Page 53 of Courting Gossip (Courting)
Chapter Eight
‘Are you going in to the office today?’ Genieve asked.
They’d finished breakfast, and Brody had been right. The bread had been delicious. So had the coffee and the conversation and the all-around change in him. She wasn’t sure he was even aware of it, but he’d been brushing up against her all morning. Touching her waist and sliding his hand over her hair…She could see him trying to recapture that unconnected, stoic front he liked to adopt, but it just wasn’t working – probably because she’d been brushing up against him even more. And patting his butt and flashing him glimpses of cleavage in the low-cut stretch cami she’d chosen for the day…
‘I thought I’d stick around here,’ he said from his perch on the sofa.
She grinned. ‘I thought you might.’
Colour rushed into his cheeks – or maybe it was the reflection of the fire still rumbling in the fireplace. ‘Seriously.’ He pointed at his tablet. ‘There’s nothing for me to do. Gunderson’s on a roll. His polling numbers are going through the roof.’
She leaned against the back of the sofa to peer over his shoulder. ‘Why?’
‘Because you left him.’
Well, that was flat, blunt and to the point. Genieve frowned when she saw that Brody’s expression had turned ambivalent. The dirtier and more underhanded things got, the less emotional he became. She was only now noticing that.
‘But I was never with him.’ The bread in her stomach turned leaden. She’d been the senator’s paid escort. She’d spent time on his arm and in his bed. She hadn’t meant to impact voters’ impressions.
‘It doesn’t matter. When it comes to choosing who represents them, people obsess over the wrong things. They picked him in the first place because of his hair and the fact that he wears a suit well.’
‘Yes, but…’
‘But you didn’t ask TMI News to break into your hotel room with a camera.’
‘No.’ No, she hadn’t.
‘If Samuel cries big crocodile tears now, it’s not your fault if people decide to vote for him again.’
She cocked her head. ‘Doesn’t any of this bother you?’
His gaze drifted over her face. ‘Some of it.’
Her skin tingled. She’d always thought he hadn’t liked her being with Samuel because of the political implications. Now she wasn’t so sure.
‘Do you think the tide has turned? Should I go back home and play my part?’
She found herself holding her breath. It shouldn’t matter if she went out in public. She’d just wear dark sunglasses and keep up the charade of the breakup. But she was with Brody now – and the one thing they hadn’t discussed was how long their arrangement was going to last.
‘No,’ he said abruptly. He got to his feet and she could feel the rise in energy, even as his expression turned even more pokerfaced and calculating. ‘They’d be on you like vultures, wanting your side of the story. You need to stay an enigma. You’ve broken up with the senator and have gone into hiding to avoid any more confrontations with the press.’ He pointed at the tablet that had tumbled from his lap onto the sofa. ‘It says so right there.’
Genieve scrunched her nose. Somehow a website had found a picture of her walking with Samuel and looking upset. If she remembered correctly, she’d stepped in gum. ‘So I’m supposed to be eating ice-cream and drinking wine?’
‘If the internet says so, it must be true.’
She let out a huff.
‘Not the case?’
She rolled a shoulder. She’d never had her heart broken before. ‘I imagine I’d be taking a lot of kickboxing classes.’
‘Not Zumba?’
‘No, the Zumba comes when I’m looking for my next boyfriend.’
His eyebrows jumped, and she pushed away from the couch. ‘Hey, did I see you using some fancy voice-recognition software on your laptop?’
He shook his head as if he was having trouble moving off the Zumba subject. ‘I’ve got a couple. What are you looking for?’
