Page 71 of Beautifully Ruined

“You kissed off my gloss.”

“You don’t need it.” He kisses me again, this time a brush of lips against lips. “And I’m not worried at all by shit like that. You wouldn’t do that, and Jack wouldn’t either, not really. He might spit fire and smoke but underneath all his douche of the year surface, he’s a good guy.”

It both settles something in me and makes my heart throb. I smile. “We should go, or we’ll be late. Not that you need to come with me.”

“Hell, yeah, I do. Let’s go, Vi. I’ll concoct your punishment for tonight during the day.”

“Punishment? For what?”

And Cade laughs. “Do I need a reason?”

Cade walksme up to the fancy office door, and he kisses my cheek. “You’ll be great.”

I watch as he walks away, disappearing around the corner of the busy street in the financial district to the train.

Congressman Walsh has another office in Brooklyn, but this is the one I’m assigned to, for now.

Nerves bite me.

I’m early because I want to make a good impression.

I shouldn’t be this nervous, since sure, the internship’s real enough to help me finish my requirements for my degree, it’s not nearly going to be long enough to be a full-on internship.

But this is to help find Gianna, not win points. And I have to remind myself of that even if I know my degree is the kind where, once done, I’d be working hard to get an internship with an actual congressman, especially one like Walsh.

Isaac had been building grass roots to approach bigger and better things down the line, and while that will count to my degree, it really isn’t anything for a CV. This is.

Or would be.

If it were longer.

Because a proper internship like at Walsh’s offices would open all the doors.

I push open the door and step into the world of politics, and the buzz hits me.

With it comes a churning of my stomach.

It’s not Isaac, or what happened with him.

It wasn’t fun, but it’s something that I could have gotten through on my own without interference, I think. No, it’s the pure need for this world that beats in my veins, along with how things, like an Isaac, could ruin my career that make me queasy.

I want this.

No mistakes.

No uncertainty.

This world is my lifeblood for work, it’s a love of mine, and I desperately want it to work. Joseph Walsh, like Isaac, could end my career if he chose.

What if Joseph is just like Isaac and ruins the lives and careers of the girls he wants?

He’s supposedly upstanding. I know that. But Isaac was meant to be, too.

And while there’s not a thing to say Walsh has anything to do with his daughter, what if he catches me poking around about Gianna, and he blackballs me over that?

I need to investigate him as best I can because he might know something Cade can use. But being caught…

“So, don’t get caught,” I mutter under my breath.