Page 11 of Dead Serious with Benefits
So instead, she pinned all her ambitions for the family’s future on...me. That alone was probably what had given me so much leeway when having a sibling would have guaranteed being cast out of the family a long time ago.
Then again, I was likely given so much wiggle room because I played the game quite nicely when called upon. Whenever there was a dinner or a party that I was expected to show up at, I would look my best, slap on a polite smile, and use all my skills and abilities to charm and dazzle. Wearing the mask of Cordelia Mason’s only son, I was well-bred, well-raised, and well-behaved.
“Well, I wouldn’t have to play games with you,” I told her as I stepped around the block to the building where my interesting stranger had posted himself. “If you didn’t keep playing your own version. I believe you were the one who said that if someoneis going to play games with me, then I should play better. And what better opponent to test myself against than you?”
“I adore how you pick and choose the lessons I’ve attempted to impart to you. As well as how they’re implemented,” she grumbled in my ear, and I restrained the urge to laugh at her begrudging respect. I had always suspected that some part of her enjoyed having someone to go toe to toe with. Not just that, but having an opponent who was good at keeping up with her. “And how it always benefits you.”
“Another lesson you taught me to keep close to my heart,” I said with a snort as I found a side door to the building had been left open. Sticking my head through, I peered around what appeared to be a staircase. Finding out how the stranger had made it up was easy enough, it seemed. Now, I could only hope that was the path he’d taken and there weren’t any nasty surprises waiting for me. “In whatever one is doing, always make sure you are bending advantage and benefit back to oneself.”
“You should also remember that I have repeatedly pointed out that any benefit should be extended to your family.”
“Well, it is hard to deny that I have my own way of benefiting the family.”
“Behaving like a horny schoolboy is not a benefit.”
I gasped as I tilted the phone around so the light would show me if steps were missing as I began to climb. “Mother! Please tell me you aren’t asking inappropriate questions about my personal life.”
“Hardly,” she said dryly. “Though calling it a ‘personal’ life is stretching the word. There is hardly anything personal about the life you have been living for over a decade.”
I smirked at her disdain. “Now, now, there’s no need for melodrama. We both know that no one will bring that up to either of us. They aren’t going to dare cross the great Governor Reddington, now are they?”
“They most certainly will if they believe it will gain them an advantage over me.”
“You can just say it’s because you disapprove of my life, you don’t have to dress it up like it’s going to cause some scandal. If therewasa scandal, it would have cropped up long before now.”
“Or you could admit your lifestyle choices practically beg for a scandal to pop up one day.”
“Mother! In these enlightened times, why would you bring up my ‘lifestyle choices’? That’s not very progressive for the governor of Oregon.”
“You know full well that I am not referring to your sexuality. I would be more than happy if you stopped these hedonistic thrills and settled down with a nice womanorman.”
“Ah, you caught me,” I said, wrinkling my nose as the echo of my voice began to sound loud as I climbed. I realized I probably should have thought before climbing an abandoned building. “And here I thought I was being sly.”
“You were not, and you knew that,” she said in annoyance.
“Perhaps you could tell me why I have been blessed with a phone call from you at this late hour,” I said with a roll of my eyes, still flipping the screen of my phone outward occasionally to see any potential hazards. “I do have things to deal with tonight.”
“I’m sure you do,” she said dryly. “Perhaps you might be so gracious as to take time from your busy schedule next weekend. There is a benefit?—”
“I’m quite aware.”
“Really? Well, it is nice knowing you keep up with my affairs. I would claim to be touched...but I’m not.”
“A shame, warming your heart is what I live for. Am I to assume you wish me to show up at the event and make nice?”
“Well, if you’ve kept up on the details as much as you’re pretending, then you should know that the benefit involves nothing but couples. So you’ll need a date.”
“Ah, yes, I do so love dragging someone into the eternally exciting world of political benefits.”
“The benefit is for?—”
“I know what it’s supposedly for, but this is me you’re talking to. There’s no need to pretend it’s not foryourbenefit, no matter what organization you’re raising money for.”
Her sigh was aggrieved, but I stood on a landing and waited for her to make whatever point she had called me up to make. I had yet to see or hear another living thing in the building, but I knew I wasn’t far from the top. If the stranger hadn’t decided to fling himself into the abyss, I was dangerously close to alerting him to my presence. Which, in all fairness, was probably not a bad idea. I wouldn’t hold myself responsible for whatever the stranger did, but I didn’t want to risk spooking him either.
“Wewillbe having a real conversation about the responsibilities you keep putting off. In the meantime, you will find yourself a date. I don’t care what sits in their pants; all that matters is that they look and behave in a presentable fashion. Neither that nor your presence is negotiable. You donotwant to find out what happens if you don’t take me seriously.”
“I feel we’ve had this conversation before.”
