Page 66 of Courting Gossip (Courting)
Rielle nudged Darien. ‘I told you so.’
She stood up to clear plates and between the four of them the cleanup was quickly handled.
‘Well, I suppose we should get down to the matter of business.’ Rielle said the words crisply, but her expression had turned uncomfortable.
Brody watched her steadily, not giving an inch. It made him feel better that not everyone at Luxxor took this so casually.
‘Let’s go to the living room,’ Genieve said. She sent him the evil eye as she grabbed her drink and breezed on by.
They gathered before the fireplace. Brody took a seat next to Genieve on the sofa and watched as Darien and Rielle settled into the easy chairs across the coffee table. The tough guy had quieted down again and, from being the energy in the space, had gone back into protector mode.
Brody didn’t like all the watchful eyes. This was something personal that he and Genieve had already worked out together, but he wasn’t backing down. Not with reporters swimming around DC like sharks, looking for her. He needed to keep her here, safe and sound. If he had to pay to do it, he would.
‘Where do I sign?’ he asked.
‘Not so fast.’ Rielle pulled two copies of the contract out of the envelope and put them on the table. ‘This has our standard terms of payment, liability and confidentiality. Please read that last part carefully. You’re bound to disavow any knowledge of Luxxor, its employees or its line of work.’
Brody nodded. There better be a confidentiality clause. He wasn’t planning on going from the frying pan into the fire. He read through the agreement carefully, but frowned when Genieve just turned through the pages. How many of these had she signed? His shoulders stiffened until his neck pulled, but he got through the verbiage. It was pretty standard contract fare, but airtight in the places he needed it to be.
Rielle tucked her hair behind her ear with an unsteady hand. ‘Nina said the two of you would work out the…uh…scope?’
The kink in Brody’s neck twinged, but Genieve just pointed at the notebook still on the coffee table. He flipped through the pages and tore out the one they’d negotiated. He grabbed a pen to write down the addenda and stared at the list hard.
‘What was that last condition you added?’ he said quietly to her.
Her green eyes flashed dangerously. ‘No mention of my job.’
Right. That mistake that had nearly gotten him banned to the couch for the night. After the afternoon they’d spent together, he hoped that wasn’t still in force.
He showed her the list. He couldn’t remember any more.
She skimmed it slowly, showing more interest. It assuaged some of his irritation with the whole process. This wasn’t standard practice. He didn’t care how they acted.
She nodded and he got up. ‘Let me make a copy of this.’
He went to his office alone and stood over the copier, wanting to punch it as it spewed out the guidelines for their personal relationship. This wasn’t what he’d wanted at all – but he had to take what he could get. Without a Luxxor contract, he would never have met her in the first place. He reined himself back in before rejoining the others in the living room. He put the papers face-down on the table and returned to his seat.
‘OK,’ Rielle said with relief. ‘I guess the only thing left is time frame? I left that blank, because I didn’t know what you were thinking.’
Thinking? He hadn’t been thinking. He’d been playing catchup on this whole thing ever since he’d received that call from Genieve in the middle of the night. A scandal wasn’t something even he could plan for. He’d been spinning things as he went along, but now they wanted to know when it would end. The most important thing was to keep her protected. You didn’t put a time frame on that.
He looked at her hard. ‘That’s up to you.’
He was bastard enough to feel better when she shifted uncomfortably.
‘Open-ended until one of us decides to terminate?’ she said.
‘So an ongoing arrangement?’ Rielle suggested.
‘Done,’ Brody said.
Rielle jotted down the agreement and, finally, leaned forward with two pens. ‘If you’ll both sign each copy?’
Brody signed fast. He just wanted this over. The contract was a necessary evil. He dealt with those every day, but this one’s bite had a lot more venom.
Genieve took more time. She wiggled the pen and ran her finger down the contract, line by line. Brody frowned and rubbed her back. Was she having second thoughts? She was the one who’d pushed things to another level.
‘If you don’t want to, that’s OK,’ he said softly.
