Learning Curves - By Elyse Mady Page 0,57
good dancer and funny? Well, I have to give her credit. She may be a total loser but at least she has good taste in store-bought manflesh. I never thought that goody two-shoes would ever have the nerve to try passing off some himbo dancer as her ‘boyfriend.’” She giggled maliciously. “Of course, she should have thought things through a little better. I mean, anyone taking one look at you would know someone as beautiful as you wouldn’t sleep with a never-run like her. Not in this universe, anyway.”
Brandon’s face hardened into an implacable mask. Behind the pretty veneer, Gillian Saunders was an evil, manipulative bitch. Leanne was down-to-earth and authentic. He felt a surge of pity for Jeremy Fields but ruthlessly tamped it down. If the guy was so stupid as to be deceived by Gillian’s act, he deserved what he got.
But Leanne.
Leanne didn’t deserve to be slagged by this one-dimensional schemer for another minute. He opened his mouth to defend her when a small movement caught his eye. Only with tremendous effort did he contain a start of surprise at the sight of Larry Galloway standing in the doorway. The older man caught his eye and shook his head imperceptibly, signaling that he wanted Gillian’s tirade to continue unabated.
“You don’t know how wrong you are about Leanne,” Brandon said instead.
Her face distorted in a mewl of disbelief. “Leanne? That bitch is a useless waste of space and I’m sick and tired of everyone going on and on about how she’s all that. Even Jeremy couldn’t shut up about her tonight. She’s got it coming to her, believe you me.”
“What did she do to you that was so terrible anyway?”
“She stuck her nose in where it didn’t belong. ‘Oh, Gillian, it’s dishonest,’” She mimicked Leanne’s voice in a shrill tone that would cut glass. “Fuck her. She nearly got me expelled. Me! And all I did was get a few wanna-be pledges to write a couple of stupid papers for me. Big deal. It’s not like it was stuff I actually needed to know.”
Suddenly Gillian’s animosity made perfect sense to Brandon.
“She turned you in? At Wellington?”
“She tried to.”
“What happened? You weren’t expelled, obviously.”
“What the hell do you think happened? I cried, told mommy and daddy and the dean it was the stress that made me do it and they sent me to Italy for the summer to ‘recuperate.’ But it cost me the presidency of Delta Delta Phi. It was mine and Leanne made sure I didn’t get it. Hell, she probably planned the whole thing.”
“That doesn’t sound like Leanne.”
“She’s always trying to ruin things for me. Because she’s jealous of everything I have.”
Brandon wanted to laugh. All this woman had were her looks and the morals of an alley cat. But her jealousy and need for revenge made her dangerous and he knew he had to handle her carefully or risk watching her blow up in his face.
Gillian recovered some of her composure. Her face was calm again and she smiled, although it never reached her eyes. “So what I want to know, Brandon, sweetie, are you a full-service male escort, fucking pathetic women for money, or just an enterprising stripper, doing one sad little job on the side?”
“And what if I am?” he bluffed, pretending to go along with her and keeping a handle on his own explosive anger only by the thinnest of threads. He wanted to throttle her, to show the world the sick, twisted individual she was. But until he knew what she planned for, he needed to play along. He couldn’t bring himself to look toward the doorway, knowing the disgust he would see on Larry’s face now that he’d been revealed. But even if the man would never be able to respect him again, at least he would know that Brandon hadn’t betrayed his daughter.
A cold comfort, but there was little else to be gained as he watched all the goodwill he’d earned with the elder Galloway escape through his fingers like sand.
“Then here’s the deal. Whatever she’s paying you to pretend you’re her boyfriend, I’ll double. No, I’ll triple it!” she promised rashly. “You and I can hook up if you want. But what I really want is for you to dump Leanne Galloway. Tonight. I want you to walk that tight tush of yours back into my party and drop that pathetic excuse of a bookworm right on her fat—”
“Ass?” Larry finally spoke and stepped into the room. Gillian turned