Page 41 of Courting Gossip (Courting)
He saw the gears in Nina’s head turning. It was a good plan, he knew. He’d mulled it over from every angle.
‘When’s it going to break?’ she asked.
‘Whenever the press notices she’s not accompanying him any more.’ He shrugged and looked around the room. ‘It could be tonight, maybe tomorrow…We’ll just let it play out.’
Brody was itching to be moving again. The press was relegated outside and probably few people here even knew his name. He was a low-key but influential background player. He pulled strings, but he didn’t want anyone connecting him with Luxxor, either. The less time he and Nina spent together in public, the better.
Nina watched the senator walk over to shake the hand of one of the Capitol architects. She toyed with her earring. ‘I expect full payment on the contract,’ she warned.
‘You’ll get it,’ he promised.
She turned back to face him. ‘When will Genieve be returning to work?’
Brody sucked in his air so hard, it was like a punch to the chest. What the hell? She wanted to put her back into service? He shook his head fervently. ‘No. She can’t be seen with other men yet.’
‘She’s one of my best girls.’
His jaw set, and the muscle at his temple pulsed so hard, he could feel the tapping on his brain. Wow. And he thought he fought dirty.
Nina was calm as she sipped her champagne. ‘I have some administrative busywork I could send over, but I can’t keep paying her indefinitely.’
Brody’s fingers clamped around the stem of the flute. She was not sending Genieve back out on the front lines. He’d just gotten her out!
Nina signalled to a waiter and smiled appreciatively when he took the glass from Brody’s hand. Good thing, because it was about to shatter.
‘You know, this scandal affected more than the senator,’ she said, her voice smooth. ‘It impacted my company and Genieve’s livelihood. I’m grateful for all you’ve done to keep this under the radar, but Luxxor can’t stop doing business.’ She lowered her tone. ‘Genieve is an escort. She needs to be social.’
All the reasonableness and civility was scraping against Brody’s last nerve. She was talking about setting Genieve up with other men. It simply wasn’t going to happen. Not while this was going on…not while the senator was up for re-election…not while they were just getting to know one another. Just…not.
‘So assign her to me.’
Nina’s earrings jingled, she lifted her head so fast. ‘Excuse me?’
Brody was feeling a bit of whiplash himself. He hadn’t thought it through. His brain had simply gone into crisis-management mode. The answer had been instinctive, but, as he thought it through, it solved all their problems at once. ‘Put her on an exclusive contract with me.’
Nina’s eyes widened. ‘With you? Have you talked to her about this?’
‘No.’ And there was the glitch he hadn’t considered. How was he supposed to tell her? He dealt with impossible situations all the time, but his brain stalled when he tried to come up with the right approach. His fingers began tapping against his thigh. ‘Just draw up the paperwork.’
‘She has to agree to it.’
‘She will.’
Nina stopped abruptly, and Brody shifted under her steely look. That hadn’t come out right.
‘Help me talk to her. She doesn’t have to—’ He stopped and rubbed the back of his neck. ‘I have no stipulations other than she stay with me and lie low. I’ll pay your full fee, and that will fix the problem for everybody.’
That was all he was trying to do here. All that he’d admit to, at least.
Nina’s Amazon-warrior expression faded, to be replaced by a questioning look. ‘I’d be amenable to that if she is.’
He nodded tersely. ‘I’ll get back to you.’
‘You do that.’
Brody turned on his heel and left before he could get into any more trouble. He was a planner, a master strategist. He’d simply made a compromise, so why did he feel he’d just been bested?
And why was he sweating bullets at the thought of telling the redheaded dynamo at home?
