Page 60 of Pandora's Pleasure
“I can see that.” He softened it with a smile.
“This is where it all happens for your dad’s campaign?”
He shrugged. “Actually, I’m hardly ever here.”
I gestured toward the books. “What is it they say?” I pivoted to look back at him. “If you don’t learn from the past, you’re destined to repeat it.”
“We always fucking repeat it. Same story. Different decade.”
“That sounds…”
“The truth sucks, as they also say.” He winked.
I smiled. “You went to Yale, right? I guess it was great.”
“Well, you needed a bike to get around.”
“I wanted to go to Brown University.”
“You’d have fit in.”
“What? No condescending retort, Damien?”
“That was one. You’re privileged. Lots of your spoiled friends would have joined you there.” His smile faded. “I’m sorry you didn’t get to go.”
“Were you raised by a strict governess? Because most of my friends were.”
“Point taken.”
“All my nightmares are set in my childhood home in Texas.” I’d never told anyone that before.
He hesitated and then gave me a look of sympathy. “We’ll make up for it.”
“How?”
He came over and placed his arm around me, pulling me into a hug. His lips pressed down on my head with affection, his body firm and warm against mine. I breathed in his soft cologne, feeling protected.
My escape plan was getting derailed by this man because he was becoming easier to be around. And I was craving more moments like this.
Figuring out how to extract myself from this arrangement had always been a mystery. I’d never factored in the possibility that I might want to stay.
It made me wonder if he sensed my scheming.
“Come on.” He turned to go. “Let’s have breakfast.”
We ate waffles and fruit at his round kitchen table while he read three newspapers at the same time, searching out stories printed on his dad.
I sat opposite him, sipping orange juice and reading news articles on his iPad.
He looked up knowingly. “It’s quicker for me this way.”
“You discuss what you’ve read later with your dad?”
“That’s right.”
“Can I help?”
“Sure.” He slid a newspaper toward me. “Let me know the tone of what you read.”
