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When Jonny continued to look confused, she said, “It’s just good manners. What difference does it make if he wins? It’s only a stupid game.”
Jonny’s eyes widened. “Lemme tell you something. If you think I’m ever going to let a guy like Pope Mallachant win, you’re crazy. He didn’t get to be a fucking billionaire by accident. He’s a fucking killer, okay? I can promise you that showing mercy to his opponents is not one of his strong suits. And it’s not just a game. Nothing is a game with these people.”
He took a breath. “I thought you were supposed to be smart. I mean, you write about these people, don’t you? I would think you would know better.”
“Hey!” Pandy said as Jonny shook his head in disgust and turned to leave.
“Hey!” Pandy repeated.
“What?” Jonny turned back.
Pandy sighed. “Nothing.”
* * *
She changed quickly and hurried back to the house. The billionaires were saying their goodbyes. Pandy asked Lindsay for the bathroom, and when Lindsay said the Senator was using the downstairs powder room, Pandy slipped upstairs. She went into the first bathroom she could find, which was in Lindsay’s room. There, she checked the medicine cabinet for pills just for the hell of it, noting that Lindsay had quite a bit of Vicodin and several packages of hormone shots. Pandy quickly shut the cabinet, opened the French doors, and stepped out onto the balcony.
She immediately spotted Jonny, in designer swim trunks, walking toward the pool with the purpose of an athlete. He reached the edge of the water and stared down into the depths as if transfixed.
It took Pandy a second to realize he was looking at himself.
Narcissus, she thought.
Jonny pulled himself away from his own image and raised his arms in triumph, running down the steps into the water.
When the water reached his waist, he stopped. Closing his eyes, he ducked straight under, emerging a second later. He took a breath as the water sluiced off the smooth surface of his body.
His chest rose as he raised his palms to his face and tilted his visage. His profile was poised against the deep blue water. Dark. Unknowable. And just out of reach.
Pandy wondered if he knew she was watching him.
As if sensing her presence, he opened his eyes and jerked his head in her direction.
His eyes widened slightly.
And then he smiled at her knowingly, as if they shared a secret.
Pandy slipped back behind the French door.
* * *
On the car ride home, Edith couldn’t stop talking about how furious Pope was at Jonny. Pandy, who was feeling no pain, laughed giddily. Edith asked Pandy if she found Jonny attractive, convinced that Jonny was interested in her. The Senator chimed in. “If you want him, take him,” he exhorted to Pandy, referring to Jonny as if he were a stuffed animal. The Senator then held up his hand and balled it into a fist. “But if you get him, don’t stop.”
“Don’t stop what?” Pandy asked.
The Senator shook his fist in front of Pandy’s face. “Squeezing,” he said. When Pandy continued to look confused, he flexed his fingers. “His balls,” the Senator said. “Don’t ever stop squeezing his balls.”
* * *
Pandy woke up on Monday morning to discover that Page Six had run with the item about how she and the Senator had been spotted together in Palm Beach and were rumored to be dating. Pandy shook her head; it was the kind of thing that would be quickly forgotten. Then her phone rang.
“Are you really seeing that guy?” a male voice demanded. Pandy felt a rush of heat.
“Who is this?” she asked sharply, despite knowing it was Jonny.
“Who do you think it is?”
Pandy hesitated as she tried to come up with a clever riposte.
