Page 32 of Power Play

A laugh moved through my chest. “Read the essay.”

“That was suspiciously evasive.”

“It was deliberately evasive.”

Charm watched me for another second before looking down.

She turned the first page carefully, and I saw her expression change as she skimmed the opening paragraph.

“This is good.”

“It got an A.”

“Professor Klein gave you an A?”

“She wrote ‘reluctantly persuasive’ at the end.”

“That sounds romantic coming from her.”

“It was basically a marriage proposal.”

Charm laughed, bright enough that something loosened beneath my ribs.

She read farther, slowing near the second page.

“You really hated the way people talked about him.”

“Who?”

“Heathcliff.”

I leaned back slightly.

“My argument was that everybody wanted to reduce him to either a monster or some tortured romantic hero without spending enough time on what happened before he became either one.”

Charm’s gaze remained on the page. “He was abandoned.”

“He was an abandoned kid dragged into a wealthy house where everybody made damn sure he understood he didn’t belong.”

Her eyes lifted.

I knew what she was about to ask before she did.

“Is that why you chose him?”

Too close.

I reached for my coffee. “I chose him because everybody else in the class was wrong.”

Charm’s smile returned slowly. “You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“Answering around me.”

“You’ll survive.”

“I’m starting to think you enjoy being mysterious.”