being lauded as a model on which other states should base their own programmes.
Their high school drop-out rate was decreasing every year and one of Liam’s own goals would be to find a means of motivating the less intellectually gifted and of giving them both a sense of self-worth and the respect of others.
Liam didn’t believe in deluding himself. Getting the governorship was but the first very small step in what was going to be a long, testing and arduous journey. There was no space in his life either now or in the foreseeable future for...complications.
Other people might claim that he needed a wife but the kind of wife he had in mind, as he knew very well, the kind of marriage he had in mind, was a carefully organised and businesslike political partnership, a marriage where it was automatically acknowledged that his work would come first.
The cool analytical controlled side of his nature agreed with this, the idealistic, passionate Celtic side did not.
He saw the tiny frown, the quickly hidden forlorn look Samantha gave the empty space where he had been standing before turning and walking away.
He could still vividly remember the impact she had had on him the first time he had seen her. A teenager she might have been, but her burgeoning womanhood had still been there for those with the eyes to see it. She might have been shy and a little awkward, blushingly self-conscious about the crush she had had on him, but he had been all too well aware of the powerful strength of the womanly passion she would ultimately own.
Pride and passion—they were a dangerous combination in any woman, but most especially in one like Samantha, who also had such a strong maternal yearning.
He had seen the look in her eyes as she held other women’s babies, when she played with her twin’s little girl. If her pride and her idealism had been less he suspected that she might, long ago, have settled for a mundane marriage to a man who allowed her to control their relationship whilst she gave the full passion of her love to their children, but Samantha wasn’t like that. There was no way she could ever allow herself to accept second-best. But now the cruel gibes of her work colleagues had galvanised her into action and she was determined to prove him and them wrong.
Liam frowned. It was time for him to go and meet the Washington flight. Samantha had been more on the mark than she knew with her slightly waspish comments about Toni Davis. Ostensibly she was quite simply joining his campaign in a PR capacity, but Liam was no fool. He knew perfectly well that one of the reasons her name had been put forward was because she would make a perfect political wife. Subtle, discreet, content to remain in the background and to exercise her ambitions via her husband, Toni Davis was the complete antithesis to Samantha, who had never learned to fully control her emotions and realise that the best way to do battle for her beliefs was not always the most upfront and open way.
He could hear the Washington flight being announced. As he lifted his arm to look at his watch Liam recognised that the scent wafting from his jacket was Samantha’s.
CHAPTER FOUR
‘S AM ... OVER HERE ....’
Samantha checked and then waved frantically, her face breaking into a wide beaming smile as she caught sight of Bobbie’s brother-in-law and her cousin, James Crighton, waiting for her on the other side of the airport arrivals barrier.
‘James, what a lovely surprise,’ she cried, hugging him enthusiastically. More than one person stopped to admire the attractive picture they made. James, tall, dark and boyishly good-looking, and Samantha, almost equally as tall and stunningly eye-catching with her golden-blonde hair, their arms wrapped around one another as they kissed with genuine affection.
‘Mmm...’ James murmured appreciatively, a teasing glint in his eyes as Samantha started to disengage herself. ‘That was nice...’
‘ Very nice,’ Samantha agreed
Their high school drop-out rate was decreasing every year and one of Liam’s own goals would be to find a means of motivating the less intellectually gifted and of giving them both a sense of self-worth and the respect of others.
Liam didn’t believe in deluding himself. Getting the governorship was but the first very small step in what was going to be a long, testing and arduous journey. There was no space in his life either now or in the foreseeable future for...complications.
Other people might claim that he needed a wife but the kind of wife he had in mind, as he knew very well, the kind of marriage he had in mind, was a carefully organised and businesslike political partnership, a marriage where it was automatically acknowledged that his work would come first.
The cool analytical controlled side of his nature agreed with this, the idealistic, passionate Celtic side did not.
He saw the tiny frown, the quickly hidden forlorn look Samantha gave the empty space where he had been standing before turning and walking away.
He could still vividly remember the impact she had had on him the first time he had seen her. A teenager she might have been, but her burgeoning womanhood had still been there for those with the eyes to see it. She might have been shy and a little awkward, blushingly self-conscious about the crush she had had on him, but he had been all too well aware of the powerful strength of the womanly passion she would ultimately own.
Pride and passion—they were a dangerous combination in any woman, but most especially in one like Samantha, who also had such a strong maternal yearning.
He had seen the look in her eyes as she held other women’s babies, when she played with her twin’s little girl. If her pride and her idealism had been less he suspected that she might, long ago, have settled for a mundane marriage to a man who allowed her to control their relationship whilst she gave the full passion of her love to their children, but Samantha wasn’t like that. There was no way she could ever allow herself to accept second-best. But now the cruel gibes of her work colleagues had galvanised her into action and she was determined to prove him and them wrong.
Liam frowned. It was time for him to go and meet the Washington flight. Samantha had been more on the mark than she knew with her slightly waspish comments about Toni Davis. Ostensibly she was quite simply joining his campaign in a PR capacity, but Liam was no fool. He knew perfectly well that one of the reasons her name had been put forward was because she would make a perfect political wife. Subtle, discreet, content to remain in the background and to exercise her ambitions via her husband, Toni Davis was the complete antithesis to Samantha, who had never learned to fully control her emotions and realise that the best way to do battle for her beliefs was not always the most upfront and open way.
He could hear the Washington flight being announced. As he lifted his arm to look at his watch Liam recognised that the scent wafting from his jacket was Samantha’s.
CHAPTER FOUR
‘S AM ... OVER HERE ....’
Samantha checked and then waved frantically, her face breaking into a wide beaming smile as she caught sight of Bobbie’s brother-in-law and her cousin, James Crighton, waiting for her on the other side of the airport arrivals barrier.
‘James, what a lovely surprise,’ she cried, hugging him enthusiastically. More than one person stopped to admire the attractive picture they made. James, tall, dark and boyishly good-looking, and Samantha, almost equally as tall and stunningly eye-catching with her golden-blonde hair, their arms wrapped around one another as they kissed with genuine affection.
‘Mmm...’ James murmured appreciatively, a teasing glint in his eyes as Samantha started to disengage herself. ‘That was nice...’
‘ Very nice,’ Samantha agreed
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