Cadence approached the hotel room door thinking of technicalities. Technically she had not lied to Tom she had just omitted the truth. Technically she was doing nothing wrong and yet she was terrified of the wrong person seeing her here. One of the two Secret Service agents at the door was looking at her and she knew she had to complete her approach or it would seem strange. Hell, it was after nine o'clock at night, it was strange.

Yesterday, after the arcade, when they had returned to the summer home for cake, John had managed to slip a card into Cadence's palm. She had taken it to the bathroom to look at it in private-it was a card advertising a hotel with a room number scribbled on the back of it. Cadence had torn it into tiny pieces before tossing them into her sanitary bin.

Cadence hadn't spoken much to John yesterday save for some light hearted conversation about how beautiful Chesapeake Bay was and some mocking, competitive exchanges when they played air hockey whilst the others applauded, jeered and cheered them on. The others were the problem, there was no chance of a moment alone with the vice president while the president, his team, Mallory and Tom had all watched on.

Tom's irritation for the man became a little too apparent when they played a hoop throwing game and Tom almost knocked the VP out with a stray throw of the ball. The president had considered it laughable but Leo had looked a tad suspicious and Josh had been too hasty in ushering Tom away from John and the game. After that, Cadence had made a show of playing the arcade games with her boyfriend, praising his skills and soothing his ego how she could.

It had been a highly unusual but enjoyable evening for the young woman and when they had gathered for cake she had realised that yes, she had missed D.C life a great deal and she had very much needed the moment at the arcade for it had shifted her dark mood and reminded her that happy times with friends were still possible.

As it was Cadence's birthday, Tom had made an effort not to complain about John's presence once he had left but Cadence knew the matter of the vice president was still very much on his mind. It was apparent when they had made love and Tom had tried to offer up a more enthused performance than usual and somehow Cadence had known that in Tom's mind he was trying to compete with John. She had not commented on it, appreciating how difficult the entire evening had been for Tom and loving him for pushing aside his anger to ensure she had a good day.

Recalling all of that had her wondering why in the hell she was here then this evening. She had told Tom she was visiting Mallory and that had been true, in fact she had just left Mallory's room on the other side of the hotel and two floors down. As it was the same hotel John was staying in, the temptation had been too great for Cadence. She wondered if it was why she had called with Mallory, to give herself an excuse to call at the room number John had wrote on the card.

As she had darted up here, taking an elevator to avoid the possibility of meeting the other White House guests on the stairs, Cadence had told herself that she was leaving it to fate. The vice might not be in residence anymore after all, he might have headed back for D.C or on to another duty, or he might be out in Virginia doing something else. If he was here then he was here and she was meant to see him but just to check in as it were without the suspicion of her father or the scrutiny of Tom. As the Secret Service agents were here obviously John had to be too.

Cadence knocked the door and awaited a response, still unsure if she wanted one.

The door opened and John looked out, his handsome face breaking into a bright smile as he took in his guest.

"Cady, come in," he said cheerfully as he stepped back to grant her entry.

In to the lion's den, how often now had Cadence submitted herself to risky situations like this? She hesitated before shrugging off her fears and stepping into the room, telling herself that she was perfectly in control of the situation and had come only for conversation.

John shut the door and gestured to the large living room. Of course the suite oozed of lavish style and money with a plush, royal blue carpet and pale gold and cream furniture complete with fancy pots, an elegant coffee table, a widescreen television and any amount of amenities. There was a silver plated coffee and tea set resting on the table with steam rising from the pot indicating it was fresh.

"Would you like anything?" John quipped calmly in a smooth voice that sent a surprised shudder through Cadence.

The woman glanced over her shoulder to the man, unsure how to respond. She tried to coax back her confidence even as she took a step back from him and let her eyes dart to the silver set. The couches were single so if they sat they could avoid contact.

"A coffee would be nice," she murmured as she started walking to the table.

John grinned as he watched her, his ego bolstered by the knowledge that he was causing her giddy nerves. His intense cerulean stare took in her figure, noting that it was a little thinner than usual, the curves of her hips slight from weight loss and her rear less appealing with the lack of form. His grin faded as he realised she must be struggling still and he felt a flicker of anger for Landis wondering why her partner wasn't doing more about it, had the man noticed his girlfriend was so thin looking? Alright so she was hardly gaunt but she wasn't her normal weight either and that was troubling.

John followed her to the table, occupying a seat to the left of the one she had taken.

"You didn't tell Landis we'd been in contact these past couple of years," he said it calmly as a statement.

Cadence's eyebrows rose at this as she looked from the coffee pot she was reaching for to John.

"And you did?"

He shook his head as he leaned back in the chair and rested his arms on the armrests.

"Well you can guess why I wouldn't tell him that," Cadence murmured as she poured herself a cup. "Although he's never asked if we were in contact."

"Never asked where you were going tonight either?" John pried, making it sound like an innocent query.

Cadence sat down the pot and frowned over at the man. "John, don't do this," she stated bluntly. "I'm not here for you to pick holes in my relationship."

Cadence reached to the cream and gave herself a generous serving.

"Do you want a cup?" she offered.

John waved her off with one hand. "Cady, are you really happy with him, genuinely? It's just you don't seem entirely happy here."

Cadence plucked up her cup and chose to blow on it as she debated her answer.

"Being happy here and being happy with Tom are two different things," she advised.

"Well if he runs for senate and comes back to D.C, will you come back to D.C?"

"Yes," she answered automatically.

"Right and will you be happy there? What will you do there? And don't say support him," he added as he pointed to her accusingly, "that's not you Cady, you're not some subservient wife to smile and bat eyes at a camera to make your politician seem like the saint he's not."

"What, like your wife?" Cadence retorted sharply.

John lowered his hand and shrugged at the jibe. "Alright, I deserved that," he admitted, "but you're not like that, you're not Suzanne and thank God for that."

"No, I'm not your wife," Cadence murmured before taking a sip from her cup.

"And I'm not your boyfriend," John sneered.

John crossed one leg over the other and watched as Cadence made a point of sipping at her coffee while frowning.

"I want you to join my team again Cady," he said seriously, "I want you running P.R on the campaign. With the election coming up it's crucial that I have the best people I can get."

Cadence sighed and placed her cup back on its saucer, abandoning its use as a prop to evade talking to John.

"You've spent two years trying to get me back," she murmured. "Phone calls, e-mails, messages through Gavin, you've been determined John, I'll give you that but my answer hasn't changed."

"Well it should Cady, now it's election time, having a boyfriend shouldn't mean you don't have a career."

"Tom is running for senate," Cadence reminded him sternly, "for the first time. If his girlfriend is out supporting the Democratic team how will that appear? The press will make a mockery of us both."

Cadence bit her lower lip slightly and her hands suddenly snapped out to grasp at a napkin on the table.
John looked at her with surprise, his eyes wide at the swift gesture. He watched as she started fidgeting with the cloth, trying to crease and fold it into something else but it was linen and too thick and soft to be bent as card or paper would.

"Cady, don't let the press define you," John commented seriously, "and don't let them drag you back."

"You want to drag me back," she grumbled to the napkin in her lap.

John frowned again before his gaze softened. He stepped up from his chair and approached her, putting her in his shadow before he bent down to grasp both her hands in his own, ceasing her fidgeting.

"Cady, I would never drag you," he said gently, "or have you do anything you truly did not want to. I miss you, I have missed you all this time and I care about you, I always have and will. I want you back and yes, part of it is selfishness but please believe me, part of it is because I know how good you are at your career. I know you deserve it and I know how well you could excel and grow and I know you're not happy here no matter what you try and say because you are career driven and you thrive in the world of politics, it's your world. Yes it's stung you, it's stung all of us but that's the nature of it, it's what makes the job worth it, the pain and the pleasure."

Cadence tensed again as she felt John's fingertips rubbing at her knuckles gently and she caught an inappropriate flashback of exactly what those fingers of his could do.

"John, I can't," she protested quietly as she pulled her hands back against her torso. She looked up to him pleadingly. "I can't cheat on Tom with you."

John gave her a smile, one bright with an eager delight. John really had just been talking about work and had not considered the double entendre of his words until now. The fact that Cadence's mind had gone there of her own accord could only fill him with glee.

"I haven't ask you to."

"No, then why did you ask me here?" she quipped hotly as she gazed up at him with a serious, accusing stare.

"Why did you come?" John retorted swiftly as he held her gaze unflinchingly, too overjoyed to look at those eyes again to feel any burn from them.

Cadence swallowed hard as she realised she didn't have an honest answer for that.

John seized his opportunity in her silence, leaning down to kiss her. His mouth pressed against hers passionately causing a deep moan of pleasure to emit from the woman.

Cadence pulled back suddenly with a soft pant. "No John," she groaned out pleadingly.

John reached up his hands to the knot of his navy tie and he started to unbind it. "Do you really mean that Cady?" he pried. "Do you want to stop? I missed you, all of you Cady, your mind, your body, you mouth."

His lips were back against hers, his tongue pressing against her mouth for entry whilst he continued to free his tie.

Cadence shuddered as her lips parted slightly to grant his tongue entry and another low moan escaped her as she tasted him.

John pulled back this time, giving the satisfied grin of the cat whose got the cream. His tie was free now and he slung it from his neck, grasping it in both hands as his blue stare suddenly budded with mischief.

"How about you tell yourself you had no choice hmm?"

He slipped the tie down to rest against her hands, which remained cradled in her lap.

"Tell Tom you were a little tied up," John jested as he began to wrap the tie about her wrists loosely.

Cadence tautened at the feel of the silk against her flesh, it was just a little too pleasant a feeling. Her eyes widened when John raised her hands in his right, pressing them up and back against the sofa and she suddenly realised he had bound them together.

John gave a smug grin as he reached to her white shirt with his free hand, unfastening a button to create a gap for his hand to slip in through.

The young woman tensed again when his fingertips slid in behind the silk and lace of her cream bra and brushed against a hardened nipple.

John's grin widened as he felt the erect nipple.

"Don't overcomplicate it Cady, I've missed this, haven't you?"

"Yes," she admitted, almost squealing out the word as John's hand moved to fondle with her other nipple.

"Well, let's enjoy it then and just be in the moment."

John's hand slipped away from her bound pair, dropping down to her pantyhose bound legs. She had worn pantyhose the entire time she had been in D.C, part of her attempt to hide her scars, just like the long sleeved shirts she favoured. John hated the reasoning behind it but damn it if he wasn't aroused by the feel of that gossamer cloth that bound up her smooth legs and kept her underwear temptingly at bay like some flimsy chastity belt. His hand slipped up under her grey skirt and reached up and under the fold of the panythose.

"Oh God John," Cadence groaned out as she writhed on the chair, twisting her body in an ecstatic driven reaction to his hand brushing against her pants, teasing her as his fingertips ran up and down. He was right, of course she had missed this. She had missed him, not just for sex, she had missed his comfort, his smiles, his charm, his candid sense of humour and his confidence.

"Don't you want me to touch you?" she queried.

John smiled and shook his head as his hand slipped down the band of her underwear. "No, it was your birthday, this is all about you tonight."

She tensed at his words but this time it was not in pleasure. Tom had said the same yesterday when they were in bed together.

"No, no stop!" she snapped suddenly.

Her voice was so sharp that it compelled John to freeze up and look at her with surprise.

"Stop this," she repeated angrily.

John pulled his hand free and held both palms up harmlessly. "Alright Cady, I've stopped, what is it?"

She looked distraught, her eyes filled with pain and her lip trembling as she bit down on it.

She shook her head as she dropped her bound hands to her lap. "I can't do this to him," she said miserably. "John, I really can't. I do want you, shit I've never stopped wanting you but you're married and that will never change and I'm with Tom and I love him. He's spent two years dealing with my hell, he does not deserve this."

John's lip curdled slightly as he lowered his hands. "He doesn't deserve the pedestal you put him on either," he grumbled. "He benefited from you these two years, he's gone from the outsider liberal who barely had votes to a strong contender for the Senate and all because he's adored for giving it all up for you."

"He didn't know it would happen like this," Cadence argued.

"Sure he tells you that but he did know, just like I knew donating to a charity for a disabled kid at my son's school would work for me. I wanted to help the kid but I wanted the publicity too, don't think good deeds can be without selfish motives Cady."

Cadence shook her head angrily. "Untie me John."

He sighed and reached for the tie. "Well look, if you want to stay loyal to your Republican fine, I won't push it. As I said, I won't have you unhappy Cady but I still want you back on my team. You were happy in that job and we both know it."

"John, I can't. Tom would never support it and the press would be all over it."

"Think about yourself Cady, are you really going to be the doting prop for Tom during the campaign when you could be doing some serious work for me instead? Hell do both if you want, publicly be by his side and privately work on my P.R, no one needs to see you publicly if you don't want that."

John tugged the tie free before reaching out to squeeze her right arm gently. "I know being in the public eye scares you, that's what you've done these past two years, tried to hide from it all but Cady, you're not living out here."

"Don't analyse me John, I have a therapist for that," she retorted savagely as she glared at him.

"I'm right Cady and you know it."

John considered one more play he still had at hand that might win the woman back to his team if not his side. He gave her another serious stare, holding her heated stare in his own.

"Cady do you need me to say it? If you do fine, here it is. I love you and I need you. I need you politically, I need you at work and damn it I need you in many other ways too because you make me better and you make me happy but if there's a limit you want on it then fine. I'll have you however I can and if it's just as a colleague that's okay because I've lost you twice now and it doesn't get any easier and I'll do everything I can to have you back with me in some form. So come back to my team, please, we can be discrete about it, you can work privately in the offices until the election is done and you can go and stand by his stand and no one will say anything."

Cadence shook her head but the anger in her eyes had faded and John could see the doubt building there.

"You've been stagnant here, hiding and worrying, if nothing else the election could be just what you need to get back on track."

Cadence thought about that and sighed. "I need to get back to Tom, he'll begin to worry if I'm not back soon."