“Like what?” She shivered. “Jesus, you’d better stop touching me. You’re giving me chills and I won’t be able to think. Things about you that I don’t know? Well, I know you’ve not been able to get it up since you became President.”
Saul froze, his finger still on her chin. “Where did you learn that?”
“From your doctor. No, Dr. Singer didn’t tell me. But he’s been in a terrible state since the gamma pulse wiped out the recording equipment. If he ever knew how to write anything but prescriptions, he’s forgotten. He can be a pompous ass but he’s conscientious, and he wants to keep full records of his meetings with you ’for posterity.’ He used to dictate from his rough notes into his computer until it died. I told him I’d try to help. I said I’d take his recent scribbles and write them out properly and put them in order. He jumped at the offer. So I know that you’ve been impotent for over two years — since Tricia, in fact. No coincidence.”
“You read all his notes?”
“Everything in the notebooks.”
“About the tests he did? About my sex life?”
“Yes, I read all that.” She laughed harshly at Saul’s expression. “Oh, come on, I found that reassuring. Most women would. We’re not looking for sexual freaks. And you have regular nighttime erections.”
“When I’m sleeping.”
“Yes, but it shows that everything’s in working order. The problems aren’t physical, as Dr. Singer pointed out. He mentioned three women in his notes.”
“They were a long time ago, over a year. I thought you were only using his notes for the period since the recording chips stopped working.”
“I started there, then I went all the way back to the first days of your presidency. It wasn’t just nosiness. I was interested in you, you must have known that.” She arched her neck, leaning into his hand on her cheek. “Telling you what the problem is won’t do it. I’ll have to show you. Let’s start with those women. The ones it didn’t work with. Would they be Leona Culbertson, Ruth Marshak, and Helen Lohmann?”
Saul withdrew his hand and stepped back a pace.
“Now don’t pretend you found that in Forrest Singer’s notebooks. Even when I thought the records were all confidential, I never mentioned their last names.”
“No. I did my homework. I checked your appointments calendar. There were plenty of lunch and dinner parties to choose from, and a guest list for each. But there weren’t many showing one unpaired and unmarried female of suitable age and status, with the right first name.”
“It’s one of the hazards of being single, especially in Washington. People are always trying to play matchmaker.”
“Of course they are. The trouble is, when other people try to fix you up they don’t know your needs and tastes. And you went along with it. You gave Leona and Ruth and Helen a good old presidential try. But it didn’t work.”
“No, it didn’t.” So that’s what three miserable nights of flaccid flesh add up to: a good old presidential try.
Yasmin moved into close contact again, her breasts against Saul’s chest. “And you don’t know why it didn’t work. But I do.”
“Then you’re ahead of me.”
“Because I have information you don’t.”
“About them?”
“About them and about you. Once I had their names I found out all I could about them. They were American thoroughbreds, every one, hostess guaranteed. We would never offer some half-caste mongrel like Yasmin to the President, would we? Our own reputation is on the line. We look for private schooling, family money, fifth- or sixth-generation American — not, God forbid, Native Americans, because they don’t count. We can’t actually go in and examine hymens and test for virginity, but these days a divorcee is quite acceptable. Youth and nice eyes and skin and figure are less important, but we do insist on one thing: for President Steinmetz, they must be ladies. How am I doing?”
“I don’t think I want to hear any more.”
“Of course you don’t. Your mother tells you to meet ’nice girls’ — I’ve heard her phone calls, the poor old dear. But she’s your mother, she doesn’t realize that it isn’t the nice girls who excite you. I’ve watched you and I’ve listened to you for over a year. I know which women you respond to. The ones who turn you on aren’t the ladies. They’re the sluts, the tramps, the sexual daredevils, the women who will try anything — ones who’ll give you as good as they get, and more. Did you tie up Leona and Ruth and Helen? Did they give you oral sex? Did you go down on them? When you left them, did you have teeth marks on your neck and claw marks down your back?”
“If you know them, then you know I didn’t.” But Saul was feeling a rising excitement, at odds with his calm words.
“So what did they do, lie back and think about the Pledge of Allegiance instead of the Washington Monument? No, you can’t do that!” Saul had begun to rub her breast and erect nipple. She pushed his hand away, but their lower bodies remained in contact. “I said I’d have to show you, so I’m doing it. I was sure I knew what would get you going. I was right, wasn’t I? You’re not impotent, far from it. You pointed out that I never met Tricia. I didn’t need to meet her. She fought her way up from nowhere, and all that experience showed up in bed. Her husbands had never known anything like it. Right? You must know.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“You don’t have to. You gave me my answer. Now I’ll give you yours. Once you knew you were going to have dinner with Tricia, you arranged to come here and have dinner with me first. See, I probably look nothing like her, but I had the right feel to me. I was like your double-protection insurance policy. You know we could easily go for each other — we’re already doing it. So if you can’t perform with me, chances are you won’t be able to make it with her, either. You’ll be safe. But if it’s a roaring success with me, the way you think it might be, then we’ll fuck all night until you’re so tired you couldn’t get a hard-on tomorrow to save your life.”
“That wouldn’t work.”
“Of course it wouldn’t. I know men. Sexually, yesterday is like last year. But that’s what you had in the back of your mind when you came here. And that’s what’s really making me mad, and it’s the reason we’re not going to do anything tonight.”
“I could make love to you right now, right here.”
“I know you could. Do you think I can’t feel what’s happening down there? But you’re not going to. I’m not a trial run for a session with Tricia Goldsmith. My pussy isn’t a magic charm that you can wear around your dick to protect you from her.” Yasmin put a hand over her mouth. “Oh, my God, I shouldn’t have said that. Now you’ll have to fire me.”
“You said you hoped we would make love.”
Yasmin pushed him away. “I didn’t say make love. I said fuck. Anyway, that was before I understood why you came here. If I left it to my feelings, we’d be rolling on the floor this minute. I’m not pretending I wouldn’t enjoy it, either, or that I’m not attracted to you. And I love working with you at the White House, and for all the right reasons — nothing to do with sex. I have tons to learn, and you teach me so much.”
“Learn about politics? I’m not sure I’d call that the right reasons.”
“A better reason than most. I’m not saying we won’t be lovers in the future, either. I think we will. But that has to be for the right reasons, too. And we should have privacy, and plenty of time. I bet there isn’t even a lock on that door.”
“I never looked. So what happens now?” Saul’s excitement was waning as he accepted the idea that tonight Yasmin would not be persuaded. Again, there had been a subtle shift in the relationship. In this area, Yasmin was asserting her rights.