“Try telling her that.” I raised my hands. “How do I look?”
“Fine.”
“Just fine?”
“Like a stud.”
I slapped his back. “Not so bad yourself.”
My frustration with Pandora was rising. She had merely sent a couple of texts in answer to my half dozen—the last one saying she’d be back soon. I understood that my girlfriend probably wanted to be with her family, what with Real Nation One TV about to drop her father’s scandal onto the airwaves tomorrow.
But not answering her phone?
I’d move Pandora to a better place. This apartment wasn’t good enough for her.
Maybe that’s why she wasn’t here. She was used to luxury, not this minimalist style. She was used to staff and having company. Maybe she was lonely. I should have thought about that.
Damn it, this is as far from a home as you can get.
Like me, Theo was wearing a black-tie suit and looking suave. But unlike me, he was behaving as though everything was business as usual. I felt like my life was deteriorating with each passing second.
“Ready to call off your engagement?” he asked. “Your dad mentioned leaking it to the press tonight.”
“Don’t let them send it out. I’m going to talk with Dad. I’m fucking done letting him dictate who I can have in my life.” I realized the truth in that statement. “Pandora’s annoying at times, but I love her.”
“She gets you. I can see that.”
“We’ve both been used and we’re over it.”
Until I told my father I’d ended it with Pandora, the Fairfield Project would remain stalled. The damage between us now felt irreparable. What was that saying? To win in Washington you have to be able to kill your darlings? Well, bravo, Dad. I’m dead inside if that’s what you were going for.
I’d chosen to get ready here so I could at least see Pandora before heading out for the cocktail party at the Fairmont in Georgetown. Going without her was hell. I wanted to be able to walk into the hotel with my arm around her. I was proud to be seen with her, and not just because she was a Bardot.
I wanted her by my side permanently.
I’d turned up the air-conditioning thinking that was the reason my chest felt tight. But no, it was her not being here that made me feel like I couldn’t get enough oxygen.
Pandora had eventually texted to say she was on her way, but until I saw her I would be filled with trepidation.
That little minx had ditched her security and gone off on a jaunt in my BMW. I knew driving around town without an escort was her way of rebelling against the system that had held her captive all her life. Still, even as my lover she’d have to stay within the confines of my security detail.
I will marry her one day. I’ll find a way.
I followed Theo back into the sitting room. “Did you fire everyone yet?”
“Can we wait, please? Hear what Pandora has to say?”
Unable to draw in a deep breath, I loosened the bowtie I’d been wrestling with in the bathroom. “I’ll fire everyone myself then.”
I heard the sound of a key turning in the lock.
We both turned to watch Pandora walk through front door, both of us letting out a collective sigh of relief.
She strolled in as though her being out in the world alone was normal, carrying high-end shopping bags and looking unfazed from breaking the rules.
What the fuck were you thinking?
Days ago, she’d gone to see Salvatore Galante. Anything was possible with this girl. Keeping an eye on her was essential. I may love her, but Pandora going rogue again wasn’t an option.
I made sure my expression did not show the anxiety she’d caused me. Of course, I was glad to see her, but I had the urge to smother her in a revenge hug.
She looked different in an unexplainable way. I saw an internal conflict reflected in her eyes, as though she’d been touched by an inexplicable experience.
Or maybe it was just me.
Maybe I was seeing her as just a girl who’d been wronged all her life; being privileged but having gone unloved for all these years—a kind of hell camouflaged in luxury.
She needed someone to show her the purity of love. And I wanted to be that someone.
She threw the shopping bags onto the couch. “You both look nice.”