Free In Bed With the Opposition by Stephanie Draven

or even a fossil like Kip Halloway. That’s for sure.
    “Just an interview, Mr. Castle. That’s all I’m asking.”
    Ethan admonished himself for even considering a fringe candidate. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to waste your time or mine.”
    Just as he finished the conversation, his phone vibrated in his hand with a text message.
    I was a jerk last night. -GS
    GS? Grace Santiago. Jesus Christ , she was so hyper-detailed that she initialed her text messages! Let it go , he thought. This woman is a bundle of girl-next-door trouble tied up in a sex-starved bow. She got his blood moving, but also pissed him off. If he took a job working for Professor Kim, he’d piss her off right back…but also get to see a lot more of her. And he had to admit, he found both prospects appealing.
    He used his thumbs to type into his phone.
    Yes, you were a jerk. -EC
    I’m sorry. -GS
    You can make it up to me by taking me to dinner tonight. -EC
    I’d be happy to, but I have an event at the Elks Lodge tonight. Seriously. -GS
    He’d have to rent a car to get there and an Elks Lodge wasn’t exactly the most exotic venue, but in sex, war, and politics, you had to learn to make do.
    Which lodge and what time? -EC

Chapter Six
    Sadly, this was not the first time Ethan had stepped foot in a lodge belonging to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He was helping to rearrange bingo tables when Grace arrived on the senator’s arm, wearing a navy pantsuit that made her legs look a million miles long. She gave off the air of a high-powered she-devil, but Ethan remembered when ponytails, blue jeans, and being eager to please were her trademarks. Ethan wasn’t sure which Grace he liked better. He was very sure, however, that he wanted them both.
    Grace made her way over to Ethan’s bingo table and put her hands on her hips. “You actually showed up. It would’ve served me right if you didn’t.”
    “I wouldn’t miss a chance to hear your curmudgeon-in-chief launch into his fifty-year-old stump speech.”
    “Hey,” she said with smile, but a firm warning tone. “My boss is off-limits.”
    Washington types. They were so easy to needle. “Duly noted. Any chance you’ll let me take you out after this is over?”
    Now she smiled, digging her hands down into her jacket pockets. Grace’s brown eyes sparkled as if they were all alone. “I thought I was buying. What, aren’t stale Oreos and flat soda good enough for you?”
    “Yeah,” Ethan laughed. “But they’re not good enough for you.”
    He wanted to take her somewhere fancy, but it was late when the meeting ended. As it turned out, the diner on Route 40 was one of Grace’s favorites, so Ethan’s luck was holding. The owner kept hot chocolate brewing for Halloway staffers during the fall campaigns, a welcome respite for the volunteers who handed out pamphlets while their fingers froze. “How’d you know to bring me here?”
    “I’ve always had good instincts when it came to you,” Ethan said. At least, he used to. Sometimes you had to bluff.
    At this hour, the diner was mostly empty, but the scent of cinnamon and chocolate warmly welcomed them. Truth be told, Ethan was already feeling pretty warm being with Grace again, and it wasn’t just the sexual heat. There was something inherently wholesome about her. Even back in law school when he’d pressed her against a bookshelf with her skirt up around her thighs and made her moan things that would make even a naughty librarian blush, she’d had a girlish charm. He was reminded of that now as Grace literally pressed her nose to the glass covering a spectacular Napoleon cake. “That looks so good.”
    He loved how her eyes got wide, like she’d never eaten before. “Don’t they feed you on the Hill?”
    Grace smiled as a waitress ushered them to a booth. “Not really. If I want anything that hasn’t been processed or preserved beyond recognition, I have to steal it from fund-raiser buffet tables.”
    “I used to do