Page 51 of Power Games

She shrugged. "Not everyone, no. Hence why I said six weeks, not one. We'll have to improvise depending on the reaction, but basically, this isn't about convincing people that I haven't screwed you. Half of them will think I have regardless of what we say. It's about getting them to root for us. We'll have to give them the kind of story they want to follow."

Us. He liked the sound of that, even now that he saw how manipulative and false she could be. How fucked up was he?

"That's your solution? A love story?"

Vanessa tilted her head. "Do you know how many youths actually vote? The eighteen to twenty-four?"

He winced. No one liked to be reminded of those numbers.

"And do you know how many of my millions of followers belong that that age group?"

He lifted his head, frowning.

"You're not going to win back your popularity with the average conservative middle-aged guy here. You're definitely not going to win the vote of his wife, who's probably been cheated on three times. They're a lost cause. But we can get the eighty-seven million people who like me to like us."

He snorted. "I thought you didn't do politics."

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Or maybe I don't support my family, and I was just waiting until there was a cause I wanted to support."

Absolutely unbelievable.

"Do you manipulate everything around you?"

"Yes," she replied unapologetically. "Don't you?"

He had to think. The last eight years, his job had been to look good as chairman of the board of Jacobs Enterprises. He'd supported plenty of causes that were important to him, but he'd done it very publicly, and intending to gain popularity.

"Not nearly as well as you."

Vanessa stretched on the chair, languorously extending her neck. "Well, I guess you'll have to learn. For a little while. This game is dirty. I know it. That's why you're looking at me differently since I've started to get this mess fixed. I see it. You're pissed. You have every right to be. But just remember the end goal here. We want you to be president because you're going to do a fucking good job of it. And we don't want my brother in the Oval Office. All the machination, these lies, this mess—that's all so that you can—"

He had heard enough of this for today.

"How's your neck?"

She frowned in confusion when he cut her off. No doubt, she wasn't used to people ignoring her bullshit that way.

"Your neck," he repeated. "You just tried to crack it. You flew out to Cali and back twice in three days. Are you tense?"

Vanessa was sweet, almost vulnerable when she was caught off-guard. She was used to being in charge, controlling the conversation, and leading it where she wanted it to go.

He almost pitied her.

"Yeah, I guess I'm a little tense."

"Good."

She seemed even more baffled. He smiled, getting to his feet. "Your marvelous plan is missing a key component, Vanessa. You and I would make for an improbable couple. I've seen you blush at the slightest touch. I've seen you squirm when I held your hand." He'd arrived in front of her now. Charles leaned back on the front of his desk and reached out to tilt her chin up. "And I've seen you avert your eyes whenever you're embarrassed."

He smirked, looking into the depths of her panicked gaze.

"It would work if we were 16."

"Everyone knows...."

"Don't bring up the state of your hymen now, please," he asked. She'd hidden behind that already, and it just didn't work now; she'd admitted that most people would assume they were sleeping together.

"So, you're saying I need to act more convincingly."

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