Page 85 of Audacity

‘Good.’

‘But how the hell do we make it work with my—with the Seraph stuff?’ My mind is reeling. I can’t date him and let him pay me for sex. Nor can I date him and move firms and let someone else pay me for sex. But?—

He’s gone silent. I lift my head to see him grimacing. ‘What?’

He clears his throat. ‘I’m finding it surprisingly difficult to propose to the woman of my dreams that she take a ninety percent pay cut.’

‘What thefuck?’

‘Hear me out.’ He’s grinning now, and I’m powerless against it. I’m jelly. ‘I’m not suggesting this because you and I might be taking this in a new direction, but…’

‘But you’re going to suggest you should get to fuck me for free.’

His laugh is bright and boyish and gorgeous. ‘Ha! You’ve got me. I’m definitely not so keen on money changing hands going forward.’ His face grows more serious. ‘I want to know that whenwe’re together, when we’re doing all the amazing things we do, it’s because you want to, not because I’m paying you to.’

I nod, blinking back those pesky tears. If I’m honest with myself, I’ve done an excellent job these past few weeks of ignoring the transactional nature of our relationship at every turn. Everything I do with him is real. Everything we do is because we both want it. ‘I understand. Please proceed.’

‘Here’s the thing. You’re obviously ridiculously overqualified to be my assistant. I mean, it’s crazy. You’re running the show in there.’

‘If you want to fire Eleanor and give me her job, I’m game,’ I deadpan. In my more self-indulgent moments, I’ve definitely thought about it. God, I could get my teeth into the Chief of Staff role and then some.

‘You’re getting warmer than you know. I have to talk to my family about all of this foundation stuff, especially in light of our revelations earlier today, but’—he pauses—‘what today did bring home is that not only is yours the most impressive strategic brain I know but that you have my back more than anyone else. You understand my vision, youelevatemy vision at every turn, you drive me to dream bigger, aim higher, and you care that I achieve it more than anyone else.’

I smile at him adoringly as I lap up his words of praise and appreciation, so much so that I almost miss his next utterance.

‘That’s why I’d like to propose you to run the foundation.’

CHAPTER 44

Athena

‘But I’m twenty-six,’ I bluster.

‘Oh, no. Nope. Don’t pull that crap with me.’ He pulls my stool, and me, even closer to him until we’re practically kneeing each other in the crotch. ‘The Athena Davenport I know would never, ever let anyone play the age card with her. You’re the smartest person I’ve ever met. How do you like that?’

My mind is racing. The kind of financial divestment I’m proposing the Sullivan family commits to making would make the foundation a business with a funding of billions of pounds worth of capital, plural.

That’s bigger than the enterprise value of some of the companies I’ve worked for and analysed.

I change tactics. ‘But this is your baby.’

‘I have every intention of being all over this project—it’s my passion. But I’m not the right person to run it, sweetheart. I just don’t have the right skillset. I can’t look at a blank piece of paper and see an opportunity the way you can. I can’t spot efficiencies and strategies, and I definitely can’t hustle the way you can.’

I think of the effortless charm he shows every time we go out on the road. ‘I disagree. You can be very persuasive.’

‘I’m best when I don’t have an agenda. You, in the nicest possible way, are ruthless.’

He’s not wrong. He presses on.

‘And that’s what this thing needs. It needs to be run intelligently and aggressively and hungrily, and you have all those attributes in spades. You may look at yourself and see a twenty-six-year-old, but I see a ferocious business brain and a go-getter.’ He peers at me with concern, brushing some stray hairs off my face. ‘I’ve never seen your self-confidence shaken before. I thought you’d jump at the chance to get your teeth into something this juicy—unless this is about the money?’

That makes me start. ‘No. God, no. I’m just trying to process it all.’

I’m telling the truth. It’s not about the money, not in the slightest. I realise he couldn’t possibly justify paying someone seven figures to run a non-profit. It would be the height of corruption. And he’s right, of course. What he’s dangling over this little pit bull’s head is less a carrot and more a big, juicy steak.

A multi-billion-pound juicy steak.

What I’m really attempting to process is this new understanding that Gabe is offering me the most extreme form of validation. He doesn’t just look at me and see my body; he sees my MBA brain, and he deems it worthy ofthis.

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