Charlotte’s hand gripped her wrist, tugging away the hand Sutton still had against her own lips before she pressed her mouth urgently against Sutton’s.
She couldn’t control the soft sounds that escaped her throat at the taste of herself, wet on Charlotte’s lips.
Her arms came up, curling over Charlotte’s shoulders to keep her close, even though it didn’t seem like Charlotte was going anywhere.
God only knew how many minutes passed before Charlotte slowly leaned back, breaking their kiss. Sutton blinked her eyes open, a sated smile sliding over her face. “You are very, very talented, Charlotte Thompson.”
Charlotte’s hand came up, stroking Sutton’s hair carefully behind her ear as she returned the compliment. “I could—and will—say the very same about you, Sutton Spencer.”
Sutton let out a deep breath, finally feeling fully in control of her faculties once more. “I don’t know how I can possibly go back out there,” she confessed.
“Me neither,” Charlotte agreed, making Sutton’s eyebrows lift in surprise.
“Oh?”
Charlotte hummed in agreement. “I would much rather we go up to the room I reserved for us instead. I think I’ve done enough elbow-rubbing for one evening.”
Sutton could only stare. “You’re telling me that we just fucked each other senseless in an empty coat closet when we have a room upstairs?”
Charlotte didn’t look sheepish. She stared back, unfaltering, at Sutton. “Do you truly feel as though we would have made it to the fortieth floor without fucking in the elevator? Where there’s a camera?”
Sutton couldn’t disagree. Even if she could, she wouldn’t have been upset. This had been more than worth it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“I really am terriblysorry to intrude on your time, Charlotte,” Lily apologized as soon as Charlotte answered her phone call.
Charlotte frowned. “No need for the apology; is everything all right?”
Lily, as the acting head of the Thompson Foundation, ran a tight ship. She was decisive, quick-witted, and knew how to talk her way out of a difficult situation; these were all matters of dire importance when it came to answering to their board members.
As such, she contacted Charlotte so infrequently that when Charlotte saw her name flash across her phone, she’d answered quickly, with a gnawing feeling in her stomach that something was terribly wrong.
“No, it’s not,” Lily cut straight to the point; it was something Charlotte deeply enjoyed about her. It played a very large reason as to why she’d been Charlotte’s pick to work in her grandmother’s stead. “Unfortunately, a situation has popped up that’s going to take some… creative thinking to work around.”
Charlotte frowned as she stared out the window of her car, the cogs in her mind jumping into action before she could even hear the problem. “Go on.”
“As you know, we’re fairly closely intertwined with the Colson Corporation, managing much of their charitable work.”
“Mm-hmm,” she hummed, encouraging Lily along.
“Well, it’s recently been found out that Tobias Colson, their current CEO, has started to fund Clayton Dwight’s campaign.”
Nowthathad Charlotte truly sitting at attention. “Howrecently?” she demanded to know.
“I found out this morning.”
Charlotte narrowed her eyes as this revelation left a sour taste in her mouth. “And you’re certain?”
“Absolutely positive. I’ve created a small team in the last year specifically dedicated to digging into who our affiliated companies and organizations are, well, affiliated with.”
“I haven’t heard anything about that,” Charlotte murmured. She didn’t doubt Lily’s competence nor the competence of the team she’d hired. But… Clayton Dwight was someone Charlotte was very familiar with, a political candidate gaining huge favor with the far right over the last year.
A retired veteran who’d started running for local platforms in his Midwestern town several years ago, he had enough charisma to gain a lot of traction. A lot of traction that had started taking his name to the national news.
“I’m not surprised. Tobias is notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to his personal political views. The donations were managed through one of their smaller offshoots but were all very sizeable. Large enough that there is no possible way they didn’t come from him.”
Eyes narrowed, Charlotte pursed her lips in thought. The foundation’s work spanned many avenues. It had initially started as an avenue in which to manage her families’ considerable wealth and contributions to different charities, but the Thompson Foundation meant so muchmoreto so many people now.
