Seduced By The Candidate (The Candidate, #1) Read Free Page B

wanted to settle for normal?
    If she was honest with herself, she was probably just too
picky. She was attracted to the chiseled good looks of the athletic types, but
put off by their shallow outlook and demeanor. She was thrilled by the
intelligence displayed by the intellectuals, but not exactly wowed by their
reclusive nature and less than exceptional physical stature, and she simply
wasn’t prepared to accept mediocrity.
    It wasn’t merely theorizing either. She had dated men from all
three of these groups. Almost out of a sense of normality, in order to do what
was expected, she had dipped into uncharted waters and tried to find someone
that could fulfill her physical needs in the same way that her studies had
satisfied her mental ones. Without exception, she had been left sorely
disappointed.
    Charlie had been the captain of the wrestling team and was
handsome, broad shouldered and imposing. Unfortunately, he had also been
vacuous, boring and intent on getting into her panties without first trying to
unlock her mind. She had gone as far as tolerating his unskilled fumbling on
their first two dates, before she could no longer carry on kidding herself and
had called the whole thing off.
    Simon had been an acknowledged mathematics genius. His passion
and talent had intrigued and inspired her. Intellectual he might have been, but
Simon was a social pariah and with great intelligence, also came great
arrogance and bad manners. He simply couldn’t understand anyone that wasn’t as
clever as he was and tended to treat them with disdain and derision. Even when
faced with an intellect as well recognized as Charlotte’s, he couldn’t bring
himself to acknowledge it, as it wasn’t in one of the ‘classical fields’. Simon
wasn’t really threatened by Charlotte, he just never
saw her as being on the same level as he was and tended to treat her with a
tolerant, elitist air. He was also a terrible kisser and after an evening of
lifeless, disappointing petting she had learnt more than enough to know that he
wasn’t ‘the one’.
    Jeremy had been the middle-of-the-road man and at first things
had looked really promising. He was handsome, polite, and clever without being
exceptional. He seemed genuinely interested in her as a person instead of
merely a brain or a body. They had dated for a couple of weeks and she had
found him to be entertaining company and a wonderful distraction from her life
of dedicated study. Unfortunately for Jeremy, that was all he proved to be—a
distraction. He was fun to be with, but he had no real depth or substance and
certainly not sufficient allure to drag her away from her books for any great
length of time. Neither one had wanted to admit it, but they were clearly
looking for very different things in life. When they eventually did go their
separate ways, it was more a relief than a wrench.
    So there it was. She was alone, un-touched, virginal and
thoroughly disheartened with the whole dating thing. She had dipped her toes
into the water and found only ‘boys’ instead of the man and equal she had so
hoped to find. Worse still, the whole disappointing sequence of events had been
such a disaster that she had pretty much come to the conclusion that she would
never find the right man for her and as a result, she had even stopped looking.
    If she couldn’t study and excel at college, she would persevere
and excel at work. As far as potential relationships were concerned she would
adhere to the words of Buddha, ‘ Health is the greatest gift,
contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.’ She would be faithful to her career and forget everything else.
    * * *
    Goulding’s good mood was fleeting and
before long he returned to roaring at his staff again and generally prowling
around like a bear with a sore head. He pulled them up on their tardiness,
criticized their accuracy and even had the audacity to refer to John Lennon as
a hopeless wannabe with only half the talent