Fixer: A Bad Boy Romance by Samantha Westlake Read Free Book Online

of Staff for her office. Perhaps this Tanner fellow could help out on that front.
    But instead of leaving the matter there, Alicia grabbed her computer and typed Keegan Tanner's name into the search bar on Google. She clicked over to the images tab for a moment, looking at the top pictures that came up.
    The top dozen hits were all for the same man, and Alicia decided that this must be Mr. Tanner. He was quite attractive, she thought, and younger than she'd expected. Something about his expression, however - the smile that spoke of hours practicing in front of the mirror, the perfectly groomed hair, the broad shoulders that had been built in a gym, not out in a field - gave her the impression of a shark. Keegan Tanner looked ready to take a bite out of any juicy target that he could find.
    Next, Alicia moved over to the list of returned results, and began reading. She moved quickly and methodically through the list of links, ferreting out all the information that she could uncover.
    Research. Alicia had always prided herself on it. It sounded like a cold and solitary pursuit, she admitted readily enough, but ever since she was a little girl, she'd loved packing her head full of facts, arming herself with weapons of knowledge, wrapping herself in the armor of education. Her dad used to joke that, when he came home from work, he was more likely to find Alicia in the family's little library, curled up around a book, than in her room playing with her toys.
    Despite his jokes, however, both Alicia's mother and father encouraged her to learn. Instead of insisting that she should be playing dress-up with her Barbies and throwing tea parties with the stuffed animals that well-meaning relatives kept on sending her for birthday presents, they put up with her twice-a-month visits to the local public library. Most of the time, Alicia staggered out of the library with both hands wrapped around a stack of books that reached nearly all the way up to her chin. The librarians chuckled - up until she came back two weeks later, returning them all and exchanging them for a fresh stack.
    The lessons of research stuck with Alicia, and she always made an effort to know as much as possible about any meeting or debate that she entered. When it came time for her weekly call home to her parents, updating them on their girl's progress in the big world of politics, she often had to drag herself away from an open book to pick up the phone. Occasionally, she'd lose track of time as she stayed up late, reading up on points for a debate, only to glance up at the clock and realize that it was nearly three in the morning.
    Fortunately, she didn't have a significant other to annoy with her odd hours - or, at least, that's what she told herself. A couple of times, she'd considered adopting a cat or a dog, some sort of companion to keep her company on those late nights, but the pollsters told her that she'd look less appealing if she chose a pet. "Speaks of desperation," they'd said.
    Alicia didn't like hearing that the desire to own an animal companion made her desperate, but she did want to win. So she held off on adopting a cat or dog, and ended up sweeping the election by a landslide.
    Reading through the links that Google returned on Keegan Tanner, Alicia found her nose prickling - the sure sign of bullshit being slathered on thickly. The man didn't seem to have any official title, but he popped up at plenty of political events and in the news, often quoted as simply "a Washington insider." For someone who didn't appear to have a formal job title, however, he certainly seemed to have a lot of inside connections.
    That sounded dangerous to Alicia - why would he show any interest in a freshman Senator like herself? However, it also offered some possibility - if she could get him on her side, she desperately needed that expertise...
    So when Keegan Tanner walked into her office a little later that morning, Alicia immediately sized him up, trying to guess his