Let Go (BWWM Interracial Romance) (2 page)

“Where to, sir?”

“I don’t care, just go!”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Luke,” I said, tears spilling down my face as we pulled away from the growing commotion outside.

“It’s not only on you; I didn’t notice the window roll down, either.”

I put my face in my hands and rocked back and forth, the co
nsequences of my mistake flashing in my mind. How could I have allowed that to happen? Even though it was embarrassing to me, it was devastating for Luke.

He had a campaign to worry about, a public reputation, and a wife! I’d always known that our affair was wrong, but I justified continuing because no one was getting hurt. But now, not only was his wife going to find out about the affair, she was going to have to deal with it publically! I had no more valid excuses to ease my guilt.

Luke gently rubbed my back. “Hey, calm down. We’ll get this figured out.”

“I ruined everything!”

“I’m not the first politician to be caught with my pants down, and I certainly won’t be the last.”

I quieted my sobs as he made a phone call. He was telling the person he called about what had just happened; it had to be his campaign manager. They had to start damage control immediately. Once he hung up, he got his driver’s attention.

“Take us to the hotel, please.”

I looked up at him through blurry eyes. “What?”

Every time we hooked up, we did it at a hotel downtown. We were scheduled to go there that night as well, but as soon as I entered the limo, I just had to have him. If only we’d waited to get there, the night would’ve ended up so much different. But why were we going there now?

“Tonight has been a wonderful evening, and I don’t want to r
uin it. Let’s spend a little more time together.”

I scoffed at his casual attitude. Did he not know that my naked body- and my O face- was going to be front page news in a few hours? Hell, the Twitter memes would be up in full force in less than an hour.

I shook my head to scold him, but he cut me off. He took my hand and pierced those bright blue eyes into mine.

“Everything is going to be okay. I promise. But for right now, I don’t want you worrying about what just happened. Please try to enjoy the rest of our night. I’ve waited so long to be with you again, and I don’t want it to end on a bad note.”

He was right. The damage was done; the least we could do was enjoy our last few moments of peace.

We pulled up to the hotel and entered our usual room, one at a time so we wouldn’t be seen together. I still felt uneasy, but Luke was doing everything in his power to soothe me.

“Let’s raid the mini bar,” he said, pulling out two small bottles and handing one of them to me.

He knocked his back and quickly grabbed another. If I was g
oing to regain any of my composure, I realized that I needed to do the same thing. Three drinks later, I felt more relaxed. Luke removed his suit jacket and tie, connecting his iPhone to the dock that was in the room and turning on some music.

He started dancing and a smile crept on my face for the first time since the incident. If there was one way for him to get me to laugh, his dancing was it. He was terrible at it, with his stiff body and jerky motions. Although it was just the two of us in the room, I still felt embarrassed for him.

“Please stop doing that.”

One side of his mouth curled up, and his eyes sparkled playfu
lly as he danced towards me, his movements becoming more exaggerated and… just awful. I stifled my giggles with my hand as I watched him have fun making a fool of himself.

“Why don’t you show me how it’s done?”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me to him just as the song changed to a slow one. He wrapped me in his arms and we swayed to the beat. With the wine from earlier and the three mini bottles, I was sure that my motions weren’t much better than his at the moment.

He kissed the top of my head and held me tight as we danced. “Feel better?”

I nodded. “I’m still thinking about your wife, though.”

“Don’t. Like I’ve told you before, she and I may be married, but our relationship ended a long time ago.”

“I know you need to stay with her until the campaign is over, but that doesn’t make it any less hard for me.”

“It’s… complicated, but my staying with her has nothing to do with the campaign. Trust me, soon enough she’ll be out of the pi
cture, and you and I can be together.”

I snorted. I may have been crazy for Luke, but I wasn’t stupid. He was the governor and I was a nobody. He had a certain image he had to uphold, and I didn’t fit into that picture.

“What?” he asked.

“You and I aren’t going to get our happy ending. I don’t think the public would like it if you left your perfect blond haired, blue eyed wife for your black side piece.”

“Fuck them. I’ll give up my position as governor before I give you up.”

As smart as he was, he was incredibly unrealistic about the scope of our relationship. I was his mistress, and nothing more. He was going to have an amazing political career, but I was nothing more than a scandal by his side.

“You love being governor.”

“Yeah. So?”

It was either his career or me- he had to choose. And I would never force him to make a choice like that. I’d always known that our relationship had a time limit; I just didn’t expect it to end so soon, so abruptly. With the oncoming media storm that we’d be facing, it seemed like our time was finally up. He must’ve been reading my mind.

“We need to stick together through this. Things are going to get bad, but we’ll make it through.”

The song changed and the music increased to a fast dance song. We were in the eleventh hour of our relationship, and I wanted to enjoy the little bit of time we had left. Trying to distract myself from oncoming tears, I dropped to the floor and shook my ass to the beat, showing him what I was working with.

I rose back up and swerved my body against his, laughing as he tried to keep up with me.

“I’m so glad we didn’t meet in a club. I would’ve probably just walked right by you,” I said.

Our laughter was interrupted by a banging on the door. My heart stopped and I looked up at Luke with wide eyes. No one knew we were there, so I wondered who it could be. Maybe som
eone saw us enter the same room? Were the pictures leaked online already?

I jumped when the banging started again. Whoever it was, they weren’t going away. Luke straightened out his shirt and walked to the door. I walked into the bathroom to hide.

*

Even with the bathroom door closed, I could still clearly hear the screaming from the woman at the door.

“Where is she?”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was Mrs. Allsworth. I reached to the doorknob to lock myself in the room, but she was quicker than me.

The door flung open, and our eyes met for the first time. Her mouth gaped open as she gasped.

“
This
is who you’ve been cheating on me with this entire time?”

“Amy, calm down-” 

She wasn’t interested in Luke’s words. “Don’t tell me to calm down. You have ruined
everything
because you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants.”

“Nothing is ruined; this isn’t the end of the world.”

She stuck her manicured finger in his face, sneering. “It better not be. But don’t think I’m going to be the forgiving wife, staying by your side when the shit hits the fan. You’re dealing with this on your own. I hope your whore was worth it.”

“Watch it, bitch,” I said, although I had no leg to stand on.

She was right; I was a whore. I didn’t know all of the details of their relationship, but whether they were on the rocks or not, they still had a life built together. And whatever their issues were, I officially became the reason for their demise the second I opened my legs for Luke.

Before I could react, she grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked me to the ground. Her petite frame was very misleading- she was a lot stronger than she looked.

She swung at my face, but I blocked her hit and jumped to my feet before shoving her on the ground. I straddled her body and Luke wrapped his arms around me and pulled me off of her.

“Enough!” he said. “This isn’t happening. Go home, Amy.”

She stood from the ground and sucker punched me while Luke was still holding on to me. I jerked out of his arms and charged her, our bodies falling down and crashing over the coffee table. Luke tried to step in again, but we were rolling too fast and our arms were flailing out of control. I didn’t want to fight her, but she left me no choice.

As soon as he had an opportunity, Luke yanked Amy up by her arm, her delicate body flinging in the air like a rag doll. He forced her to the door, and she kicked and screamed on her way out.

“This isn’t over, bitch! I’ll kill you if I catch you with him again.”

Luke whispered something to her at the door and it seemed to calm her down. I went back into the bathroom to inspect the da
mage. My lip was busted and my eye was beginning to swell. I had scratches on my chest and arms, and… was that a bite mark? What a tough little bitch.

There was a light tap on the door and Luke stepped in, brows crunched together. He gently rubbed my skin, carefully inspecting each mark.

“I’m so sorry about that, Steph.”

I shook my head, dabbing at my bloody lip with a wet rag. “Don’t be. She had every right to attack me. How stupid of me to think that she didn’t know…”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. I just really want to get home please.”

I could tell that he was upset at my request to leave, but he nodded. He kissed me on the cheek before offering his hand.

“Let’s go.”

We never left the hotel together; usually his driver would take me home and then come back to pick up Luke. We strolled through the lobby to his waiting limo. I think people were too distracted by my battered face to notice Luke.

When we stepped outside of the hotel’s glass doors, it was a different story. I winced as bright lights shined in my face and a
horde of reporters rushed towards us. Luke grabbed the small of my back and guided me to the car.

I jumped at a microphone that flashed in my face. “How long have you two been having an affair?” the woman on the other end of the mic asked.

“Would you like to make a statement, Governor Allsworth?” another asked.

“Ma’am, what’s your name?”

We jumped into the car and sped away from the flock, my body trembling in the back seat.

“Did your wife tell them we were here? Why would she do that?”

He shook his head. “No, she wouldn’t do that. Making our affair public knowledge hurts her as much as us. It had to be someone from the hotel who spotted us and made the call.”

I ran my fingers through my hair. “Oh, my God. I can’t wait to get home.”

“They don’t know who you are yet, but that won’t last for long. I don’t think you should go home.”

“I’ll be fine. I just want to curl up in my bed and forget his night ever happened.”

He patted my leg as the car pulled up to my tiny apartment. “Everything will be okay.”

I kissed him goodbye, but shook my head at his words. Nothing was going to be okay.

*

I collapsed in bed the second I walked into the house. My la
ptop was within arms’ reach and I thought about going online to see the damage. Blinking back tears, I decided against it. I snuggled up tight under my covers and closed my eyes, trying to sleep.

Of course, sleep was impossible, so I stared into the blackness until my alarm went off in the morning. I hit the snooze button, allowing myself ten minutes to decide if I wanted to call off of work or not. I didn’t want to leave the house, but I knew that I’d drive myself crazy just lying around all day.

I forced myself out of bed and showered and dressed. The scene outside of my building was eerily similar to the one in front of the hotel the night before. It didn’t take them long to figure out who Governor Allsworth’s mistress was. Reporters ran to me as soon as they saw me exit.

“Stephanie! Just one question for you.”

I rushed to my car, my hands shaking as they pressed their microphones and cameras against my windows. Once I was sure I wasn’t going to run over any one of them, I slammed on the gas and sped away.

While on the highway, my cell phone rang. I blushed when I saw that it was Greg. It was highly unlikely that he didn’t know about Luke and me at that point, so why was he calling? To curse me out for using him? To get some dirt on the situation?

I hit the ignore button and continued to work. I realized was going to miss Greg. I really enjoyed getting to know him over the previous few weeks. But I stupidly chose a married man over him, and now I had no one. My stomach churned when I pulled into the parking lot to my job. There were a handful news station vans out front.

I worked at a women’s reproductive clinic. We were a non-profit organization that provided affordable and quality health care. We were also one of the few places in the area that performed abortions, so there were frequently protestors outside and we occ
asionally made the five o’clock news.