Campaign For Seduction Read Online Free PDF Page A

out some Cheetos.”
    “No Cheetos. I’ve got soy nuts, dried apricots, and…uh-oh.”
    “Hmm?” she said sleepily.
    “Wake up, Za-Za,” Takashi hissed. His sharp nudge to her ribs jarred Liza fully awake and she yelped. “The Princess of Darkness at twelve o’clock, and she’s looking right this w—. What’s up, Adena?”
    Liza snatched the blindfold off and looked up to see a new visitor to row twenty back here in the tail end of the plane.
    Adena Brown—Senator Warner’s senior adviser, gatekeeper and consigliere, a couture-clad political marvel so shrewd, disciplined and fierce in her protection of her candidate that the press universally hated her—stood in the aisle next to Takashi.
    Liza snapped to attention and sat up straight.
    Adena looked annoyed, as usual, but made a token attempt at politeness. She stretched her perfectly lined lips past her teeth in the grimace that was the closest she ever got to a smile, tossed her hair over her shoulder and spoke to both of them even though the worst of her narrow-eyed glare was reserved for Liza.
    “Got a minute?” she asked.
    “Of course.” Liza tossed her blanket aside and scooted to the edge of her seat.
    “The senator would, ah—” Adena’s feeble attempt at pleasantries slipped away and she heaved a long-suffering sigh “—like to see you, Liza. And I need to talk to you, Takashi.”
    Liza blinked. Senator Warner wanted to see them? As the Scooby-Doo cartoon character liked to say, Ruh-roh. Yeah, this was it. She’d known she was getting tossed.
    Exchanging a discreet sidelong glance with Takashi, who looked as puzzled as she felt, she tried to act as if being summoned to talk with the candidate in the middle of the night was an everyday occurrence.
    “Ah,” she said, “is everything okay?”
    “Peachy.” Adena checked her watch. “Coming?”
    Liza stood and exchanged a Help me! look with Takashi as she edged past him and into the aisle. Takashi merely shrugged and stood aside for her.
    They fell in behind Adena and marched toward the front of the plane. A few of her cohorts gave them curious looks as they passed their rows, but for the most part the cabin was quiet and people were trying to get a little shut-eye.
    They passed through the adjacent cabin, which was filled with drowsy campaign staffers—they all looked like they were twelve or younger, anxiously awaiting that first growth of facial hair so they could run out and buy a razor—stretched out in their seats.
    Liza looked around for the senator, but he wasn’t there. The three of them kept moving into the next cabin, which held a conference room.
    Here, Adena stopped and put her hand on Takashi’s arm. “Wait here. Liza, the senator’s in here.” She pointed to the next cabin. “Follow me.”
    Liza, who thrived on adventure and was in her element whenever she put a politician in the hot seat, gulped. With the random and, she hoped, ridiculous thought that she may never see Takashi again, she slipped into the senator’s private digs.
    Wow.
    Must be nice to have the money to outfit the plane like a smaller version of Air Force One.
    This cozy little cabin had six or eight large leather seats, the kind that were plush, comfortable and totally unlike the torture devices the press was consigned to in the back.
    The lighting was mellow and intimate. So was the music—that anthem of longing and need and one of her own personal favor ites: Patti LaBelle’s “If Only You Knew”—which was piped in from invisible speakers.
    Liza’s thoughts shifted automatically to lovers, bedrooms and feverish kisses in the dark. Remembering a piece of candidate trivia that every person aboard knew, namely that Senator Warner liked to unwind to Motown music and soulful ’70s soul jams did nothing to dispel her first, overwhelming thought:
    What a seductive little hideaway.
    Adena stepped aside and there he was, Senator Warner, the presidential candidate and the sexiest man Liza had ever