When Chemistry Wins (The Dark Horse Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  Hunter remained silent.

  “I want what’s best for this state. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. Do I think I do the best job? Of course I do, or else I wouldn’t run. But I’m not blind.” Joshua stood up, waited for Hunter to join him, and buttoned up his jacket. “I lost this race before I threw my hat in. I’m not a dark horse. Either your father will become governor, or Mitchell will call himself that for another few years. If anything, my biggest hope is to lay the groundwork for future third party candidates. I will do my best, but I do not believe my best will lead me to the Governor’s Mansion.”

  This was not the conversation Hunter expected to have, yet it gave him something to mull over when he left that afternoon. He still believed that Joshua Payne was the best person to be governor. How he was going to help make that happen remained to be seen.

  “Are you crazy?” Kerri got out of bed, pulled her sweatshirt on, and went to sit in front of the mirror in the hotel room. If I’m putting up with this mess, I’m at least gonna look good. She grabbed her purse and fished out her eye shadow. “I can’t go against my father like that.”

  Hunter sat up in bed with nothing but a sheet to cover him up. Not that Kerri cared at this point. After a solid hour in bed together, she could safely say that she was quite familiar with Mr. Hall’s body. My father would have a stroke to know it. That was the exact kind of thing she wanted to avoid – she may not have loved her father’s ambitions, but she still loved him and wouldn’t hurt him, if she could help it. “I’m not saying that you should betray your father. I would never ask that.” Hunter rolled onto his side. Kerri could see him propped up on his arm within the mirror. Don’t tempt me, Incubus. If Hunter had his way, Kerri wouldn’t be able to walk out of that hotel.

  “Then I have no idea what you’re suggesting when you say you’re supporting Joshua Payne.” Kerri barely knew who the Independent candidate was, and she was more than a little shocked when Hunter brought him up during their cuddling session after lovemaking. He wants to give me a heart attack. Kerri long forgot the conspiracy that Hunter may be a reporter or someone out to destroy her reputation. But he could still find other ways to destroy her. “And that you want me to join you? What good would that do me?”

  Hunter cleared his throat. Clearly, he had some prepared lines. Amazing he remembers them. Kerri would have to try harder at draining him of his energy in the future. “You don’t have to join me. But think about it. What would happen if neither of our fathers win?”

  Kerri snorted and almost dropped her makeup. “I don’t think about what would happen if your father didn’t win. I only think about what would happen if mine lost. In that case, I would be moving some of my things out of that house. Also, my parents would be very depressed.”

  Movement occurred in the mirror, distracting Kerri from her touchups. Hunter was rising from bed, naked, his physique emulating that of Adonis. Kerri smiled to remember what she first thought of Hunter nearly two weeks ago. “That’s not all,” he said, standing behind Kerri’s chair and kissing the top of her head. His chin rolled onto her shoulder, and she stared at the two of them in the mirror, Hunter’s arms wrapping around her. “We could be together. Openly. Without any of this political bullshit going on, we would be free to date as we pleased. Honestly, making sure neither of our fathers win would be the only way we could be together.”

  He really is crazy. Kerri almost had to laugh. What Hunter proposed was preposterous. And yet… she did not doubt the urgency in his voice. It almost seemed as if he loved her. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet,” she said, placing her hand over Hunter’s.

  The strength behind the squeeze he gave her shoulder sent a pleasurable shock down her spine. “You’re right,” he said with a steady breath. “I’m being brash. I don’t even know how you feel about me yet.”

  Something about the way he said that – “How you feel about me…” – made Kerri’s throat go dry. Did Hunter love her? Impossible. They had only known each other for a week and a half, and had only seen each other on three occasions. Anything he felt for her was pure lust. Maybe budding friendship. But love? Whatever he felt, it was not worth destroying his father’s career, regardless of how he planned on doing that. And to ask Kerri to do that to her father? Hunter admitted that it was brash, but…

  One single wall fell down around Kerri’s heart. He wants to date me openly. Naturally. If she were anyone else, he could do so. As the daughter of the opposition, however, Hunter could have merely plucked her between the legs and then forgotten about her. But he talked as if he were going to take her to his parents and introduce her as his girlfriend any day now. He can’t. Another wall fell down. Kerri realized that she would like to do more than sneak around with a handsome young man who was good in bed.

  She wanted to take him home to her family as well.

  The only way to do that would be if neither of their fathers won the election. Kerri would make no promises that day, nor the next day. Right now she only wanted for Hunter to kiss her, as if they had nothing better to do than have silly dreams and ideals.

  Chapter 6

  A man can’t get any privacy to text anymore. So thought Hunter as he went out of his way to find a private corner in his home so he could text with his girlfriend. Seems strange to call her that. And yet it wasn’t strange. From the moment he first kissed Kerri, Hunter knew that she was the exact woman he wanted to call his.

  It was a bit difficult to chat with her, however, when his house was full of campaign people. A sudden storm had swept through the region, drenching the highways and other motorways with enough rain to flood the storm drains and creeks around the Halls’ manor, meaning Terrence stayed home with his campaign manager and other cohorts. The house was spacious, of course, but it wasn’t enough room for half a hundred people coming and going as the waters receded. The dining and living rooms were completely overtaken with men and women on phones, fliers stacked as high as Hunter was tall, and enough neckties and cufflinks to kill a small army.

  Hunter was used to this sort of bedlam. But when his bedroom was overtaken by a small group of reporters, Hunter discovered there were few places a young man could go to in order to exchange sweet texts with his secret girlfriend.

  “I miss you and can’t wait to see you again,” he told Kerri. It was true. The longer he went without seeing Kerri, the more he was likely to see her in everything around him. A bouquet of roses next to him in the hallway made him think of Kerri. At first he wasn’t sure why, other than she was beautiful and they were beautiful. Then he realized that he was attracted to their floral scent, the same kind of perfume Kerri spritzed on every time he saw her. I’ll start calling her Rosie. He texted that very thing to her.

  “Thanks Shakespeare. And I miss you too. When are we meeting again?”

  Hunter was surprised that Kerri wanted to meet up with him again so soon, simply because they had not parted on the best note the other day when he suggested they find a way to bring their fathers off their high horses. Hunter had retracted his suggestion, but he would be lying if he told his girlfriend he wasn’t thinking of a way to make it happen. Not just because he wanted Joshua Payne to be governor, because what he said was true: the only way they could openly be together was if neither of their fathers held the power.

  “Hunter!”

  Before he could hit the send button on his phone, Hunter nearly leaped out of his skin at the intruding sound of his mother’s voice. “Yes?” he asked, stuffing his phone in his pocket.

  Ronnie stood a few feet away, but her presence could penetrate the greatest force fields on the planet. In fact, that was how she and Terrence met three decades ago. Heiress to a stationery empire. Exactly the kind of story the news media loved to spin every other night when there was nothing new to report on the Halls’ campaign. “Did Veronica Hall marry her husband to save her father’s business? Find out at six!”

  The charmed life Ronnie was raised to have meant she d
idn’t understand “boundaries.” When Hunter was a child, Ronnie was always holding his hand to school, having phone calls with teachers that were not necessary, and sniffing through her son’s homework every night. And when he started dating! It was “Does this nice girl have a history?” this, and “Do we need to have another talk about the birds and the bees?” that. The most memorable event was when Ronnie caused the breakup of Hunter and his first girlfriend, a pious girl who was saving herself for marriage. Hunter never even kissed the girl before Ronnie stopped them in the middle of dinner to ask if they were using condoms. I was thirteen.

  “You doing okay, love?” she asked. Her bobbed hair had recently been dyed a light brown, even though her natural color was blond. The campaign manager told her that blond never went over well with female voters. “There sure are a lot of people around here, huh? Are you getting enough alone time?”

  Hunter rubbed his forehead and tried not to laugh in disbelief that his mother still talked to him like he was eight. “I’m fine, Mother.”

  An intern in stiletto heels dashed down the hallway, her steps echoing on the wood flooring as she urged herself to get to a meeting on time. Ronnie waited for her to disappear downstairs before continuing. “Good. I worry about you!” Much to her son’s chagrin, Ronnie sat on the bench along with her son. She reeked of lilacs. Definitely not roses. The TV psychiatrists would say that was a good thing. “Does Hunter Hall love Kerri Mitchell because she smells like his mom?” Another stifled laugh. “Who were you talking to? You looked quite pleased with yourself. Oh, oh! Is it a girl?”

  Hunter couldn’t hide his reaction this time. Every once in a while his mother was spot-on with his emotions. “I was texting with a friend.”

  “A girl friend?” French-tipped nails scratched Ronnie’s nose. “How exciting!”

  “No, Mother.” Last thing she needed to know was that her son was dating anyone. Not only because of who it was, but because Ronnie would make any relationship instantly embarrassing. “Just someone I went to school with.” He didn’t like lying to her, but in times like these it was necessary.

  “Hmm.” Ronnie poked her son’s cheek. “You’re blushing. Come on, tell me her name. If you can’t tell your mother, who can you tell?”

  Nobody in this case. Besides, Ronnie was a blabbermouth. Hunter made the mistake of confessing his attraction to a model when he was a teenager. Next thing her knew, Terrence came home to have “another talk” with him about using visual mediums to remain abstinent. “Not that you need to worry about that son. If you know what I mean…” It took three months for Hunter to recover from that embarrassment.

  “It’s nobody. Please, leave it.”

  “Uh huh.” Ronnie stood up the moment a small group of campaigners came out of the master bedroom. “Well, don’t be shy, love. You’re a grown boy. You shouldn’t be embarrassed to talk to your mother.”

  Once she was gone to talk with the reporters in her son’s room – Probably to snoop through my things too – Hunter pulled out his cell phone again and told Kerri he would call her later. He was getting antsy to see her again.

  Chapter 7

  Sometimes Kerri couldn’t believe what Hunter did to her, even when he wasn’t around. Lately it seemed she couldn’t go a whole day without thinking of her boyfriend. Well, of course it was natural to think of the man she was infatuated with every day. That’s not the problem. The issue was what it did to her physically.

  She knew she had a problem when she went to bed one night and couldn’t sleep until she got off to thoughts of him touching and kissing her skin. Never before did Kerri have a boyfriend who made her feel so alive both within in her heart and in her loins.

  It was quite irritating.

  The worst part was the timing. As the summer campaigning went into full swing, Kerri was called upon for photo ops, interviews, and parties at which her absence would be noted. Some days it seemed like people were following her every step in an attempt to track what she did and relate it to Raymond Mitchell’s campaign. I definitely can’t be seen with Hunter now. But she did see him, every single day: on the TV, in the newspapers, and even on the family billboards going into downtown. Kerri particularly loved the evening news broadcast asking, “Hunter Hall: most eligible bachelor in the region?”

  Kerri was not impressed seeing the news trying to match her boyfriend with various women from all over the region. She noted that every face appearing on her screen was young, blond, and beautiful. I wonder how the media would react to him dating me.

  “But let’s not forget the most eligible bachelorette,” Kerri muttered. “Can you imagine if he dated her? What a pair they would make!”

  “What was that, dear?”

  She turned to her mother in the back of their Town Car. “Nothing. Just suddenly remembered something, that’s all.”

  They were en route to have lunch with one of her father’s biggest supporters downtown. Kerri couldn’t wait to sit and be nothing but a pretty decoration at the lunch table – her mother was the one who did the talking, and all she could converse about were the changes she made to the Governor’s Mansion over the past few years. Kerri wasn’t expected to be knowledgeable about politics, current events, or even history – anything, really. But as her father always said, “You look great in the pictures, baby.”

  The restaurant was not public, per se, but it was crowded. Most of the state’s elite liked to congregate here on sunny afternoons to talk business and campaigns. Kerri hadn’t sat down for ten minutes to order her salad and wine before she heard men at another table snicker about their affairs. She glanced at them. Mid-level campaigning peons. She would bet money on it.

  Halfway between talk of carpets and upholstery, Kerri received a text message. She waited until everyone was too distracted to chastise her rudeness before reaching into her purse and seeing who called.

  “You’re here too, huh?” It was Hunter. “That your mom? Looks like we’re doing the same thing today.” Kerri suppressed the ripples moving through her body – not exactly kosher to get aroused around present company. “You should think up an excuse to go to the bathroom. Meet me by that supply closet in the corner beside it. I want to see you.”

  She glanced up and covertly searched around the room. Although she didn’t see the Halls anywhere, she wasn’t wont to disbelieve her boyfriend at the moment. “Excuse me,” she said, leaving her purse behind as she got up. To her mother she whispered, “I need to use the restroom. Be back in a bit.”

  She didn’t wait for her mother’s reply, but she did nod her head politely to the other people at the table before stealing away toward the restroom. A few people glimpsed in her direction as she walked by, but within a few seconds Kerri was alone in a back hallway.

  Signs pointed the way to the women’s restroom. However, Kerri did not go directly there. Instead she sent Hunter a text message. “Which closet?”

  She saw a door slightly open in a far, private corner.

  No way was he serious. Did he really want to rendezvous with his girlfriend in a closet? Kerri scoffed, but did not text to tell him to forget about it. Instead she took some trepid steps toward that corner, her heart racing with the thrill of being caught.

  For if they were caught, Kerri was looking at an explanation she could never come up with. I hope this guy’s a smooth talker.

  Sure enough, she found Hunter in the closet. He poked his head out the door after Kerri came in before closing it and propping a mop beneath the handle.

  “All right, here I am.” Kerri kept her voice low as she leaned against a wall. A single light was on above them, but it wasn’t enough to cast away the shadows looming across stocked shelves and on the grungy ground. Nor was it enough to shield Hunter’s face from the darkness creeping upon his skin. “What is it that you want?”

  Hunter looped his arm around her, his hand resting on her rear. “You, of course.” He kissed her, tenderly, and in an instant Kerri was seduced
into his strong embrace. Oh, yes. The very thing she had become addicted to since their first night together. Kerri pulled her lips away from his the moment their breaths became a bit too heavy.

  “Come on,” she said. “We can’t do it here. I need to get back before they get suspicious.”

  Reluctantly Hunter released her, but not without another kiss to her lips. “This is driving me nuts,” he mumbled. “What good is a relationship if we can’t see each other more often?”

  “We knew this would be an issue.” Kerri almost rolled her eyes. As flattered as she was that her boyfriend wanted to spend more time with her, she would not pretend that she was a total puppy for him. “Which is why it would’ve been a good thing to take things more slowly.”

  His arm was back around her, pulling her into a tighter hold than before. “Slowly? Pull my fingernails out one at a time, why don’t you?” Hunter kissed her throat, both hands on her arms as they restrained themselves from lowering her dress’s zipper. “Slowly! It already feels like we’re crawling at an agonizing pace. I feel like I barely know you as it is.”

  “And yet here we are, in a closet.”

  “I’m not so snobby that I think myself above a closet tryst.” Hunter kissed her yet again to reiterate his point. I’m not stupid. Kerri knew what he wanted. I happen to want the same thing as well. Difference was that Kerri was a bit snobby when it came down to it. For one, a closet was hardly comfortable for making love in. Kerri liked the finer things – like a bed. Then again, she mused, it had been a long time since she last had sex outside of a bedroom. There was also the chance of them being caught buzzing in her chest.

  When Hunter kissed her throat again, Kerri diverted his mouth to hers.

  Things fell off the shelves and a broom tumbled past Kerri’s ass as the two of them bumped up against one wall and then another. I want to rip these clothes off. Hunter was dressed in his best again, like he had been that night at the fundraiser. Kerri pawed at his smart jacket and shirt beneath as if she didn’t know how to unbutton the front. But in the haze of lovemaking, she couldn’t accomplish much more beyond finding the zipper to his trousers.