This time, my world is shattering around me in a very different way than it did in that other room, before.
“What?” I’m shaking my head. “I- I don’t understand.”
“Madison, I’m not sure why exactly this is such a shock to you.” My mother frowns at me from behind the big oak desk - her desk as of exactly fifty-two minutes ago when she swore with her hand on a bible in front of the entire world with me standing frozen behind her in the chilly D.C. afternoon. She looks almost regal standing there behind it with her fingers splayed across the crested seal of the United States and her brow furrowed at me, like she was born for this role.
My mother; Madame President, as of precisely fifty-two minutes ago.
She frowns again and gestures with a slight nod of her head at Alec - Major Ryan, I should say, otherwise known as her Secretary of State - standing beside her. And she’s right; it’s not like the first part of what she’s just told me - told us - is any sort of surprise. Her and Alec’s relationship had of course been a secret to the media and in fact most people outside of her immediate circle for the entire campaign. I knew, of course, just like I suppose I knew there was a possibility of the news she’s just dropped on me happening.
Of course they might get married.
Just like of course I knew the Major had a son from his first marriage, and that he was joining the Secret Service after his tours in the Middle East with the Marines.
But again, I knew those things, and those things aren’t what has my blood thundering in my ears. Those things aren’t what has my mouth hanging open and my breath catching like ice in my chest.
Hunter Ryan - Major Ryan’s son - and I have never met before, at least not formally.
But oh, we’ve met.
I know those eyes. He’s not wearing a mask this time, but I’d know that piercing, icy-blue gaze anywhere. I know that smirk, and the smile lines across his sharply defined jaw. I know those arms crossed across his chest, and I know the tattoos that cover them beneath that suit. I know what his lips feel like when they’re seared across my own, I know how wicked his tongue can be in so many places.
And I know how his cock feels as he drives in deep and fills me up like never before.
I know how it feels when I come with him, screaming into his skin.
“No, but-” I’m stammering, my brow furrowing and my head shaking side to side almost by itself. “I don’t understand.”
“Madison, honey-” Major Ryan’s started calling me that on the campaign trail, as if he’s already my father. He wrinkles his brow like he does when he’s thinking heavily. “Madison what your mother is saying is that this big secret you’ve had to keep all this time doesn’t have to be a thing anymore. In a few months, after your mother has gotten her stride in this office, and after we get some test polling back, we’ll tell the press and you can stop hiding this away like some dirty little secret.”
He smiles at me, like he’s just delivered me from darkness; like the worst is behind us.
He’s wrong.
The worst is standing in front of me, his teeth flashing in a cocky grin, his eyes twinkling in smug arrogance and his brow cocked at me like he’s just dying to say “surprise!”
Surprise, the hot, domineering stranger with the body carved out of marble who made you come like you’ve never come before while you both wore masks at a damned sex club is going to be your new stepbrother.
Surprise, you fucked your stepbrother.
I can stop hiding this dirty little secret now? Yeah, wrong. So wrong it’s almost laughable. Because now I’ve got a worse one; a way worse, way juicier, way dirtier little secret.
Forget John and Marilyn, forget Watergate, and forget Monica. I’ve got a scandal that could rock the entire world; a dirty little secret that could bring the most powerful country in the world to it’s knees. And that dirty little secret is standing right in front of me, grinning as he sticks his hand out and winks at me. “Pleasure to meet you, sis.”
Oh fuck.
2.
Well, this job certainly just got more interesting.
Actually, “interesting” might not be quite the right word. Surreal? Mind-blowing?
How about “fucked”; supremely, and utterly fucked.
Spending the last year knowing and keeping a secret that my dad was an item with Congresswoman Adams - Presidential candidate Adams - was bizarre enough. Finding out that after almost a year of testing and being accepted into the Secret Service, I’ll have to give it all up when I officially become part of the presidential family was another serving of shit. Fuck, and then there was figuring out on day one with the service that the first and only assignment I’m going to pull is basically playing chaperone to my new fucking stepsister - the new first daughter.