It was a constant push and pull with him, and I wasn’t sure which way I wanted it to go.
I caved with a grimace I didn’t bother trying to hide. “Fine. I’ll let you know.” I grabbed my bag. “I should get going. I have con law in ten minutes.”
“With Myers?”
I nodded, surprised he showed any interest in my schedule at all. And then he shocked me even more.
“How’s that going?”
Professor Myers was elderly and eccentric as hell, and half the time his lectures were a rambling mess no one could make sense of. He once actually fell asleep while one of my classmates was answering his question. And considering he was one of the country’s preeminent con law scholars, I wasn’t sure how Hannover had managed to hire him, just that they let him rule the classroom as though it was his own private kingdom. Humble wasn’t anywhere in his vocabulary. And still—
“He doesn’t make us stand.”
His lips curved all the way, revealing the kind of smile that could yank a girl’s heart out of her chest and have her underwear hitting the floor.
“Fair point.”
I stood up, the need to get the hell out suddenly eclipsing all else. “I’ll let you know about the visit.”
I turned and headed for his office door, when all of a sudden, his voice called me back.
“I’ll see you tonight.”
I turned, slowly, like a marionette under his command. My brain heard the words, but couldn’t process how they related to me.
There was that smile again, even more blinding than before.
“I’m assuming you’ll be at your mother’s party.” His hands—god, he had beautiful hands—lifted a creamy invitation from his desk.
I could only stare, horror flooding me. Now there would be two men I needed to avoid at this thing.
“Blair?”
The way he said my name, my first name, had my nipples tightening.
Fuck.
“Yes?”
He nodded toward the door with a jerk of his head and that same taunting smile. “You don’t want to be late for con law.”
I blinked, pulling myself out of my stupor. “Right.”
I broke the connection and walked out of the room, doing everything I could to resist the urge to look back. The weight of his gaze followed me until the door closed between us, the wood a shield I desperately needed.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
I reached into my bag, pulled out my cell, and shot off a quick text before I headed to my next class.
I need to buy a dress.
Chapter Four
Two of the infamous Reynolds sisters were seen shopping at a boutique in Georgetown today. You can say whatever you’d like about Senator Reynolds, but he certainly has beautiful offspring. Miss Kate Reynolds was conspicuously absent.
—Capital Confessions blog
Blair
“So what are we looking for?” my half sister, Jackie, asked as we walked into the Georgetown boutique.
I was supposed to wear this green silk gown my mother had picked out for me tonight. It was elegant, conservative, appropriate. Boring as hell. I’d actually liked the dress when she’d chosen it. But that was before. Before the wedding that never happened, before I found out my fiancé was actually gay, before I caught him cheating with his best man. Before I became the punch line of a national joke. Before I knew Professor Canter would be in attendance tonight.
“Something that doesn’t make me want to stab myself in the eye.”
Jackie would have died before wearing the green dress. It was poufy and had some floral ruffle thing that made me look like I had a tail dragging behind me. Kate had joked that I resembled a dragon that was missing its scales. That wasn’t far off.
“Why the change?”
I hesitated, not sure what answer to give. Because I’m lusting after my professor, seemed kind of dirty and totally out of character. And I wasn’t lusting after him, exactly. I mean, yeah, I guess in a technical sense of the word I was, but it wasn’t like I thought anything would happen between us.
But it was something. And that something meant I didn’t want to show up wearing an outfit my grandmother might have worn, especially after our conversation in his office today.
“I just felt like a change.”
Jackie’s gaze met mine and I saw a flash of sympathy, which I both appreciated and hated. I loved that I had another sister now, loved that we cared about each other, but I was so sick of being poor Blair. Fed up with the whispers, the pitying looks, the pats on the arm. It wasn’t in my personality to be someone people felt sorry for, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth I couldn’t expel. For all that my father and I had our disagreements, he’d taught me one lesson I’d not forgotten—the Reynolds family held their heads high and never showed any weakness. No matter how everything looked on the inside.
Jackie smiled, a determined gleam in her eyes. “We’ll have to find you something fabulous, then.”
I grinned. “Please. Lately, I need all of the fabulous I can get.”
In the weeks after my engagement ended, I’d struggled to find my stride. I hadn’t been wearing sweatpants and eating cartons of ice cream in a ratty bathrobe and unwashed hair, but it had been close. Too close. I was mostly back to normal now, but sometimes a girl just needed a great dress.
Jackie walked over to the racks and flipped through the clothes until she held up a pretty yellow sheath. “What about this one?”
I shook my head. “Definitely more you than me. It would look amazing with your coloring.”
On the surface, it was hard to tell we were sisters—well, half sisters. Jackie was a leggy blonde with a beach tan and blue eyes. I was a few inches shorter, my hair a dark brown, my skin pale. We both took after our respective mothers with little of our father in us.
“Can I help you ladies?” The saleswoman asked, walking toward us. She froze and her eyes widened with recognition.
I flashed her my campaign smile, my voice firm, slipping the Blair Reynolds mask on, the move nearly as familiar to me as breathing.
“We’re fine. Thank you.”
We’d both gotten our fair share of publicity lately—mostly thanks to the horrible Capital Confessions blog. My notoriety had started at birth as a result of my father’s position in the Senate and my mother’s political and social ties, exploded with my failed engagement to a man whose social pedigree matched mine, only to be revitalized when the world discovered my father had engaged in an extramarital affair and had an illegitimate daughter.
Jackie’s face was splashed all over the tabloids when Capital Confessions released a video of her having sex in an elevator with her now-fiancé, Will Clayton, who was running for the Virginia Senate, and the subsequent news that she was the illegitimate child of one of the U.S. Senate’s most revered members.
We were still getting to know each other, but I liked her a lot. To say our new relationship was a sore point with both my parents was the understatement of the year.
“What about this one?” Jackie held up a black dress.
I grinned. “That one would probably kill my mother. It’s gorgeous, but not me. I don’t want to completely erase who I was; I just want to be the new and improved version. Blair 2.0.”
Jackie turned back, flipping through the racks. She whirled around, a triumphant smile on her face, holding out a red gown, and honestly, I fell a little bit in love.
I never wore red. My mother thought it was too showy—which was her way of saying “vulgar,” without actually saying the word. And I’d listened. I’d never been the girl who wanted all eyes on me when I walked into a room. I got enough shit from people wanting to get to my father through me; I didn’t need to drum up my own attention. Especially now. And yet . . .