Charlotte’s touch gentled, her thumb stroking over Sutton’s hand, making it tingle as she stared up into Sutton’s eyes, ensnaring her with only a look. “You have an insight into who I am fundamentally. You knew who I was before all of this, and you did see me, Sutton. You knew me. You understood me—in many ways better than just about anyone else. More than anything, I believe that you’d be fair. You won’t pull punches because you never did. You’ll write what you see, and you’ll do it boldly and truthfully, and I want that. Maybe I hadn’t considered you before last night, and who could blame me? But we’re bothhere, aren’t we? Isn’t that something to consider?”
Sutton would be lying if she said Charlotte’s words didn’t hit somewhere close to her heart. Especially as she read between the lines: “You trust me.”
Charlotte’s thumb froze with her words. She blinked in surprise before she grinned, slow and soft. “I suppose… I do.”
Sutton didn’t know why that made a difference to her, but it did. She didn’t know why that made this deal more feasible, but it did.
“I trust you,” Charlotte asserted more confidently. “And that’s why I want you.”
Sutton herself almost faltered at the words, but then she coughed and added, “To write your biography. You want me to write your biography.”
Charlotte’s grin remained unchanged. “Yes.”
Sutton chewed the inside of her lip.
“If I were anyone else, any other public figure, who approached you and wanted you—Sutton Spencer, a professor of literature at one of the top universities in the country, who has a rich understanding of composition and politics—to write a biography, would you turn me down?”
That definitely gave her pause.
But you’re not, she almost said before she stopped herself. Charlotte essentially was any public figure, really. If shereallythought about it.
And she’d be lying if she said writing more wasn’t something she wanted to do. She always longed for more time to write, more of a purpose tomakethe time. And what was this, if not that opportunity falling right into her lap?
She stared closely at Charlotte’s face.
Beautiful, brilliant, sharp, charismatic, successful, powerful Charlotte Thompson. She was dangerous. Sutton knew that. Intimately.
But Sutton was no longer an inexperienced graduate student any more than Charlotte was a political underling in the mayor’s office.
“Okay,” she finally spoke. “I’ll do it.” She pulled her hand away from Charlotte’s touch. “Butwe have to figure out a consistent work schedule, and above all else? We keep this professional.”
Charlotte resolutely nodded.
“All right. Well, then. I have to go and pick up Lucy from school, but it’s been—uh, it’s been very enlightening.”
“I’ll be in touch. Personally,” Charlotte added with a wink.
Oh, good god, Sutton thought as she retreated from the office.So, so dangerous.
CHAPTER THREE
Charlotte pursedher lips as she stared at herself in the full-length mirror in the corner of her office.
No.
She slid the eggplant Marc Jacobs blazer off her shoulders and hung it back in the closet. She routinely kept several changes in her office “just in case” and had deliberately put a few extras in for this evening.
“I’ve arranged for your schedule to be cleared for all upcoming Tuesdays from four to six, as requested.” Autumn sat on the lounger, facing Charlotte but with her face buried in her tablet. “Saturday afternoons as well, though those were easier, generally. You’ll be sending Senator Lakshi’s wife a particularly lovely bracelet in lieu of attending her birthday dinner.”
“Thank you.” She slid on the silk white Ralph Lauren blazer instead, tugging to adjust it till it hung around her waist just right.
Maya, sitting across from Autumn, never next to her, cleared her throat. “I’ve already sent your schedule for tomorrow to your email, synced in your e-calendar as well. You have the sustainability committee breakfast at eight, so the car will be there for you by quarter past seven.”
“I’ve already sent out my notes for the meeting,” she murmured absently, turning to the side and brushing a minuscule piece of lint from her shoulder.
“…right. I got a copy this morning.” Maya shook her head. “You’re in on the conference call with the UAE at one in the morning, so I figured I’d give you a heads-up for the early morning tomorrow, just in case.”
Charlotte put her hands on her hips as she stared at her two staffers in the mirror, arching an eyebrow. “Did I not send you both a brief on that call only thirty minutes ago?”
