UNSHAKABLE (Able Series Book 4) by Gigi Aceves Page B

may arise if you proceed with this relationship you want to forge with Sophia?”
    Standing my ground, I continue on, “I’ve thought long and hard, Mr. President, and I end up at the same point. Sophia is worth it. My feelings for her and hers for me are worth the gamble. It.will.pay.off.” I utter with as much conviction as I can.
    He raises his brow at me with a smirk on his face. “You’re willing to gamble my daughter’s feelings? That’s some ballsy move there if I’ve ever seen one.”
    I shake my head, not in defiance but in disagreement. “I’m not gambling her feelings alone, Sir. I’m gambling both of ours. Can I promise a smooth landing? I can’t. I wish I could, but it would be an empty promise. What I can promise is to give her my all, to always put her above everything else. I promised you before I’d be her shield that will never change.”
    Both brows rise this time. “Above everything else? You’ll take a bullet for me, maybe die because of it. Is that putting her above all else? If you die, you know it’ll hurt her.” He pauses then says, “You can speak freely, Damien. I can sense the hesitation, so go for it.”
    “What’s the difference if I guard her? I’ll take a bullet for her, too. She’ll understand because she knows the sacrifice.”
    “You’re willing to risk it all? Your anonymity will disappear in the blink of an eye. Are you willing to lose that?”
    “I wouldn’t be gambling if I wasn’t willing to lose anything. I know what’s at stake, and I can and will handle it.” I hope my answer will somehow diminish the doubts that are quickly setting up camp in his mind. I need him to back me a hundred percent on this because that’s the only way it’ll work. “I won’t do this without your blessings, Sir. Inadvertently, I’m putting her in the line of fire more so now than before, by doing this, by going public. People will see us, they’ll talk about us, but there’s nothing I’m hiding, not at all.”
    “You know they’ll dig,” he retorts.
    “They can dig all they want.”
    “Is there something you need to tell me?”
    Nicole enters my mind. Hiding or lying about it isn’t even an option, confessing is. “There’s one, Sir. About a year ago, I slept with Nicole a couple of times.”
    Silence sets in, questions formulate in his eyes while my mouth is gearing to explain.
    “I have a bad feeling about this, but I’m a man who believes in giving the benefit of the doubt. So, define a couple of times.”
    “Five, Sir. The first time was when I came in for my interview. I was at a pub and one thing led to another. The second time was when I flew back for my second interview. She mentioned wanting to go to California, and I basically just told her to call me when she was in town. When she visited, would be the third. The fourth and fifth times were when I came back to D.C. to sign my lease. Talking about where she works obviously wasn’t part of our conversation.”
    When your goal is to land a job protecting the most powerful man in the world, every minute detail of your life is scrutinized. So, I know my every move, when I do it, and why.
    Shaking his head with an audible sigh, he answers, “Yes, a year ago she wasn’t my Press Secretary. She was working as the assistant to the Deputy Assistant of Media Affairs at that time. But, all that is beside the point. Have you touched her since then?”
    I shake my head adamantly. “When I saw her my first day on the job, I talked to her only to end things, even though we weren’t in a relationship. I wanted to make it clear that any physical contact ended then. A couple of months in, she tried to convince me to give it another go when she noticed Sophia’s interest in me. I agreed to meet with her only to reiterate my feelings are not the same as hers. Though I have to admit, she’s been coming on to me since then by interjecting sexual innuendos in conversations or she’ll stand closer to me. I’m saying