“Right. To New York?” she asked, though she already knew. It wasn’t like she had Charlotte’s schedulememorized; that would be difficult, given how busy it was.
But Charlotte had shared her schedule with Sutton, and Sutton, obviously, had peeked at it. She knew their typical twice-weekly meetings for the following two weeks weren’t going to happen because Charlotte had business in the city.
The smile that played on Charlotte’s lips was pleased. “Yes. I’ll be in Manhattan for a little over a week.” She sipped her coffee before gesturing around them. “Would you prefer to sit in here or out in the sunroom?”
Even though the sunroom did sound very nice and Sutton, honestly, would like to see it, she found comfort in this kitchen. “Here’s good.”
Charlotte nodded, pulling out a stool from the island, and Sutton did the same, sitting across from her.
She re-tangled her fingers in her lap, gripping tightly as the words bubbled up in her throat.
“First of all, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” She dug her teeth into her bottom lip, squeezing her eyes closed to push through the nerves and embarrassment. “I should never have done what I did yesterday. It was so wrong—and not just because it was unprofessional, but because I didn’t evenaskor—or anything. I just—” She broke off, swallowing thickly at the thought.
“It’s all right,” Charlotte broke in, watching Sutton carefully, her soft, accepting, honey eyes trained on her face.
“It’snotall right,” she insisted, shaking her head as she switched from clasping her hands together to tightly gripping her knees, giving her something to ground herself on. “That’s not who I am.” The words fluttered out, a little desperate. Itwasn’twho she was. It wasn’t. “I didn’t go there for that, I promise you, and I don’t…” She shook her head tightly, voice strained. “It was so disrespectful, to come into your office, without even an appointment or a phone call to let you know, and on top ofthat, I— We?—”
She cut herself off, hating how deeply she felt herself blush, but… she was right to say it. She had to have Charlotte understand.
“Sutton.” Charlotte’s voice was both gentle and amused, though, and not at all reflective of Sutton’s apology or the emotions racking her. She waited to speak again until Sutton took a deep breath and lifted her gaze to really look at her.
There was a small smile playing on her lips as she held Sutton’s gaze. “Itisall right. Did it appear in any way that I didn’t…” She coughed slightly, before sipping her coffee, a thoughtful look on her face. “How should I say it… respond in kind, to you?”
Sutton’s breath left her on a sharp exhale as she pictured it so, so clearly. The way Charlotte had reacted to her touch, to her kiss, to everything. To how wet she was for Sutton, right away. The heat that slid through her drove herinsane. She was here to apologize for that, notfeelit all over again!
Then again, she wondered if she would ever have a time in physical proximity to Charlotte where she didn’t feel thiszingbetween them. Honestly, she didn’t think that was possible.
She blew out a shaky breath before admitting, “No, you seemed to… respond.” For lack of a better word. For lack of Sutton trying very much to not think about the way Charlotte had responded.
“Exactly. And if I had told you to stop, at any point, would you have?” Charlotte questioned, lacing her fingers around her coffee cup, staring intently at Sutton as if she genuinely expected an answer.
Sutton, of course, gave it to her. Sitting up straight, appalled at even the insinuation, she nodded vigorously. “Of course! If you said the word, I swear, I would have stopped.”
Charlotte gave Sutton the slightest of grins. Victorious, almost. “Exactly. And I know you would have.”
The validation did calm Sutton somewhat. Maybe more than somewhat. The ease which Charlotte had seemed to be rubbing off on Sutton. Because of that, though, she stared, baffled, at Charlotte. “How are you so calm? After what happened? After…” She gestured widely into the air, as if trying to encompass everything that had passed between them.
“The truth is, Charlotte, I—I don’t know what to do with you. With us,” she confessed, the raw truth of it burning in her throat. The words that she hadn’t vocalized and had tried to push down and not think about for the last six weeks refused to stay hidden in the back of her mind anymore.
It was like the snap of their physical draw to one another had released this, too.
“I thought I did,” Sutton equivocated, “or I had convinced myself that I did. I thought, ‘It’s beenthirteen years. Thereshouldn’tbe anything between us that has lingered in any way, right?’ So I thought—or I made myself think?—that it could just be simple and straightforward. That we could just exist like any other two people without any history between them. I thought it should be easy to be professional with you, and that’s how I was trying to, to be.”
Her heart beat a little too fast as the words rushed out of her, stomach twisting even as a weight melting off of her, now that her inner thoughts had finally been spoken.
“But it’s not?” Charlotte quietly prompted. Her eyes were bright as she watched Sutton, unreadable, from across the counter.
Sutton couldn’t help but laugh. “Obviously not! Every time we meet, it’s hard to pretend that I don’t know anything about you. That I don’t know who Dean is, and the impact of his friendship in your career. Or that,” she paused, her breath catching in her throat, as she pushed herself to continue, “That when you tell me all of the stories about your life that I’ve never heard, I have to act like there wasn’t a time in our lives that I was desperate to hear all of this, before.” Because they hadn’t had times where they’d lain in bed for hours, just sharing all of their stories.
God, how Sutton used to wish they would. Even though they did relax together, they did cuddle, they didshare, it had never quite progressed into the bigger intimacies of arealrelationship.
“And somehow, I have been trying to process it from an angle like I don’t know you? Like you are Senator Thompson, and I don’t know how you were going to take your coffee when you made it just now, and—it’s so difficult.” She swallowed hard, blushing. “And then, with what happened yesterday…” She bit at her cheek at the rush of heat mixing with the memory.
“There is clearly a physical attraction between us,” she managed to get out, her voice as even as she could make it. “There always has been, and I guess time hasn’t dampened it all that much.”
“I think you’re correct about that,” Charlotte murmured, and yeah, even the tone of that voice sent the shiver along Sutton’s spine.
She pushed through it, sitting up straight and putting her hands out flat on the counter in front of her.
