“I don’t think I’m as naive as you think. I’m capable of making my own conclusions, and I stand by the article I wrote. You asked me to do this job, and I accepted it because I thought you wanted the truth… I’d never say yes if I realized this is a personal vendetta.” God, I can’t believe I’m talking to the freaking mayor like this. I really am getting more and more pissed off by the minute.
“Magnus is playing the whole city, and now he has played you as well,” Laurel tells me, and this time there’s nothing soothing about her voice. She’s a Trask alright; I can imagine her dominating a conference table full of politicians and billionaires with just a few words.
“How can you say he’s playing the whole city? I might not know much about him yet, but don’t you think you’re jumping the gun?”
“Penny, dear,” my mother jumps back into the conversation, perhaps feeling the tension rising between Laurel and I. “If there’s anyone in here qualified to talk about Magnus, that’s me… And listen to me when I tell you, he’s not what he seems. That man doesn’t care about anyone or anything, and you’d do well to keep that in mind.”
I take her words silently, trying to reconcile the image of Magnus I hold in my mind. Are they right? Is Magnus playing me, and the whole city? From what I’ve ever heard about him, that’d make sense … But after having dinner with him, after sharing a night with him, I find it hard to believe we’re talking about the same man.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I tell them both coldly, the words coming out of my mouth harsher than I expected. “But I won’t lie about him without a valid reason.”
“No one in here is asking you to lie, Penny,” Laurel says, and something in the way she pronounces her words sets me off.
“It sure seems like it. Because I’m doing my job and duty as a journalist, and all the two of you seem to care about is how much dirt I can sling at Magnus!” By the time I finish speaking, I realize that I’m leaning so much into my laptop that my nose is almost touching the webcam. My hands are balled into fists, and I’m breathing hard already.
“Watch your tone, young lady,” Laurel whispers, her eyes cold and shark-like. “We’ve given you a chance to play in the big leagues. You’d do well to pay attention and do your job like you were instructed or --”
“I was instructed to be a reporter, not your errand girl,” I say into the phone. “Sorry if that goes against your plans.”
“It’s not just me you’re crossing, little girl,” Laurel hisses and it strikes me as odd that when I hear the words ‘little girl’ from her it makes me shiver as opposed to when I hear it from Magnus.
“There are some powerful people who are funding my campaign for Governor that want Magnus out. They won’t be happy till he’s out. And they won’t be happy when some little girl from the Upper East Side decides to say no to them,” she finished.
“Or what? There’s only one way to do my job, and that way is the right way.” I hiss through my gritted teeth and, without waiting for a reply from either Laurel or my mother, I slam down my laptop’s lid.
I take a few deep breaths, staring down at my laptop as if it could explode at any minute, and then I let the realization of what I just did start to sink in. I just hung up on my mother and on the mayor. Jesus, what has gotten into me? I’m not the kind of girl that gets all worked up for nothing. But I guess this whole situation doesn’t fit the nothing category, huh?
I know what you’re thinking. I’ve just went on and on about my job and duty as a journalist, and I did all that after fucking the man I’m supposed to be investigating. If you think that makes me a hypocrite, well… There’s nothing I can do about that, is there? But I hope that, at the very least, you make an effort to understand.
It’s one thing to read about Magnus Davion, but it’s a whole new ball game when you experience him. More than a man, he’s a force of nature.
I knew that the moment I first laid eyes on him, back when I was only a wide-eyed 18-year-old. I was just a young girl back then, but I already felt that deep animal attraction, that magnetism that just draws you further and further in until you no longer know the way back.
Just a stupid fantasy, I lied to myself when I accepted this assignment, trying to box the lust I felt for him as a teenage crush on an older man. But when I saw him at the gala, I have to admit: I felt that fire in my belly again, that burning need to have his body pressed against mine taking me over... and so I just said yes when he asked me out.