Desire and the Senator's Daughter

Chapter 1

Everything about Carter Manafort disgusted her. Not only was he using cheap political rhetoric to try and gain the sympathies of moderate voters. Not only was he born into a family that already had undue influence in U.S. politics. Not only was the time she was taking to watch this livestream time that could've been spent doing something much more enjoyable. What annoyed Lana Danforth the most was that her best friend wouldn't shut up about just how insanely attractive Carter was.

"God that jawline," came Kelly's familiar voice, although it sounded infused with a carnal craving. "That alone would be enough to make him hot, but pair it with that godlike build of his and it just makes my insides melt. He must get all his suits personally tailored, and..."

"Kelly would you shut up!" Lana exclaimed, smacking Kelly in the shoulder just a little bit harder than she normally would. "We're not watching this so you can cream your panties for him. We're trying to catch him saying something that will help my dad's campaign."

"Yeah, and while I'm not here to judge, you sound like a horny schoolgirl," Garrett chimed in from behind the couch where Lana and Kelly were sitting. He held up his notebook and pen. "It's making it really hard to focus." He rolled his eyes and turned his attention to Lana, "Why on earth did I ever agree to help you with this?"

It was just past 8 PM on a Thursday night in January, and campus activities at Georgetown University were just getting back into swing following the holiday break. Many students were hitting up the various parties across campus housing and throughout the many bars of the Washington D.C. area, but Lana and her friends had a different mission.

Florida State Senator Carter Manafort was currently being interviewed on Victory Scoop. The popular YouTube show was run independently by its host Victoria Lambert, a young woman who'd begun her career as a low-level reporter for a local Florida news station, but abandoned the job, when she'd exploded in popularity on social media. Her YouTube channel now boasted more than 600,000 subscribers, and she regularly managed to interview some fairly high-profile public figures.

Personally, Lana didn't much care for Victoria or her show. In her opinion, Victoria was just another pretty girl who'd managed to get a lot of online attention by parroting political talking points in front of a webcam while wearing a low-cut top and push-up bra. Pair it with an active Instagram feed of sexy selfies and she was bound to get attention, regardless of the substance of her show.

None the less, Lana found herself watching the livestream tonight. Carter Manafort had recently made headlines across Florida, and even some nationwide, when he'd announced that he'd be running against Lana's father, Bradley Danforth, in the upcoming Congressional elections this November. Senator Danforth had held the seat for 12 years now, and none of his challengers had even come close to beating him in a general election. However, at only 31 years old, Carter was a fresh face that mainstream media outlets couldn't resist but to dote on, and besides that, opinion polls were already showing that Carter might actually have a shot at ending Senator Danforth's winning streak.

For her part, Lana had been an active part of her father's political campaigns since she was a freshman in high school. Now as a college freshman, she was a lead creative developer for the campaign's communications team, and seeing how Carter behaved in a more informal setting like an independent YouTube show would hopefully give her more insight into how the team could effectively message against him. As much as watching the livestream got under her skin, Lana saw it as her duty, both to father and to herself.

So here they were, sitting in her and Kelly's apartment with YouTube streaming on the large smart TV that they'd mounted on the wall opposite the couch. Lana and Kelly sat beside each other on the light blue sofa while Garrett sat in a swivel chair behind them, his back to the kitchen counter.