When she agrees to negotiate a deal for her team, Frances Pierce is confident that her charming and manipulative strategy will win the day. However, the strong and charismatic leader of the opposition is totally aware of her game. He therefore decides to use a strategy of his own to have her for himself.
Excerpt:
Adrian Arkley had been bored the whole morning. He watched Mike, his colleague and friend and saw that he was equally bored. The problem with politics, he thought, is that you have to sit through many tedious meetings to get what you want. So, today, as usual, they were scheduled for a number of talks and debates. He felt a little tense because he knew the opposition party was going to fight him in his project to support his new development. He loved it out there in the wilderness and he badly wanted the project to be a success. However, his political nemesis, the People's Democratic Party, was going to fight him. He wanted to refurbish and restructure some of the accommodation in the Kenton Nature Park, a wilderness area in his favorite place in the world: Thornville Game Reserve. The PDP was resisting his plans and they had a powerful lobby in their favor.
They had a purist view on the environment and wanted to leave the area untouched. He also wanted that, but it had been losing ground lately with few tourists visiting. The Park had to sustain itself and it could not do so with all the purists refusing to refurbish the accommodation and provide a restaurant facility. Today they would be debating precisely this issue and he was ready for a fight. The PDP was bringing in one of its consultants to join them and he was in no mood to argue with a political strategist. Apparently he was brilliant, young and dynamic. That is not what he needed today.
He was looking out the window when he heard the silence that descended into the room. The chairman, Charles Hornby, the Minister of Agriculture, stopped talking suddenly. He smiled broadly. Adrian looked up and realized that a woman had walked into the room. He watched her as she assessed the room and everybody in it, her eyes slightly wide. He looked at the dark blue suit she wore, how short the skirt was and how long it made her legs look. She was wearing a crisp white shirt and clearly wanted to create the impression of a 'no nonsense' person. She held a computer in one hand and a handbag slung over her shoulder. She looked at him suddenly and quickly looked away. She had a dismissive air about her, which made want to go to her, to have her. She had quiet sexuality which seemed to dance around her like an aura. He looked at her, still surveying all of them and realized that she had deliberately done that to establish her power, her dominance. It aroused him to think how he wanted to return the favor and dominate her and assert his power. He watched as she carefully placed all her bags on the table and sat down primly. As she crossed her legs, he noticed how her skirt crept up her legs. He had a good view of
them, because she was a few seats away from him. The bitch knows how to play the game. She is clearly making sure that she has both sexual and social power. I am definitely going to have her. He looked around the room and realized that every man there was having the same thoughts. Okay, so she knows what she is doing. Who is she anyway? Walking into a political meeting and making herself comfortable like she belongs here?
I am sure he is, thought Adrian. Aren't we all?
"Everybody, this is Frances Pierce. She is the consultant from my Party. As you know, she was invited to assist us bring the matter of the wildness camp to a close. Well, Frances, you are right on time. If you don't mind, we need to wrap up some other issues and then you can go ahead. Is that suitable?"
She nodded slightly at him.
"Does anybody object if Frances remains in the room for the other items?"
Nobody responded. There is not a single man here who is going to object to her presence. Adrian smiled to himself. He was tempted to object, but he had not being paying attention and had no idea what they had been talking about. And anyway, Charles was watching him, giving that look that he was to conduct himself with decorum. Okay, so she is special to Charles. Perhaps I should just leave it alone. But he had a strong urge to object so she could lose some of that confident power that she held everyone in the room with. Even the few women present seemed to stare at her in admiration. Adrian appraised her. Yes, she is sexy. She is not beautiful in a conventional way, but she has that air of power and sex that clings around her. She seems fully aware of it and very quietly, she enters into the subconscious of every man and says, "you want me. Will you dare to have me?" It is in everything she does. The way she sits upright, her legs showing, the way her hair falls over her eyes, but just enough for a man to look into them. Most importantly, her sex appeal comes from the way she establishes her dominance of everyone in the room. It is driving right into the lower parts of my body. He tried to listen to the rest of the discussion, but he was thinking how he would get her. Shall I be sweet and charming or wild and assertive with her? What will make her respond quickly?
