days he focused his considerable talent and resources on non-traditional candidates, having put LGBTQ and minority candidates in office in even some of the nation's most conservative states, but that didn't mean he wasn't still on top of the traditional political scene.

"If you don't take it, Edwards, the Lieutenant Governor will be pressing for it, and we all know what a douchebag he is."

Every head in the room nodded. The Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin, Senator Carries’ home state, was known in private to have an affinity for women dangerously young, as well as a drinking problem that went back to his fraternity days.

"Does the Governor know the severity of the diagnosis?" Kamal asked gently.

Scott shook his head. "We're keeping it under wraps as long as possible."

"Ok, but tell me as soon as you let him know and I'll have the President call him to discuss any possible appointment to fill the seat. We want to be ahead of the curve on this one. Hugh's seat is too important to let it evolve organically."

Teague's gaze shot to Jeff's, telegraphing the sadness he felt on behalf of their friend.

"In the meantime," Jeff said, "let's drink a toast to the Senator and to his recovery, because it's not over until it's over and if anyone can beat this it's him."

They all lifted their glasses in a toast. "To the Senator," they repeated before drinking.

"Pool?" asked Derek.

"I'll spot Scott three," Jeff said, grinning.

"Fuck you," Scott said, shaking off his sorrow. "I can kick your ass one-handed."

The smack talking began, and Jeff settled in to enjoy a night with his friends, and the hope that his new wife would be there when he got home. He couldn't think of a better way to end the work week than this. Life was good.