Swelter Read online

  Table of Contents

  Synopsis

  What Reviewers Say About D. Jackson Leigh’s Work

  By the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  About the Author

  Other D. Jackson Leigh Titles Available via Amazon

  Books Available from Bold Strokes Books

  Synopsis

  After her affair with a married senator makes prime time news, congressional aide Teal Giovanni is fleeing her shattered life. Betrayed by the lover who was her partner in a successful law practice, August Reese is waiting at a small cattle ranch to testify against a drug kingpin. Attraction sparks when Teal’s aging Honda blows its engine and she and August meet on a steamy Texas blacktop. But as the spark bursts into flame, their worst nightmare comes calling. Will they survive or swelter as the heat becomes unbearable?

  What Reviewers Say About D. Jackson Leigh’s Work

  “Call Me Softly is a thrilling and enthralling novel of love, lies, intrigue and Southern charm.”—Bibliophilic Book Blog

  “D. Jackson Leigh understands the value of branding and delivers more of the familiar and welcome story elements that set her novels apart from other authors in the romance genre.”—The Rainbow Reader

  “Her prose is clean, lean, and mean—elegantly descriptive…”—Out in Print

  “Leigh writes with an emotion that she in turn gives to the characters, allowing us insight into their personalities and their very souls. Filled with fantastic imagery and the down-to-earth flaws that are sometimes the characters’ greatest strengths, this first Dragon Horse War is a story not to be missed. The writing is flawless, the story, breath-taking.”—Lambda Literary Society

  Swelter

  Brought to you by

  eBooks from Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com

  eBooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  Please respect the rights of the author and do not file share.

  Swelter

  © 2016 By D. Jackson Leigh. All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN 13: 978-1-62639-796-5

  This Electronic Book is published by

  Bold Strokes Books, Inc.

  P.O. Box 249

  Valley Falls, New York 12185

  First Edition: December 2016

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Credits

  Editor: Shelley Thrasher

  Production Design: Susan Ramundo

  Cover Design By Sheri ([email protected])

  By the Author

  Cherokee Falls series:

  Bareback

  Longshot

  Every Second Counts

  Romance:

  Call Me Softly

  Touch Me Gently

  Hold Me Forever

  Riding Passion

  Swelter

  Dragon Horse War series:

  The Calling

  Tracker and the Spy

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks always to my incredible editor, Dr. Shelley Thrasher. I always approach the editing process with a light heart because of my trust in her expert hand.

  A special thanks to my fellow writer VK Powell for an excellent beta read, but mostly for letting me crash her place on the weekend so she can talk me through my writer’s block and brainstorm ideas for the plot in this book. She is really, really awesome. I can’t express how much her friendship means to me.

  Chapter One

  A droplet of perspiration tickled its way along Teal “TJ” Giovanni’s temple to her neck and traced across her collarbone. She stared down, eyes half-hooded, at the woman whose torso she straddled—the very powerful, stunningly gorgeous, and absolutely naked Senator Lauren Abbott.

  “You’re so beautiful, TJ, so very beautiful.” Lauren’s sultry alto was as tangible as the stroke of her long fingers that penetrated TJ with each rocking motion. Her touch sent tingles of electricity racing across TJ’s skin. Lauren’s subtle sweet musk perfume filled her every breath. TJ was a tuning fork vibrating to a higher pitch with each whispered encouragement and moan of pleasure. Lauren’s two fingers withdrew and three returned, stretching her as Lauren slid back inside and gently rubbed her thumb against TJ’s straining clit.

  “Good. It feels so good.” TJ shifted more upright, arms braced for leverage, and strained to reach that elusive peak. She’d already come three times in the past hour, but Lauren was insatiable.

  “Come for me, baby. I want you to come in my hand.” It seemed that each time they were together, she was trying to beat her previous record of how many times she could make TJ climax in one session of sex.

  She closed her eyes and rocked faster. “Close. So close. I want to. Don’t know if I can, again.” The droplet of perspiration clinging to her collarbone fattened from her exertions and shook loose to roll a determined path between her breasts. With her eyes closed, she concentrated on the stroke of Lauren’s fingers and willed her orgasm to gather like that droplet of sweat now meandering down the flat plane of her belly.

  “Yes, you can. You can do anything I ask you to.”

  That was true, wasn’t it? TJ always managed to do whatever Lauren asked. That’s why she’d leap-frogged over a line of more experienced congressional aides to become the senator’s right hand. Screw ’em if they wanted to say it was because she’d slept her way into the job. This wasn’t about the job.

  “Look at me, darling.”

  TJ obeyed, staring down into eyes as blue as the sky, eyes that gazed back at her with such hunger, and her clit incredibly swelled more and throbbed harder.

  “I love being inside you.” Lauren’s hand that gripped TJ’s hip to guide her motion moved to TJ’s breast and pinched her nipple. The jolt made her jerk.

  “You like that.” Lauren hummed and smiled at TJ’s whimper, then pinched the tender nipple again. “Now you’re going to come for me.” She curled her fingers inside, added pressure with her thumb, and thrust hard in counterpoint to TJ’s now frantic up-and-down pumping.

  “Oh, Lauren…I—” TJ sucked in a breath as the diffused pleasure coalesced into a roiling sphere deep in her belly. Without exhaling, she sucked in a second breath and held it as the sphere exploded and her body bowed in the grip of the most exquisite few seconds of pleasure a woman can experience. Her heart missed a few beats. She didn’t see stars, but she was sure she heard bells ringing.

  Then she was instantly pushed onto her back, and Lauren…wait, where did she—“Lauren?” Dazed by her climax and abrupt loss of Lauren’s body heat, TJ struggled to make her arms and legs move, then settled for turning her head toward Lauren’s voice. Lauren was in motion, her cell phone held to her ear. That must have been the ringing she’d heard.

  “Fuck. Everything’s in place to get me out of here, right?” Gone was sultry Lau
ren. This was the tough-talking Senator Lauren Abbott who chaired congressional hearing panels and filibustered until her party got the votes they needed for whatever piece of legislation they were trying to push through. She used the bed sheet to wipe TJ from her hand, then dry between her own legs. “Have you contacted Paul?” She stepped into her panties as she listened to the caller, then pulled on her slacks. “Hold on a minute.”

  Lauren dropped the phone onto the bed and picked up her blouse and bra from the floor. She stuffed the bra into her purse and shrugged into the blouse, buttoning it as she walked to a door that led to an adjoining hotel room and unlocked it.

  “Lauren?” TJ sat up, her hormone-fogged brain starting to clear. She was beginning to feel very exposed and self-conscious since she was the only one still naked. She looked for the sheet Lauren had left bunched on the king-sized bed after she used it as a towel. “What’s going on?”

  TJ reached for the sheet, and Lauren was picking up her phone again when the door she’d unlocked swung open and her number-two congressional aide, Jeff Johansen, stepped into the room. TJ forgot the sheet and lunged for the blanket at her feet, pulling it up to cover her nakedness. “What the hell, Jeff? Get out!”

  Jeff ignored her, and Lauren didn’t even glance her way as she searched around the room for her shoes and sat to put them on.

  “We’re lucky that Congress is in recess for the long Memorial Day holiday,” Jeff said.

  Lauren rose and strode into the bathroom.

  Jeff raised his voice to be heard over the water and Lauren brushing her teeth. “Paul’s at the house getting some things together. He said he’d ask your housekeeper to pack for you. I’ve booked you in a private, secluded house on the South Carolina coast.”

  Lauren’s voice sounded from the open bathroom door. “God, you know how I hate the beach, Jeff.”

  “The mountain alternative we had on retainer wasn’t available. As it was, we had to pay extra to buy off the people who had the beach place booked.”

  “I’m sure I’ll hear about that from Paul.” She pointed to her suitcase that was sitting on the floor next to TJ’s, and Jeff picked it up. “He loves to act like I’m spending his money rather than mine.”

  TJ’s heart sank. Whatever the crisis, it was clear that their plans were not going to happen. After tonight here in Boston, they were planning to drive to the Cape to spend the weekend with a couple of friends Lauren trusted.

  Jeff shouldered Lauren’s bag. “We’ll issue a statement that you and Paul are on a second honeymoon and left orders not to be disturbed unless there’s a world crisis. That should give us a few days for the media frenzy to die down. Maybe something more catastrophic will happen, and you’ll be relegated to the back pages. If not, it will give us time to find out exactly what they have and which scenario we need to deploy to handle this situation.”

  “What situation?” TJ scooted to the edge of the bed and stood, the blanket and her anger wrapped tightly around her. Teal Juliette Giovanni had worked her way to the senator’s side by being hard-nosed and indispensable before she’d ever slept with Lauren. She wasn’t going to start being a pushover now. “Tell me what the hell is going on.”

  They both turned to her with blank expressions, then to each other. The look that passed between them said a million things, none of which TJ could interpret. The muscle in Lauren’s jaw worked and she drew in a deep breath, then waved Jeff toward the door that led to the other room.

  “Go ahead, Jeff. Give us a minute.”

  “We don’t have much time, Senator. The media’s been tipped off that you’re here. It’s only a matter of time before they start prowling the place floor by floor or hack into the hotel’s system to get your room number. Nothing’s safe anymore.”

  “Two minutes.”

  He nodded and left, pulling the door closed. Lauren turned to her.

  “What the hell, Lauren?” TJ was used to rolling with schedule changes. She had accepted many interrupted dates they’d arranged over the two years they’d been lovers. But, damn it, she didn’t like being ignored.

  Lauren stepped close, cupping TJ’s face in her hands. Her eyes that burned bright with desire only moments before were blue steel now. Her lips were soft but quick. The kiss held no apology. It was more like a handshake on a deal completed.

  TJ’s stomach lurched with the sudden realization that something was way off kilter. “Where are you going?” She was Lauren’s right hand. Why did Jeff know about these apparently secret arrangements and she didn’t? Second honeymoon? That was ludicrous. Lauren had told her that Paul didn’t mind her lesbian lovers because he had a stable of male and female lovers. They were careful, and their pseudo marriage benefitted both of their careers.

  Lauren dropped her hands to TJ’s shoulders and met her gaze without flinching. “TJ, I want you to listen to me closely. Don’t say anything because I don’t have time to argue or repeat what I’m going to say.” She drew a deep breath. “We’ve been found out. It doesn’t matter how or when. What does matter is that a lesbian lover will undermine everything I’ve worked for my entire career. So, this is where we end.” She smiled ruefully. “You know I always have a back-up plan, and a back-up if that plan fails, too. Jeff knows about the plan because I didn’t want you to know. It would have always been hanging over our heads and ruined our fun because you’d always be waiting for the ax to drop.”

  TJ stared at Lauren’s mask of stoic resolve, eyes completely absent of the affection and desire they’d held only moments before. She was stunned. “I don’t understand.”

  Lauren released her and stepped back, glancing at the clock on the bedside table. “I know you don’t. Take a shower and get dressed. Jeff will be back with instructions for you. Don’t leave until he returns.” She hesitated. “Please. I tried to be generous with the arrangements.”

  TJ’s brain began to thaw and put the pieces together at the super speed that had rocketed her career in the political world. She hadn’t worked this hard to give up so easily. “Are you telling me that you’re not only dumping me, but that I’m also out of a job? What if I don’t want to go quietly?”

  Lauren went still, her eyes narrowing. “If you try to make trouble, I’ll make sure you never work in politics again. Not even to get a chicken farmer elected to Podunk City Council. Do what Jeff tells you, disappear for a while, and you’ll still have a future.” She walked away but paused with her hand on the door. She spoke without turning back to face TJ. Her voice was soft now, the hard edge of her threat gone. “Some things are more important than us, TJ. Duty to our country is greater than the pleasure we’ve enjoyed with each other.”

  “Enjoyed with each other?”

  Lauren had never made promises, but she’d talked many times of whimsical things like finding a wrinkle in time and disappearing together for long periods to be alone without anyone noticing. Lauren often left small, surprise gifts in TJ’s desk or in her messenger bag or had them sent to her apartment. She rarely said “I love you” in the context that a lover would say it, but she’d said it. The first time had been when TJ had convinced Senator Noe to change his position and give Lauren the swing vote she needed to get her education bill approved. Lauren had hugged her in the office, right in front of everybody, and declared, “That’s why I love you.”

  Lauren lowered her head, her face shadowed as she stared at her hand where it rested on the door’s handle.

  “Look at me, Lauren.”

  Lauren straightened and turned to her. Not Lauren, her lover. Senator Lauren Abbott, with her trademark raised eyebrow and penetrating stare.

  “I cared for you. I thought…I thought you cared for me.” TJ cursed the break in her voice, but she didn’t cry. She was glad she didn’t cry.

  Senator Abbott held her gaze. “Good-bye, TJ.”

  The door closed behind her with a loud click.

  *

  August Reese rubbed her fingers in a circular motion against the throbbing in her templ
e and tried to focus once again on the client’s case folder spread across her desk.

  Christine hadn’t come home from her business dinner until nearly three in the morning, then refused to even acknowledge her demand for an explanation. She’d simply gathered some clothes from their bedroom and locked herself in the guest suite. Again.

  August had barely slept at all. She’d given up trying shortly before dawn and came into the office early. Then she’d stimulated her sluggish brain with too much caffeine and acquiesced to her queasy stomach’s refusal of food. No wonder her head was pounding.

  A light knock sounded on her open office door. Her favorite paralegal stood in the doorway.

  “Susan, come in.”

  “I’m sorry to interrupt. You look busy.” Only a few weeks past her twenty-eighth birthday, Susan dressed and carried herself in a much more mature, professional manner than most of her peers. August attributed that to everything the young woman had survived. Susan’s Army Ranger husband had been killed in an ambush during his second tour in Afghanistan. Only a month before his death, she’d found out she was pregnant. The military survivor benefits were a great supplement to her paralegal salary, but August figured raising twins alone had helped hone Susan’s superior organizational skills.

  “I’ve got time if you need something. What’s up?”

  Susan glanced quickly down the hallway, then stepped into August’s office and closed the door behind her. She sat in one of the two wingback chairs in front of August’s desk and fingered a decorative upholstery stud that had worked loose. August had bought the two chairs at a yard sale when she and Christine first opened their practice, and she’d reupholstered them herself with a fake leather material. Christine had threatened to throw them out many times since, but August liked keeping a reminder of those early days when they answered their own phones and had one part-time paralegal. They hadn’t had much money, but they were happier.