“So, you’ve been briefed on what’s expected of you, right?” he asks me, his eyes never leaving mine. I feel a pleasant warmness spreading through my body as I hold his gaze; running my tongue between my lips, I give him a quick nod.
“Yes, I have.”
“Good,” he smiles, leaning back and crossing his legs. “We’ll keep this up for a year. Then you’ll be able to end our fake engagement by claiming I’m just too devoted to the country.”
“How noble of you,” I whisper, rolling my eyes and drumming my fingers on the table. “But one year? I was thinking of something more short-term.”
“No. Anything shorter than that and it won’t work. The public needs time to accept the President’s new image,” Tracy cuts in, her smart eyes going from me to Austin. “It’ll have to be one year.”
“If it’s going to be like that, I’m going to need a bonus. An extra $25 million will do it,” I say in a heartbeat. Tracy is about to protest the figure I’ve just thrown, but Austin doesn’t give her enough time for her to do so.
“Deal.”
“Also, if there’s any hint of a scandal with another woman… I’ll walk on the deal. And I’ll still expect to be paid.”
“Surely you’re not saying that --”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” I shoot back, cutting Austin short. “No other women while our deal stands.”
“Jesus,” Austin whispers, pursing his lips and exhaling sharply. “I guess you’re right, though. The risk just isn’t worth it.” Looking at me for a moment of silence, he then opens up into a grin. “We have a deal then.”
“Good. Now, where’s my ring?” I grin back at him, raising my hand and waving my fingers at him. “A fiancée needs a ring. An expensive one.”
“You’re a high maintenance one, aren’t you?” he laughs, running his fingers down the length of his tie. Pushing his chair back, he goes up to his feet and walks around the table, closing the distance between him and I. Sliding one hand inside his jacket, it comes back out holding a small square box. “There you go,” he says, popping the box open.
I raise both eyebrows as my eyes fall over the biggest diamond ring I’ve ever seen. The diamond alone is probably worth a few hundred thousand dollars, for Christ’s sake.
“Not that you asked, but the answer is yes,” I grin, offering him my hand. Holding it gently, he slides the ring on my finger and I hold my breath as I feel the touch of his skin on mine. His hand is big and smooth, and I start imagining what else he has that’s big and smooth… Ahem, anyway. Jesus.
“Do I get to keep it?” I ask Austin while, at the same time, I try to pull my mind out of the gutter.
“Sure,” he laughs. He could give two shits about this ring, and instead says, “You’ll want a memento.”
“A memento, right,” I whisper, looking at the ring. The thing is huge and gaudy, completely inelegant, but so what? I can just sell it once I’m done with Austin. Besides, the secret deal we’ve cut inside this room is also an inelegant one, but it’s not like that matters.
“Welcome to your new life, Ashley,” Austin says with a smile, and I can’t help but smile back at him, my lips reacting before I can stop them.
A new life, huh? Doesn’t sound that bad.
Good thing it’s not real.
7
Austin#p#分页标题#e#
I'm standing in a small theater in the White House's West Wing—the Press Briefing room. Half a dozen rows of chairs are filled with eager reporters, each staring at me, waiting for me to begin the press conference.
This is it.
This is the moment I go out and lie in front of the country.
I’m gonna look into the cameras and lie to 320 million Americans.
Jesus fucking Christ. I can’t believe I’m having these qualms right now, you know?
I mean, my administration doesn’t have any major scandals or anything. We’ve run a tight campaign. We didn’t do anything fucking crazy.
It’s the damned media. They don’t care who fucking wins, ya know? They just want to pull down and tear down whoever is in charge. It sells newspapers or something. So they fixate on the fact that I’m a young, eligible bachelor. They pinpoint that and they start trying to destroy me. Doesn’t matter what party I am. Doesn’t matter what I believe in.
And now I’m gonna lie to them. I have to. It’s the only way I can fend the media off long enough to actually help the American people.