Free Fires of Autumn by Kathryn Le Veque Page A

you can study it in the car
on the way over. You have a meeting right now with Barbara and Jason, so I’ll
let you know when it’s time to leave.”
    Russ
nodded confidently. “Thank you.” Now that he knew what was going on with his
morning, he waved his aides in. “Let’s go have some coffee and shoot the breeze
for awhile.”
    Six aides,
including Jason and Barbara, followed Russ into the oval office, clearing out
Casey’s small office area in a hurry.  Setting aside everything she was to
bring on the busy day ahead, she picked up the remote and turned on her three
plasma screen televisions.  CNN, MSNBC and the local Washington D.C. station
popped up for their morning news run. 
    Eyes on
the screen as CNN suddenly began to talk about the President’s new
environmental policy, she rounded the edge of her desk to hear the story a
little better without blasting the sound.  As she perched on the end of her
desk, she happened to glance in the office across from her and saw that
Sheridan was seated behind his desk.
    She could
only see part of his left shoulder and arm, but her heart began to pound. She’d
thought about the man all weekend and, truthfully, she was looking forward to
seeing him again today.  It was the first time in her life she had wanted the
weekend to end so she could go back to work.  She wondered if his attitude
towards her would be the same today as it had been on Friday, the
stone-expression secret service agent who seemed to crack a smile only for
her. 
    Leaning
sideways, she eventually caught sight of the entire man sitting behind his
desk, working on his computer.  She watched him a moment, leaning off her desk,
thinking that the man was more handsome than she remembered.
    “Good
morning,” she called pleasantly.
    It took
Colt a moment to look up from his computer.  He wasn’t sure the greeting was
meant for him but when he glanced up and saw Casey leaning sideways off her
desk, smiling at him, he felt like his entire day just got better.  He smiled
in return.
    “General
Cleburne,” he replied with a glimmer in his eye. “Good morning to you, ma’am.”
    She came
off the desk, the television remote still in her hand. “I didn’t see you come
in.”
    Colt
leaned back in his chair, watching her approach and feeling rather giddy at the
sight of her.  He didn’t know if it was possible for the woman to become any
more beautiful over the weekend, but it looked to him like she had. In the
pretty lavender-gray dress and matching sweater that was sexy without being
over the top, she was quite a sight.
    “You were
surrounded,” he told her. “I slipped in under the radar.”
    She
grinned, nodding in understanding. “I emailed the Secret Service the itinerary
for this month about six weeks ago,” she said. “I’m going to assume they passed
it to you. Have you seen it?”
    “Seen it
and mapped it.”
    Mapping
was a term used to strategize the President’s movement outside of the Oval
Office.  Casey nodded to his statement.
    “Good,”
she replied. “I emailed you the specific itinerary for the meeting early this
morning.  It was just finalized yesterday.”
    He nodded.
“I got it,” he said. “Thanks.”
    “Any
questions?”
    Colt
paused. Christ, that was a loaded question with a myriad of answers.  He gazed
into her lovely face, her sweet jaw-line revealed with her hair pulled loosely
away from her face, and all he could think of was the time he had spent over
the weekend daydreaming about her. 
    He worked
a fairly rigorous schedule, shadowing the President whenever the man made a
move outside of the White House, which meant he’d spent the weekend at a
luncheon on Saturday and golf on Sunday.  He’d performed his job flawlessly,
fully in control as the President’s Special Agent in Charge, but the
President’s lovely assistant had repeatedly filled his thoughts.  That dance to
‘The Best of my Love’ had done something to him. An inherently lonely man