CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
Olivia's answer was an expectant silence while she stared at him until Peter dropped his mask. "This was a command appearance by the GOP leadership. You know me well enough to know how much I hate those kinds of things. So you know how irritated I am."
"Is that why you're acting something close to a spoiled brat?"
"I am not." Peter's voice was indignant, but Olivia could still hear the mocking tone behind his words. "Point of fact, Madame Director Deputy Chief of Staff - congratulations again, by the way - I've been properly and very supportive of the president this entire evening, pouring all the right words into all the right ears. I even came to the president's defense when those bastards tried to insert themselves into his personal life - you can ask him yourself about that."
"Who was this - and how insert themselves how?" Olivia's senses came to full alert at this revelation. Her outrage was personal; she knew it and for a moment, didn't care… but then she caught herself.
"Never mind." Olivia changed the subject; she'd find out whatever she needed from Fitz soon enough. In the meanwhile, she'd shut that line of thinking with the quickness. "The president doesn't need rescuing. Ever."
"Of course not, Olivia." In response to her reaction, Peter held up both hands in peaceful capitulation. "Excuse my choice of words."
"Maybe I will." Olivia said; she knew him well enough from his tone how unapologetic Peter really was. "But I find the fact that you think that he did need rescuing is very interesting. Tell the truth, Peter - what happened here tonight before I arrived?"
"First, tell me you received my invitation for this weekend - and that you're accepting."
"I received the invitation and the flowers. Now give me a reason to say yes and show up." They locked eyes for a long moment, hers challenging and his once again unapologetic. His smile shifted into something a little more somber and dynamically different from his earlier attitude as he gave in. "I meant it when I said that you were almost like family, Liv. And like family, you know most of our secrets."
"Are there new secrets that I need updating on?"
"This is not the place to have that conversation, but I'll say this much -" Peter replied. "There's family business that needs taking care of. Business that I wouldn't - I can't - trust anybody else with."
His gaze went sincere and serious. "Olivia, I - we - need your help - or at the very least your advice. The kind that you and your people can discretely gather and dispense."
Olivia couldn't help herself from considering the offer; Peter was right, she did know the family well enough to know that for the most part, they were not overly corrupt. The work that they've done over the years had served the country well - and if there were any profit for them, it was political capital that they normally spent wisely, anything else they counted as the cost of doing business and in that, they were mostly no different than anyone else - and had been smart enough to bring her in whenever conflicts and trouble came their way.
That played a part in her decision, but she had to make some things clear before she even thought about considering taking on a project from them. There were several things that weighed on her decision, and first and foremost was the following. "Despite the work I've done for your family in the past, Peter, you have to know where my first allegiance lies these days…"
"I do - and this will in no way interfere or compromise you with your duties in the White House; in fact..."
Olivia watched as a thoughtful look came over Peter's face. It was clear that some thing new had come to mind; she waited patiently while he worked it out in his head whether to share or not…
"Again, I'm not going to discuss this with you here except to say that considering who the president's special guest was tonight, I think he just might be interested in this meeting."
From his expression, Olivia could see that he wasn't prepared to say anything else.
"Let's pretend you've said yes." Peter said. "How would I go about persuading you to persuade the president to our weekend event? Unlike this crowd, it will be more inclusive - and of definite interest to him, I can promise you that. Honestly, Olivia - this is not about playing the usual political games. You should know me well enough by now that I would never play those kinds of games with you."
The problem was, he was right - and he knew that she knew that he was.
In general, Peter Caldwell was always honest with her - at least honest enough to be honest enough to tell her when he couldn't be. So if he was promising her that this was not the usual political game, she believed him. And if he had stepped up to defend Fitz publicly, he'd earned a reward of sorts, hadn't he?
Security wouldn't allow Fitz to go any further than the lobby - they weren't exactly happy about that, either - and he apologizes for it. Colleen brushed Fitz's apologies aside, pointing out that she knows that it's just part of the job.
She thanked him for the evening, having found it very informative. That last was said with another smile, one that Fitz returned, along with a compliment of his own. He promised to be in contact with her soon - he thought that they could both agree that they had a lot to talk about.
Fitz returned to the ballroom just in time to see Olivia finish her champagne. Peter Caldwell was still keeping her company. His possessive side returned and he was in no mood to restrain it. He wanted Caldwell gone. Now.
Either some part of that must have showed in his eyes or Caldwell had the common sense to not overstay his welcome, because as Fitz crossed the room to rejoin them, Peter made his excuses and walked away.
Before Fitz could ask about Peter's behavior, the jazz ensemble started up another song. Fitz held out his hand to Olivia and she took it, following him without hesitation as he led her onto the dance floor.
As they swung into the slow movements of the dance, Olivia looked up at him. "Before you ask, Peter is a friend of sorts - as well as a former client."
Fitz looked down at her, the tension in him somewhat dimmed by the amusement in her expression. "How former - and how friendly?"
They danced slow and silent as Olivia considered the question. "Honestly, I guess I'd have to say not too former. As he said very openly, I've served as a legal adviser to the family in various situations, but the last time I was actually involved directly with them was when I helped his brother's campaign."
Fitz had spoken at one of his brother's campaign fundraisers during that same time, so he remembered that easily.
That made her wonder what all of that - the invitation and Peter's conversation and now the request Peter had asked her to forward to Fitz - it all made her wonder all over again, what exactly was going on.
"Has anything changed? What is it, Olivia - what's going on?" Fitz could see the wheels beginning to spin in her head and was reminded all over again that she was supposed to be back up at Camp David. "No, never mind. I thought we had an agreement. You're not supposed to be here, and you're definitely not supposed to be working and I can see from the look on your face that that is exactly what you're doing.."
"You're right." Olivia admitted. Fitz knew her well enough to tell when her mind had gone to work. She couldn't help it, she thought even as she tried to reset her thoughts to put all of her calculations aside. "And I'm sorry. But I had to come, if only for a little while. I did want to see you give your speech - you know that I needed to."
"What I know is that you're not supposed to be working tonight, Olivia - and you know that too." Despite his half-hearted reprimand, Fitz couldn't to get too upset. Maybe he liked it a little too much, but the reality of having Olivia in his arms at a public event erased a lot of the exasperation he might have had at her breaking her agreement to take advantage of peace and calm of Camp David until he could join her.
"I should be angry." Fitz was careful but he allowed the hand on her back to press her a little bit closer. At the same time his thumb slid up and down once in a soft and subtle caress. That simple touch said that he wasn't.
"Possibly." Olivia looked up at him, a hint of a smile crossing her lips.
"Probably." He spun her around in his arms, using the move as an excuse to briefly hold her body a little closer against his again.
"Stop that." Her lips said one thing, but her eyes said another and the laughter hiding behind her words made Fitz struggle not to smile back at her. He took a chance by bending his head down to make sure his words were heard only by her. "I don't want to…stop that - stop this..."
He underscored his words with another brush of warm fingers against her back. "If you wanted me to behave, maybe you shouldn't have worn that dress but that's what you were counting on, weren't you?"
"Maybe." Olivia's smile refused to neither confirm or deny. "Just so you know, I hadn't planned any of this. When I looked in my closet, it just happened to be the first dress I saw." Olivia insisted. It was true, but the moment that she'd laid eyes on it, Olivia had known immediately - what Fitz's reaction would be - and that was a memory that put a warm sparkle in her eyes.
As always, Fitz was more than a little dazzled by her smile and he had to remind himself that they were in public. "Olivia - what do you think you're doing?"
"My job, Mr. President."
The way his voice had dropped to a husky tone was doing all kinds of lovely things to her insides; it was a struggle for Olivia to not let herself melt into his arms in the moment.
"Ms. Pope, you're officially off the clock until further notice." Before she could protest, he added a reminder. "You serve at the pleasure of the president, isn't that right? Well, the pleasure of your president is the pleasure of your company - elsewhere."
The next words he spoke spoken without thought. "Go home, Olivia - I promise that I'll be there as soon as I can."
What he had said struck him. Home. He liked the sound of that. And from the look in Olivia's eyes, so did she.