He surveyed it, then squared his gaze back at her in the mirror and shrugged. “It’s fine. But fine doesn’t cut it for you anymore. You want to reinvent yourself? We’ll start with your hair. We’ll cut it a lot shorter, perhaps a bob, and we’ll color it. Your brown eye, blond hair combination is stunning but we’ll emphasize it even more.”
Heat touched her cheeks. The compliment was given in such a matter-of-fact way, but coming from Blake, it had the power to hold her still.
“You don’t need much makeup but there are some necessities.” He drew a finger through the air near her cheek and she held a breath. This was excruciating. Thrilling and excruciating. “Lash lift to accentuate your eyes, some bronzer to highlight your killer cheekbones, and lip gloss. Never leave the house without lip gloss.”
She grinned. “I’ve never known a man to be so knowledgeable about hair and make-up.”
“I won’t apologize for it. Society assumes heterosexual men have no interest or understanding about image, which makes me so in demand and my clients so satisfied. This approach is real, it works, and there’s no one more experienced than me to provide you with it.”
There was something so powerfully magnetic about him. Some might call it arrogance or cockiness, but whatever it was, it was impressive, and made her weak at the knees. For the last two years she’d been in charge of everything and everyone around her, and it felt so good to have someone else take control for a change.
She lifted the collar of her blouse. “So, what about my clothes?”
He stepped away as his gaze raked her body, sending a shower of sparks through her. With his eyes, he peeled off each layer of clothing, leaving her skin humming.
“Feminine but sophisticated is what we want. By re-presenting you as sophisticated and confidently sensual, your public’s going to realize that they’ve got you all wrong. That there’s no way someone as confident and together as you would’ve risked her business for a cheap thrill with a low-life like Trent Bray.”
Suddenly uncomfortable with this intimate talk, she stepped away so she could see him properly. “How do you know this stuff works?”
“Experience. Watching prominent people through history.” He folded his arms and lounged against the tiled wall. “Take Bill Clinton. Being linked to sex and intrigue could’ve killed his presidential career, but because his image was managed so carefully, he became more popular than ever.”
“Were you even alive when Bill Clinton was around?”
He chuckled. “That’s my point. Sex scandals live to infinity but it’s the way they’re handled that determines how they affect someone’s reputation.”
“You’re saying he had image advisors who wanted to play the sex angle up?”
“Put it this way, if Clinton’s image advisors had tried to make him look more conservative, more closed than before the incident, people would’ve seen through the lie. What they did was make him look sexier, more confident, and instead of a slightly academic and earnest president that he could’ve been, he became a charismatic and sexy president who people, especially women, fell in love with all over again. And it’s resulted in him being one of the most loved presidents in history. Wouldn’t you like a piece of that for yourself?”
“There’s one significant difference between me and Bill Clinton.”
Blake lifted an eyebrow.
She beat her index finger in the air. “I did not have sexual relations with that man.”
He let out a belly laugh. “You know,” he said, shaking his head, “it doesn’t matter what the truth is, what matters is how we deal with people’s perception of it.”
Suddenly, the laughter and warmth in the room vanished. “It matters to me. It twists my gut that anyone might believe I could sexually harass someone.”
“Of course it does, but just as with Clinton, the public doesn’t really care. They just want to believe in you again.” He crossed his arms. “When I was fifteen I was discovered by a photographer who was vacationing in our town. After taking some shots and sending them to an agency in New York, I ended up signing a modeling contract and moving to the city a few days after my sixteenth birthday. From then on I learned pretty quickly how to give people the look they wanted. We’re going to give people the look they want for you.”
This was the first glimpse of the man behind the God-like face and body, and she had to know more. “Where are you from?”
“A small town in Oregon.” His focus turned back to her clothes. “What sort of fabric is this skirt? You won’t want to stand next to a naked flame.”
“That must’ve been hard for your parents, letting you go so far from home on your own into such an unknown world.”
Something flickered in his eyes. “We’re talking about you, not me.” He touched her back, and a shower of sparks radiated through her. “We’ll move on to clothes tomorrow.”
A mask had slipped across his face at talk of his past and although she wanted to ask him more about himself, she decided to save her questions for later.
“I’ve asked one of my old friends, Lucy, to dress you in her studio tomorrow,” he said. “She’ll ask what sort of fabrics and looks you like as well as giving you some new styles to consider. I’ve organized to have your hair done by a great stylist, too. He’s a bit of an enigma and will only see you in his salon, so we’ll do that the following night. I’ll pick you up at eleven for the meeting with Lucy tomorrow but be prepared to spend the rest of the day with me.”
A sudden swirl of dread forming in her stomach, Kirin folded her arms. This was all happening so fast. “What if I don’t like the clothes and the hair? What if I can’t carry off this whole new image? I might end up looking like a complete idiot.” She bit her lip. “I don’t know if I can be confidently sensual.”
“You shouldn’t worry so much, Kirin. And about the confidence? You’ve got it already. We just need to tease it out a little. ”
She blinked, but he held her gaze, and her heart tripped. “Tease it out, how exactly?”
“You have all the tools to be confident already, but to show that inner strength, people need to see the window dressing.” His voice dropped. “That’s all we’re doing. We’re just aligning the outside to the Kirin Hart you have in here.”
He reached out as if to place his palm across her heart but stopped in midair, and in the seconds that passed, she felt the room crack with her lightning desire for him.
She took a hurried step back and rearranged her blouse. “See you tomorrow, then.” And when he gave her one of his devastatingly slow smiles, she wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole.
How on earth would she cope with having Blake Matthews so close and so intently focused on her for two whole weeks?
Kirin: Hey girls, anyone else having the week from hell?
Gwin: Beelzebub
Bad Reputations: A steamy, celebrity romance (The Breaking Through Series Book 1) Page 5