Fight in Campaign Mode

"Hideous? You?" Ellis was unsuccessfully trying to make sense of what she was saying.

"Yeah. What is it? I'm not smart or pretty enough? I'm too naïve? Is it because of that strip club incident? Have you still not forgiven me for that?"

"Dawn, whoa, no," Ellis said, standing up and reaching for her hands while he stood in front of her. "It's none of those things. You're the most stunningly gorgeous woman I've ever laid eyes on. You're the whole package. You're smart and tough and a leader. Everyone on Fred's team looks up to you and it's not because you're their boss.

"I'm--as you said outside the pizza place--ornery. I'm the guy in the background. I'm not wild about my job but I do it because I'm good at it. Plus, it pays well enough that I can spend the rest of my time geeking out on Pacman and LARPing Lord of the Rings.

"I didn't think I rejected you four years ago or now--I thought I was giving you an out. I thought you could do much, much better." Ellis paused. "But Mika kind of disproved that theory so..." Dawn giggled in spite of herself and hugged Ellis in relief. He encircled his arms around her and pushed her hair back from her face, tucking it behind her ear.

He was about to keep talking when he felt her tug his collar and pull his head down toward her face. Dawn caught him in the softest of kisses, then let go of his collar and sent her arms up and over his shoulders. A tiny moan escaped from Ellis's throat. All he saw in his mind's eye was him holding Dawn from behind and plunging his fingers into her panties.

"Please, Ellis," she mumbled as though she read his mind. Then she kissed him again, but flinched when he pulled back and held her at arm's length.

"No, Dawn, no," he felt like the world's stupidest man for the umpteenth time, but he couldn't do this with her now. "You were just betrayed by someone who you thought loved you. I can't take advantage of you."

"Would you have a problem with me taking advantage of you?" Dawn queried, matter-of-factly.

"Wh... what?"

"Would you be okay with me just using you for your body tonight?" she rephrased, satisfied with the way Ellis's jaw dropped. "If I asked you to do me a favour and fuck me senseless to help take my mind off everything, would you?"

This has to be Bizarro World, he thought, slowly shaking his head in disbelief. Was she messing with him?

"At least hear me out," she said. Then she pulled her t-shirt over her head and tossed it at him, revealing a bright blue cotton bra, firm breasts, and a tight stomach. Ellis groaned but willed himself to stay at a safe distance.

"There's no way I can convince you?" Dawn asked in utmost seriousness, pushing her sweatpants down and stepping out of them. Ellis gritted his teeth when he saw her black cotton panties, thinking he hadn't been exaggerating when he'd surmised at the time they'd met that she'd had a stripper body.

"What about now?" she finally said, reaching behind her and unhooking her bra with one hand. Before dropping it to the ground, she smiled to herself at noticing Ellis's cock wrenching against the zipper of his jeans. He looked to the ceiling for a moment before answering her in a strained voice.

"I guess..." he swallowed hard. "I guess I could help you out, yeah."

"Perfect," she grinned. She reached over for the light switch, letting their bodies be illuminated by the streetlights streaming through her living room window. Then she stepped toward Ellis, feeling triumphant when he stared slack-jawed while she took his hands and had him cup her breasts.

As soon as he touched her, however, a switch flipped and Ellis began to devour Dawn's mouth while pulling her closer with one hand on her back. She groaned against his mouth when she felt his other thumb roughly rub her nipple, then gently pinch it.

Ellis staggered with her toward her couch and yanked off his own shirt. He wasted no time taking her other nipple into his mouth after she fell into his lap facing him, a leg on either side, relishing how Dawn exhaled hard against his ear. She held his head while he sucked on her for the next few minutes, then squealed in surprise when she felt his teeth on her skin.

"Too much?" he pulled back and looked up at her.

"Just right," she leaned down and kissed his mouth. "But I want to suck on you, too, Ellis."

"I don't recall that being the deal," he smirked while gently tweaking both of her nipples between his fingers. Dawn jumped a little, then held on to his shoulders and involuntarily ground her hips against his. "I'm supposed to be helping you out, remember?" he reminded her.

He put his hands on each of her hips and indicated he wanted her to turn around. Ellis shifted back and spread his legs, then pulled Dawn to sit between them after he yanked her panties down. He thought he would lose it when she rubbed her butt against his cock, but got her to stop squirming as soon it was apparent where his fingers were headed.

"Ellis..." she whispered, almost overcome by the heat of his breath against her neck and his other hand continuing to rub her nipple. All she could do was cry out while he slowly played with her clitoris before going further and dipping his fingers inside her.

He methodically stroked her while trailing kisses from behind her ear down to her shoulder. When he felt the spongy spot he was looking for, he pushed just a touch harder, then also stroked her clit in time. Dawn was beside herself with ecstasy, her jaw shaking and her hands clutching Ellis's thighs.

She screamed as her legs stiffened and shot straight out, then bit her lip while grinding her hips against Ellis's hand. He brushed his face against her neck while her body relaxed, his free forearm holding her around her stomach.

Oh my god, she's unbelievable, he thought while watching her chest heave and listening to her whimper.

As her breathing slowed Dawn leaned back against him, loving the feeling of his bare chest against her skin. Then, she slowly tested out her feet again before standing up and tugging his belt. Ellis followed her down the hall but stopped just outside her bedroom.

"You're sure about this?" he asked her.

"Ellis, you're so hesitant I'm thinking this is more about some issue you have than anything about me," Dawn pinpointed. Ellis sighed and looked at his feet.

"I actually have feelings for you," he admitted. "I did way back when we first met, and that's part of why I wasn't great with Mika when we met again." His eyes finally darted to Dawn's face. She was intently gazing back at him. "The other part was he was a smarmy jackass, but..." Dawn giggled and he followed suit.

"I think what I'm trying to say is, this isn't just going to be about sex for me, Dawn."

"It won't for me, either." He blankly stared at her. "Ellis," she smiled, while raising her arms up and over his shoulders. "I wasn't trying to mess with your head in the pizza place when I said I'd had a crush on you way back when you rescued me.

"I simply didn't know what to make of you when you were acting like such a jerk all the time. Now that I know it wasn't all me, and you were just emotionally stunted..."

Ellis felt her mouth lift into a smile as he leaned down and kissed her. The kiss turned into several more until Dawn was breathless, at which point Ellis pulled her into her room and tossed her onto the bed. She laughed in delight as Ellis grinned at her in the dark while he stepped out of his jeans and boxer-briefs. In the meantime, she fished a condom out of her nightstand drawer.

When he knelt on the bed as naked as she was, Dawn also knelt and held his hips, slipping her tongue into his mouth amid several more crushing kisses. Then she noticed something different about his erection pressing against her stomach.

"It's... curved," she said curiously, noticing the slightly downward arc the tip of his cock took as it pointed toward her. Ellis groaned as she lightly held and stroked him.

"Yeah, I didn't realise this was weird until my one and only girlfriend pointed it out my first time ever," Ellis said between kisses. "I was more focused on not dying a 28-year-old virgin." Dawn chuckled but didn't stop stroking him, even when he rubbed her nipples with the pads of his thumbs.

"Then I looked up what I could do with it," he murmured, taking her hands off him and laying her face-down on her mattress. He thought he was going to lose his mind when Dawn smiled at him over her shoulder and watched him roll on the condom, spreading her knees apart to keep her balance.

Even in the darkness of her bedroom, he could see she was still slick. She sighed as he brushed her hair aside and kissed the nape of her neck while holding each of her hands in his. Then, as he balanced on his forearms, she moaned and squirmed as he entered her.

But just as Ellis anticipated, Dawn gasped after a minute when she felt what his curved tip was doing to her front wall. She could barely contain herself as Ellis measuredly pushed all the way into her, then drew out, then pushed back in.

"Ellis," she exhaled, not knowing what she wanted to tell him. His warm breath swept across her upper back while she gripped her duvet in her fists. Dawn's squeals escalated for a full minute before she finally screamed his name, her legs thrashing on either side of his. He let her rest for a few seconds but it was urgent that he pull out, quick.

"Flip over, sweetie," he instructed her, not knowing how long he could control himself. Dawn slowly turned onto her back and instinctively reached up to hold Ellis's face despite the fact her head was still spinning. "I'm sorry I'm not letting you relax," he panted as he fanned her hair across the pillow. "I just want to hold you and look at you our first time."

She simply nodded, her ears still buzzing from the way he'd kneaded her G-spot just now. Dawn pulled Ellis's head toward her neck and bent her knees to touch his hips when he gently thrust back inside her. After a few tender kisses, he couldn't resist any longer and sped up, exhaling hard into Dawn's hair when he fell off the edge.

Dawn wrapped her right leg across his back and held him tight while he shivered, then traced her fingers in a circle along his lower back. Ellis bent his knees like he was trying to curl into her, then put his fingers in her hair as he softly kissed her twice.

After they each cleaned up and slipped back under the covers, Dawn never felt more secure than she did when Ellis put his face up against the back of her neck as the outside spoon.

"Can I ask you something?" she whispered.

"You just did but I'll let you have another one," he murmured against her skin, his eyelids growing heavy. Dawn gave him a rueful smile as she turned to her other side to face him.

"What happened just before you took over the bills from your parents?" Ellis's eyes flew open.

"I was hoping you'd forget about that," he sighed. "Well, I guess since you've already seen my curved cock there's no point hiding the rest." He relished Dawn's little giggle and suddenly wanted to tell her everything about himself despite the terrifying nature of the thought.

"It was the mid-Autumn festival about eight years ago," he started, pulling the covers up around Dawn's shoulders and running his fingers up and down her hands. "It's huge for Vietnamese people, and it happens in late September or early October. I have an older brother, and he and my dad never got along. I'd just finished journalism school and landed my first shitty job, so I was planning on moving closer to downtown.

Ellis noticed Dawn's eyebrows lift when he mentioned he'd had a sibling. Soon, she'd find out why he hadn't brought him up earlier.

"The mooncakes were done and we were just about to light the paper lanterns in the backyard. Then my dad and brother broke out into one of their dumbass fights. Of course the festival was ruined when my dad told my brother to get a job and stop being a child, and my brother stomped off upstairs.

"We cleaned up, watched the moon for a bit, then went to bed. My dad never woke up."

Dawn gasped loudly, her face horrified.

"I'll never forget falling out of bed when I heard my mom screaming that next morning," Ellis nonchalantly continued. "There was nothing the paramedics could do."

"I'm so sorry, Ellis," Dawn whispered, feeling like it was the least adequate thing she could say but not knowing how else to respond. Ellis simply nodded.

"I don't think my brother spoke for another three days or so. My mom went home with her sister after the funeral and I was able to get him into my car then. Man, he cried like I'd never seen an adult cry in my life," Ellis shook his head at the memory.

"I can understand why; I mean, the last things he and our dad said to each other were in anger. But if it were me, I'd have spent the rest of my life trying to make it up to my mom by taking care of her.

"What he did instead was heroin. Don't ask me where he got the money for heroin when he didn't even have a fucking job," Ellis said, strangely calm despite the anger within his words. "My dad was gone a week when my brother disappeared. He came back about three months later, completely strung out, and demanding money from my mom.

"I said no. Just fucking no, and I didn't even let him in past the door. I knew she'd give him whatever he wanted, and then more, and then more until she and I were both out on the street. I told him to leave and never come back, and to this day, he never has. And now you know why I don't ingest anything stronger than coffee."

Dawn grasped Ellis's hands in hers, understanding better than most people how just one addict in a family was enough to tank everyone's futures.

"I completely understand," she said, to Ellis's surprise. "I was too little to remember the details but my uncle was on opioids. My dad had just gotten sober after my mom went missing--" Ellis cringed, remembering the flippant comment he'd made to her and Mika about not wanting Dawn to become just another red dress hanging on a tree.

"--and his addict brother hanging around his kids was the last thing he needed. That's why we left the rez when I was still in grade school. I still go back to Saskatchewan every year and hang a dress in memory of my mom. We never found her."

"Dawn, I'm so sorry," Ellis muttered. "Partly because I'm telling you my sob story when your family went through all seven circles of hell at the same time. But also because of the red dress thing I said at the pizza place."

"You weren't wrong," she smiled but her voice was heavy with regret. "One of the many things I recognised over the last couple of days was that Mika never would have used violence if he'd been in the parking lot instead of you. Not because he was above it, but because he wouldn't risk his neck to help anyone, let alone me."

"You realise that's not a reflection on you, but on him being a sociopath, right?" Ellis made sure.

"I'm First Nations, Ellis. My only experience with white men before him was they either hated Native women for one reason or another, or they fetishized us." Ellis nodded, recalling how he'd heard his aunts speak similarly about how one white boyfriend or another also seemed to fetishize Asian women.

"One of my mom's sisters married a white dude," he said. "Really cool, open-minded guy who embraced Vietnamese culture and loves my aunt as a person. But she dated a bunch of guys before that who took time to admit they were really just into the idea of dating someone 'exotic.'"

"And that's exactly it," Dawn nodded. "Obviously, there's white men out there like your uncle, and I thought Mika was one of them. I thought he really loved me for me. Although you were right about that, too; he never actually said those words. God, I'm such an idiot."

"If you were an idiot, so was Fred," Ellis reiterated. "And so was the rest of the staff. He targeted your office at the precise moment of the campaign, which he knew would rake in big bucks because Fred's so popular.

"Then how did you figure out his plan right when you met him?"

"I didn't!" Ellis laughed, twirling a lock of her glossy black hair around his finger. "I made some wild accusations because I wanted to unnerve him. I couldn't stand watching you two together, to the point I called my editor the day the northern trip was announced, begging him to not make me go."

Dawn recalled the heated phone call she and Mika had watched Ellis have across the office parking lot that day. She was heartened Ellis had had feelings for her even then.

"I hate it, but I was hella jealous he was with you, and I was mad at myself for blowing my chance," Ellis continued before drawing Dawn right up against his chest and tenderly kissing her forehead.

"Thank god you're so easy, though."

Ellis grunted when Dawn lightly punched him in the side, then grabbed her wrist and playfully wrestled her back against the pillow.

"You can forget about being my boyfriend now," she said mock-defiantly. Ellis raised his eyebrows and loosened his grip.

"Really? You weren't just using me for my body?" he smirked.

"Well, maybe, but that was a hell of an audition just now," Dawn winked. Ellis was overjoyed but he had to stay practical.

"You know what this means, right?" he asked after kissing her mouth. Dawn threw him a questioning look. "I'm off the campaign. I'll go to my editor tomorrow and get reassigned. Then we have to lay low for a while after that."

"Or else everything you've written about Fred so far--"

"--will get called into question because I'm his chief of staff's boytoy, yeah." Dawn grinned before kissing his neck.

"You would do that?" she asked. "If Fred wins, it would be massive for you to cover the election of the first Black premier of Ontario."

"It'd be nice," Ellis admitted. "But there will be other elections and other huge stories. My career isn't going to be tanked if I let someone else have this." He tilted Dawn's chin upward and insistently kissed her. "But I am not waiting another four years to get another shot with you."

He slipped his arm under Dawn's head and she felt her eyes grow heavy as she listened to his heartbeat.

"Besides," he added, "I was supposed to lead a World of Warcraft raid tonight. If I could give that up for you, a silly news article is nothing." Dawn gave him a ghost of a smile before covering his hand with hers and drifting off to sleep.

***********

"Next question." It was three days after Fred Okoli's staff had discovered their campaign funds had been embezzled, and he was exhausted.

"How are you going to cover expenses on election night?" a reporter asked. To save time, money and trouble, the campaign office had set up a canopy right in their parking lot and called a press conference with almost no notice.

"That's the nice thing about Ontario elections having a set date," Fred replied from the podium. "It's summer and we have no dearth of public spaces in the GTA. Our office has already applied for a permit and with any luck we'll see you at Downsview Park on election night.

"Richard Gaus from the Examiner," another journalist announced. Fred squinted into the crowd, noticing for the first time that Ellis wasn't there. He quickly glanced behind him but he knew Dawn was inside the office, watching everything but trying to stay out of sight.

"We know your campaign manager was in a personal relationship with the man we know as Mika Eckhardt," he started. "Was she in on his plan?"

"Absolutely not," Fred said reflexively, ready for this line of questioning. "Dawn has been on my team for six years and I wouldn't have been elected an MPP or party leader without her. The person we knew as Mika--I hope the authorities figure out his real name soon--ingratiated himself into our staff and we trusted him as much as I trust any of my staffers."