Page 87 of Forged By Sacrifice

She turned to Russell. “Drink?”

He nodded, and Dani went to the makeshift bar we had in the corner of the room. She poured what looked like two whiskeys. Dani, the whiskey drinker. My sister continued to surprise me.

“Where’s Georgie?” I asked, looking down at the watch my grandfather had given me the day I’d graduated from the Navy’s Officer Candidate School.

“Putting on her dress,” Dani responded.

My whole body tensed at the thought of Georgie in her bra and underwear in Dani’s room. In the stiletto heels I’d seen in the box on the coffee table earlier today. It was too much to even process before she was there, in person, coming toward me and making me forget every single thought I’d had in my head all week.

Georgie was in a dark-green dress that was so deep a shade of green it barely escaped being black, and I knew, before she was even close enough for me to see, that her contacts would be green, too. Maybe the apple-green ones I’d first seen her in this summer at Eli’s. As she moved closer, her whole body swayed beneath the dress, making me think of every curve that was there. The sleeves sat just off her shoulders and led to a neckline that swooped across her smooth skin, caressing her breasts, while the rest molded to her, showing off every gorgeous hill and valley. Her dark hair was twisted into a sleek and gorgeous updo, with her white streak barely showing.

All I could think was, “Holy hell.” And I guess I’d whispered it out loud, because Dani laughed as she came to stand next to me, watching Georgie come down the hall.

When Georgie got close enough, I could see her eyes were green, but they weren’t the apple green of her contacts. They were the pale, jade green that was her real eye coloring. The way she rarely wore them, and the way that always stunned the breath from me when she did. Maybe because they were really her. Like she’d been the day on the boat when I’d first kissed her. And suddenly, I knew there was no way I was getting out of this night without kissing her. No way that I could just say goodnight when the evening chimed midnight, and we were supposed to scurry back to our real lives.

I held out my arm, and she took it with a gentle smile. “You clean up pretty good, Mac-Macauley.”

“That I do.”

“You’re such a conceited jerk,” Dani said, and Georgie smiled.

Dani’s phone buzzed. “The limo is here.”

“You rented a limo?” Georgie asked.

“Of course. No one can show up at a black-tie affair in a Mini Cooper. Maybe if you had a two-hundred-thousand-dollar Jaguar, you could get away with showing up in your own car, but otherwise, you show up in a limo.”

“I feel like I have more to learn about D.C. than I do about the law,” Georgie commented as we headed down the hallway for the elevator.

We got in, and Georgie nudged my arm. I looked down into her soft-green eyes and barely held myself back from kissing her right then and there—Dani and her date be damned. Georgie inclined her head toward Russell, and I brought myself back to reality instead of the dream of Georgie.

“Sorry. Georgie, this is Russell Cooper. Russell, Georgie.”

They shook hands. “Nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you,” Russell said.

“You have?” Georgie and I both said at the same time, looking at Dani.

Dani didn’t even blush, but it made me realize that she was way more into Russell than she’d ever let on. I couldn’t wait to tease her about it once we were alone.

“Dani says you’re working with Theresa Sedgewick on her immigration case,” Russell said.

“I am. She’s pretty impressive.”

“She was my favorite professor at Georgetown.”

“You have a law degree?” Georgie asked.

He nodded.

“Russell has three bachelor’s, two master’s, and a PhD, in addition to having passed the bar,” Dani said, looking into her bag as if she didn’t have a care in the world. But I’d figured it out. Dani’s nonchalance was her tell. She cared a lot about this man, and I could only hope he knew how to defend her.

“Wow,” Georgie said next to me.

We stepped out of the elevator and into the limo, and I wondered if Georgie was truly impressed with his credentials. I wondered if she was the type of woman to go for an academic versus a military man. She was sexy and smart, and I bet she had men hanging on her every word no matter where she was, but I hadn’t really thought about what her type might be before now. I guess I’d only thought about how she was my type.

When we arrived, the Chinese Embassy’s ballroom was decorated to the hilt. All glitz and glamour. It was full of politicians and their spouses, circling the room waiting for the next carcass to fall. It was yet another thing I didn’t like about politics. I’d wanted to change all of that. To make D.C. events less about a deck of cards that got passed around with the biggest hand winning and more about what our country and our world really needed. I had wanted to put aside partisan politics and truly make a difference.

But everything I’d seen this week with Dani and the senators had continued to bat at my idealistic thoughts on politics and change. For someone who prided himself on seeing things others couldn’t, I really had been naïve, and that reflected in my unusual quietness in a setting where I normally was all talk.

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