Rouge by Isabella Modra Read Free Book Online Page A

pink.
“It’s a new shaver.” Hunter laughed at that. “And anyway, I don’t attend the
benefits to ‘score’, as you would say. I do it for my reputation.”
    Hunter straightened the tie
and smoothed his shoulders. “Yeah, sure you do.”
    He sighed and shook his arms
deeper into the suit. “What did you say was wrong with the computer?”
    “It shut down. I was in the
middle of my application for Hamilton.”
    Joshua gave her a confused
sideways glance as he buckled his watch. “Hamilton? I thought we agreed on
Columbia?”
    She turned away so he
couldn’t see her eyes burn. “No, you agreed on Columbia. You know, just
because you lecture there, it doesn’t guarantee me a spot. Besides, I seem to
recall this being my life we’re pledging, so maybe I should make the
decision.”
    “And what is it you plan on
studying at Hamilton ?” He hissed the name as though it were a pesky
cold.
    That, Hunter wasn’t sure of
yet. The only thing she really excelled at in school was science – thanks to
Joshua’s great influence – but even that didn’t excite her. In fact, Hunter
didn’t have much in her life worth excitement. She watched a lot of TV and
movies because she didn’t have friends at school, dreamed of buying a classic
Chevrolet Camaro or maybe even a Firebird, and enjoyed almost any kind of
coffee she could get her hands on.
    But as for life and the
‘Grand Plan’, her paper was empty.
    Maybe that’s why she found
she couldn’t answer Joshua’s question. Instead, she turned to his mirror and
pretended to fix her hair.
    “Well,” he continued, “you
can have a chat to some of the professors tonight and see what they think about
your future, okay?” Joshua flicked his wrist and glanced at the black Cartier
watch. “The cab will be here in five, go and get dressed.”
    Hunter looked down at her
skin-tight, knee-length black halter dress and simple strappy heels and then
back up at Joshua.
    “I am dressed,” she said.
    He froze in the middle of
smoothing his gelled hair in his reflection, shot her a smile and nodded.
“Right. Of course.”
    Hunter knew he was lying.
Normally she wouldn’t put up with the abuse, but tonight was different.
Tonight, she would do anything she could to make herself look respectable. Not
for her own reputation, but for his. Hers would definitely not be saved, even
if she went to the benefit dressed as a nun.
    Tonight was the annual
benefit party for the lecturers at Colombia University. It was a very formal
event, in which men and women of Joshua’s league would clink their glasses
together, cackle about calculators, chalkboards and the new iPad installments
and pretend to be drunk just for something to gossip about on a Monday. Hunter
had been once. Aside from the kick-ass food, she hated it. It was too formal.
All talk and no action with a bunch of dreary people waffling on about their
dreary jobs.
    Hunter was attending
tonight’s event purely and simply for Joshua. He was receiving an award for his
most recent findings on an expedition in the mountains of Nepal, the proceeds
of which were contributed to the new science building at the university. The
award meant a lot to Joshua, and therefore Hunter felt it was right she
attended; for moral support and to prove to him how proud she was. And tonight,
no one was more proud than she, aside from Joshua himself.
    Hunter shimmied her dress
back down her legs where it had ridden up and slid her purse under her arm.
“I’m gonna grab my coat.”
    “Hurry up, okay?”
    Hunter clacked in her heels
down the marble stairs into the downstairs level. The living room was a
spacious area of the house with a floor-to-ceiling window portraying a fabulous
view of the city and a very modern set up of boxy couches, a glossy table and a
television on a classy brick wall over a fireplace. The kitchen was
unnecessarily large, with charcoal bench tops, pasty white cupboards and an
island in the middle covered in take-out boxes.