The left one, Harassed, clears his throat. “Professor MacArthur’s office received an anonymous tip alleging undisclosed personal involvement between you and Mr. Ak Layn, as well as corporate interference regarding the Brazil component of the article.” He taps his screen. The email expands above the table.
I read every word.
The sentences crawl over my skin with Todd’s dirty paws all over them. Sanctimonious. Slippery. Cowardly. He doesn’t say I slept my way into power. He lets the sentence dance near it. He does not call Athena propaganda. He asks if Professor MacArthur is comfortable “entangled with Layn royal interests.”
I almost laugh.
If Todd could see me right now, sitting at a conference table with Skylor’s bond humming against my spine and my thighs still remembering three days of royal interests, he would probably choke.
Good.
Skylor’s hand drops to the back of my chair. I don’t look up. “She is not wrong,” I say. “She should have been told.”
“You did not owe her your private life,” Skylor says.
“No. But I owed the story full disclosure once my private life overlapped with my professional one.”
His silence is violent. But it stays silent. Progress.
I point to the draft on the second projection. “What is that?”
“A preliminary editorial independence charter,” the right lawyer says. “It’s a standard agreement that separates corporate interests from editorial decisions. Many media organizations have them. Mr. Ak Layn had it drafted after we received the email.”
Skylor’s face gives away nothing. He had already started building my moat before I arrived. A moat, armed guards, and a clause allowing him to blow up the bridge if necessary.
“Show me the draft,” I say.
For the next forty minutes, the conference room becomes a bloodless battle. We revise. We argue. We cut language. Skylor tries to include a clause allowing Layn to pause publication under certain security conditions, and I stare at him until he deletes it.
“I said pause, not suppress,” he mutters. “I can tell the difference.”
“Well, now you won’t have to. If I’m the editor, I’ll make that decision.”
His eyes narrow. The lawyer on the right, Harried, suddenly becomes fascinated by his keyboard. We build the structure cleanly. Athena gets final editorial authority. Layn may request fact review under defined security language, but not editorial control. Independent counsel answers to me. An external environmental reviewer approved by MacArthur gains access to the relevant sourcing. Dr. MacArthur gets the right to withdraw if she still questions my independence.” Skylor hates that line most.
“What about Todd?” Harassed asks carefully.
Skylor’s gaze flicks to the old employee record. The temperature in the room drops.
“Todd waits,” I say.
Skylor looks at me, and I pat his hand. “Not forever.”
His expression changes.
New trick: Do not tell the alpha no forever. Tell him not yet.
“After MacArthur signs,” I continue, “and after the public disclosure is made, legal can pursue him for defamation, interference, whatever else applies. Quietly. Properly. With documentation. No royal hunting party.”
Skylor’s jaw flexes. “Legal consequences may prove insufficient.”
“Then start there and surprise me with your restraint.”
His eyes lower to my mouth. “You like my restraint now?”
The question slides warm between my thighs.
“Professionally?” I ask. “Yes.”
