Diplomacy

to hear if he had maybe awakened Maria, but everything remained quiet.
    Behind his desk at the office, Jack knew there was no denying his feelings for the young man. He would have to talk to Lucas. All he could hope for was that he had misread the signs and that Lucas simply looked up to him. Maybe that was it, maybe Lucas just saw Jack as an example, something to aspire to. Only time would tell.

    BEHIND her desk outside the Ambassador’s office, Gertje Claessens sorted through the stack of papers she had brought in from her boss’s office and wondered about the conversation she had just had with him. Had she done the right thing giving him Lucas’s phone number? Of course, it was none of her business why Lucas seemed so desperate to contact Mr. Christensen. She liked the young Brit. He was a charming young man, very polite too, without being too shy, and she could see a warm glow appear in his eyes whenever she took him into her boss’s office.
    She liked her boss, too. He was warm and generous with her, never ordering her around. In the few months since he had taken up his post, he had always treated her with respect and had more than once not only asked for her opinion, but had also taken it into account. It was something she was still getting used to.
    How he could end up with Mrs. Perfect Ambassador’s Wife, she would never understand. The woman might be nice to have on his arm, but having overheard Maria tell her husband that she couldn’t understand why he had been given ‘one of those motherly types’ as a personal assistant, Gertje had classified her immediately. Of course she would always be polite to Maria, but no more than was strictly necessary.
    Giving Jack Lucas’s phone number was right, she concluded, no matter what Lucas’s intentions were. Besides, Jack Christensen was a grown man. He hadn’t made it this far in his career at such a young age by making the wrong decisions. She closed the filing cabinet in a determined fashion, just as Jack walked out of his office and handed her another stack of papers on his way out.

    38 | Z a h r a O w e n s

    “I think this is the last of them. I’m off to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the day I met my wife, so you know how to reach me, but only if you have to.” He rounded the corner and then turned back. “Once I’m at the art exhibition, feel free to call a national emergency.” They both laughed.
    “Come on, Your Excellency, it’s art,” Gertje mocked.
    “It’s not the art that’s boring; it’s the politicians who feel they have an opinion on the art who drive me up the wall!” Jack rolled his eyes, before he waved at her and walked away again.

    LUCAS sat in his broom closet of an office in the U.K. Embassy with his cell phone in his hand. He wanted to call Jack, listen to the man’s soothing voice and arrange to meet him somewhere to talk, continue where they left off that night of the dinner at his house. Only it was abundantly clear that Jack was doing his best to avoid him. His secretary had given him a lame excuse every time he had called, and the times when he had walked over there on his lunch break, he hadn’t been able to get past her, either. No doubt she had been given instructions not to let him in.
    Since he didn’t have Jack’s direct number, he would have to go through the guard dog again.
    He knew he had taken it too far, but he was so sure that the older man had not only acknowledged his feelings, but had also given some indication that they were mutual. Only now, reality had kicked in, and since they were not together, it was probably easy for Jack to deny the feelings were there and choose his easy, comfortable life with Maria.
    But Lucas couldn’t forget the way Jack had slowly run his hand down his back, deliberately taking his time to feel every bone, every muscle. Slowly torturing Lucas, who couldn’t even acknowledge how good it felt to feel Jack’s warm hand caressing him, because the eyes of both their women were on them.
    Lucas had jacked off every single morning in the shower, thinking about what it would feel like to really touch Jack, to kiss him, and to make love to him. This morning he had almost gotten caught when he had failed to hear Lucy enter their tiny bathroom. He had obviously not been silent during his release since she asked him if he was okay. He had mumbled D i p l o m a c y | 39

    something to her, afraid if he stuck his head outside the shower curtain, she would see his