ROMANCING THE BULLDOG (14 page)

invited to dinner.”

Liz looked puzzled. “You were invited, too?”

“Yes! I kept wondering why Mal suddenly wanted me in his precious father’s house. His

big sister is in town, and he probably wanted to rub it in my face. He knew how much I used

to care about you.” It was obvious by the discomfort that appeared on Clay’s face that he did

not mean to go there. Liz, too, wished he hadn’t.

“I thought you were still in Philly.”

“No, I’m back now. I’ve been back for about a month.”

“You don’t say? But what’s wrong? Don’t tell me they’ve scared you away already?”

“No, I’ve just decided I need to be somewhere.” She didn’t know why she was lying

about it. In her childhood, Clay had always been a good friend to her. “It’s been good seeing

you again, Clay.” She began to move away from his grasp. “You take care of yourself.”

“Not so fast,” Clay said, pulling her back. “I haven’t seen my best girl in years, and you

expect me to . . . How about dinner?”

Liz immediately shook her head. “No, I can’t.”

“Ah, Liz, come on. It’ll make me a very happy man. Or maybe we can go somewhere

now--”

“No, not now. I’m not . . . Not now.”

“Tomorrow then?” Liz still seemed against it.

Clay decided to press. “Look, I know you’ve moved on from our teen years. Heck, I’ve

moved on. It’s not about attempting to win you back or anything like that. I just want to be

friends again.”

Liz was sharp enough to know that when a man, a former boyfriend, told you that they

just wanted to be friends again, it usually meant just the opposite. But she and Clay never did

have a sexual relationship, just a close, personal one. He was probably her best friend for parts

of her teen years. And it would be nice to connect with somebody who always seemed to

have her back. “Tomorrow will be fine.”

“I’ll pick you up around seven-seven thirty?”

Jason’s disapproving face flashed across her mind. “No, I’ll meet you,” she said. “Just

tell me where?”

“Sorry, buddy. I won’t have you meeting me anywhere. I will pick you up around seven.

Just give me your address and I’ll be there.”

Liz smiled weakly and gave him her address, wondering why every man she’d ever met

felt a need to somehow control some part of her. Now even mild-mannered Clay was in on

the game. But she didn’t sweat it. She couldn’t. She didn’t have the energy.

Clay wrote down her address with a combination of happiness and dread. He wasn’t at all

sure if he wanted to go down that road with Liz. He always had a thing for her, what man

didn’t? But he and she were probably as different as night and day. But time would tell if

there was anything there to salvage.

He watched her, gorgeous as ever, as she got into what he took to be her Aston Martin,

and fled.

***

thinking about her father, her family, and how depleted seeing them again had rendered her.

But her depletion wasn’t over, as soon as she unlocked and entered her front door.

Jason Rascone, to her shock, was standing in her living room. She frowned. “How did

you get in here?” she wanted to know.

“Where have you been?” he asked, equally perturbed.

Liz looked at her front door. She couldn’t see where it had been jimmied. Then she

looked at Jason. “How did you get in here, Jason?”

“It was easy,” Jason said. “Now answer my question. Where were you?”

It was too much. All of the recriminations from her father were enough. She’d be

damned if she allowed it in her own home, too. “Get out,” she said, opening the door.

“I’m not going anywhere until you answer my question.”

“I said get out,” she said, this time unflinchingly plain.

Jason rushed up to the door, removed it from her hand and slammed it shut. “Make me,”

he said, in her face, moving closer and closer to her. Then he put her face between his hands.

“Who was he?”

“What are you talking about?” Liz asked, attempting to break free of his hold.

“Who was the dude you spent half this night with?”

“It wasn’t any dude and let me go!”

“Then who was it?”

“That’s none of your business, what’s wrong with you?”

It was only then that Jason was able to check himself. His fury began to ebb and he

leaned his body against hers, and they both fell against the door. He looked to be in pain, Liz

felt. “Just tell me it wasn’t some dude,” he said.

Liz was drained. Her fight was gone. “It wasn’t any dude,” she said.

Jason’s body began to relax, he even sighed relief. Then he looked at her, looked her deep

into her eyes. “The thought of you with another man nearly drove me crazy. I couldn’t stop

thinking about it.”

“I wasn’t with any man, not like that. I couldn’t. Not after you and me last night.”

Jason looked at her. “Oh, Liz!” he said and began kissing her with kisses that intensified

so quickly that he thought he would lose his breath inside her own. He didn’t want to need

anyone this badly, but he needed her. He knew it as soon as he arrived at her home and found

that she still had not made it in. He needed her.

It wasn’t long before they both ended up on the floor, taking off clothes as if their very

clothes were on fire. But it wasn’t the clothes, it was them, and when Jason entered her for

the third time in two days, she wanted to scream out. Through his penetration she put all

thoughts of that terrible night behind her. And just experienced him, and his love, and the

addictive drug of his sex.

EIGHT

The next day, news came that shook Jason to his core. As soon as he walked into his office at

City Hall, he was confronted with the shocker. Stephen Armitage and DeeDee Ramstead were

the bearers of the news.

“The Dems have selected their candidate,” DeeDee said, standing in front of Jason’s desk

as if she couldn’t wait to tell it.

“Okay,” Jason said, waiting for her to tell it.

“Hamilton Morgan,” Stephen said and Jason was walloped.

“
What
? Hamp Morgan? Are you positive?”

“We’re positive,” DeeDee said. “We have a spy in the Democratic ranks and it has been

confirmed and reconfirmed. They will announce by the end of the month that Hamp Morgan

is their guy.”

Jason sat, or rather, plopped down in the chair behind his desk. All he could think about

was Liz and the fact that he would have to campaign against her father. Her father, for crying

out loud! She would have to choose between him, whom they hadn’t even settled on what

kind of relationship they planned to have, and her own father. Jason shook his head. He

could hardly believe it still. “But why?” he wanted to know. “What’s Hamp up to?”

“Power, what he’s always up to,” Stephen said. “He sees an opening and he’s taking it.

And make no mistake about it, Jace. He is revered in the minority communities around here.

He gets 90-95 percent of the black/Hispanic vote, then all he’ll need is 30-35 percent of the

white vote to win. That’s all he’ll need. You, on the other hand, will need virtually all of the

white vote to pull this out.”

“But why now? This will be my third term. Why now?”

“Who knows?” DeeDee said. “Who cares? The point is he is expected to announce his

candidacy in what is supposed to be a surprise announcement at the end of this month. That

gives us time to get our act together and get every piece of filth we can on the guy. And I

mean every piece of it. When we finish with him, even he wouldn’t vote for him, that’s how

low we are going to have to go.”

Jason leaned back in his chair. Because he knew he was doomed if he even thought about

playing that game. His relationship with Liz was just really beginning, and it was too fragile,

too undefined as it was. But he also was a politician and he knew that in order to win, you had

to play whatever card you’re dealt. Even when it was the other guy with the trump card.

***

knew it. They allowed him access to the ping pong tables, the pool tables, even the basketball

courts because they assumed being there, around other young people attempting to live positive

lives, would keep him out of trouble. Until he lost a pool game with another seventeen-year-

old and pulled a knife. Some of the other youngsters ran for Liz and Liz and Shameika both

were in the rec room within seconds of the knife pull. Jason had just entered the Center

himself, looking for Liz, when the knife was pulled. Before he realized anything, Liz was

moving toward the knife wielder, asking him, begging him, to drop it.

“It’s not worth it, Armondo,” she said to the young man. “It’s not worth losing your

freedom over!”

“He cheated me, man,” Armondo said.

“I didn’t cheat you!” the young potential victim said. “You just mad because you lost.”

“That’s enough, Georgie,” Liz said and looked again at Armondo. “Just give me the knife,

Mondo, that’s all you have to do.”

She began to come toward him, but he turned the knife on her. As soon as he did, Jason

was on the other side of the room so quickly that nobody saw him coming. He knocked the

knife out of the young man’s hand with one hand and cold-cocked him across the chin with the

other, causing Armondo to fall off-balance onto his romp.

It all happened so fast that Liz, Shameika, and everybody else witnessing it didn’t at first

know what to make of it. Then Shameika hurried and picked up the knife. When Liz saw that

it was Jason who had knocked Armondo down, she was astounded.
Where did he come from
?

she wanted to know.

She leaned down, to help Armondo up, but Armondo shrugged angrily away from her.

“Leave me alone!” he yelled as he stood up, and as the other young people began to laugh at

him. When he heard the laughter, he looked at Liz as if she had betrayed him, and then ran

out of the Center, his peers laughing even louder.

“You okay?” Jason asked her, moving toward her, but she was in no mood to be

comforted. She gave him a look something fierce and then hurried for her office. He followed

her.

“What did I do?” he wanted to know when he closed the door behind them.

Liz was standing behind her desk by the time he made his way up to her. And she was

still fuming.

“What?” Jason wanted to know, his hands outstretched in puzzlement.

“Why did you do that, Jason? You didn’t have to hit that boy like that!”

“Are you kidding me? He had a knife, Liz, and was about to turn it on you. What the hell

do you think I was going to do?”

“He wasn’t going to use that thing. He was just upset.”

“Yeah, upset enough to do something stupid.”

“He’s not like that! Yeah, he’s a thug, but he was trying to get it together. That’s why he

kept coming here. Now there’s no telling what trouble he’ll get into.”

“That’s his problem, not ours.”

“Spoken like a true conservative. All right, no passion.” Then she frowned, pinched the

bridge of her nose as a low-grain headache began to emerge, and then she looked at Jason.

“Why are you here, anyway?”

“To see your pretty face again.”

Liz softened. What was wrong with her? “Sorry,” she said and sat down behind her

desk. Jason sat down, too.

“Tough day?”

Liz shook her head. “No more than usual. It’s just me. I just. . .”

Jason exhaled. He wondered if he had been too rough with her last night, if his desperate

woman act didn’t scare the daylights out of her. Did she think he was a stalker or something?

“Liz, look,” he said, moving to the edge of his seat, “if it’s about last night--”

“It’s not,” Liz quickly replied. Last night, actually, still turned her on. It was exactly what

the doctor ordered after the way her father had treated her. She had no regrets whatsoever

about last night.

Jason had none, either. He, in fact, wanted more. She was giving him the best sex he’d

ever had, which in the past would have been all he needed to keep coming back. But this time,

it was more than just the sex. It was Liz. From that day when he nearly came to blows with

Hamp Morgan to this day, it may have always been about her. “I also came over to invite you

to dinner,” he said.

Liz was about to accept, until she remembered Clay. “Can’t,” she said. “Not tonight.”

This stopped Jason short. He had not prepared to be turned down. “And why not?”

“I’m having dinner with a friend of mine.” She was about to tell him who, but he

interrupted.

“Another friend?” he said snidely. “Who is it this time?”

Liz didn’t like his insinuation. Last she looked they hadn’t committed to anything. Yes, it