Tread softly Read online

  Cady took hold of Rafe’s arm as they walked to the car. “You shouldn’t have done that—fought that man, I mean,” she whispered, swallowing. “Your spine… your operation… ” She bit down on her lip. “I didn’t think there would be any fighting.”

  Rafe leaned down to kiss her. “I’ve had tougher workouts with the twins. Don’t worry.” He looked past her at the dog Cady had insisted that she would keep, watching as the animal followed her docilely into the taxi. “What are you going to do with him, Cady?” Rafe asked as he tried to wipe some of the caking mud from her face. “I hope you know we’ll have to face a barrage of reporters when we return to the hotel. You’re not looking your best, Mrs. Densmore.” He chuckled.

  “You don’t look that good yourself, Senator.” Cady stilled his hand on her face. “Will this hurt your campaign, Rafe? Will it damage you in any way?”

  “I doubt it—might even help. In the past there have been exposes about illegal dogfights in this city and people have been very angry about it. Don’t worry, love; I’m not.”

  “Then to answer your question about the dog, I’m going to keep him. If a real owner is found, I’ll return him, of course, but the police seemed to think the animals could have been stolen when they were pups or even purchased by some of the men who were arrested. The officers didn’t think any of the men would admit to ownership because of legal repercussions related to dog fighting.” Cady took a breath and smiled at the dog that sat on the floor of the car, looking up at her. “I’m going to call him Hobo.”

  The trip back to the hotel seemed to take mere minutes. When she saw the battery of cameras, Cady was glad the overwrought Ruth Proctor had been taken home by the police. She blinked at the flash of lights as the cameramen moved in.

  Rafe promised to answer all their questions if they would just give him and his wife a chance to wash and change clothes. A press conference was hurriedly called by Rafe’s aide, and all at once Cady had another schedule to meet.

  ———

  Cady was sure she would never be able to get used to the blinding effect of the television lights. She was in awe of the panache with which her husband handled the press conference. Suddenly Cady realized that all eyes were on her. Since she had been concentrating on Rafe, she hadn’t heard the question. Her eyes beseeched Rafe, and he repeated the question in low tones, calming her at once.

  “How did I find out about this? Good question. There are many public spirited citizens who come forth with information, especially to my husband. They know that Rafe is a man of honor—”

  “Yes, Mrs. Densmore, we are all aware of the opinion you have of your husband,” a woman with a ginger-color frizz of hair stated, making the others laugh, including Rafe. “But the woman came to you. Doesn’t that make you a potent figure in your husband’s campaign and in his political life?”

  “I’d like to answer that, Cady, if you don’t mind,” Rafe interjected, giving her a reassuring smile. Then he looked directly into one of the television cameras. “My wife, Cady Densmore, is the most potent factor in my political life as well as my private life. Cady’s integrity and her innate dignity are prime forces in all I do. I’m very proud of her.”

  Cady didn’t hear much more of the conference. She was too wrapped up in Rafe’s glowing words of praise for her. She hugged them and turned them over in her mind, feeling as gleeful as a child at Christmas. Rafe cared for her. She would make that caring grow into love.

  Rafe finished the conference by vowing that he intended to do all he could to eradicate various types of injustice and to protect the vulnerable—whether they were the elderly, children, or animals—from victimization.

  Cady applauded along with everyone else, relieved that he looked so fit.

  Back in their suite, she thought that Rafe would want to rest awhile, but to her surprise he followed her into her room.

  “We both need a rest after that wild time today, but I’d like to speak to you, Cady. So if you don’t mind, I’ll lie down on your bed.” He yawned as he yanked the tie from around his neck. “I’m always glad when a campaign is over. Then I can go back to wearing sport shirts.” He sighed and threw himself backward on the king-size bed, waving his hand at her to come join him.

  When she sat down, he reached up and began lifting the sweater over her head and unzipping her skirt. “You can’t be relaxed wrapped up in all that clothing. Shall I take off your panty hose?” Rafe laughed when she reddened and said that she could do it. He pulled her under the quilted cover and hugged her close to his body. “Now, as for putting yourself in danger as you did this morning—don’t ever do that again. I almost had a heart attack when I saw that creep Ted Proctor standing over you. Cady, you know I want your help in everything, but I don’t want you in danger. Clear?”

  “Clear… but, Rafe, I couldn’t refuse Ruth Proctor. She’s such a nice woman, and life hasn’t been easy for her.”

  “I could tell that, angel. That’s why I want to arrange for a college scholarship for her boy Jerry when he comes of age. I understand from his mother that he’s very interested in engineering, so if he still feels that way when he finishes high school, the money will be there for Clarkson or any of the other good engineering schools in this state.”

  “Oh, Rafe… ” Cady could feel her eyes filling with tears as she turned toward him on the bed. “You’re such a good man.”

  “Good enough for you to keep, my love?” Rafe quizzed her, his voice gruff.

  “Rafe, you’re so foolish. Of course I want to keep you. Didn’t I show you that all the months you were so ill?” Cady let her fingers trace his chin line, liking the roughness of his stubbled skin.

  “I don’t want your pity, Cady. I want more,” he mumbled, his face in her hair.

  “How could you have more? You have all of me now.” She felt as daring as if she had just disclosed high-level state secrets.

  “Have I? That’s what I want, Cady—all of you, all the time. I can’t settle for less. The wanting is stronger every day, my love.”

  “Mine, too,” Cady breathed, turning on her side to face him on the pillow, mouth to mouth with him, skin to skin.

  “Cady, darling, you’re so warm. You make me feel that I’ll never be cold again as long as I have you near me.” Rafe’s breathing was ragged on her face.

  Cady could see the streaks of color run up his neck as his muscles grew taut with need. She could feel her own shivering response as he began the familiar exploration of her body.

  “Cady, darling, I need this so. I want it so,” he mumbled, letting his mouth rove her form, his tongue a hot pleasure that fired her feeling for him.

  His hands cupped her breasts, his thumbs lifting to tease her hardening nipples even as his lips moved down her body. His hoarse mutterings of satisfaction increased as his mouth traced a path down her abdomen to her thighs.

  Her body quivered in involuntary reaction to the joy he was giving her, arching toward him like a drawn bow. “Rafe… I… can’t believe my feelings,” she groaned, her hands digging into him to pull him even closer.

  He gave a husky laugh and tightened his hold on her, but when he leaned back to say something to her, Cady wouldn’t release him, nibbling at his chin.

  The heat built in both of them to an intolerable pressure. When Cady thought surely she would fly apart, they climaxed together. She felt as if the planet had separated, all the stars in the galaxy had fallen earthward, and only she and Rafe were floating out there in space. They descended slowly back to earth, still clinging to each other.

  “Rafe,” Cady mumbled from the tight haven of his arms. “It’s more beautiful than ever to me. Is it to you?”

  He chuckled into her hair. “Cady, love, it’s you. You keep getting more beautiful.” He leaned back from her, letting one finger lift her chin so he could look at her. “When I was in the nursing home, I used to look at you and weep inside, knowing that I could never love you again. That was sheer agony for me. I wanted you so much a
nd couldn’t reach out and touch you. When you would lean over and kiss my forehead, I wanted to yell at you to kiss my lips so I could feel your mouth—if only for a moment. My eyes could see you lift my hand and put your lips to it, but I couldn’t feel you do it and it tore me apart.” Rafe’s voice had the sound of ripping cloth as he described his feelings.

  “Oh, Rafe, I hated it when you were paralyzed. I could feel how you hated it, too. That’s why I went ahead with the operation.” She enclosed his head with her arms, striving to comfort him, wanting him to forget those awful days when he was a prisoner of his own body.

  “If you keep stroking me like that, Cady love, we’ll never leave this bed.” When Rafe lifted his head, she saw he had that elfin look on his face, the laughter in his eyes not masking the heat that glittered there.

  “I remember on our honeymoon we did that. Stayed in bed all day, I mean.” Cady felt out of breath as she looked at her husband. “I don’t suppose you could tell Ray that we’re too tired to join him for… ” Cady felt herself lifted and put aside as Rafe reached for the phone.

  In a few terse words Rafe was through and turning to reach for her again. “So much for that. Now where were we?”

  Cady felt balloon-light as her husband began to caress her again. Rafe was hers, if only for a short while. The campaign would take him again and there would be other things to pull him from her side when they returned to Washington, but for now he was hers.

  The next day they returned to their lakefront home and prepared for the clambake they were giving for some people who, Rafe informed her, were fence-sitters in the campaign. When the guests began arriving in the early afternoon, Cady was once more gratified by the number of people who approached her and mentioned her work on the Hill.

  “You’re an asset to Rafe, daughter.” Her father smiled down at her after overhearing some of the guests sing his daughter’s praises. “I think Rafe agrees with me.” Professor Nesbitt strolled with Cady around the grounds while she stopped and spoke to people or just smiled and nodded.

  “I like to think that I’m a help to Rafe,” she said, waving to some children who were riding horseback down the cliff path. She took her father’s arm and squeezed it, feeling a sense of deep happiness. “Rafe looks wonderful, doesn’t he?”

  Her father followed her gaze, watching Rafe laughing with some men, a stein of beer in one hand, the other hand in its characteristic position on his hip. As though he felt their gaze, Rafe turned, fixing his eyes on them, then smiling, his lips pursing in a kiss as he looked at Cady.

  “He’s never looked better.” The professor tamped his pipe on his open hand, his forehead creasing as he watched a man approach them. “Cady, is that… ?” He squinted.

  Cady looked in the direction her father was staring and started. The medium-tall man with the thinning sandy hair and rather dissipated air was familiar. How could she ever have thought Todd Leacock attractive, she mused as he came closer. More to the point, what was he doing at Rafe’s fund-raising clambake? Cady racked her brain as she tried to remember if Todd had ever talked of having political leanings. She could not recall that he had. She shrugged inwardly. Perhaps he had decided to get more involved in politics.

  She couldn’t help thinking how poorly he compared to her husband. Like a good politician’s wife, she summoned up a smile, even though she wasn’t glad to see him.

  “Hello, Cady. Professor Nesbitt.” Todd’s smile had the assurance of someone who assumed he would be welcome.

  Cady stared at him—his receding hairline, his beginning paunch—and her smile widened. “Todd Leacock. How are you? I had forgotten that you live near us in Seneca County.” She kept her smile as natural as she could, even though she was laughing inside at the young and foolish eighteen-year-old who had thought herself in love with him. Still, Todd had served one purpose. If she hadn’t been upset and gone to her room, Rafe would never have come there to soothe her. Just thinking that made her smile more genuine and her handshake more enthusiastic. She was a little puzzled by the smug look that came over Todd’s face before he turned to greet her father.

  Cady remembered that the professor had never liked Todd much, so she wasn’t surprised when he excused himself and wandered off toward the group surrounding Rafe.

  “Well, Cady, tell me about yourself.” Todd put his arm around her waist.

  At once Cady moved away, annoyed. “I’m fine. Very happily married to Rafe, as you can see. How are you?”

  “I’m very happily divorced,” he said ironically, as if mocking her. “For a while I worked for a camera supply outfit in the city. Then I opened my own camera shop. I photograph weddings and other events, sell equipment to photo buffs. It’s a pretty good business. I like being my own boss.” He looked at her for long moments. “I did some work for some associates of your husband when he campaigned in Rochester. I enjoyed that.”

  “Sounds good,” Cady replied, struggling not to yawn. It had been a long day.

  “I’d like to take some pictures of you, Cady.” Todd shifted the camera from his shoulder.

  She blinked. “Why?”

  He shrugged. “Oh, sometimes I write articles for the Sunday supplements, and I think I could sell pictures of you to them. You know, senator’s wife, that sort of thing.” Todd’s smile had a stale charm, Cady thought.

  “All right, but I think the papers and periodicals already have plenty of pictures of me.” Smiling into the camera, she looked up, then away. She was rather baffled when Todd went into a kneeling position on the ground and clicked his camera up at her. After several such shots she called a halt.

  “Just a couple more, Cady. There… ”

  “No more, Todd. You must have thirty shots of me. No magazine will buy all those.” She smiled at him mechanically and began walking away. “I really do have to circulate.”

  “I’ll walk with you.” He seemed impervious to any hint.

  For the next hour Todd remained as if glued to her side, and Cady was very aware that he was still shooting pictures of her. She could feel her irritation with him growing. All at once, when she had just about had enough, he seemed to disappear. Cady heaved a sigh of relief, because she had been on the point of telling him to get lost no matter what people might think of her. Todd Leacock was a pest!

  The clambake was a success, but by the time everyone was leaving, Cady was exhausted. She looked for Rafe and her father and found them saying good-bye to friends on the front lawn. When the last car finally left, Cady tried unsuccessfully to persuade her father to stay for a snack. He had a class in the morning and was eager to get home.

  Cady noticed Rafe’s silence as they walked around the yard, picking up the trash in a desultory fashion. Tomorrow their handyman, Sid Gresham, would tidy the place in earnest. “Is something wrong, Rafe?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that you had invited your old boyfriend to the clambake?” Rafe crumpled a foam cup in his hand before tossing it into the plastic-lined trash barrel.

  “Because I didn’t invite him! He used to live near here in Seneca County, but he lives in Rochester now.” She shrugged, emptying an ashtray. “I guess he was visiting his folks for the weekend. Who cares?”

  “You don’t? Thomas reminded me that he was the one you were going with when I met you.” Rafe turned to look at her, a muscle jumping in his cheek.

  “Yes, I couldn’t help thinking that was the one good thing Todd did.”

  Rafe’s jaw worked as though it had a rusty hinge. “And what might that be?”

  “If he hadn’t shocked the daylights out of me by being in bed with Marina, I might not have come home when I did. Then a certain congressman might not have come up to my room.” Cady smiled at him.

  “I’ll send him a Candy Gram.” Rafe’s voice was still hard, but there was a flicker of blue heat in his eyes.

  “Could that be construed as a bribe, Senator?” Cady felt her pulse jump out of rhythm as Rafe laced his fingers through hers.

  �
�A payoff, I think,” Rafe muttered, his hand still holding hers as he went behind her to press her closer to him. “Maybe we should clean up the bedroom now. No doubt it’s a mess.”

  “No one was in there,” Cady muttered into his neck.

  “Let’s check.” He leaned back from her, his eyes lasering her. “Why aren’t you angry with me for being such a jealous jackass?”

  Cady lifted her free hand and touched his jaw. “I’m waiting until you’re three kinds of jackass. Then I’ll get mad at you.”

  “Long-suffering little thing, aren’t you?” His hand slipped under her breast, squeezing in gentle motion.

  “A true martyr,” Cady gasped, her body yielding to him. “Senator, I don’t think we should shock the neighbors, in case anyone should wander by.”

  “True.” He turned her body but didn’t allow her to move away from him. His arm tightened around her waist, he began leading her back to the house. “Election Day is almost on us. Feel the bite in the air. Still, we’ve had a beautiful autumn so far.” He stopped her for a moment, lifting her chin so that he could watch her. “Whether I win or lose, we’ll have to leave for Washington right after the election.”

  “You’ll win. I know it.” Cady wrapped her arms around his middle, her cheek pressed to his. She felt his lips on her hair.

  “What I’m trying to say, wife of mine, is that we’ll have precious little time alone back in Washington, so let’s not waste the hours we have now.” Rafe grinned at her. “How would you like to spend the next three days in bed with your husband?”

  “Oh, shucks. I thought you were going to offer me Burt Reynolds.” Cady chuckled and pushed against his chest.

  Off-balance for a moment, Rafe wasn’t able to stop her when she broke into a run. “Games, is it? Fine with me.”

  Cady was running as fast as she could, sure that she could beat Rafe to the house, when she felt something catch her around the waist. She was laughing so hard she couldn’t even struggle when Rafe pulled her down on top of him. “How did you catch me? You’re in better shape than you should be.” Cady scowled down at him as he lay beneath her. They were in a brushy declivity, hidden from the house and the lake but not far from the cliff overlooking the water.