Читать книгу Executive Pursuit - Andrea Laurence - Страница 6

“Says who? You?” Penelope asked.

“I told you I would come back for you. Didn’t you believe me?”

Kellan had helped Penelope get a job as a White House intern while they were still in college. It was what she had always wanted, but the price of his gift was that they couldn’t see each other while she was interning. He knew it was important to her, though, and had told her he could be patient. That he would wait for her. But when she’d graduated, she’d continued working in the White House full-time as an administrative assistant and worked her way up to her dream job of social secretary. Kellan, meanwhile, had gone off to law school and followed his own path.

“It’s been six years. I thought you would’ve moved on by now.”

“Why? Because I had such a horrible reputation with women before we met?”

Penelope shrugged. “There is that.”

His blue eyes pinned her in place, sending a flush of heat up her throat. “And who have you seen me with since then? No one special. We were great together. I brought you out of your shell and you kept me level. We only split up because you were working for my mother.”

“Right.”

“And in a few weeks, you won’t be.”

“In a few weeks,” she repeated with emphasis. “Not tonight. I still have a job to do. Without a recommendation letter from Mrs. Ramsey, I’m going to end up moving back into my mother’s tiny apartment and begging to teach debutants how to serve a proper tea.”

“That’s ridiculous. You’ve done an amazing job. Everyone knows that.”

“No, Kellan. You know that. Outside of these walls, most people have no idea who I even am. No one stops eating at a State Dinner with the Premier of Japan and wonders who planned such a great party. The President and the First Lady did it. I am a silent force. I need that letter. And she’s certainly not going to write it if she finds you pressed up against me like this.”

Kellan looked down, starting at the pink toes peeping from her heels and letting his eyes slowly travel up the length of her body. “I’m hardly pressed against you. But I’d certainly like to be. That dress…” His voice trailed off and he swallowed hard before he spoke again. “You look great tonight.”

Penelope felt her knees weaken slightly, but she couldn’t fall into his arms the way she wanted to. It was pretty talk, but that’s all it could be. “Thank you,” she said. She could feel her cheeks flush, but she couldn’t break away from his gaze. “But we’ve had this discussion before. Nothing is going to happen between us while I work here.”

Penelope loved the thrill of planning a flawless event, the elegance of a perfectly crafted thank-you note. Etiquette was a lost art she was determined to keep alive. She’d come from practically nothing, and she’d still have nothing without the scholarship to Georgetown. She had fought her way to get where she was. Risking all that to fall into Kellan’s arms was foolish.

“And the clock is ticking down.”

So that was what brought all this on. He saw the end of his father’s administration as a green light between the two of them. She wished she could see it as positively. “Unlike you,” Penelope said, “I’m not looking forward to my time here ending.”

“That’s because you were never in the media spotlight.”

Penelope looked up at the man who’d protected her from the media when the lights had chased her. Dating the first son should’ve landed her name and picture in magazines and newspapers, but he’d shielded her from it all. In the years since, he had grown up, but he still had the same caring heart.